"They were just disguises for one of the regular fifteen. Aesculapius,
for instance, the old God of medicine, was Hermes/Mercury in
disguise--he took the name in honor of a physician of the time. He would
have raised the man to demi-Godhood, but Aesculapius died unexpectedly,
and we thought taking his 'spirit' into the Pantheon was good public
relations."
"How about the others?" Forrester said. "They weren't all disguises,
were they?"
"Of course not. Some of them were demi-Gods, just like yourself. Their
power was derived, like yours, from the Pantheon instead of directly
through the machine. And then there were the satyrs and centaurs, and
suchlike beings. That was public relations, too--mainly Zeus' idea, I
understand. The original Zeus, of course."
"Of course," Forrester said.
"The satyrs and such were artificial life-forms, created, maintained and
controlled by the machine itself. It's equipped with what you might call
a cybernetic brain--although that's pretty inadequate as a description.
Vulcan could do a better job of explaining."
"Perfectly all right. I don't understand that kind of thing anyhow."
"Well, in that case, let me put it this way. The machine controlled
these artificial forms, but they could be taken over by any one of the
Gods or demi-Gods for special purposes. As I say, it was public
relations--and a good way to keep the populace impressed--and under
control."
"The creatures aren't around nowadays," Forrester pointed out.
"Nowadays we don't need them," Diana said. "There are other
methods--better public relations, I suppose."
Forrester didn't know he was going to ask his next question until he
heard himself doing so. But it was the question he really wanted to ask;
he knew that as soon as he knew he asked it.
"Why?" he said.