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I ME SET ISISIS SET OSIRIS ISISIS OSIRIS SET OSIRIS ISISIS OSIRIS SET
CREATIVE LIFE THAT RED RIVER GODS RIVER RED THAT LIFE CREATIVE
NUMBER 9 THE SEARCH FOR THE SIGMA CODE Cecil Balmond 1998 Page 32 5
THE BALANCING ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE NINE EIGHT SEVEN SIX
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
OSIRIS SO IRIS SO OSIRIS
THE FIVE POINTED STAR
I ME I SAY ISIS SAY I I SAY OSIRIS SAY I I SAY CHRIST SAY I I SAY KRISHNA SAY I I SAY RISHI ISHI ISHI RISHI SAY I I SAY VISHNU SHIVA SHIVA VISHNU SAY I ARISES THAT SUN SETS THAT SUN SETS THAT SUN ARISES THAT SUN OSIRIS THAT SON SETS THAT SON SETS THAT SON OSIRIS THAT SON
THAT SUN IS RISING RISING IS THAT SON THAT SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED
WISDOM OF THE EAST by Hari Prasad Shastri 1948 Page 8 "There is no such word in Sanscrita as 'Creation' applied to the universe. The Sanscrita word for Creation is Shristi, which means 'projection' Creation means to bring something into being out /Page 9/ of nothing, to create, as a novelist creates a character. There was no Miranda, for example, until Shakespeare created her. Similarly the ancient Indians (this term is innacurately used as there was no India at that time). who were our ancestors long, long ago. used a word for creation that means 'projection'.
I ME GODS SPIRIT GODS ARJUNA KRISHNA VISHNU SHIVA BRAHMA ISIS OSIRIS ISIS SHRISTI RISHI ISHI RISHI CHRIST SING A SONG OF NINES OF NINES A SONG SING VISHNU SHIVA KRISHNA SHRI KRISHNA SHIVA VISHNU ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS ISISIS
Golden Ratio Pre History ... on the Periphery of the Temple of Osiris at Abydos”, KMT Winter 1997/8, .... The five-pointed star hieroglyph. This identification of the pentagram ... In their system, a star with five rays was the hieroglyphic sign for "seba" or “star”. ... The five- pointed star in its circum- circle could therefore also ... www.recoveredscience.com/const305goldenprehistory.htm
Numerals and constants Numerals A brief prehistory of the golden ratio Pentagrams before Pythagoras Numerals and constants Numerals A brief prehistory of the golden ratio Pentagrams before Pythagoras The oldest surviving written evidence for our species' knowledge of the unique "golden" section dates back to Byzantine times, about 888 CE or slightly later1, when the earliest extant copy of the mathematical textbook "The Elements" was written. The contents of this book, in turn, was attributed to the classical Greek mathematician Euclid who wrote around 300 BCE. He discussed this proportion as the "division in extreme and mean ratio". Before Euclid, the Athenian sculptor and architect Phidias (490 to 432 BCE) gets generally credited with having pioneered the use of this ratio in his design of the Parthenon temple for Athena, the Greek goddess of Wisdom, science, and art. Some scholars deny the presence of this ratio in that temple or any other building of its time, but it is to honor Phidias for its use that modern mathematicians often designate this ratio with the Greek letter f = phi. Phidias’ knowledge of this proportion, as well as the relevant chapters by Euclid, are said to be based on information from the Greek mathematician Pythagoras (about 580 to about 500 BCE)2. Some disciples of this semi-legendary philosopher and founder of a number-mystic sect reputedly used a pentagram as one of the symbols for his mathematical doctrine, and one of them is said to have displayed this phi-based geometrical figure on his door post as a secret sign of mutual recognition3. The sign and its meaning could remain secret despite that public display because only those initiated into the mysteries of Pythagoras' geometry were able to draw it correctly and to appreciate its deep significance as a symbol for and gateway to those mysteries. This is where the documented or reported trail of phi and the pentagram stops, at least in the current mainstream histories of science. Geometrically, the pentagram is an extension of the pentagon which is the same design without the star-arms. Both include in their proportions many instances of the golden ratio, and to draw either figure properly one must first construct that ratio, as illustrated on the "Golden Drawings" page, and as explained below. This construction requires analytical thinking. For instance, Sir Thomas Heath, the eminent translator of many Greek mathematical and astronomical texts, says about the pentagon in his "Summary of the Pythagorean Mathematical Discoveries": "... as [the construction of a regular pentagon] depends upon the construction of an isosceles triangle in which each of the base angles is the double of the vertical angle, and this again on the cutting of a line in extreme and mean ratio, we may fairly assume that this was the way in which the construction of the regular pentagon was actually evolved. It would follow that the solution of problems by analysis was already practiced by the Pythagoreans, notwithstanding that the discovery of the analytical method is attributed by Proclus to Plato. As the particular construction is practically given in Euclid IV:10,11, we may assume that the content of Euclid IV was also partly Pythagorean."4 The mathematical historian Roger Herz- Fischler concurs in his book “A Mathematical History of the Golden Number”: “To determine when the pentagon was first inscribed in a circle or, if my conclusion is correct about when the concept of [division in extreme and mean ratio] first appeared, we must look for a period when mathematics was at the level of rigor where mathematicians would consider working within a ‘program’: for this is how the construction of the pentagon appears to me, as part of a program to inscribe the regular polygons in a circle. While the other polygons only required making older intuitive proofs more rigorous, the pentagon required new techniques, new insights, and new lemmas.” Herz- Fischler says this postulated program of inscribing polygons into a circle was conceived in Greece. However, the Egyptians had long been scribing polygons around circles, and this requires the same mathematical approach and skills. Pharaonic stone masons made round columns by starting with polygon facets around the desired circle; then only did they cut away the excess material. According to Dieter Arnold, an Egyptologist who studied the ancient construction methods, this approach can be observed in the unfinished corner torus of Pylon IV at Karnak. This torus “... is not yet completely round but polygonal, thus preserving an intermediate step between the rectangular boss and the rounded torus”. Other columns were intentionally left polygonal, for instance, the two sixteen- sided limestone columns at the entrance of the small temple which Thutmose III built in Abydos. The same geometrical skills would also have been required for the half- and three- quarter- round engaged columns in king Djoser’s Saqqara buildings. Those columns are, moreover, both fluted and tapered, requiring precise guidelines in progressively adjusted sizes. Whatever method of analytical geometry the Egyptian column cutters may have used for drawing those many regular polygons, it seems that the pentagram expressed the essence of this science not only for the Pythagoreans but also for the temple designers of the Ramesside era, some 750 years before Pythagoras was born. Geometry was the special turf of Seshat, the divine mistress of temple plans. She presided over the so-called "House of Books", later also called the "House of Life", where the priests and sages maintained and transmitted traditions in all areas of knowledge, from medicine to magic and dream books, and above all the correct performance of rituals which included the design of all temples[8]. These proto- Universities or library archives appear in the titles of dignitaries from the Fourth Dynasty on. For instance, one of king Khufu’s sons was "Priest of Seshat presiding over the House of Books"[9]. Seshat’s most prominent task was the laying out of sacred buildings, together with the king. Her foundation ritual of "stretching the cord" is sculpted on many temple walls, and it was essential for assuring that the geometry of the building would correctly reflect the structure of heaven and earth which the temple was built to reproduce. As described in the chapter "Maat soulmate Seshat convicted for possessing pot and undeclared math", a beautiful and well preserved portrait of Seshat among the reliefs in the Luxor temple from around 1250 BCEshows a pentagram at the center of the hemp leaf in her emblem[10]. That pentagram is perched on its stem above her head as if this geometrical figure was already then a symbol for geometry, used there as an extra determinative for the most characteristic art taught by that goddess of geometry, writing, and general learning. The five-pointed star hieroglyph This identification of the pentagram with geometry may even go back much farther, all the way to the hieroglyph designer(s) of early Egypt. In their system, a star with five rays was the hieroglyphic sign for "seba" or “star”. Many carefully sculpted examples show these rays evenly spaced like those of a skinny pentagram although stars with six or eight rays would have been much easier to draw. The ancient Egyptians attached great importance to similarities in sound or spelling of otherwise unrelated words. They believed such resemblances were a sign of deep connections between the objects or ideas such words represented, and this ancient principle gives us a glimpse at the associations they seem to have made with this penta- star. This same star, with a papyrus roll as determinative for abstract ideas, appeared also in the word "seba-eet" for “written teaching, instruction”, whereas the verb "seba" = "to teach, to learn" combined that star with a weapon- wielding arm. (This threatening arm referred presumably to the school master's rod since the word "seba-oo" for "education", based on the same root and with the same determinative, could also mean "punishment".) Whatever associations this punishing arm may have evoked in the pupils of the scribal schools, the teachings symbolized by the five- pointed star were also associated with doorways because the same "seba" signs as in the "teaching, learning" verb meant "gate" when their "armed- arm" determinative was replaced with that of a houseplan. The gates this pun on "learning" represented to the learners may have admitted these to the lucrative careers to which their learning opened the way, or to the wisdom which opened their minds. However, although such modern thoughts may also have played a role back then, the star in the word may have alluded above all to other gates which were even more important. Stars were thought to be the gates of heaven. Another word for them, "ankh-oo", included the "ankh" sign of life and a star plus the plural sign, and it had the same consonants as "ankh-oo" which was also a plural and meant "the living". Consistent with the ancient Egyptian habit of denying death, "the living" was an euphemism for the dead since the eternal afterlife of these was considered more real and more important than its brief prelude here while the future deceased still walked on earth. Dead pharaos became stars and circled the celestial north pole together with the other "Immortals", that is, the circumpolar stars which never disappear below the horizon. This may initially have been an exclusive privilege for royals, but as commoners gained access to the afterlife, stars came to represent also the souls of the dead in general. This connection between the star sign and the dead is expressed again unmistakably in the hieroglyph for the "duat" or "afterworld" which was the same five- pointed star but with a circle around it - pi surrounding phi. As we saw earlier, a circle was the symbol of the sun and of its divine eternity. The "duat"- sign and its meaning implied therefore that geometry came from and belonged to that parallel but timeless and invisible realm where the gods dwelled, and the "justified" dead who went to join them. That netherworld realm was thus apparently also the world of the numbers and of the geometry from which it took its symbol. This connection between numbers and stars and gods and the dead who became gods and/or stars makes sense in magical analog thinking because numbers and geometric objects are as timeless and as intangible as those spiritual beings, and as charged with mysterious powers. The Egyptians’ use of numbers in religious and magical contexts suggests that they perceived gods and numbers as related, just as the Mesopotamians did. Another habit of magical thinking is that a part can stand for or replace the whole. An important part of the ancient Egyptian afterworld were the gates to and within it through which the sun and the newly deceased had to pass on the way to their resurrection. Such gates appear already in the Pyramid Texts and in the Book of the Dead, and twelve serpent- guarded gates, one after each hour of this night voyage, became later such a defining feature for the netherworld that one of the popular guidebooks to it, first attested among the wall paintings in the tomb of king Horemheb (1319 to 1307 BCE), is now called "The Book of Gates" [12]. The five- pointed star in its circum- circle could therefore also designate the gates to that afterworld, matching the above presence of the star sign in the word for "gate". This usage of the symbol as an opening to the world beyond survived into Medieval and even Renaissance times when magicians typically drew a pentagram on the floor to summon spirits from that world and enclosed it in a circle to protect themselves and their audience from the dangers inherent in such contacts. Pythagoras as plagiaristThese uses of the symbol for geometry indicate that the science it represented meant far more to its practitioners than a way to measure fields. They anticipate by more than two millennia the Pythagorean connection between this sign and that science, and they suggest therefore that Seshat, or her priests, had much earlier claims on the analytical method than any Greek. The prior art in the hieroglyph signs and on Narmer’s mace makes Pythagoras move over and abandon his bragging rights as that method’s alleged inventor. Indeed, many ancient authors tell us that Pythagoras picked up much of his knowledge from others. This purported discoverer of the golden ratio and of its pentagram symbol for the analytical method is notorious for having claimed as his own many discoveries that he had learned abroad. His almost contemporary, the four decades younger Greek philosopher Heraclitus who lived from about 540 to about 480 BCE and probably had access to some of the same sources as Pythagoras, accused him of systematic intellectual theft: "Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, has done more researching than all other people, and by reading together all these writings he pretended with punditry and artful lies that they were his own wisdom. (...) Pythagoras is the leader of the swindlers."[13] Similarly, though without the offensive terms or intent, all of Pythagoras’ ancient biographers stated that this reputed founder of Western science [14] owed much of his learning to the traditions of the Near East. For instance, the Neo- Platonic (and thus also Neo- Pythagorean) philosopher Iamblichus (about 250 to 325 CE) wrote relatively late but is said to have used early sources. According to his account, Pythagoras began his studies with the philosopher and mathematician Thales of Miletus (about 625 to 550 BCE) on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor and then continued them in the Levant : "... he sailed to Sidon, both because it was his native country, and because it was on his way to Egypt. In Phoenicia he conversed with the prophets who were the descendants of Moschus the physiologist (that is, Moses), and with many others, as well as with the local hierophants [priests who interpret religious rites and mysteries]. He was also initiated into all the mysteries of Byblos and Tyre, and in the sacred function performed in many parts of Syria. (...) After gaining all he could from the Phoenician mysteries, he found that they had originated from the sacred rites of Egypt, forming as it were an Egyptian colony. (...) Here in Egypt he frequented all the temples with the greatest diligence and most studious research, (...) acquiring all the wisdom each possessed. He thus passed twenty- two years in the sanctuaries of temples, studying astronomy and geometry, and being initiated in no casual or superficial manner in all the mysteries of the gods. At length, however, he was taken captive by the soldiers of Cambyses and carried off to Babylon. Here he was overjoyed to be associated with the Magi who instructed him in their venerable knowledge, and in the most perfect worship of the gods. Through their assistance, likewise, he studied and completed arithmetic, music, and all the other sciences. After twelve years, about the fifty- sixth year of his age, he returned to Samos." [15] Of course, Iamblichus may have embellished some of the details in his hagiography, such as the readiness of the local priests to initiate this stranger into all their secret teachings. We must also keep in mind that we have very little or no first- hand information about Pythagoras, and that his very existence can be questioned. He was a legend- encrusted figure, a miracle worker with a golden thigh who could be in two places at the same time. He was also a son of the god Apollo, and so exalted that a river once greeted him by name when he crossed it. Still, even if this fairy- tale Pythagoras may have never lived, the traditions from antiquity about his teachings are real, and it matters little if some other fellow (whom later writers only happened to call Pythagoras) may have spread the doctrine said to be his. The solid core of these traditions reflects that the greater part of the mathematical knowledge and discoveries known to the early Classical Greeks, and claimed by or ascribed to Pythagoras, actually came from the cradles of civilization in the Levant, the long- established trading partners and teachers of the then culturally just emerging Greeks. Pentagons in Solomon's Temple One of the groups most active in this transmission of ideas were the Phoenicians, acknowledged as such in several Greek myths like that of Cadmus bringing the alphabet to Thebes. In Iamblichus’ account, Pythagoras himself was of Phoenician descent and started his quest by traveling to that homeland of his. Several centuries before Pythagoras, at a time when Greek mathematics was barely at the stage of counting all the legs on a tripod, the Hebrew king Solomon hired Phoenician specialists to build his Temple, and he maintained close contacts with these gifted traders and craftsmen. The designer of his famous Temple in Jerusalem incorporated into that building many examples of the golden ratio, including the same phi- based construction from which the Pythagoreans would later derive their above recognition sign, and he used it in the same location as they would. The New English Bible translates in 1 Kings 6:21 that at the entrance to the Holy of Holies "the door posts and the pilasters were pentagonal" If this translation is correct, then it implies that Solomon’s builders were also aware of this analysis- requiring construction, just like their Egyptian neighbors. Moreover, their use of of the pentagon for the cross- section of these door posts matches the way the above Pythagoreans would later affix the pentagram to the door posts to identify their dwellings to other members of their group. The only difference is that in the Temple, the pentagon was not oriented horizontally towards people but turned upwards to heaven since the door it marked was intended for God. The use of this recognition symbol in the door posts also matches how Jews from at least the Second Temple period on marked their door posts with mezuzahs to identify themselves to God for his protection[16], and it echoes how their ancestors in Egypt had smeared lamb’s blood on their door posts and lintels (Exodus 12:7) to identify themselves to God when he slew the Egyptians’ firstborn. All this evidence for pre-Greek knowledge of the golden ratio may be circumstantial, but it is cumulative and makes it appear much more likely than not that Pythagoras picked up the doctrine of the pentagram in Phoenicia or Egypt. Star. (seba). Appearance: The Egyptians had extended knowledge of the ... The stars were called the "Followers of Osiris and represented the souls in the underworld. The five-pointed star within a circle was the Egyptian symbol of the ... Appearance: The Egyptians had extended knowledge of the night sky and the stars above. The circumpolar stars (the set of stars that seemed to "orbit" the North Star through the course of the night and thus never dipped below the horizon) were called the "Imperishable Ones". Most of the brighter stars were named by the Egyptians and they named thirty-eight constellations. These constellations were used to divide the night sky into "decans" (from the Greek word for "Ten"). The decans were called "the thirty-six gods of heaven and each ruled for ten-days each year. The Egyptian symbol for the stars was a symbol five-pointed line drawing, resembling the sea stars (aka "starfish") that inhabited the Red Sea. In older examples, the drawing has rounder ends and the center is marked by two concentric rings. Egyptian star charts and decan tables often used dots or circles, as well as the hieroglyph. Meaning: The infinite and unchanging nature of the stars overhead influenced the development of the Egyptian calendar and their beliefs regarding the life after death. Every Egyptian temple was a complex model of the cosmos and thus many images of the stars, constellations and stellar deities grace temple ceilings. In instances where the night sky was charted on the ceiling, brighter stars were sometimes designated by circles - like the sun disks. In decorative uses, sky hieroglyph and the body of the sky-goddess Nut was decorated with five-pointed stars. It was believed that the stars did not just inhabit this world, but in the Duat (land of the afterlife) as well. The Egyptians believed that the ba might ascend to the sky to live as a star in heaven. Many tombs also featured deep blue ceilings dotted with bright yellow stars in the exact image of the hieroglyph in hopes to make the ba feel at home in its new dwelling place. The stars were called the "Followers of Osiris and represented the souls in the underworld. The five-pointed star within a circle was the Egyptian symbol of the Duat.
SEBA 1+ 5 +2 +1 = 9 9 -1+2+5+1 SEBA BASE = 9 9 = BASE SEBA 1+ 5 +2 +1 = 9 9 -1+2+5+1 SEBA
A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha or pentangle or, more formally, as a star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagram Pentagram From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Pentagram (disambiguation).
A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha or pentangle or, more formally, as a star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes. The word pentagram comes from the Greek word πεντάγραμμον (pentagrammon), a noun form of πεντάγραμμος (pentagrammos) or πεντέγραμμος (pentegrammos), a word meaning roughly "five-lined" or "five lines". Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia, and are used today as a symbol of faith by many Wiccans, akin to the use of the cross by Christians and the Star of David by Jews. The pentagram has magical associations, and many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol. Christians once more commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus,[1][2] and it also has associations within Freemasonry.[3] The pentagram has long been associated with the planet Venus, and the worship of the goddess Venus, or her equivalent. It is also associated with the Roman word lucifer, which was a term used for Venus as the Morning Star, associated with the bringer of light and knowledge. It is most likely to have originated from the observations of prehistoric astronomers.[4] When viewed from Earth, successive inferior conjunctions of Venus plot a nearly perfect pentagram shape around the zodiac every eight years.[5] The word "pentacle" is sometimes used synonymously with "pentagram", although their technical usages are different, and their etymologies may be unrelated.[6] Wiccans and Neo-pagans often refer to a pentagram enclosed in a circle as a 'pentacle'.[7] // if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } // [edit] Early history [edit] SumerThe first known uses of the pentagram are found in Mesopotamian writings dating to about 3000 BC. The Sumerian pentagrams served as pictograms for the word "UB," meaning "corner, angle, nook; a small room, cavity, hole; pitfall," suggesting something very similar to the pentemychos (see below on the Pythagorean use for what pentemychos means). In René Labat's index system of Sumerian hieroglyphs/pictograms it is shown with two points up.[8] In the Babylonian context, the edges of the pentagram were probably orientations: forward, backward, left, right, and "above".[citation needed] These directions also had an astrological meaning, representing the five planets Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, and Venus as the "Queen of Heaven" (Ishtar) above.[citation needed] [edit] PythagoreansThe Pythagoreans called the pentagram ύγιεια Hygieia ("health"; also the Greek goddess of health, Hygieia), and saw in the pentagram a mathematical perfection (see Geometry section below). The five vertices were also used by the medieval neo-pythagoreans (whom one could argue were not pythagoreans at all) to represent the five classical elements:
The vertices were labeled in the letters of υ-γ-ι-ει-α. The ordering (clockwise or counter-clockwise) and starting vertex varied. The ancient Pythagorean pentagram was drawn with two points up and represented the doctrine of Pentemychos. Pentemychos means "five recesses" or "five chambers", also known as the pentagonas — the five-angle, and was the title of a work written by Pythagoras's teacher and friend Pherecydes of Syros.[9] It was also the "place" where the first pre-cosmic offspring had to be put in order for the ordered cosmos to appear. The pentemychos is in Tartaros, also known as "The Gates of Hell".[citation needed] In very early Greek thought, Tartaros (or Chaos, according to Hesiod) was the primordial Darkness from which the cosmos is born. While it was locked away after the emergence and ordering of the cosmos, it still continued to have an influence. In fact, it was known as "the subduer of both gods and men" (Homer), and it was from this that the world got its "psyche" (soul) and its "daimon". The Boundless Darkness held influence through Mychos or Krater. Apart from being the gateway from "there" to "here" it was also a way in the opposite direction, from "here" to "there", as is evident in the many tales about how Greek heroes, philosophers and mystics descended through Krater to Tartaros/Hades (the distinction between the two was very optional back then) in quest for Wisdom. The Underworld as the source of wisdom was the rule. Tartaros was also later seen as the "chthonic realm" where all the enemies of the cosmic order were locked away, also called the "prison-house" of Zeus. It was said to lie outside of the aither over which Zeus had lordship; what we today would call space, back then called "Zeus' defense-wall," yet it was also beneath the earth. Plato (in Cratylus) said that the aither had a penetrating power that permeates the whole world, and he found it both inside and outside of our bodies. The pentemychos is outside, or in-side, of the aither. In the play Medea by Euripides, the sorceress Medea calls upon Hecate with the words, "By that dread queen whom I revere before all others and have chosen to share my task, by Hecate who dwells within my inmost chamber, not one of them shall wound my heart and rue it not." Note that she speaks of the Heart. The inmost chamber is the Mychos. Normally, Hecate and Persephone are portrayed solely as the rulers of the Underworld. In Medea, however, Hecate is called the Lady of Tartaros, Phulada (Guardian), Propulaia (Before the Gates), Kleidophoros (Key-bearer) and Kleidoukhos (Key-holder, Priestess). This Underworld of the Greeks and Pythagoreans is also the "inmost chamber" and the Core of Inner Being. [edit] European occultismHeinrich Cornelius Agrippa and others perpetuated the popularity of the pentagram as a magic symbol, keeping the Pythagorean attributions of elements to the five points. By the mid-19th century a further distinction had developed amongst occultists regarding the pentagram's orientation. With a single point upwards it depicted spirit presiding over the four elements of matter, and was essentially "good". However, the influential writer Eliphas Levi called it evil whenever the symbol appeared the other way up.
THE FIVE POINTED STAR
GREETINGS CITIZENS OF PLANET EARTH
RE 95 RE REARRANGED NUMERICALLY REARRANGED RE 95 RE
RE 95 RE REARRANGED NUMERICALLY REARRANGED RE 95 RE 95
PROMETHEUS MET ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS
ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS MET ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS
Prometheus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In Greek mythology, Prometheus 1] is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who is credited with the creation of man from clay, and who defies the gods and ... Prometheus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the Greek mythological figure. For other uses, see Prometheus (disambiguation). In Greek mythology, Prometheus (/prəˈmiːθiːəs/; Greek: Προμηθεύς, pronounced [promɛːtʰeús], meaning "forethought")[1] is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who is credited with the creation of man from clay, and who defies the gods and gives fire to humanity, an act that enabled progress and civilization. Prometheus is known for his intelligence and as a champion of mankind.[2] The punishment of Prometheus as a consequence of the theft is a major theme of his mythology, and is a popular subject of both ancient and modern art. Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, sentenced the Titan to eternal torment for his transgression. The immortal Prometheus was bound to a rock, where each day an eagle, the emblem of Zeus, was sent to feed on his liver, which would then grow back to be eaten again the next day. (In ancient Greece, the liver was thought to be the seat of human emotions.)[3] In some stories, Prometheus is freed at last by the hero Heracles (Hercules). In another of his myths, Prometheus establishes the form of animal sacrifice practiced in ancient Greek religion. Evidence of a cult to Prometheus himself is not widespread. He was a focus of religious activity mainly at Athens, where he was linked to Athena and Hephaestus, other Greek deities of creative skills and technology.[4] In the Western classical tradition, Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving, particularly the quest for scientific knowledge, and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences. In particular, he was regarded in the Romantic era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy: Mary Shelley, for instance, gave The Modern Prometheus as the subtitle to her novel Frankenstein (1818). Contents [hide] 1.2 The Athenian Tradition of Prometheus: Aeschylus and Plato 1.2.1 Aeschylus and the Ancient Literary Aesthetics of Prometheus 1.3 Other authors 2 Religious symbolism in late Roman antiquity 5.2 The aesthetic Post-Renaissance tradition 5.2.1 Classical music, opera, and ballet 6 Notes Myths and legends[edit] Greek deities Titans Titans The Twelve Titans: The oldest legends of Prometheus among the Ancients[edit] The four most ancient sources for understanding the origin of the Prometheus myths and legends all rely on the images represented in the Titanomachia, or the cosmological climactic struggle between the Greek gods and their parents, the Titans.[5] Prometheus himself was a titan who managed to avoid being in the direct confrontational cosmic battle between Zeus and his followers against Cronus, Uranus and their followers.[6] Prometheus therefore survived the struggle in which the offending titans were eternally banished by Zeus to the chthonic depths of Tartarus, only to survive to confront Zeus on his own terms in subsequent climactic struggles. The greater Titanomachia depicts an overarching metaphor of the struggle between generations, between parents and their children, symbolic of the generation of parents needing to eventually give ground to the growing needs, vitality, and responsibilities of the new generation for the perpetuation of society and survival interests of the human race as a whole. Prometheus and his struggle would be of vast merit to human society as well in this mythology as he was to be credited with the creation of humans and therefore all of humanity as well. The four most ancient historical sources for the Prometheus myth are Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, and Pythagoras. Hesiod and the Theogony[edit] The Prometheus myth first appeared in the late 8th-century BC Greek epic poet Hesiod's Theogony (lines 507–616). He was a son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanids. He was brother to Menoetius, Atlas, and Epimetheus. In the Theogony, Hesiod introduces Prometheus as a lowly challenger to Zeus's omniscience and omnipotence.[7] In the trick at Mekone, a sacrificial meal marking the "settling of accounts" between mortals and immortals, Prometheus played a trick against Zeus (545–557). He placed two sacrificial offerings before the Olympian: a selection of beef hidden inside an ox's stomach (nourishment hidden inside a displeasing exterior), and the bull's bones wrapped completely in "glistening fat" (something inedible hidden inside a pleasing exterior). Zeus chose the latter, setting a precedent for future sacrifices.[7] Henceforth, humans would keep that meat for themselves and burn the bones wrapped in fat as an offering to the gods. This angered Zeus, who hid fire from humans in retribution. In this version of the myth, the use of fire was already known to humans, but withdrawn by Zeus.[8] Prometheus, however, stole back fire in a giant fennel-stalk and restored it to humanity. This further enraged Zeus, who sent Pandora, the first woman, to live with humanity.[7] Pandora was fashioned by Hephaestus out of clay and brought to life by the four winds, with all the goddesses of Olympus assembled to adorn her. "From her is the race of women and female kind," Hesiod writes; "of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth."[7] Prometheus Brings Fire by Heinrich Friedrich Füger. Prometheus brings fire to mankind as told by Hesiod, with its having been hidden as revenge for the trick at Mecone. Hesiod revisits the story of Prometheus in the Works and Days (lines 42–105). Here, the poet expands upon Zeus's reaction to the theft of fire. Not only does Zeus withhold fire from humanity, but "the means of life," as well (42). Had Prometheus not provoked Zeus's wrath (44–47), "you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste." Hesiod also expands upon the Theogony's story of the first woman, now explicitly called Pandora ("all gifts"). After Prometheus' theft of fire, Zeus sent Pandora in retaliation. Despite Prometheus' warning, Epimetheus accepted this "gift" from the gods. Pandora carried a jar with her, from which were released (91–92) "evils, harsh pain and troublesome diseases which give men death".[11] Pandora shut the lid of the jar too late to contain all the evil plights that escaped, but foresight remained in the jar, giving humanity hope. Angelo Casanova,[12] Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Florence, finds in Prometheus a reflection of an ancient, pre-Hesiodic trickster-figure, who served to account for the mixture of good and bad in human life, and whose fashioning of humanity from clay was an Eastern motif familiar in Enuma Elish; as an opponent of Zeus he was an analogue of the Titans, and like them was punished. As an advocate for humanity he gains semi-divine status at Athens, where the episode in Theogony in which he is liberated[13] is interpreted by Casanova as a post-Hesiodic interpolation.[14] Homer, the Iliad, and the Homeric Hymns[edit] The banishment of the warring titans by the Olympians to the chthonic depths of Tartoros was documented as early as Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey where they are also identified as the hypotartarioi, or, the "subterranean." The passages appear in the Iliad (XIV 279)[15] and also in the Homeric hymn to Apollo (335).[16] The particular forms of violence associated especially with the Titans are those of hybristes and atasthalie as further found in the Iliad (XIII 633-34). They are used by Homer to designate an unlimited, violent insolence among the warring Titans which only Zeus was able to ultimately overcome. This text finds direct parallel in Hesiod's reading in the Theogony (209) and in Homer's own Odyssey (XIX 406). In the words of Kerenyi, "Autolykos, the grandfather, is introduced in order that he may give his grandson the name of Odysseus."[17] In a similar fashion, the origin of the naming of the "titans" as a group has been disputed with some voicing a preference for reading it as a combination of titainein (to exert), and, titis (retribution) usually rendered as "retribution meted out to the exertion of the Titans."[18] It should be noted in studying material concerning Prometheus that Prometheus was not directly among the warring Titans with Zeus though Prometheus's association with them by lineage is a recurrent theme in each of his subsequent confrontations with Zeus and with the Olympian gods. Pindar and the Nemean Odes[edit] The duality of the gods and of humans standing as polar opposites is also clearly identified in the earliest traditions of Greek mythology and its legends by Pindar. In the sixth Nemean Ode, Pindar states: "There is one/race of men, one race of gods; both have breath/of life from a single mother. But sundered aurora collett us divided, so that one side is nothing, while on the other the brazen sky is established/a sure citadel forever."[19] Although this duality in strikingly apparent in Pindar, it also has paradoxical elements where Pindar actually comes quite close to Hesiod who before him had said in his Works and Days (108) "how the gods and mortal men sprang from one source."[20] The understanding of Prometheus and his role in the creation of humans and the theft of fire for their benefit is therefore distinctly adapted within this distinguishable source for understanding the role of Prometheus within the mythology of the interaction of the Gods with humans. Pythagoras and the Pythagorean Doctrine[edit] In order to understand the Prometheus myth in its most general context, the Late Roman author Censorinus states in his book titled De die natali that, "Pythagoras of Samos, Okellos of Lukania, Archytas of Tarentum, and in general all Pythagoreans were the authors and proponents of the opinion that the human race was eternal."[21] By this they held that Prometheus's creation of humans was the creation of humanity for eternity. This Pythagorean view is further confirmed in the book On the Cosmos written by the Pythagorean Okellos of Lukania. Okellos, in his cosmology, further delineates the three realms of the cosmos as all contained within an overarching order called the diakosmesis which is also the world order kosmos, and which also must be eternal. The three realms were delineated by Okellos as having "two poles, man on earth, the gods in heaven. Merely for the sake of symmetry, as it were, the daemons --not evil spirits but beings intermediate between God and man -- occupy a middle position in the air, the realm between heaven and earth. They were not a product of Greek mythology, but of the belief in daemons that had sprung up in various parts of the Mediterranean world and the Near East."[22] The Athenian Tradition of Prometheus: Aeschylus and Plato[edit] The two major authors to have a distinctive influence on the development of the myths and legends surrounding the titan Prometheus during the Socratic era of greater Athens were Aeschylus and Plato. The two men wrote in highly distinctive forms of expression which for Aeschylus centered on his mastery of the literary form of Greek tragedy, while for Plato this centered on the philosophical expression of his thought in the form of the various dialogues he had written and recorded during his lifetime. Aeschylus and the Ancient Literary Aesthetics of Prometheus[edit] Prometheus Bound, perhaps the most famous treatment of the myth to be found among the Greek tragedies, is traditionally attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus.[23] At the center of the drama are the results of Prometheus' theft of fire and his current punishment by Zeus; the playwright's dependence on the Hesiodic source material is clear, though Prometheus Bound also includes a number of changes to the received tradition.[24] Before his theft of fire, Prometheus played a decisive role in the Titanomachy, securing victory for Zeus and the other Olympians. Zeus's torture of Prometheus thus becomes a particularly harsh betrayal. The scope and character of Prometheus' transgressions against Zeus are also widened. In addition to giving humankind fire, Prometheus claims to have taught them the arts of civilization, such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science. The Titan's greatest benefaction for humankind seems to have been saving them from complete destruction. In an apparent twist on the myth of the so-called Five Ages of Man found in Hesiod's Works and Days (wherein Cronus and, later, Zeus created and destroyed five successive races of humanity), Prometheus asserts that Zeus had wanted to obliterate the human race, but that he somehow stopped him. Heracles freeing Prometheus from his torment by the eagle (Attic black-figure cup, c. 500 BC) Prometheus Bound also includes two mythic innovations of omission. The first is the absence of Pandora's story in connection with Prometheus' own. Instead, Aeschylus includes this one oblique allusion to Pandora and her jar that contained Hope (252): "[Prometheus] caused blind hopes to live in the hearts of men." Second, Aeschylus makes no mention of the sacrifice-trick played against Zeus in the Theogony.[23] The four tragedies of Prometheus attributed to Aeschylus, most of which are sadly lost to the passages of time into antiquity, are Prometheus Bound (Desmotes), Prometheus Delivered (Lyomens), Prometheus the Fire Bringer (Pyrphoros), and Prometheus the Fire Kindler (Pyrkaeus). The larger scope of Aeschylus as a dramatist revisiting the myth of Prometheus in the age of Athenian prominence has been discussed by William Lynch.[25] Lynch's general thesis concerns the rise of humanist and secular tendencies in Athenian culture and society which required the growth and expansion of the mythological and religious tradition as acquired from the most ancient sources of the myth stemming from Hesiod. For Lynch, modern scholarship is hampered by not having the full trilogy of Prometheus by Aeschylus, the last two parts of which have been lost to antiquity. Significantly, Lynch further comments that although the Prometheus trilogy is not available, that the Orestia trilogy by Aeschylus remains available and may be assumed to provide significant insight into the overall structural intentions which may be ascribed to the Prometheus trilogy by Aeschylus as an author of significant consistency and exemplary dramatic erudition.[26] Harold Bloom, in his research guide for Aeschylus, has summarized some of the critical attention that has been applied to Aeschylus concerning his general philosophical import in Athens.[27] As Bloom states, "Much critical attention has been paid to the question of theodicy in Aeschylus. For generations, scholars warred incessantly over 'the justice of Zeus,' unintentionally blurring it with a monotheism imported from Judeo-Christian thought. The playwright undoubtedly had religious concerns; for instance, Jacqueline de Romilly[28] suggests that his treatment of time flows directly out of his belief in divine justice. But it would be an error to think of Aeschylus as sermonizing. His Zeus does not arrive at decisions which he then enacts in the mortal world; rather, human events are themselves an enactment of divine will."[29] According to Thomas Rosenmeyer regarding the religious import of Aeschylus, "In Aeschylus, as in Homer, the two levels of causation, the supernatural and the human, are co-existent and simultaneous, two way of describing the same event." Rosenmeyer insists that ascribing portrayed characters in Aeschylus should not conclude them to be either victims or agents of theological or religious activity too quickly. As Rosenmeyer states: "[T]he text defines their being. For a critic to construct an Aeschylean theology would be as quixotic as designing a typology of Aeschylean man. The needs of the drama prevail."[30] In a rare comparison of Prometheus in Aeschylus with Oedipus in Sophocles, Harold Bloom with more than simple irony has quoted Freud as stating that, "Freud called Oedipus an 'immoral play,' since the gods ordained incest and paracide. Oedipus therefore participates in our universal unconscious sense of guilt, but on this reading so do the gods. I (states Bloom) sometimes wish that Freud had turned to Aeschylus instead, and given us the Prometheus complex rather than the Oedipus complex."[31] Plato and the Philosophical Interpretation of Prometheus[edit] Olga Raggio in her study "The Myth of Prometheus" for the Courtauld Institute attributes Plato in the Protagoras as an important contributor to the early development of the Prometheus myth.[32] Raggio indicates that many of the more challenging and dramatic assertions which Aeschylean tragedy explores are absent from Plato's writings about Prometheus.[33] As summarized by Raggio, "After the gods have moulded men and other living creatures with a mixture of clay and fire, the two brothers Epimetheus and Prometheus are called to complete the task and distribute among the newly born creatures all sorts of natural qualities. Epimetheus sets to work, but, being unwise, distributes all the gifts of nature among the animals, leaving men naked and unprotected, unable to defend themselves and to survive in a hostile world. Prometheus then steals the fire of creative power from the workshop of Athena and Hephaistos and gives it to mankind." Raggio then goes on to point out Plato's distinction of creative power (techne) which is presented as superior to merely natural instincts (physis). For Plato, only the virtues of "reverence and justice can provide for the maintenance of a civilized society -- and these virtues are the highest gift finally bestowed on men in equal measure."[34] The ancients by way of Plato believed that the name Prometheus derived from the Greek pro (before) + manthano (intelligence) and the agent suffix -eus, thus meaning "Forethinker". In his dialogue titled Protagoras, Plato contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother Epimetheus, "Afterthinker".[35] In Plato's dialogue Protagoras, Protagoras asserts that the gods created humans and all the other animals, but it was left to Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to give defining attributes to each. As no physical traits were left when the pair came to humans, Prometheus decided to give them fire and other civilizing arts.[36] The Athenian tradition of religious dedication and observance[edit] It is understandable that since Prometheus was considered a Titan and not one of the Olympian gods that there would be an absence of evidence, with the exception of Athens, for the direct religious devotion to his worship. Despite his importance to the myths and imaginative literature of ancient Greece, the religious cult of Prometheus during the Archaic and Classical periods seems to have been limited.[37] Writing in the 2nd century AD, the satirist Lucian points out that while temples to the major Olympians were everywhere, none to Prometheus is to be seen.[38] Heracles freeing Prometheus, relief from the Temple of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias Pausanias recorded a few other religious sites in Greece devoted to Prometheus. Both Argos and Opous claimed to be Prometheus' final resting place, each erecting a tomb in his honor. The Greek city of Panopeus had a cult statue that was supposed to honor Prometheus for having created the human race there.[36] The Aesthetic tradition of Prometheus in Athenian art[edit] Prometheus' torment by the eagle and his rescue by Heracles were popular subjects in vase paintings of the 6th to 4th centuries BC. He also sometimes appears in depictions of Athena's birth from Zeus' forehead. There was a relief sculpture of Prometheus with Pandora on the base of Athena's cult statue in the Athenian Parthenon of the 5th century BC. A similar rendering is also found at the great altar of Zeus at Pergamon from the second century BC. The event of the release of Prometheus from captivity was frequently revisited on Attic and Etruscan vases between the sixth and fifth centuries BC. In the depiction on display at the Museum of Karlsruhe and in Berlin, the depiction is that of Prometheus confronted by a menacing large bird (assumed to be the eagle) with Hercules approaching from behind shooting his arrows at it.[45] In the fourth century this imagery was modified to depicting Prometheus bound in a cruciform manner, possibly reflecting an Aeschylus inspired manner of influence, again with an eagle and with Hercules approaching from the side.[46] Other authors[edit] Creation of humanity by Prometheus as Athena looks on (Roman-era relief, 3rd century AD) Prometheus watches Athena endow his creation with reason (painting by Christian Griepenkerl, 1877) Some two dozen other Greek and Roman authors retold and further embellished the Prometheus myth from as early as the 5th century BC (Diodorus, Herodorus) into the 4th century AD. The most significant detail added to the myth found in, e.g., Sappho, Aesop and Ovid[47] — was the central role of Prometheus in the creation of the human race. According to these sources, Prometheus fashioned humans out of clay. Although perhaps made explicit in the Prometheia, later authors such as Hyginus, the Bibliotheca, and Quintus of Smyrna would confirm that Prometheus warned Zeus not to marry the sea nymph Thetis. She is consequently married off to the mortal Peleus, and bears him a son greater than the father — Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War. Pseudo-Apollodorus moreover clarifies a cryptic statement (1026–29) made by Hermes in Prometheus Bound, identifying the centaur Chiron as the one who would take on Prometheus' suffering and die in his place.[36] Reflecting a myth attested in Greek vase paintings from the Classical period, Pseudo-Apollodorus places the Titan (armed with an axe) at the birth of Athena, thus explaining how the goddess sprang forth from the forehead of Zeus.[36] Other minor details attached to the myth include: the duration of Prometheus' torment;[48][49] the origin of the eagle that ate the Titan's liver (found in Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus); Pandora's marriage to Epimetheus (found in Pseudo-Apollodorus); myths surrounding the life of Prometheus' son, Deucalion (found in Ovid and Apollonius of Rhodes); and Prometheus' marginal role in the myth of Jason and the Argonauts (found in Apollonius of Rhodes and Valerius Flaccus).[36] Modern scientific linguistics suggests that the name derived from the Proto-Indo-European root that also produces the Vedic pra math, "to steal," hence pramathyu-s, "thief", cognate with "Prometheus", the thief of fire. The Vedic myth of fire's theft by Mātariśvan is an analog to the Greek account. Pramantha was the tool used to create fire.[50] Religious symbolism in late Roman antiquity[edit] The three most prominent aspects of the Prometheus myth have parallels within the beliefs of many cultures throughout the world; see creation of man from clay, theft of fire, and references for eternal punishment. It is the first of these three which has drawn attention to parallels with the biblical creation account related in the religious symbolism expressed in the book of Genesis. As stated by Olga Raggio,[51] "The Prometheus myth of creation as a visual symbol of the Neoplatonic concept of human nature, illustrated in (many) sarcophagi, was evidently a contradiction of the Christian teaching of the unique and simultaneous act of creation by the Trinity." This Neoplatonism of late Roman antiquity was especially stressed by Tertullian[52] who recognized both difference and similarity of the biblical deity with the mythological figure of Prometheus. The imagery of Prometheus and the creation of man used for the purposes of the representation of the creation of Adam in biblical symbolism is also a recurrent theme in the artistic expression of late Roman antiquity. Of the relatively rare expressions found of the creation of Adam in those centuries of late Roman antiquity, one can single out the so-called "Dogma sarcophagus" of the Lateran Museum where three figures are seen (in representation of the theological trinity) in making a benediction to the new man. Another example is found where the prototype of Prometheus is also recognizable in the early Christian era of late Roman antiquity. This can be found upon a sarcophagus of the Church at Mas d'Aire[53] as well, and in an even more direct comparison to what Raggio refers to as "a coursely carved relief from Campli (Teramo)[54] (where) the Lord sits on a throne and models the body of Adam, exactly like Prometheus." Still another such similarity is found in the example found on a Hellenistic relief presently in the Louvre in which the Lord gives life to Eve through the imposition of his two fingers on her eyes recalling the same gesture found in earlier representations of Prometheus.[55] In Georgian mythology, Amirani is a culture hero who challenged the chief god, and like Prometheus was chained on the Caucasian mountains where birds would eat his organs. This aspect of the myth had a significant influence on the Greek imagination. It is recognizable from a Greek gem roughly dated to the time of the Hesiod poems, which show Prometheus with hands bound behind his body and crouching before a bird with long wings.[56] This same image would also be used later in the Rome of the Augustan age as documented by Furtwangler.[57] In the often cited and highly publicized interview between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers on Public Television, the author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces presented his view on the comparison of Prometheus and Jesus.[58] Moyers asked Campbell the question in the following words, "In this sense, unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we're not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves." To which Campbell's well-known response was that, "But in doing that, you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules [...] No, no! Any world is a valid world if it's alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself." For Campbell, Jesus mortally suffered on the Cross while Prometheus eternally suffered while chained to a rock, and each of them received punishment for the gift which they bestowed to humankind, for Jesus this was the gift of propitiation from Heaven, and, for Prometheus this was the gift of fire from Olympus.[58] Significantly, Campbell is also clear to indicate the limits of applying the metaphors of his methodology in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces too closely in assessing the comparison of Prometheus and Jesus. Of the four symbols of suffering associated with Jesus after his trial in Jerusalem (i) the crown of thorns, (ii) the scourge of whips, (iii) the nailing to the Cross, and (iv) the spearing of his side, it is only this last one which bears some resemblance to the eternal suffering of Prometheus' daily torment of an eagle devouring a replenishing organ, his liver, from his side.[59] For Campbell, the striking contrast between the New Testament narratives and the Greek mythological narratives remains at the limiting level of the cataclysmic eternal struggle of the eschatological New Testament narratives occurring only at the very end of the biblical narratives in the Apocalypse of John (12:7) where, "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven." This eschatological and apocalyptic setting of a Last Judgement is in precise contrast to the Titanomachia of Hesiod which serves its distinct service to Greek mythology as its Prolegomenon, bracketing all subsequent mythology, including the creation of humanity, as coming after the cosmological struggle between the Titans and the Olympian gods.[58] It remains a continuing debate among scholars of comparative religion and the literary reception[60] of mythological and religious subject matter as to whether the typology of suffering and torment represented in the Prometheus myth finds its more representative comparisons with the narratives of the Hebrew scriptures or with the New Testament narratives. In the Book of Job, significant comparisons can be drawn between the sustained suffering of Job in comparison to that of eternal suffering and torment represented in the Prometheus myth. With Job, the suffering is at the acquiescence of heaven and at the will of the demonic, while in Prometheus the suffering is directly linked to Zeus as the ruler of Olympus. The comparison of the suffering of Jesus after his sentencing in Jerusalem is limited to the three days, from Thursday to Saturday, and leading to the culminating narratives corresponding to Easter Sunday. The symbolic import for comparative religion would maintain that suffering related to justified conduct is redeemed in both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament narratives, while in Prometheus there remains the image of a non-forgiving deity, Zeus, who nonetheless requires reverence.[58] Writing in late antiquity of the fourth and fifth century, the Latin commentator Marcus Servius Honoratus explained that Prometheus was so named because he was a man of great foresight (vir prudentissimus), possessing the abstract quality of providentia, the Latin equivalent of Greek promētheia (ἀπὸ τής πρόμηθείας).[61] Anecdotally, the Roman fabulist Phaedrus (c.15BC - c.50AD) attributes to Aesop a simple etiology for homosexuality, in Prometheus' getting drunk while creating the first humans and misapplying the genitalia.[62] The allegorical tradition of the Middle Ages[edit] Perhaps the most influential book of the Middle Ages upon the reception of the Prometheus myth was the mythological handbook of Fulgentius Placiades. As stated by Raggio,[63] "The text of Fulgentius, as well as that of (Marcus) Servius [...] are the main sources of the mythological handbooks written in the ninth century by the anonymous Mythographus Primus and Mythographus Secundus. Both were used for the more lengthy and elaborate compendium by the English scholar Alexander Neckman (1157-1217), the Scintillarium Poetarum, or Poetarius."[63] The purpose of his books was to distinguish allegorical interpretation from the historical interpretation of the Prometheus myth. Continuing in this same tradition of the allegorical interpretation of the Prometheus myth, along with the historical interpretation of the Middle Ages, is the Genealogiae of Giovanni Boccaccio. Boccaccio follows these two levels of interpretation and distinguishes between two separate versions of the Prometheus myth. For Boccaccio, Prometheus is placed "In the heavens where all is clarity and truth, [Prometheus] steals, so to speak, a ray of the divine wisdom from God himself, source of all Science, supreme Light of every man."[64] With this, Boccaccio shows himself moving from the mediaeval sources with a shift of accent towards the attitude of the Renaissance humanists. Using a similar interpretation to that of Boccaccio, Marsilio Ficino in the fifteenth century updated the philosophical and more somber reception of the Prometheus myth not seen since the time of Plotinus. In his book written in 1476-77 titled Quaestiones Quinque de Mente, Ficino indicates his preference for reading the Prometheus myth as an image of the human soul seeking to obtain supreme truth. As Olga Raggio summarizes Ficino's text, "The torture of Prometheus is the torment brought by reason itself to man, who is made by it many times more unhappy than the brutes. It is after having stolen one beam of the celestial light [...] that the soul feels as if fastened by chains and [...] only death can release her bonds and carry her to the source of all knowledge."[64] This somberness of attitude in Ficino's text would be further developed later by Charles de Bouelles' Liber de Sapiente of 1509 which presented a mix of both scholastic and Neoplatonic ideas. Prometheus in the Renaissance[edit] After the writings of both Boccaccio and Ficino in the late Middle Ages about Prometheus, interest in the titan shifted considerably in the direction of becoming subject matter for painters and sculptors alike. Among the most famous examples is that of Piero di Cosimo from about 1510 presently on display at the museums of Munich and Strasburg (see Inset). Raggio summarizes the Munich version[65] as follows; "The Munich panel represents the dispute between Epimetheus and Prometheus, the handsome triumphant statue of the new man, modeled by Prometheus, his ascension to the sky under the guidance of Minerva; the Strasburg panel shows in the distance Prometheus lighting his torch at the wheels of the Sun, and in the foreground on one side, Prometheus applying his torch to the heart of the statue and , on the other, Mercury fastening him to a tree." All the details are evidently borrowed from Boccaccio's Genealogiae. The same reference to the Genealogiae can be cited as the source for the drawing by Parmigianino presently located in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City.[66] In this drawing, a very noble rendering of Prometheus is presented which evokes the memory of Michelangelo's works portraying Jehovah. This drawing in the Morgan Library is perhaps one of the most intense examples of the visualization of the myth of Prometheus from the Renaissance period. Writing in the late British Renaissance, William Shakespeare uses the Promethean allusion in the famous death scene of Desdemona in his tragedy of Othello. Othello in contemplating the death of Desdemona asserts plainly that he cannot restore the "Promethean heat" to her body once it has been extinguished. For Shakespeare, the allusion is clearly to the interpretation of the fire from the heat as the bestowing of life to the creation of man from clay by Prometheus after it was stolen from Olympus. The analogy bears direct resemblance to the biblical narrative of the creation of life in Adam through the bestowed breathing of the creator in Genesis. Shakespeare's symbolic reference to the "heat" associated with Prometheus's fire is to the association of the gift of fire to the mythological gift or theological gift of life to humans. The Post-Renaissance tradition[edit] Mythological narrative of Prometheus by Piero di Cosimo (1515) The myth of Prometheus has been a favorite theme of Western art and literature in the post-renaissance and post-Enlightenment tradition, and occasionally in works produced outside the West. The literary Post-Renaissance tradition[edit] For the Romantic era, Prometheus was the rebel who resisted all forms of institutional tyranny epitomized by Zeus — church, monarch, and patriarch. The Romantics drew comparisons between Prometheus and the spirit of the French Revolution, Christ, the Satan of John Milton's Paradise Lost, and the divinely inspired poet or artist. Prometheus is the lyrical "I" who speaks in Goethe's Sturm und Drang poem "Prometheus" (written c. 1772–74, published 1789), addressing God (as Zeus) in misotheist accusation and defiance. In Prometheus Unbound (1820), a four-act lyrical drama, Percy Bysshe Shelley rewrites the lost play of Aeschylus so that Prometheus does not submit to Zeus (under the Latin name Jupiter), but instead supplants him in a triumph of the human heart and intellect over tyrannical religion. Lord Byron's poem "Prometheus" also portrays the Titan as unrepentant. As documented by Olga Raggio, other leading figures among the great Romantics included Byron, Longfellow and Nietzsche as well.[67] Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus", in reference to the novel's themes of the over-reaching of modern humanity into dangerous areas of knowledge. Goethe and the Prometheus-Ganymede poems[edit] "Prometheus" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in which a character based on the mythic Prometheus addresses God (as Zeus) in a romantic and misotheist tone of accusation and defiance. The poem was written between 1772 and 1774. It was first published fifteen years later in 1789. It is an important work as it represents one of the first encounters of the Prometheus myth with the literary Romantic movement identified with Goethe and with the Sturm und Drang movement. The poem has appeared in Volume II of Goethe's poems (in his Collected Works) in a section of Vermischte Gedichte (assorted poems), shortly following the Harzreise im Winter. It is immediately followed by "Ganymed", and the two poems are written as informing each other according to Goethe's plan in their actual writing. Prometheus (1774) was originally planned as a drama but never completed by Goethe, though the poem is inspired by it. Prometheus is the creative and rebellious spirit rejected by God, and who angrily defies him and asserts himself; Ganymede, by direct contrast, is the boyish self who is both adored and seduced by God. As a high Romantic poet and a humanist poet, Goethe presents both identities as contrasting aspects of the Romantic human condition. "Prometheus" The poem offers direct biblical connotations for the Prometheus myth which was unseen in any of the ancient Greek poets dealing with the Prometheus myth in either drama, tragedy, or philosophy. The intentional use of the German phrase "Da ich ein Kind war..." ("When I was a child"): the use of Da is distinctive, and with it Goethe directly applies the Lutheran translation of Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, 13:11: "Da ich ein Kind war, da redete ich wie ein Kind..." ("When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things"). Goethe's Prometheus is significant for the contrast it evokes with the biblical text of the Corinthians rather than for its similarities. In his book titled Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence, C. Kerenyi states the key contrast between Goethe's version of Prometheus with the ancient Greek version.[68] As Kerenyi states, "Goethe's Prometheus had Zeus for father and a goddess for mother. With this change from the traditional lineage the poet distinguished his hero from the race of the Titans." For Goethe, the metaphorical comparison of Prometheus to the image of the Son from the New Testament narratives was of central importance, with the figure of Zeus in Goethe's reading being metaphorically matched directly to the image of the Father from the New Testament narratives. Percy Bysshe Shelley and Prometheus Unbound[edit] Percy Shelley published his four-act lyrical drama titled Prometheus Unbound in 1820. His version was written in response to the version of myth as presented by Aeschylus (described in the Section above) and is oriented to the high British Idealism and high British Romanticism prevailing in Shelley's own time. Shelley, as the author himself discusses, admits the debt of his version of the myth to Aeschylus and the Greek poetic tradition which he assumes is familiar to readers of his own lyrical drama. For example, it is necessary to understand and have knowledge of the reason for Prometheus's punishment if the reader is to form an understanding of whether the exoneration portrayed by Shelley in his version of the Prometheus myth is justified or unjustified. The quote of Shelley's own words describing the extent of his indebtedness to Aeschylus has been published in numerous sources publicly available. The literary critic Harold Bloom in his book Shelley's Mythmaking expresses his high expectation of Shelley in the tradition of mythopoeic poetry. For Bloom, Percy Shelley's relationship to the tradition of mythology in poetry "culminates in 'Prometheus'; the poem provides a complete statement of Shelley's vision."[69] Bloom devotes two full chapters in this book to Shelley's lyrical drama Prometheus Unbound which was among the first books Bloom had ever written, originally published in 1959.[70] Following his 1959 book, Bloom edited an anthology of critical opinions on Shelley for Chelsea House Publishers where he concisely stated his opinion as, "Shelley is the unacknowledged ancestor of Wallace Stevens' conception of poetry as the Supreme Fiction, and Prometheus Unbound is the most capable imagining, outside of Blake and Wordsworth, that the Romantic quest for a Supreme Fiction has achieved."[71] Within the pages of his Introduction to the Chelsea House edition on Percy Shelley, Harold Bloom also identifies the six major schools of criticism opposing Shelley's idealized mythologizing version of the Prometheus myth. In sequence, the opposing schools to Shelley are given as: (i) The school of "common sense", (ii) The Christian orthodox, (iii) The school of "wit", (iv) Moralists, of most varieties, (v) The school of "classic" form, and (vi) The Precisionists, or concretists.[72] Although Bloom is least interested in the first two schools, the second one on the Christian orthodox has special bearing on the reception of the Prometheus myth during late Roman antiquity and the synthesis of the New Testament canon. The Greek origins of the Prometheus myth have already discussed the Titanomachia as placing the cosmic struggle of Olympus at some point in time preceding the creation of humanity, while in the New Testament synthesis there was a strong assimilation of the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew prophets and their strongly eschatological orientation. This contrast placed a strong emphasis within the ancient Greek consciousness as to the moral and ontological acceptance of the mythology of the Titanomachia as an accomplished mythological history, whereas for the synthesis of the New Testament narratives this placed religious consciousness within the community at the level of an anticipated eschaton not yet accomplished. Neither of these would guide Percy Shelley in his poetic retelling and reintegration of the Prometheus myth.[73] To the Socratic Greeks, one important aspect of the discussion of religion would correspond to the philosophical discussion of 'becoming' with respect to the New Testament syncretism rather than the ontological discussion of 'being' which was more prominent in the ancient Greek experience of mythologically oriented cult and religion.[74] For Percy Shelley, both of these reading were to be substantially discounted in preference to his own concerns for promoting his own version of an idealized consciousness of a society guided by the precepts of High British Romanticism and High British Idealism.[75] Mary Shelley and Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus[edit] The author of Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley, wrote the famous version of her short novel in the 19th century. It has endured as one of the most frequently revisited literary themes in twentieth century film and popular reception with few rivals for its sheer popularity among even established literary works of art. The primary theme is a parallel to the aspect of the Prometheus myth which concentrates on the creation of man by the titans, transferred and made contemporary by Shelley for British audiences of her time. The subject is that of the creation of life by a scientist, thus bestowing life through the application and technology of medical science rather than by the natural acts of reproduction. The short novel has been adapted into many films and productions ranging from the early versions with Boris Karloff to much later versions featuring Kenneth Branagh among others. Prometheus in the Twentieth Century[edit] Prometheus (1909) by Otto Greiner According to the first, he was clamped to a rock in the Caucasus for betraying the secrets of the gods to men, and the gods sent eagles to feed on his liver, which was perpetually renewed. This short piece by Kafka concerning his interest in Prometheus was supplemented by two other mythological pieces written by him. As stated by Reiner Stach, "Kafka's world was mythical in nature, with Old Testament and Jewish legends providing the templates, and it was only logical (even if Kafka did not state it openly) that he would try his hand at the canon of antiquity, reinterpreting it and incorporating it into his own imagination in the form of allusions, as in 'The Silence of the Sirens,' 'Prometheus,' and 'Poseidon.'"[77] Among contemporary poets, the British poet Ted Hughes wrote the a 1973 collection of poems titled Prometheus On His Crag. The Nepali poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota (d. 1949) also wrote an epic titled Prometheus (प्रमीथस). In his 1952 book, Lucifer and Prometheus, Zvi Werblowsky presented the speculatively derived Jungian construction of the character of Satan in Milton's celebrated poem Paradise Lost. Werblowsky applied his own Jungian style of interpretation to appropriate parts of the Prometheus myth for the purpose of interpreting Milton. A reprint of his book in the 1990s by Routledge Press included an introduction to the book by Carl Jung. Some Gnostics have been associated with identifying the theft of fire from heaven as embodied by the fall of Lucifer "the Light Bearer".[78] The artificial element Promethium was named with the myth in mind. The aesthetic Post-Renaissance tradition[edit] Classical music, opera, and ballet[edit] Works of classical music, opera, and ballet directly or indirectly inspired by the myth of Prometheus have included renderings by some of the major composers of both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this tradition, the orchestral representation of the myth has received the most sustained attention of composers. These have included the symphonic poem by Franz Liszt titled Prometheus from 1850, among his other Symphonic Poems (No. 5, S.99).[79] Alexander Scriabin composed Prometheus: Poem of Fire, Opus 60 (1910),[80] also for orchestra.[81] In the same year Gabriel Fauré composed his three-act opera Prométhée (1910).[82] Charles-Valentin Alkan composed his Grande sonate 'Les quatre âges' (1847), with the 4th movement entitled "Prométhée enchaîné" (Prometheus Bound).[83] Beethoven composed the score to a ballet version of the myth titled The Creatures of Prometheus (1801).[84] An adaptation of Goethe's poetic version of the myth was composed by Hugo Wolf, Prometheus (Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus, 1889), as part of his Goethe-lieder for voice and piano,[85] later transcribed for orchestra and voice.[86] An opera of the myth was composed by Carl Orff titled Prometheus (1968),[87][88] using Aeschylus' Greek language Prometheia.[89] In film[edit] The recent 2012 science fiction fantasy film titled Prometheus by Ridley Scott has a resemblance to the myth largely through a coincidence of name.[90] Of the three principal mythological themes associated with the myth of the titan Prometheus, that is, the eternal punishment, the theft of fire, and the creation of man, it is with this latter theme that the film seems to be at least partially concerned. In the science fiction film, one of the wealthy lead characters in the future spends vast sums of money in order to locate the extraterrestrials who he believes were responsible for the creation of man. His hope is that if he finds his 'creators,' they will be able somehow to extend his life. In this belief he is straightforwardly disappointed. Benji Taylor writing in an extensive three-part essay on the science fiction film titled Prometheus, published between 22 June 2012 and 17 July 2012, identified the eight key themes in understanding the film as including: "Aliens Seeded Life On Earth," "Insignificance and Futility," "Interwoven Notions of Creation and Destruction," "Parental Issues," "The Nature of the Soul," "Existential Loss," and "Science and Religion."[91][92][93] Of these themes covered in the film, Taylor identifies that only the theme of "Parental Issues" appears to have a general reference point to the myth of Prometheus stating that in the "mythology between the titan Prometheus and the chief Olympian Zeus but on a more global level it's an echo of the tribulation embodied in the Titanomachy -- the archetypal war between parent and child which was the great 'War of the Titans and Olympians' that shook the Greek mythological world to its core."[94] Notes[edit] 1.Smith, "Prometheus". References[edit] Further reading[edit] External links[edit] Look up prometheus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prometheus. Greek mythology (deities) Chaos · Titan Titanes (male) Olympian Dodekatheon Theoi Olympioi Styktides Theoi Halioi Nereides Theoi Khthonioi
LIGHT DARK BALANCING TWILIGHT BALANCING DARK LIGHT DARK LIGHT BALANCING TWILIGHT BALANCING LIGHT DARK
THE BALANCING I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I 2 3 4 FIVE 6 7 8 9 9 8 7 6 FIVE 4 3 2 1 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PROMETHEUS MET ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS
ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS MET ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS
PROMETHEUS MET ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS
ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS MET ORPHEUS MET PROMETHEUS
METAMORPHOSIS GODS METAMORPHOSIS 4+5+2+1+4+6+9+7+8+6+1+9+1= 4+5+2+1+4+6+9+7+8+6+1+9+1 METAMORPHOSIS GODS METAMORPHOSIS
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