Greece: I am Zeus!

Chapter 290 The Attitude of Blood and Sweat
As for Prometheus, he was also quite busy during this time.

Or rather, He is busier and more anxious than before.

After all, although the gods' processions are grand and spectacular, they are simply a natural manifestation of their own authority and power, which they can easily do anytime, anywhere.

However, it is no easy task to get mortals—who are still in the earliest and most ignorant stages of civilization—to prepare a grand ceremony to "welcome" and "meet" the gods.

Compared to the majestic gods, humanity's current situation can be described as extremely difficult, extremely impoverished, extremely humble, and extremely insignificant.

This time, Prometheus only dared to teach and command from the sidelines.

All other preparations must be completed by human beings themselves.

In this matter, He dared not personally help as He had done before.

Once He intervenes, the nature of this sacrifice will change completely.

This is humanity's most significant, and perhaps only, chance to show the gods whether they are worthy of love and protection.

If even this task requires God's personal help to complete, then it only proves that humanity is completely unworthy of divine love.

This only proves that humans are completely unqualified to receive the protection of gods.

If God himself does any important thing for them, then the meaning of "offering" will instantly vanish.

This is no longer a man's wholehearted devotion to God, but rather a performance by God for God.

To put it more seriously, this is blasphemy against the majesty and honor of the God-King!
The God-King wants the attitude of mortals, not the deception of another god.

After experiencing the lesson of death, Prometheus finally learned this sense of proportion.

This ritual does not need to be perfectly or magnificently performed.

Furthermore, the offerings do not need to be particularly lavish, nor does the ceremony need to be particularly magnificent.

However, humans must demonstrate their wholeheartedness and dedication.

This is a matter of attitude.

Just like a child, parents will always be happy with a gift they prepare themselves, no matter how simple or rough it may be.

However, if it was cheating and the person asked another "adult" for help, then it would be difficult to move their parents' hearts.

However, while the principle is simple to explain, it is incredibly difficult to put into practice.

Humans today are still in the most primitive tribal stage, relying entirely on hunting and gathering for survival.

To put it bluntly, going hungry for nine meals in three days was almost the norm.

The food that a tribe can store on a daily basis is only enough for the entire tribe to barely survive for a few days.

If someone is unable to go out to find food for a few days due to weather or other reasons, they might starve to death immediately.

This is no longer the era when people could "not starve to death."

Preparing such a grand ceremony involves everything from rehearsing complex behavioral norms to preparing sufficiently substantial sacrificial offerings...

All of this means that the tribe's most elite workforce must cease daily labor and food harvesting, while still having to continuously expend its already meager resources.

In this state, human life is destined to be extremely difficult.

Teaching these still ignorant and foolish humans to practice those complex rituals and to sing those sacred sacrificial songs and dances would be a headache for Prometheus.

After all, if you want to make it grand enough, you need a lot of people and a large scale.

Abundance signifies prosperity; size signifies beauty.

However, such large-scale collective activities, especially grand ceremonies like sacrifices that require a high degree of rigor and uniformity, are indeed beyond the comprehension of humans who don't even know what "discipline" is today.

Countless people have suffered greatly because of this over the past period.

Human society as a whole has devoted all its efforts to this, and all of humanity has poured all its energy into this "high-stakes gamble" concerning the future.

As a result, too many people have to endure hunger.

In order to save every bite of food so that the able-bodied young people participating in the sacrifices and building the temple can have more strength, the elderly and the weak in the tribe will silently give their food to those who need it more.

Even during the practice of rituals and the construction of temples, many casualties occurred.

All these factors combined have resulted in heavy casualties and profound suffering for humanity.

Prometheus watched all of this with immense sorrow.

However, He could only harden His heart and watch helplessly, offering no divine assistance.

In fact, He must be even more rigorous and demanding in His teaching.

Because He knows that the greater the price humanity pays for this sacrificial ceremony to welcome the gods, the more it proves their piety and respect.

This "piety" and "respect" is the only thing that humanity can offer to the gods now.

Only by paying a heavy enough price can one prove that piety is not empty talk; only reverence forged in hardship can truly move the gods.

As long as... as long as it can move the gods, as long as it can move the merciful God-King, then all the price to be paid, all the sacrifices to be made, will be worthwhile. Even if many people will have to pay an incredibly heavy price, even the price of their lives.

But it was all worth it.

This is an unavoidable and necessary price to pay.

Today, the total number of human populations is approximately two million.

However, more than half of them are still children, kids and teenagers.

Currently, those who are truly able to support the entire human society are still the first generation of humans who are physically strong and experienced.

After death arrives, their original pressure to survive is already immense.

For this grandest and first-ever sacrificial ceremony in human history, despite the fact that people were already starving to death, thousands of tribes, large and small, still managed to gather one hundred of the strongest, pure white adult bulls.

This is used to worship Zeus, the supreme and eternal sovereign ruler, the king of all gods.

This is the sacrificial ceremony of a hundred animals.

It is important to understand that, without agricultural development and long-term reserves, it is remarkable to produce such a large number of adult livestock and raise them to an exceptionally high standard.

This means that for each of these cows, at least twenty people would die.

Moreover, it's impossible to get everyone to participate in this ritual.

Given the current social structure and organizational capabilities of human society, no one could possibly organize a large gathering of more than a million people.

No one could do it without using divine power, not even Prometheus.

Ultimately, the participants had to be carefully selected from among the various tribes, choosing the bravest, wisest, most resourceful, humblest, and most knowledgeable individuals.

All told, there were only a little over three thousand people.

Even so, under the personal command and guidance of Prometheus, this is the largest and most extensive collective activity that humanity has been able to achieve so far.

Prometheus specifically devised the most elaborate, rigorous, and solemn ritual norms for this sacrifice.

The location and specifications of the sacrificial ceremony, the identities and attire of the participants, every action and movement, the flow of the ritual, the types and placement of the offerings, the content of the prayers, the melody of the hymns…

All of these are governed by extremely rigorous rules and regulations.

Because this set of sacrificial rituals is not just for this one time.

After God and humanity formally establish a covenant today, this sacred ritual will be used by humankind for countless years to come.

It will become an indelible mark, a symbol of the "relationship between God and man"!

In the six months since returning from Olympus, Prometheus has devoted himself to preparing everything with great effort.

At the sacrificial site, He looked intently at the busy and tense humans.

His heart was also filled with indescribable tension and heaviness.

The future of humanity will be decided here.

His heart was also filled with grief and sorrow, even to the point of feeling as if his heart was being torn apart.

Because His "children" have paid a very, very high price for this day to come.

Countless lives have been lost in this preparation.

He slowly raised his head and looked at the altar and temple, which still seemed extremely simple and crude to God.

It was a roofless temple, facing south, always towards the brightest light.

The temple is 120 meters long and 80 meters wide, and the entire floor is paved with polished white marble slabs.

It is surrounded by 120 huge limestone pillars, each 20 meters high, which would require three people to hug.

The pillars are carved with beautiful and mysterious patterns that Prometheus himself taught them, symbolizing fire, wisdom and hope.

In the very center of the temple stood a huge altar.

The largest base of this altar is forty meters in diameter, with twelve layers that gradually narrow upwards, reaching a height of twelve meters at its highest point.

In front of the altar were 120 wide steps, which formed a platform 24 meters high.

On the high platform sits a magnificent shrine, exquisitely carved from a single block of pure white marble.

That was specially prepared for His Majesty the God-King.

It's important to understand that humanity today is still in the most primitive Stone Age.

All these magnificent creations were made by them using the simplest and most primitive stone tools, which they hammered and polished bit by bit from the hard rocky mountains.

Every stone slab is soaked with sweat and blood.

(End of this chapter)