Myths

Ever since human beings came into existence, we’ve had stories. We’ve created them to make sense of the wonders around us. We created gods to explain the natural phenomena around us. What was lightning? What caused the tides? Why did some people die while others lived long, healthy lives?

How to explain why the sun rose from the horizon every morning and sank below the horizon every night? A god named Apollo carried the sun in his chariot across the sky each day. What caused thunder? A god named Thor was banging his hammer. Why was the world full of troubles? Someone named Pandora—the first woman created by the gods, according to Greek mythology—opened a box containing all the ills of the world. But the box also contained hope, so when all the troubles escaped to fill the universe, hope filled the universe, as well.

We make up stories to explain it all. And really, isn’t Pandora’s story a more interesting explanation of why the world is teeming with trouble than “stuff happens”?

A recent vacation took me to the Big Island of Hawaii for ten days. The Big Island has two dominant volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, and some wonderful myths revolving around Pele, the goddess of volcanic fire. According to one myth, Pele, who lived on Mauna Loa, was vying with the goddess of snow-capped mountains, Poliahu, for the affections of a tribal chief. In the grip of jealous passion, Pele caused Mauna Kea, the mountain where Poliahu lived, to erupt. The fiery lava frightened Poliahu away and melted the mountain’s snow. Once Poliahu recovered from her fear, she caused a fierce snowstorm which extinguished Mauna Kea’s fires forever. Neither goddess ever won the love of the handsome tribal chief. But to this day, Pele’s home of Mauna Loa is sometimes capped with snow despite the fiery lava inside.

Reading this story made me imagine the first settlers in Hawaii. They’d sailed their outrigger canoes across the ocean from Polynesia to an island and were confronted with two huge mountains that were seemingly on fire. How to explain it? How to explain that a mountain seething and steaming and spewing ash could sometimes wind up capped in snow?

Competitive goddesses. Why not?

When in doubt, when bewildered, when nothing else makes sense, create a story.