The Myth
Prometheus is tasked by Zeus to create all living creatures with his brother Epimetheus. When it came to humans, Prometheus realized that they had no gifts left to give them. Prometheus wanted humans to have great purpose, and so gave humans his own dominion over fire.
Zeus then decreed that humans must worship and sacrifice to the gods. Wanting humans to be dependent on the gods, Zeus held back much information from humans, such as how to farm. Prometheus in turn went against Zeus and taught humans the earliest form of technology, with which they began to form their own civilization. Zeus did not like this, as the more humans worshipped him, the more powerful he became.
After being tricked out of the better part of the sacrifice by Prometheus, Zeus decided to take fire from humans. By taking fire from humans Zeus has returned them to an earlier state and forced them once more into dependence on the gods. Going against the will of Zeus, Prometheus stole fire and returned it to humanity, allowing them to once more form civilization and continue to advance, once more making them independent of the gods.
As humans appear to be destined to grow past dependence on the gods, Zeus decided to destroy humans and begin again. To this end, Zeus influenced both the other gods and the mortals. Zeus had the other gods aid in humans’ advancements, showing them new practices and rituals, giving them great gifts that would make their lives easier. All the while Zeus would utilize his own influence to cause the humans to destroy themselves.
The more humans advanced their civilizations, the more they destroyed the environment they inhabited. Zeus tricked humans into mining resources from deep in the Earth, leading humans to finding what he wants them to find and using it to fuel their machines. The usage of these resources in humanities machines pollutes their environment, causing it to become more dangerous for mortals to live in.
Zeus, being an eternal god, was willing to wait for the humans to destroy themselves, for as long as the other gods do not know of Zeus’ plan, they would not oppose him. It was then that certain humans discovered that they were damaging their environment, and that it could end up killing all humans. Zeus had to act fast and influenced the minds of the most influential amongst the mortals into believing that there was nothing wrong.
This was the folly of Zeus, in his haste to keep humanity on track to destruction, he exposed himself to the other gods. The other gods were furious with Zeus machinations and manipulation. Zeus attempted to convince them of his purpose, that they would all become more powerful with the worship of humans, but at this point it was too late, the other gods of Olympus had enough of Zeus and his need for power. Zeus was trapped beneath Mount Olympus and the rest of the gods began to attempt to stop what Zeus had begun.
The Analysis
And in This Corner… ZEUS!
The creation of this myth was both to demonstrate an underwritten (in my opinion) quality of Zeus, that he is power hungry, and to give an explanation for global warming. Many of the actions Zeus takes against others in classical literature is due to them posing a threat to his power. What would Zeus do if humans were taking power away from him (or in the case of my myth, not giving him more power)? This was the question I wanted to address in my myth, and so Zeus’ plan to “get back” at humans is to destroy them through their own advancement (global warming in this case).
IT’S ALIVE!!!
Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus were commissioned by Zeus to create all living creatures and were also told to “equip them, and to distribute to them severally their proper qualities” (Pl., Prt. 320c - 322a). It was when they came to man that they realized that they had forgotten man, who was “naked and shoeless, and had neither bed nor arms of defence” (Pl., Prt. 320c - 322a). While in Protagoras, Prometheus steals “the mechanical arts of Hephaistos (Hephaestus) and Athene (Athena), and fire with them”, in the myth I created I change Prometheus to not only be the Titan of Forethought, but also of Fire and Technology. As Prometheus wanted humans to have greater purpose, he forsook his domain over fire and gifted it to man, allowing them to tame fire for their own purposes.
Worship me I’m on TV.
One thing that I have noticed in the classical literature is that Zeus does not like having his power challenged, or even the possibility of having his power challenged. Such as what Zeus did to his first wife Metis. Gaea and Ouranos had told Zeus that the children of Metis would “hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of Zeus” (Hes., Theog. 886 ff). Zeus is even less amused by those who show impiety, such as Tantalus, who was said to have tested if the gods truly knew all by chopping his son Pelops into pieces and cooking him into a stew to serve to the Olympians, Tantalus was punished for this by being in the middle of a pool of water that he could never drink from with fruits dangling from above that he could never reach (Hom., Od. 11.582-593 ff). Due to these examples, I have made it so that Zeus requires humans to worship the gods, as this worship increases their power.
Knowledge is POWER!
Zeus had information held back from humans in order to keep them dependent on the gods, so that the humans will continue to worship them for reasons stated above. In Hesiod’s Works and Days it is said “for the gods keep hidden from men the means of life” (Hes., Op. 42 ff), in this context the “means of life” is how to farm so that they will have plentiful food, the start of civilization. For this reason, I have given Prometheus domain over technology. As I have previously stated, in the literature Prometheus is described as having stolen “the mechanical arts” (Pl., Prt. 320c - 322a) and given them to humans. In my myth however, it is Prometheus who teaches the humans the earliest form of technology, utilizing fire to create primitive tools and such. Similar to what Prometheus does in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, where he teaches humans everything he can from using their senses, to mathematics and language (Aesch., PV 441 ff).
That Rascally Prometheus.
Much of the events here follow that of classical literature, such as when Prometheus tricked Zeus into taking the lesser half of the sacrifice by hiding the best parts of a bull under intestines (Hes., Theog. 511 ff). Or when Prometheus stole fire to return it to humans after Zeus hid fire in retaliation for being fooled over the sacrifice (Hes., Theog. 511 ff). In my myth, once Prometheus returns fire to humans their civilization is able to advance once more, and grow independent of the gods, something that Zeus does not want.
Technological Terror.
With Zeus unable to stop humans from growing independent from the gods, Zeus decides to destroy them with a long-term plan, global warming. Sadly, this is not the first time Zeus has been depicted as destroying all humans. An example of this would be when Zeus had poured “heavy rain from heaven” and “flooded the greater part of Greece, so that all men were destroyed” (Apollod., Bibl. 1. 7. 2). As part of his plan Zeus wanted humans to advance quite fast and influenced the other gods into aiding human advancement. This too is shown in literature, particularly with craft-related gods such as Hephaestus when he taught humans the ability to craft (HH 20) or when Athena helped Argos build a “fifty-oared ship” (Apollod., Bibl. 1. 110). There are also example of the gods helping with things unrelated to grain, such as deities giving humans plants and seeds (Pl., Plt. 269a - 274d).
I’m The Slime.
Yes, I am laying all of humanities problems at the feet of Zeus. In my myth Zeus tricks humans into mining resources that are harmful to the environment, particularly (though unsaid) fossil fuels. While this is not supported by literature, there are many cases where Zeus tricks both other gods and mortals into doing something, once again using the example of Metis, where Zeus “craftily deceived her with cunning words” (Hes., Theog. 886 ff).
Immortality = Boredom.
As Zeus is an eternal god, he has much time on his hands, so it stands to reason that a distraction would stop him from noticing his plans suddenly being derailed, and by mortals of all things! The idea with Zeus acting alone in this is that the other gods are not as obsessive about their power as Zeus is, and so if they learned Zeus wanted to wipe out all humans because he wants more power, they would then stop him. This would not be the first time that the gods have had to stop Zeus. At one point Zeus had gotten unbearable and so the gods, being Hera, Athena, and Poseidon, got together and decided to trap Zeus to try and teach him a lesson (Hom., Il. 1. 397 ff). Sadly, this did not work out to well for the three of them. But in this situation Zeus panicked and solved the problem once more by influencing the minds of mortals, only this time he was caught.
Hand in the Cookie Jar.
In his haste to return his plans on track, Zeus did not realize that some of the other gods noticed what he was doing. In doing so the other gods confronted Zeus, who then openly admitted his plans, hoping to entice some of the gods into following through with his plan. Sadly, the other gods were not in the mood, they had had enough of Zeus’ machinations and manipulations. That and they did not want to destroy humanity, happy with where the humans were currently at. The gods of Olympus then bound Zeus and trapped him beneath Mount Olympus, where he was far from his domain of sky and powerless to escape, the gods had learned from the last time they tried to bind him (Hom., Il. 1. 397 ff).
I had the other gods of Olympus trap Zeus because he was once again abusing his power, though this time he had also made the other gods unwitting accomplices in his plan to destroy humanity, and the other gods had already done something similar, as referenced in the above paragraph (Hom., Il. 1. 397 ff), so I had them do it again, only this time they were successful. After trapping Zeus, the gods went about attempting to undo everything Zeus had caused with his latest plan to destroy all humans. The gods wanted to save humanity because despite Zeus’ manipulations they had put much work into getting humans to where they currently were and did not want all they had done to be destroyed.
References
“To Hephaestus”. 1914. Homeric Hymns. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Aeschylus. 1926. Prometheus Bound. Translated by H. W. Smyth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Apollodorus. 1921. The Library. Translated by Sir J. G. Frazer. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Apollodorus. 1975. The Library of Greek Mythology. Translated by K. Aldrich. Lawrence: Coronado Press.
Hesiod. 1914. Theogony. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. London: William Heinemann.
Hesiod. 1914. Works and Days. Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White. London: William Heinemann.
Homer. 1919. The Odyssey. Translated by A. T. Murray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Homer. 2011. The Iliad. Translated by R. Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Plato. 1925. The Statesman. Translated by H. N. Fowler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Plato. 2006. Protagoras. Translated by B. Jowett. Digireads.com
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