The God of the Dead finds himself overwhelmed in the underworld. The work assigned to the judges of the dead increased exponentially over the last couple centuries and the underworld had gone into hyperdrive to accommodate. The wife of Hades, Persephone finds herself bored in the realm since her husband is rarely by her side. She reminisces over her time at Olympus with her dear mother Demeter, however she is only allowed to visit her 2 thirds of the year. For now, she is relegated to the underworld.
Persephone ponders if she could fight the curse of the pomegranate seed to extend her duration at Olympus. She asks her mother on her next visit if it is in her power to extend the duration of her stay. Demeter hatches up a plan to send Dionysus to the underworld to sneak Persephone out of Hades from time to time. Dionysus reluctant at first, decided to help Persephone since he had been down to Hades to bring his mother Semele out of the underworld. Dionysus after making it down to Hades, met Persephone and told her of her mother’s plans, to guide her out of Hades and reunite her with her mother. They made a perilous journey, whereupon many beasts that lived in the realm of the underworld would attack them to bring Persephone back down to her place of residence. After successfully defeating all the foes in their path, they make their way to Olympus to reunite mother and daughter.
Persephone, while feeling ecstatic to be talking to her mother so soon after her previous visit, feels her body pulling her downwards towards the ground, until eventually she found herself back in Hades. Since Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds, she could not spend much time with her mother and would have to go back down to Hades. Persephone, having made the journey with Dionysus, was determined to escape Hades as much as she could, however, she would often fail, but when she succeeded, found herself on Olympus reunited with her mother. Demeter seeing Persephone more often would cause warmer days followed by days of cold once her daughter was pulled back into Hades.
This phenomenon causes some Winter days to be warmer and some Winters shorter. Since more warmer days occur, the world has become hotter and natural events have occurred as a cause of this. Oceans are warmer causing more tropical storms, hotter temperatures causing more droughts, and more heat waves around the world.
Analysis
The point of this myth to explain global warming using Greek mythology. This myth employs many ancient texts as references to convey the aetiological myth to account for the phenomenon. One of the many causes for global warming can be attributed to the growing population, and the resources consumed for providing a comfortable lifestyle for the populous. The world population has increased exponentially over the last couple years, meaning more and more people are passing away. As said by Poseidon in Homer’s Iliad, Hades is the god of the dead, assigned to him after the three domains were divided among the brothers, Poseidon given the sea, Zeus the sky, and Hades the darkness, and the realm of the dead (lines 185-190). Plato says the judges of the dead are responsible for judging those who enter the realm of the dead. They make the decision whether the dead have lived a just and holy life, which would result in them entering the Isles of the Blest, or if they have lived unjustly and impiously, which would result in them entering Tartarus. The decision to appoint these judges was made by Zeus, when Hades brought the fact that men who were dead were crossing over to the Isles of the Blest undeserving. Zeus assigned his sons Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Aiakos to judge the dead. Rhadamanthus assigned to Asia, Aiakos to Europe, and Minos the final decision, if the other two were in any doubt (p. 523-524). Since these ancient myths were written at a time where the Americas were not discovered yet by the European civilizations, since the ocean was too wide to sail on, they do not account for the continents. The myth uses the excess populations to rationalize Hades being busy, perhaps even involved in the process of judging the dead. This allows Persephone to escape her curse of being relegated in Hades for a third of the year.
Hesiod explains the seasons in his hymn to Demeter by conveying the kidnapping of Persephone and her mother’s reaction. Hades was given Persephone by Zeus when Hades asked his brother for a bride. Hades kidnapped Persephone by opening up the ground and grabbing her in the fields where she was gathering flowers. Demeter hearing her daughter’s cry, went looking frantically looking for her, but no one would tell her where her daughter had gone. Only Hecate and Helios knew what had happened and when they relayed the truth to Demeter, she, in a fit of rage against Zeus, swore to not set foot on Olympus and would not let fruit spring out of the ground. When Zeus heard of this, he sent Hermes to convince Hades to let Persephone visit her mother, which Hades obeyed. When telling Persephone that she can visit her mother, Hades sneakily gave her a pomegranate seed, and Persephone clouded by her joy ate the seed. When Demeter was finally reunited with her daughter, she sensed that Persephone may have eaten something from the underworld and questioned her daughter. If she has tasted fruit from the underworld, then she is cursed to spend a third of the year In Hades, but the other two thirds of the year she may return to Mount Olympus. Demeter soon after allowed fruit to spring forth from the ground, but when her daughter would have to return to Hades, the fruit would stop emerging from the ground (p. 169-178). This hymn explains the seasons with the event of Demeter and Persephone’s reunion. The pomegranate seed that Persephone ate given to her by Hades curses her to return to the realm of dead, so she may never abandon the realm. The myth uses this curse as a force that pulls her back down to Hades, if she were to escape and make her way to Mount Olympus. It also uses Demeter’s godly powers to bring spring as an analogy to bring hotter temperatures to the Earth, which we know as global warming. When Persephone has made it back to Mount Olympus, the Earth will experience warmer temperatures during the grueling months of winter, however this does not last long since the pomegranate seed binds Persephone to the underworld where she must spend a third of the year and it pulls her back down, causing the days to be cold once again.
The myth also uses Dionysus as reference for Persephone to use to make her way out of Hades. Apollodorus talks about the birth of Dionysus where his mother, Semele, passes away while he is still in her womb when she requests to see Zeus as he shows himself to Hera. Since Semele is a mortal, Zeus in his true form is too much for her and she dried of fright. Zeus, feeling pity for Semele, stitches out the six-month-old Dionysus from Semele and gives birth to him (3.4.3). Dionysus, after achieving godhood, went down to Hades to bring his mother to Mount Olympus, giving her the name Thyone and giving her godhood (3.5.3). The myth adds a layer of adventure by stating that the ascension out of Hades would be filled with many beasts on the way, a trip out of the underworld cannot be an easy one.
In conclusion, the myth uses the reunion of Demeter and Persephone to explain the phenomenon of global warming, where the world experiences hotter days in the colder months, and the average temperature of the world increases as years pass. Demeter causes winter months and starves mankind because she misses her daughter. Persephone devises a plan to escape Hades to see her mother but cannot stay long due to her curse which makes her stay longer in the realm of the underworld. The irregularities of Persephone’s journey mimics the irregularities of weather as a cause of climate change, where some winters are warmer, some winters colder than others. This causes the average temperature of the Earth yearly to increase, which causes some adverse side effects such as storms, heat waves, floods, and droughts. Hotter temperatures also cause some of the glaciers to melt causing the sea level to increase in areas causing whole pieces of land to be underwater.
Bibliography
Hesiod, Homeric Hymns “To Demeter”. Translation by Trzaskoma Stephen, Smith R. Scott, Brunet Stephen, 1971.
Apollodorus, The Library, Book 3. Translation by Sir James George Frazer, Harvard University Press, 1921, Cambridge, MA.
Plato, Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3, Gorgias. Translation by W.R.M. Lamb, Harvard University Press, 1967, Cambridge, MA.
Homer, The Iliad, Book 15. Translation by A.T. Murray, Harvard University Press, 1924, Cambridge, MA.