Myth
In former times, there was a small town called Forbidden Forest, it was home to the most noble, beautiful, half horse half human creatures called Centaurs. Not everyone saw Centaurs in the same way, they were looked down upon and discriminated by many other tribes because of their appearance. These other tribes wanted to take over Forbidden Forest since they thought Centaurs did not deserve such a beautiful part of the valley. Virtus and her brother Epimoni, the leaders of Centaurs, were siblings and the eldest of the tribe, both intelligent and brave, trained the rest of their tribe to prepare them for battle.
Kaiser, the leader of the neighbouring town, Shadow Isles, has a plan in mind. Since he started training for battle as a youth, he was taught that the purpose of his training is to create an empire of his own, since he was said to be the only one that could do such thing, and he thought “where better to start than the Forbidden Forest”. Many years later, Kaiser gathers his troop of giants for the attack, his plan is to capture Virtus to get her to train his own troops to become stronger, while at the same time killing whoever tries to stop them, but Kaiser knew he could not defeat both siblings at once, so he had to plan his attack accordingly.
While Epimoni is away, Kaiser executes the attack on the town, they capture Virtus and take over the town. Epimoni is enraged about the situation, which he found out about by some of his people that managed to flee from the attacks, he goes to Zeus begging for help, Zeus out of sympathy gives Epimoni men but on a condition that he must train the men before taking them into battle. Epimoni started training the men non-stop for weeks, once the men were ready to fight, Epimoni knew he had to plan an attack of his own to save his sister and retake the town, he decides to attack at night when Kaiser would least expect it. Epimoni and his men blind side most of Kaiser’s troops and wipe them out, but Kaiser and some of his remaining men manage to flee back to their town of shadow Isles. Epimoni easily manages to retake the town. The celebration quickly came to an end when Epimoni saw that Kaiser had already killed Virtus. Epimoni tells Zeus about the heartbreaking situation, Zeus enraged that Kaiser killed Virtus, he punishes Kaiser by bounding him to a burning wheel that spins for eternity. In honour of Virtuous, Epimoni vows to keep her legacy alive by doing what she loved the most, teaching and training many following generations for battle.
Analysis
Looking back at my myth making, the main aetiology of it is racial differences, since in the beginning it is mentioned that the Centaurs are discriminated and looked down upon by others. In actual mythology, Centaurs are half-man half-horse savages that live in mountains and forests and feed off wild animals for food [1], but in my myth, Centaurs are more civilized than most other tribes, since the leaders are noble and civilized themselves, and since they train their people, they also pass on the wisdom that they have to the rest of the tribe. The protagonist in my myth, Epimoni is based on Chiron from Greek mythology. Chiron was said to be the eldest and wisest member of the tribe, he was the son of Cronus and Philyra, we can see this in the library book 1 of Apollodorus, “And to Cronus and Philyra was born Chiron, a centaur of double form;” (2. 4-5).
Chiron was also the person that taught and trained Hercules, through which they formed a friendship. This is interesting since Hercules is the same person that killed Chiron during his fourth labour of capturing the Erymanthian boar, we see this in library book 2 of Apollodorus, in the summary of heracles’ labours, “Thence they took refuge with Chiron, who, driven by the Lapiths from Mount Pelion, took up his abode at Malea. As the centaurs cowered about Chiron, Hercules shot an arrow at them, which, passing through the arm of Elatus, stuck in the knee of Chiron. Distressed at this, Hercules ran up to him, drew out the shaft, and applied a medicine which Chiron gave him. But the hurt proving incurable, Chiron retired to the cave and there he wished to die, but he could not, for he was immortal. However, Prometheus offered himself to Zeus to be immortal in his stead, and so Chiron died. The rest of the centaurs fled in different directions, and some came to Mount Malea, and Eurytion to Pholoe, and Nessus to the river Evenus. The rest of them Poseidon received at Eleusis and hid them in a mountain.” (2.5.4). In this section of the second book from the Apollodorus library, we see that after accidentally shooting him with his poisonous arrow, Hercules tries to help Chiron and apply medicine on his wound which was given to him by Chiron. Chiron had a lot of knowledge about medicine, and he was referred to as the founder of medicine and surgery, we see this aspect of Chiron in many myths that refer to a medicine given to someone or taught by Chiron, for example in Homer’s Iliad, ”For verily all they that aforetime were bravest, lie among the ships smitten by darts or wounded with spear-thrusts at the hands of the Trojans, whose strength ever waxeth. But me do thou succour, and lead me to my black ship, and cut the arrow from my thigh, and wash the black blood from it with warm water, and sprinkle thereon kindly simples of healing power, whereof men say that thou hast learned from Achilles, whom Cheiron taught, the most righteous of the Centaurs” (11. 825-834).
Chiron never had a sister, that was one of the many changes that I introduced into the story, the purpose of this change was to introduce more genders in the story since Centaurs in actual mythology were said to be only males [1]. The name of the character, Epimoni, is the Greek word for perseverance. Perseverance is the continued effort to achieve something despite the difficulties, which in my opinion fits the character well, since he does everything in his power to save his sister and regain control over his town. The name of the sister, Virtus, was a virtue in ancient Rome and it resemble courage and excellence in Latin. I chose these names to involve the Greek and Roman aspects of the course into the myth, while also picking names that matched each character and their actions.
The antagonist in the myth, Kaiser, is based on Eris, the goddess of hate, discord, and rivalry [2]. Even though in mythology Eris is a female goddess, in my myth Kaiser is a male character since it fits the role better. A character from mythology that parallels Kaiser is Hector, regarding their arrogance. Just like Kaiser, Hector kills Patroclus, someone who is near and dear to Achilles, and instead of preparing for Achilles’ attack, his arrogance stands in the way, we see this in Homer’s Iliad, “Hector: “Patroclus, wherefore dost thou prophesy for me sheer destruction? Who knows but that Achilles, the son of fair-tressed Thetis, may first be smitten by my spear, and lose his life?” (16. 859-861). Much like Hector, Kaiser knew he killed someone who was important to Epimoni, and instead of getting his troops ready for the attack, he just ignored it hoping Epimoni would not respond to his actions. Kaiser is a German word for emperor, I chose this name since it resembles the mindset of the character well. As a punishment for his actions, Zeus ties Kaiser to a burning wheel that spins for eternity to make him regret his actions. I chose this punishment since this was the punishment given by Zeus to Ixion,” And if only you would bear in mind the fate of Ixion, you would never have dreamed of falling in love with beings so much above you. For he, you remember, is portrayed across the heaven tortured upon a wheel; and you, unless you get out of this shrine, will perish wherever you are upon earth, nor will you be able to say that the gods have been unjust in their sentence upon you." (6. 40), Ixion is the one that went to visit Zeus and tried to seduce his wife Hera, Zeus tricked him by making a copy of his wife in a form of a cloud and Ixion fell for it, after making love with the cloud it resulted in the Centaurs being born. I feel like it is only appropriate to punish the person trying to get rid of Centaurs with a punishment that was meant for their creation.
Centaurs represent the differences in mythological races, this parallels our world today, minority groups represent the different races that are discriminated in many different ways, in my myth, since the Centaurs are the minority, every other tribe’s hatred is shifted towards them, much like in our world today If there is a minority group, it is easy for others to point fingers at them and shift everyone’s hatred towards them even if they were not involved with a problem. Talking about the punishment that Kaiser received in the myth is important to me, since it gives the chance for people to rationalize the myth and understand that targeting and discriminating minorities comes with a serious and undeniable punishment.
Bibliography:
Apollodorus, Library, Apollod. 1.2. 4-5.
Apollodorus, Library, Apollod. 2.5.4.
Hom. Il. 11. 825-834.
Hom. Il. 16. 859-861.
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 6.40.
References:
1- “KENTAUROI.” CENTAURS (Kentauroi) - Half-Horse Men of Greek Mythology, www.theoi.com/Georgikos/KentauroiThessalioi.html.
2- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Mythology, vol 2 - v. 441, v. 518, xx. 48.
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