High School Dig-Up: Greek Myth

This was an assignment I had freshman year of high school. We were reading the Odyssey and our task was to write our own Greek myth. I got full points on this one =D

Before the planets and sun were created, the gods all lived together in the heavens. There was no such thing as death in their world, so they lived on and on with no change. There was peace everywhere, and they were all happy -  all except one. Hades had always been an outcast; he didn’t like the way they lived because he believed something was missing. Athena, the wisest of them all, listened to him and even encouraged him to try to find out what was missing. Though she was wise, she could not think of it herself.

          Athena warned Hades that he must tell her what he discovered before doing anything else. However, the first thing that Hades discovered was Pride and Greed, so he created them without consulting Athena first. Pride and Greed began to spread everywhere, and passed through all the gods. Hades smiled as he saw this and was proud or his success, but it wasn’t enough. He knew that there was still something missing.

          After Pride and Greed were made, fights erupted everywhere, and Hades soon thought of many more. He invented Anger, Hatred, Envy, Sadness, and many more - each time becoming more satisfied but still knowing there was something more missing.

          One day, while looking down on all the suffering he had caused, Hades thought of something new once again " Distrust. However, he did not realize that as he was making it, Zeus was coming towards him. Though there were many times before this when Zeus or any other god had plenty of reason to no longer trust Hades, Distrust had not existed. Zeus saw him just as it was created, then struck him down in anger when he realized what he had done.

          Being the most powerful of all the gods, Zeus was able to capture all the horrors Hades had created and lock them in a box. Though they could not control them any longer, their shadows were left behind inside the gods forever, now that they had felt them.

          Zeus tied bolts of lightning around Hades so that he could no create anything else that would cause pain, and then through him into the sky. All through that night, lightning lit up the sky whenever Hades tried to escape.

          Athena came to Zeus that night to talk to him. She told him that though what Hades had done was horrible, she had realized that she had become even wiser because of it, and that the other gods had never had more joy than now that it was over. She told Zeus that what Hades had done might not have been such a bad thing.

          The gods soon began to realize that since Hades could create something from nothing, then they could too. This is how all the planets were created, and the sun, and all life on Earth.

          After the Earth and all the people were created, and Pandora had let all the horrors out of the box, Zeus talked to Hades and asked him if he had thought of the one last thing that the gods did not have but that this new life must. Hades answered:

          “Yes, I had long to think over it as I was locked in the sky. I realized that the pain I had created would make these people happier and wiser afterwards. But I also discovered that if they were like the gods and lived forever, they would soon realize that those troubles could not always plague them and would soon become stronger and overcome them, and everything would be back as it was before I created them. So I discovered Death. They would know that they all have a certain amount of time on Earth, and so would fight harder for change and happiness and would then be able to appreciate all the good they have all the more for it.”

Reviews

[Spectra Nox]

I love it :D