Myth
Fire was a gift, but one should never forget it was first stolen by the son of Iapetos from the King of Gods and Men before giving it to humanity. For the troubles that man faces in the current age, come from us forgetting this, humanity, in the past, greedily created a great fire, to warm all homes and smelt all metals. Such a fire was this that its smoke reached all the way to Olympus and filled its halls with its noxious scent. Such a scent that Zeus, of the lightning, now constantly reminded of by the cunning of the son of Iapetos and his theft of fire, and irritated from the fumes coming from below, looses his anger more and more frequently, more and more forcefully as time passes. The sky, realm of the lightning, now trembles and pours more with each passing year. Such a scent that Phoebus Apollo, now reluctantly returns to Olympus each day, stretching his ride across the sky, and causing the days to be hotter. The silver bow, lord of the plague, now sends his arrows at the fauna of the land, the pigs, the birds, and the bats, and man, during his trek across the sky, for he is of the oracle and he knows it to be man that caused the acrid air. Such a scent that the Seasons, who danced with grace and rhythm, now moved discordantly with uneven step. Eiar, who now arrives late to escort the daughter of the fair garland and thus delays the growth of wheat, Theros, who now takes long strides and overwhelms the others in song and dance, Cheimon, who now clashes with Theros and moves in erratic fashion, with hard steps and faint jumps, and Phthinoporon, who now is drowned out between Theros and Cheimon. Such a scent that finally reached the turbulent wave, second of Cronus, that now he shakes back and forth in anger, drawing water and drying the land when he sways away, while pushing water, and sinking shores when swaying forth. This world and its people are in a sorry state, in the age of silver, man had been disrespectful of the gods, in the age of bronze, man had been warlike and murdered each other, in this age of iron, it seems that we inherited the flaws of bronze and silver, and in the next age, they would call us too greedy, that we reaped more than our share of the bounty from the earth, scorning the gods and sealing our fate.
Analysis
For the myth project, I have decided to base my aetiological myth on the current problem of climate change. Before I could start writing however, the topic subject, and how it could be framed in a mythological context was the first thing that I reasoned out and will be the first section in this analysis. So how does one turn the origin of climate change from the modern, scientific definition, to what made sense to an ancient Greek from antiquity? How would Hesiod or Homer react, or reason if they had been transported to the modern day and saw climate change (though they would be gawking at quite a lot of other things as well), or if the state of modern-day climate change had magically been transported into the past. The most notable thing that they would notice, and thus attribute to the mythological origins, would be the visible symptoms and effects derived from climate change. So, I decided on seven main effects of climate change, the increasing amount of extreme weather, the rising of the world’s average temperature, the increasing likelihood of new outbreaks of disease stemming from animal migrations that originate due to changing climate, the instability of the seasons due to some of the previous factors, the negative effects that the changing climate has on agriculture, the increased rate of droughts that are occurring, and finally the rising sea level stemming from melting polar ice caps. All of which, when combined, sounds quite a bit apocalyptic, upon that realization, I also realized that this myth could fit well with the myth of the five ages as told by Hesiod in Works and Days.
The five ages outline what the Greeks believed to have been different iterations of humanity created by the gods, in the section about what the Greeks considered our current age, the age of iron, Hesiod writes that “And then Zeus will destroy this generation too…” (Hesiod, Works and Days. 210.) followed by descriptions of humans acting out on their bad behaviour. Inspired by this, I decided to frame the aetiological myth of climate change within the context of the ‘five ages’, introducing climate change as the introduction of how the gods are preparing to create the ‘sixth age’. I also tried to draw parallels to the downfall of some of the previous ages as well. From inspection, some of the ages, silver, and bronze, fell due to a shared disregard for the gods stemming from vices in their generation. For silver and bronze, it was ignorance and aggression, I decided that the vice that fell the humans of iron was to be greed, that the people of iron held a thirst for resources and wealth that caused them to erect a massive fire for that purpose. After all, the burning of fossil fuels and the over-extraction of natural resources are quite large contributors to the increasing severity of climate change.
The inclusion of ‘the great fire’ also helped me in producing more motivation for that actions of Zeus, I pictured that Zeus, with the constant reminder of Prometheus’s trickery (Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 15) and the sight of humanity’s overuse of it, along with the acrid smoke invading his realm, would drive Zeus quite mad. I titled Zeus as ‘the King of Gods and Men’ in the initial section as a reminder that Zeus is the leader of all gods and humans, and that by creating such a large fire that it intruded on Olympus was an act of disrespect towards one that should not be disrespected, that and the second epithet that I assigned him, ‘of the lightning’ copy the motif found in Greek myth that the god’s epithet often relate to the situation at hand, or the action that they do, such as in the Iliad, when Apollo is invoked as ‘the silver bow’ and ‘the lord of plague’ when Apollo shot arrows of disease at the livestock and besieging Greeks in the Trojan war (Homer, Iliad 1.22-52.).
Speaking of Apollo, I decided to place the role of why the average temperature of the world is increasing, as well as the increased risk of disease outbreaks on the sun god. I believe that the Greeks would notice that the heat of the day correlated with the rising of the sun, and thus the heat came when Apollo rode his chariot across the sky, so if the days get hotter and hotter, I believed that they would have reasoned that it was due to Apollo taking his time and lounging just a bit more to try and avoid the smoke that now infested Olympus. For the second effect of climate change in this section, I used Apollo’s imagery as the bringer of disease, and reasoned that he would know who started the fire, and why it had been made due to his association with prophecy. The former was taken from his earlier mentioned action upon the Greeks in the Iliad, with his targets as common examples of where diseases originate (with a little nod to the ‘little’ situation that is currently happening in the world) (Homer, Iliad 1.22-52.). The association with oracles and prophecy, I took from the Hymn to Apollo from the Homeric Hymns, where Apollo establishes the famed Oracle of Delphi and states “To them all shall I speak a decree unerring, rendering oracles within my rich temple.” (Homer, Homeric Hymns. Hymn to Apollo. 277-374.)
To represent the seasons, and them being more and more unstable, I decide to borrow the imagery of the Horai from the Orphic Hymns, who were the representations of the four seasons and the dance they did that represented the changing of those seasons as mentioned as such, “When in a band-harmonious they advance, and joyful round her, form the solemn dance” (Orphic Hymns, 42.8.). I decided to depict the instability of the seasons caused by climate change to be the smoke of that ‘great fire’ to have had a negative effect on the Horai and their dance, that spring and fall fade out, while summer comes out in strength, and that winter would act irrationally, timing her beats either too early, or too late. Along with this, I linked the deleterious effects that climate change has had on global agriculture as the changing temperature is now affecting the growth of crops worldwide as the delay of the Horai in escorting Persephone from the depths of Hades to welcome in spring (Orphic Hymns, 42.6.), this delay, I believe would affect Demeter, who would then cause crops worldwide to suffer in growth.
Finally, I decided to explain the rising sea level as well as the increasing occurrences of drought in the world on the actions of Poseidon. The Greeks, who would notice the rising of the sea level, most likely would not have discovered that the cause would have been melting ice caps, they might have not made a connection between rising temperatures and the rising sea level, as they are two different domains controlled by different gods. Much like before, I also assigned epithets to Poseidon, the first referring to his control over the seas and oceans, the second referring to his pedigree as the second-born son of Cronus (Hesiod, Theogony. 558-562).
Works Cited
Hesiod. Works and days; and Theogony. Introduction by Lamberton, Robert, translated by Lombardo, Stanley, Hackett Pub, 1993, Indianapolis.
Homer. Homeric Hymns. Anthology of classical myth: primary sources in translation, Trzaskoma, Stephen, Smith, R. Scott, Brunet, Stephen, Palaima, Thomas G, Hackett Pub, 2004, Indianapolis.
Homer. Iliad. Kline, A.S., Poetry in Translation, 2004, https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Ilhome.php.
-.The Hymns of Orpheus. Translated by Taylor, Thomas (1792).
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999, https://www.theoi.com/Text/OrphicHymns1.html.
Hyginus. Astronomica. Translated by Grant, M, The Myths of Hyginus, University of Kansas Publications, 1960, Lawrence.
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