Editing Prometheus (section)

==Middle Ages==
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 [[Olga Raggio|Raggio]],{{sfnp|Raggio|1958|p=53}} "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 Neckam|Alexander Neckman]] (1157–1217), the ''Scintillarium Poetarum'', or ''Poetarius''."{{sfnp|Raggio|1958|p=53}} 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 ''[[Genealogia Deorum Gentilium|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."{{sfnp|Raggio|1958|p=54}} 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 sombre 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 Raggio summarises 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."{{sfnp|Raggio|1958|p=54}} This sombreness 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.