Phoenix, son of Helios, and Cassandra, daughter of Priam, had been casually walking through a forest when Phoenix began explaining how frustrating it’d been when his friends refused to believe that his father was the God of Sun, Helios. Phoenix had tried to prove time and time again that his father was Helios, though as he did not possess the same powers as Helios, his claim was deemed false. Cassandra begins to ask why Phoenix cares an incredible amount over his reputation. Phoenix explains that Cassandra would never understand how he feels, as she’s never had to experience such a dilemma; though she has.
As the two continue walking, Phoenix comes up with a brilliant idea and pulls aside Cassandra to tell her. Phoenix tells Cassandra of his plans of asking his father to drive his sun chariot across the sky in front of everyone to prove his dad is Helios. Cassandra, being the wise one, thinks it’ll end in utter disaster. Phoenix brushes off her concerns and goes ahead with his plan to ask his father. When Phoenix asks his father to borrow the chariot, Helios knowing the risks and dangers of doing this, refuses Phoenix’s request. Phoenix begs his father, but Helios remains adamant and continues to refuse for the sake of the protection of his son. Frustrated by his father’s response, Phoenix chooses to go a different route and goes on a quest to find the titan Prometheus.
When Phoenix finds Prometheus, he asks Prometheus to grant him the power of fire, to prove that he does in fact have a power passed down onto him by his father. Prometheus grants Phoenix the power, though with the belief that he has good intentions with it, will not use it recklessly, and will return the power once he is done using it. As Zeus has hidden fire from the mortals, Prometheus makes the journey to go and steal the fire to give to Phoenix, as he believes fire belongs on earth. He goes on to steal the fire from getting a torch and lighting it with the sun, and he returns back to earth to grant Phoenix of the power.
Phoenix returns to Cassandra to gloat about his new powers, however, Cassandra warns Phoenix of the disastrous outcome that will come to be from reckless use of his powers. However, Phoenix believes that Cassandra is just being delusional and assures her that everything will be fine. With his newfound power, Phoenix proves to his friends that his claims were true, though after proving this, Phoenix begins to act recklessly and starts to set plants and trees ablaze. The fires don’t burn out and they continue to grow bigger and bigger until almost everyone and everything is engulfed in a mass of fire. Everything begins to burn and the vision of destruction and chaos becomes a reality.
Zeus sees the destruction erupting from the hands of Phoenix and grows furious. He takes his lightning bolt and strikes the ground beneath Phoenix’s feet. As the ground cracks and crumbles, Phoenix falls to the depths of Hades’ underworld of which he will remain tortured for as long as he shall live for the damage he caused to the innocent.
Analysis:
This newly created myth is one of which represents the origins of global warming. I have written this myth with the basis of the myth of Phaethon, along with other references to other ancient myths and greek figures. This myth is structured as a storyline, but this story line is much more focused on the main events of what happens, such as an outline of the story. I have structured this myth in this way as it highlights the key events that took place to lead to the outcome of global warming. I have also used one myth, the myth of Phaethon, as the base or foundation of my new myth story. I have done this as the myth of Phaethon is a myth that highlights the pure selfishness and ignorance of Phaethon, and this is a perfect representation of the role of the human race in the creation of global warming and climate change. However, I have added additional references of myths and mythical greek figures, such as gods and goddesses, to further represent some of the aspects and factors of the formation of global warming.
In my myth, I have included mythical references to the myth of Phaethon and the sun chariot, the myth of Prometheus (The Thief of Fire), and the myth of Cassandra (Apollo’s curse). The base of this myth is drawn from the basis of the myth of Phaethon, thus there are numerous ancient myth references to the myth of Phaethon in my myth narrative. One of these references is from where Phoenix (Phaethon) decides to approach his father to ask for permission to use the sun chariot, “Here Phaeton still gaining on th' ascent, To his suspected father's palace went,” (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.24-25). This reference is quite straightforward as it is just a mention of when Phaethon decides to go visit his father to make a request to drive the sun chariot across the sky to prove to his peers that his father is in fact the God of Sun, Helios. Phaethon then goes on to ask his father to drive the sun chariot, “The youth transported, asks, without delay, To guide the sun's bright chariot for a day” (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.59-60).
While in the original ancient myth Helios allows Phaethon to drive the sun chariot, as said in these lines, “For 'tis a mischief, not a gift, you ask. You ask a real mischief, Phaeton: Nay hang not thus about my neck, my son: I grant your wish, and Styx has heard my voice, Chuse what you will, but make a wiser choice.’” (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.117-121), my narrative has changed this course of action and I made Helios stand his ground and refuse to allow Phaethon the chariot. The reason I have done this is to continue the story with the inclusion of the ancient myth reference of the myth of Prometheus (The Thief of Fire). As Prometheus was much more fond of man than of gods, he believed that mankind deserved fire. Thus he stole it, after Zeus had hidden fire from mortals, and returned it back to earth, “But the noble son of Iapetus outwitted him and stole the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk” (Hesiod, Theogony 565-566).
My myth narrative then goes into the myth of Cassandra (Apollo’s curse), as it goes on to showcase both the gift and curse of which Cassandra possesses. When Apollo was in love with Cassandra, he had gifted her the ability to foresee and predict the future, “Cassandra is non-responsive. She knows the future” (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1047). However, there was a curse to this gift, which was that although she spoke true prophecies, no one believed her, “Oh you are the god who has destroyed me!... to give me the dire gift of prophecy” (Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1082-1083). I have included Cassandra into my myth narrative as when she is warning Phoenix of how his powers will lead to the destruction and chaos of the planet (and Phoenix ignored her advice), she is a perfect representation of the climate scientists today; they constantly warn and inform the ignorant and adamant human race about the increasing risks of global warming and climate change. And just like Phoenix, humans choose to ignore this advice and continue to wreak havoc and cause chaos and destruction on the earth, leading it to its inevitable doom.
The ending is similar but still different to the original ending of the myth of Phaethon. While in the original myth, Zeus strikes Phaethon in the chest, killing him immediately and causing him to descend from the Heavens “Thus th' almighty sire, Suppress'd the raging of the fires with fire. At once from life and from the chariot driv'n, Th' ambitious boy fell thunder-struck from Heav'n” (Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.752-755), my myth has changed where Zeus has struck his bolt and the outcome of how Phaethon will live the rest of his life. My myth has made it so Zeus strikes his lightning bolt at the ground right below Phoenix’s feet, causing the ground to crack and crumble which leads to him falling into the pits of the underworld with Hades, leaving him to endure a torturous and miserable eternal life.
The changes that I made in the ancient myth references include changes in names, plot line, companionship, and I also changed the ending outcome of Phaethon’s (Phoenix) life. The names I had changed in my myth were the names of Phaethon, son of Helios, and Thalia, daughter of Hephaestus. I changed Phaethon’s name to “Phoenix” and I had changed Thalia’s name to “Theresa”. I made these changes in their names for the sole purpose of making a new and different myth, though I also changed these names as I wanted to try and make the names seem more modernized. I wanted to make the names of the children of the gods seem as though they were from the current or modern day era. I made Phoenix become a friend of Cassandra as Cassandra’s gift is a key element to the mythical story as well as contributing to the origins of global warming. When Phoenix gains his powers, he goes on to tell Cassandra about it, but due to her gift, she lets Phoenix know that the outcome will end in a disaster. However, as Cassandra is also cursed, this leads to Phoenix and his ignorance allowing him to believe that Cassandra is being overdramatic and continues to do the exact thing she had warned him about.
As this narrative is based on the myth of Phaethon, I did keep the main plotline of the Phaethon myth, however, I have made some changes to certain details about how Phaethon causes the destruction and chaos, who Phaethon’s companions are (which he did not any originally), and the ending of Phaethon’s life. I changed the cause of how Phaethon ends up causing destruction and chaos by making Phaethon (Phoenix) use a different plan of how to prove to his peers that his father was Helios; I had done this by changing the original decision of Helios and made him stand his ground and refuse to let Phaethon drive the sun chariot. By making Helios stand his ground and refuse, I was able to make Phaethon go to Prometheus to help him prove to his peers of who his father is. I added Prometheus and the stolen fire as a part of this myth because as fire is something drawn from the sun (and Helios is the God of Sun), I thought it only made sense for Phaethon to want to obtain the power of fire to show to his friends that he had garnered a power of fire from his father Helios, God of Sun.
I made a change in Phaethon’s “death” as well by making Zeus strike the ground below Phathon’s feet rather than into his chest. This strike caused Phoenix (Phaethon) to fall into the underworld where instead of dying instantly, he will be tortured for all of eternity due to the damages caused by his actions.
Bibliography
Aeschylus, Agamemnon (Cassandra). 1047-1085
Hesiod, Theogony (The Thief of Fire). 545-570
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.(The Story of Phaeton). 24-29
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.(The Story of Phaeton). 49-121
Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.(The Story of Phaeton). 752-755
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