Prometheus
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- For other uses, see Prometheus (disambiguation)
In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek: Προμηθεύς, "forethought")[1] is a Titan known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals for their use. His myth has been treated by a number of ancient sources, in which Prometheus is credited with (or blamed for) playing a pivotal role in the early history of humankind.
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[edit] Hesiod
The Prometheus myth first appears in the Greek epic poet Hesiod's (ca. the late 8th - early 7th centuries BC) Theogony (lines 507-616). He was a son of Iapetus by Clymene (one of the Oceanids). He was also a brother of Atlas, Menoetius and Epimetheus. In the Theogony, Hesiod introduces Prometheus as a lowly challenger to Zeus' omniscience and omnipotence. At a meal marking the "settling of accounts" between mortals and immortals, Prometheus plays a trick against Zeus (545-557). He places two sacrificial offerings before the Olympian: a selection of ox meat hidden inside an ox's stomach (nourishment hidden inside a displeasing exterior), and the ox's bones wrapped in "glistening fat" (something inedible hidden inside a pleasing exterior). Zeus chooses the latter, setting a precedent for future sacrifices; henceforth, humans would keep the meat for themselves and burn the bones wrapped in fat as an offering to the gods. This angers Zeus, who hides fire from humans in retribution. Prometheus, however, steals fire from Zeus and gives it back to humans for their use. This further enrages Zeus, who sends mortal man the first woman, presumably Pandora (590-93): "From her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth." Prometheus, meanwhile, is chained to a rock where his regenerating liver is eaten daily by a vulture. [2] Years later the Greek hero Heracles would shoot the vulture and free Prometheus from his chains.[3]
Hesiod revisits the story of Prometheus in the Works and Days (lines 42-105). Here, the poet expands upon Zeus' reaction to the theft of fire. Not only does Zeus withhold fire from men, but "the means of life," as well (42). Had Prometheus not provoked Zeus' wrath (44-47), "you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste." Hesiod also expands upon the Theogony's story of the first woman, now explicitly called Pandora. After Prometheus' theft of fire, Zeus sent Pandora to Prometheus' brother Epimetheus. Pandora carried a jar with her, from which she released (91-92) "evils, harsh pain and troublesome diseases which give men death."[4]
[edit] Aeschylus
Perhaps the most famous treatment of the Prometheus myth can be found in the Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound -- traditionally (but uncertainly) attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus. The drama is likely the first play of the otherwise non-extant Prometheia trilogy. At the center of the drama are Prometheus' theft of fire and his subsequent punishment by Zeus; in this, Aeschylus' dependence on the Hesiodic source material is clear. The Prometheus Bound also includes, however, a number of changes to the received tradition. Some of these changes are rather minor. For instance, rather than being the son of Iapetus and Clymene -- and hence, Zeus' cousin -- Prometheus becomes the son of Gaea -- and Zeus' uncle. Also, the chorus makes a passing reference (561) to Prometheus' wife Hesione, whereas a fragment from Hesiod's Catalogue of Women calls her by the name of Pronoea.[5]
Other innovations are more substantial. Before his theft of fire, Prometheus played a decisive role in the Titanomachy, in fact securing victory for Zeus and the other Olympians; Zeus' torture of Prometheus thus becomes a particularly harsh betrayal. The scope and character of Prometheus' transgressions against Zeus are also widened. In addition to giving humankind fire, Prometheus claims to have taught them the so-called arts of civilization such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science. The Titan's greatest benefaction for humankind seems to have been saving them from complete destruction. In an apparent twist on the myth of the so-called Five Ages of Man found in Hesiod's Works and Days (wherein Cronus and, later, Zeus created and destroyed five successive races of mortal men), Prometheus asserts that Zeus had wanted to obliterate the human race, but that he somehow stopped him. Moreover, Aeschylus anachronistically and artificially injects Io, another victim of Zeus' violence and ancestor of Heracles, into Prometheus' story. Finally, just as Aeschylus gave Prometheus a key role in bringing Zeus to power, he also attributed to him secret knowledge that could lead to Zeus' downfall: Prometheus had been told by his mother Gaea of a potential marriage that would produce a son who would overthrow Zeus. Fragmentary evidence indicates that Heracles, as in Hesiod, frees the Titan in the trilogy's second play, Prometheus Unbound. It is apparently not until Prometheus reveals this secret of Zeus' potential downfall that the two reconcile in the final play, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer.
Prometheus Bound also includes two mythic innovations of omission. The first is the absence of Pandora's story in connection with Prometheus' own. Instead, Aeschylus includes this one oblique allusion to Pandora and her jar that contained Hope (252): "[Prometheus] caused blind hopes to live in the hearts of men." Second, Aeschylus makes no mention of the sacrifice-trick played against Zeus in the Theogony.[6]
Most of these innovations are reflective of the play's thematic reversal of the Hesiodic Myth. In Hesiod, the story of Prometheus (and, by extension, of Pandora) serves to reinforce the theodicy of Zeus: he is a wise and just ruler of the universe, while Prometheus is to blame for humanity's unenviable existence. In Prometheus Bound, this dynamic is transposed: Prometheus becomes the benefactor of humanity, while every character in the drama (except for Hermes, a virtual stand-in for Zeus) decries the Olympian as a cruel, vicious tyrant.
[edit] Other authors
Over a dozen other Greek and Roman authors would retell and further embellish the Prometheus myth into the 4th century AD. The most significant detail added to the myth -- found in, e.g., Sappho, Plato, Aesop and Ovid -- was the central role of Prometheus in the creation of the human race. According to these sources, Prometheus fashioned humans out of clay. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato asserts that the gods created humans and all the other animals, but it was left to Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to give defining attributes to each. As no physical traits were left when the pair came to humans, Prometheus decided to give them fire and other civilizing arts.[7]
Although perhaps made explicit in the Prometheia, later authors such as Hyginus, Apollodorus, and Quintus of Smyrna would confirm that Prometheus warned Zeus not to marry the sea nymph Thetis. She is consequently married off to the mortal Peleus, and bears him a son greater than the father -- Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War. Apollodorus moreover clarifies for us a cryptic statement (1026-29) made by Hermes in Prometheus Bound, identifying the centaur Cheiron as the one who would take on Prometheus' suffering and die in his place.[7]
Reflecting a myth attested in Greek vase paintings from the Classical period, Apollodorus places the Titan (armed with an axe) at the birth of Athena, thus explaining how the goddess sprang forth from the forehead of Zeus.[7]
Other minor details attached to the myth, such as: the origin of the eagle that ate the Titan's liver (found in Apollodorus and Hyginus); myths surrounding the life of Prometheus' son, Deucalion (found in Ovid and Apollonius of Rhodes); and Prometheus' marginal role in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts (found in Apollonius of Rhodes and Valerius Flaccus).[7]
[edit] Prometheus in other arts
Prometheus' torment by the eagle and his rescue by Heracles were popular subjects in vase paintings of the 6th-4th c. BC. He also sometimes appears in depictions of Athena's birth from Zeus' forehead.
There was a relief sculpture of Prometheus with Pandora on the base of Athena's cult statue in the Athenian Parthenon of the 5th century BC.
Gustave Moreau 006.jpg
Prometheus by Gustave Moreau, (1868). |
Heinrich fueger 1817 prometheus brings fire to mankind.jpg
Prometheus brings Fire to Mankind, by Heinrich Füger, (1817). |
Prometheus Adam Louvre MR1745 edit.jpg
Prométhée enchaîné (Prometheus Bound) by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam, (1762). Prometheus chained to a rock having his liver torn out by the eagle. |
Prometheus Bound by Scott Eaton c1996.jpg
Prometheus Bound, by Scott Eaton, (2006). |
[edit] Worship
Prometheus had a small shrine in the Kerameikos, or potter's quarter, of Athens, not far from the Academy. The Academy had its own altar dedicated to Prometheus. According to the 2nd-century AD Greek traveler Pausanias, this site was central to a torch race dedicated to Prometheus.
Pausanias also wrote that the Greek cities of Argos and Opous both claimed to be Prometheus' final resting place, each erecting a tomb in his honor.
Finally, Pausanias attested that in the Greek city of Panopeus there was a cult statue claimed by some to depict Prometheus, for having created the human race there.[7]
[edit] Promethean myth in modern culture
The mythic Prometheus is the lyrical self of the poem "Prometheus" by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, in which the character addresses God (as Zeus) in misotheist accusation and defiance.
The cloned horse Prometea, and Prometheus, a moon of Saturn, are named after this Titan, as is the asteroid 1809 Prometheus. The story of Prometheus has inspired many authors through the ages, and the Romantics saw Prometheus as a prototype of the natural daemon or genius.
The name of the sixty-first element, Promethium, is derived from Prometheus.
Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus". This is a reference to the novel's themes of the over-reaching of modern man into dangerous areas of knowledge.
In Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, John Galt is compared to Prometheus: "John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains and he withdrew his fire--until the day men withdraw their vultures."
Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound" rewrites the lost play of Aeschylus so that Prometheus does not submit to Zeus (Shelley's Jupiter), but supplants him instead in a triumph of the human heart and intellect over tyrannical religion. Lord Byron's poem "Prometheus" also portrays the titan as unrepentant. For the Romantics, Prometheus was the rebel who resisted all forms of institutional tyranny epitomized by Zeus -- church, monarch, and patriarch. They drew comparisons between Prometheus and the spirit of the French Revolution, Christ, Milton's Satan, and the divinely inspired poet or artist.
DC/Wildstorm published a comic-book called Promethea, written by Watchmen's Alan Moore, and penciled by JHWilliams III. The comic-book also served as a long essay on magic and mythology. As suggested by the title Promethea, which implies the feminine version or inversion of the mythological Prometheus, the title also participates in the sub-genre of feminism in superhero comics.
In the video game BioShock, Point Prometheus is an area in the underwater city of Rapture.
Prometheus is the main villain in the video game Starsiege. He is the epitome of intelligence, but uses this against humans.
Prometheus is one of the main antagonists in the Mega Man ZX series.
Prometheus is portrayed in the game God of War II as a character who is doomed to eternal torture by Zeus.
In the video game God of Gods, Promethius is the mentor of playable character Hercules. You receive help and guidance throughout the game by Promethius, who uses his power of foresight to predict what you should do.
In the video game Chrono Trigger, the character Robo is called Prometheus by his robot kin, and his storyline and sidequest seem to mirror the tale of the Greek Prometheus.
Prometheus is the name of a BC-303 class starship on the television series Stargate SG-1. It is subsequently destroyed by an Ori satellite weapon in an episode titled "Ethon".
Prometheus is a minor character in the novel The Big Over Easy, where he is a lodger in the home of the protagonist, Jack Spratt. Prometheus later marries Spratt's daughter Pandora, despite the 4,000 year difference in their ages.
In Ayn Rand's "Anthem", the main character changes his name to Prometheus after being condemned for inventing the light bulb.
In the Highlander TV Series, an episode is dedicated as "The Modern Prometheus," a spinoff of the true legend.
Prometheus Books, a publishing company for scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those relating to secular humanism or scientific skepticism, takes its name from the myth.
In Superman Returns, Lex Luthor recounts the tale of Prometheus and compares it to his own collection of Kryptonian technology. "I'm not a God, I'm just bringing fire to the people. And I want my cut . . ."
An episode of The X-Files was entitled The Post-Modern Prometheus.
The fourth full-length release from Norwegian black metal band Emperor, Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise, takes its name from the myth of Prometheus.
In the Heroes Reborn stories from Marvel Comics, the project to develop the Iron Man armor was named "Project: Prometheus".
Prometheus is featured in the campaign in Age of Mythology: The Titans.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The derivation of Prometheus' name from the Greek pro (before) + manthano (learn) is actually a folk etymology. In truth, the name comes from the same PIE word that produces the Vedic pra math, which means "to steal." This verb produces pramathyu-s, "thief", whence "Prometheus." The Vedic myth of fire's theft by Matarigvan is, not coincidentally, an analog to the account found in Greek myth. To these etymological cognates we may add pramantha, the tool used to create fire. Thus Fortson 2004, 27; Williamson 2004, 214-15.
- ^ It is interesting to note that the liver is one of the rare human organs to regenerate itself spontaneously in the case of lesion. The ancient Greeks seem to have been aware of this, since the Greek word for the liver -- hêpar -- apparently derives from the verb hêpaomai, which means: mend, repair. Hence hêpar roughly translates as, "repairable."
- ^ HESIOD, THEOGONY
- ^ Hesiod, WORKS AND DAYS Translation By H. G. Evelyn-White
- ^ Pronoia
- ^ AESCHYLUS, PROMETHEUS BOUND
- ^ a b c d e PROMETHEUS
[edit] References
- Fortson, Benjamin. Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (Blackwell Publishing, 2004).
- Williamson, George S. The Longing for Myth in Germany: Religion and Aesthetic Culture from Romanticism to Nietzsche (Chicago, 2004).
[edit] External links
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Theoi Text, Theogony
- Theoi Text, Works and Days
- Theoi Text, Prometheus Bound
- Theoi Mythology, Prometheus
- Theoi Mythology, Pronoea
- GML, Prometheus
- Encyclopedia Mythica, Prometheus
- Messagenet, Prometheus
- Prometheus, a poem by Noevel (French)
- Prometheus, a poem by Byronar:بروميثيوس
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