Editing Prometheus (section)

===Athenian tradition===
The two major authors to have an 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 wrote during his lifetime.

==== Aeschylus and the ancient literary tradition ====
''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', perhaps the most famous treatment of the myth to be found among the [[Greek tragedy|Greek tragedies]], is traditionally attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian [[Aeschylus]].<ref name="Theoi.com"/> At the centre 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.{{efn|Some of these changes are rather minor. For instance, rather than being the son of Iapetus and Clymene Prometheus becomes the son of [[Themis]] who is identified with [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]]. In addition, the chorus makes a passing reference (561) to Prometheus' wife [[Hesione (Oceanid)|Hesione]], whereas a fragment from Hesiod's ''[[Catalogue of Women]]'' fr. 4 calls her "Pryneie", a possible corruption for Pronoia.}} It has been suggested by [[M.L. West]] that these changes may derive from the now lost epic [[Titanomachy (epic poem)|Titanomachy]].<ref name="auto3"/>

Before his theft of fire, Prometheus played a decisive role in the [[Titanomachy]], securing victory for Zeus and the other Olympians. Zeus' 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 humanity fire, Prometheus claims to have taught them the arts of civilisation, such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science. His greatest benefaction for humanity 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.<ref>[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0010%3Acard%3D196 235].</ref>

[[File:Herakles Prometheus Louvre MNE1309.jpg|thumb|right|Heracles freeing Prometheus from his torment by the eagle ([[Pottery of ancient Greece|Attic]] [[black-figure]] cup, c. 500 BC)]]

Moreover, Aeschylus anachronistically and artificially injects [[Io (mythology)|Io]], another victim of Zeus's violence and ancestor of Heracles, into Prometheus' story. Finally, just as Aeschylus gave Prometheus a key role in bringing Zeus to power, he also attributed to him secret knowledge that could lead to Zeus's downfall: Prometheus had been told by his mother [[Themis]], who in the play is identified with [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] (Earth), of a potential marriage that would produce a son who would overthrow Zeus. Fragmentary evidence indicates that Heracles, as in Hesiod, frees the Titan in the trilogy's second play, ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Aeschylus)|Prometheus Unbound]]''. It is apparently not until Prometheus reveals this secret of Zeus's potential downfall that the two reconcile in the final play, ''[[Prometheus the Fire-Bringer]]'' or ''Prometheus Pyrphoros'', a lost tragedy by Aeschylus.

''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''.<ref name="Theoi.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Text/AeschylusPrometheus.html |author=Aeschylus |title=Prometheus Bound |website=Theoi.com |access-date=2012-05-18 |archive-date=2019-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191118212725/https://www.theoi.com/Text/AeschylusPrometheus.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The four tragedies of Prometheus attributed to Aeschylus, most of which are lost to the passages of time into antiquity, are ''Prometheus Bound'' (''Prometheus Desmotes''), ''Prometheus Unbound'' (''Lyomenos''), ''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.<ref>William Lynch, S.J. ''Christ and Prometheus''. University of Notre Dame Press.</ref> 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, 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.<ref>Lynch, pp. 4–5.</ref>

[[File:Marble group of the freeing of Prometheus from Pergamon (AvP VII 168).jpg|thumb|260px|Sculptural group of Prometheus' liberation, 2nd-1st century BC, now in [[Berlin]].]]

[[Harold Bloom]], in his research guide for Aeschylus, has summarised some of the critical attention that has been applied to Aeschylus concerning his general philosophical import in Athens.<ref>Bloom, Harold (2002). ''Bloom's Major Dramatists: Aeschylus''. Chelsea House Publishers.</ref> 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]]<ref>de Romilly, Jacqueline (1968). ''Time in Greek Tragedy''. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), pp. 72–73, 77–81.</ref> 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 sermonising. 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."<ref>"Bloom's Major Dramatists," pp.&nbsp;14–15.</ref>

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 ways 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."<ref>Rosenmeyer, Thomas (1982). ''The Art of Aeschylus''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982, pp. 270–71, 281–83.</ref>

In a rare comparison of Prometheus in Aeschylus with Oedipus in Sophocles, Harold Bloom states that "Freud called ''Oedipus'' an 'immoral play,' since the gods ordained incest and parricide. Oedipus therefore participates in our universal unconscious sense of guilt, but on this reading so do the gods" [...] "I sometimes wish that Freud had turned to Aeschylus instead, and given us the Prometheus complex rather than the Oedipus complex."<ref>Harold Bloom. ''Bloom's Guides: Oedipus Rex'', Chelsea Press, New York, 2007, p. 8.</ref>

[[:de:Karl-Martin Dietz|Karl-Martin Dietz]] states that in contrast to Hesiod's, in Aeschylus' oeuvre, Prometheus stands for the "Ascent of humanity from primitive beginnings to the present level of civilisation."<ref name="Karl-Martin Dietz 1989, p. 66"/>

====Plato and philosophy====
[[Olga Raggio]], in her study "The Myth of Prometheus", attributes Plato in the ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]'' as an important contributor to the early development of the Prometheus myth.<ref name="Raggio">{{cite journal |last=Raggio |first=Olga |author-link=Olga Raggio |year=1958 |title=The Myth of Prometheus: Its Survival and Metamorphoses up to the Eighteenth Century |journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |volume=21 |issue=1/2 |pages=44–62 |doi=10.2307/750486 |jstor=750486 |s2cid=195045738 }}</ref> Raggio indicates that many of the more challenging and dramatic assertions which Aeschylean tragedy explores are absent from Plato's writings about Prometheus.<ref>Plato (1958). ''Protagoras'', p.&nbsp;320&nbsp;ff.</ref>

As summarised by Raggio,{{blockquote|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 civilised society – and these virtues are the highest gift finally bestowed on men in equal measure".{{sfnp|Raggio|1958|p=45}} The ancients by way of Plato believed that the name ''Prometheus'' derived from the Greek [[prefix]] ''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 (mythology)|Epimetheus]], "Afterthinker".<ref>Plato, ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)#Protagoras' opening speech|Protagoras]]''</ref><ref>Hansen, ''Classical Mythology,'' p.&nbsp;159.</ref> In Plato's dialogue ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]'', Protagoras asserts that the gods created humans and all the other animals, but it was left to Prometheus and his brother [[Epimetheus (mythology)|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 civilising arts.<ref name="titan">{{cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html |title=Theoi Project: Prometheus |publisher=Theoi.com |access-date=2012-05-18 |archive-date=2012-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528222747/http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Athenian religious dedication and observance ====
It is understandable that since Prometheus was considered a Titan (distinct from an Olympian) 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 Greece|Archaic]] and [[Classical Greece|Classical periods]] seems to have been limited.<ref name="Dougherty, Prometheus, p. 46">Dougherty, ''Prometheus'', p. 46.</ref> Writing in the 2nd century AD, the satirist [[Lucian]] points out that while temples for the major Olympians were everywhere, none for Prometheus is to be seen.<ref>Lucian, ''Prometheus'' 14.</ref>

[[File:Heracles freeing Prometheus, relief from the Temple of Aphrodite at Aphrodisias.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Heracles freeing Prometheus, relief from the Temple of Aphrodite at [[Aphrodisias]]]]

Athens was the exception; here Prometheus was worshipped alongside [[Athena]] and [[Hephaestus]].{{sfnp|Kerényi|1997|p=58}} The altar of Prometheus in the grove of the Academy was the point of origin for several significant processions and other events regularly observed on the [[Athenian calendar]]. For the [[Panathenaic festival]], arguably the most important civic festival at Athens, a torch race began at the altar, which was located outside the sacred boundary of the city, and passed through the [[Kerameikos]], the district inhabited by [[Pottery of ancient Greece|potters]] and other artisans who regarded Prometheus and Hephaestus as patrons.<ref>On the association of the cults of Prometheus and Hephaestus, see also Scholiast to Sophocles, ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'' 56, as cited by Robert Parker, ''Polytheism and Society at Athens'' (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 472.</ref> The race then travelled to the heart of the city, where it kindled the sacrificial fire on the altar of Athena on the [[Acropolis of Athens|Acropolis]] to conclude the festival.<ref>Pausanias 1.30.2; Scholiast to Plato, ''Phaedrus'' 231e; Dougherty, ''Prometheus'', p. 46; Peter Wilson, ''The Athenian Institution of the'' Khoregia'': The Chorus, the City and the Stage'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 35.</ref> These footraces took the form of [[relay (race)|relays]] in which teams of runners passed off a flaming torch. According to [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (2nd century AD), the torch relay, called ''lampadedromia'' or ''lampadephoria'', was first instituted at Athens in honour of Prometheus.<ref>Pausanias 1.30.2.</ref>

By the Classical period, the races were run by [[ephebos|ephebes]] also in honour of Hephaestus and Athena.<ref>Possibly also [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]]; Wilson, ''The Athenian Institution of the Khoregia'', p. 35.</ref> Prometheus' association with fire is the key to his religious significance<ref name="Dougherty, Prometheus, p. 46"/> and to the alignment with Athena and Hephaestus that was specific to Athens and its "unique degree of cultic emphasis" on honouring [[technology]].<ref>Farnell, ''The Cults of the Greek States'', vol. 1, p. 277; Parker, ''Polytheism and Society at Athens,'' p. 409.</ref> The festival of Prometheus was the Prometheia (τὰ Προμήθεια). The wreaths worn symbolised the chains of Prometheus.<ref>Aeschylus, ''[[The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|Suppliants]]'' frg. 202, as cited by Parker, ''Polytheism and Society at Athens,'' p. 142.</ref> There is a pattern of resemblances between Hephaestus and Prometheus. Although the classical tradition is that Hephaestus split Zeus's head to allow Athena's birth, that story has also been told of Prometheus. A variant tradition makes Prometheus the son of [[Hera]] like Hephaestus.{{sfnp|Kerényi|1997|p=59}} According to that version, the Giant [[Eurymedon (mythology)|Eurymedon]] raped Hera when she was young, and she had Prometheus. After Zeus married Hera, he threw Eurymedon into Tartarus and punished Prometheus in Caucasus, using the theft of fire as an excuse.<ref>Scholium on the ''[[Iliad]]'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=-9EIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA515 14.295]</ref><ref>Gantz, pp. 16, 57; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA88 p. 88].</ref> Ancient artists depict Prometheus wearing the pointed cap of an artist or artisan, like Hephaestus, and also the crafty hero [[Odysseus]]. The artisan's cap was also depicted as worn by the [[Cabeiri]],{{sfnp|Kerényi|1997|pp=50–51}} supernatural craftsmen associated with a mystery cult known in Athens in classical times, and who were associated with both Hephaestus and Prometheus. [[Kerényi]] suggests that Hephaestus may in fact be the "successor" of Prometheus, despite Hephaestus being himself of archaic origin.{{sfnp|Kerényi|1997|pp=57–59}}

Pausanias recorded a few other religious sites in Greece devoted to Prometheus. Both [[Argos, Peloponnese|Argos]] and [[Opous]] claimed to be Prometheus' final resting place, each erecting a tomb in his honour. The Greek city of [[Panopeus]] had a cult statue that was supposed to honour Prometheus for having created the human race there.<ref name="titan"/>

====Aesthetic tradition in Athenian art====
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 art|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 Heracles approaching from behind shooting his arrows at it.<ref>O. Jahn, ''Archeologische Beitrage'', Berlin, 1847, pl. VIII (Amphora from Chiusi).</ref> 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 Heracles approaching from the side.<ref>Milchhofer, ''Die Befreiung des Prometheus'' in ''Berliner Winckelmanns-Programme'', 1882, p. 1ff.</ref>