The Myth of Creation
Posted on | October 30, 2008 |
Traditionally, the stories of gods and goddesses in Greek mythology have been passed on from one generation to next through songs and storytelling. This oral method has reduced the consistency of stories and the exactitude of details. Thus, when the written word was eventually invented, there are several versions of the myth of creation.
The different versions of creation
For example, in Plato’s Protagoras, the Olympian gods created men and other creatures on earth. Two Titans, Prometheus and Epimetheus, were then tasked to provide each creature with a unique attribute. The pair started with animals and gave attributes, such as the ability to fly with wings and the protection of scales. And when at last the two Titans turn to man, they ran out of attributes. Thus, Prometheus wisely made man in the likeness of the gods.
In a different story, Hesiod’s Theogony, it was Prometheus and Epimetheus who created men and all the creatures on Earth. Zeus gave the Titans this task because Zeus was bored with the world. Epimetheus was assigned to give attributes to the creatures, while Prometheus fashioned them using mud. When mud-man was finally molded, Epimetheus no longer had any attribute to give. Thus, Prometheus gave the mud-man a little of each creature’s attribute. That is, man will have the cunning of the monkey, the swiftness of birds, and the courage of the lion. According to Ovid, Prometheus also used a special mud. It was the combination of water from the newly formed streams and the soil of earth that still bore heavenly life. Thus, it became easy for Athena, the goddess of wisdom to breathe divine spirit into the mud-man.
The inherent self-destruction of man through different races
However, it was unfortunate that Zeus allowed the race of men to destroy themselves. According to Hesiod, the first race of man, who was created in the Age of Gold, were perfect mortals who lived in peace, happiness, and harmony. But they were mortals and they eventually died.
The second race of men was created in the Age of Silver. The men were proud and refused to pay homage to the gods. As punishment, Zeus banished them below the earth.
The third race, which was created in the Age of Bronze, was composed of natural warriors who eventually annihilated each other.
The fourth race was formed in the Age of Heroes. They also fought, and the bloodiest wars were the Trojan and Theban wars. Some of these men, such as Hector and Achilles, became heroes, but the whole race of men disappeared and their stories became legends.
The fifth race of men was created in the Age of Iron. Each man created in this age is a mix of good and evil. The evil component automatically cursed the race.In the Age of Bronze, when Prometheus molded the new mud-man, he had the strong desire to make the new race live and survive. But without god-like powers, the mortals could never live long, unless they possessed an element that belonged to the gods.
The godly gift to humans
Prometheus formed the idea of giving fire to men. He convinced Zeus to provide the mortals with fire. Zeus liked the idea of having the mortals use fire to offer him sacrifices of animal meat. But, despite the sacrifices, Zeus still considered the idea of purging the earth once again and replacing the present race of men. To thwart this, Prometheus planned on playing a trick on Zeus. He instructed the mortals to make two piles of sacrifices and asked Zeus to choose one pile. The first pile contained good meat that was wrapped in an unsightly hide. And the second pile contained bones, but was covered by very palatable fat. Zeus was greedy and immediately chose the second pile. This revealed to men that Zeus was not as wise as they thought.
However, there was no doubt about the power of Zeus’ anger when he discovered the trick. Zeus took away the fire from the mortals. But one night, when the gods were sleeping, Prometheus managed to steal fire from Mount Olympus and gave the fire to men. This time, Zeus anger was even greater. The Olympian god sent his two servants, Force and Violence, to find and capture Prometheus. The Titan managed to avoid these servants long enough to teach men knowledge about agriculture, science, medicine, mathematics, and arts.
Prometheus also collected as much evil as he could and trapped the evils in an urn. He gave the urn to his brother, Epimetheus, for safekeeping before he was finally captured and chained to a rock in Caucasus. Unable to move and defend his body, Prometheus’ liver is easily eaten by a terribly large eagle. The liver would grow every night and every day, the eagle would return. This was the eternal punishment given to Prometheus.
The punishment Zeus bestowed upon manAgainst men, Zeus planned a different kind of punishment. He ordered Hephaestus, the god of smiths, to create a woman of incredible beauty. The other gods endowed the woman with many gifts. The woman’s name was Pandora, and Zeus gave her to Epimetheus, who lived with men. Unlike Prometheus, Epimetheus is not wise. He did not heed his brother’s warning against accepting gifts from Zeus. And Pandora easily tricked him to give her the urn from Prometheus.
Curious, Pandora opened the urn. Greed, dishonestly, envy, vanity, and all other evils were released back into the world. The last item inside the urn was hope. It was the only solace for men, but it was not enough. Earth became a miserable place.
To help mankind, one Arcadian king, named Lycaon, sacrificed his own son to Zeus. Appalled, the Olympian god finally sent a flood to destroy the race of men. But Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, escaped with his wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus, and they saved human kind. After surviving the flood, the couple, without malice or resentment, gave offerings to Zeus. The Olympian god was pleased and was willing to grant them any wish. The couple wished for people. Zeus instructed them to throw stones on the soil of the earth. The stones that Deucalion threw transformed into men and the stones that Pyrrha threw turned into women. Thus, mortals populated the earth again.
References:
- Fisher, L. (1984). The Olympians, Great Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece. New York: Holiday House.
- Hesiod. Theogony. (1987). (Richard S Caldwell, Trans.) Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co. (Original work published about 800 B.C.)
- Ovid. Metamorphoses. (1922). (Brookes More, Trans). Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co. (Original work published about 43 B.C. to 18 A.D.)
- Plato. Protagoras. (2006). (Adam Beresford, Trans.) New York: Penguin Classics. (Original work published about 400 to 420 B.C.)
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June 15th, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
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