Myth (Narrative):
One day, you will be loved. Christos had been told this his whole life. He didn’t understand why when, currently, he was disliked by all. He once believed it had to do with the fact that he didn’t have a father; his mother all he’d ever known. Now, he knew it was because of the way he looked. Christos wasn’t attractive. He had messy hair that framed his face all wrong, muddy eyes, and a mishappen head. And his skin, so dark, unlike others’.
So, when Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, appeared, demanding a favour, he eagerly accepted. Perhaps if he completed this task, the goddess would make him better-looking? One day you will be loved, he remembered. He had been tasked with bringing back Aphrodite’s magical girdle from the god Hephaestus, his father. It had been stolen in anger when the god of metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes had discovered the goddess’ affair with the War-god. Never in his life had Christos have thought that his father was a god. At least, now, he understood his talent with building.
Thus, Christos made his way to his father’s palace with excitement in his heart. He would meet his father, and he, delighted meeting his son, would give Christos the magical girdle. Then, Christos would return the girdle to the gorgeous Aphrodite, earning himself her favour, and the love he’d desired when he finally understood the norms of society.
However, when he pleaded to his father, Hephaestus chuckled. “You do not understand the pain that people can cause you. You can try to do whatever you deem necessary, in whatever means, but you won’t ever be enough for the world that we live in. You’re too much like me.”
Christos didn’t agree with his father, so he decided to steal the magical girdle from his father and deliver it to Aphrodite. That night, Christos worked on botching his father’s preliminary training dummies that the Olympians would use to practice their combat skills to distract the god, giving him enough time to leave with the girdle.
Once he returned the girdle, Christos waited for her thanks but was shocked, instead. “Look at yourself, child, and look at the men who have come before you. You don’t compare,” she stated pretentiously. “No one will ever love you, no matter what you do. Neither did your father. His own mother cast him aside because of his looks. He was too ugly for the Queen of the gods.”
Christos stood, dazed. His father’s words came back to him. He realized the goddess was right. Men like his father, boys like him weren’t heroes. Those heroes, remembered for eons to come, were fair, handsome, and strong, unlike him.
And so, the cycle continued. Men that looked a way that was appreciated by society rose to fame and prospered under the love of their people. Men that were, in ways, similar to Christos were forgotten, their stories never told and never to be remembered.
Analysis:
My choice of the four options provided to focus my aetiological myth was to talk about racial difference, and how it came to be. My initial thoughts regarding the topic were that race was not something that was explicitly touched upon in myths and stories that we have touched upon during the progression of this course. So, my next approach was to think of gods or goddesses or demigods that were treated unfairly, and my thoughts immediately went to Hephaestus and the story of his birth.
In my opinion, Hera, Queen of the gods, doesn’t necessarily hate her son, Hephaestus. Hatred would strongly suggest the presence of intense emotional response, and I believe that Hera doesn’t seem to exhibit much thought of her son to be able to hate him. Personally, I believe that Hephaestus is simply a disappoint to his mother, and that is why she was able to easily discard him at birth once she saw how hideous he was at birth (Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.20.3). Hephaestus, in layman’s terms, is an image of the failing of Hera’s marriage to her husband, of their ongoing power struggles, and how frustrated Hera feels in this situation. To Hera, Zeus can apparently do whatever he wants; have whomever he wants (that is, any woman, and maybe some men too); and then, when goes as far as to make his own children, such as Athena being born from his own mind, as though he has no need for a wife or a woman in his life at all (Hesiod, Theogony 921). Thus, Hera is now driven by her need to assert her strength, as well as perhaps a lost influence that she once had, long ago, in more feminine cliques before Zeus’ patriarchal dominance as the supreme sky ruler and Father of both immortals and mortals. To do so, she conceives her own son, Hepheastus, to be her avenger against Zeus’ wrongdoings, but he turns out to be a crippled, hideous baby (Apollodorus, 1.3). To Hera, Hepheastus is a failure of what she was unable to accomplish on her own. Hence, her throwing him out and moving on with her life.
I, in some way, understood Hera’s need to throw baby Hephaestus out because, Hephaestus, was nothing in comparison to wise, strong-willed, and beautiful Athena in the eyes of Hera. So, in order to connect back to the beginning of what would be known as racial difference, I thought why not make it seem as though Hephaestus was born a different race to his mother? The lack of racial representation in the many readings we have discussed and read for the duration of the course only seem to illustrate that coloured individuals were thought of as less than in the typical Ancient Greek society, and much less than when compared to their gods and goddesses. As well, when I think of the many movies that have been filmed in relation to Ancient Greek myths, it is clearly depicted that coloured actors weren’t normally chosen for the role of the heroes. It may seem as if it were a stretch because how does a Greek goddess such as Hera, who is typically thought of as “white” conceive and give birth to a “coloured” child; however, when it is thought of how Medusa, who gave birth to Chrysaor and the horse, Pegasus when the demigod, Perseus, had cut off her head (Hesiod, Theogony 270). Thus, the aetiological myth that racial differences first began with Hera’s treatment of her own child was created.
The comprehension that Hephaestus was god of metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes also aided in the newly created concept that Hephaestus was a different race in comparison to other Olympian gods and goddesses (Hesiod, Theogony 924). This is due to the fact that, when you think of blacksmiths, such as Hephaestus, soot is often thought of, as well as the dark colour that easily covers the skin of the aforementioned blacksmiths (hence, the name “blacksmith” in the first place). Hephaestus is said to have begun working as a smith from the age of nine years, creating many intricate things such as pins, clasps, cups, necklaces, and more for Thetis, who was his adopted mother, in a sense (Homer, Iliad 18.136; Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 2.549).
In other stories, Hephaestus was actually the son of both Zeus and Hera, but I didn’t not to use this version of the tale in my myth, as I believe that Hera’s actions wouldn’t have as much of an impact if he were (Apollodorus 1.19). Other variations of the tale state that, rather than Hera throwing Hephaestus out of Heaven, it was Zeus, who was horrified by his son’s ugliness (Apollodorus, 1.19). It was Hera’s disappointment in Hephaestus when he is her son, alone, that makes her action of throwing him away as a baby much more moving and sympathetic; thus, having a more provoking effect on his character as a whole.
In my opinion, the only thing that Hephaestus desires is love from those around him — such as his mother, Hera, and his wife, Aphrodite. However, he receives neither, which must have had a major impact on his character again. With Hera, it is how she only fusses to bring him home and promptly cement his rank among the Olympians gods and goddesses when Hephaestus is older and more useful to her needs. Once again, she proves her indifference to him, as he, in her perspective, is only worthwhile to her as long as he serves her. When he doesn’t Hera has no interest in him and what he does (Homer, Iliad 1.568). With Aphrodite, on the other hand, there was never any love from her side of the relationship, while Hephaestus may have been in love with his wife at first. If he were, it only lasted until he discovers her affair with her paramour Ares, god of war, and his (better, in the eyes of Hera) half-brother (full brother, in other versions) (Homer, Odyssey 8.267). Thus, to make the desire to be wanted by someone who is ugly due to their differing race was made an important theme in the mythological story written. Hephaestus, as a character, is made wiser, due to these occurrences in his life.
My decision to create an aetiological myth regarding the topic of racial difference, and using Christos than Hephaestus himself, was a fully conscious choice. I had decided to use Christos as the protagonist of this myth, as it would reflect the idea of how, even today, people of different races are still facing the same problems in society that their ancestors did centuries ago. This is precisely why, in the above myth, the structure of time wasn’t given a very real definition. The time in which this myth was occurring, whether the twenty-first century or in the old ages, was not given proper attention because the problems associated with racial differentiation did occur in the past and are still occurring today.
Racial differentiation is, thus, mirrored in my myth, where Christos is either shunned by the people in his village or by Aphrodite once he completes her task in hopes of winning her favour. Christos’ intelligence and brightness regarding building things is overlooked in favour of his physical features. The society he lives in and the gods and goddesses, such as Aphrodite, don’t care about anything except his looks because it isn’t something they have normalized to describe “being great,” as is shown by previous heroes like Achilles or Heracles. This is something that Hephaestus has been shown to have learned in his years but is something that Christos learns over the course of the myth. This myth reflects how the family members that have come before us have had to learn to deal with the many complications that society has ingrained to be “wrong” with them, whether it be their physical features, their languages, their culture, etcetera, as well how we, as the future generations, have also had to learn how to deal with the same troubles. Christos learns about society’s norms at a young age, and from his travels to complete Aphrodite’s task, somewhat understands what his father has had to face. However, he isn’t able put everything together until Aphrodite clearly spells it out for him. It is only when she does so that he is able to understand that he will never truly be admired for his brave and heroic actions due to the way he looks and society’s depiction of what a “hero” should resemble.
Bibliography:
Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Translation by Aldrich, K. Lawrence, Kansas:
Coronado Press, 1975.
Hesiod. Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translation by Evelyn-White, H. G. Loeb
Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.
Homer. The Iliad. Translation by Lattimore, R. Chicago: The University Press, 1961.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translation by Shewring, W. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Pausanias. Description of Greece. Translated by Jones, W. H. S. & Omerod, H. A. Loeb Classical
Library Volumes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William
Heinemann, 1918.
Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Fall of Troy. Translated by Way, A. S. Loeb Classical Library Volume
19. London: William Heinemann, 1914.
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