Dear child, have you heard this tale? The tale of how the Earth succumbed to poison and blight, a venomous fang that bit into the planet? Why the flowers around us drooped and withered? Let me tell you the story of how Keres massacred the eternal goddess of old;
Centuries ago, when the Earth was still flourishing, and Gods and Titans ruled the heavens, Gaia--the Earth Mother--formed luscious fields, rocky mountains, and glacial icecaps across the planet’s young continent. Nymphs frolicked across the enormous forests and fast streams. Earth had cloudless skies, fresh air, and clear waters; perfectly balanced, as they were created to be.
When Gaia’s son, Prometheus, the Titan god of fire, heard about his mother’s newest creation, he eagerly jumped to the idea of visiting this new living world. As he explored the beautiful totality around him, he decided that leaving his mother a gift would be a reminder of his visit. Using clay from nearby river streams, he began creating entities, which would soon be known as mankind-- the human race. Humanity would soon learn to live in harmony with Gaia’s natural beings-- Anthousai would prance around town and bloom beautiful flowers, while Naiadaes danced in between river canals and Aurae blew cool breezes.
But the mortals on Earth are still just mortals; they were weak and relied on the Gods for their resources. The love that Prometheus felt for his humans was strong, stronger than his pity, so he gifted them the element of fire, which the humans accepted quickly and greedily.
With the new power they were given, the humans quickly adapted and began creating new industries for themselves. But with strong powers come great responsibilities, and mankind was not prepared to face those burdens. The irresponsibility interested Keres, who soon entangled Gaia in the humans’ troubles. Keres cursed the fire that Prometheus gave to them, chanting that “each flame that is burned will ravage through the water, earth, and air, eating away at anything that stands in its way”.
“Lowly Titan! What have you done? Can you see with your own two eyes that Gaia is withering away?”
The almighty Zeus, King of Olympus made all those who faced him tremble in fear, and Prometheus was no different.
“Oh Lord! They were poor and so innocent, they could never dream of what we have; I pitied them; they’re pitiful and sad.”
Zeus was enraged at Prometheus; it was sickening to his ears to hear something as distasteful as “pity towards humans” from a Titan. He was taken to the far East, and sentenced to eternal torture.
“You pity them? Who are you to pity them? Who do you think you are? Maybe you should use this chance to reflect, and why you should have never betrayed the King of Olympus. You should know your place. You corrupted one of Gaia’s greatest creations with your foolishness and naivete. If you’re finished enjoying yourself like a rekkles brat, it’s time for punishment.”
Analysis:
The Blooming Villains is an aetiological myth that uses elements from Greek mythology, Greek mythological tales and classical literature to explain the causes of global warming during the pre and post-industrial age. Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth, caused mainly by human factors such as burning fossil fuels, which increases the amount of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The myth’s story itself mainly focuses around the events of Prometheus’ myth when he created humans from clay and stole from Hapheastus and gave the human race fire (Hesiod, Theogony 572-620). It also incorporates how the spirit of death and daughter of Nyx, Keres-- which is meant to be one of the main instigators behind the beginning of global warming-- ultimately impacts the story, and finally, how humans play a major role in causing global warming and climate change in modern days. The title, The Blooming Villains indicates how modern-day humans destroyed so much of the natural environment that was on Earth before they inhabited it, they are blooming into villains for doing something so evil to the planet.
I begin by introducing Gaia, the mother of all creation, Gods and Titans, the personification of the Earth, and the “Mother of Everything Beautiful in the World” (Hesiod, Theogony 116). She also rules over and is the Goddess of the Earth, and is Earth itself. Gaia first created Earth as a place for natural beings to peacefully exist alongside nature; for example, I mentioned that nymphs used to live on Earth before humans were created. The nymphs symbolize or personify the three different elements of earth, water and air that would eventually be demolished by the effects of climate change (Homer, Odyssey 121). There were also many natural environmental bodies such as glaciers, mountains and oceans that would ultimately be affected by climate change. This corresponds to how Earth used to be much cleaner and agrestal in terms of air and water quality pre-industrial era. Prometheus then visits the Earth and creates the human race for them to inhabit the planet alongside the natural beings that already populate the planet. This correlates with the pre-industrial period when the use and burning of fossil fuels and greenhouse gasses did not yet affect the Earth’s temperature.
The myth of Prometheus continues in this aetiological myth with him stealing fire from the Gods on Olympus and giving it to humanity as civilization (Hesiod, Theogony 565–566). In my myth, Prometheus treats humans with the utmost care because he created them, brought them to life, and wants them to thrive well on Earth. This signifies the beginning of the industrial period now that humans are able to create new technology with the element of fire that was given to them. As in the past, humans created new social and economic associations for themselves as they increased their modern technology. This would indicate the first uses of fossil fuels for energy; fossil fuels are a source of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide that rise into the atmosphere and get trapped there, therefore heating up the planet. These are the first signs of permanent change and destruction due to humans’ hasty and greedy actions.
The prosopopeia in the myth that represented the global warming phenomenon was Keres, the spirit of violent death (Hesiod, Theogony 211). The main reason I chose this was due to the idea that Keres’ spirit involves death that can be due to a ravaging disease; and disease is how I personified global warmings’ effects on the Earth. In the myth, Keres said that “each flame that is burned will ravage through the water, earth, and air, eating away at anything that stands in its way.” The fire is cursed as a disease that would kill the other elements around it, such as the effects of burning fossil fuels and climate change has on the Earth in modern times-- for example, melting glaciers, erosion to mountains, and changing air currents.
Prometheus is then confronted by Zeus, King of the Gods, and is asked to explain why he gave fire to the humans because it is destroying the Earth and making Gaia very sick. Again, this implies how humans are using unsustainable methods to create energy for themselves, and is upsetting the ecological balance by diminishing natural resources. Now, due to Keres, Gaia is dying because of Prometheus’ charity; as it correlates to modern-day Earth, humans are reckless with their resources and it ends up costing them their home. Keres’ curse destroys other natural elements-- water, earth and, air-- so their natural environment begins to wither away and die. My myth indicates how the effects of global warming were initially started due to humans’ greed for new technology and their want to create industries for themselves, which in turn causes them to harm the environment around them by using unsustainable methods such as burning fossil fuels, which release greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which ultimately leads to the Earth heating up.
Finally, my myth ends with Zeus punishing Prometheus for the evil deed he has done; Prometheus was chained to Caucusus, and an eagle would come to feast on his liver; his wound would heal every day but the eagle would come back and torture him (Hesiod, Theogony 525). This is also the final part of Prometheus’ myth.
The myth ends without Prometheus saying anything back to Zeus, as Prometheus takes the responsibilities of the humans’ actions upon himself since he adores his creation so much, therefore leaving the ending open. This open-ended ending explains how humans are still constantly using fossil fuels and other greenhouse gasses for their needs and they do not get punished for their behaviour and effect on the planet.
Bibliography
“GAIA.” GAEA (Gaia)- Greek Goddess of the Earth (Roman Terra)
https://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Gaia.html
Hesiod, et al.Hesiod: Works & Days & Theogony. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1993
Homer, et al.The Odyssey. Poetry in Translation, 2016.
“KERES.” KERES - Greek Spirits of Violent Death (Roman Tenebrae, Letum), https://www.theoi.com/Daimon/Keres.html
“PROMETHEUS.” PROMETHEUS- Greek Titan God of Forethought, Creator of Mankind https://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html