In ancient mythology it is known that in the Homeric Hymns, Demeter is the goddess of agriculture, and responsible for the thriving of mankind’s bounty on earth. It is known that she is responsible for sustaining life on earth for if there were no agriculture or crops there would be no resources for life to continue. Demeter had a child with Zeus which resulted in a daughter named Persephone. One day, Demeter’s daughter Persephone was kidnapped by Hades with the help of Zeus to capture her. Hades kidnapped Persephone and has the power to hold Persephone in the underworld with him. Demeter had been looking for her on earth in a fury, and soon found out that Hades had captured her. This caused Demeter to become enraged as an overprotective and fierce mother. The only way to get into the underworld is through the gatekeeper. His name is Arthus who is bound by Hades to guard the entrance of the underworld. Due to Demeter’s rage, she made a weapon to use against Hades. The weapon was made to alter the underworld in order for Demeter to get in and out alive while being able to take her daughter back. She called this weapon “o vomos”, which was a large staff that would let her break the rules of the underworld when used correctly and with a certain intention. Instead, Zeus found out about her plan and used the weapon to alter earth instead. Instead of ‘o vomós’ altering the realities of the underworld by allowing her to enter and leave with Persephone, Zeus made the intention with ‘o vomós’ to use it against his lady Demeter as punishment. It altered the realities of earth which created global warming. Global warming was killing her crops and the fluctuating temperatures caused problems with providing enrichment to the beings on earth. Demeter is trying to keep life on earth enriched with bounties while the punishment that Zeus cast on her is trying to destroy what she created. Zeus and Demeter have been fighting, and Demeter has been losing to global warming as the environment has been getting worse. She is a desperate mother losing to an all powerful God with unjust intentions with the world.
The myth of persephone is from the book of Homeric Hymns. They are ancient myths written by Homer. I used the Hymn to Demeter in my myth. The parts of the myth that are additions to the original greek myth are the gatekeeper that I made up named Arthus, the weapon “o vomos”created by Demeter to get her daughter back from the underworld. This weapon is used by Demeter to retrieve her daughter, which was also an alteration to the original myth. In my myth Zeus gets mad at Demeter for going behind his back by trying to reverse the banishment of their daughter, and the fight between Zeus and Demeter that results in the modern issue of global warming. This results in global warming because a key problem of global warming is the increase of farming and deforestation which is representing the battle between Zeus and Demeter. Zeus is destroying her agriculture to punish her which would be deforestation, and Demeter is trying to increase farming in which the animals tend to let off mass amounts of greenhouse gasses to keep her role as the goddess of agriculture and making sure mankind is fruitful in their agricultural needs. Both acts are damaging to global warming, and contribute to the greenhouse gasses that are warming the earth. That whole portion of my myth was to describe the origins of global warming as a modern day myth, mixed with an already well known ancient myth. They do not directly describe accurate representations of ancient myths, but it reflects the different Gods and Goddesses abilities and demeanor.
As for the myths that are accurate to ancient mythology, the narrative displays the hymn of Demeter, as well as noting how Zeus can have power over others. He is known to have power over many gods and beings in ancient mythology, and he could control other people based on the amount of power he has. In Homer Odyssey book 9, while Odysseus was explaining his journey “At dawn they came, as many as the leaves and flowers of the spring: and disaster sent by Zeus overtook us, doomed, as we were, to endless trouble” (Homer, Odyssey 9. 1-62) I used his leverage as a powerful being to control Demeter’s plan and his cruelty that has been displayed in book 9 of Homer’s Odyssey. This quote contributes to the fact that he induces so much chaos to the point where he helped Hades, the ruler of the underworld capture his daughter. This cruelty that he has shown in other myths fit perfectly with his demeanor in the narrative myth above. Zeus’ power and his cruelty came together to fight back against Demeter and cause harm to the Earth. His demeanor shows that he does not care of others especially due to the fact that Persephone’s life and the time she spends in the underworld is due to the fact that her father Zeus did not protect her from Hades. In the Homeric Hymn, Hades claims that, “Father Zeus bade me bring the glorious Persephone forth from Erebos among the gods, so that her mother may behold her and relent from her anger and terrible wrath against the immortals'' (Homer, Homeric Hymn, 2.334–389). Zeus let Hades take his daughter and when Demeter asked Persephone if she had eaten anything in the underworld she says, “Then Hades himself stealthily compelled me to taste a sweet pomegranate seed against my will” (Homer, Homeric Hymns 2.390-469). The fact that Zeus did not care enough to protect her daughter against Hades who traps her forever shows that even though Demeter and Zeus had a child together, she is almost the opposite in the way of being a parent. Demeter loves her daughter Persephone and the thought of her staying in the underworld hurts her as a mother due to her protective nature. In the same thought that Demeter is a protective and loving mother, it is said in the Homer Hymns that she was very depressed when her daughter spent that time in the underworld when Hecate says, “Lady Demeter, you who bring the seasons, you giver of glad gifts, which of the heavenly gods or mortal men has ravished away Persephone and brought sorrow to your heart?” (Homer, Homeric Hymns, 2.1-89). This quote also represents Demeter’s purpose in the universe. It is described here that she creates the seasons and gives gifts. This is why in the narrative section she is used towards global warming due to global warming affecting the changing of the seasons. While global warming gets worse, the seasons are very sporadic and sometimes very odd based on the season. While Zeus is being cruel, he is punishing her by altering the earth to the point where she cannot control the seasons any longer. This is why due to her slipping grasp on control of the seasons, Zeus will win in terms of destroying what Demeter was made for. In the narrative, the cruelty of Zeus towards others and the chaos he causes is aimed towards her purpose as the health of the planet earth. I made the decision to change parts of the myth to create the origin of global warming, and added my own aspects or creations to the myth as well. The parts of the myth that were made up such as ‘o vomos’ which is the weapon Demeter uses to try and get her daughter back is signifying her role as a loving mother, and Zeus punishing her and using the weapon with the intention to destroy her purpose is made up of how cruel he is as a God. While taking into account how these Gods are described in ancient sources, I created this myth to reflect the creation of global warming, and how in a mythological way of thinking it is a battle between the moral parent and the immoral parent. It’s almost like in modern life the environmentalists would be like demeter trying to stay in control of the seasons, and the consumers would be zeus who are making it harder to have a healthy environment. In the end, Zeus is more powerful than Demeter, and eventually he will succeed in crushing her purpose in sustaining cultivation for immortal beings to live peacefully, just as global warming will eventually take control of our environment as the consumers slowly destroy the planet.
Bibliography
Homer, Homeric Hymns. “2/ The Rape of Persephone”.(1–89)
Homer, Homeric Hymns. “2/ The Sorrowing Demeter Withdraws Fertility from the
Earth”.(302–333)
Homer, Homeric Hymns. “2/ Zeus Relents; Persephone Is Returned”. (334–389)
Homer, Homeric Hymns. “2/ Persephone Reveals That She Has Eaten the Pomegranate Seed (390–469)”
Homer, The Odyssey. “9/Odysseus tells his tale: The Cicones ” (1-62)
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