From Gaia to Instagram: How Myths Become Misremembered Acts

“Myths which are believed in, tend to become true.” quote from George Orwell, author of 1984

“When the Legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Quote from the movie “Who shot Liberty Valence.”

I have always been enchanted by Greek and Roman myths. Which I believe today is similar to my fascination with the stories of the royal families in Europe. Their affairs, their clothes, their jewels, their royal celebrations, their public appearances and the places they visit have become a fun conversation and speculation for me. As a comparative religion major, and a woman who likes to compare and analyze everything, it makes me wonder about how myths were created.

I learned myths began on the island of Crete around 1100 BC, in the Minoan palace of Knossos. I envision groups of women working together, weaving, cooking, caring for children and gossiping. Their gossip turned into stories about gods. So rather than report about a bad king stealing from his people, they would use metaphors in place of reality. With no explanations for why the world was unfair, why certain events happened or why their children misbehaved, myths were born. After all, isn’t it easier to blame a God or a Monster than to blame a king or yourself?

Today we no longer tell stories about Zeus on Mount Olympus. Our Olympus is now social media such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, online streaming news services such as CNN, the NY Times, the Wall Street Journal, Substack, podcasts and television. Our gods seem to be the royal families, politicians, celebrities, sports figures, and billionaires. Different places, different names, same human impulse. It seems we are still turning the lives of the powerful into myths. And as the Tarot cards tell us, our myths are whatever we tell ourselves.

And this brings me to the story of Chaos where the myths of the Greek Gods began:

Chaos, represents the universe as it was taking shape. As the worlds collided the creation of three entities was formed: Gaia, mother earth, Tartaros, the underworld, and Eros, desire.

Gaia gave birth to three groups of children, the mountains, sky and sea. The sky was called Uranus, and he covered the earth on all sides. Together Gaia and Uranus gave birth to the three Cyclopes, the three Hecatoncheires, these were brothers with 50 heads and 100 arms and the twelve Titans. The Titan’s names were: the six brothers: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Lapetus, Cronus and the six sisters, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.

The conflict begins when Uranus imprisons the Hecatoncheires to the underworld of Tartaros because he found them hostile towards himself. This action by Uranus caused Gaia to ask her children, the Titans, to help her free the Hecatoncheires from the underworld. Only her youngest son, Cronos, said he would help his mother. His reward was to become the King of the Gods.

Cronos and Gaia planned to ambush Uranus at night, with the help of Selena, the goddess of the moon. Selena, covered the moon so the world would be in darkness. As the world turned on the rotation of the celestial sphere, called the axis mundi. This is the point in the world where Uranus came each night to mate with Gaia. Crono came upon his father and castrated him with his sickle, throwing his penis into the ocean. This is the myth that explains why the Sky and the Earth are separated. From his blood new beings were born, the Erinyes or the Furies of vengeance, the Giants and the Nymphs. From his severed part, Aphrodite was born from sea foam. Thus ends Uranus generation of rulers and directly created both vengeance and love, which is the fuel for all the stories that follow.

After Cronos frees his brothers from the underworld, he becomes the King of the Gods. He marries his sister Rhea, who is the goddess of motherhood and time. Together they have the six Olympians of the Greek pantheon, Poseidon, Hera, Hades, Demeter, Hestia, and Zeus.

As each child was born and brought before Cronos, he remembered how he became King. He did not want his children to do to him what he did to his father. As he cradled his newborn, looking at them with delight, he opened his mouth and swallowed them whole.

Rhea, did not want this to happen to her sixth child, Zeus. Therefore, when she presented the baby to Cronos she took a stone and wrapped it in a shawl, telling him he had a son. Sure enough Cronos opened his mouth and swallowed the stone thinking it was his son.

Rhea, took Zeus, to Mt. Ida, a cave in Crete. There she entrusted him to the nymphs Adrasteia, Ida and the goat Amalthea to feed him. When Zeus became of age he went to his father’s court. At court Cronos, asked for a glass of nectar. With this request Zeus stepped forward with a glass of poisoned nectar. Cronos, accepted the glass, drank all of it. He then vomited out the five children that he had swallowed. Thus began the Titanomachy, the war between the Titans and the Olympians.

For the Greeks, the war between the Titans and the Olympians explained the formation of the land. Gaia had made the Earth, but it was wild and had no shape. In the war, when the Titans fell in battle, they became the mountains. The rivers were formed when Zeus split the earth with his lightning bolts, and the tears of the Olympians became the ocean. This was how the people who lived in 1100 BC explained how the world became the place where they lived. These beliefs told over and over again, became the various myths.

When I visited Knossos near Heraklion in Crete, I was amazed. The palace which is over 4,000 years old, has over a thousand rooms with corridors that twisted like a labyrinth. There were light wells that were openings for ancient elevators, running water, baths and paintings on the walls of dolphins swimming. There were symbols of bees everywhere. For the Minoans, which is what the people who lived here called themselves, the bee represented the Mother Goddess herself. Their world was seen as a perfect matriarchal society, ruled by a queen. We purchased an icon of the Mother Goddess Bee, to me she resembled Freda Kahlo.

What is the difference of a Myth, Legend, Fable and Folklore?

Myth: A word of mouth story explaining some natural or social phenomenon, involving supernatural Gods.

Legend: When something or someone leaves a historical mark so strong and difficult to be achieved again.

Fable: A short story, typically with animals as characters, giving a moral.

Folklore: A belief, passed through the generations by word of mouth.

One thread common to a myth, fable, folklore and legend is that they all have a hero. There is someone we can root for and hope they can achieve their goal. There seems to be no new stories since Homer wrote the epic Iliad and the Odyssey. Just variations of an epic story. Perhaps this subtle form of the repetition of the hero’s journey could help us understand our place in the world because Myths become misremembered acts.

I also see many parallels in Myths when I read Tarot Cards. For in the Major Arcana, which is also called the Fool’s journey, the fool or the hero goes through 21 doors or life experiences. As I read tarot cards I try to divine a past and future. It is about interpreting a life story, a type of life myth for who ever wanted me to read for them. Myth takes many forms. It can be found in Knossos, it can be the twenty-one doors of the Fool’s Journey. And yet sometimes, it’s just one person’s life story, told back to them so it can finally make sense.