Rayeedah A. Haque
Global warming.
The slow increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere.
Countless hours were spent by scientists as they tried to explain “why?” They had conducted their experiments, did their research and referred to every scientific idea they could find. In the end, they came to the conclusion that “There is an increased amount of energy string the earth from the sun!” Scientists claimed. “This energy is being trapped in our atmosphere and because of the layers of gasses surrounding earth, the energy cannot be radiated back out into space.”
With further research, the scientists began to blame humanity. “All the oil, gas and coal we burn on earth is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This gas adds to the energy already trapped in our atmosphere, thus further increasing the average temperature. The more we burn the hotter it will get!” They said.
Many scientists go as far as to say that due to humanity’s excessive burning, the glaciers and polar ice sheets are melting, which leads to animals dying and the creations of harsh droughts, strong hurricanes, as well as shifting wind and ocean patterns. “If we do not act now, the earth will become virtually inhabitable! We will all die!” Scientists declared.
Though their research was thorough, and experiments were well done, these scientists failed to realize the truth behind global warming. As they continue their experiments and research as well as scaring humanity with extinction, the whole world unwittingly enters the Age of the Elements.
Humanity has grown spectacle and the population of believers has decreased, but the small amount left, know of the Five Ages.
The Golden Age. A time when men lived amongst gods and goddesses peacefully on earth. There was no such thing as sorrow or toil, as no one ever had to work. Spring never ended. It was an age of good fortune, blessings and all were the fairest and best. Mortals died in their sleep and in death they roamed the earth as demons. This age came to an end when Zeus overthrew the Titans.
The Silver Age. With Zeus in charge, men were created to be vastly inferior to gods, in wisdom and appearance. The four seasons were created, as were day and night, forcing men to work - planting grain and seeking shelter. The first woman was born - Pandora, and along with her came sickness, death, turmoil, strife, jealousy, hatred, famine and passion, as well as hope. Children played for 100 years before growing up. In death, mortal became the blessed spirits of the underworld. As more of humanity turn away from worshipping the gods, the harsher Zeus becomes, and thus began the Bronze Age.
The Bronze Age. Men were now created from the ashes of trees, by Zeus, forcing them to become terrible, strong and warlike. They moved away from bread and began to survive on meat. Humanity grew up around weapons, war and armour forcing the Bronze Age to end.
The Age of Heroes. Through the creation of weaponry, war became a reality, forcing heroes to be born. A time of defending and protecting rights, land, and their people. Strength, bravery and sacrifice were born. In death, mortals were forced down one of the two paths - the Underworld or the Islands of the Blessed Ones.
Finally, the Iron Age. Men were born evil and selfish and were burned with weariness and sorrow. With the evils growing most gods who were left on earth abandoned it.
The Iron Age came to an end as selfishness overtook humanity. Small groups struggled to keep the peace amongst humanity as clans and trust shrank, and hatred and separation grew. Zeus had grown bored of humanity and shifted his focus onto larger and new projects, alongside him all the gods and goddesses had abandoned Earth, except four - Hephaestus (God of Fire), Poseidon (God of Water), Gaia (God of Earth) and Aether (God of Air).
Together they are called the Elements. In the Age of the Elements, these four gods took it upon themselves to resort to humanity to its former glory and rid the world of all the evils. Over the years, the Elements grew impatient as they were used and abused by humanity. All their power seemed futile. In response, they combined their powers to declare war on humanity - creating harsh droughts, hurricanes and all kinds of natural disasters in attempts to destroy all mortals, so the elements may leave in peace once more.
Analysis of The Myth behind Global Warming
Myths are traditional stories told within certain communities around the world which typically explain the origin of people or natural/social phenomenon. Often time these stories include supernatural beings or events. Over the years there have been many adaptions of the original myths from Greek and Roman times. A key example would be Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson & the Olympians”, novel series. Rick Riordan takes the original Greek mythology and adds little twists to create a modern-day continuation of them. In my own myth, I have come up with an explanation for the modern-day global warming phenomena, using the Greek myths.
To sum up, my myth refers to Hesiod’s “Works and Days”, poem, and to be more specific the section on the “Five Ages”. The poem talks about five different ages in Greek mythology - the Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Age of Heroes and the Iron Age - and how as mortals slowly turned further and further away from worshipping the gods, Zeus made their lives that much more difficult. This gave me the idea to add another age to the timeline, which I have named the Age of the Elements. Basically, Hesiod’s poem shows the punishment of pulling away from religion. Therefore, I have extended the timeline with further punishment to humanity as they rely on science instead of the gods.
Firstly, when analyzing how society and humankind behave in today’s age, I have noticed that we are slowly moving away from the Iron Age. In Hesiod’s poem, he says that humankind will always be hitting some sort of trouble, the respect will be gone, relationships will have no meaning, envy will take over everyone’s minds and the generation will be destroyed. Essentially, all the evils reside in humanity, and everyone tears themselves and everyone around them down. Mortals are destroying themselves. So to relate to society’s current situation, people are destroying other people but in the last year there has been a great deal of the earth destroying people, so I figured that could be its own generation - a generation where there is something else destroying people. Thus the name: the Age of the Elements, because the elements are fire, water, ground and air, which make up the earth and its atmosphere.
Secondly, I chose to add another age to the existing five, because in recent years, as well, it seems that more people have turned away from religion and faith. Instead, humanity is beginning to put more trust in science - scheduling their lives as science would tell them. This would include, sleeping patterns, working schedules, their physical, emotional and mental health, and so forth. These are all things originally based around religion. Continuing, this new age made sense to me because Zeus grew angrier as more and more people turned away from worshipping him and his fellow gods and goddesses. Also, as I mentioned before, by the time the Iron Age came around nearly all the gods and goddesses had abandoned earth, therefore it would make sense if they all abandoned earth entirely to maybe venture into new territories, such as the other infinity planets in the universe.
Moving forward, I set up my myth in a story formation to make it seem more like an actual myth. As they were original told as stories and passed down by word-of-mouth. Therefore, it seemed wise to set up my myth as a story - beginning with the phenomena in question (global warming), then giving background to the five ages, finally explaining my addition to the elements. When explaining how humanity viewed global warming, I thought it was a clever way to show how far away from religion mortals have come and how heavily they relied on science, as they are placing their entire species survival in the hands of science - trusting science to save them. In the short background explanation of the five ages, I did tweak few ideas in each age, to better suit my liking, as did Rick Riordan in his novel series. Finally, explaining my addition to the five ages was kept short to simply get straight to the point, as it gave more opportunity to allow additions and further explanations.
In conclusion, while my myth explains the origins of global warming, it also further the timeline of a mortal’s existence, showing that there may be more ages or generations to come before the complete extinction of humanity.
Bibliography
Britannica. “Hephaestus.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2021, www.britannica.com/topic/Hephaestus.
The White Goddess. “Aether - God of the Air - Greek God.” The White Goddess, 2021, www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/divinity_of_the_day/greek/aether.asp.
Wiki.org. “Poseidon.” Religion, 2021, religion.wikia.org/wiki/Poseidon.
Wikipedia. “Gaia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Mar. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia#:~:text=In%20Greek%20mythology%2C%20Gaia%20%28%2F%20%CB%88%C9%A1e%C9%AA%C9%99%2C%20%CB%88%C9%A1a%C9%AA%C9%99%20%2F%3B,is%20the%20ancestral%20mother%E2%80%94sometimes%20parthenogenic%20%E2%80%94of%20all%20life.
Works and days; and Theogony
Hesiod.; Hesiod.; Lamberton, Robert.; Lombardo, Stanley, 1943-Indianapolis : Hackett Pub. Co. c1993