Myth
“WAKE UP SON! Hurry! we must go, the Olympians have begun an attack on us!” Helios and his son, Asclepius, quickly get up to prepare their battle against the Olympians. As they are preparing to join the battle, they realize that the Olympians have already defeated many of the titan gods. Ready for battle, Helios, in dismay, speaks to Asclepius ``It's not worth it, take my chariot and go, get away from this war while you still can.” Asclepius, hesitant about leaving his father behind, begins to flee the battle on his father’s mighty chariot. As Asclepius attempts his escape, Zeus catches him in the corner of his eye. Asclepius, with limited experience controlling the chariot, whips the horses in sheer terror from being seen by the almighty Zeus while trying to escape the battle. Zeus becomes furious with Asclepius’ attempt to escape and strikes a lightning bolt towards the chariot bringing it down, making it crash on earth almost killing Asclepius. Helios realizes that Asclepius is in danger and flees to see if his son has survived. After the defeat of the titans on Mount Olympus, the remaining titans were banished down to earth. Zeus plots the release of an evil entity to be sent down to earth in an attempt to eliminate or punish the remaining titans that still live-in hope that they do not challenge the Olympians to take back their leadership. Through the strike of Zeus’ lightning bolt, he releases the evil entity to earth in an attempt to destroy the remaining titans. In an effort to rescue the remaining titans, Helios takes his chariot and intercepts Zeus’ bolt headed to earth. As a result of this, Helios’ chariot gets destroyed and forms a barrier between the upper realm where the Olympians live and where the titans are being held on earth. The trapping of the light and heat from the sun, which Helios' chariot carried, caused extreme heat down on earth increasing temperatures.
Analysis
The phenomenon that I have tried to explain in this aetiological myth that I created was how Global warming could have been caused by the gods in Greek mythology. Generally, Global warming has to do with solar radiation being trapped on earth with carbon dioxide, so that is why the main character that I chose for this story was Helios. Helios is a titan god that is supposed to be a personified representation of the sun. He brings light and heat to the gods and even humans on earth, and also for their crops (Hom, Od. 3.1). The reason Helios was chosen as the main character, titan god of the sun, instead of Apollo (which was another sun god, but was an Olympian god), was because it fit the story better because of the battle between the gods and the titans. So, if Apollo was made to be the main character it would make less sense. The other kind of main characters in the story were Zeus and Asclepius. Zeus, is the leader of the Olympian gods who is the son of the titan Cronus (Hom, Hom. Hymn. 23). Zeus was not really changed in the story because he was the one who began the war on the titans and that is what the main plot of the myth was. The last other main character that was in the story was Asclepius. Asclepius was the son of the Olympian god Apollo and his ability was that he was able to heal people of mankind (Pind, Pyth. Ode 3. 5). The actual son of Helios was Phaethon and not Asclepius. The change between making Asclepius’ Helios’ son and not Phaethon was because the way in which Asclepius was attacked by zeus fit the story better than the way that Phaethon had been attacked. Phaethon was killed because he took Helios’ chariot and had no previous experience of ever riding it. As a result, he was heading towards earth and was going to destroy it/ cause a lot of destruction, so Zeus had no choice but to strike a lightning bolt towards it killing Phaeton (Atsma, 2017). On the other hand, Zeus intentionally kills Asclepius. The reason why Zeus intentionally killed Asclepius was because he was able to raise the dead, in Zeus’ perspective that was not allowed and was a crime to the Olympians, so Zeus ends up destroying Asclepius (Atsma, 2017). After the comparison Asclepius was chosen instead of Phaethon because Zeus intentionally wanted to kill him whereas Phaethon was killed not out of hatred or anger, but killed because he needed to be stopped from destroying the earth. Global warming was shown in the myth to be a result of the battle between the Olympian gods and the titans, also known as titanomachy. Titanomachy was an event in which Zeus began an attack in an attempt to overthrow the titans. Once Zeus was successful in his attempt to overthrow the titans, he banished the remaining titans down to the Tartaros where they would be imprisoned (Hes, Theog. 621-725). The only titan that was on Zeus’ side during the battle between the gods and titans was Themis (Hom, Hom. Hymn. 23), which is why the other titans were attacked by Zeus, so it made sense to add Helios to the battle. The main thing that was changed was the location, originally the battle between the gods and titans took place in Thessaly, Greece and in the narrative, it was changed to Olympus. The reason for this change was so that the titans would be stuck on earth instead of Tartaros so that global warming was an after result when the titans are banished to earth and stuck there with the rise in temperature as a form of punishment. In the myth, the section where Zeus sends an evil entity through a lightning bolt was a form of punishment/ way to torture the titans and the people on earth. This is in reference to when the gods created Pandora and sent her down to cause pain to humans for having life easy and taking it for granted (Hes, WD. 100-128). Since it was known that Zeus had the power to punish people, it would make sense if he was able to punish the titans as well. The reason that Pandora was not used and a lightning bolt was instead was because the way that the punishment was sent was meant to be in the form of a weapon. And the lightning bolt was the weapon that Zeus typically used when attacking other gods and/or titans. The significance of the evil entity in relation to global warming was that it was supposed to represent the carbon dioxide and other pollutants that cause global warming. When the lightning bolt (the evil entity) and Helios’ chariot (represents Helios powers) collide with each other this is supposed to represent the sun’s light and heat radiation interacting with carbon dioxide. The combination of these two things is what essentially causes the temperature to increase and form the barrier between Olympus and earth. The last reference that was added to the story was the boundary that was created between the upper realm where the Olympian live in Olympus and earth where the titans are. Hesiod and Homer believed that the earth (world) was separated into different layers. With the gods living in Olympus which was the highest layer, earth being roughly around the middle, and things like the underworld or Tartarus being on the bottom layer (Cundy 2021). The barrier in the myth is supposed to represent a separation between the earth and Olympus, but the context that it is being used in above is more like containing the titans, like a prison. The significance this has to global warming is how the heat gets trapped in earth’s atmosphere. The barrier is supposed to represent trapping the heat inside the earth’s atmosphere which is what causes the temperature to increase. Overall, the main idea behind how global warming is caused by gods is by Helios using his powers and Zeus sending an evil entity to interact with each other which end up creating the barrier around the earth which traps Helios’ powers inside causing the temperature to increase on earth.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
1. Homer, Odyssey 3. 1
Homer, 1998. Odyssey Book 3. Translated by Shewring, Walter. London: Oxford University Press.
2. Homer, Homeric Hymns. 23
Homer, 1971. Homeric Hymns. Translated by Smith, Scott R. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub.
3. Pindar, Pythian Ode 3. 5
Pindar, 2000. Ode. Translated by Conway, George. New York: Everyman’s Library.
4. Hesiod, Theogony. 621-725
Hesiod, 1810. Theogony. Translated by Evelyn-White, Hugh. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
5. Hesiod, Work and Days. 100-128
Hesiod, 1810. Work and Days. Translated by Evelyn-White, Hugh. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Secondary Sources
1. Atsma, Aaron. ASKLEPIOS. Theoi.com. Theoi Project, 2017.
2. Cundy, Jody. Lecture 2: Hesiod Cosmos II. Jody Cundy, 2021.
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