Prometheus

Prometheus by Gustave Moreau, (1868).

In Greek mythology, Prometheus (ancient Greek: Προμηθεύς, "forethought") is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from Zeus in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. For this transgression, Zeus ordered that Prometheus be chained to the summit of the Caucasus Mountain. On each and every day that followed, an eagle would come and eat his liver. Since Prometheus was immortal, his liver always regenerated, and so he was left to bear this horrible pain every day. Prometheus is commonly depicted in myth as an intelligent and cunning figure who had sympathy for humanity; to this day, the term Promethean is used to describe people who or events which are connected with great creativity, intellect, and boldness.

Mythology

Family and Personality

Prometheus was a son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanids. He was also a brother of Atlas, Menoetius and Epimetheus, although he surpassed each of these in cunning and deceit. He would go on to become the father of Deucalion with Pronoia who is often confused as Clymene because the both of them are often called by the same name.

In general, Prometheus was not fearful of the gods, and he openly ridiculed Zeus, although he was favored by the supreme god for his assistance in the fight against Cronus. Furthemore, it was Prometheus who helped cure Zeus of a particularly horrendous headache. No healer was able to help the king of the gods, and so Prometheus came to him and declared that he knew the appropriate remedy, then promptly took a rock from the ground and hit Zeus over the head with it. From out of the wound on Zeus' head climbed the Goddess Athena, and so Zeus' headache disappeared. Alternative versions of these myths identify Hephaestus or Hera, rather than Prometheus, as the individual who split Zeus' head open.

Creation of Humanity

Prometheus brings Fire to Humankind, by Heinrich Füger, (1817)

Prometheus, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, is credited with the creation of human-beings "in godlike image" from clay, a role which is assigned to Zeus in other variations of the creation myth. According to the myths, Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus were ordered by Cronus to make creatures which would populate the earth. Prometheus carefully crafted a creature after the shape of the gods, a man. Prometheus and Epimetheus journeyed to Earth from Olympus, then ventured to the Greek province of Boitia and made clay figures. Zeus took the figures and breathed life into them. The figures that Prometheus had created became Man and honored him. The figures that his brother Epimetheus had created, meanwhile, became the beasts, which turned and attacked him.

Zeus was angered by the actions of Prometheus and Epimetheus, and he forbade the pair from teaching humanity the ways of civilization. Athena chose to cross Zeus and taught Prometheus so that he might teach humanity. For their actions, Zeus demanded a sacrifice from Man to the Gods to show that they were obedient and worshipful. The gods and mortal man had arranged a meeting at Mecone where the matter of division of sacrifice was to be settled. Prometheus slew a large ox, and divided it into two piles. In one pile he put all the meat and most of the fat, skillfully covering it with the ox's grotesque stomach, while in the other pile, he dressed up the bones artfully with shining fat.

Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose. Zeus, however, saw through the trick, but nonetheless chose the pile of bones, since he realized that in purposefully getting tricked he would have an excuse to vent his anger upon mortal humans. Many other sources say that Zeus did not, in fact, see through this ruse. This provides a mythological explanation for the common practice whereby worshippers would sacrifice only the bones to the gods, while man keeping the meat and fat for themselves.

In his wrath, Zeus denied humankind the secret of fire. In the wake of this punishment, Prometheus watched his creations as they shivered though the cold winter's nights felt and was overcome with sympathy. He decided to give his most loved creation a great gift that was a "good servant and bad master". He stealthfully stole fire from the hearth of the gods and brought it to humans in a hollow wand of fennel that served him in place of a staff. He brought down the fire coal and gave it to the humans, then instructed them as to how they could cook and stay warm.

Prometheus Bound

File:Prometheus Bound by Scott Eaton c1996.jpg

Prometheus Bound, by Scott Eaton, (2006).

Zeus was enraged because the giving of fire ushered in an era of enlightenment for human beings. Zeus could not simply take fire back, because a god or goddess could not take away what another had given. For Prometheus' act of hubris Zeus devised a punishment that would suppress all of humankind while rendering Prometheus unable to succor them. Zeus had Prometheus carried to Mount Caucasus, upon the summit of which he was bound. Here an eagle by the name of Ethon would arrive daily to peck at his liver. Since he was immortal, his liver would grow back each day and so the eagle would eat it again. Curiously, the liver is one of the rare human organs to regenerate itself spontaneously in the case of lesion. The ancient Greeks were well aware of this, since they named liver (Greek: hēpar, ήπαρ) after hēpaomai (ηπάομαι), hence hēpar actually means "repairable".

In other variations of this story, Zeus has Prometheus tortured on the mountain because he has come to know the name of the person who, according to prophecy, will overthrow the king of the gods. This punishment was to last for eternity. About 12 generations later, Zeus's very own son Heracles, passing by on his way to find the apples of the Hesperides as part of his Twelve Labours, freed Prometheus. Once free, Prometheus captured Ethon and ate his liver as revenge for his pain and suffering. Zeus was not overly perturbed upon hearing that Prometheus had again evaded his punishment, as the act brought more glory to his son. However, there was a problem, since Zeus had already decided that Prometheus would be tied in the rock for eternity. According to Greek mythology, this could never change, even if Zeus himself wished it. Finally, a solution was found: Prometheus was invited to return to Olympus and was given a ring by Zeus which contained a piece of the rock to which he had been previously bound. Prometheus liked this ring and decided to wear it thereafter for eternity.

Pandora's Box

To punish human beings for the offenses of Prometheus, Zeus told Hephaestus to "mingle together all things loveliest, sweetest, and best, but look that you also mingle therewith the opposites of each." So Hephaestus took gold and dross, wax and flint, pure snow and mud, honey and gall, the bloom of the rose and the toad's venom, the voice of laughing water and the peacocks squall, the sea's beauty and its treachery, the dog's fidelity and the wind's inconstancy, and the mother bird's heart of love and the cruelty of the tiger. All these and other contraries beyond numeration, he blended cunningly into one substance and this he molded into the shape that Zeus had described to him. She was as beautiful as a goddess and Zeus named her Pandora which meant "all gifted". Zeus breathed upon her image, and it lived. Zeus sent her to wed Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, and although Prometheus had warned his brother never to accept gifts from the Olympians, Epimetheus was love-stricken, and he and Pandora wed. The Gods adorned the couple with many wedding gifts, and Zeus presented them with a beautifully wrought box. When Pandora opened the box, all suffering and despair was unleashed upon mankind. Zeus had had his revenge.

Worship

As the introducer of fire and inventor of crafts, Prometheus was seen as the patron of human civilization, thus, it is not surprising that he was commemorated in Greek worship. A small shrine to Prometheus was located in the Kerameikos, or potter's quarter, of Athens, not far from Plato's Academy. In the Akademia, located just outside of Athens, there stood another altar to Prometheus, from which athletes raced to the city carrying burning torches. The contest involved keep the torch still alight while running; if the torch of the lead runner came to be extinguished, he lost his claim to victory. In Argos, the chief city of Argolis in Southern Greece, the citizens kept a tomb of Prometheus and honored him as a dead hero. The city of Opous in Central Greece also claimed to honour a grave of Prometheus. Uncertain sources claim Prometheus was also worshiped in ancient Rome as well, along with other Greek gods.

Promethean myth in culture

Prométhée enchaîné (Prometheus Bound) by Nicolas-Sébastien Adam, (1762). Prometheus chained to a rock having his liver torn out by the eagle Ethon.

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. Promethius is a mythical analogue of Lucifer.

• Prometheus Radio Project - Non-profit group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that fights to transfer control of the public airwaves from large corporations to the public. Best known for the lawsuit Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC that stopped the FCC's attempt to further deregulate media ownership rules.
• Prometheus Bound − Aeschylus, 525-456 B.C.E., a play
• Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan − Dirck van Baburen, 1623, a painting
• Prometheus − Ludwig van Beethoven, Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, op. 43
• Prometheus − Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a poem
• Prometheus − Lord Byron, a poem
• Promethidion- Cyprian Kamil Norwid, a poem on Greek dialogue
• Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus − Mary Shelley, 1818, a novel
• Prometheus Unbound − Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819, a play with poetic dialogue
• Prometheus − Thomas Kibble Hervey, 1832, a poem
• Prometheus − Franz Liszt, Symphonic Poem No. 5
• Prometheus: Poem of Fire − Alexander Scriabin, 1910, an orchestral poem
• Prometheus Unbound − Granville Bantock, 1933, a work for brass band
• Prometheus − Carl Orff, 1968, an opera
• Prometheus Books − a secular humanist publishing house founded in 1969 by Paul Kurtz
• Prometheus − Luigi Nono, 1992, the "Prometeo" Suite
• Prometheus − Jean-Pierre Nouvel, 2004, a symphonic poem
• Prometheus − Tony Harrison, 1998, a feature film with poetic dialogue linking the myth to industrial decline
• Prometheus on His Crag − Ted Hughes, 1979, a series of poems reflecting on the Prometheus myth
• Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise − Emperor, 2001, a black metal concept album
• Prometheus Rising − Robert Anton Wilson, 1983, a psychology guidebook
• Prometheus Deception - 2000, Novel by Robert Ludlum
• Prometheus − name adopted by Equality 7-2521 in Ayn Rand's novella Anthem after he attempts to bring forbidden knowledge to the people.
• The independent comic book title, Digital Webbing Presents #26, featured a cover story by writer Ryan Scott Ottney and artist Joe Dodd, titled "The Prometheus Effect". The story used Prometheus as a Superman-figure who had to pay a great penance for using his amazing powers to help mankind. This story mirrors the original myth of Prometheus bringing fire to man, and ultimately suffering eternal punishment at the hands of Zeus.
• In Garth Nix's series of novels, The Keys to The Kingdom, "The Old One" is very similar to Prometheus. He is punished for 'interfering with the secondary realms' by being chained to a clock and having his eyes gouged out each day only for them to grow back by next morning. One of the characters mentions that the punishment had changed, and he used to have his liver eaten by an eagle.
• In Mark Jasobson's novel Gojiro Joseph Prometheus Brooks is the inventor of the A-bomb.
• Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of Shakespeare's first plays, features a character named Prometheus, perhaps because of his two-sided, inconstant nature in the choice between two women.
• In the computer game Earthsiege (and its subsequent sequels) Prometheus is the primary villain, and controller of the Cybrids. In the compendium included with the Starsiege game, it tells of Prometheus bringing a malevolent fire to humanity.
• In the movie Superman Returns, the evil Lex Luthor (played by Kevin Spacey) compares himself to Prometheus, saying that he wants to "bring fire to the people".
• Post-punk band the Pop Group's debut album, Y, included a song titled "Thief of Fire." The track is heavily informed by Promethean symbolism and the idea of bringing previously forbidden knowledge into the light of reason.
• Prometheus − the best-known persona of psychedelic trance musician Benji Vaughan
• The role playing game Promethean: The Created published in 2006 by White Wolf, Inc. features beings called "Prometheans", which are made from the dead and animated through ritual and a divine fire known as Pyros.
• In The X-Files episode The Post-Modern Prometheus, a modern-day geneticist has created a hideously deformed human. The title of the episode is an homage and reference to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (The Modern Prometheus) as well as James Whale's film adaptation.
• American Prometheus — biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. It received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize.
• The band The Fire Theft pays tribute to the myth of Prometheus in their name.
• Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus are key figures in the philosophy of Bernard Stiegler. Through these figures Stiegler discusses the relation between anthropogenesis and technogenesis.
• In the novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein, the main character, Valentine Michael Smith, is compared to Prometheus in that he brings a wealth of Martian knowledge to humans. He later shares a similar fate as his comparison.
• Prometheus Road by Bruce Balfour. Tom Elliot finds himself brought to finding a way to save his world from the "gods" — artificial intelligences — that rule his world. Using the titular "Prometheus Road" (a term for lucid dreaming) he must take the Jewel of Dreaming from the AIs and disrupt their reign.
• In Jasper Fforde's novels The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear Prometheus appears as a secondary character. Long since released from the rock by Hercules, he now is hiding out in England seeking political amnesty from Zeus' wrath. He is a lodger in the house of protagonist Jack Spratt, where he enjoys being the subject of admiration by Jacks rebellious teenage son, and eventually marries Jack's daughter Pandora (not the mythical one). Humorously, he also reveals to jack that he actually dislikes Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, which he says is inaccurate; specifically, the idea that he married Asia and had a child with her (apparently the truth was that he had met her at a party, and that she was "myopic and couldn't pronounce her 'r's.")
• In the non-canon Star Trek novel I, Q written by the John de Lancie who portrayed the character Q it was revealed that Q spent several centuries chained up to a rock on Earth with animals and early humans tormenting him. He then said that primitive humans assumed he was some sort of god and that he was inspiration for both Prometheus and Loki.
• In the science-fiction TV show Stargate SG-1, the X-303 Prometheus was the first successful interstellar spaceship (after the failed X-302, whose hyperdrive failed) built by the U.S. Air Force. The ship incorporated advanced technology taken from aliens posing as gods; it featured in such episodes as Prometheus Unbound, before being destroyed in an episode entitled Ethon.
• In Mega Man ZX, Prometheus is the name of one of the two mysterious antagonists that appear in the game.
• Prometheus is the name used by Proto Man in the sprite comic Bob and George, when he lives in the future with Mega Man X and Zero.
• Prometheus is one of the main characters in The Fire Thief Trilogy by: Terry Deary
• Prometheus is the name of a Mech' in the Mechassault videogame series. It is considered by most to be the most powerful of all mechs'.
• Mount Prometheus at Tokyo DisneySea at the Tokyo Disneyland Resort is named after the titan
• The blackened death-metal band Dissection refers to Prometheus in their song "God of Forbidden Light".
• "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" was the first single released off the indie pop band Of Montreal's 2007 album, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?. It was also released as a music video.[1]
• In the book Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel, Theodore Grunel constructed a Prometheus Engine that created Helium from only air, water, and sunlight
• In the Superman animated TV series, the episode The Prometheon features a huge humanoid who falls to Earth from space, and who can absorb any energy, including fire.
• In the video game God of War II, protagonist Kratos kills Prometheus to free him from his torment, and is awarded with the Rage of the Titans power.
• In the On-line Sci-Fi series: Project Terra, Prometheus was the first name given to Agent 122's Transport craft. Later re-writes renamed the ship Vesta after the Greek God for Earth.
• Prometheus is the name for 2 Federation starships in the Star Trek Franchise.
• Prometheus is also the name of Stargate SG-1's 121st episode.
• Prometheus is one of the two aircraft carriers trapped inside the SDF-1 first spacefold attempt from Macross Island in the Robotech series. The carrier and its sister ship, the Daedalus, was attached to the SDF-1 and served as its arms when in Battle mode.
• In the TV Series of X-men, Jean Gray's pet cat is named after Prometheus, shown during the "Dark Phoenix Saga".
• Franz Kafka wrote about the myth of Prometheus in a short story.
• Prometheus appears in the 1994 television movie Hercules and the Circle of Fire (one of the five movies that led up to the series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). He also appears in the episode also called "Prometheus" in Hercules spin off Xena: Warrior Princess, where he has a different appearance.
• Prometheus Bound - Charles-Valentin Alkan, Grande Sonate: Les Quatres Ages, fourth movement (50 Ans)
• In James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a reference is made to the Promethean Myth when in the first chapter Dante warns Stephen that if he does not stop indulging in flights of fancy, the eagles will come and poke out his eyes. This is similar to the situation Prometheus finds himself in as he is chained to the mountain top.
• In Thomas Hardy's Novel, The Return of the Native , Hardy notes that "to light a fire is the resistant act of man when, at the winter ingress, a curfew is sounded throughout nature. It indicates a spontaneous, Promethean rebelliousness against the fiat that this season shall bring foul times, misery, and death. Black chaos comes, and the fettered gods of the Earth say let there be light."
• The name for the sixty-first element; Promethium, is derived from Prometheus.
• In Neal Shusterman's novel, "Thief of Souls", the Bringer (the title character) is portrayed as an alien Prometheus who, after breaking the chains that bound him, killing the gods and destroying Mount Olympus, drowns and is reborn three thousand years later.
• In the video game Chrono Trigger, the character Robo's actual name is Prometheus. This clearly alludes to the myth of Prometheus.
• In the underground hip hop group Jedi Mind Tricks rapper 'Jus Allah' references Prometheus in the song 'I Against I', the quote is "possessing my peeps to walk streets with stolen heat like prometheus", 'heat' also being slang for Guns it creates a double meaning.
• In Terry Pratchett's book The Last Hero Prometheus is mentioned throughout the book as the first hero who stole fire from the gods.

External links

• Prometheus - A poem by Byron
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Caregory: Philosophy and religion

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