Mera was an 18-year-old who was single-handedly raised by her mother Amara. Both were exceptionally understanding towards each other since Mera knew the hardships her mom faced while raising her alone and Amara knew the pain Mera went through without her father. Ultimately, more than partaking a mother-daughter relationship, they were best friends who shared everything with each other.
Amara had informed Mera about her father Prometheus, a while back when she was old enough to understand. She told her that Prometheus was the Titan god of fire who created mortals. He came to Earth eras ago to grant the gift of fire to mortals, making the almighty Zeus furious. This forced him to disguise himself as a mortal on Earth where he fell in love with Amara and had a homodemideus, Mera. Unfortunately, Prometheus was discovered by Zeus who punished him by tying him with chains and sending an eagle daily to peck on his liver which healed every night. Eventually, Prometheus was emancipated when Hercules killed the eagle and ever since then Prometheus lives in Olympus.
Mera and Amara lived a normal life until the night that Mera encountered a life-threatening experience. The clock struck 8 one night and Mera was home alone watching tv, when a burglar broke into the house. Mera went to grab her phone immediately, when the thief aggressively grabbed her neck and forced himself onto her. At first, she couldn’t see his face but when she did, she realized he was Liam, a guy from school. Mera screamed, kicked and used all her willpower to escape but it was no use, as she was left beaten and scarred and the last thing, she says before fainting was “Dad, please help me”.
Mera’s cries were heard by Prometheus, who was extremely disheartened, angered and made a promise to himself to punish Liam no matter what. Despite past antagonism, Prometheus primarily consulted the mightiest Zeus and pleaded to him to ask the Moirai to change Liam’s fate such that he dies and is banished to the underworld by Hades. He offered Zeus everything, but it was no use as Zeus strictly refused. This enraged Prometheus such that he devised a plan with Demeter who had a similar hatred towards Zeus, since he let Hades kidnap her daughter Persephone, in order to steal powers of gods and create catastrophes to ultimately compel Zeus to help.
Together they stole control over seas and earth from Poseidon, seized the winds from Anemoi gods, as well as embezzled Zeus’ thunderbolt. All those forces together with Prometheus’ fire and Demeter halting agriculture, Prometheus caused continuous and detrimental tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes, thunderstorms and famine. This started obliterating the Earth, but Prometheus’ rage finally caught Zeus’s attention which forced him to accept Prometheus’ request. Liam’s fate was altered such that he died and was taken to the underworld. Prometheus then finally went back to reunite with his family after several years. It was a happy ending that however caused permanent and irreversible repercussions due to Prometheus’ fury leading to the onset of global warming.
Analysis
Global warming is a sensitive but enticing discussion topic. Thus, my goal while writing my aetiological myth, Supremacy of Emotions, was to not only to account for a phenomenon, but other aspects of life as well. I mainly chose the event of a house invasion and rape to narrate my etiological myth because it helped to evoke robust emotions that were needed in order to set the plot rolling by bestowing a reason for Prometheus’ fight for justice and using his journey to explain deterioration of the world. Another reason I chose those events is because they are topics that are coherent among ancient myths and modern times making them easier to understand and make sense of as well as relatable to other myths or narratives. There are several figures, motifs and other elements that I have either adopted or adapted from Greek mythology or invented on my own to add distinctiveness to my composition.
To begin, my short story was inspired by the aetiological narrative about Persephone’s abduction and Demeter’s grief which delineated the origination of seasons. More precisely, Persephone was the only child of Demeter and for that reason, Demeter was over possessive with her such that she refused the marriage proposal from Hades. Soon after Hades kidnapped Persephone, with Zeus and Helios as witnesses, leaving Demeter clueless. Upon disclosure that Persephone was raped by Hades and had become the queen of the underworld, Demeter was heartbroken (HH 2.1-89). She was so furious that in order to grieve and seek revenge she stepped down from her duties and went into isolation resulting in failed harvests, scarcity of food, and the death of mortals (Paus., Description of Greece 8.42.2). In my narrative my character Amara also got rape but instead of my main character’s mother eliciting robust emotions, her father Prometheus does. He becomes so furious that he drove the world baby steps closer to an end. I preserved and modified this theme sightly as I wanted to signify how a father’s sentiments can also be extremely powerful if their children are traumatized or hurt to the extent where they can become destructive. I also replicated the myth about Demeter and Persephone because my myth had a similar conflict and I wanted to give Prometheus a companion who had the same wrath against Zeus so that together they can cause Zeus distress compelling him to listen to Prometheus’ request. I chose Demeter because she would help Prometheus unconditionally since her only motive would be to make Zeus suffer and seek revenge for what he had done with her and Persephone.
In addition, I encompassed a few creations and add-ons of my own. Primarily, I generated 2 fictitious female characters, Mera and Amara. The reason behind a female character is because I wanted to imply how resilient and dynamic women can be. I also wanted to illustrate the relationship between a mother and daughter and how important that is, in real life and within myths. I chose the name Amara because it means everlasting. So essentially, Amara helps to form this eternal love between her and Prometheus by cherishing and raising their child. Moreover, Mera is defined as best, admirable and wonderful in various languages but I used this name because I derived the “me” from Prometheus and “ra” from Amara. It is essentially a ship name that couples use now a days which is why I selected it, in order to give my myth a modern touch. Furthermore, in Greek myths demigod is a term used to describe the offspring of a god and a mortal or a creature (Madeleine, “Who are the”). Rather than describing Mera as a demigod I came up with a new term called homo-demi-deus. The literal translation is man-half-god, but my definition is half mortal and half immortal. I chose to use this name as a way to increase the uniqueness of my composition.
Moreover, Greek divinities Prometheus, Anemoi, Poseidon, Zeus, and Demeter are all preserved in my narrative. Prometheus was the titan god of fire and master craftsman (“Prometheus”). Anemoi were the 4 gods of wind who in the guise of horses drew Zeus’ chariot (Quint. Smyrn., Fall of Troy 12.189-194). Poseidon was the earth shaker and god of sea (HH 22). Zeus was the god armed with thunder and lightning who can create storms (Hom., Il.17.593). Lastly, Demeter was the goddess of agriculture and harvest (Madeleine, “What is the”). Fire from Prometheus caused forest fires and elevated global temperatures, the winds from the Anemoi caused tornados or other windstorms, the control of earth’s surface and oceans from Poseidon caused earthquakes and tsumanis, the thunderbolt from Zeus caused thunderstorms and lightening, and halting harvesting by Demeter caused famine. I cloned their identities and nature in order to illustrate how stealing the classical elements, wind, water, and fire and earth from gods and encapsulating them together can cause deadly storms, tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, starvation and other disasters.
Furthermore, I also replicated the myth about Prometheus’ theft of fire and how he was freed from his punishment. As per Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibl. 1.45), after forming mortals, Prometheus stole fire and granted it to all of mankind which made Zeus furious. According to Hesiod (Theog. 511-516) Zeus punishes Prometheus by tying him with chains to a mountain so that an eagle can eat his immortal liver which ended up growing each night. He was later saved and released by Hercules when he killed the eagle that pecked on Prometheus’ liver with an arrow (Ps.-Hyg., Astr. 2.15). I adapted these elements to set the plot and provide a reason as to why Prometheus had to leave Amara and Mera. The alterations that I however made was how Prometheus disguises himself on earth so that he doesn’t have to face any consequences from Zeus as well as how he falls in love with Amara and has a child. I incorporated this in order to add a positive aspect of romance in order to balance out the negative elements of pain, suffering and revenge.
Moreover, I integrated and modified the figure Cronus. In Greek myth Cronos was the Greek god who teamed up with the Titans to castrate their father in order to bring back his siblings. However, upon gaining power, Cronus confined his brothers, Cyclopes, back into Tartarus (Ps.-Apollod., Bibl. 1.1-4). In addition, Cronus developed a cannibalistic nature where he ate all his children subsequent to figuring out that one of them is going to overthrow him (Hes., Theog. 459-464). Not only does this prove that Cronos was ruthless but also that he was selfish to an extent that he’d cause harm to anyone that threatened his throne and livelihood. In my narrative, I replicated Cronus’s personality but changed his name and identity to Liam. I visioned Liam as a student from Mera’s high school who suffered torment at home, wasn’t brilliant at studying and his only resort to make a living was theft. I made these changes to modernize my narrative such that it connects to my setting and plot but also symbolizing the same type of evil since Liam ruthlessly and selfishly rapes Mera because she is a hurdle in the way of his plan to heist the house.
Lastly, from Greek mythology I incorporated the figures Zeus, the Moirai and Hades. Zeus was the “chief deity of the pantheon” and “the father of both gods and men” (“Zeus”). According to Hesiod (Theog. 901-905), Zeus married Themis who gave birth to the Moirai which were the three goddesses of fate. Lastly, Hades was the brother of Zeus and Poseidon as well as the god of the dead (Hom., Il. 15.187-189). I specifically wanted to signify that the punishment for rape should be nothing less than death thus I duplicated and manipulated the roles of these gods in my myth to showcase how bad deeds will alter one’s fate. Zeus was the greatest Olympian god who had the power to order anyone and thus I formulated my myth such that he instructs the Moirai, who were responsible for assigning destinies, to alter Liam’s destiny such that he dies. After death, Liam was taken to the underworld by Hades identical to his role in Greek myth. These sequential events, also help to structure the resolution of my myth since this is the solution to the conflict of Mera’s rape.
Work Cited
Hesiod. 1914. Theogony. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. London: William Heinemann.
Homer. 1924. Iliad. Translated by Murray, A T. London, William Heinemann Ltd.
Hesiod. 1914. Homeric Hymn. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. London: William Heinemann.
Madeleine. “Who Were the Lesser Known Greek Gods?” Theoi Greek Mythology online, 2019, www.theoi.com/articles/who-were-the-lesser-known-greek-gods/
Madeleine. “What Is the Demeter and Persephone Story Summarized?” Theoi Greek Mythology online, 2019, www.theoi.com/articles/what-is-the-demeter-and-persephone-story-summarized/
Pausanias. 1918. Description of Greece. Translated by Jones, W. H. S. and Omerod, H. A. London, William Heinemann Ltd.
“Prometheus.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 Mar. 2021, www.britannica.com/topic/Prometheus-Greek-god
Pseudo-Apollodorus. 1975. Bibliotheca. Translated by Keith Aldrich. Lawrence, Kansas: Coronado Press.
Pseudo-Hyginus. 1960. Astronomica. Translated by Mary Grant. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press
Quintus Smyrnaeus. 1913. Fall of Troy. Translated by A. S. Way. London: William Heinemann
“Zeus.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Mar. 2021, www.britannica.com/topic/Zeus.
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