“Six weeks from now, your suffering will begin.” The oracle spoke slowly to Odis, a renowned fleet commander, of his explorative visit to an island on the edge of the earth. The Oracle began again “You will encounter the daughter of the great witch, the Goddess of binding magic, who will invite you to a feast.” The night of Circe’s great feast, the distastefully drunken men ate, broke pottery, and sang their fleet songs loudly. Offended by the madness and gluttony, the daughter of Hecate headed towards her cavernous kitchen. Bushels of herbs hung from the ceiling, creating a canopy from which Circe retrieved a botanical mixture as she sang an enchantress’ hymn. Her copper braids glistened in the nightlight catching the eye of the young God in winged sandals who gazed upon the witch and uncovered her plans. After adding her concoction to several pots of wine for serving, Odis and his men gulped back the wine, leaving not a single drop. Circe watched as they transformed into swine, befitting their gluttony. Circe added another mixture to oats, feeding it to the pigs, creating the illusion that they were still men.
“The Goddess will return your fleet to your homelands. You will consume endlessly, driven mad by bottomless desire. This destruction will anger the Gods. Poseidon will bring floods and droughts, Zeus will bring devastating storms and boiling temperatures, and Demeter will halt crop growth bringing famine.” The three children of Cronus and Rhea convened to discuss why their measures weren’t ending the men’s destructive consumption. The Sea-God strode in on his hippocamp, trident in hand, with an accusatory look.
“Sky-God, have the Cyclopes thunderbolt lost their beckoning power?”
“Enough. A reckoning requires collectivity. I’ve punished these men with hunger and disease as I did Erik, the King of Thessalian. Yet they persist in destroying my bounty.” The giver of food mulled over ways to undermine the men’s determination. Hermes arrived at the meeting, knowing the full intentions of the powerful Circe.
“Father Zeus, after your beginnings with Cronus, should you not immediately identify a plot of concealment? See you not the soul of these men trapped within veils of illusion?” Hermes relayed Circe’s plot to the sibling Gods and presented the herb of magic virtue which protects from witch’s magic. After consuming the moly, Demeter confronted Circe herself and threatened to withhold crop yields on the witch’s island.
“Enchantress goddess, should you not relinquish these men from your spells, I will strip your source of power. No herbs will grow on this island, and by virtue of this, you will be stripped of your magic.”
“Sweet Goddess of fertility, I’ll return these men to their form but temper your expectations, these souls began as gluttons and they shall die as they were created.”
Odis had sat for hours listening to the Oracle when they finally opened their eyes. They took a moment of pensive silence, then drank from a small goblet before speaking.
“It seems your fate is sealed. Your motivation lacks humility and for that you and your men will perish. Circe will only hasten the trajectory of your path. All Gods punish greed.”
Reflection on the Myth-Making Process
The myth-making process provided me a creative opportunity to share my perspectives on the systemic root of the climate change crisis: anthropocentric consumptive behaviours. I kept my myth temporally vague by modernizing the names of Odysseus to Odis and Erysikhthon to Erik while maintaining the ancient names of the Gods (Call., H. 6. 65 ff). I made sure to leave out any descriptions of the setting which would date the myth. I did mention a goblet, pottery, and pots of wine, but since it was in relation to an Oracle and Circe, an ancient Goddess and hedge witch, I felt it immortalized the characters. As eternal, rustic beings, it only seems fair that certain ancient items would be in continued use. In my choice of language, I used a severe and foreboding tone very unlike modern language but included modern words from climate change discourse such as, “collective”, “consumption”, and “trajectory”. By keeping the myth temporally vague, I sought to utilize the power of ancient myths in telling fate-based stories while providing a prediction for the repetitive consumptive mistakes made by humans and the institutions which support them.
I included many usages of myth motifs to add dimension to my characters given the word count. Circe is continuously referred to as a witch, an enchantress, and the daughter of Hecate, to ellude to her long history with magic (Diod., Bibliotheca Historica 4. 45. 1; Hes., Theog. 453; Hom., Od. 10. 135-12. 156). At first encounter, these may not appear to be motifs but instead titles denoting her métier. However, referring to Circe as a witch or enchantress is in fact a motif since magic is a known symbol associated with her (Hes., Homer’s Epigrams 14). To read succinctly, I also included “Sky-God” and “Sea-God” when referring to Zeus and Poseidon to explain why one could bring drought and floods and the other storms and rising temperature. I also refer to Poseidon’s trident and a hippocamp to create another direct reference to his purview over the sea. At first mention, Hermes is described as the “young god in winged sandals” to immediately speak to his most memorable motifs and provide quick identifiers for the reader. Demeter required more deliberate motifs to create dimension since she played a larger role than her brothers. In my text, Demeter is referred to as the giver of food and the Goddess of fertility to pull on the myth of the kidnapping of Persephone (HH 2). I will discuss Demeter in depth later in this analysis, but for the sake of motif usage it’s important to denote that she is the Goddess of agriculture so as to explain how she caused famine.
In the first half of the story, I made several references to the links between colonialism and environmental degradation. The story begins with Odis seeking an Oracle to understand the fate of an exploratory mission to an island where they will assess available resources and take what is needed for their empire. Additionally, as a fleet commander, Odis and his men are a naval military ship which links their actions to a nation. Understanding the link between colonial resources destruction and environmental degradation is integral to contemporary climate change discourse. This contemporary discourse seeks to undermine the neoliberal dogma which focusses on the acts of individuals and instead centres on the influence of institutions on climate change. This is important to understand the meaning of a “hastened trajectory”, as imperialist and colonial resource destruction has long existed, however, without globalization and industrialization, these processes were better kept in check due to the limitations of power. With modernization and technological innovation, we not only see an exponential increase in unsustainable practices but we see huge increases in its sprawling reach. This increase in reach is what I explained through Circe, as she acts only as a vehicle for increasing, and uncovering, the men’s greed.
While all Gods would be concerned with meddling of the cosmos, I decided to centre the myth around the punitive actions of Circe, a powerful witch goddess who needs a healthy earth to grow the herbs for her potion and who has a history of transmuting men who offend her (Diod., Bibliotheca Historica 4. 45. 1; Hom., Od. 10. 135-12. 156). Circe has an ancient history with Hermes and Odysseus, whose men she turned to pigs. Hermes came to Odysseus and gave him moly, the magic herb, which allowed him to withstand Circe’s magic and overtake her (Hom., Od. 10. 135-12. 156; Ovid, Metamorphoses 14. 248 ff.). Knowing this mythical history, I decided this would be an interesting twist to explain why Demeter, Poseidon, and Zeus would take climactic action against humans. I also wanted to lessen the weight of mainstream Gods in my storytelling which made Circe an attractive addition. By adding Circe’s transmutative actions to the origins of climate change, it allows us to understand the exponential increases of greenhouse gas emissions beginning with industrialization. Circe’s acts “hasten the trajectory”, but the mortals already possessed the qualities which will inevitably lead to resource overuse and destruction.
Concerning the Gods punitive actions, I made several myth adaptations to better match the effects of climate change. While Zeus is the sky-god and known for weather, it was difficult to find ancient sources which dealt with specific weather anomalies (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 6-7). Therefore, for the sake of storytelling his vague control of weather was adapted to allow him to create extreme weather events and rising temperatures. Alternatively, there were primary ancient references to Poseidon’s ability to cause floods and droughts and, due to this, required no change to fit the climate change narration (Plut., Mor. Amatoriae Narrationes 2). Demeter required very little adaptation but much myth incorporation to understand her role in the story. The aetiological myth of the seasons of crop growth is told through the kidnapping of Demeter’s daughter, Persephone (HH 2). By Demeter’s ability to withhold growth seasons, I was able to have Demeter consume the moly and end Circe’s curse under threat of removing the source of Circe’s magic abilities – her herbs.
As the goddess of agriculture, Demeter can create famine and also disease, as was the case with Erysikhthon (Call., H. 6. 65 ff). In the case of the Erysikhthon myth, Demeter’s disease cursed him with insatiable hunger until he literally devoured himself. Knowing this ancient myth, I created a retelling with Circe as the curser of insatiable hunger when she transmuted the men into pigs, nature’s mighty eaters. In my myth, Demeter is only linked to famine, even in the reference to Erik’s punishment. When considering the ancient source’s fate of Erysikhthon, there is a clear link to the ending of my myth which leaves a foreboding message to Odis and the reader. If Circe’s curse only hastened the enlightenment of the Gods to the innate nature of these men then, bar any interference of Circe, the Gods would have been angered eventually. This means that even by ending the voyage and returning home, fate would find a way to cause the same punitive actions from Demeter, Zeus and Poseidon against Odis and his men. Thus, when left unchecked, humans meet the same fate of Erysikhthon; corrupting themselves for to consume all until self-destruction.
My aetiological myth sought to uncover the causes of climate change by referring to the institutions and status quo which cause environmental degradation. By creating links to colonialism and the exponential growth trajectory, I sought to create clear links to the systemic nature of the climate change crisis. I was inclined to create a vague temporal setting so harness the severity of ancient Gods and powers, while creating a universalized applicability to my message. I also sought to clarify my message using relevant myth motifs which attached references to related myths. In doing so, I hoped to create a space for the reader to view these myths in relation to my own and better understand the motivations of characters and the theme of the story. I ended my story with the Oracle telling Odis of his seemingly-inescapable fate to anger the Gods and face storms, boiling temperature, droughts, floods, and famine. However, to end my analysis I’d like to clarify, while there is an innate ability for humans to think only of their individual wants, there is also an innate ability to empathize and act in favour of a collective good. Should Odis avoid Circe’s island, yet continue the status quo, he and his men will suffer and perish. Yet, if Odis and his men change their underlying consumptive behaviours they can avoid the wrath of the Gods. Ultimately, that is the underlying message of the anthropogenic causes of climate change and the proposed solutions of adaptation, mitigation, and restoration.
Works Cited
Callimachus. 1921. Hymn 6 to Demeter. Translated by A. W. Mair. London: William
Heinemann.
Diodorus Siculus. 1888-1890. Bibliotheca Historica. Translated by I. Bekker, L. Dindorf, & F.
Vogel. Germany: B. G. Teubneri.
Hesiod. 1914. Theogony. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
Hesiod. 1914. Homer’s Epigrams 14. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. London: Heinemann.
[Homer]. 1914. Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
[Homer]. 1914. Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
Homer. 1924. Iliad. Translated by A. T. Murray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Homer. 1919. Odyssey. Translated by A. T. Murray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Orphic Hymn 17 to Poseidon.
Ovid. 1922. Metamorphoses. Translated by B. More. Boston: Cornhill Publishing Company.
Plutarch. 1936. Moralia Amatoriae Narrationes. Translated by H. North Fowler. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
Poseidon-Neptune and Hippocamps. C3rd A.D., Greco-Roman Mosaic. Sousse Archaeological
Museum, Sousse.
Pseudo-Apollodorus. 1921. Bibliotheca. Translated by Sir J. G. Frazer. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
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