Myth
A group of people set out to explore the arctic. They travel deep into the arctic and come across a cave. The people then send a small group in to explore the cave. Deep in the cave they discover a man-like creature sleeping. The creature is larger than any human, sharp nails and teeth. The group then leaves the cave to regroup with the other outside and to share their discovery. The people then agree to set out to capture the creature and bring it back home to share their discovery with everyone. The god that is in charge of the Earth’s climate finds out that his son (the creature) has been taken from him. The god becomes struck with anger due to the disappearance of his son and begins to ignore his duties to look for him. The mother of the creature who is a nature spirit who controls the sea finds out that her son has disappeared and begins to weep with sadness. Due to the god and nature spirit no longer controlling their duties, humanity begins to experience erratic weather harsh storms on the sea and flooding. Humanity soon begins to notice the sudden changes in climate around the earth with crops not growing and places flooding. The people spent days praying to the gods in hopes that whatever they did to anger them will be forgiven. When the god finds out that his son was taken by humans he became more enraged and punished them. Humanity soon realized this all occurred once they captured this creature and then they make an effort to return it back to its home, but unfortunately the creature dies before they get to return it. The god now angry that his son has died causes the earth’s climate to be permanently erratic and harsh. The nature spirit now in permanent grief due to the death of her son never returns to care for the sea. This causes hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts and many other natural disasters to happen around the world.
Analysis
The myth covers the topic of how global warming began and explains why it is irreversible, just like how today global warming has reached a point where it cannot longer be reversed since carbon output has reached a critical point. The narrative uses aspects and elements from the myth of Demeter and Persephone and from the Odyssey. My myth shares some similarities from the myth of Demeter and Persephone, such as when Persephone, Demeter’s daughter was taken away Demeter fell into sadness and depression. This causes humanity to suffer greatly because since Demeter is the goddess of harvest and presides over grains and the fertility of the earth, when she lost her daughter she neglects her responsibilities as a god, “Then the most dread and terrible of years did the goddess bring for mortals upon the fruitful earth” (Orphic Hymn 40 to Demeter). So crops and grain no longer grow on earth causing mass famine. In my myth the god and nature spirit have their son taken away from them, so the nature spirit like Demeter falls into sadness and depression and neglects her responsibilities. The god that controls the earth’s climate also neglects his duties to look for his son. This results in humanity suffering from irregular weather which causes people to lose their homes and starve similar to how Demeter causes humanity to suffer due to lack of food.
The reason I kept this aspect the same is because in the Greek myths that we had read, the gods are portrayed to have anthropomorphic traits in that they get angry and sad just like humans would in the same situations. However these traits are limited due to these gods also having responsibilities to care for all of earth and humanity. Like any father or mother who loses their child the natural reaction would be to worry, to be sad and to want to look for them. These behaviors are exhibited in the gods and spirits in my myth and also in the myth of Demeter and Persephone. The limitations of the anthropomorphic traits are also shown in that humanity begins to suffer due to the gods and spirits neglecting their duties just like in Demeter and Persephone.
One difference between the myth of Demeter and Persephone and my myth is that Persephone eventually reunites with her mother thus ending the famine, but because Persephone consumed pomegranate seeds in the underworld she must live there for 4 months year. So during those 4 month nothing on earth grows because Demeter not with her daughter. In my myth the son of the god and nature spirit dies instead of being returned and due to this humanity is to suffer continuously with a constant increase in storms, tornadoes, hurricanes and drastic changes in temperature. The reason for these changes is that it explains the cause of global warming. Today global warming can no longer be reversed and because of this we see more natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and droughts. This all leads to people getting displaced and shortage of food. Since global warming cannot be reversed the myth makes more sense if the god and spirit never get their son back thus causing all these issues for humanity. Whereas in the myth of Demeter and Persephone is used to explain winter and since winter always ends eventually the myth makes sense that Persephone will eventually be returned.
The other myth that my narrative uses elements from is the Odyssey. One of the similarities that my myth shares with the Odyssey is the use of exploration and coming across the unknown. The Odyssey tells stories of the different and unknown places and beings that the heroes come across while making their way back home to Greece (Homer, The Odyssey Book Nine). They explore new lands similar to how in my narrative the people are exploring the arctic a foreign and unknown land. Like how in the Odyssey the heroes come across a Cyclops named Polyphemus who is son to Poseidon and a Nature spirit named Thoosa, “his mother was the nymphe Thoosa” (Homer, The Odyssey 1. 68), the people in my myth come across a creature who is son to a god and nature spirit (Homer, The Odyssey 9. 187 - 542). Like in the Odyssey the heroes end up angering the god by hurting their son. In the Odyssey Polyphemus ends up going blind, this angers Poseidon and since he is the god of the sea, “the great god, mover of the earth and fruitless sea, god of the deep” (Homeric Hymn 22 to Poseidon) he makes their journey home extremely difficult. The people in the narrative end up capturing the son of the god which eventually ends up killing him. This angers the god who ends up punishing humanity for taking his sons life similar to how Poseidon punished the heroes in the Odyssey for blinding his son Polyphemus.
I kept these aspects of my narrative similar to the odyssey because like many of the Greek mythologies that we have read there is a common occurrence of angering the gods and thus the gods punishing those who angered them. I wanted the gods and spirits in my myth to show the same attributes that is so common among the Greek gods. A common theme in the Odyssey is that the heroes come upon unknown lands, people and creatures. This how they came across the Cyclops known as Polyphemus, which is what lead to the heroes having a tough and long journey back home. I kept this theme in my narrative to show that messing with the unknown can lead to many consequences just like it did in the Odyssey.
Some of the differences between my narrative and the Odyssey are that instead of only punishing the heroes by making their journey back home much longer and dangerous in my myth the gods punish all of humanity not just the group that captured the god’s son. Also the punishment is permanent since the son of the god died where as in the Odyssey the punishment is only lasted 10 years since Polyphemus was only blinded. This change was made because global warming is thing that affects all of humanity not just the people who are actively making decisions which contribute to it. This change reflects this because even though a small group of people are the ones who captured and killed the son of the god, the consequences of their actions are felt by all of humanity. Also the reason for making the punishment permanent instead of only lasting a certain number of years is because global warming is at the stage now where just reducing our carbon output will not reverse it anymore; instead we have to be able to remove carbon from the atmosphere which the technology isn’t there yet. For this reason we can’t say when global warming will end.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Homer, The Odyssey several books in The Odyssey
Homer, The Odyssey 1. 68
Homer, The Odyssey 9. 187 - 542
Homer, The Odyssey Book Nine
Homeric Hymn 22 to Poseidon
Orphic Hymn 40 to Demeter
Secondary Sources
"DEMETER" THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art, www.theoi.com/Olympios/Demeter.html
"GIGANTEPOLYPHEMOS" THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art, www.theoi.com/Gigante/GigantePolyphemos.html
Homeric Hymns in Brill's New Pauly, Trzaskoma, Stephen, editor, translator; Smith, R. Scott, 1971- editor, translator; Brunet, Stephen, 1954- editor, translator; Palaima, Thomas G., writer of supplementary textual content, Hackett Pub.c2004
"NYMPHETHOOSA" THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art, www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheThoosa.html
"PERSEPHONE" THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art, www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html
"POSEIDON" THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY - Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art, www.theoi.com/Olympios/Poseidon.html
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