In the earliest days of the Internet, there was one man who took advantage of the new technology like no other, his name was Morgan. Morgan was fascinated with new technology and quickly discovered how much information could be found online. Being the first to leverage this, Morgan quickly built a small news company which in turn became a large news company and finally the biggest news company in the world. Morgan was ecstatic and proud of his accomplishment, granted the epithet “The high-tech herald” by his peers and competitors alike. Before long Morgan was boasting to everyone about how much information he had access to, “Is there anything I can’t know?” he said with a smirk. “I can learn anything in an instant!” Morgan proclaimed, “If there is news, I am the first to know! I can deliver the news before even Hermes!” he continued with a large grin. He continued with these claims for days on end until one day Hermes had had enough of hearing him. Hermes was furious. He had just had to tie Prometheus back to his rock on behalf of Zeus for giving humans the internet and now one had the hubris to claim they were a better herald than him! Infuriated Hermes decided to punish Morgan. He descended from Olympus to earth the next day disguised as a news reporter and started his own company that mixed the truth and lies. They were such convincing enchanted lies that everyone believed them. From this company, many more were born, spinning beautiful lies so convincing no mortal could distinguish them from the truth. Morgan could not keep up, there was not enough real news to compete with all the new companies, his company was falling apart and before long he was nothing more than an independent reporter again. It was then Hermes chose to visit him and reveal himself. Morgan was shocked and angry “Why have you done this?” he said. The god spoke, “You claimed you knew everything yet knew nothing of hubris” but Morgan would not listen. “That is ridiculous!” cried Morgan, “I will never stop trying to find the best scoops first, not even you can stop me!”. Hermes was enraged, “So be it” he yelled, “Then I will never stop ruining the news of mortals so long as you try to best me!”. Morgan thought Hermes had simply accepted his challenge, but he was a fool, as Hermes left, he cursed him to forever try to find the next scoop first. Morgan lived a sad life and died of old age, but his curse did not end there, he was sent to Tartarus for his crimes and was doomed forever to continue looking for the next scoop only to have another company on earth publish it first with lies mixed in.
Analysis
The first line in The Story of Morgan and Hermes that shares structure with Ancient texts is the third line where the character Morgan is set up to be in a position of power and success to both justify his hubris and his later fall from grace. We can see similar reoccurring themes in the stories of Tantalus and Arachne; in Pind. O. 1 lines 50-70 it is explained that Tantalus was a man of great prosperity, so much so that the Gods honored him and invited him to eat with them at Zeus’s table in Olympus. This description greatly contrasts the state he is left in by the end of his life as he is later described to be suffering eternally in Tartarus tempted by food that is just out of reach (Hom. Od. 11.13). Next, in the Arachne myth Arachne is described as greatly skilled in weaving and had grown famous for her work unlike her parents before her who lived humble lives in a lower class (Ov. Met. 6.1). This is similar to Morgan’s sudden rise to power and in both cases, their skills are what contribute to their hubris. In Arachne’s case, she believed she could outright challenge Athena (Ov. Met. 6.1) while Morgan is not so forward in the beginning. Arachne’s punishment in the end also stripped her of all her success and fame as a weaver when she is transformed into a spider (Ov. Met. 6.1). In the next line in The Story of Morgan and Hermes, he begins boasting about his ability to gather information and claims that he can deliver the news before Hermes. This once again draws parallels between our myth and the Arachne myth. Not only do the protagonists claim to be better than the gods but specifically in the areas those gods rule over, in the case of Arachne this was weaving and Athena (Hes. WD 59-65), and in our story it is heraldry and Hermes (Aesch. Lib. 1). In the following lines Morgan continues to boast to people about his reporting prowess and begins to irritate Hermes with his claims, this refers to how the god’s omnipotence is described in Pind. O. 50-70 where it is stated that “If any man expects that what he does escapes the notice of a god, he is wrong.” as it is made clear by Morgan’s lack of concern that he does not believe there will be repercussions for his actions, so while he was less forward than Arachne and less deliberate in his actions when compared to Tantalus stealing ambrosia and nectar from the gods, he angered them nonetheless. This is another pronounced aspect of Greek mythology where it is not uncommon for someone to hated by a god over petty things or punished in response to the actions of another god. A Prime example of this is the story of Hercules. In the story of Hercules, he is hated from birth by Hera because he is the illegitimate son of Zeus (Pind. N. 35-45), and spends his life dealing with hardships to absolve himself of his guilt in Hera’s eyes (Soph. Trach. 1091). This makes it clear that the actions of Gods are not necessarily fair in their response and shows that a mortal can be thoroughly punished for slighting them without necessarily directly insulting them. Furthermore, the actions of one in Greek myth often have far-reaching consequences to humanity, this is best highlighted by the myth of Pandora’s box where the actions of Pandora alone lead to the suffering of everyone on earth forever (Hes. WD 83). The actions of Morgan in my myth start a bit more subtle than the myths we have discussed so far to reflect the more apathetic nature of modern society, where even if deities are not treated as myth it is more accepted to speak about them freely. Continuing a few more lines past the proclamation of Hermes’s fury, there is a reference to Prometheus’s punishment by Zeus (Hes. Th. 520-525). As many Greek myths are intertwined and do not exist in a vacuum, I felt it was necessary to tie in another fitting myth. Since Prometheus was freed by Hercules it makes sense that it would be in his nature to try to help humans again someday and because of the sudden leap into the information era, it follows that in a modern world where aetiological myths are still used that there would be a myth explaining this massive leap forward in technology and Prometheus would be responsible. Of course, for this Prometheus is also once again chained to the rock and punished. After this, the myth goes on to detail how Hermes will exact his revenge. Since Hermes is known to be a mischievous god and a trickster (Anonymous. Hymn Hermes 4.408-445) it is fitting for him to take a more indirect approach to punish Morgan and so he disguises himself and descends to earth from Olympus. Disguises are frequently used in Greek mythology by gods and goddesses when interfering with mortals on earth as a way of interacting with them from the perspective of other humans. Hermes himself has done this before in the myth of Baucis and Philemon when he and Zeus disguised themselves as weary travelers and asked people for somewhere to sleep that night (Ov. Met. 8.612-727). As the story continues and Hermes takes his revenge it is mentioned that the lies are enchanted and someone can not help but fall for them, this is used to explain why loved ones or people we respect sometimes get fooled by false information and indirectly encourages the reader to stay vigilant but also not hate friends and family that have been misled. Hermes eventually reveals himself to Morgan and confronts him. This offers Morgan an opportunity to redeem himself but emboldened by his past success he continues, just as Arachne and Tantalus did, to further insult the God. In the end, Morgan was given an eternal punishment much like Sisyphus and Tantalus in Tartarus (Hom. Od. 11.13) that was customized just for him and, like Pandora’s opening of the jar, his feud with Hermes created the post-truth era and explains why it remains after his death.
Bibliography
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