Prepared by Linda R. Williams

1
The Rise of Humans The Prometheus Myth
2
Who was Prometheus?

• The Titan god of Fire and Forethought
• The son of a sea nymph, Clymene and
• Titan Iapetus
• Brother to the Titan Epimethus
• Married to Hesione (daughter of Titan
• Oceanus)
• Prometheus means looking forward and
• Epimethus means looking back.

3
The Rise of Humans

• In the Biblical Creation story, God created
  humans as his crowning achievement.
• In Greek myth, Prometheus created humans by
  shaping lumps of clay into small figures
  resembling the gods. Athena admired these figures
  and breathed on them, giving them life. Zeus
  disliked the creatures, but he could not uncreate
  them. He did, however, confine them to the earth
  and denied them immortality. Prometheus felt
  sorry for humans.
• The gods of Olympus wanted humans to worship them
  with animal sacrifices, the meat and not the
  bones.

4
Blood sacrifice was one of the most powerful
rituals of the ancient Greeks.
Meat was a luxury, so large animals, like sheep,
cows, pigs and goats, were usually slaughtered in
honor of the gods. In family or state festivals,
chosen animals would be prepared, led to an altar
in procession, then ceremonially killed in front
of festival participants. A small portion of meat
was burned on the altar, for the gods. Humans
shared the rest.
5
Prometheus the trickster!
Prometheus was chosen to cut up an animal for
sacrifice so that Zeus could choose which half
he preferred to decide once and for all just
which portions went to the gods and which to the
hungry people.
He defied the gods to help humans, tricking Zeus
to establish a sacred ritual of sacrifice which
favored humans and made them forever separate
from gods.
Atlas and Prometheus, c. 550 BCE
6
What did Prometheus do?

• He piled up the edible
  
• meat and made it look
  
• unappealing by placing
• animal skin and stomach on
  top. He then covered the inedible bones with a
  thick layer of animal fat so that it looked ready
  for a feast. Zeus falling for Prometheus clever
  plan choose the pile of bones and animal fat for
  sacrifice to the gods and humankind got to keep
  the meat.
• Feeling sorry for humans, Prometheus had to.
• Determine how sacrifices were to be made to the
  gods
• Created creatures/humans

7
The Theft of Fire

• Angered by Prometheus act, Zeus denied humans
  fire. They could not warm themselves, work metals
  or cook their food.
• Prometheus climbed Mount Olympus in secret and
  stole fire from the gods and traveled every place
  where humans lived giving them the gift of fire.

8
Zeus Revenge

• Furious Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of
  craftsmanship, to create a beautiful woman out of
  clay. The gods endowed her with many talents
  Aphrodite gave her beauty, Apollo music, Hermes
  persuasion, and so forth. Hence her name
  Pandora, "all-gifted".

9
A Gift From The Gods

• Zeus presents Pandora with a large box closed and
  sealed. He instructs her not to open it. He then
  calls upon Hermes to deliver Pandora as a gift
  from the gods to the titan Epimetheus.
• Prometheus the smarter of the two, warns his
  brother to be wary of any gift coming from Zeus.
  Epimetheus saw how beautiful Pandora was and
  decided to marry her.

10
PANDORAS BOX
Previously the human race used to live completely
free from evils and hard work and painful
diseases. But the woman removed the great cover
of the jar with her hands and scattered the evils
within and for mortals devised sorrowful
troubles. Hope alone remained within there under
the edge of the jar . . . Hesiod, Works and Days
For weeks Pandora resisted the box, but one day
she broke the seal and opened it. Out flew all
the diseases, sorrows and disasters that afflict
humankind. Pandora tried to close the box but
more and more troubles covered the earth. The
only thing she could keep hold of was hope.
11
Pandora may be a more profound figure though. Her
name means All gifts because all the gods
gave her gifts? or because she brings all things,
good and evil, to humans?
As in the Adam and Eve story, a woman brings evil
to humans. But perhaps, as Joseph Campbell
suggests, women, representing life processes,
real birth, real death, represent the real
world, not paradise.
12
More Troubles for Prometheus

• Zeus pleased by his punishment of humankind now
  focused on Prometheus.
• Prometheus knew of the prophecy that spoke of the
  goddess Thetis giving birth to a son that would
  overthrow his father, Zeus. Zeus knew of the
  prophecy but not the name of the goddess.
  Prometheus refused to name the goddess so Zeus
  decided to torture the secret out of Prometheus.

13
Prometheus Bound

• First Prometheus was
• captured and and hurled into Tartarus, but
• he would not speak. Since he could not die,
• Zeus brought him out of Tartarus and had
• him chained to Mount Caucasus. Every day
• a huge vulture flew to the rock and pecked
• out his liver, and every night the flesh
• healed again.

14
A Way Out

• Human lifetimes came and
  went
• and still Prometheus
  hung
• burning and bleeding by
  day
• and freezing by night.
  He knew
• that he would be free
  only if
• another of the immortals
  went
• down to the underworld,
  to Hades realm of death, of their own free will
  or if he spoke the name of the goddess who would
  give birth to the son that would overthrow Zeus.

15
The End of Prometheus Suffering

• One day Heracles found his way to Mount Caucasus
  and shot the
• vulture. Also, while accomplishing his 12 labors
  Heracles accidentally
• shot his friend Cheiron a centaur (half human,
  half horse) with a
• poison arrow leaving a wound that couod not heal.
  Cheiron begged
• for death and offered to go to underworld instead
  of Prometheus.
• Prometheus feeling pity for the centaur accepted
  his offer and then
• said the name Thetis. Immediately his chains
  fell from him and he
• was free.

16
Peace Atlas

• Prometheus was welcomed back to
• Olympus on the condition that all his
• cleverness was to be put to use for the
• gods, not against them.
• Zeus quickly arranged for Thetis to marry a
• mortal man so that her son would surpass
• only his mortal father and not endanger
• the throne of the king of the gods.