V.V. 3 - Prometheus (was: Time...)

[David Morris]

http://www.karljones.com/myth/prometheus.asp

"... Hesiod's myth credits one particular Titan, Prometheus, with having endowed humanity in its dim beginnings, if not quite with consciousness per se (as in other versions of the tale) then with the ritual foundation of the basic communal ethos: sacrifice in the form of the hecatomb. It is through the hecatomb that the deme repeatedly affirms its union under the regime of the sacred and renews its ties with the gods. In Plato's version of the Prometheus myth in Protagoras, the Titan creates humanity directly and endows his creatures with language, custom, and government. In mythic terms, however, the boon-granter is also a criminal. So it is that Prometheus himself falls victim to Zeus for having established sacrifice, thereby civilizing humanity and making human beings a problem for the gods ..."  

http://www.me.wustl.edu/add/qcontrol/prometh.htm

Because Prometheus taught people how to make fire, harness the wind, how to tame the animals and put thm in use for agriculture, how to harvest the wheat, how to build houses. He taught them writing, he taught them geometry, he taught them astronomy, but all those things for the times of aristocracy were only reserved for gods, and this was beyond the limits of engineering and Prometheus was basically the inventor of engineering.  

http://hsa.brown.edu/~maicar/Prometheus1.html

It is easy for him who keeps his foot free from harm to counsel and admonish him who is in misery" [Prometheus 1. Aeschylus, Prometheus bound 265]

"Thus I helped the tyrant of the gods and with this foul payment he has responded; for it is a disease that is somehow inherent in tyranny to have no faith in friends." [Prometheus 1. Aeschylus, Prometheus bound 225]

"Prometheus, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire...but I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction." [Zeus to Prometheus 1. Hesiod, Works and Days 55] ___________________________________________________________
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