Myth:
When the gods saw that the world was good, and all was okay, they stepped back for a few years.
Then everything went bad. Old habits die hard, and the gods’ habits were no exception. One of these habits was the constant fighting. They had been known to fight over the smallest of things. And it didn’t take much to set off a battle.
It started at one of the regular meetings they decided to hold. After the usual argument over who was cooler, who was better, who was the strongest, et cetera, Athena finally realised this was going nowhere. The arguments between them ranged from things like Athena and Ares arguing over things like battle strategy, to Apollo and Hermes arguing over the effects of truth and lies.
Zeus, as the father of the gods, wanted the fighting to stop, so he called attention to himself, saying “Brothers and Sisters… and, uh, mothers, fathers, and… let’s just go with relatives shall we? We are here to discuss important issues-”
He stopped himself, shooting a cold glare at Hermes and Apollo, still arguing. “Will you two stop arguing for a moment?”
Apollo looked at Hermes and said “Yeah, dude. You know, as the god of truth, I’m gonna tell you, Hermes Dolios, that the reality is I’m better than you. Shut up.”
Hurt and insulted by this remark, but knowing he couldn’t do anything because he didn’t want his father to punish him, Hermes shut up. But Apollo had given him an idea. The best way to hurt the gods who just told him to shut up would be to hit them where they were already struggling, and to divide them further. And Apollo, the god of truth, would pay first. In recent times, Hermes was getting stronger. With the invention of the internet, and the age of information, the god of communication was growing ever stronger. Time to live up to what Apollo called him – Hermes Dolios. Hermes the trickster.
So at night, when all was dark, Hermes traveled to where some of the other gods were. Hermes first stopped at the place he knew well – the outskirts of the internet. It was there that his darker nature convinced him to spread a good lie now and then. As god of trickery, he blessed a select few with the ability to lie so convincingly they would be believed by many. And as god of communication, he knew this would work, for he was fully aware of the impact a single TV broadcast or even a Facebook post could cause. Hermes delighted in his master plan – communication and lies would together make a big impact on the world.
With this, Hermes hoped to prove his worth. His plan was two-fold: as the god of communication, he wanted to show humans that communication is important; but as the god of trickery, he wanted to trick the other gods and show he too was powerful and worthy. And the gods would see that his plan worked – sometimes trickery is the best way to show that lies lead to a destruction. He would know. He is, after all, the god of lies, and the era of truth was over.
Hermes had sown the seeds of a war that had been brewing for a long time. The other gods would see the world tear itself apart, and Hermes would be seen for his power.
Now it was time for those he blessed with the silver tongue of lies to do their part. The era of truth was over. Prophecy was going nowhere. Apollo would be obsolete. The gods would fight, and as usual, the humans will be the ones to pay the price.
ANALYSIS:
The idea behind my myth was to explain the extent of disinformation in today’s post-truth era, particularly on the internet and in the age of communication. Human deceit has always existed. However, I wanted to introduce a divine aspect, especially since myths enhance our understanding of the world. Similarly, in my aetiological story, the gods enhance and strengthen what was already there.
The story begins by mentioning that the gods always fought over the smallest of things – and this will be a recurring theme throughout this aetiology. I based this on the tendency of gods in many of the actual Greek myths to be fighting with each other – for example, Hera quarrels with Zeus in a separate myth (Hesiod, Theogony 924-928). In the Iliad , we see that godly wars affect mortals. And of course, in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, we see that Hermes and Apollo already have a history of fighting amongst themselves (Anonymous, Homeric Hymn to Hermes 155-165). In the aforementioned text we also get a glimpse of Hermes’ trickery and ability to use words to his advantage.
The other gods mentioned in the story are not very relevant to this story, they are mentioned solely to set the scene. However, I did want to include Zeus, because he is the father of many of the gods, and he often mediates battles between them, for example, he actually mediated an argument between Hermes and Apollo before (Anonymous, Homeric Hymn to Hermes 325-330). It was from here that I also got the idea of an assembly of the gods. The line where Zeus refers to the gods as “Brothers, sisters, mothers...” and then decides to just go with “relatives” was added in simply for comedic purposes, since Greek myth is known for its complicated and often messy relationships (Hesiod, Theogony).
Now that the scene was set, the gods needed to fight. Since Apollo and Hermes have already fought before, and Hermes is a wily trickster while Apollo was known for spreading truth, it was easy to set them up to fight. And Zeus would be the one to silence Hermes and hurt his ego, because Zeus was also the most powerful, and was known for his punishments, an example of which can be seen in an ancient text detailing the history of gods (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 5.23.5). In this example we see Zeus is not afraid to use lethal force on someone who steps out of line.
Hermes is wily, smart, and treacherous – and we see this when he manages to steal, lie to Zeus and look innocent, and manipulate Apollo with a gift of a lyre (Anonymous, Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, 15-25, 375-385). Hermes is also one of the most childish gods – we see this in ancient myth too (Anonymous, Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, 20-25), so it makes sense he would want to prove himself. Proving oneself through massive feats is also a common theme in myth, for example in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Jason sets out on his quest so he may prove himself worth of being King of Iolcus, “…that he should go to Scythia in quest of the golden fleece, and then receive the kingdom.” (Apollonius, The Argonautica, xvi).
Hermes’ ability to spread lies helps him hurt Apollo, god of truth, hence the idea that Apollo will pay most of all. As the god of messengers, this is easy for him. Hermes’ domain could very reasonably extend over the internet, today’s preferred form of communicating different ideas. This allows him to open up a big source of disinformation in today’s world – unverified information online. Finally, as god of trickery, Hermes blesses the people who could benefit him with the ability to lie so convincingly, multitudes will believe them.
Essentially, the story boils down to the idea that a wide network of communication is the easiest way to spread lies, thereby accounting for both the divine aspect (Hermes’ blessing on those who lie on the internet) and the mundane (the internet being a breeding ground for disinformation).
As a god of trickery, lies, and deceit, it would be impossible for him to not know the negative effect that lies can have, and as a result he is doing this to prove a point – one which allows the gods to see his strength, and which allows him to teach humanity a lesson, which is something Hermes is known to do as a god sent to teach humans how to live (Scharfstein, 102). This too, is discussed when I mention that he wishes to teach mortals too a lesson.
Eventually, when war will break out, humans will pay the price, just like the Trojan war led to various humans suffering when the gods sat back and took sides but indifferently watched (Homer, Iliad, 7.) and (Homer, Iliad, 20).
This myth deals with Hermes’ motives of starting an age of disinformation, as well gives an origin to the age of disinformation (i.e. Hermes sowing the seeds of lying on the internet amongst people).
WORKS CITED
Hesiod, Theogony, Trans. Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914
Anonymous, Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914
Apollonius, Rhodius. The Argonautica. Cambridge, Mass. : London :Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1961.
Homer, Iliad. Trans. Samuel Butler.
Diodorus Sicilus, Library of History, published in Vol. III of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1939, https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5B*.html
Scharfstein, Ben-Ami. Amoral Politics: the Persistent Truth of Machiavellism. State University of New York Press, 1995.