20 years before Heracles journey, Prometheus was pardoned by Zeus, and tasked to create mortal beings with divine clay. To fool the god Zeus, Prometheus fed him Ox fat instead of bone, which infuriated Zeus and led him to banish flame from the mortal’s land. When Zeus discovered that Prometheus stole flame and gave it to the mortals without his knowing, Zeus exiled Prometheus to the Valkan Mountain, a volcano that scorched at the same levels of the sun. The mountain was always in Helios’ vision and was incredibly close to his trail, and thus it absorbed much of the sun’s strength. On this mountain, Prometheus laid hanging, the excruciating heat of the sun piercing into every single pore of his thick skin through the daylight, only to be washed off by the excrement of the Caucasian Eagle by midnight. Once his body healed, the volcano’s heat rose once more, tormenting him through the rest of the night for 20 years.
In the middle of Ancient Greece, Heracles commenced his 10 labours to atone for his sins. It was during his 11th labour that he saw the volcano while traveling through the excruciating desert heat, 12 years into his journey. Heracles, grabbing 100 cactus trees and stacking them atop each other reached the top of the cacti and saw a man hanging off the mountain. This peaked the mighty hero’s curiosity. Heracles approached the mountain and aimed his arrow directly at the sun. He shot it magnificently and Helios arrived to him. “What do we have here?” said Helios. Heracles mentioned the man atop the mountain and his labours. Helios was fascinated by the drive of Heracles. “Prometheus rests above” says Helios. “He can guide you to the golden apples”. Heracles instantly began plotting. “Give me the chariot” said Heracles. Helios was enlightened by this idea and wanted to see Heracles true power. “If you can blow out the flame of the sun, it is yours” he said.
Heracles returned to Hephaestus, and requested he make the mightiest shield of all warriors. He asked Hephaestus for a large fan that can turn even the most brutal opponents into dust. He then travelled to Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, and asked for a potion of his breath. Heracles marched valiantly into the steaming desert. He grabbed his fan and blew it towards the mountain. He rode the wind and used his shield to protect him from the vicious heat. Alongside Prometheus, Heracles consumed the wind potion. He then jumped with the force of 100 Nemean lions behind the volcano and released his deep breath. This breath blew all the embers of the volcano into the atmosphere, and the sun’s embers flew with it too. Wiping out the sun’s radiance for 3 days, its embers floated in the sky, attracted to Helios. After millions of years, the embers still find their way to Helios, but also find their way down to Earth, where they cause forest fires, climate change, and a hotter sun.
Analysis
The following myth aims to describe why global warming occurs in our world today by grabbing inspiration from many various myths. The purpose of this myth is not only to describe how global warming came to place in Greek mythology, but also how working together can lead to accomplishing goals. Heracles, Prometheus, Helios, and Zeus are characters in this story. Heracles is just as mighty as depicted in stories, and I kept him the same, as his companionship and strength were detrimental to my story thus making him the perfect selection for the protagonist. Prometheus remained cunning and witty in my story, and overall stayed the same character. Zeus remained the ruler of Olympia and overall remained the same in this story as he is in other myths. Helios was altered a bit, as in the main stories I refer to, he isn’t the type to test people. He simply was moved by Heracles ability to shoot the sun and let him ride his chariot in the labours, however in this story he tasks Heracles with melting the sun.
Firstly, the myth refers to Hesiod’s Theogony. The myth then touches upon Prometheus, more specifically his punishment. In Theogony, Prometheus attempts to fool Zeus by cutting up an Ox and giving Zeus fat rather than bones, which infuriated Zeus (Lamberton, Works and Days; and Theogony 525-570). I chose to keep this the same, as it didn’t have much impact on my story line. Zeus then took fire away from humans, and upon realizing that Prometheus stole fire and returned it to the humans punished him by pinning him onto a mountain. On this mountain, his undying liver would be eaten every single day by a Caucasian bird. I changed various parts of this myth.
I made the myth so that Prometheus’s punishment was for his entire body to burn by the heat of the sun. I also made it so that the Caucasian Bird (Mozley, Valerius Flaccus 60) instead used a divine excretion to relieve itself on Prometheus to heal his wounds. Finally, I made the punishment more severe by making the mountain turn into a volcano due to the extreme sun temperate heat that Zeus tormented Prometheus with. I did this because I wanted to still make the punishment sound awful, and I wanted to incorporate the sun into my myth, as I was aiming to explain how global warming occurred. The next myth my story draws upon is the 12 labours of Heracles. In this myth, Heracles meets and saves Prometheus from the eagle that eats his liver every day by killing it. In return, Prometheus tells Heracles that he should ask Atlas to retrieve golden apples for him to avoid conflict.
Heracles thus finds Atlas and agrees to hold the sky for him as Atlas goes to grab the golden apples. (PAUSANIAS, Description of Greece 5 .17 .2). In my myth, I drastically change this part. Firstly, I combine elements of (Hesiod, Theogony 287), by making Heracles shoot an arrow at Helios upon seeing Prometheus, rather than out of anger due to the Libyan desert’s heat. I did this because I wanted Heracles to interact with the sun in a way that alters the way in which it moves, and I wanted to incorporate the sun god Helios into the story. I also kept the desert, as it seems like an area where a deadly volcano would be. I used cactus as a way for Heracles to see a man hanging atop the volcano from a far, safe distance, as it also demonstrates Heracles incredible strength to pull out 100 cactuses to view from afar. Heracles requests Helios’ chariot, only for Helios to tell him to end the sun’s flame, and he would consider it. In the 12 labours, Heracles impresses Helios with his arrow to the sun, and thus is given the chariot to ride to the Giant.
I then made Heracles backtrack on his journey to retrieve a shield from Hephaestus. In the literature, Hephaestus is a master blacksmith, who crafted a shield for Achilles (Grant, The Myths of Hyginus 106). I wanted to refer to this story, as I wanted Heracles to have a mighty shield that can withstand even the heat of the sun. I also made it so that Hephaestus creates a large fan that can push anything back. I needed a way to send the extremely hot volcano back to the sun, and thus a fan sounded ideal. I also refer to Zephyrus, the god of the west wind (Nonnos, Dionysiaca 362), as I wanted to incorporate an extremely powerful wind, and thus thought of the idea of using a godlike potion to blow wind. Heracles then uses the potion and the fan to blow an incredibly strong wind into the sun, thus wiping all the flame from the sun, and turning the volcano into a mountain. Earth had 3 dark days- however, these flame particles slowly rekindled as they reached Helios, and it began beaming again.
It is said that it will take millions of years for all of them to reach the sun and that is why it gets hotter. This was all added to the story, as Heracles never did anything like this in other myths. It was added to show the might of Heracles and the companionship that Heracles was so gifted at in achieving. I also think it was very Heracles-like to perform a task like this, as his 12 labours were all impossible, and wiping out the sun seems like an impossible task as well to most. However, to Heracles, nothing was impossible, and thus I pictured something impossible for him to do.
The themes of this story are perseverance, strength, and companionship.
The plot of the story is partially one of a Hero’s journey. A hero’s journey is a type of story in which a character needs to retrieve something, and thus often venture into unknown territory to retrieve this item. Upon facing adversity, the hero triumphantly achieves their goal and returns home, transformed. In this story, Heracles receives supernatural aid from Helios. Furthermore, he is mentored by Prometheus. He faces challenges with surpassing his 11th labour and ventures into unknown territory, this being the volcano, and the desert he is walking on. He is also retrieving the item that is golden apples. However, the story does not highlight Heracles triumphant return home, nor does he develop much as a person. When observing the entirety of the 12 labours of Heracles however, there is much more evidence of it being a hero’s journey.
In the story, perseverance is shown not only by Heracles, but also by Prometheus. Prometheus withstands the endless torture given to him by Zeus, while Heracles continues performing his 10 labours to atone for the sins he’s committed, no matter how impossible they seem. The plot involves Heracles’ development into a hero. From being at a very low point after murdering his family, Heracles becomes loved by the world for capturing or slaying many beasts that harm people around him. In this story, Heracles continues to persevere with the impossible task of ending the sun’s flame as it leads him one step closer to his goal of atonement.
References
HESIOD, THE HOMERIC HYMNS, EPIC CYCLE, HOMERICA. Translation by Evelyn-White, H. G. Loeb Classical Library Vol 57. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
HYGINUS. The Myths of Hyginus. Translation by Grant, M. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Publications.
NONNOS. Dionysiaca. Translation by Lind, L. R. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.. (3 volumes)
PAUSANIAS. Description of Greece. Translation by Jones, W. H. S. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. (5 volumes).
VALERIUS FLACCUS. The Argonautica. Translation by Mozley, J. H. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, Massachussetts: Havard University Press.
West, Martin Litchfield. "Hesiod." The Oxford Classical Dictionary. : Oxford University Press, , 2012. Oxford Reference. <https://www-oxfordreference-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199545568.001.0001/acref-9780199545568-e-3072>.
Works and days ; and Theogony Hesiod.; Hesiod.; Lamberton, Robert.; Lombardo, Stanley, 1943- Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Co. c 1993
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