Creation of Races
The creation of race began with the two brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. They created men who were meant to serve and worship the great gods. The brothers created mankind out of mud, at the request of Zeus. In the process of making these mud people, Prometheus and Epimetheus created them out of several different compositions of mud, clay, and sand, from each area of the world. Each material was a different colour, consistency, and density. The mud men baked in the sun to dry, to create a stronger, denser material. Once Athena breathed life into them, their outward physical appearance mimicked the colour of the clay and mud used when they were first sculpted. The men closest to the heat of the sun thrived and became a dark, rich colour like dense earth. They had more heat from the sun making them stronger and the ones farthest from the sun were light and mimicked the colour of pale sand. Throughout the day, mankind thrived and worked under the heat of the sun which strengthened their bodies and they were able to work. But as night fell the cold air weakened them and they suffered from the cold. Prometheus took pity on mortals and decided to steal fire from Zeus. Prometheus gave them fire to keep them strong but was eternally punished for his crimes. Zeus sought revenge on mankind for having accepted fire by creating a woman named Pandora as a "gift" for Prometheus’ brother, Epimetheus. Zeus was tricky, he created Pandora as mankind's punishment. Pandora was cursed with curiosity and a bad attitude, but gifted with beauty and talent. This was to fool Epimetheus into believing she was considered a gift and not a curse. Pandora was told not to open a box containing all the horrors and sorrows of mankind, but her curiosity overtook her, and she opened the box. The sorrows that fluttered out of the box caused havoc amongst humans and created hatred and suffering. Due to the contents of the box, humans were plagued with sickness and weakness. Zeus believed that fire was a holy object and mere mortals were undeserving of something so heavenly. Zeus said to Prometheus, “If you insist on mankind having fire, so be it. But since you insisted, I will plague them with sorrows and disease so that the only comfort they receive is from the heat of the precious flames, and they will know what they have given up in return to have fire. We will see if they think it was all truly worth it.”. The horrors had begun to possess humans and by doing so, it had started to change the colour of their hair, eyes, and basic appearance. People who fell ill with the horrors would spread illness to others. Their face and physical appearances changed to look like each other. This was the doing of hope, which was the last thing that was kept in the box. Hope made a community out of people by giving them similar appearances once they fell ill to the horrors of pandora’s box. This was to make them feel like they could trust each other and have a sense of familiarity and family.
Analysis
Prometheus was a son of a titan and brother to Epimetheus. They were both the creators of life forms including animals and humans (Plato, Protagoras, 320-322). In the myth I created, they were the most important people to not only the creation of all mankind but also in part responsible for the creation of the different skin tones that we see in different races and cultures. In Prometheus' original myth, he tricked Zeus by making him choose between two gifts that were not as they appeared. A pile of meat that was covered in undesirable parts, and another pile of "meat" turned out to be a pile of bones. Zeus picked the pile of bones because it looked more appealing, but he soon realized he was tricked. This angered him and so, he refused to give fire to mortals out of his anger (Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound, 110). Prometheus cared for humans and did not wish for them to suffer from the cold, so, he decided to steal fire from Zeus and give it to mankind himself. By doing this, it enraged Zeus and he punished Prometheus by chaining him to Mount Caucasus to have his liver ripped out by an eagle every day (Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound, 1015). But Zeus was not yet done with his anger so he found more ways to punish mankind. Zeus said to Prometheus “I’m going to give them Evil in exchange for fire, Their very own Evil to love and embrace.” (Hesiod, Theogony, Work and days, 24. 75-76). Pandora was a woman created at the order of Zeus as revenge for humans but it was disguised as a gift for Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus. Pandora was created with efforts from every god and goddess. Her creation symbolized revenge in this story and was important to the myth I created because it explained that the so-called “horrors” that were unleashed by pandora were another main cause of the creation of race. I chose pandoras story because I viewed these “horrors” contained in the box as one of the most basic traits of humanity such as jealousy, greed, hatred and etc. I viewed the “horrors” as an illness that was spread throughout people and I thought this was a great way to intersect and use this situation to explain how everyone in the same area began to look the same or similar because everyone was affected by these horrors and everyone chose “their” own group of people which then became what is known as race. Hope created love and acceptance within these races by changing their faces to mimic the faces of their loved ones. Pandora was a key player in the explanation of this because, without her curiosity, there would have never been similar appearances in humans other than the colour of their skin. Since everyone was made of different materials and made by the hand of Prometheus, everyone was original and no one looked the same. However, with these new horrors, they possessed humans and so hope, the last thing to exit the box, changed their appearance one by one, giving them each very similar features. Pandora was apparently made to be very beautiful and given a shy appearance to fool Epimetheus into believing she was innocent and sweet. When she was being created, Zeus “called Hephaistos and told him to hurry and knead some earth and water and put a human voice in it, and some strength, and to make the face like an immortal goddess’ face and the figure like a beautiful desirable virgin’s.” (Hesiod, Theogony, Work and days, 24. 79-82). Her outward appearance was just a façade and her real personality was actually meant as a punishment. Zeus told them to add “painful desire and knee-weakening anguish. And he ordered the quicksilver messenger, Hermes, to give her a bitchy mind and a cheating heart.” (Hesiod, Theogony, Work and days, 24. 85-87). This was all part of Zeus’ plan to make mankind suffer. Her creation was meant to torment humans. Zeus knew that Prometheus and Epimetheus cared about mortals and did not wish suffering on them so they kept all suffering, disease, horrors and anything that would cause harm from mortals hidden in a little box, away from anyone who could open it. Zeus knew that Pandora's curiosity would be the one to open that box and unleash these horrors, and so he would finally get his revenge on humans for receiving fire. I chose the story of pandora's box because I wanted to go past the point of skin tone and talk about physical traits that you find in a race that makes them so unique. I chose pandora’s box for this part of the explanation because I believe there is a great sense of community and family in race and I thought that no matter what evils you might experience, hope is provided through a sense of belonging and family. I believe this would be considered a plausible addition to the myth of Pandora and Prometheus because it was essentially a creation story with another sidestep to explain why some people look different than others. This myth had to do with the two other most important creation myths in Greek mythology. Zeus was important to this story because he symbolized a powerful figure above all the other gods. “Zeus, the Father of gods and men, Mightiest of the gods and strongest by far” (Hesiod, Theogony, invocation to the muses, 61. 58-59). His anger in the story was important because it also explained how he had a hold over the other gods and gave them orders to create pandora. I feel that it only befitting that the creation of race was not a purposely done action, but a small victory in light of the sorrow that was unleashed. I thought that the chain of events created by Zeus and Prometheus' feud was a coincidence on their part, but karmic of the world to create goodness in between all of the bad. A race being created from the hope out of Pandora’s box which was the only bright side to the horrors that came out. I also enjoyed the idea that humans were somehow different than the creation of previous lifeforms throughout ages that were stated in Hesiod’s Work and days, The five ages. In this book, it stated that each age of creation had good and bad qualities and that reflected what they were made out of like gold, silver and bronze. Each age of creation reflected the materials of which they were made. There were lifeforms previous to humans made of silver, gold, and bronze who all reflected the qualities of the metal they were created from. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze age did not coexist in one period. In my myth creation, they were all made out of different types of clays, mud, sand and other earthly material and it created all different types of people all in existence at once. This was to make mankind a diverse population created from different mixes of clays and mud to imitate the way our human DNA is all made out of the same thing, but we have different mixes of it. The story of mud was meant to explain how races share similar genetics, and the story of hope was meant to explain why we see the physical similarities in people.
Bibliography
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound, 110-1015
Plato, Protagoras, 320-322
Hesiod, Work and days, Why life is hard 24. 58-128
Hesiod, Work and days, The five ages, 26. 129-245
Hesiod, Theogony, Invocation to the muses, 61. 1-115