Myth/Narrative
The night that Jonah Smith faced death, his life changed forever. Jonah was a regular, Toronto teenager. He was raised by his loving mother Sofia, who gave her son everything but refused to talk about his father. Jonah accepted this, but it always bothered him.
One night, Jonah woke up to his house blazing in flames. His attempts to escape with his mother were in vain as the thick smoke caused them to faint. The last thing he remembered was a voice “Jonah my son, avenge those who separated me from you”. The next day Jonah was in the hospital learning that Sofia was dead. Jonah’s dejection drove him to rage; days later he stumbled upon some letters in his mom’s closet. They said, “Prometheus was the Titan god, creator of man” they said. He came to Earth and granted mortals the gift of fire which Zeus, the mightiest opposed. Prometheus stayed on Earth for centuries disguised as a mortal. Eventually he met Sofia, they fell in love and had Jonah, a demigod. Sadly, Zeus found Prometheus and presented him with eternal punishment of being chained up and attacked by an eagle who pecked at his liver every day. Jonah believed he was saved by Prometheus and that the fire was intentionally caused by Zeus.
Days later, Prometheus’s words echoed in Jonah. Jonah did extensive research on the gods in search of a way to free Prometheus, he was willing to fight anyone. One day, he called out in frustration “Give me powers and strength, to get my father freed”. Suddenly a woman appeared. She said, “It is I Demeter, I heard your cries, and I want to help”. Demeter, the goddess of harvest explained how she was greatly wronged by Zeus and Hades as they took her daughter Persephone. Persephone lies prisoner of the underworld for a third of the year. She described using her powers of harvest when she was away from her daughter to starve the Earth. Jonah decided to use Demeter to steal the powers of the gods and destroy the Earth as a message to Zeus.
Hence, Jonah carried his plot forward. He stole the power of wind from the Anemoi gods and the control of seas from Poseidon’s trident. With Demeter’s help, Jonah even managed to get his hands on Zeus’s bolts of thunder and lightning. Seeing Jonah’s efforts, Prometheus granted his son fire powers too. Jonah, now with the forces of the gods caused deadly storms, fires, floods and earthquakes, obliterating the world. Jonah’s fury vengeance made Earth deteriorate, but finally got Zeus’s attention. Zeus, with no other option left, sent Hercules to free Prometheus. Hercules killed the Eagle which pecked at Prometheus’s liver every day and rescued him. Prometheus reunited with his son Jonah and they rejoiced in happiness. But Jonah realized his misdeed and surrendered himself to Zeus. Unfortunately, the annihilation that Jonah did, created permanent deface. All the disasters imbalanced Earth’s temperature; Jonah’s outrage drove the world to warming oblivion.
Analysis
My story is embedded with various Greek themes, revenge related motifs and divine figures as well as modern narrative aspects. With this combination I created an aetiological myth about global warming. To begin, I have chosen to write my narrative in a third person because I wanted to control what the reader is able to know to build active reading and suspense. In terms of the setting, I have made my character, Jonah Smith as a teenager who resides in modern day Toronto. The modern aspects of my story, besides the setting is also that he is being raised by a single mother. The name of my character is also modern to show that his mother Sofia raised him, isolated from his mythological Greek background.
The first major myth that I replicated in my story is the Titan born god Prometheus as described by Oppian (Hal. 5.4). Pseudo -Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.45) identifies Prometheus as he who “after forming men from water and earth, gave them fire”. I reproduced this myth in my narrative to show that Prometheus was a good god who used his powers for the benefit of others. The alterations I made to his story is that he came to Earth and disguised himself as a mortal. Also, I added a romantic element making my Prometheus character fall in love with my mortal character Sofia and have child who was a demigod, “the offspring that come into being when a god and a mortal or another creature reproduce” (Madeleine). I made this change to provide a Greek mythological background for the main character of my story and to add a romanticization aspect. I also included the punishment of Prometheus by Zeus, where Zeus “put him in chains and set an eagle at his side which devoured his liver. But when Herakles saw him suffering such punishment because of the benefit which he had conferred upon men, he killed the eagle with an arrow, and then persuading Zeus to cease from his anger he rescued him” (Diod. Sic., Library of History 4.15.2) I kept this part of this mythical narrative to provide a way of instigating anger within my character and create a reason for his vengefulness. In terms of the portion where Hercules saves Prometheus, I did not change this in my story to add a realistic aspect. Jonah is just a regular teenage boy and even though he uses Demeter in my narrative, he does not have the fighting capabilities to rescue his father. As such, it is more realistic to remain to true Greek content.
The second figure and set of associated motifs that I decided to replicate in my story was the goddess Demeter and her association with courage and strength. Demeter’s story was tragic as described by Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.29-33) she was greatly wronged by Zeus as he helped Hades kidnap her daughter Persephone. Hades gave her a pomegranate seed and as a result Persephone had to spend a third of the year in the underworld and the remainder of the year with her mother. The reason I replicated this theme is because it helped to create a reason for Demeter to want to help my character Jonah in my narrative. Demeter was very upset about losing her daughter and angry with Zeus for helping Hades. This is crucial for my story as Demeter was able to relate to Jonah’s pain of separation from a loved one. Furthermore, in my story I explained Demeter’s power and how “she burned all the fruit of the corn, both because of her anger at Zeus and because of her grief over her daughter” (Diod. Sic., Library of History 5.68.1). I mentioned this in order to introduce an ally for Jonah. Jonah was a regular boy, and he did not have experience with dealing with powerful forces such as the gods. Demeter and her powers gave support to my character to deploy his plot against Zeus. He uses the new powers in a courageous and brave way to save his father and seek revenge against Zeus.
Another deity that I decided to include in my myth was Zeus and his negative motifs. Zeus is described as “the king of the Olympian gods and the supreme deity in Greek religion. Often referred to as the Father, as the god of thunder and the 'cloud-gatherer', he controlled the weather, offered signs and omens and generally dispensed justice, guaranteeing order amongst both the gods and humanity from his seat high on Mt. Olympus” (Cartwright). My narrative encompasses all these aspects of the myth of Zeus but instead of forecasting him as a mighty and committed leader of mortals and immortals, he is the villain in my story. In Greek myth, Zeus has done horrid acts of cruelty and has been very unjust to other immortals. As previously, shown by Diodorus Siculus (Library of History 4.15.2), (5.68.1), and Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.29-33) Zeus has been unfair with deities such as Prometheus and Demeter. Hesiod (Theog. 860-868) even stated that when Zeus was angry, he used his weapons as a punishment. Seeing that Zeus has various incidents of pessimistic and rather violent behaviour, I felt it was a great way to show the contrasting sides of Zeus to make him the main evil force which ruined the main character’s life by killing his mother and separating him from his father in my story.
The final set of powerful themes and figures I chose to use in my narrative correspond to my climax and ending. In my story, I used Jonah’s anger and vengeance against Zeus to formulate the climactic ending where he causes great destruction to the world and how this aetiologically created global warming. In reality, these major climate events are caused by global warming itself. In my story, I made the dangerous weather events created by Jonah the main cause for Earth’s imbalance in global temperature. To form this story, I had my main character steal the powers of various gods who controlled the various elements of the Earth. Essentially the elements of water, wind, thunder, lighting and fire. Firstly, I replicated the Anemoi wind gods who were born to the Titans as described in Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.9). In my story, Jonah steals their wind powers, in myth they are described as “whom the various blasts obey, and every air that stirs on the world's seas, and storms and cloudy tempests, keep Boreas (the North Wind) and Notos (South Wind) and Eurus (the East Wind) in closer custody behind his wall of mountain; but may Zephyros (the West Wind) alone have the freedom of the sky” (Stat., Silv. 3.2). I then had my character steal “Poseidon’s spear, that scourge of the sea and shaker of the land” (Aesch., PB. 924-925). The final two powers my character stole was Zeus’ “searing bolts of lightning and thunder” as mentioned in Hesiod (Theog. 860-868). Since Prometheus is known to have been the first to store fire as stated in Pliny the Elder (Natural History 7.198), I gave my character this power too. The last power of fire is specifically symbolistic in the story as Prometheus provided his power to Jonah, as a way of showing his supports for his son’s efforts to free him.
In conclusion, my narrative myth consisted of various themes, figures and mythological motifs related to revenge, power and courage that were both replicated and altered to create my modern aetiological myth of global warming.
Works Cited
Aeschylus. 1926. Prometheus Bound. Translated by Herbert Weir Smyth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Cartwright, Mark. “Zeus”. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 2013, www.ancient.eu/zeus/.
Diodorus Siculus. 1935. Library of History. Translated by Oldfather, C.H. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Hesiod. 1914. Theogony. Translated by Evelyn-White, H.G. London: William Heinemann.
Madeleine. “Who Were the Lesser Known Greek Gods?”. THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY –
Exploring Mythology in Classical Literature & Art, 2019, www.theoi.com/articles/who- were-the-lesser-known-greek-gods/.
Oppian. 1928. Colluthus, Tryphiodorus. Translated by Mair, A.W. London: William Heinemann Ltd.
Pliny the Elder. 1942. Natural History. Translated by Rackham, H. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Pseudo-Apollodorus. 1975. Bibliotheca. Translated by Aldrich, Keith. Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press.
Statius. 1928. Silvae. Translated by Mozley, J H. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd.