During ancient times, the Greek gods ruled the skies while the humans and morals resided on earth and they all lived peacefully. Until one night when Uranus visited Gaia on earth as she was down there, he noticed a few humans building themselves houses, toys for children and carts for transportation from scratch. Uranus was very impressed by their skills and the nights he went to visit Gaia he watched the humans and saw the different things they were capable of. He reported what he saw to Zeus. Zeus saw the lands and the way the humans looked and worked, he knew that they are mortals, they can be injured, they bleed, and they die unlike the gods who are immortal. Zeus then met with the Olympians and they decided to take over and rule the earth. Since the gods were so powerful the humans ended up submitting to them. The Olympians owned different lands and the humans that were on that land. Since the gods and goddesses had unlimited power, they did as they pleased, they destroyed what they wanted, took what they liked, banned whatever they disliked. While the humans could not do what they wanted, they had rules from the gods and goddesses that ruled their land, if the humans decided not to listen or disobey, they got tortured and punished. Some of the humans were very rebellious and even after countless punishments they received by their designated god or goddess they will continue to rebel. Zeus did not like those types of humans, he then created a universal rule where after three rebellious attempts, that mortal will be struck by lightning and the intensity of the lightning is based on how severe the rebellious event was, some humans ended up dying because the lightning strike was so strong. Zeus did not care if he hurt the mortals, they were not gods. Eventually, the immortals had the mortals working for them, creating their armor, chariots, and other things. They overworked the humans and continued to. The earth’s soil filled with the sweat, blood and tears of the mortals and they skies filled with their screams. The gods and goddesses knew they can get away with this because the humans cannot reach the skies, they are not as strong as them, they have no powers whatsoever and smaller in size. Humans were completely powerless and weak compared to the Olympians. The ruling over the earth started to become more intense, gods and goddesses now have claimed lands humans cannot step foot on, invading those spaces meant that they will have to face the king of the gods, Zeus. Fortunately for the humans, there were two Olympians that were fed up with Zeus and the other Olympians’ violence towards the humans as they were taking it too far, so they decided to fight back. Hestia and Athena decided to round up the slaves on their lands to fight Zeus for their freedom back. They built war equipment, ate until they grew big and full of energy, the goddesses taught the humans how to fight and protect themselves also. Zeus saw all this from the skies and grew furious. At night while the humans were resting, he struck the land the immortals were preparing on with a great strike of thunder, a strike of thunder so great he did not know he was capable of it himself. A giant fire starting, destroying the equipment they built, burning all their food to ashes and injuring the humans. The cries and screams of them were tormenting. The humans then knew they could never fight Zeus. After going against their fellow gods and goddesses, Zeus cursed Hestia and Athena and also from that day forward they cannot have no contact with anybody on earth. Legend says that one can still hear the agonizing screams lingering through the air from the day Zeus sent down the lightning to destroy the land the humans prepared on to fight for their freedom.
Analysis
The main idea and analysis of this myth is racial difference and how the gods treated the humans very different from how they treat their own.It is very clear that in ancient Greece times, humans and gods were very different. The gods had powers, they were immortal, they had power over humans. Humans on the other hand do not have powers, they are mortal, they are weaker than gods. They lived very different lives. It is easy for the gods to manipulate and overrule the humans. In comparison to the real world, gods represent the white people, and the humans represent the colored people who relatively have less power and respect compared to the white people who are generally more powerful. The myth represents the slave time where the white people took over the blacks and claimed lands as their own and throwing the people native to that land to the outskirts to survive. Just like in the Trojan War, the Greeks invaded Troy (Homer, Iliad), the whites invaded parts of Africa fought their people and stole them too.The Olympians represent the slave owners, they owned different pieces of the land on earth that had humans on it just like the white slave owners owned black slaves on their land. Zeus represented the superior power like the government and laws that allowed slavery. The myth explains how the humans were on separated lands serving the gods just like the slaves were on designated lands serving their slave owners. The myth also represents the different races, sexualities and genders across the world too. Hesiod was the poet who created “Work and Days” in the poem “The Ages of Man” it speaks about the differences between immortal and mortal men. Mortal men lived all along the earth, things changing through every generation. While the immortal men lived well in the heavens. Over the generation of mortal men, they were constantly changing making new men, doing different things for example “Father made a third generation of mortal men...they loved lamentable works of Ares and deeds of violence...” (Hes. Work and Days). This was the start of the creation of the different races, genders and other. Zeus himself started to see that the generations of mortal men were changing so he started destroying them earlier and earlier every generation. Also, in the myth, humans obeyed and respected the gods because they were superior to them or they will be punished just like in the poem the humans looked up to the gods or they will be punished (Hes. Work and Days). Next, Hestia and Athena getting cursed by Zeus is like when Zeus cursed Prometheusfor being rebellious and helping the humans by giving them fire (Hes. Theogony. 560-584) just like Athena and Hestia in the myth were rebellious and decided to help the humans. When Zeus cursed Prometheus, he also cursed mankind (Hes. Theogony. 604-606). This is similar to when Zeus sent down the thunder and it burned the whole land, the screams of the human still linger just like the curse of Prometheus still lingers. This goes to show that the torture and generational curses still linger. The abuse that the mortals faced reflect the abuse that the slaves faced, they were beaten, punished and tortured. Just like Zeus’ thunder caused death to some humans, slave owners and other people like the racists also caused death to the slaves, this happened by malnutrition, lynching, abuse etc. For example, black people are still facing racism and discrimination decades after slavery ended, it is something they have to live with for generations coming because the white man is still in power and most rules are made by them, they also get most of the free will like the Greek gods do. When Zeus became angry when he found out that the humans were preparing to fight for their freedom it is similar too when the slave owners would get mad and punish their slaves for trying to run away or fight back. In Greek mythology, the immortals had intercourse with many different mortals (Apollodorus 1.3.1) just like different races and cultures have mixed children. Mixed children were treated differently, especially during slavery times, mixed children did not get as tedious work as the full black children did, they still worked but has slightly easier jobs than the rest. The separation and colorism between the mixed and lighter skin individuals versus the darker skinned individuals still occurs in present times today. Zeus was the mightiest god (Cal, Hymn 1.1-2), hence why he was the king of gods, he had the power to do what he pleased and did not care for who got hurt because he knew he would not get any consequences for it. When Zeus and the other Olympians decided to take over the earth, they did not think about the tragedies that will happen to the humans. Similar to in present day, when racist workers especially police officers commit a crime against colored people, especially blacks and do not get in serious trouble for it because they have the upper hand due to them being white. In conclusion, I chose to write a myth of racial difference because it connects so well with the real world. The gods and humans were completely different, living in peace until one wanted power and to take over the other group so they went out their way to get them and control them. Just like the white people travelled all the way to Africa to steal the black people and use them to their own benefit. The myth I created represents the racial difference and the treatment two different groups receive because of their status of being mortal or immortal.
Work Cited
Homer, Iliad
Hesiod, Work and Days
Hesiod, Theogony
Apollodorus The Library
Callimachus, Hymn 1
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