Actual Myth:
In the Odyssey of Homer, Demodokos recounted the events following Hephaestus’s capture of Aphrodite and Ares in the midst of their laying together using unbreakable chains incorrectly. When Poseidon had arrived and demanded that Hephaestus release them, Hephaestus in anger refused. Poseidon proceeds to display his prowess and forces Hephaestus to release the two. Hephaestus knowing that he is unable to defeat the mighty Poseidon in direct combat reluctantly relents, enduring his shame and anger, and releases the adulterers. Upon his return to his smithy Hephaestus, in his overwhelming anger and indignation from the preceding events of discovering his wife Aphrodite’s unfaithfulness followed by Poseidon forcefully interfering in his rightful vengeance, proceeds to use all of his skill to forge his greatest artifact yet. As the Olympian god of fire and smiths (and more) Hephaestus concentrated his abilities into the forging of an unbelievably concentrated, nigh-indestructible orb of fire. Hephaestus, satisfied by his powerful creation hurls the orb of fire into Poseidon’s waters. The heat alone released by the orb was so overwhelming that it immediately began to evaporate all of Poseidon’s waters near it, and Poseidon was unable to overwhelm the destructive orb with his waters as they all evaporated upon reaching towards it. Running out of options the mighty Poseidon, the Earthshaker, slammed his Trident into the earth, causing earthquakes and splitting the earth around the orb causing it to fall into the deepest recesses of the Earth and away from Poseidon’s domain. In the meantime, in the deepest recesses of the earth, Typhon, the Father of All Monsters, trapped there from when he was hurled by Zeus after their epic battle, could feel the presence of a powerful artifact, the orb, near him. He waited for centuries absorbing the overwhelming heat released from the orb, a feat only one as mighty as the great Typhon could accomplish, and amplifying his own powers, especially over fire. As these centuries passed Typhon utilized his ever increasing power to slowly break his restraints and move towards the powerful artifact. He knew he would soon have enough power to burn free of all of his restraints and rise once again to bring havoc down on all of the gods of Olympus with his newfound power. He knew that once he reaches and completely absorbs the orb even all of the Olympian gods together would be unable to prevent him from burning it all down! It is near the 19th century that Typhon had reached the orb and began to completely and truly absorb it, amplifying his own power and heat to such levels that its effects started to be seen in the overheating of the earth. It is now the 21st century and Typhon is nearly finished with the absorption of the orb, the overheating continuously increasing and now being taken as “Global Warming”. Soon, Typhon will rise again, and bring the fall of the Olympians.
Analysis:
This is the aetiological myth for the phenomenon of Global Warming. The outline of this myth is the creation of Hephaestus’s greatest artifact yet, an orb made of concentrating his abilities and domains, predominantly over fire and its subsequent discovery and absorption by Typhon, which caused Global Warming. Angered by Poseidon following the events of Aphrodite’s adultery, Hephaestus makes use of his greatest abilities to forge this orb in order to take revenge on Poseidon. He hurls his powerful newly created artifact into Poseidon’s waters, intending to burn up and evaporate his domain. Poseidon unable to destroy or touch the orb resorts to splitting the earth and sending it into its deepest recesses and far away from his domain. The reason why Poseidon must resort to splitting the earth to get rid of it in the myth is because merely the heat released from the orb would evaporate all of the water Poseidon sends anywhere near it, so he can’t pick it up with water to throw it or something else. He also cannot directly touch the orb himself, the only reason that Hephaestus was able to touch and be near the orb without serious harm was because he is the god of fire and is thus resistant to the fire and heat. The orb ends up in an area near where Typhon, the Father of All Monsters, was restrained after his battle with Olympus in which Zeus had hurled him into the deepest recesses of earth (Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica. 6.168). Typhon being an incredibly powerful god, the son of Gaia and Tartaros, began to absorb the heat and powers of the orb, continuously strengthening himself to one day break free of his restraints (Hes. Theog. 820). As Typhon nears the complete absorption of the orb, his power and heat reaches levels so high that the earth itself began overheating, this is what caused the phenomenon that we call Global Warming. I composed this myth based off of and utilizing the myth of Ares and Aphrodite being caught in a trap of unbreakable chains by Hephaestus when he discovered that his wife Aphrodite was cheating on him with Ares (Hom. Od. 8.267). However I altered the series of events that occurred after Hephaestus captured them and called all of the gods over to ridicule them. The reason I began my myth utilizing this myth is because this actual myth has near perfect circumstances so that Poseidon has a good reason to conflict with Hephaestus with neither of them willing to back down easily. Originally, in the Odyssey when Poseidon arrives he manages to persuade Hephaestus into reluctantly releasing them on the promise that Ares will be punished rightfully. In my myth, Hephaestus refused to back down as easily since he was getting fed-up by all of the disrespect he is always shown which was just topped off with his wife’s unfaithfulness. This leads to Poseidon showcasing his power as one of the most powerful gods to forcefully command Hephaestus to back down and release them. Hephaestus is a god that is well-known for his powerful craftsmanship and artifacts but not his direct combat strength, knowing this Hephaestus knew that however reluctant he was he would have to heed Poseidon’s words and release them, at least until he had what he needed to deal with Poseidon. The reason why I chose to change the events in this manner was because I needed to create a conflict between Hephaestus and Poseidon and it needed to be one where Hephaestus was angered, indignant and irrational enough to forge such an overpowered artifact just to deal with Poseidon without putting too much thought into all of the possible consequences. As a god who already often dealt with disrespect because of his deformities, lameness and such regardless of his other skills the cheating of his wife followed by Poseidon’s interference in his rightful vengeance would push him far enough to the tipping point that he would make sure to use everything in his power to have revenge in his anger and righteous indignation. In fact Hephaestus is similar to his mother Hera when it comes to their brutal reactions to people who’ve wronged them, they are similar in vengefulness (Hes. Theog. 929a). In the case of Hephaestus, his vengeance often takes place using harmful artifacts that he forges to deal with the people he wants to harm. This can be seen from how he brutally took revenge on Aphrodite and Ares daughter Harmonia. Wherein he bestowed her a cursed robe and necklace as a gift which brought ill-fate to her and her descendants (Hyg. Fab. 148). Hephaestus also similarly forged a beautiful cursed throne for Hera which bound her with invisible chains as revenge for throwing him from Olympus at his birth for his deformities (Hyg. Fab. 166). That is why when he conflicted with Poseidon in my myth, he set out to create an artifact that will help him obtain his revenge, and he needed to be that angry such that he would make a far more powerful and harmful artifact like the orb. Poseidon sending the orb into the deepest recesses of the earth is what allowed me to link it into the freeing of Typhon. Typhon is an extremely powerful god (so powerful that only Zeus could defeat him) who is the son of Gaia and Tartaros who had fought an epic battle with and was closely defeated by Zeus, who then proceeded to cast Typhon into Tartaros (Hes. Theog. 820). However, this is another detail that I altered or rather made use of a different mythological ancient source, wherein it was merely stated that Typhon was hurled into the deepest recesses of the earth, so that I could set up the encounter with the orb (Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica. 6.168). Thanks to this alteration I made, both Typhon and the orb were sent into the deepest recesses of the earth, and by coincidence (or maybe fate…) had ended up near enough to each other. I needed this specific circumstance, as Typhon is one of the few beings who could be powerful enough to reasonably be able to utilize/absorb such an artifact and at the same time not care at all about the consequences, the global warming and such, in order to actually go ahead with using it and take down Olympus, as well as being in a situation which would allow contact with the orb. Afterall, even though the Olympian gods do not care much for the mortals, without dire need for such an act not even Zeus would unnecessarily overheat the entire planet itself but would rather simply keep it in his possession instead. All of these circumstances are what allowed Typhon to begin his centuries long absorption of the orb. For the first few centuries he was only able to absorb the heat and power being radiated off of the orb while slowly nearing it, which is why global warming was not felt centuries ago. It is only once he actually reached the artifact in the 19th century where began to directly use and absorb the orb that the powerful amplification of his own power with the orb allowed the side-effects to begin showing on the surface of the earth as the earth began to overheat, the start of global warming. I wrote it this way because the start of global warming was traced to the early 1830s, thus the 19th century is when it was first beginning due to Typhon’s actions (Pidcock). And now in the 21st century is when Typhon is reaching the end of absorption and the heat being amplified and released is reaching its peak, where we have been able to clearly notice all of the changes caused by this, which we have termed as Global Warming. That is why this is the aetiological myth of Global Warming.
Works Cited
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by A.T. Murray, Loeb Classical Library, Volumes 104. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1919.
Hesiod. Theogony. In Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by H.G. Evelyn-White, Loeb Classical Library, Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.
Hyginus. Fabulae. In Hyginus, The Myths of Hyginus. Translated and edited by Mary Grant, University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies, no. 34. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960.
Pidcock, Roz. “Scientists Clarify Starting Point for Human-Caused Climate Change.” Carbon Brief, August 24th 2016, https://www.carbonbrief.org/scientists-clarify-starting-point-for-human-caused-climate-change#:~:text=The%20instrumental%20temperature%20record%20shows,120%20years%2C%20to%20the%201830s.
Valerius Flaccus. Argonautica. Translated by J.H. Mozley, Loeb Classical Library, Volume 286. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928.
NOTE: This blog seems to force the font to be this similar to italic kind, and I cannot find a way to make it more normal. However, I did still go through the text and I italisized the parts that should be in italics anyway, and it is still visible but slightly harder to see (Its just more italic) like this. I've also included the original word version of this final draft for convenience/checking. (Its probably easier to read).