Myth:
Gaia and Ouranos were in a relationship and had several kids together. However, Ouranos kept shoving their kids together back into Gaia's womb and was never sexually satisfied. This frustrated Gaia so she asked her children for assistance in creating space between them. Kronos, one of Gaia and Ouranos' children, volunteered to help his mother, and therefore cut off his fathers genitals. With his father now out of the way, Kronos became king of the gods. This did not last long, however, as Kronos’s son, Zeus, overthrew his father and still rules today.
As the mortals inhabit Gaia, they begin to produce greenhouse gases and this draws Ouranos to her. She feels smothered and needs her space from him so she seeks help from the Olympians to create space between them. Zeus, still angry over Gaia sending the titans to fight him and the Olympians, refuses to help her. This infuriates Gaia and her blood begins to boil. Her rage fuels the heat that emanates off her causing problems for the mortals. As time goes on without help removing Ouranos, Gaia continues to increase in temperature, further harming the living things inhabiting her body.
Not long after Zeus insists that none of the Olympians assist Gaia, her heat begins to cause noticeable problems for the other gods in effects to physical and earthly destruction. One example of this being Poseidon, after watching the glaciers melt and the ocean levels rise, he decides he needs to take action. He explains the situation to the other Olympians and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, decides she is willing to help as well. They visit the three fates or Moirai for assistance and receive information about the destiny of a mortal named Greta Thunberg who has been fated to play a key role in the removal of Ouranos from Gaia. The two searched for Greta and explained the situation, Ouranos is smothering Gaia because of the emission of greenhouse gases and his attraction to them, causing her to boil with rage and produce heat. They explain that she’ll have to rally the mortals and call that they produce less greenhouse gases. This in turn, will create some separation between the two, allowing Gaia’s rage and the subsequent heat to significantly reduce. As destined, Thunberg began to gather traction and traveled the world giving inspirational speeches and spreading information about the warming explaining that the greenhouse gases are what is drawing Ouranos to Gaia. If they stop producing so much gas, then Ouranos will release himself from Gaia and allow the heat caused by her rage to decrease. Though she and her followers are creating a lot of positive change, there are many people who are denying the existence of global warming or do not want to stop producing greenhouse gases, still attracting Ouranos to Gaia and fueling her rage further.
Analysis
Global warming is when the gases in the atmosphere trap the heat from the sun and subsequently warm the planet exponentially (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions). In a healthy ecosystem, Earth absorbs heat from the sun, then releases the heat back into the atmosphere and into space(Center for Climate and Energy Solutions). However, greenhouse gases are produced and projected into the atmosphere by humans and acts as a blanket on the Earth's surface, not allowing any heat to enter space(Center for Climate and Energy Solutions). Without the heat being able to leave the planet it is warming it to an unsustainable, dangerous amount. There are many damaging effects of global warming on the planet and one is the glaciers melting. This causes sea levels to rise, which is concerning because with the water levels rising land masses can be completely submerged(Center for Climate and Energy Solutions).
I chose to use the Goddess Gaia because global warming affects the Earth and she is the personification of the Earth(Hesiod, Theogony 116 ff). To continue my myth, I chose Ouranos, the personification of the sky, because of the aspect of global warming with the thick atmosphere and his previous tumultuous relationship with Gaia(Hesiod, Theogony 116 ff). To create the aspect of the thick atmosphere I had Ouranos smother Gaia, almost like a thick blanket would smother a person and trap heat. The reason I expressed that Ouranos would be attracted to the greenhouse gases emanating from Gaia is because I wanted to incorporate greenhouse gases into my myth to keep the fault of the mortals present and I needed to have a reason for his sudden attachment and closeness to her. As history often tends to repeat itself, I wanted Gaia to become frustrated with her situation with Ouranos building off of their tumultuous past and needing space from him, as she had previously, which brings her to ask for assistance from the Olympians. This again is similar to her past situation with Ouranos, where she asked her children for assistance and Kronos volunteered(Hesiod, Theogony 126 ff). However, in another series of events, Kronos was overthrown by his son Zeus and banished to tartarus, unable to assist Gaia so she is forced to turn to the Olympians, Zeus’s siblings and the other children of Kronos and Rhea(Hesiod, Theogony 453). Zeus, according to Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 15, punished Prometheus for giving fire to mankind and being generally disobedient and according to Pseudo-Orpheus To Jupiter, Zeus or Jupiter was very intimidating and powerful. I incorporated this aspect of punishment and intimidation into myth by having him punish Gaia for her actions against him, creating the Titans and having them fight Zeus(Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology 1), by being unwilling to assist her in her problems with Ouranos and instructing the other Olympians to do the same by intimidating them, Gaia becomes angry, as anyone would, asking for help and being denied. The physiologic human response to anger is heart rate and body temperature increasing, as Gaia is a personification, she should have human features and with that her rage began to heat the planet. Without giving Gaia space and without assisting her in her request, both Ouranos and Zeus were fueling her rage that was heating the planet.
Just as was mentioned previously by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, with global warming, because of the heating the glaciers are melting which is causing the sea levels to rise. I incorporated that Poseidon begins to grow concerned because he is the god of the sea, so he witnesses the levels beginning to rise(Orphic Hymn 17 to Poseidon). Then I chose to incorporate that Athena also shows concern because she is the personification of wisdom, one example of this is in the Iliad when Athena stays Achilles hand when he reaches for the sword imparting the wisdom that it would not be a great idea to draw his sword and fight agamemnon(Homer, Iliad 1.188-222). I incorporated that she would understand the severity of the situations and impart her wisdom on the mortals just as she had for Achilles. I added that the two sought assistance from the fates because according Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 11. 140, the three fates spin “destiny threads”. I included the fates because I wanted to state that the two Olympians knew that because Zeus had forbidden them to assist in the situation the problem needed to be fixed by a mortal, but they did not know which, if any, mortal would create change. So, in an act of desperation the two seek to find an answer from the three fates or Moirai and they find out a girl named Greta Thunberg is destined to create great change in the reversal of global warming. The two Olympians had no problem visiting this mortal and influencing her because the gods often did manipulate mortals to do their bidding, one example of this is when Paris(a mortal) had to choose who received the apple for the fairest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite instead of Zeus having to choose(Stasinus of Cyprus or Hegesias of Aegina, Cypria Fragment 1). The reason I chose that Greta Thunberg would be fated to make the change was because she has recently become a very popular activist for global warming, gaining attention from political figures, celebrities, and large groups in the population inspired by her and willing to follow and support her. I also chose her to give her credit for the positive change she has made and success she continues to have with the climate change movement.
As a human would not understand the problems the Olympians are facing, I had Athena and Poseidon both explain that Ouranos was attracted to the greenhouse gases that the humans were producing and it was infuriating Gaia causing her to heat. They had to also explain that the gods could not do anything about the problem because Zeus had forbidden it and they did not want to anger him, so the change had to come from the mortals. With Athena imparting her wisdom on the severity and the change that needs to be made, Greta became an activist. I also wanted to incorporate that there are people who deny global warming because in reality it increases the problem when they continue to use greenhouse gases. In my myth, the denyers using the greenhouse gases are continuing to draw Ouranos closer and fueling Gaia’s rage, increasing the severity of the problem. I ended my myth without a solution because global warming is still a problem in our society today and with people still denying its existence there will be no change. With more people like Greta Thunberg calling for action, the more hope that I have that the situation will be resolved.
References:
Apollodorus, and Robin Hard. The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World’s Classics). 1st ed., Oxford University Press, 2008.
Athanassakis, Apostolos, and Benjamin Wolkow. The Orphic Hymns. First Printing, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
“Climate Basics for Kids.” Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, 15 Dec. 2020, www.c2es.org/content/climate-basics-for-kids/.
Hesiod, and Richard Caldwell. Hesiod’s Theogony (Focus Classical Library). First, Focus Information Group, 1987.
Homer, et al. The Iliad. Revised ed., Penguin Classics, 1998.
Homerica: The Cypria (Fragments).
Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica.
Pseudo-Orpheus, XIV. To Jupiter.
Smyrnaeus, Quintus, and Arthur Sanders Way. The Fall of Troy. Aeterna, 2021.
Comments