Sculpture of Prometheus by Nicholas-Sebastian Adam, 1762
Prometheus is one of the earliest descendants of titans and one of the wisest gods in Greek mythology, and its name means "Forethought."
In the Titan War led by Zeus and Kronos, Prometheus, as a descendant of the Titan gods, sided with the new Olympian gods, so he was appreciated by Zeus, the king of the gods, and stayed on Mount Olympus.
The ancient Greek poet Hesiod (8th century BC) was the first to tell the myth of Prometheus. In his writing, it all begins with the meeting of Meccone: "When the gods and mortals quarreled in Meccone..." This is the beginning of the separation of god and man that the poet wants to describe, and it also opens the prelude to Prometheus's challenge to the god king Zeus. After this gathering, people no longer live like God. Man is in the Netherworld, God is in the heavenly court, and this is separated. The conflict between Zeus and Prometheus intensified around this separation. Judging from the result of the final established god-man strife relationship, Meccone's final meal was the end of the god-man coexistence and the beginning of separation—henceforth, mankind became a subordinate and dependent who had to sacrifice to the gods.
Prometheus made man
Prometheus was responsible for sculpting clay figures, Athena giving people the soul, Andrea Bartoni
Constantine Hansen, Prometheus Making Man out of Clay, 1858
Prometheus co-created humans with Athene, the goddess of wisdom, Prometheus was responsible for sculpting human shapes out of clay, and Athena infused the souls of clay people and taught them a lot of knowledge. Later, Zeus asked Vulcan to create Pandora, creating the world's first woman. In this way, Prometheus only created men, not women.
The cunning of Prometheus
The rituals are associated with greek polytheism, where the altar burns the bones of the ox leg wrapped in fat
The son of titan god was determined to use his wisdom to deceive the gods. He slaughtered a large bull on behalf of his creation, and he cut the sacrificial bull into pieces and divided it into two piles. A pile of meat, offal and fat, covered with cowhide, and on top of which is placed the belly of the cow; The other pile was full of cow bones, cleverly wrapped in cow oil. This pile looks a little bigger than the other. Zeus saw through this trick and deliberately stretched out his hands to get the snow-white plate oil.
When the sacrifice is first performed, it is a ritual activity that divides the identities of gods and people. Prometheus organized the first sacrifice and established a permanent pattern suitable for humanity to honor the gods—from then on, human beings living on the earth burned white bones on fragrant altars for the immortals and sacrificed to the gods.
Prometheus steals fire
Corleone, Prometheus stealing fire from the chariot of Apollo, 1814
Jan Kosils, Prometheus Fire, 1637
Prometheus deceived Zeus for the second time. He stole the heavenly fire with a hollow fennel rod and brought the fire to the human beings on the earth. Without thunderbolts and lightning, humans use fire that is weak, perishable, and must be specially nurtured and preserved. This human fire, which comes from the heavenly fire but is one level lower than the heavenly fire, distinguishes between humans and animals in the process of cooking food, and enables human beings to enter civilized life. Prometheus earned mankind the right to share the use of fire with God. So the fire that bound man to God was lit on the altar and soared high into the sky. This fire originated from heaven and returned to heaven.
The birth of Pandora
John Barton, Creating Pandora, 1913
Jean Arlo, Hermes Delivers Pandora, 18th or 19th century
Zeus, who was thundering from above, saw that there was a distant fire among the humans, and felt angry in his heart. He ordered Hephaestus, the god of fire, to create the first woman on earth and give it to humans as punishment for Prometheus's theft of fire. Pandora means "all-gifted, with all the gifts" and is a "gift" from the gods to mankind. Prometheus had a younger brother named Epimetheus, whom Prometheus commanded: "Do not accept any gift from Olympus Zeus, and return it when it is sent." However, Epimetheus accepted this deadly gift, which brought great misfortune to the human race on the earth.
Prometheus was bound
Salvador Rosa, The Torment of Prometheus, 1646-48
Jacob Jordens, The Bondage of Prometheus, 1640
Prometheus challenged Zeus, staged one battle after another, and finally lost the battle-
Zeus with a strong rope
and the merciless chains tied him to a pillar,
Then a long-winged eagle was sent to stop at him and peck
His immortal liver: in the night it grows back,
Same as the part that the long-winged bird pecked away during the day.
The eagle devours day after day, with no end in sight, and is desperate. Later, at the behest of Zeus, the hero Heracles killed the eagle, which spared him his misfortune. But Zeus's anger was not completely quelled, and Prometheus was always "trapped in a heavy chain."
Athena gazes at Prometheus Creation, a relief from the Roman era, in the 3rd century AD
Hercules rescued Prometheus, a bas-relief of the Temple of Aphrodite
Three myths about "the origin of sacrificial activity, the origin of fire, and the origin of women" have the meaning of "laying the foundation myth" in Hesiod's poem Theogonia. The so-called "Foundation Myth" refers to the early myths and legends that provide and establish the basis for a certain idea or concept in later generations. A series of foundational myths establish a paradigm for the relationship and order among the gods in describing the behavior and interactions among the gods.
The myth of Hesiod fundamentally established the distinction between god and man, and mankind has since lost a carefree life, but mankind still yearns to return to the era of god-man coexistence. In the golden age of mankind, human beings were so close to god that they could even eat with god at the same table in the Mekone cattle. Behind these glorious histories, there is a hidden memory and yearning for the "divine world" of the Greeks in the era of Hesiod. In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, the life of God was another form of life for man, a better and higher ideal.
If Prometheus's actions were viewed from Zeus's point of view, the calamities inflicted on him and mankind by the King of the Gods were not merely out of personal grudges—but punishments given by the principles of defending the order of the universe. As cunning as Prometheus was, he did not suspect that he was giving a poisonous gift to mankind. Humans eat meat, which means that there is an end to death. Conditioned by the laws of the stomach, human beings have since behaved like all animals, plants, or rivers that have multiplied on earth... This marks a creation whose power gradually depletes, depletes, ages, and dies. The gods were content with the smell and smoke of burning bones, and lived off smells and spices—a race that was fundamentally different from that of humans. They are the undead, forever alive, forever young.
Fire symbolizes eternity. The transfer of tinder from top to bottom implies not only the transfer of physical space, but also the transfer of some kind of power. Prometheus's act of stealing fire is almost a projection of human desire—an irrepressible indiscretion of human desire to become eternal. This is an impossible trespass. Prometheus is a victim of this human desire.
Rubens, The Bondage of Prometheus, circa 1612
Moreover, Prometheus believed too much in his own wisdom and ingenuity to defeat Zeus—another extreme of ungodly piety. We hesitate on this question because human beings are the beneficiaries of their actions, so much so that they ignore the problem of Promethean's actions themselves and substitute them with the criterion of "substantiality." Both Prometheus's deception or theft, and the arrogance, blasphemy, and disrespect he exhibited, all point to his lack of full divinity. Compassion and compassion drive him to give man what he should not have possessed in the first place—food and fire. However, excessive sympathy is a form of "intemperation." Read again the three proverbs inscribed at the entrance to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi:
γν θι σεαυτ ν know yourself
μηδεν αγαν Everything is not excessive
sg a p p r' d' 妄立誓则祸近
The punishment that Zeus inflicted on him was a punishment for misconduct, and ultimately to demonstrate god's goodwill—only with the order of the divine realm could the order of the human world find its source and be guaranteed. Zeus's justice fundamentally defined the destiny of mankind.
Greek mythology hints at the direction of the Greek spirit. Hegel believed that Greek mythology was an effort, an attempt, a pursuit of the ancient Greeks, who faced the confusion of nature and "attempted to explain natural phenomena through the personification of natural forces."
Gods were the immortal ancestors of the Greeks.
Thomas Cole, The Bondage of Prometheus, 1847
Gustav Morrow, Prometheus, 1868
The earliest restatement of the myth of Prometheus also originated from the classical era of Greece. In his dialogue Protagras, Plato tells a myth of human origin that differs from The Hesiod version. After the separation of God and Man, the relationship between God and Man was also repaired to a certain extent, that is, "the re-established intimate relationship between gods and man." This new intimacy arises through the creation of heroes—through the deliverance of Prometheus, son of Zeus, to Prometheus.
Nor does prometheus's image of the "Warrior of enlightenment" originate from the Age of Enlightenment. It first appeared in Aeschylus's triptych of poetry, Prometheus, of which only Prometheus was left intact, and only fragments remained of the other two Prometheus of Fire thieves and The Liberated Prometheus. In the poem, on the one hand, zeus's image changes from arbitrary and violent to enlightened and tolerant, on the other hand, Prometheus is more courageous, even if he is severely punished. He has been hung on the cliffs of the Caucasus Mountains – fixing his image as the "eternal sufferer".
The centuries from the time of Hesiod to the advent of Prometheus and Protagoras coincided with the rise and fall of the Greek democratic city-states, and the change of promethean image was not unrelated to the democratic political changes in ancient Greece in these centuries.
Prometheus brings fire to mankind, 1817
Rousseau, On Science and Art, 1750
In modern times, in 1750, Rousseau chose an illustration by Prometheus with a torch at the beginning of his treatise on Science and Art, which provoked various criticisms and controversies. He mentions Prometheus in the article, saying, "The torch of Prometheus is the torch of science, born to inspire great ideas." Moreover, Rousseau boldly compared himself to Prometheus — to bring the light of science and the love of science to society, which was destined to be his mission.
After the 18th century, the reshaping of the literary image of Prometheus is mainly attributed to three poets: Goethe once created the play "Prometheus", although it was not completed, but in the fragments that have been handed down, we see that Prometheus is portrayed as a great creator of mankind; In his early years, Byron translated fragments of Aeschylus's tragedy The Bound Prometheus, and in his poems of various periods, Prometheus's name appears 17 times, followed by the short poem "Prometheus" (1816), portraying Prometheus as a hero who dared to fight and eventually break the shackles.
Joseph Severn, Shelley in Writing Liberated Prometheus, 1845
Four-act poem "The Liberated Prometheus," Shelley, 1819
Most prominently, the English Romantic poet Shelley's four-act poem Prometheus Unbound (1819), used material from ancient Greek mythology to express his philosophical ideas and social ideals against tyranny. Prometheus in the poem is awe-inspiring, unyielding, and the embodiment of wisdom, bravery, and tortured love. Regarding the plot of the Aeschylus triptych, in which Prometheus is eventually rescued and reconciled with Zeus, Shelley puts it this way: "I am disgusted by such a faint catastrophe, like mankind who has brought the ruler and the oppressed together."
In the deep valley of the Caucasus icebergs, with Prometheus tied to the cliffs, he endured pain and angrily denounced zeus's atrocities:
And look at this earth, where your slaves are bred,
You take terror, resentment and despair,
To repay their salutes, prayers and praises...
Ah, three thousand years of sleeplessness and sleeplessness,
Every moment is divided by a piercing pain,
Every moment looks like a year, and the engraving is
Torture and loneliness are marked by despair and resentment.
- Act 1 of The Liberated Prometheus
In essence, Shelley's The Liberated Prometheus is a revolutionary work, a poet's answer to the mistakes of the French Revolution and the constant replacement of the ruling tyrant: in the face of oppression and hegemony, it is necessary to advocate free will, goodness, hope and reason, and to abandon the old concepts of good and evil to adapt to the current civilization.
The image of Prometheus as the "Fire Thief of the Heavenly Court" is often considered sublime and heroic in the field of art. In the 19th and 20th centuries, a number of classical music works inspired and influenced by this myth emerged. These include Franz Liszt's symphonic poem Prometheus (1850), Alexander Scriabin's Prometheus: Poems of Fire (1910), Gabriel Fauré's three-act opera Prometheus (1910) for orchestra... Even Beethoven praised the enlightenment fighter in the form of music. In 1800, Beethoven was invited to compose music for a "heroic and allegorical dance drama", The Creatures of Prometheus Overture, Op.43, during which Prometheus inspired Beethoven's inner "heroic sense of mission". This work directly influenced the creation of the Heroic Symphony three years later: the theme of the last variation was used by Beethoven in the final movement of The Hero.
Marx borrowed the image of Prometheus many times to oppose religious bondage and fight for human freedom. He declared Aeschylus's The Bound Prometheus his favorite Greek tragedy, reread it every year, and saddled it in the last sentence of the preface to his doctoral dissertation, calling Prometheus "the noblest saint and martyr in the philosophical calendar."
For centuries, people have become accustomed to shaping and interpreting the image of Prometheus—a "perfect rioter," a revolutionary hero increasingly freed from the realm of God's Word. If the myth of Hesiod is intended to fundamentally establish the separation of God from man, and Prometheus in the original text must be limited by the principle of constraint represented by Zeus, then the imagery of Prometheus in modern thought rises to an ancient hero with a democratic spirit who rebelled against tyrants, a martyr with lofty ideals.
However, by praising his heroism and selfless martyrdom, regardless of the cause, object and purpose of his rebellion, he reduces Prometheus's tragedy to a single interpretation of the binary opposition of "good/evil, oppression/rebellion", or reduces the meaning of resistance and enlightenment it carries to a conventional symbol, undoubtedly ignoring the complex ethical conflicts contained in this tragedy.
Piero di Cosimo, Prometheus, 1515
Xiong Qi/Wen