Myth:
In the silver age of mankind, after the first generation of man had fallen civilization began to form again. The Gods of Olympus helped the settle the new men far in the west beyond the Pillars of Heracles. There, the men led by Atlas, a son of Poseidon, established the Kingdom of Atlantis which was then blessed by the Gods. From Poseidon they gained mastery over the sea and the greatest navy to govern it. Ares and Athena provided mastery of warcraft to their armies. Demeter blessed them with bountiful harvests. Aphrodite and Hera blessed them to have long, and love filled marriages. Hephaestus bestowed his secret knowledge of forging to them. Zeus gave Atlas and his line the wisdom to handle the mantle of kingship. Finally, Hades gave them access to riches at the edges of the underworld, just below the surface of the earth.
Using the gifts given to them by the gods, Atlas and his successors Gafeiros, Ampheres and Euaimon ruled with great wisdom and piety. They made Atlantis the greatest kingdom in the world far surpassing any rivals that attempted to rise in the east. The Great Kingdom began its reversal of fortune in the reign of Mneseos. When harvesting beneath the earth for Hades’ riches, they eventually came across a Black Water that could be lit on fire. Using the Black Water and their divine knowledge of forging, the Atlanteans were able to make creations to rival the gods. Horseless carriages, ships with no sails and oars, metal birds and ballistae of hellfire. Soon the Atlanteans began to live like the gods and saw no reason to continue worshipping them. To fuel their decadent lifestyle, the Atlanteans began to dig deeper and deeper for more black water and waged wars on the rest of the world for gold and slaves to work the mines.
Eventually the hubris of the Atlanteans became too much to bear for the gods any longer. Though the gods could not bring themselves to destroy their beloved creation, Poseidon himself, the ancestor of their royal house, cursed them with having the seas turn against them if they continued in their hubris. Hades, also furious with the deep encroachment into his kingdom warned them that in 5 generations they would face doom if they did not change. Finally, Zeus removed his gift of wisdom Atlantis’ royal line which in addition to their hubris prevent them from giving serious consideration to these curses.
And so, through the reigns of Autokhthon, Elasippos, Mestor and Azaes, Atlantis continued its path of hubris continuing down its path of war, enslavement and mining deeper for the Black Water. Over time the seas became more violent began to slowly encroach on Atlantis. Finally, in the reign of wise Diaprepres did the King realize their folly too late. Though wise Diaprepres tried to turn his people from their doom, they did not listen as they were too consumed in themselves having been godless for so long. When the Wise Kings final days came having failed to change his people, the curse of Hades was realized. After having mined too deep for the Black Water, a great fire rushed from the underworld consuming Atlantis and sinking it to the depths of the sea. Those that tried to escape to the sea found it harsh and unforgiving as the greatest sea storm made by Poseidon sent them to their watery graves. The storms continued destroying what little was left of the men in the East after centuries of war with Atlantis. When the world finally stilled, man was no more, and the Silver Age ended. Learning from their failures, the gods created a new race of man shorter lived and less blessed than those that came before. And so, began the Bronze Age.
Analysis:
“The Doom of Atlantis” is meant to be an aetiological myth explaining the origins of Global Warming. In order to create a tale that fit into the classical narrative of gods and heroes while still addressing a modern issue like global warming, an appropriate location that could address both of these things had to be chosen. The “island of Atlantis, which … was an island larger than Libya and Asia once upon a time, but now lies sunk” (Plato, Critias 108e) was chosen for this reason. While Atlantean lore is vast, what was important to my tale was simply the fact that it is a location of mythological significance that sunk into the ocean long ago. This can be easily tied into how global warming leads to rising ocean levels, which is why in the story there is a direct reference to Poseidon cursing the Atlanteans for their actions by having the sea slowly sink their island.
While the sinking portion of the classical stories of Atlantis was the main connection needed for the sake of connecting to global warming, some aspects of its settings were kept allowing for this myth to fit better with the Classical narrative. An example of this is keeping Atlantis an island “beyond the pillars of Herakles” (Plato, Critias 108e) in the Atlantic Ocean, making it the westernmost part of the Hellenistic kingdoms while the rest of them lie east along the Mediterranean coast. The war between Atlantis and the eastern Hellenistic world was another detail kept from the original stories. The stories refer to a specific conflict between Athens and Atlantis 9000 years ago (ATLANTIS – Lost Island of Greek Legend, Theoi Greek Mythology). This mythic war that Plato spoke of in a time considered ancient even by the time of the Classical authors was also one of the reasons why the silver age of mankind was chosen as the historical era of the myth. Finally, the last detail kept from the original stories to provide a classical background for the myth were the kings of Atlantis: “Atlas, Gafeiros, Ampheres, Euaimo, Mneseos, Autokhthon, Elasippos, Mestor, Azaes, Diaprepres” (ATLANTIS – Lost Island of Greek Legend, Theoi Greek Mythology).
In addition to keeping specific ties to the setting of classical Atlantis, overarching themes that could be attributed to aetiological myths, and other classical myths in general, had to be a part of the new myth. This is shown in “The Doom of Atlantis” namely through the use of gods and their gifts to man as well the hubris of mortals leading to their own ruin. One of the inspirations for godly gifts and the abuse of them by mortals was from the Odyssey when Aeolus gave Odysseus a bag of all winds which was not meant to be opened. Unfortunately, Odysseus’ men did not listen, “They loosed the wallet, and all the winds leapt forth, and swiftly the storm-wind seized them and bore them weeping out to sea away from their native land” (Homer, Odyssey 10. 46-49). Since Atlantis in the new myth is shown to be the result of all the gods working together to create a new race of man, there had to be appropriate gifts from all the major Olympians to this new race. It was also important to have the specific gifts of Hephaestus, Hades, Athena, and Ares (i.e. technological innovation, the riches of the earth and martial dominance) to tie into the global warming theme of the story. This was done by showing how the hubris of man in abusing these gifts not only lead to the sinking of Atlantis but also the destruction of the silver age civilization. The use of these classical themes allowed the myth to not only fit with other classical works but is meant to allow readers see the issues of todays world in a mythical setting. This was done intentionally as global warming is ultimately a modern issue and thus any myth trying to explain its origin must be able to reflect the modern world in some way.
In order to create this connection with the modern world, “The Doom of Atlantis” was written to be read as a chronicle of the mistakes of a highly enlightened society similar to ours passed down through the barbaric remnants of its destruction. Some surface level references to this enlightened society, which include things like a “black water” found in the earth and “metal birds”, are meant for modern readers to corelate to oil and other modern technologies. What was more important than these references to modern technologies in ancient settings was the reflection of our own uses of it shown by the people of the silver age. This was shown through how these technologies allowed the silver age humans to live like gods themselves and their desires to fuel that lifestyle leading to rampant warfare and excessive harvesting of the earth’s resources much like we as a society do today.
Another thing that the myth needed to touch on was that other than our modern issues of the abuse of technology and resources, one of the major driving forces behind global warming is the arrogance and vices of humans. In modern times, while the impact of human activity on global warming (i.e. rising temperatures and sea levels) has been postulated since 1896 (Weart, “The Discovery of Global Warming”), it has only been in the last few decades that we have been taking action on moving away from fossil fuels. According to Weart, though the rise of environmentalism began in the 1970’s lobbying from the Big Oil companies lead to inaction to the point of irreparable damage to the environment. This real-world example of how greed (and arrogance of those who accepted the status quo for the sake of a comfortable lifestyle) led to us ignoring global warming for too long was something I wanted to reflect in the myth. For that reason, there is a big emphasis in the myth of the people of Atlantis ignoring the consequences of their actions for too long to the point that when they finally tried to change, their doom was already set in motion. This arrogance and excessive self-assuredness in ourselves is the main inspiration as to why the silver age was chosen as the time period of the myth. According to Hesiod, the men of the silver age were arrogant beings who “could not keep from sinning and from wronging one another, nor would they serve the immortals, nor sacrifice on the holy altars of the blessed ones” (Hesiod, Works and Days 134-136). While in classical literature they were destroyed by the gods for turning away from them, I believed that the abandoning of the gods and their ultimate destruction due their own actions was more appropriate in “The Doom of Atlantis”.
Ultimately, “The Doom of Atlantis” was created from both classical and modern inspirations. This had to be done in order to create a story that could both properly serve as an origin tale for global warming and fit in with existing classical narratives. The setting of Atlantis and the time period of the Silver Age were chosen to both show the physical consequences of global warming and to reflect some of the modern mentality of humanity. References to modern technologies in an ancient, enlightened society was to be the final piece of the puzzle to allow modern readers to see a reflection of our own society while providing classical readers a view of a glorified past that has been lost long ago.
Works Cited
Weart, Spencer. “The Discovery of Global Warming [Excerpt].” Scientific American, Scientific American, 17 Aug. 2012, www.scientificamerican.com/article/discovery-of-global-warming/.
ATLANTIS – Lost Island of Greek Legend,
Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.
Homer. The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.