AES164 Prometheus

In Greek mythology, there is a well known figure called Prometheus. He wasn’t a God like those who ruled from Olympus, instead he is one of the Titans; a race of giants that ruled over creation before the birth of the Gods. When the Gods came into the picture, there was a massive war between the two races. It culminated into an eventual victory by the Gods, after which almost all of the Titans were stripped of their power and sent down to Tartarus.

But some of these Titans were spared, one of whom was Prometheus, the Titan of Foresight. With his ability to see the future, Prometheus convinced his brother Epimetheus to join him in taking the Gods’ side during the war. After the war was won, Zeus; the new ruler of Olympus, was grateful to them, and he tasked Prometheus with creating all the living things on Earth. 

Prometheus created many things, but was particularly fond of one of his creations, humans. He lovingly made them in the image of the Gods, but Zeus decreed that humans will have to remain mortal and ignorant, with their only purpose of existence is to worship the Gods.  Prometheus didn’t like that his creations were treated this way, and he defied the Gods’ will and tricked Zeus several times into giving humans a chance at a better life. 

One of the more well known tricks was the time Zeus charged Prometheus with dividing the sacrificed meat of an ox into two halves; one would be given to the Gods and the other half to humanity. Knowing that Zeus will take the better portion for the Gods, Prometheus cleverly hid the best cuts of meat under an unappealing pile of stomach and intestines, while for the other portion, he hid a pile of bones under a thick layer of fatty meat. When Zeus was presented with the two portions, he quickly chose the fatty pile thinking it was the better option out of the two. When Zeus discovered that his portion was mostly just bones, he got angry at Prometheus for his trick. For his revenge, Zeus forbade the use of fire by the mortals. This was a devastating blow for humanity, without fire there is no warmth, no cooked food, no light source at night. Seeing the suffering of humans, Prometheus resolved to steal fire from the Gods and give it back to humanity.  

And so Prometheus climbed up Mount Olympus and sneaked inside the Gods’ abode. After he lit a fennel stack like a torch, he went back down the mountain and gave the fire to humanity. This gift gave humanity the power of harnessing the power of nature, to expand and develop civilizations, in short, the gift of fire was a major catalyst for human progress. 

One night, as Zeus was absent-mindedly looking down on the Earth, he noticed it was twinkling with light. He saw campfires, forges, torches and stoves being used all over the world by mere mortals. Immediately Zeus knew that this was Prometheus’ doing, after everything he did to trick and defy the gods in effort to help humanity, this was the last straw. 

And so comes the most gruesome part of this story. Zeus had in mind a very cruel punishment for Prometheus. He had Prometheus chained up at the peak of a mountain, for which Zeus sent a massive eagle to prey on him. With it the Titan would be tortured for eternity. Every day the eagle would attack the helpless Prometheus and tear out a part of his liver. Because Titans are immortal, his organs would just grow back in the next day, just in time for the eagle to come back and prey on him again. And yet throughout all this unimaginable agony, Prometheus never expressed regret for his act of defiance against Zeus. 

This is a grim ending to this myth, but there are several interesting things to note. Prometheus had the gift of foresight, so he definitely would have known that giving fire to humanity would end up with him being tortured until the end of time, but he still did it anyway. He sacrificed himself in order to give humanity knowledge, progress and the choice of self-determination, rather than letting them be mere playthings for the Gods for all time. Prometheus’ story is there to remind us that one selfless act can ignite the whole world.