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PROMETHEUS
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PROMETHEUS , son of the Titan See also:Iapetus by the See also:sea nymph Clymene, the See also:chief " culture See also:hero," and, in some accounts, the See also:Demiurge of See also:Greek mythical See also:legend. As a culture-hero or inventor and teacher of the arts of See also:life, he belongs to a wide and well-known See also:category of imaginary beings. Thus Qat, Quahteaht, Pundjel, Maui, Ioskeha, Cagn, Wainamoinen and an endless See also:array of others represent the ideal and heroic first teachers of Melanesians, Ahts, Australians, Maoris, Algonkins, See also:Bushmen and Finns. Among the lowest races the culture-hero commonly wears a bestial See also:guise, is a spider (See also:Melanesia), an See also:eagle See also:hawk (in some myths and See also:south-See also:east See also:Australia), a See also:coyote (See also:north-See also:west See also:America), a See also:dog or See also:raven (Thlinkeet), a See also:mantis See also:insect (Bushman), and so forth, yet is endowed with human or even super-human qualities, and often shades off into a permanent and practically deathless See also:god. Prometheus, on the other See also:hand, is purely anthropomorphic. He is the friend and benefactor of mankind. He defends them against See also:Zeus, who, in accordance with a widely diffused mythical theory, desires to destroy the human See also:race and supplant them by a new and better See also:species, or who simply revenges a See also:trick in which men get the better of him. The See also:pedigree and See also:early exploits of Prometheus are given by See also:Hesiod (Theog. 510-616). On a certain occasion gods and men met at Mecone. The business of the See also:assembly was to decide what portions of slain animals the gods should receive in See also:sacrifice. On one See also:side Prometheus arranged the best parts of the ox covered with See also:offal, on the other the bones covered with See also:fat, as the See also:meat was covered in Homeric sacrifices. Zeus was invited to make his choice, See also:chose the fat, and found only bones beneath. A similar See also:fable of an See also:original choice, in which the chooser is beguiled by appearances, recurs in See also:Africa and North America (see the caskets in the See also:Merchant of See also:Venice). The native tribes adapt the myth to explain the different modes of life among themselves and See also: A man who loved men cajoled the women, stole fire when their backs were turned, and was metamorphosed into " a little bird with a red See also:mark on its tail, which is the mark of fire." The fire-bringer in See also:Brittany is the See also:golden or fire-crested See also:wren. Myths like this kill two birds with one See also: 46, 2).6
In considering the whole question, one must beware of the
' For these see See also:Brough See also: Bergaigne, La See also:Religion vedique, i. 52-56, and Kuhn's Herabkunft; and see the essays by See also:Steinthal in appendix to See also:English version, of See also:Goldziher's See also:Mythology among the See also:Hebrews.hasty analogical method of reasoning too common among mythologists. For example, when a bird is spoken of as the fire-bringer we need not necessarily conclude that, in each See also:case, the bird means See also:lightning. On the other hand, the myth often exists to explain the cause of the markings of certain actual species of birds. Again, because a hero is said to have stolen or brought fire, we need not regard that hero as the personification of fire, and explain all his myth as a fire-myth. The legend of Prometheus has too often been treated in this fashion, though he is really a culture hero, of whose exploits, such as making men of See also:clay, fire-stealing is no more than a single example. This tendency to evolve the whole myth of Prometheus from a belief that he is personified fire, or the fire-god, has been intensified by Kuhn's ingenious and plausible See also:etymology of the name Ilpo oohs. The Greeks derived it from 7rpoµnOits, provident, and connected it with other such words as wpoµnOoO,uau, 7rpo o Oeca. They had also the proper name 'E 1rc n Oeus for the slow-witted See also:brother of Prometheus who turned all the hero's See also:wisdom to foolishness. Against these very natural etymologies the philologists support a theory that Prometheus is really a Greek See also:form of pramantha (Skt.), the fire-stick of the See also:Hindus. The See also:process of etymological See also:change, as given by Steinthal, was this. The See also:boring of the Perpendicular in the See also:horizontal fire-stick, whereby fire was kindled, was called manthana, from math, " I shake." The preposition pra was prefixed, and you get pramantha. But Mataricvan was feigned to have brought See also:Agni, fire, and " the fetching of the god was designated by the same verb mathndmi as the proper earthly boring " of the fire-stick. " Now this verb, especially when compounded with the preposition pra, gained the signification to See also:tear off, snatch to oneself, rob." 6 Steinthal goes on: " Thus the fetching of Agni became a See also:robbery of the fire, and the pramdtha (fire-stick) a robber. The gods had intended, for some See also:reason or other, to withhold fire from men; a benefactor of mankind stole it from the gods. This robbery was called pramdtha; pramathyu-s is ` he who loves boring or robbery, a borer or robber.' From the latter words, according. to the peculiarities of Greek phonology, is formed 11poµg9eu-s, Prometheus. He is therefore a fire-god," &c. Few things more ingenious than this have ever been done by philologists. It will be observed that " forgetfulness of the meaning of words " is made to account for the Greek belief that fire was stolen from the gods. To recapitulate the dpctrine more succinctly, men originally said, in See also:Sanskrit (or some See also:Aryan speech more See also:ancient still), " fire is got by rubbing or boring;" nothing could have been more scientific and straightforward. They also said, " fire is brought by Mataricvan; " nothing could have been more in accordance with the mythopoeic mode of thought. Then the word which means " fetched " is confused with the word which means " bored," and gains the sense of " robbed." Lastly, fire is said (owing to this confusion) to have been stolen, and the See also:term which meant the common savage fire-stick is by a process of delusion conceived to represent, not a stick, but a See also:person, Prometheus, who stole fire. Thus then, according to the philologists, arose the myth that fire was stolen, a myth which, we presume, would not otherwise have occurred to Greeks. Now we have not to decide whether the Greeks were right in thinking that Prometheus only meant " the fore-sighted See also:wise man," or whether the Germans know better, and are correct when they say the name merely meant " fire-stick." But we may, at least, point out that the myth of the stealing of fire and of the fire-stealer is current among races who are not Aryan, and never heard the word pramantha. We have shown that Thlinkeets, Ahts, Andaman Islanders, Australians, Maoris, South Sea Islanders, Cahrocs and others all believe fire was originally stolen. Is it credible that, in all their See also:languages, the name of the fire-stick should have caused a confusion of thought which ultimately led to the belief that fire was obtained originally by See also:larceny ? If such a coincidence appears incredible, we may doubt whether the belief that is common to Greeks and Cahrocs and Ahts was produced, in Greek minds by an etymological confusion, in Australia, America and so forth by some ' Cf. Kuhn, op. cit. pp. 16, 17. other cause. What, then, is the origin of the widely-diffused myth that fire was stolen? We offer a purely conjectural See also:suggestion. No race is found without fire, but even some civilized races have found the artificial See also:reproduction of fire very tedious. Thus we read (Od. v. 488-493), " As when a man hath hidden away a See also:brand in the See also:black embers at an upland See also:farm, one that hath no See also:neighbour nigh, and so saveth the See also:seed of fire that he may not have to seek a light otherwhere, even so did See also:Odysseus See also:cover him with the leaves." If, in the Homeric See also:age, men found it so hard to get the seed of fire, what must the difficulty have been in the earliest See also:dawn of the See also:art of fire-making? Suppose, then, that the human See also:groups of early savages are hostile. One See also:group lets its fire go out, the next thing to do would be to See also:borrow a light from the neighbour, perhaps several See also:miles off But if the neighbours are hostile the unlucky group is cut off from fire, igni interdicitur. The only way to get fire in such a case is to steal it. Men accustomed to such a See also:precarious See also:condition might readily believe that the first possessors of fire, wherever they were, set a high value on it, and refused to communicate it to others. Hence the belief that fire was originally stolen. This See also:hypothesis at least explains all myths of fire-stealing by the natural needs, passions, and characters of men, " a jealous race," whereas the philological theory explains the Greek myth by an exceptional See also:accident of changing See also:language, and leaves the other widely diffused myths of fire-stealing in the dark. It would occupy too much space to discuss, in the ethnological method, the See also:rest of the legend of Prometheus. Like the Australian Pundjel, and the See also:Maori Tiki, he made men of clay. He it was who, when Zeus had changed his wife into a See also:fly, and swallowed her, See also:broke open the god's See also:head and let out his daughter See also:Athena. He aided Zeus in the struggle with the See also:Titans. He was punished by him on some desolate See also: Hebr., Eng. trans., p. 363-392), where the amused student will discover that " See also:Moses is a Pramanthas," with much else that is as learned and convincing. See also See also:Tylor's Early See also:History of Man; See also:Nesfield in See also:Calcutta See also:Review (See also:January, See also:April, 1884) ; and the See also:article FIRE. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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