In the underwater island of Gumbras, lived people who were happy to be sheltered from the reality of Earth. The only thing the people of Gumbras feared was the wrath of Greek gods like Zeus, known for destroying civilizations altogether, or that they would get caught in crossfire between him and his father Cronus, imprisoned in Tartarus.
Mythology as we know it was considered theology, the most important subject to study in case they needed to save their society from harm in the future. Gumbras had been ruled by the same, righteous family the “Kuntras” for generations. King Kuntra, an old but righteous man prided himself on the fact that he was a generous man, who ruled on a land virtually resembling Utopia. However, one day all of this changed.
For the first time, Gumbras’ borders were breached. The citywide alarms were ringing, and the island was in a state of chaos. King Kuntra was appalled and decided to send his most militarily skilled son, Blorbeus to find the intruder. Blorbeus found the intruder within minutes.
“Who are you? How did you get through the borders? What do you want?” asked Blorbeus. The intruder turns around and to Blorbeus’ surprise, this is the first dark skinned man he has ever seen. He says, “Hello friend, I know you might not believe me, but I am Prometheus, cursed by Zeus to look like this because I went too close to fire. I can guide you to the path of eternally bettering your lives.” Blorbeus chuckled and called him a madman as Prometheus was not dark skinned.
“You’re an impostor sent to curse Gumbras because your skin colour does not exist. I may be the most skilled fighter in all Gumbras, but father has never shown me the respect I deserve and capturing you should surely make him happy.”
Prometheus exclaimed, “You are putting all your beloved people at great risk. I am not lying but also realize I cannot convince you to believe me. Here, take this fennel-stalk that contains fire, this is the only way you’ll be able to imprison me.” Blorbeus continues to laugh but decides to hold the tube anyways. Zeus immediately appeared in Gumbras and imprisoned Prometheus.
He then lied to Blorbeus, “this dark-skinned man is an impostor and there are many like him. Your true destiny is to kill your father and become King, blaming it on these dark-skinned people. Also tell your people your extraordinary display of power summoned the mighty Zeus, to take this alien out of here.,” and disappeared.
Filled with rage and overconfidence, Blorbeus realized that ruling Gumbras was his destiny indeed. He also thought that blaming everything on dark-skinned people that he may or may not encounter was the safest course of action for now. He murdered his father, opened Gumbras to the world and began preaching that the dark-skinned people were aliens and the only ones responsible for his father’s death, leading to the inevitable downfall of Gumbras.
Analysis
The story begins with the description of a secluded, advanced society. The names of the characters and the society are random, to let the reader focus more on the characteristics and parallels to Greek mythology instead of on names. I incorporated this idea to build up the frustration and boredom that must be felt by the protagonist of this myth and this does not have any parallels in Greek mythology. I would describe Blorbeus as a classical anti-hero, someone who is skilled both mentally and physically, but has likely never had to apply his abilities in the real-world setting. This reinforces why I chose a Utopia like setting, as it shows how this self-doubt and the fact that he thinks his father does not respect him caused a singular event to lead to a total alteration in personality. When someone questions racial difference because he has never seen, let alone interacted with someone of that race, it cannot really be quantified as racist. But as the end signifies, all of it led to a domino effect to make thousands in Gumbras believe that the “dark-skinned” people were what brought doom to their otherwise near-perfect society.
The only thing the people of Gumbras feared was the wrath of the Greek gods, especially Zeus and Cronos. I specifically chose this example to draw parallels between the father and son relationship of two mortals, and two gods. I chose to reference Hesiod’s Theogony where it is mentioned that very much like human beings, gods practice and believe in the institutions of marriage, procreation, forming unions etc. Arguably, Zeus had a much more valid reason to imprison his father Cronus, since Cronus ate his own children to retain his power and not let a prophecy fulfill his doom (Hesiod, Theogony 617). Zeus had imprisoned Cronus at Tartarus, described as the largest, deepest pit, the bottom point in the world, which literally and figuratively cancels out chance of escape (Homer, Iliad 8.13). However, I kept the parallel to Blorbeus and his father’s storyline ambiguous, so we do not understand the extent to which Blorbeus has mentally or even physically been tormented in a world that otherwise seems perfect. Maybe, his father was just not very expressive but was indeed very proud of Blorbeus and respected him. The ambiguity helps depict the fact how in a split second, Blorbeus completely changes the trajectory of his life, as well as the life of his father and the only Kingdom and home he had ever seen.
I chose to show that Gumbras was ruled by the same family generation after generation to highlight the amount of pressure that must have been on Blorbeus and his father’s shoulders; to maintain a utopia like state is not an easy task, even though it is significantly downplayed in this myth to focus on other important aspects. The fact that Blorbeus’ father, the King was old is meant to connect to the fact as to why it only took a singular interaction with Zeus and Prometheus for Blorbeus to take such a drastic decision. The effect portrayed is sudden, meant to alarm the leader but if read over again, subtle hints like the King being old do make points to consider as to why the anti-hero protagonist would do what he did after reaching a “breaking point”, or arguably a point he was destined to reach throughout his life.
The borders of Gumbras being breached is an event so rare, that the city has never seen such chaos or commotion before. King Kuntra is frightened and displeased and chooses to send his militarily gifted son Blorbeus to fix the situation. There are no instructions given to Blorbeus by the King which I did on purpose. This can be interpreted in two ways; either the King did trust Blorbeus to do what is right and did respect him, or he was a visionary who simply realized his time to die had come as the borders of Gumbras being breached for the first time happened during his reign. The emotions felt by King Kuntra in this moment are inconsequential to the myth here because it is Blorbeus who will determine the future of Gumbras one way or another.
Upon finding the invader Prometheus, Blorbeus sees a man of a darker skin tone than he ever has before. He straight away calls him an impostor, seemingly not acknowledging the important information Prometheus just shared. Prometheus was tasked by Zeus to show humanity two ways, one to slavery and one to eternal freedom (Aesop, Fables 535). This is seen in my myth when Prometheus tells Blorbeus that he can show him and his people the way to eternal betterment. Whether Blorbeus had believed Prometheus or not is again besides the point, because he is not considering the facts at this moment and is questioning everything he has ever known and trying to find the best course of action, because this might very well be the moment he has been waiting for his whole life.
Prometheus is the character I chose to showcase as dark-skinned because of his various encounters with Zeus, involving hiding fire in a fennel-stalk (Hesiod, Works and Days). His interactions with Zeus involving fire made him the ideal choice as a character who would be cursed to be burnt by the fire and in turn be dark-skinned. This is a parallel to Greek mythology where Indians became black because their blood turned a dark-colour due to exposure to unnatural amounts of heat (Hyginus, Fabulae 154). I constructed a fictional element of how Prometheus because of his recent interactions with fire had turned into a dark-skinned person, which worked in Zeus’ favour as no one would believe it was Prometheus approaching them. What I aimed to convey through the rest of the story, is that if there was no racial difference between Blorbeus and Prometheus, the situation would perhaps been handled completely differently. Maybe the prophecy would be acknowledged by Blorbeus, maybe he would want to know more. But the fear that comes with seeing someone different, while also examining life-changing decisions inside your mind all within the span of a few minutes completely changed the course of action. This also led Blorbeus to not question Zeus later when Zeus captures Prometheus and promotes blaming everything on a race that may or may not be real according to Blorbeus.
Before Prometheus is imprisoned by Zeus, he goes ahead and seems to understand the state Blorbeus is in as I have always read that he is a character with deep ties to humanity and mortals and realized that no amount of persuasion would lead to a different outcome. Hence, not willing to fight or do anything unnecessary, Prometheus hands the fennel-stalk of fire to Blorbeus. Zeus did not want any mortals to possess fire and Prometheus knew that him stealing fire from heaven and becoming the fire-bearer would have certain consequences (Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound). Prometheus is also right in hoping that Zeus would present himself at Gumbras almost instantaneously, shadowing over the fact that Blorbeus agrees to hold the fennel-stalk. Even though there is no trust that has been established between Blorbeus and Prometheus, Blorbeus holds the fennel-stalk simply to show Prometheus that he is not scared of whatever will happen. This is the first time we see Blorbeus descending into his state of mind, which would eventually lead to him becoming a preacher of racism and the killer of his father.
Zeus arrives and simply takes advantage of the fact that Blorbeus will believe anything that is not coming from the dark-skinned “imposter’s” mouth. He leads Blorbeus to accumulate great amounts of rage and overconfidence, reminding him that his father is way too old and Gumbras needs a new king, now that the borders have been breached and King Kuntra has proved to be incompetent. I chose Zeus specifically here due to him being the parallel of Blorbeus in the father-son dynamic which underlies throughout my myth. Zeus embodies and portrays the power Blorbeus could have but also guides him down a dark path. This is because Zeus is an almighty god who chooses to racially differ between two skin colours in a secluded society as he does not believe it would cause any harm. Zeus also gives Blorbeus the perfect way out by blaming it all; the death of the King, the breaching of borders and anything else onto the dark-skinned people. However, Blorbeus exceeds Zeus’ expectations and opens the doors to Gumbras making the racial difference a much bigger and maybe even a worldwide phenomenon. This leads to a domino effect of people believing in racial difference, believing a father-murdering king who has not been adequately prepared for the responsibility he now possesses, leading to the kingdom’s eventual downfall.
Works Cited List
Aesop, Fables 535 (from Life of Aesop 94)
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (Translated by Herbert Weir Smyth - 1926 Loeb)
Hesiod, Works and Days 42 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.)
Hesiod, Theogony 617 ff (Translated by H. G. Evelyn-White - 1914 Loeb)
Homer, Iliad 8. 13 ff (Translated by A. T. Murray - 1924 Loeb)
Hyginus, Fabulae 154, Phaetheon of Hesoid (Translated by Mary Grant - 1960)