ID:40474
 
Currently, as a semester-long elective, I'm taking mythology, and in our current section we're learning about Greek mythology. Today I had to hand in a story we had to write, which was an original etyological myth, which is a myth that explains why something is the way it is. For example, the story of Arachne explains the existence of spiders and the story of the Rape of Persephone explains the seasons.

Being a nerd, I decided to do a myth on the quantization of matter (why matter is divided into discrete quantities, like atoms, protons, neutrons, quarks, etc.). Aside from spacing, to make it easier to show on the internet, I have the story just as it was given to the teacher below. Would anyone be willing to critique it to tell me if they think it is any good or not?




In the time after the death of Aristotle in classical Greece, there lived a man named Quantikus from the great city of Athena. Quantikus was a philosopher, an eternal ponderer of the world and all things in it. As with all philosophers, he spent his time thinking about the natural world around him. The questions of "why?" and "what?" and "how?" and every other question a man can think of. Why was the world like it is? What does it mean? How does it work in such ways?

When Quantikus felt like contemplating such things, he wished to be alone, and he found no other settings as superb as the Athenian countryside. There he walked, sometimes from dawn till dusk, thinking about such matters of importance. One day, as he was thinking about these things, he found it getting late. Too far away from Athens to walk, he wandered to a small river with banks of wispy, fluffy grass to lay on, and decided to spend the night.

In case of such situations, he always carried with him an axe. He found a small, dead tree, not rotting and apparently having fallen recently. He dragged it back to the riverside and began to chop it in half, and then in half again. As he cut it to make firewood, he wondered to himself how many times it could be cut in half. Not simply until his meager axe could cut it, but how many times it could be cut if one were to have an infinitely sharp axe, one that could strike down even the gods, and had such accuracy of Apollo with his bow, so that they would hit even the smaller splinters with certain accuracy.

As he built his fire, he thought about this. He lied down in the wispy grass, he thought. He pondered until the fire went out; he pondered till the first light showed over the distant hills; he pondered until Apollo was high in the sky, with his chariot of fire; he pondered until his twin, Artemis, was in the same place that night; he pondered and thought and contemplated for three days, and then some more, finally moving from his spot in the grass. And then, finally, he realized he had discovered the solution.

Wishing to verify his answer, he summoned the gods Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, and Haphaestus. His logic behind this was the classical Greek elements: Zeus, god of the sky and air; Poseidon, god of the sea and water; Hades, god of the Earth; Haphaestus, god of fire. One by one the immortals appeared in front of him, seemingly annoyed by the rude and abrupt interruption.

"Why have you summoned us here, mortal?", Hades said with annoyance and contempt in his voice, after noticing Quantikus standing before them.

"Please f-forgive me for c-calling you here," he half-stuttered in reply, "m-mighty immortals, but I have a q-question that only you are capable of answering. If you you are able to make a reply to it, I will make an offering to each of your temples."

Zeus, as obviously annoyed as the other gods, stepped forwards, "Well then tell us what it is you ask, so we may be going."

"Well, I had been contemplating what would occur if one where to have an infinitely sharp axe, one that great Haphaestus created, sharp enough to strike down immortals and gods, such as yourselves, and used such a divine item to cut a piece of wood in half, and then continued, would one be able to do such a feat ad infinitum?"

Zeus made a motion, as though he were going to speak, and then halted, rubbing his chin and beard, thinking. He and the other immortals grouped themselves together, moving away from Quantikus, to discuss this matter.

"Would it be even possible," Hades asked, "to hit a log with such accuracy when it is smaller than vision would allow it to be seen?"

"But that isn't what the question is asking.", Zeus commented.

"Why wouldn't wood be able to be cut down into pieces so small, though?", said Poseidon in reply.

The other three gods looked towards Haphaestus, who had been playing with a rock on the ground, suddenly became aware of the silence. He looked up to see Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades staring at him, obviously expecting some sort of insight or reply. He opened his mouth, closed it again, paused, and then finally spoke, "I don't have any ideas."

Curious as to what solution a simple mortal had devised, Zeus moved away from the group and stepped towards Quantikus, who looked up in awe as Zeus towered over him, "What is this solution you claimed to have devised?" Catching the look of Quantikus, surprise, as though he couldn't believe he had out-thought the gods, caused Zeus to follow up, "We'd like to know if you're right. We can not simply tell such truths to a mortal for no reason."

This lie seemed to have subdued his curiosity, much to Zeus' ease, and he stated his solution, "Well, I believe that there must be a smallest...something, I suppose one could say, I suppose: a smallest amount of wood, or a smallest amount of water, or fire, and so on. Is this correct?"

Zeus had a look of awe on his face for a brief moment after hearing this solution, but quickly changed it to an appearance of scrutiny upon noticing Quantikus' face looking towards him. He stepped back to the group of the other gods, and discussed this simple, elegant solution.

Haphaestus, still contently playing with his rock, said, "Sounds simple enough to me.", as Zeus stepped back to them.

"It...it does.", Hades said, rather awestruck.

"How could a simple mortal have out-thought gods?" voiced Zeus, abnormally quiet, "How could he have out-thought an immortal?"

Poseidon and Hades remained quiet, unable to think of anything to say to this revelation. Zeus, though, knew they couldn't let Quantikus know of this, "We can not explain such a thing in any other way: This mortal's explanation is the best way. We have to make it so, so we can tell him that his solution is correct without having us appear to be the fool."

Zeus acted first, changing the nature of his realm of the sky. Wishing to get back to Mount Olympus, to eat ambrosia and drink nectar or to find another maiden to woo, he acted quickly, making the sky the realm of oxygen and nitrogen and hydrogen and gasses of other, similar sorts.

Next came Poseidon, wishing to leave soon and return to his underwater palace, was uncreative and simply appropriated elements of Zeus' realm. He took hydrogen and oxygen, and under his hand they became water, the predominant compound of the sea and ocean.

Hades, still angered at Zeus and Poseidon at his position in the universe, took his time, producing the most intricate grouping: he made the earth full of iron, zinc, uranium, plutonium, and many more, as well as their countless, numerous combinations.

Lastly came Haphaestus, who, like Poseidon, worked with Zeus' elements. He was not content pounding together the two elements into something new. He found himself creating a machine, a repeating cycle of hydrogen and oxygen, making fire.

When they were finished, the four made their way back to Quantikus, who had sat down in the grass by the riverside. He stood up when he saw them coming back, and waited for Zeus, who was leading them, to speak, "I believe we should summon Athena, for her wisdom would work best in this matter."

When Athena arrived, she looked at the other gods in a mixture of embarrassment and disgust, obviously aware of the trickery of her uncles, father, and brother. Of course, no Olympian would let a mortal know that any god was fallible, and decided to go with the ploy of her relatives.

"Wise Athena, thank you for joining us." spoke Zeus (Athena nodded in reply), "This mortal has asked whether, simply stated, one could cut down a block of wood forever, provided they were given tools that would be appropriate for such a mighty task. This is a very astute question, and I believe an answer to such a question would lie in your realm of expertise."

"And what was this mortal's answer?"

"I think that there must be a smallest amount, so that nothing could be cut down beyond that quantity." Quantikus interjected. He noted the annoyed recognition in her eyes, and stammered out, "S-sorry..."

"He is correct in his solution." Athena said. She looked at Quantikus, who had a look of happiness in his eyes, and then left, going back to Mount Olympus. She was followed by Zeus and Haphaestus, while Poseidon went to his underwater palace, and Hades returned to the underworld, each hanging their head's in shame.

It had been several days, and Quantikus gleefully decided to return to his home in Athens.
It seemed really drawn out to me, but maybe that's just because I'm not interested in that subject.

I only noticed a small place where you wrote "you you", but that could have been the guy stuttering. Though I don't think mistakes were the point to you posting it.
Damn. The "you you" part is a mistake.
Just a random and useless update on this: I finally got my grade back on this, and the teacher liked it. I ended up getting a 99%