In return for his freedom, Zeus had forced upon Prometheus the task of creating man. Prometheus had accepted this task and had created sculptures out of the mud into which Athena had breathed life into. Zeus had declared that man must sacrifice a portion of their food to the gods, but Prometheus had tricked Zeus into choosing the bundle of bones instead of meat. Zeus was enraged and had taken away fire from men, Prometheus who loved men more than the Olympians had stolen fire from the Gods and given it to men. Zeus was furious and punished him by chaining him to rocks and having his eagle eat his liver every day.
People no longer had Prometheus’ guidance and they began to exploit nature. They had become aware that Prometheus was being punished for all the good deeds he had done for them. They were angry at the gods for punishing him, in return they began to take everything the gods had given them for granted. The dryads had provided mankind with protection and breathable air with their trees, but men no longer cared and began chopping them down until the land was bare. Men threw waste into the oceans and started hunting for more fish than they needed. Over time, their anger turned into greed, they started using the fire that was brought to them by Prometheus to burn down forests and burn down villages as they waged war against each other. People no longer cared for the concerns of the gods nor the nature that provided them safety and protection.
Hermes hurriedly relayed all the deeds that were occurring on Earth after which Zeus was enraged. Pan was beginning to die, the dryads were becoming weak, they needed the help of the Gods to stop the humans. Apollo had prophesied to Zeus that mankind would continue to do these actions until there is nothing left of this world. “As more people become ignorant and no longer wish to have concern for the Gods, the Gods will become of insignificance. A phenomenon that is so grand that it shall send shivers down every man that dares to defy the Gods.” Zeus had called upon all of the Gods to define punishments to the mortal realm, even he had decided to stop rainfall and snowfall. Persephone had wanted to go to the mortal realm and help people as they were suffering from famine. Zeus ordered Hades to capture Persephone and bring her to the underworld to prevent crop growth in the mortal world. Demeter could not help her daughter and in grief, she neglected her duties as well. Poseidon enraged by the conditions of the sea, cursed the lands with drought, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Apollo was ordered to move the sun closer to the Earth to melt the ice and increase sea levels causing floods. Men had to migrate as animals were becoming scarce and waters were depleted of fish. Men have summoned their own downfall by opposing the Gods.
Analysis of the Myth:
I chose to write about the aetiological myth of global warming. I used Zeus as the ultimate creator of global warming because he is the supreme god (Hom. Hymn. 2. 29) and tends to make decisions quickly while he is furious. Zeus is also known to get angry and furious more easily when compared to the other gods as his fury and anger is used to describe him a lot in poems (Orph. Hymn. 20). Zeus is often mentioned in poems associated with a “loud-thundering” which is one of his epithets in situations that would force other gods or mortals to abide by his words (Hes. Theog. 383). This represents his power over both the mortal and immortal realms. I was able to use this quality to show how the gods follow in accordance with his commands in order to punish humans with global warming. He was able to control the climate directly as he is the god of rain, thunder, snow, etc. (Virg. G. 2. 317-330).
Prometheus in the original story was a titan and along with Epimetheus was pardoned after the titan war by Zeus on the condition that he completes the task in the creation of mankind. Prometheus had truly adored mankind more than the Gods, he even went to the extent to defy Zeus more than once. Zeus had ordered men to sacrifice the best parts of their meat to the gods, so Prometheus had wrapped the ox bones in fat in one bundle and wrapped the good meat in the other bundle (Hes. Theog. 545). Zeus had fallen to his trickery and had chosen the bundle with bones as the fat made it look like it had meat inside (Hes. Theog. 545). Due to this, Zeus was very angry and decided to punish humans by taking fire away from them (Hes. Theog. 560). As a result, Prometheus had decided to steal fire from the Gods and had given it to the mortals (Hes. Theog. 560). Seeing this infuriated Zeus and he decided to punish Prometheus for his defiance having Hermes chain him to rocks on a mountain and tormenting him every day (Aesch. PB 1-12). Hermes tries to advise Prometheus to not be stubborn and submit to Zeus, leaving him with a message that if he does not Zeus’ eagle will tear his body and feast on his liver allowing it to regrow overnight so it can repeat the torment the next day (Aesch. PB 1007). This story was important to be used in my etiology of global warming because I wanted to use Prometheus’ loyalty and support to mankind as the initial conflict leading to the formation of global warming. In the original story, Zeus decided to also punish mankind with the creation of Pandora and her box of all the evils of mankind. She would deliver the jar to mankind, but the man had no self-control and would open the jar letting out all the evils and leaving only hope in the jar leading to their ultimate punishment (Aesop, Fables 526). I decided that I would not include this in my story, I made it so that mankind would become furious with the mistreatment of Prometheus start to exploit everything that was given to them by god. This would lead to humans gaining the evils of mankind on their own and cause Zeus to punish them with global warming.
I wanted to use the dryads to show that they are protectors of the forest and that harming forests will have a direct effect on the nymphs. In the myths, dryads perish or fade away leaving behind seeds when the tree they protect is destroyed. This was described in the stories in which Phineus spoke of the death of a Thynian nymph after recklessly cutting down the nymph’s oak tree (Ap. Rhod. Argon. 2.477-490). The dryads were also directly associated with other gods making them important to the gods, the loss of the dryads will further infuriate the Gods such as Artemis, Dionysus, Poseidon, Demeter, and Hermes. Artemis is symbolized as the goddess of nymphs and her epithets often consisted of parts of nature such as lakes, mountains, and rivers (Diod. Sic. 5. 3). Hermes is worshipped by shepherds as he is a representation and protector of flocks and pastures, making him connected to Pan and the Nymphs as shown in the Odyssey when the swineherd Eumaeus offered boar meat to Hermes and the Nymphs (Hom. Od. 14. 430-440). Pan is the god of wild animals, hunting and forests and is also a companion of the nymphs. The death of the Nymphs and overhunting would affect Pan as well due to this relationship. I fictionalized this in my myth by making him fade (die) as this would cause the Olympians to be angry since Pan is well-loved by the other Gods as well especially Dionysus (Ov. Fast. 393-397).
Apollo is known as the god of prophecy as Zeus was the source of this power giving him prophetic skills (Aesch. Eum. 19. 15). He is able to know and share prophecies of both mortals and immortals, from this I used Apollo as a way to show the fortune of mankind when they behave irrationally in the story. Apollo is the God that essentially shares the prophecy of humans in which global warming would be the consequence of their wrongdoings. Although Zeus is essentially the source of Apollo’s power, I wanted to make Apollo be the God to share his prophecy to Zeus to be able to provoke him into making his first commands as the supreme God.
Due to climate change caused by global warming many regions of the world experience drought. Persephone and Demeter are two important goddesses that would represent the agriculture and growth of plants in the mortal realm (Orph. Hymn. 40). In the original story, Hades had fallen in love with Persephone and had asked Zeus to marry her. Zeus had known that Demeter would not accept this marriage as she would not be able to see her since Hades remains in the underworld. Zeus and Hades had forcefully taken Persephone and gotten her married while Demeter had left her alone to be attended by the nymphs. This shows the relationship Demeter has with the nymphs as she trusts them enough to leave her daughter alone showing that Demeter would be enraged by the cutting down of trees. Demeter was distraught by losing Persephone, she neglected her duties causing severe droughts and withering of plants in the mortal realm after which Zeus decided to bring back Persephone to Olympus to protect humanity (Hom. Hymn. 475-490). Persephone had chosen to stay with Hades in the underworld enraging Demeter (Hyg. Fab. 146), so to solve this conflict, Zeus decided that she would spend half the year with her mother and half with her husband. I decided to include this in my story because Persephone and Demeter are important for the cause of drought in global warming. I decided to fictionalize this as well by making the cause of Persephone to not come back to Olympus and remain in the underworld by Zeus’ order of punishment to humans. Persephone wants to help mankind, but Hades would capture her and restrain her in the underworld, this causes Demeter, who is an overprotective mother to become distraught and also neglect her duties to aid mankind in agriculture. This would ultimately cause the seeds to not germinate and grow to create the effects of global warming that are the withering of plants and droughts.
Apollo is known as the sun; the Homeric poems mention him as the dawn/sun (Hom. Hymn. 3. 398-440). I used this symbol of Apollo to show that he is the main cause of the increase in climate and melting of ice which are effects of global warming. Poseidon is known as the god of the sea; thus, he would influence the decrease fish population, earthquakes, and tsunamis which I used in my story to explain the decrease in fish populations due to human hunting and tsunamis/earthquakes that occur as a result of global warming. In the original myth he was able to cause drought in Athens after he lost the land to Athena (Apollod. Bibl. 3. 14. 1), thus showing that in anger of humans he was also responsible for ridding the land of men of water.
Thus, my myth showed how global warming could have begun in Greek mythology with respect to all of the Olympians and Prometheus in response to human exploitation of nature. In conclusion, Zeus’ anger, rash decision-making, and unpredictive personality cause him to unleash all the powers of Gods against mankind in the form of global warming.
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