Terrence Tong
1007306844
CLAA06H3
Professor J. E. Cundy
Global Warming Phenomena
In a distant land of Delos, a young boy named Apollo was playing with his soccer ball while his mother Leto prepared dinner in a nearby village. It was not like Apollo was introverted, but the villagers despised the boy and his mother that they are the cause of the thick clouds surrounded the village since the single mother moved in and nothing had grown. Leto never mentioned a word about her immorality or who Apollo’s father was, yet a few words about his twin sister passed away of a fever. As young Apollo grew up being bully by his fellow villagers, he needed to work twice as hard just to earn enough to afford a ration for two. Years of anger towards to Gods that Apollo blamed them for him and his mother’s suffering often drove the young man to act before thinking. Apollo was also skilled with his bow and arrows, as he went behind his mother’s back and practice daily. He had become so skillful that he caught the eye of Ares, the God of war, disguised himself and gifted the young archer a wooden bow.
The ten suns were the sons of the sky God of the east, every day they head out to the east end of the ocean to bath and dry themselves off by sat down nine suns on a branch and the tenth on the top, alternating once per night and the people were living in prosperity. One day, the suns decided it was a good idea to all play in the sky, as they passed the horizon, the sky dyed flaming red. Initially, the lush green forest first caught on fire, then the ocean started boiling and the land became burnt black. Even the thick clouds could not prevent villagers and livestock die of thirst. Apollo first heard the news and planned to flee, but his mother had a thought in mind. She told young Apollo that he was never a baster child, in fact, he was the son of Zeus, king of Gods. As she further explained the reasoning for leaving Olympus and how the clouds were cast by Zeus, the thunderer to prevent queen of heaven Hera’s jealousy. Apollo was struck, speechless and continued to pack. “The son of all-seeing Zeus does not flee” she commented. Those words continued to echo, The young archer realized what must be done, confidently said “This is our home, then let’s fight for it”.
The young men turned toward his wooden bow and rushed out to help evacuate the village as best as he could. Apollo travelled to an elevated ground where he positioned himself to draw his fist arrow, pulling the string back, loading all the tension while aiming at one of the suns. The swift sound of a released arrow followed by a fallen sun. Before the other suns could react, three more suns were shot down. The remaining suns were filled with fear and rearranged themselves, tried to burn the young hero alive. He hid behind a border, the combined heat from the suns melted the paint off the bow, presenting the golden core that constructed it. As more and more suns were slew, the world became dimmer and dimmer along with cooler weather, Apollo stopped after the ninth sun had fallen. The last sun was so afraid that he never wanted to come out, causing the world into darkness. The returned villagers blamed Apollo for the outcome and should have not shot the suns in the first place and prayed to the mighty Zeus to come up with a solution. Cloud-gatherer Zeus saw the lifeless world, appointed Apollo, and with his chariot, he pulls the sun every day across the sky.
Furious, the sky God of the east travelled to the Gray sisters, three powerful witches who share a single eyeball and asked for a stealth spell for his plan to plot revenge on the villagers and Apollo. The spell was simple but powerful. The grievesome God hex the sun to increase its size and power little by day, causing chaos in a subtle way, intended to wipe out the humans. Gradual hotter weather, melting of glaciers, shorter winter seasons, forest fires and heatwaves are occurring more often with the actions of the immortals, and it is marking the countdown of humanity.
Analysis
I chose to compose a myth of the sun because I personally find aetiological myths very interesting as they demonstrated human search for meaning and truth toward the unknown and filled the gaps with creativity to try explaining the natural world, it also relates well to the Greek sun God - Apollo and global warming. Similar to other mythology namely the Egyptians, the sun has been an important element of our daily lives hence it is often associated with a godly figure: The Egyptian Re and the Greek Apollo (Homeric Hymn, 3.12). My myth was built on top of the exciting Greek and Roman mythology with the presence of Zeus, Hera, Ares and Leto (Hesiod, Theogony 14.456). My myth follows Apollo and his heroic act that journey him becoming the Sun God roughly followed Joseph Campbell’s monomyth - the Hero’s Journey with the following elements: Aries’s bow [supernatural aid], his mother [mentor], fleeing [temptation] (Campbell, 2004). Furthermore, the story opened with Apollo’s childhood and followed the young protagonist to maturity made Apollo more relatable to the readers, thus, documenting personal growth and making the right decisions of facing the matter rather than fleeing. It also ties in with other epic hero myths concerning the genealogy of the character by exploring their relationship and problems. The pantheons remained constant because they are so well-known in the mythical world thereby it would provide a great base for my story through using familiar characters and concepts whereas much harder to create a new pantheon of Gods and Goddesses ‘out of the blue’ from scratch. The same can be said to the fine details of the myth such as Delos is the actual birthplace of Apollo (Homer, Iliad. 21.495). Because of the intensive amount of Gods and Goddesses aided mortals with their supernatural abilities such as Zeus controlling the sky (Hesiod, Theogony. 14.456). The God-like strength could also be seen with Apollo shooting down the suns because his divine heritage blood runs through his veins. This lead to the descriptor (title/epithets) of Gods and Goddesses, such as “Gray-eyed” for Athena to showcase their untouchability and immutability of the Greek pantheon that I replicated similar style descriptors whenever the Gods were mentioned (Homer, Odyssey. 1.212). The sun chariot which pulls the sun across the sky has its misconceptions, according to the ancient source, the Olympian Apollo is often related to the sun, while Titin Helios is the personification of the sun itself, and belongs to Helios rather than Apollo (Homer, Odyssey. 12.176,322). But for the plot of the storyline, slight changes were made. In addition to the chariot, it calls back to the age of Titans, before the Olympians’ rule (Hesiod, Theogony. 7.11). Because the Gods and Goddesses are human-based, they often inflict gruesome horrors on those who angered them. Flaws such as emotions are often displayed, namely in Hera’s jealousy. An example would be Heracles, another affair of Zeus that filled Hera with hatred (Hyginus, Fabula. 29-36). Even Heracles changed his name to honour Hera, the goddess still makes him kill his family and lead to the penance of his 12 labours (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca. 2.4.8-2.7.7). The same can also be said to Leto’s twins, including Apollo (Bibliotheca, Apollodorus. 1.4) thereby creating a storyline where Zeus created clouds so Hera would not be able to see them on Olympus (Hesiod, Theogony 14.456), thus Leto disguised herself just to avoid Hera. The factor that made myth so interesting because of its magical aspects such as Hermes’s winged boots or Zeus’s lighting bolt (Homeric Hymn, 4.35). I believed with the inclusion of magical elements can capture the reader’s attention so I plotted the event where young Apollo met Ares (in disguise) and gave a magical bow that in the end saved the world. In source materials, archery is associated with Apollo, the symbolism was kept because it is one of the mythical elements that define the Sun God (Homeric Hymn, 3.12). Even though the new myth is an adaptation, I still want the readers to find some parallels between my myth and the classic literature. As we know myths serve as oral traditions that often have some morals and wisdom for the next generation. The theme of my myth would be ‘good is reward and evil is punished’ where Apollo granted immortality because of his bravery and heroic deeds that also aligned with other classic poems. Some well-known examples would be titian Prometheus stole fire for mortals and punished daily toucher by an eagle [punishment] (Hesiod, Theogony. 10.509) and the contrary would be Heracles granted immortal life after his death because of his 12 labours [reward] (Apollodorus, Bibliotheca. 2.4.8-2.7.7) implying to readers that being good would ultimately be rewarded. The reward not necessary be materialized, for Apollo, he was given a greater gift - immortality. Many epic heroes such as the Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh spent years searching for immortality yet went home empty-handed. My version of myth explains global warming, relating the negative outcome to the action of the immortals that consequently have an effect on our daily lives. With this myth I composed, I hope you enjoyed my version of the Sun God Apollo as well as acknowledge the fact that we will need everyone on board to contribute to solving this crisis.
References
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Bollingen Foundation, 2004
Fabulae, Hyginus.
Hesiod, Works and Days.
Hesiod, Theogony.
Homer., The Homeric Hymns.
Homer, The Iliad.
Homer, The Odyssey.
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