By: Ahmed Khan
My living myth, The final wave
We have all heard tales about the great gods, heard about their staggering capabilities, and about the mysterious ways they work. Gods are the saviors of the earth, the providers to the living, the peacekeepers, the jurisdiction, and the almighty. However, what we witness in this myth is how the actions of one individual led to the abolishment of this earth, along with the cessation of the human race. This story starts on a normal day in the heavens just as good as any other day. The two great and powerful gods, Zeus and Poseidon who were brothers but more like best friends spent most of their time together side by side. They enjoyed each other’s company but could get obnoxiously loud and energetic at times, disturbing the peace for many of the gods in the skies. The disturbance the two brothers would cause would upset some gods as their behavior was quite immature rather than responsible as gods should be, and Eris most of all wasn’t happy with the commotion Zeus and Poseidon would occasionally cause. Eris makes a corrupt plan to grow darkness in the brother’s hearts, hatred for one another so they pull apart from each other. Eris carries out her plan when Zeus and Poseidon are playing a game of basketball. Eris, hiding from the bushes in a distance, casts a spell on the brothers, and at that moment everything changes. The mood changes aggressively, and Poseidon and Zeus begin to argue over the rules of the game and soon enough things get ugly. The brothers in full combat, furiously brawling, when Zeus has had enough and uses his lightning powers to strike Poseidon, but misses. The power of that lightning bolt was so great that it penetrated the ground of heaven, burnt a hole right thru and landed on earth. The lightning struck a forest and started a massive fire which quickly spread. Dense smoke rising, the sky turning black, Poseidon and Zeus disoriented and freaking out didn’t know what to do and in a panic tried to put out the fire which was at full tilt burning up the forest. At that moment their biggest fear was goddess Gaia, the goddess of the earth. Who knows what was to happen once she became aware of what the brothers had done. In an attempt to stop the burning of the forest, Zeus uses his weather-controlling powers to heat up the atmosphere so precipitation could take place but little did he know he was melting ice glaciers in the process and raising sea levels which led to flooding and destruction of more land. Gaia caught on to what was happening and was furious at both the brothers for causing severe damage to the earth and orders Zeus to stand back as he only made matters worse. Gaia orders Poseidon to take control of the waters while she gets living creatures to safety. In an attempt to de-escalate the situation, Poseidon tries to control the water waves from reaching the land by sending waves back into the ocean but despite his good intentions, this led to violent water movements resulting in a shift in the tectonic plates, which created earthquakes in the oceans. The earth was shaking, water waves brutally crashing, and finally, immense water waves form of great height, the largest waves ever to be seen by the human eye. This resulted in the most destructive tsunamis that had ever occurred, chasing onto the shores, so violent, submerging and destroying everything on land and ending all life on earth.
Analysis on my myth "The final wave"
When telling a story, it is crucial to wisely select your choice of words used to describe your story, and the ideas that you portray should be backed up or fact-checked. This is crucial in storytelling as ideas and theories can be misleading and/or confusing if they are not told truthfully. I have incorporated many concepts from Greek mythology into my myth to ensure it is somewhat understandable and relatable to the context that is apparent in ancient sources. My myth “ The final wave” consists of four greek gods. They are Zeus, Poseidon, Gaia, and lastly Eris. My myth (The last wave) also incorporates the basic ideology behind these gods to keep my myth accurate and relatable at a moderate level as it is academically backed up and fact-checked.
The first god we encounter in my myth is Zeus. In my myth, I mention that Zeus has lightning powers. “Zeus has had enough and uses his lightning powers to strike Poseidon”. I decided that this line would appropriately suit the storyline as it is mythologically correct due to the circumstances that it is stated on multiple accounts in many ancient myths that Zeus had the ability to control lightning and possessed lightning powers. As seen in (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 23. 236), it is stated “consider Eridanos (Eridanus) struck by the bolt of Zeus, your brother burnt with fire”. In this quote, it directly implies that Zeus holds the power to use lightning as a means of punishment or retaliation, therefore making him the god of lightning.
The second god I had mentioned in my myth was Poseidon. Poseidon is a unique and powerful god who possessed many supernatural powers but setting aside all of his other powers, the supernatural power I chose to incorporate into my myth was his ability to control and move water as he is the god of the sea. In my myth, I say “Gaia orders Poseidon to control the waters”. He is ordered to control the waters as dangerously high waves of water were reaching shore, so in an attempt to protect living creatures, he is given the task of keeping the water waves from entering the land. While Poseidon was busy keeping waters off the land, Gaia attempts to get all living creatures to safety, where the water of the oceans would be unreachable to these living creatures. This comes hand in hand with greek mythology due to the fact that many times we witness Poseidon being labeled as the mover of the sea or in some type of context labeled as the controller of water. As seen in (Homeric Hymn 22 to Poseidon) Poseidon is labeled the “mover of the earth and fruitless sea”.
The third god I had mentioned in my myth was Eris. Eris is known to be a god of general darkness (bitter, inharmonious, etc). In other words, Eris is not a pleasant entity. In my myth, Eris is the entity that created the start of the unforeseen disastrous events which had such a severe impact that her actions eventually led to the end of the human race, all traces of life on earth, and brought the world to an end. In my myth, Eris plants hate in the two gods’ hearts, (Zeus and Poseidon) which causes them to fight and commit undoable actions which began the start of the end (when Zeus attempts to strike Poseidon with lightning but starts a forest fire). As seen in (Homer, Iliad 5. 518) the author says “and Eris, whose wrath is relentless". This quote is enough to give us the impression that Eris is a cruel god who doesn’t show much mercy. Therefore I decided to make Eris the villain in my myth due to the fact that she is a cruel merciless god, and therefore Eris planting hatred in the brother’s hearts is believable and fits my storyline well.
The last god that I had mentioned in my myth is Gaia who is the goddess of the earth and everything this world contains. Gaia is the mother of all creation and her job is to care for and provide for all creation on earth. As mentioned in Greek mythology, "Well-founded Gaia (Gaea, Earth), mother of all, eldest of all beings"(Homeric Hymn, 30). This actively demonstrates that Gaia is responsible for the earth and everything and everyone this world contains. Due to this particular reason, I had decided to assign Gaia the responsibility of getting all living creatures to safety in my myth as she is the supreme entity that oversees all creatures on earth.
Last but not least, I mention in my myth that the two great gods Poseidon and Zeus are brothers. This can be mythologically proven correct in many myths as it is repeated several times. As we can observe in (Ovid, Fasti), the author mentions the relation between Poseidon and Zeus to be a blood relation, calling them brothers. “Jupiter and his brother who rules the broad sea” (Ovid, Fasti 5. 493). This quote directly labels Poseidon and Zeus’s relationship as brothers which therefore makes my statement of Zeus and Poseidon being brothers mythologically correct.
Works cited:
Ovid, Fasti 5. 493 ff (trans.Boyle)
Nonnus, Dionysiaca 23. 236 ff (trans. Rouse)
Homer, Iliad 5. 518
Homeric Hymn 22 (trans. Evelyn-White)
Homeric Hymn 30 (trans. Evelyn-White)