Myth
On Olympus, the gods are discussing whether humans like the truth. If they are, then Athena will help them find the truth, if not, then Zeus will send them into the "happiness age". There, there is no truth, only countless sweet lies.
Do people want the truth of the universe? The naughty Eros secretly told the church people that talent is the center of the world, and the sun just revolves around people. A man named Copernicus was the first to discover that God was joking with people. He wrote "On the Movement of Celestial Bodies" in an attempt to tell people the truth. Galileo accepted heliocentric, but he could not answer many questions. God asked people some questions. The earth moves, why are people and things not thrown out? Why can't I feel it? As the earth moves, why don’t the stars show parallax? With the joint efforts of several generations from Galileo to Newton, people finally accepted the heliocentric theory.
Even the gods saw that there were some people who insisted on the heliocentric theory, fought tenaciously with the church, and even hesitated to be tied to the stake and burned to death.
The gods began to believe that people were willing to seek the truth behind things rather than the "false reality" before them. Intends to help people approach the truth of the universe.
But Hermes was unwilling to draw conclusions so quickly and wanted to continue to test people. He quickly advanced the time to the twentieth century. Hermes helped a man named Goebbels. He is a liar expert. He said that the Jews had a conspiracy to rule the world. But who can prove that the Jews did not have such a conspiracy? As a result, the Jews were slaughtered. Hermes is very happy, not because people are being slaughtered. His views seem to be right. People are no longer willing to reflect, and lies are easy to believe.
Zeus wanted to put people in the “happiness age”. Stopped by Hades, he found that there were still people fighting for the truth. Hades pulled the timeline to the 21st century. He let an epidemic break out in China. In the beginning, only a few people got the disease. A doctor bravely told everyone the horror of this disease. However, there are a few officials in order to avoid guilt. He took the doctor into prison. And tell everyone that this doctor is a rumors and a sinner. At this time, people have two choices, trust the doctor, or trust these officials. In the end, people believed the officials and yelled at the doctors along with them. People didn't realize the seriousness of the matter until the epidemic spread. God laughed, and the truth was before people, but people only believed in lies. Because lies seem to be very beautiful and can satisfy their immediate happiness. Hades was disappointed.
Athena sighed, people have changed too much. In the beginning, people gave their lives for the truth. Then, people no longer think about what the truth is. Later, people took the initiative to abandon the truth.
Zeus will send people into the "happiness age".
Analysis
This is a novel about the post-truth era. From the perspective of a third party, I examined the attitude of mankind towards the truth since the seventeenth century. Facts have proved that the change in attitude is great. At first, we were thirsty for truth, especially when the spirit of science was just born. People at that time regarded seeking truth as a habit of life. If you do not seek the truth, it means breaking their habits. However, because of the limitations of technology and power institutions, there are many lies, so there will be a struggle between truth and lies. At that stage, we see that the truth is greater than the lies. Then, with the development of various technologies, the truth does not seem to be so precious anymore, and people begin to ignore the gap between truth and lies. Therefore, the power of lies began to increase. To this day, people have basically lost their critical thinking, they only believe in what they are willing to believe. Some people even know what the truth is, but choose to deliberately conceal it. Under such a trend, as a member of the post-truth era, I may feel very comfortable, because all the truths that most people are unwilling to choose to believe have been covered up, and what I can see is only supported by most people. lie. But if we jump out of this comfort zone, we can see a lot of hidden truths, which is cruel. This novel is to jump out of the historical framework and examine it from the outside, hoping that people can reflect on the environment they are in now.
In this, I quoted some allusions from ancient Greek mythology. Overall, this has two benefits. First of all, the gods in ancient Greek mythology are personal, so I can use them as subjects of behavior. In this way, readers can examine the changes in human attitudes towards the truth from the perspective of the ancient Greek gods. Secondly, ancient Greek mythology is pantheistic. There are various gods, and they also have different personalities. Combining with what they have done, readers will have a deep impression on them. Therefore, this can make readers feel This article produces a fuller understanding.
The story takes place on Mount Olympus. The ancient Greeks respected it as the "sacred mountain"(Aaron J.Atsma). They believed that the Olympic Mountain was located in the center of Greece, and Greece was in the center of the earth, so the Olympic Mountain was the center of the earth. The gods who rule the world and dominate mankind live on this mountain. The story begins with a discussion of God. Therefore, I chose the location of the story on Mount Olympus.
Athena is the goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology. Although she is a goddess of war, she is not as militant as Ares, and prefers to resolve disputes by legal means. Therefore, it can be said that in Greek religion, Athena's nature as the goddess of peace has surpassed her nature as the goddess of war. The ferocity and cruelty she had had gradually disappeared. And she has always played a role in promoting the development of human civilization. While Poseidon was making waves in the sea, Athena helped people build ships. In addition, Athena taught women to weave with wool.(Xu Zhengqing, 122-136) Moreover, on a realistic level, the image of Athena has indeed promoted the development of human civilization. For example, the Parthenon was built for her. This building is an important work in the history of world culture(Zhang Yang, 75-82). Therefore, I chose Athena to make an attempt to help mankind find the truth.
Zeus is the supreme god who rules the universe in ancient Greek mythology. When mankind entered the Bronze Age, angels reported to Zeus that mankind had become very evil. So Zeus turned into a mortal to inspect the world. He visited the king of Arkadia, Lykaon, and found that the human situation is worse than the angels said. So he used a rare flood to exterminate mankind(Xu Zhengqing, 101-109). In my novel, human beings have become very degenerate. Zeus helped mankind enter the "happiness age" (this is actually bad, because mankind will no longer be able to progress). In addition, in ancient Greek mythology, Zeus actually liked Athena very much, but Athena did not agree with Zeus in many places. The relationship between the two is very special. For example, when Zeus ordered the gods to give Pandora a gift, Athena only put a piece of clothing on Pandora, and some mythological versions even said that Athena bestowed Pandora with ignorance. Because she knows that Pandora will bring disaster to people(He Ming, 205-216). She wants to protect humanity. In this novel of mine, readers can also see such conflicts. It was Zeus who wanted to stop human development, and Athena was always on the friendly side.
Eros is a mischievous chubby boy holding a bow and arrow, and the god of love in ancient Greek mythology. He is very naughty, for example, he would shoot arrows with his eyes closed, and because Apollo taunted him, deliberately let Apollo fall in love. He is actually not bad. In addition, the geocentric theory is not wrong, because movement is relative. It's just that the heliocentric theory is more correct than the geocentric theory. One reason for the failure of the geocentric theory is that the description of planetary motion is too complicated. The heliocentric theory can simply explain the orbits of planets in the solar system. In my novel, when human beings start to argue about which of geocentric and heliocentric is more correct, humans have actually begun to think, and they have broadened their horizons to the world beyond the earth, which is undoubtedly very great. The emergence of Eros has added some trouble to people. Just like love, blind and impulsive.
Hermes is the eloquent god in ancient Greek mythology. He is very cunning and is regarded as the creator of deception. He passed the deception to his son. In my novel, he helped Goebbels to propagate the ideas of Nazism. This has brought people a great disaster.
Hades is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld. He is in charge of the underworld, underworld, death, ghosts, and plague. He is a very impartial god. Once, the hero Hercules wanted to enter the underworld, Hades blocked him, but finally allowed him to enter(Wang Lijing, 224-234). In my novel, he spread the plague, but at the same time, he also pays fair attention to everyone's performance in this plague. He discovered that there is a hero in China, but the hero did not get a good result in the end. This also hints at the end of human tragedy.
Refrences
Aaron J.Atsma. “Olympus”. Greek Mythology, https://www.theoi.com/Kosmos/Olympos.html.
Yang, Zhang. Ancient Greek Art. East China Normal University Press. 2011.
Zhengqing, Xu. Ancient Greek Mythology. Zhengzhou University Press. 2008.
Ming, He. The Study of Ancient Greek Culture. Zhonghua Book Company. 2001.
Aaron J. Atsma. “Hermes”, Greek Mythology, https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Hermes.html.
Lijing, Wang. An Overview of Ancient Greek Mythology. Writers Publishing House. 2010.
Comments