This story introduces how different races came into being due to the rebellion of the humans against the gods. Using the power of the gods combined, they separated the humans from one another across the earth and Athena establishes a hierarchy among them.
In the beginning, unity was the pride and joy of humans; unity of the lands and unity amongst each other. They were prosperous, but only when the gods felt this way. Humans were in constant fear of the gods; one day they could be having a bountiful meal because of generous gifts from Demeter’s land but starving the next day because she lost her daughter. Not even Medusa’s loyalty to Athena prevented her from being taken advantage of by Poseidon and turned into a monster by Athena herself. Humans knew enough was enough. Before they became the target of the next god’s wrath, they talked amongst themselves as to how they can defend one another from the immortals. During his boar hunt, Meleager accidentally strikes the ground and his arrow bounces back with even greater force. Meleager goes to inspect this, he digs the ground and finds a dark grey liquid within the dirt. He continues to dig deeper, and more liquid continues to rise. Meleager dips his arrow into the liquid and he sees it harden into some sort of metal. He shoots the arrow at a tree and it marvellously splits in half. Meleager laughs hysterically, he knew this was the answer for all of the humans. Meleager goes back to the village and gathers a troop of men to join him in gathering this new discovery. The men were amazed with the power of this liquid, they called it adamasium. Immediately, the men created weapons. They knew it was time to fight the gods and this time, they were armed and ready. Meleager was smart, he knew that the gods would become suspicious of their doings if they were too quiet. He designated roles to some men to continuously provide offerings for the gods while the others were manufacturing weapons. The gods were clueless and continued to enjoy the bountiful offerings the humans had to provide when in secret, the humans were conniving to tear down all of the gods’ temples and slay them. The day to overthrow the gods has arrived and troops were strategically placed in each of the gods’ temples. Using their adamasium weapons, the men tore down the temples down to the last pillar. The gods watched from Mount Olympus, distraught from the shocking actions of the mortals. Zeus and the gods stormed down. With loud shouts over the horizon, adamasium armed men clashed with the gods and created chaos all over the land. Casualties left and right, the gods seemed to have underestimated the strength of the humans and their weapons. The gods unleashed the laestrygones, the cyclopes, and even Cerberus. The mortals continued to endure the fight, with each strike from the gods and their minions is an even stronger attack produced by adamasium. Zeus cannot bear to watch the bloodshed that is happening and stops fighting to restrategize. Perhaps, the gods shouldn’t be fighting them but rather they should fight each other. Zeus gathered the cyclopes to assist him, they were to strike lightning upon the land to scatter it into pieces. Poseidon assisted in his plan and further separated the continents from one another. At last the mortals have been separated; their pride and joy taken away from them. What was chaos turned into despair and grief. To ensure that humans never plot a scheme against the gods like this again, Athena instills in them an implicit hierarchy so that they may fight each other for power and not involve the gods. To this day, humans continue to live in separated lands and battle one another in bloodshed for power.
Myth Analysis
The reason for unity as the pride and joy of humanity is to show contrast to the current state of the world. The land represented the relationship of human beings with one another; united. Despite what the humans had to undergo amongst the wrath of the gods, they still chose to be together.
Within the myth, it referenced Demeter and her responsibility to the earth as goddess of agriculture and how her emotions affect the livelihood of humans. This is in reference to the Olympian goddess, Demeter, who provides for the earth all the fruits and bountiful harvest (Orpheus, Orphic Hymn 40.2). As well, it mentions of her daughter, Persephone and how the occurrences with her daughter affected the whole earth. This takes from the myth of the seasons, due to Persephone being abducted and her continuous yearn for her daughter, Demeter freezes the earth and creates winter. During this time, the land was barren, and food was scarce. Demeter wanted to destroy mankind (Homer, Homeric Hymn 2.305-315) for the wrongdoing of gods.
Medusa was mentioned within the myth as an example of loyalty to a god yet still getting punished. This is depicted within Ovid’s Metamorphoses as Medusa was sexually abused by Poseidon in front of Athena’s statue in her own temple and instead of protecting her priestess, Athena cursed Medusa with a head full of serpents (4.770).
Within hymns and stories, the stories are always from the perspective of the gods or benefitting the gods, but the feelings of humans were never taken into consideration. Perhaps it’s because humans were considered to be weaker than gods, but in this myth, mankind had a slight advantage. It just so happened that Meleager happened to find adamasium.
In this myth, Meleager is a simple man who wanted to hunt for the village. It was also implied that he was boar hunting while he found adamasium. In ancient mythology, Meleager was the son of the king who defeated a destructive boar and received high recognition for such feat (Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 98). Meanwhile, in this myth Meleager did not desire to receive recognition for his actions but rather, he shared his discovery with the whole village to create a plan for their protection. It doesn’t take royalty to make a difference in others’ lives. Adamasium is not found within ancient mythology but it is rooted from the Greek word adamas which translates to invincible (Bressan, 2016). This form of metal was taken as a spin on adamantium from the X-Men series that Wolverine has injected within his bones. The metals do not have the same properties, however, the concept of making one stronger and virtually invincible was similar. Similarly, Wolverine was just a simple man who had to think of extreme plans to protect the people he loves in the same way that Meleager did within the myth.
Additionally, the laestrygones, the cyclopes and Cerberus were mentioned to have joined in the chaos once the gods realized they were having trouble beating the humans. The laestrygones are cannibals in ancient mythology (Apollodorus, Epitome 7.6-13). The cyclopes are one-eyed, immortal giants who forged Zeus his thunderbolt (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.498). Lastly, Cerberus was the guard of the underworld who was known as the three headed-dog with the tail of a dragon and serpents running down its back (Apollodorus, Library 2.5.60).
Finally, Athena instills in these humans an implicit hierarchy so that they may fight each other for power. In ancient mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war (Homer, Homeric Hymn 28. 1-15). This was adopted because Athena would be the only one who would be able to give humans this false wisdom that one race is better than another and that this false wisdom will create more wars amongst one another. It touches on Athena’s specialties but in a twisted way.
Bibliography
Apollodorus. Epitome 7.6-13, translated by Sir James George Frazer. 1921.
Apollodorus. Library 2.5.60, translated by Sir James George Frazer. 1921
Apollonius Rhodius. Argonautica 1.498
Bressan, David. “The Origin Of Geological Terms: Diamonds.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 30 Apr. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2016/04/30/the-origin-of-geological-terms-diamonds/?sh=180927cf2ae4.
Hesiod. Catalogues of Women Fragment 98, translated by Evelyn-White.
Homer. Homeric Hymn. Hymn to Demeter 2.305-315, translated by Evelyn-White. 1914.
Homer. Homeric Hymn. Hymn to Athena 28.1-15, translated by Evelyn-White. 1914.
Orpheus. “ORPHIC HYMNS 1 - 40.” ORPHIC HYMNS 40.2 - Theoi Classical Texts Library, www.theoi.com/Text/OrphicHymns1.html.
Ovid. Metamorphoses 4.770, translated by Evelyn-White.
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