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Rebels Class Video VIDEO CLASS 7.1: FROM HESIOD’s PROMETHEUS TO THE TRAGIC PROMETHEUS BOUND 1 THE MAIN POINTS OF OUR CLASS TODAY 1. Prometheus’ fluid myth: main events, and Hesiod’s approach to it 2. Greek Tragedy: watching the contradictions of myth on stage 3. Aeschylus’ approach to Prometheus’ myth 2 PROMETHEUS’ FLUID MYTH: MAIN EVENTS, AND HESIOD’S APPROACH TO IT 3 WHAT ARE THE MAIN EVENTS OF THE PROMETHEUS MYTH IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER? 1. Prometheus’ invention of sacrifice 2. Zeus’ anger at Prometheus and hiding of fire 3. Prometheus’ stealing of fire for humans 4. Zeus’ creation of Pandora 5. Epimetheus’ welcoming of Pandora against Prometheus’ advice 6. Pandora’s opening of her jar (out of curiosity) and evils come to mankind 7. Zeus’ punishment of Prometheus with chains 8. Heracles’ liberation of Prometheus 4 A LATE ACCOUNT OF THE PROMETHEUS MYTH ‘Prometheus moulded men from water and earth and gave them also fire, hiding it from Zeus in a fennel stalk. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus (this is a Scythian mountain). On it Prometheus was nailed and bound for many years. Each day an eagle swooped on him and ate the lobes of his liver, which grew back each night. And Prometheus paid this penalty for the theft of fire until Herakles released him later …’ (Apollodorus, Library 1.7.1, first or second century CE; when myth became canon) 5 PROMETHEUS THE CREATOR OF MANKIND ‘Following Zeus’ orders, Prometheus fashioned humans and animals. When Zeus saw that the animals far outnumbered the humans, he ordered Prometheus to reduce the number of the animals by turning them into people. Prometheus did as he was told, and as a result those people who were originally animals have a human body but the soul of an animal.’ (AESOP, Fable 515, trans. Gibbs 2002) 6 PROMETHEUS THE CREATOR OF MANKIND Goltzius, Prometheus Making Man and Animating Him with Fire from Heaven7 WHERE DO WE FIND A COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT of THE PROMETHEUS MYTH? NOWHERE!! • Principle of Selectivity • Flexibility and Fluidity of the Prometheus myth • Myth takes the role of shaping a society’s imagination, and therefore adapts to historical changes. 8 DEFINITIONS OF PROMETHEUS • Trickster • Culture Hero (Prometheus’ invention of sacrifice, fire etc.) • Creator of Mankind • Rebel • Sufferer • Advocate for Mankind (helper) or Scapegoat (Prometheus responsible for human suffering)? 9 PROMETHEAN THEMES • Fire (technology at the beginning of civilization) • Work (after Prometheus’ gift of fire, men have to work) • Creation and Creativity (Prometheus as a model of any artistic endeavor) • Rebellion (Prometheus’ act of transgression) – Hubris? • Suffering (Zeus’ punishments of Prometheus’ transgression) – Nemesis? 10 PROMETHEUS AND THE HUMAN CONDITION ‘As the thief of fire, rebel against authority, creator of mankind, and patron saint of work, Prometheus helps us come to terms with the nature, scope, and evolution of human condition in all its fundamental complexity. … Prometheus helps us reflect upon and even reimagine our own human experience’. (C. Dougherty, Prometheus, p. 20) 11 HESIOD’s PROMETHEUS: TRICKSTER (HYNES) 1) AMBIGUOUS AND ANOMALOUS; ON THE EDGE of law >> Prometheus is between the divine and human worlds. 2) DECEIVER AND TRICK-PLAYER >> Trick of sacrifice and fire. 3) SHAPE-SHIFTER >> See Prometheus’ relationship with Epimetheus, who incarnates his opposite. 4) SITUATION-INVERTOR >> Being a god takes the humans’ side. 5) MESSENGER AND IMITATOR OF THE GODS. ?? 6) SACRED AND LEWD BRICOLEUR >> See Prometheus’ attitude during the sacrifice, when he deceives the other gods by replacing flesh with bones . 12 HESIOD’s PROMETHEUS: CULTURE HERO - Responsible for the completion of Zeus’ kosmos – ordered world: through sacrifice and fire, Prometheus separates gods from humans and introduces the worship of gods and civilization. - These inventions highlight some greatness in the humans but also brings about a decline for humankind, defined as it is by mortality and toils. HESIOD’s PROMETHEUS: REBEL and ADVOCATE FOR MANKIND, SUFFERER 13 HESIOD’s PANDORA - First human wife. A fabricated woman. Name? All-Gift! - Embodiment of female beauty as both alluring and dangerous. ‘grace and painful longing’ ‘weaving’: both literally and symbolically ‘an evil for mankind, for the price of fire’ - Pandora’s opening of the jar: will and agency in the divine destruction of men. She has Metis as Zeus has. Misogynist view. - Her own creation as punishment: difference from Biblical Eve. 14 GREEK TRAGEDY: WATCHING THE CONTRADICTIONS OF MYTH ON STAGE 15 Greek TRAGEDY, a fuLLy human experience Greek TRAGEDY, a fuLLy human experience 1) Religious phenomenon 2) Political phenomenon 3) Agonistic phenomenon 1) A RELIGIOUS PHENOMENON Greek drama takes place in the theatre of Dionysius, and is a key ingredient of religious festivals. See ‘Great Dionysia’ (with foreigners) and ‘Lenaia’ (local festival). ANCIENT THEATRE 2) A POLITICAL PHENOMENON IN THE MIDST OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY • The dramatic performance was organized by the governors of Athens, who picked three of the wealthiest offers (liturgy). • There was a ticket to be paid, and a fund was established - the Theoric Fund – to cover the fee for poor people. 3) AN AGONISTIC PHENOMENON The program of the Great Dionysia A) day 1: procession; dithyramb (to invoke Dionysius, god of wine and theatre). B) days 2-5: competitions, with a selected panel of judges. 5 comedies by 5 different writers, plus 9 tragedies (by 3 different writers) and 3-5 satyr plays at the end (as a way to release the tension). TRAGEDY AS A GENRE - DEFINITION: A play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character. - FORM: Combination of chorus’ songs and actors’ episodes. - LIST OF PARTS: Prologue, the parodos (entry song of chorus), episodes (from 3 to 7) alternated with a stasimon (choral song), and, finally, the exodos (final scene). - CONTENT: mythical stories well known to the audiences. The audience’s focus was not on how new outcomes of the given stories, but on how they were told. - TRAGIC CHARACTERS: they know that by undergoing a certain task something bad is going to happen to them, but nevertheless they choose this as a way to display their virtue. AT THE ORIGIN OF GREEK TRAGEDY: SUFFERING AND CONTADICTIONS AT THE CORE OF THE GREEK CONCEPTION OF LIFE Two jars stand in the storeroom of Zeus, full of gifts; one of them holds the evils he gives us, the other one blessings. If Zeus, the lord of the thunderbolt, gives a mixture of both to a man, he sometimes meets with evil, sometimes with good. But if he gives only woeful gifts to a man, he degrades him; evil starvation drives him over the splendid earth, and he wanders deprived of honor by gods and mortals alike. (24.527–33) AESCHYLUS’ APPROACH TO PROMETHEUS’ MYTH 24 1) A NEW HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT: ATHENS, V CENTURY BC • In Athens specifically Prometheus was celebrated for his metis, the same kind of cunning intelligence for which Athena, the protectress of the city, is celebrated. • At the end of sixth century Athens experienced the difficult subjections to the power of tyrants. In V century BC Athens sees the important transformation into the democracy. • Athenian democracy implies a new progress that mankind made away from the primitive state of the beasts, and in particular the way in which Athens had been able to recreate its city from the ashes and destruction of the Persian Wars into a great city of arts and culture. • Athenian democracy means a new approach to religion, which leads to take some distance from Zeus’ Olympian order as it was established in Hesiod’s times (VII century BC). HOW IS PROMETHEUS’ MYTH GOING TO PLAY A ROLE INTO ALL OF THIS? 2) INTRODUCTION OF TWO NEW THEMES a) Transfer to Prometheus of the role performed by Gaia in Hesiod’s Theogony, the role of providing the crucial advice which enabled Zeus and the Olympians to defeat the Titans. b) Prometheus is endowed with a new piece of knowledge upon which the survival of Zeus’ rule depends. Zeus, though he is confident now, will one day be destroyed by a far more powerful offspring who will be a better fighter and have recourse to greater weapons. HOW IS PROMETHEUS PORTRAYED THROUGHOUT THE TRAGEDY?26.
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