Zoran Angelevski
1005518049
Long before, in a merciless time of mankind, Mother Earth cries out in sorrow and despair. The gods, forsaken by man, lose their prominence. With it their power to mediate with the Earth. A prophecy foretells of a near future where all of humanity and Earth will burn, trapped by impure flames. The gods, fearing death, prophesized to a great holy man. Spoken through dreams of night, seek out the last pure child of man. Guide and deliver this child on his lifelong journey to complete tasks numbering twelve, to seek retribution from the Earth.
A boy found in midst of a great battle, prays for his fallen enemies. The holy man, brought to tears, asked the boy a question imposed to him by the gods. The first 3 tasks required the boy to free himself from his malice and sensual desires so to eliminate weakness and face Mother Earth. 3 labours required gathering materials and objects taken from the Earth through the sins of man. 3 tasks were ones of penance. 3 tasks are revealed upon completion of the others.
Upon completing 8 tasks, each their own story, the boy journeys to a temple. A priest who lures maidens through the promise of consecration with the gods needed to be stopped before he takes the life of a maiden who’s descendant will birth a saviour. The boy announced he is a prophet sent by the gods to rectify humanity. Overwhelmed with grief and sorrow, he kills the holy retainer and takes his life. Years would pass before the boy no longer mourns or grieves.
A god descends, reanimating the priest’s corpse revealing the final tasks. Requiring the boy to journey to three great kingdoms, the civility brought to them will pave way for their descendants to establish the known course of history. First to teach of agriculture, second to establish a place of worship for redemption and prayer. His final task requires the boy to find three maidens who have left the house of night, to become the daughters of the sun; where a female god will reveal the path to the maidens where Mother Earth’s soul resides. Following a lifelong journey of triumph and defeat, the boy now a great sage, unsurpassed in counsel and ability, enters for final judgments.
The Earth asked the boy if ever in his journey has he forgiven or taken life away. The Earth felt the sincerity of his answers, but knew he sequesters truth. He had taken a life in youth, now long forgotten. All sins, amassed on a life ling journey, forsaken in pursuit. The Earth distraught erected a mirror to encompass the planet, bounding everything inside unable to escape. Entering great slumber, Mother Earth lets fate decide when its life should end. Wishing to teach mankind the futility of desire and divine intervention. Through its deterioration, hopes humanity will see the preservation and sanctification of ones soul and the very Earth housing all of mankind is the only salvation.
Analysis Component:
To begin, I have chosen this style of writing so it can relate to the overall composition of a myth where a hero will first see defeat and following a fateful encounter, the hero will rise up and move forward. Only later to have his retainer die, where the hero despairs only to further move forward on his path and ultimately triumph. At the beginning we are introduced to a part where a holy man is tasked with delivering labours similar to the format of Hercules. (Hyginus, Fabula 31. 226) Although the labours are not put forth in great detail, I felt the composition of the labours itself are not important but their formatting is. I also imagined this is a creation myth where each task is a detailed myth of its own. So hence why I chose this format as the overall structure. The structure of the tasks in my myth are parallel to the ones Hercules faces both in amassing objects and slaying monsters.
The main theme of my myth is penance parallel to the myth of Hercules. Although the boy seeks penance for all mankind rather than what Hercules sought for his own self. This is to drawn an alignment to the predestined role the boy plays as well as to provide some context to the modern relation of an increasingly globalized world. Furthermore, I wanted to showcase just how global warming originated. It is by failing his journey for mankind’s penance that global warming and the overall deterioration of the Earth originated. Of course each individual has a right to their own penance, but as chosen by the gods, the boy has a predetermined role that supposedly no other human could play, just as the many heroes of mythology are deified.
Furthermore, from Herodorus’ passage on ‘A Reinterpretation of Heracles’ Holding Up the Sky’ (fr. 13 Fowler), I proposed in my myth that this boy now has more wisdom and knowledge than any human, acquired through instruction, just as Hercules did in this passage. The reasoning for this is that there is a certain sequential manner to go about in order to triumph in something \, both in present times and the past. To get what you desire, and to truly comprehend something, you have to do as instructed be it from oneself or an external party. This is so to aquire the right information. By doing as he is told, the boy is able to acquire unprecedented levels of wisdom because of his information processing. It is known that a lot of myths formulate the hero by first receiving some kind of instruction on how they can sequentially develop into their role. Whether the boy desired to live a simple life, or to be a hero is unknown. But he has a destiny to fulfill, just as many heroes of the past very well had.
Even in having all of this knowledge, the boy still failed his purpose. Considering global warming is a real phenomenon we are living through today, it would not make sense to say that the boy saved the Earth. Once mankind began building their artificial machineries and dissected resources from the Earth around the 18th century, it would make sense for the Earth to try and show mankind of their true nature by trapping the filth they sought to expend, referred to as the impure flames, taking the form of literal global warming.
The part where a god comes down and reanimates into the skin of the deceased priest is in reference to Emily Kearns where she describes that the gods communicate with humans through a number of channels. (Kearns, E. 2004. 4) This played a key part in the myth as it was a channel for continuing the boy’s journey.
The part the priest plays is one of an overarching theme. First the manner in which he dies is an attempted parallel reference to Hercules’ side labors in Hyginus’ Fabula (Hyginus, Fabula 31. 226) This signifies that the manner in which a person so prides themselves on, can very well be used against them simply by a superior person. It was an attempt to show the reader that you must be wary of how you use your strengths and to be void of the temptations of power, as that can taint one’s sense of righteousness leading to futilities in your actions and intentions. It showcases that mankind is capable of sins that the gods perceive as heinous acts portraying the overall nature of humanity during this period, one that has made mother Earth forsake humanity. This idea is to provide some context to the overall structure of myths. There are a lot of prevalent themes in myths, but such themes of triumph and defeat are commonly intertwined with every story. I tried to showcase the idea of katabasis, where the hero descends. Not literally descending, but more of the idea of life going downhill. When the hero's holy retainer is killed, the fact that he mourns and grieves for many years is the katabasis theme I tried to showcase. He descends into his own grief and sorrow, parallel to the idea of katabasis. This is to give more context to the fateful impact katabasis can have on one's life. It can change the paths you take in your journey.
Furthermore, I have also incorporated a passage from Parmenides Proem, lines 8 and 9. (Parmenides, Proem 49. 8-9) The part where the character is escorted by maidens who left the “house of night for the light” attests to some sanctification of the maidens. In my aetiological myth, the maidens are presumed to have sinned in the past, and upon some kind of sanctification, they no longer engage in sinful acts, but now are purified in the sense that they serve what is good and no longer what is bad. So I wanted to provide some more context to that part of the passage where they become the daughters of the sun. So they play a crucial role where the hero in my myth has to rectify these maidens, and upon doing so, a god descends to reveal only to the maidens the location of Mother Earth’s soul. The reason for this is to showcase that even though we are all equal no matter the gender, there are always roles that can only be fulfilled by each. Hence why the god reveals herself only to the maidens and not the hero.
I also attribute a passage in my myth to Xenophanes in his 18. The Gods Withhold Things from Men (18 D-K) where the true intentions of the gods passing on these tasks to the holy man are not revealed. It was my intention to show that the gods in this myth get their powers from humanity, but since humanity here have forsaken the gods and live sinful lives, the gods themselves deteriorate just as the Earth does through humanity’s engagements. Considering how in the real world, this exploitation is how we have brought about global warming, it is a fair reference and actionable attribution to make.
At the end, we see the boy now a sage completing his tasks and meeting the Earth for judgment. We see the boy still prevail in his tasks even though the ending was more obligatory than light-hearted. This shows that even though the Earth is saved from whatever impending doom the Gods seemed to have prophesized; it only prolongs its effects as everything is trapped inside the Earth now. As humanity began to industrialize, we see the ozone thicken and trap green house gasses. This contributes to global warming, and the erected mirror put forth by the Earth in the past, trapping all within according to this myth, is reason as to why we see the Earth warming today.
Bibliography:
Hyginus. Fabula 29-36. q.utoronto.ca/courses/192328/pages/hyginus-fabula-29-36?module_item_id=2062344.
Herodorus. A Reinterpretation of Heracles' Holding Up the Sky. q.utoronto.ca/courses/192328/pages/herodorus-on-heracles-excerpts?module_item_id=2062420.
Kearns, Emily. “The Gods in the Homeric Epics.” Kearns, Emily: The Gods in the Homeric Epics, The Cambridge Companion to Homer. Fowler, R. (ed.). Printed from Literature Online, 2004. Cambridge; New York. pp. 59-73 q.utoronto.ca/courses/192328/pages/the-gods-in-the-homeric-epics-kearns-2004?module_item_id=2062326.
Parmenides. Proem. q.utoronto.ca/courses/192328/pages/parmenides-proem?module_item_id=2062347.
Xenophanes. “Fragments.” Digital Loeb Classical Library, 1999, doi:10.4159/dlcl.xenophanes-fragments.1999.
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