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The Gifts of Prometheus, Phe So Feeble As That of Reconciling the Champion with and Eliminate the Oligarchical Forces That Have Prevented the Oppressor of Mankind

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The Gifts of Prometheus, Phe So Feeble As That of Reconciling the Champion with and Eliminate the Oligarchical Forces That Have Prevented the Oppressor of Mankind Appendix Prometheus The Historical Record by Jason Ross rometheus was a historical personality, who endured as long as Zeus’s anger lasts. With a stake driven through the wrath of the Zeus for daring to bring “fire” and his chest, pinning him to the rock, and his arms and legs Pscience to man. The oldest direct historical knowl- bound, Prometheus is to suffer the endless torment of edge of Prometheus comes from the Greek poet Hesiod having his liver devoured every day by an eagle (a sym- in his Theogony and Works and Days and the Greek play- bol of Zeus), only to have it grow back each night. wright Aeschylus in his play Prometheus Bound.1 The After he is bound, a Chorus of the daughters of Ocea- story they relate of Prometheus the Fire-Bringer is one nus flies to his location, to speak to him. Aeschylus writes: that finds parallels in other cultures, and may actually date back to the early part of the Bronze Age.2 His story CHORUS: Unfold the whole story and tell us upon what served as inspiration for works by Percy Bysshe Shelley, charge Zeus has caught you and painfully punishes you who wrote Prometheus Unbound and Johann Wolfgang with such dishonor. Instruct us, unless, indeed, there is von Goethe, who wrote a poem Prometheus, and had in- some harm in telling. tended to compose an entire play. PROMETHEUS: It is painful to me to tell the tale, painful According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, Prometheus was to keep it silent. My case is unfortunate every way. one of the Titans, the ruling group of immortals that pre- You ask why he torments me, and this I will now make dated the gods of Olympus. Zeus, with the help of Pro- clear. As soon as he had seated himself upon his father’s metheus, overthrew Kronos, the ruler of the Titans, to throne, he immediately assigned to the deities their sev- become the ruler of the gods of Olympus. eral privileges and apportioned to them their proper pow- Before the action related in Aeschylus’s play, Pro- ers. But of wretched mortals he took no notice, desiring metheus had acted to benefit mankind. First, he had estab- to bring the whole race to an end and create a new one lished a tradition of sacrifices by a trick he played on Zeus. in its place. Against this purpose none dared make stand Cutting apart an ox, Prometheus separated out two piles: except me—I only had the courage; I saved mortals so one of meat and organs, wrapped in the ox’s unsightly that they did not descend, blasted utterly, to the house of stomach, and another of the bones, carefully covered with Hades. This is why I am bent by such grievous tortures, shiny fat. Prometheus asked Zeus to choose which pile he painful to suffer, piteous to behold. I who gave mortals would accept as a sacrifice. Zeus chose the fat-covered first place in my pity, I am deemed unworthy to win this bones, starting the customary sacrifice of bones and fat pity for myself, but am in this way mercilessly disciplined, to the gods, while keeping the meat for mankind. Zeus, a spectacle that shames the glory of Zeus. enraged, refused fire to man as punishment. Prometheus saved man from this fate. He stole fire from heaven, and CHORUS: Iron-hearted and made of stone, Prometheus, gave it to man. For this, he received the full wrath of Zeus is he who feels no compassion at your miseries. For my- (and the anger of many of the other gods). self, I would not have desired to see them; and now that As Aeschylus’s play opens, Prometheus is being con- I see them, I am pained in my heart. ducted to a desolate rocky crag, where he is to be bound PROMETHEUS: Yes, to my friends indeed I am a spec- tacle of pity. 1. Hesiod was active around 700 BC, and Aeschylus fluorished in the CHORUS: Did you perhaps transgress even somewhat fifth century BC. beyond this offence? 2. Sulek, Marty, “Mythographic and Linguistic Evidence for Religious PROMETHEUS: Yes, I caused mortals to cease foreseeing Giving among Graeco-Aryans during the Chalcolithic Age,” present- ed at the July 2012 ISTR confernece in Siena, Italy. their doom. 54 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Special Report: Physical Chemistry: CHORUS: Of what sort was the cure foremost: if ever man fell ill, there that you found for this affliction? was no defense—no healing food, no ointment, nor any drink—but for lack PROMETHEUS: I caused unseen hopes of medicine they wasted away, until to dwell within their breasts. I showed them how to mix soothing CHORUS: A great benefit was this you remedies with which they now ward gave to mortals. off all their disorders… Now as to the benefits to men that lay concealed be- PROMETHEUS: In addition, I gave neath the earth—bronze, iron, silver, them fire. and gold—who would claim to have CHORUS: What! Do creatures of a day discovered them before me? No one, now have flame-eyed fire? I know full well, unless he likes to babble idly. Hear the sum of the whole PROMETHEUS: Yes, and from it they matter in the compass of one brief shall learn many arts. word—every art possessed by man Further on, Prometheus continues: comes from Prometheus. PROMETHEUS: Still, listen to the mis- Wikimedia Commons user Sailko These gifts of Prometheus have been eries that beset mankind—how they Aeschylus (fifth century BC), the the subject of this report. Aeschylus’s were witless before and I made them Greek playwright who wrote play continues with Zeus sending have sense and endowed them with Prometheus Bound. Hermes to demand that Prometheus re- reason. I will not speak to upbraid pent for his actions and share his secret: mankind but to set forth the friendly purpose that in- HERMES: Bend your will, perverse fool, oh bend your spired my blessing. will at last to wisdom in face of your present sufferings. First of all, though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but they did not understand; but, PROMETHEUS: In vain you trouble me, as though it were just as shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, a wave you try to persuade. Never think that, through ter- without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. ror at the will of Zeus, I shall become womanish and, They had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks with hands upturned, aping woman’s ways, shall impor- and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but tune my greatly hated enemy to release me from these dwelt beneath the ground like swarming ants, in sunless bonds. I am far, far from that. caves. They had no sign either of winter or of flowery spring or of fruitful summer, on which they could depend Prometheus refuses, and in Zeus’s rage, is swallowed but managed everything without judgment, until I taught in lightning, earthquake, tempest, and storm. So ends Ae- them to discern the risings of the stars and their settings, schylus’s first play of the Prometheus trilogy. which are difficult to distinguish. The other two plays, Prometheus Unbound, and Pro- Yes, and numbers, too, chiefest of sciences, I invented metheus the Fire-Bringer, are lost, yet some aspects of the for them, and the combining of letters, creative mother of plot to come are known. Prometheus Unbound includes the Muses’ arts, with which to hold all things in memo- Heracles killing the eagle that has fed on Prometheus’s ry. I, too, first brought brute beasts beneath the yoke to liver, and freeing him from his chains. Zeus frees the be subject to the collar and the pack-saddle, so that they other Titans he has imprisoned. And in Prometheus the might bear in men’s stead their heaviest burdens; and to Fire-Bringer, Prometheus reconciles with Zeus, informing the chariot I harnessed horses and made them obedient to him of what was to have been his downfall. the rein.... It was I and no one else who invented the mari- ner’s flaxen-winged car that roams the sea. Wretched that I Modern Prometheus am—such are the arts I devised for mankind, yet have my- While the title of “modern Prometheus” is applied to self no cunning means to rid me of my present suffering. Benjamin Franklin, whose work on electricity garnered him almost as much early renown as his later work on CHORUS: You have suffered sorrow and humiliation. American independence, several notable modern treat- You have lost your wits and have gone astray; and, like ments of Prometheus differ from that of Aeschylus. an unskilled doctor, fallen ill, you lose heart and cannot Goethe’s Prometheus shows nothing but contempt discover by which remedies to cure your own disease. and scorn for Zeus. It is man’s own actions that bring PROMETHEUS: Hear the rest and you shall wonder the him advancement, not plaintive wishes to the uncaring more at the arts and resources I devised. This first and heavens. “I know nothing shabbier under the sun than The Continuing Gifts of Prometheus 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 55 ye gods!” he exclaims, asking “I revere thee? What for?” anger when he absolutely refuses. Shelley concludes the Goethe’s Prometheus concludes: “Here I sit, forming play with an epilogue addressing Prometheus (the “Ti- humans / In my own image, / It will be a race like me, tan” referenced below): / For suffering, weeping, / Enjoying and rejoicing, and shall / Pay thee no attention, / Like me!” To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; Percy Bysshe Shelley similarly allows for no reconcilia- To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; tion between the worst of tyrants and the greatest of bene- To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; factors.
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