1.39.1: Five Most Important People
If you let Herc answer the question for me, he'd probably laugh and throw out the names of five women. He thinks I'm fixated on the opposite sex. Don't know where he gets that idea. I mean, it's not like I bed a woman in every single village and festival we go to.
He'd be partially right, tho. There are at least three women who've influenced my life. Niobe and Nebula you'd probably expect because they have so much in common; beautiful, strong willed, brave, fierce in battle, queens of two vastly different kingdoms -- and both loved by, and in love with, me. Can you believe that? Me! Iolaus of Thebes, son of a forgotten general, former street urchin and gang member, loved by royalty?
But there's a woman who means even more to me than them. Alcmene. She was the first woman who ever trusted me. She didn't see me as a dirty little thief out to cut her purse or run away with the family jewels, the way the rest of the village did. Alcmene always welcomed me into her home. She treated me like a member of the family; sometimes even more than she treated her own son, Iphicles.
Jason is the first king I ever met and one of the bravest, noblest men I've ever had the honor to know. We've trained together, gotten drunk together, fought together; we even set sail on a quest for the Golden Fleece together. Everything I know about seafaring and the lust for adventure I learned from Jason of Corinth.
But no one in my life, living or dead, has ever been, or will ever be, as important to me as Hercules. We've been friends since we were kids. I guess we saw something we liked in each other from the very beginning. It didn't matter to me that he was the son of a god and strong as Hades any more than he cared that I was mortal and had a less than golden reputation. We took each other at face value. We've been through a lot together over the years, me and Herc. I was with him for every single one of those famous labors of his and Herc has been there for me . . . well, more times than I can count. I can't imagine what my life would have been like without Hercules in it. He's more than my friend; he's my inspiration, my brother, my hero.