Myth:
After a long day of work, tasked with pulling the Sun across the world with the help of his plane, he visits the local bar and sees the bartender, Dionysus. 'How are you doing?' Helios asked. 'Alright. Don't you ever get tired of dragging the Sun across the world every day?!" Exclaims Dionysus. 'I create wine for a living!! My life's blessed! It makes me feel a little sorry for you." Hearing this, Helios laughs a little. 'Obviously, you think your life is great compared to others because of your very narrow mindset. My life is very much 'blessed' too. I get to see the world every day, and it's very peaceful.' Helios says. 'Peace, yuck!" Retorts Dionysus. "How does that just satisfy you?" Dionysus scoffs. Helios thinks for a second, "Have you ever been alone before?" Dionysus proudly replies, "Nope! I have tons of friends! I'm a human magnet, haha!" An idea pops into Helios's head. "Would you be up for a day in my shoes? How about you raise the sun-under my supervision, of course-and, then judge me?" Dionysus replies with the affirmative, "Sure but save me if I'm about to die of boredom, ok?" And with that, the two agreed to meet at Helios place a bit before dawn the next day. As Dionysus is closing up the bar, he realized that there would be no wine tomorrow. Instantly he drank whatever alcohol he saw in front of him, thinking that if he drank enough today, he'd be fine tomorrow. However, as dawn approaches, Dionysus is almost blacked-out drunk. He realizes he messed up, and so with his god-like abilities, he decided to make him look soberer. He did think about making the feeling go away but felt that the trip would be tedious enough and dismissed that idea. Dionysus heads to Helios's place drunk while looking sober. Helios teaches home the basics of the plane and explicitly tells Dionysus that he must focus. Soon enough, Dionysus departs on the aircraft with Helios underneath supervising. With Dionysus up in the sky, fully drunk, his mind starts playing tricks on him, especially with the clouds. Dionysus gets the strong temptation to jump in the clouds. He finally jumps out of the plane, hoping to land on the clouds, but his dismay falls through them and down towards the earth.On the other hand, Helios watches in horror as the plane loses control and crashes into the earth setting the whole world ablaze. Mission control is alerted, and within moments, Zeus arrives and extinguishes the flames. He then questioned Helios, and Helios confessed his mistake for being irresponsible about his duties. Zeus then sets a curse on Helios that the earth will slowly start to warm up, causing disruptions to the mortals, and it is all because of Helios. Knowing Helios, such torment will destroy him.
Analysis:
This myth is an aetiology myth explaining the origin of global warming, specifically in terms of why the earth’s temperature is rising.The characters in this myth are Helios, Dionysus and Zeus. In the ancient texts, Helios is a titan who was in charge of the Sun and rode his sun chariot every day (Homeric Hymn 31 to Helius). Dionysus is the god of wine and is known as the god of happiness, extravagance, and uplifting personality (Euripides, Bacchae 135 ff). Zeus is the god of the skies and is one of the most powerful gods amongst the Olympians (Homeric Hymn 23 to Cronides). In ancient texts, Helios and Dionysus are not seen together. Helios is seen with other gods and goddesses such as Demeter (Homeric Hymn 2 to Demeter 19 ff), Aphrodite (Homer, Odyssey 8. 260 ff), Zeus (Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 13), Odysseus (Homer, Odyssey 11. 102 ff), Gaia and Uranus, and other Titans (Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 5. 71. 2).The same can be said with Dionysus. The gods and goddesses that he has been written with are Icarus (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 191), Hades (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 37), Hera (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 32) and Zeus, he is Zeus’s son after all (Homeric Hymn 26 to Dionysus). There is an overlap with the character Zeus so one cannot say that Helios and Dionysus couldn't have met. It is very much possible for them to have cross paths according to the ancient texts, which makes the myth more possible and hence believable.
This myth is inspired by the story of Helios's son; Phatheon who desperately wanted to ride his father's sun chariot and was able to so, only to have lost control over it and set the earth on fire ended getting killed by Zeus because of his heedless actions (Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4. 598 ff ). In this myth it is not Phatheon, but Dionysus, who rides the 'chariot,' and loses control over it causing its destruction and sets the whole world ablaze. Dionysus flies the plane also out of curiosity, but not for the sake of himself, but to see what Helios's life is like daily. He was also under the supervision of Helios, whereas with Patheon, he went on the chariot without his father knowing at all.
Another difference is in Zeus cursing Helios. In the original myth, Patheon was the one who rode the chariot and therefore was the one who got punished (Philoxenus of Cythera, Fragment 834). In this myth, Dionysus rode the plane and caused it to crash into the earth; however, he was not punished. In both myths, the person responsible was punished. Patheon begged his father to let him ride in the original myth, and Helios let him reluctantly; he did not want Phanteon to ride it (Aeschylus, Heliades). On the other hand, Dionysus went because Helios permitted him to do so, and he was a bit hesitant initially as he thought it would've been boring. Unlike Patheon, Dionysus didn't have the strong desire to go on the plane, and he was not risking any trouble as he was doing under Helios's supervision. Helios was at fault for undermining the importance of his duty to raise the Sun and let Dionysus out of all people ride the plane. Dionysus is known to be a very carefree person (Bacchyl. ap. Athen. ii. p. 40), so the chance of something going bad is highly likely. In addition to the fact that Dionysus is a god and therefore much more robust and powerful than Helios. He could've used his powers which could then trigger serious events to occur. In this case, he hid his drunken state from Helios (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 37). So it was Helios who was responsible and not Dionysus; therefore, the fact that Zeus punished Helios by cursing him for eternity is reasonable.
Regarding the analysis of how this myth is an aetiology for global warming, Helios was a character selected based on his duty to an essential task that affects everyone in a significant way. The same way how global warming is a global issue and it affects everyone, Helios’s task of raising the sun is very important as the whole will be impacted, since the whole world revolves around the sun. Dionysus was then chosen as the 'villain' in the myth because he threw off the protagonist and did not do what he has been told to do, which was not to lose focus. Dionysus fits this character in that he is easygoing and also that he is the god of wine (Bacchyl. ap. Athen. ii. p. 40). Usually, in modern-day humour, when one calls another 'the god of …', it entails that whatever the person is described as, they have a solid relationship with it and that they are known for it as well as other things that connote it. For example, if you call someone the god of cooking, they cook a lot, love cooking, and that their cuisine is delicious. With Dionysus, the same concept can be applied to him being the god of wine. He makes a lot of it, drinks a lot of it, and loves it. Adding on to the fact he drinks a lot, it would mean that he is usually drunk and is very carefree and wants to enjoy life that way. Such a character is a perfect fit for this myth in that Dionysus also has to be innocent too. Even though he was drunk, Helios said that Dionysus could only go under his supervision, which means that the responsibility is in Helios. Another thing to note is the dynamic between Helios and Dionysus, making both of them ideal characters for this myth. Helios is a titan, whereas Dionysus is a god (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2. 37). This means that Dionysus is more potent than Helios and that Helios does not have many powers, if not any. So when the plane lost control, Helios could not do anything and could only watch from the bottom. This puts Helios in a horrible situation in that he knows that if something happened, he has no power to fix it, which further supports the reasoning that he should be punished. Lastly, Zeus was selected since he is the most powerful god (Homeric Hymn 23 to Cronides) and therefore is befitting to use him in this myth. In addition to the fact that in the original mythology, it was Zeus that extinguished the earth (Aeschylus, Heliades). There was some debate whether to let Zeus annihilate the whole world or not be capable of extinguishing the entire planet to provide a narrative for global warming. That because Zeus could not completely extinguish the earth caused by Helios's plane, the world will get hotter and hotter. However, this narrative does not align with Zeus's powers, that he is powerful over everything, so it is more befitting for him to curse on Helios than not to give his attributes his due. Zeus cursed Helios by making the earth warmer as time goes by, which is to irritate the humans, as global warming affects us and can potentially kill us. Zeus did this to place mental strain on Helios so that he suffers for a long time and that the pain cannot be taken away.
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