Ι. The Prometheus Myth from Hesiod to Shelley THE ANCIENT GREEK STORIES AND THEIR INTERPRETATION AMONG ancient classical myths there is not one which makes a stronger appeal to the imagination than the myth of Prometheus. This is not strange, for it contains within it the seeds of all human development. Revolt against autocratic power, service and suffering in the cause of humanity, the gift of fire-what are these but the tools wherewith human aspiration works for social and artistic progress! The ideal of evolved Democracy is latent in the myth. Prometheus might well stand as the symbol of the Cause so eloquently championed by Whitman in his profound lines: "To thee, old cause! Thou peerless, passionate, good cause, After a strange sad war, great war for thee, These chants for thee, the eternal march of thee. Thou seething principle! thou well-kept, latent germ, thou center! Around the idea of thee the war revolving With all its angry and vehement play of causes, (With vast results to come for thrice a thousand years.)" The story of Prometheus first appears in Greek literature in Hesiod, both in the "Theogony' and in the "Works and Days." But the Titan of the earlier poet is not the grand figure which dominates the wonderful play of schylus. The war is on between Prometheus and Zeus, the ruler of gods and men, but it has degenerated from the magnificent cosmic battles of earlier days when Zeus fought Kronos and his siding hosts of Titans with his mighty thunders and lightnings, hurling them from Heaven into the abyss of Tartaros far under the earth. Trickery and theft are the weapons of Prometheus against Zeus in this later form of struggle, which, though less splendid, does, after all, imply progress from brute force to more intellectual ways of gaining the upper hand. Besides Prometheus, there were other Titans who escaped the fate of eternal imprisonment in Tartaros. Okeanos, the god of the great river encircling the world was so far off as to be beyond the noise of battle. He was on this account left undisturbed. Also the brothers of Prometheus, Menœtius, Atlas and Epimetheus escaped the general doom," but Zeus does not seem to have found any of these Titan-brothers to his taste, for Menœtius he cast down to Hell for his haughtiness; Atlas he forced to prop up Heaven by his own unaided strength, because of his crimes; Epimetheus he forced to be a curse to mankind by sending him Pandora; and Prometheus he had bound with enduring chains on Mount Caucasus, thus training" his shifting wiles with galling shackles." Nor was this all, for this implacable god sent down from on high his eagle, who hovering above Prometheus ever with wings outspread, devoured by day his liver, which during the night was renewed. There came a day, however, when the eagle was slain by Herakles, and Prometheus relieved of his pains, Zeus consenting to the deed in order that more glory might come to Herakles, and thereafter ceasing to feel the wrath he felt before against one who had striven in wisdom against him. The particulars of the squabble between Zeus and Prometheus which led to the punishment are not inspiring as related by Hesiod. A strife over the sacrifices having arisen between gods and men, Prometheus with willful intent to deceive Zeus divided into two parts a huge ox. In one part he put all the flesh and the rich substances of the animal wrapped up in the skin, and in the other he put the white bones carefully concealed in fat. These he placed before Zeus, who said, meaning to rebuke him, "Son of Iäpetus1, how partial are thy divided shares." Then the wily Prometheus answered with a suppressed laugh, remindful of his fraud, "Hail glorious Jove! thou mightiest of the gods, who shall endure forever; choose the one which 1 See Translation by Charles Abraham Elton. |