Editing Prometheus (section)

=== Post-Renaissance literary arts ===
For the [[Romanticism|Romantic era]], Prometheus was the rebel who resisted all forms of institutional tyranny epitomised 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 (Goethe)|"Prometheus"]] (written c. 1772–74, published 1789), addressing God (as Zeus) in [[misotheist]] accusation and defiance. In ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)|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 (mythology)|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 Raggio, other leading figures among the great Romantics included Byron, [[Longfellow]] and [[Nietzsche]] as well.<ref name="Raggio" /> [[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's poems====
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''[[Prometheus (Goethe)|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 [[Misotheism|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 6 of Goethe's poems (in his Collected Works) in a section of ''{{Lang|de|Vermischte Gedichte}}'' (assorted poems), shortly following the ''[[Harzreise im Winter]]''. It is immediately followed by [[Ganymed (Goethe)|"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 (mythology)|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.

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 "{{Lang|de|Da ich ein Kind war...}}" ("When I was a child"): the use of ''{{Lang|de|Da}}'' is distinctive, and with it Goethe directly applies the [[Martin Luther|Lutheran]] translation of [[Paul the Apostle|Saint Paul]]'s [[First Epistle to the Corinthians]], [[s:Bible (King James)/1 Corinthians#13:11|13:11]]: "{{Lang|de|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 Corinthians rather than for its similarities.

In his book titled ''Prometheus: Archetypal Image of Human Existence'', C. Kerényi states the key contrast between Goethe's version of Prometheus with the ancient Greek version.{{sfnp|Kerényi|1997|p=11}} As Kerényi 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====
[[Percy Shelley]] published his four-act lyrical drama titled ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Shelley)|Prometheus Unbound]]'' in 1820. His version was written in response to the version of myth as presented by Aeschylus and is orientated 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' 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."<ref>Bloom, Harold (1959). ''Shelley's Mythmaking,'' Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, p. 9.</ref> Bloom devotes two full chapters in this 1959 book to Shelley's lyrical drama ''Prometheus Unbound''.<ref>Bloom (1959), Chapter 3.</ref> 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 [[Wallace Stevens#Supreme Fiction|Supreme Fiction]], and ''Prometheus Unbound'' is the most capable imagining, outside of [[William Blake|Blake]] and [[Wordsworth]], that the Romantic quest for a Supreme Fiction has achieved."<ref>Bloom, Harold (1985). ''Percy Bysshe Shelley''. Modern Critical Editions, p. 8. Chelsea House Publishers, New York.</ref>

Within the pages of his Introduction to the Chelsea House edition on Percy Shelley, Bloom also identifies the six major schools of criticism opposing Shelley's idealised mythologising 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.<ref>Bloom, Harold (1985). ''Percy Bysshe Shelley''. Modern Critical Editions, p. 27. Chelsea House Publishers, New York.</ref> 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 re-integration of the Prometheus myth.<ref>Bloom, Harold (1959). ''Shelley's Mythmaking,'' Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, p. 29.</ref>

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.<ref>Heidegger, Martin. ''Being and Time.''</ref> For Shelley, both of these reading were to be substantially discounted in preference to his own concerns for promoting his own version of an idealised consciousness of a society guided by the precepts of [[High British Romanticism]] and [[High British Idealism]].<ref>Bloom, Harold (1985). ''Percy Bysshe Shelley''. Modern Critical Editions, p. 28. Chelsea House Publishers, New York.</ref>

====''Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus''====
''[[Frankenstein|Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus]]'', written by [[Mary Shelley]] when she was 18, was published in 1818, two years before Percy Shelley's above-mentioned play.<ref name="NYT-20231021">{{cite news |last=Scott |first=A. O. |author-link=A. O. Scott |title=Are Fears of A.I. and Nuclear Apocalypse Keeping You Up? Blame Prometheus. – How an ancient Greek myth explains our terrifying modern reality. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/books/review/robert-oppenheimer-john-von-neumann-prometheus.html |date=October 21, 2023  |work=[[The New York Times]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231021101019/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/books/review/robert-oppenheimer-john-von-neumann-prometheus.html |archive-date=October 21, 2023 |access-date=October 21, 2023 }}</ref> 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 later versions including [[Kenneth Branagh]]'s [[Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (film)|1994 film adaptation]].

====Twentieth century====
[[File:Otto Greiner - Prometheus.jpg|thumb|upright|left|''Prometheus'' (1909) by [[Otto Greiner]]]]
[[Franz Kafka]] wrote a short piece titled "[[Prometheus (short story)|Prometheus]]", outlining what he saw as his perspective on four aspects of this myth:
<blockquote>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.

According to the second, Prometheus, goaded by the pain of the tearing beaks, pressed himself deeper and deeper into the rock until he became one with it.

According to the third, his treachery was forgotten in the course of thousands of years, forgotten by the gods, the eagles, forgotten by himself.

According to the fourth, everyone grew weary of the meaningless affair. The gods grew weary, the eagles grew weary, the wound closed wearily.

There remains the inexplicable mass of rock. The legend tried to explain the inexplicable. As it came out of a substratum of truth it had in turn to end in the inexplicable.<ref>Translated by Willa and [[Edwin Muir]]. See Glatzer, Nahum N., ed. "Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories" Schocken Book, Inc.: New York, 1971.</ref></blockquote>

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. It was only logical (even if Kafka did not state it openly) that he would try his hand at the canon of antiquity, re-interpreting it and incorporating it into his own imagination in the form of allusions, as in 'The Silence of the Sirens,' 'Prometheus,' and 'Poseidon.'"<ref>Stach, Reiner (3013). ''Kafka: The years of Insight'', Princeton University Press, English translation.</ref> Among 20th century poets, [[Ted Hughes]] wrote a 1973 collection of poems titled ''Prometheus on His Crag''. The [[Nepal]]i poet [[Laxmi Prasad Devkota]] (d. 1949) also wrote an epic titled ''Prometheus'' (प्रमीथस).

In his 1952 book, ''[[Lucifer and Prometheus]]'', [[R.J. Zwi Werblowsky|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".<ref>R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, ''[[Lucifer and Prometheus]]'', as summarized by [[Guy Stroumsa|Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa]], "Myth into Metaphor: The Case of Prometheus", in  ''Gilgul: Essays on Transformation, Revolution and Permanence in the History of Religions, Dedicated to R.J. Zwi Werblowsky'' (Brill, 1987), p. 311; Steven M. Wasserstrom, ''Religion after Religion: Gershom Scholem, Mircea Eliade, and Henry Corbin at Eranos'' (Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 210</ref>

[[Ayn Rand]] cited the Prometheus myth in ''[[Anthem (novella)|Anthem]]'', ''[[The Fountainhead]]'', and ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', using the mythological character as a metaphor for creative people rebelling against the confines of modern society in [[The Fountainhead]] and for the punishment given to "Men of Production" for their productivity and ability in [[Atlas Shrugged]].

[[The Eulenspiegel Society]] began the magazine ''Prometheus'' in the early 1970s;<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.tes.org/2017/01/23/prometheus_return/|title=Welcome Back, 'Prometheus' {{!}} The Eulenspiegel Society|website=www.tes.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-07-07|archive-date=2017-08-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810110718/http://www.tes.org/2017/01/23/prometheus_return/|url-status=live}}</ref> it is a decades-long-running magazine exploring issues important to [[Kink (sexuality)|kinksters]], ranging from art and erotica, to advice columns and personal ads, to conversation about the philosophy of consensual kink. The magazine now exists online.<ref name="auto"/>

The artificial chemical element [[promethium]] is named after Prometheus.

Saturn's moon [[Prometheus (moon)|Prometheus]] is named after him.

''[[American Prometheus]]'' is a book released in 2005 about [[J. Robert Oppenheimer|Robert J. Oppenheimer]], the "father of the [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]]".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kifer |first=Andy |date=2023-07-10 |title=Behind 'Oppenheimer,' a Prizewinning Biography 25 Years in the Making |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/10/books/oppenheimer-american-prometheus-sherwin-bird.html |access-date=2024-07-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=2023-07-11 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230711192636/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/10/books/oppenheimer-american-prometheus-sherwin-bird.html |url-status=live }}</ref>