The Hate That Festers

“Look at her, she’s doing it all wrong!” exclaimed Poine. Ms. Athena interjected Sebastian for interrupting Christa.

“Don’t speak out of turn, let her finish the problem on the chalkboard”. Ms. Athena bit her lip, she did not know what to feel. Her intentions are unclear of the Troyan girl.

“You don’t even care! Why do you defend her? She’s wasting precious class time..” The sliver of morality that Ms. Athena had in her scratched against her conscience, she knew she does not have to help. She was after all, the one who put Christa up on the board to solve a mathematics problem beyond the scope of a 7th grade class.

Was it to teach her a lesson? To make an example of her?

Who would defend the only Troyan here? Why should they be defended? Their mark on this world is withering away. The King has wiped Troy off the map and detained the last of the refugees. All the citizens of Greece were indoctrinated at a young age to view Troyans as the scum of the Earth for the crimes of their ancestors, committed 200 years ago.

The shadow of the Troyan empire has long been overcome by the Greek people.

“I… didn’t do anything wrong..”. Under her breath, no one could hear Christa. “I didn’t do anything wrong”. Her voice grew. “What did you say, Troyan?!” Poine questioned. “I… I… didn’t…. DO…. ANYTHING… -The piece of Chalk that was quivering in Christa’s tensed fingers was hurled with the power of a Trebuchet at Poine- WRONG!!” The whole classroom flew into a frenzy, students at the front of the classroom rushed to attack her for stepping out of place, including Poine. Only brief barks and shrieks could be made out from the flurry of dialogues being thrown around. A fury of a thousand banshees could be felt. “HOW DARE YOU THROW OUR CHALK??” “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” “RIP THE HAIR OFF FROM HER SKULL” “I WANT HER SHOES, GIMME HER SHOES” “BREAK HER ARMS” “LESS THAN DIRT. ONLY MEANT TO BE SEX SLAVES AND WORKHORSES” Ms. Athena quickly intervened and pried Christa and took her outside the classroom. “Why didn’t you leave me to die there? You know you woulda liked it.” Ms. Athena stood silent for a moment before speaking. “I don’t hate you little one. I understand what it’s like to be outcasted, different, and bullied for things out of your control.” Tears began to form in Christa’s eyes. “THEN WHY DO YOU PUT ME INFRONT OF THE CLASS? WHY DO YOU MAKE IT HARDER FOR ME ALL THE TIME?” She was too young to understand Ms. Athena’s motives. Had she known her own mother was Troyan, and that her father had kidnapped her mother from a small neighbourhood in Troy during the Greek conquest, Christa would understand. “You must understand how to be strong, and how to prevail when the eyes of the devils are upon you. I know it hurts. I too, have endured.”

ANALYSIS

In this myth, we see a post-war era in the nation of Greek which are composed of a proud and patriotic people who had endured centuries of imperial and colonial rule by the Troy Empire. Two different sides have experienced great hardship from each other and as a result, a seething hatred has festered between the two which has created large divides, prejudices, and an elite level of racism. Troyans committed countless atrocities upon the Greek people for what early Greek tribesman did, and this fostered generations of hatred and animosities in an eternal ‘Eye for an eye’. After some time, a revolution of epic proportions occurred where the Greeks overthrew the government. Under Greek rule, civilization took a turn for the better and the quality of life along with technology severely improved. However, the hatred that the Greek had fostered for the Troyans had not waned. Troyans were refused quality healthcare, social services, and respectable jobs. They were cluttered into unkempt neighbourhoods, eventually forming ghettos where living conditions became even worse. Christa was a 13 year old girl that had been orphaned due to government officials suspicion that her parents were illegally smuggling sugar from the coastal nations. Troyans were not allowed access to sugar and spices. She was placed to be a maid at a place of worship in the capital of Greece where she lived, and attended a Greek public school where no one else was of her ethnicity. Her only parental figure was the priest of Olympus and although he was accepting of her, signs of his prejudice still echoed in his actions. Christa has only known pain and desolation in her young life, with her only memories of anything pleasant being very feint as she was not cognitively developed yet at that age to have vivid memories of it. School is a chore, she does not know why she has to attend, something her priest tells her about being successful unlike the rest of her kind. A boy named Poine makes it a living hell for her. Constantly picking on her, both mentally and physically. She has known him for 3 years now and as time passes, the physical harassment had started to become more sexual.

One day, during a math lesson covering polynomials which is the basis of everything in mathematics, her teacher Ms. Athena puts a problem on the board that would naturally be expected of someone in the 10th grade and not someone in the 7th grade. And out of everyone, she picks Christa to come up and solve it, knowing that she has always been the outlet and basin of all the bullying that occurs in this school. One could argue that this is part of the Greek propaganda in her prevailing and making her want to cause Christa pain for it. Such that she could get some sick pleasure out of it. When Christa has her outburst at Sebastian, Ms. Athena saves Christa and likely her life from the murderous children that were beating her up mercilessly. It is revealed that Ms. Athena is half Troyan and understands Christa’s plight. Not only was she hated by the Greek, but was also shunned by her own kind for inheriting Greek blood, but that was out of her control. She wanted to condition Christa at a young age so that she’d be strong and capable of facing challenges when she got older. However, it begs the question, who is Ms. Athena to decide how she matures and doesn’t? She does not know Christa’s story and doesn’t know that she already goes through enough.

Poine had an unrelenting distaste towards Troyans, especially Christa, and it had no logical backing. This was the result of generations of Greek propaganda. Ever since children are old enough to learn how to add and subtract numbers, they’re taught about who and what the Troyans have done. Everything wrong with society, the blame can go to the Troyans. They serve as good scapegoats for all that is not right. None of the Troyans had ever done anything wrong to Sebastian, so it’s interesting where his hatred comes from. This is reminiscent of the hatred Nazi Germans had for Jewish people. No one was personally affected by them but there was such a dark hatred harbored for them (Voigtlander and Voth, 2014). Historically speaking, for a nation to prosper its people have to be satisfied and happy because it makes them productive to work and contribute to the greater good of the nation. Collectively, the productivity cannot be achieved if people are guilty or feel lost as to why things aren’t the way they want them to be. Having something to blame for our inadequacies helps to move forward and this is the purpose the Troyans served for the Greeks. “I didn’t do anything wrong” is a recurring phrase with discriminated people as they are paying for the sins of their ancestors. This myth draws parallels from the Goddess and embodiment of wisdom, Athena, and the God of retribution and vengeance, Poena. As we can see, Ms. Athena is the voice of reason and the ‘arbiter’ in our situation because she is able to look beyond the prejudices and faults of both sides and act as a caring human towards Christa (Hesiod, Theogony 924). She is able to look past the prejudice that Poine cannot (Pindar, Olympian 7.33-40). He is as vengeful as he is arrogant, just as his deity counterpart. Poine’s prejudice comes from a very weak standpoint, reasons that aren’t logically sound and reasonable because it arose from the sins that happened centuries ago. This is reminiscent of all vengeances and prejudices, it all stems from arrogance. There has never been a logical crusade or battle.

Bibliography

1. Voigtlander, Nico, and Hans-Joachim Voth. “Nazi Indoctrination and Anti-Semitic Beliefs in Germany.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 5 Aug. 2014, www.pnas.org/content/112/26/7931.

2. Hesiod, Theogony 924

3. Pindar, Olympian 7.33-40