Who gave fire to people in Greek mythology. Greek mythology. Prometheus

, Menetius and Epimetheus, cousin of Zeus. Husband of Hesiona, father of Deucalion (according to the version - from Pandora).

The name Prometheus means "foreseeing", "thinking before" (as opposed to the name of his brother Epimetheus - "strong hindsight", "thinking after").

During the battle of the gods of the younger generation, led by Zeus, with the titans, Prometheus sided with Zeus. The battle went on for ten years. The lightning of Zeus burned out all living things on the earth, and it became empty. Zeus instructed Prometheus to revive life.

According to Hesiod, Prometheus fashioned humans from the earth and Athena endowed them with breath.

But the people were miserable and powerless, they did not know how to foresee the approach of winter with its frosts, they did not know how to cook food, because they did not own fire. And the omnipotent and mighty gods lived on the sky-high Olympus. The fate of the people did not bother them at all.

Only Prometheus was saddened by the fate of people. From the forge of his friend Hephaestus, Prometheus stole fire for people. He gave people knowledge, taught them the arts, counting, reading and writing. He introduced people to metals, taught them how to mine and process them in the bowels of the earth.

The wise titan built the first ship, equipped it and spread a linen sail on it so that the ship would quickly carry a person across the boundless sea.

For mortals, Prometheus humbled the wild bull and put a yoke on him so that people could use the strength of the bulls while cultivating their fields. Prometheus harnessed the horse to the chariot and made it obedient to man.

Prometheus revealed to people the power of medicines, and they learned how to cure diseases.

With this, he angered Zeus, and the Thunderer decided to severely punish Prometheus. He called to himself two mighty gods - Power and Strength, and ordered them to take Prometheus to the Caucasus, and nail him to a rock for eternity. And Hephaestus, for not saving the fire, ordered Zeus to help chain his friend Prometheus.

And here is Prometheus chained to a rock. The scorching rays of the sun burn his body, rain and hail lash, in winter, snow flakes fall on Prometheus, and the chilling cold fetters his limbs. A huge eagle flies to the rock every day. He tears the liver of a titan with his beak. But Prometheus is immortal. The wounds heal overnight, and the liver grows again to provide new food for the eagle during the day. Years, centuries, these torments last.

But then a great hero was born and matured, who is destined by fate to free the titan from the shackles. During his wanderings, he comes here to the ends of the earth. This hero is Hercules, the strongest of people, mighty as a god. Hercules broke his chains with his heavy club. The torments of Prometheus are over. The titan stood up, now he was free. Thus was his prophecy fulfilled that a mortal would set him free.

It happened shortly before the Trojan War...

Here is what the ancient Greek poet Hesiod says about Prometheus in his poems Theogony and Works and Days, which are one of the main sources of our knowledge of ancient Greek myths:

(excerpts are given in the retelling of Georg Stoll)

In primitive times, when Kronos still ruled the world, the gods and people, descended from one common mother of the Earth, lived together in unison, barely realizing whether there was any difference between them. When, after the overthrow of Kronos, his powerful son Zeus assumed power over the world, and when the high-mountain Olympus became the dwelling of the gods, the gods wished to separate from people and establish what honors people should give immortals for their good deeds. In the Sikyonian city of Mekonu, the gods and people gathered for a council. Zeus took over the work of the gods, while the representative of the people was Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, from the kind of divine titans, who, after a long struggle with Zeus, were cast down by him into the abyss of Tartarus. Reasonable and cunning Prometheus relied on his mind and decided to outwit Zeus, the wisest of the gods. Prometheus killed a large bull, cut it into pieces and left the celestials to choose from the parts the one they wish for future sacrifices. He put these parts in two heaps. In one he placed pieces of meat and edible, fat-covered entrails, tightly covered them with the skin of a sacrificial animal, and placed the stomach, the worst part, on top; he skillfully piled the bones into another pile and covered them with snow-white, shiny fat. So he gave the best part a nondescript, the worst part - a beautiful look. The father of gods and people, the omniscient Zeus, saw through the deceit and, laughing, said: “The mighty son of Iapetus, my faithful friend! How unequally you measure the parts. Prometheus thought that his trick had succeeded, and said with a smile: “Venerable Zeus, the greatest of the immortal gods! Choose the part you like." Full of anger in his heart, Zeus deliberately chose the worst part - the bones, in order to have a reason to humble people who thought evil. With both hands he shone with brilliant fat, and when he saw the white bones and was convinced of the cunning deceit, he said with anger: “Truly, friend, son of Iapetus, you are a great expert in deceit; you have not forgotten how to deceive!" Since then, people began to burn the bones of sacrificial animals on smoking altars. For deceiving Prometheus, Zeus did not give people fire as punishment. But Prometheus stole fire from Olympus, from Zeus's house, by cunning, and brought a smoldering spark to people on earth. When Zeus saw radiant fire among people, he became even more angry, bound Prometheus with indestructible chains, nailed him to a rock, piercing his chest with a wedge, and sent a powerful winged eagle at him. Every day the eagle pecked out the liver of the chained sufferer, and every night it grew back. Only after a long time, Hercules killed the eagle and saved Prometheus from torment. Such was the will of Zeus, who wished that by this feat his beloved son Hercules would gain even greater glory for himself on earth.

When Zeus began a fight with Kronos and the Titans in order to wrest power from them over the world, Prometheus advised his kindred titans to submit to Zeus, who was far superior in wisdom to them. But the wild titans, relying on their great strength, laughingly rejected this advice. With daring courage they entered the fight. Then Prometheus separated from his own and, together with his mother, went over to the side of Zeus: warned by the prediction of his mother, he knew that victory would remain on the side where wisdom would be along with strength. After a terrible struggle that lasted ten long years, Zeus, thanks most of all to Prometheus, defeated Kronos and the arrogant titans and overthrew them, on the advice of Prometheus, into deep tartar. Kronos, while falling into Tartarus, pronounced a curse over his son, which the overthrown Uranus had once spoken over him. Therefore, Zeus also had to wait for a fate similar to the fate of his father Kronos.

The new ruler divided the honors and positions in his kingdom, governed by new laws, among the younger related gods. The last traces of titan dominion were to disappear. Even those of them who helped him, Zeus removed from himself. The ocean was removed to the very edge of the earth, the prophetess Themis had to give up her oracle in Delphi to Zeus's son Apollo, and the people who lived under Kronos had to die and make room for a new generation of people. Then Prometheus stood up for the poor human race and announced to Zeus that the time would come - the mortal wife would give birth to a hero, the favorite of Zeus Hercules, who would defeat the lions, and only a mortal would then be able to free Zeus, the father of the gods and people, from the curse that weighs on him. Zeus yielded and saved the human race from destruction; but he hated Prometheus, who had rendered him so many services with his wise advice, as the last of the mighty kind of titans, who alone still dared to oppose Zeus's will. Prometheus himself soon gave the ruler a reason for anger and punishment.

People were a miserable, powerless tribe, without thought and without hope. Seeing, they did not see anything, listening - they did not hear; they roamed like shadows, their thoughts had no connection and, simple-minded, did not understand what they felt. People of light, stone-cutting chorus did not know, they did not know carpentry either: like swarming ants, they lived in deep dungeons, nested in caves deprived of sunlight; they did not recognize the proximity of winter or spring, flower-bearing and abundant in the fruits of autumn. Everything they did, they did thoughtlessly, in disorder. Then Prometheus took pity on the poor creatures. He went to the island of Lemnos, to the forge of his friend Hephaestus, to the fiery mountain Mosikhl, took a spark of divine fire there, brought it, buried in a smoldering ferul reed, to his people and taught them every art and every science. He made clear to them the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies, taught them the science of numbers, the use of writing, and gave them the power of remembrance, the basis of prophetic art. He harnessed a wild mountain ox to a yoke for people, harnessed a proud horse and a chariot, built a ship and inspired it with a linen sail - so that it would float on the waters of the sea. According to his instructions, people learned to find, extract and use the treasures hidden in the earth: copper and iron, silver and gold. Until that time, if someone was overtaken by a disease, there were no means of healing, no drink, no ointment: Prometheus taught people to make healing mixtures that stop the merciless power of the disease. Then he revealed to them various means of divining the future, explaining dreams, understanding the harmony of sounds, understanding the flight of birds, looking into the entrails of animals. He also freed people from the painful foreboding and fear of death and instilled blind hope in them, so that they forgot to even think about death. Thus, people were initiated by Prometheus into all the arts of life and from their wild, helpless state passed to a beautiful, happier life.

Zeus was embittered at the titan for this unauthorized act and especially for the abduction, against his will, of divine fire, Prometheus, however, warned his mother Themis, assuring that the new ruler only thinks about how to get rid of the last of the titans. She predicted to her son how, chained, he would suffer thirty thousand years for his deed, until, exhausted, exhausted by all kinds of torments, he would reconcile with the ruler. But Prometheus was not afraid of Zeus's wrath; his proud spirit, his love for the human race, drew him to ruin.

Rejoicing that he found fault with the proud, recalcitrant titan, Zeus commands the mighty executors of his will, Strength and Power, to seize Prometheus, take him to the Scythian country, to the very edge of the earth, and chain him there to the naked rocks of the Caucasus washed by waves. Hephaestus does this, but he does it with secret reluctance: for a long time he was friendly with Prometheus. Hephaestus imposes unbreakable iron shackles on his arms and legs, on his ribs and thighs, and pierces his chest with an adamant wedge. While he, sighing deeply, filled with compassion, fetters his friend with an iron chain, his rude companions, mocking the unfortunate man, say more than one cruel word to him and reproach him for the criminal pride that ruined him; but, the son of a titan, the titan is proudly and stubbornly silent, does not utter a single groan. Only after the removal of his tormentors, alone, did he begin to complain loudly about his torments, about his shame, and his voice carried far along the rocky shores of the sea. Most of all, he mourns that he suffers torment for a good deed, for his good deeds to people: he considers his opposition to the will of Zeus fair.

From the distant grotto of their father, the beautiful oceanides heard the sound of a hammer, with which they chained the sufferer to the rock; full of participation, they fly in to console him and persuade him to make concessions to the new ruler: he is of the same tribe with them, their fathers are brothers; Hesiona, wife of Prometeev, sister to them. The elder Ocean himself comes and exhorts Prometheus to submit to the mighty Zeus, to whom he himself wisely yields. The ocean is ready to go to Olympus to Zeus and put in a word about Prometheus. But the titan does not want any intercession, compassion for him can bring on the Ocean the hatred and wrath of the new ruler. Prometheus firmly, adamantly decided to drink the cup of suffering, until the anger in the chest of Zeus was finally tamed.

The Ocean has just departed - Io, unbearably tormented by the gadfly, comes running, the ill-fated daughter of the Argos king Inach, whom, for the love of Zeus for her, Hera turned into a cow and which, in terrible torment, wandered the earth, not taking either drink or food and finding no peace anywhere . Zeus is the culprit of her grief, like Prometheus. Prometheus recognizes Io with his prescient mind and announces to her what countries she must go through in Europe and Asia, and how, finally, after long wanderings, she will find deliverance from her suffering in Egypt; there Zeus will touch her with his hand, and she will give birth to the son of Epaphus. From him, in the thirtieth generation, the courageous hero Hercules will come, who is destined to free the titan from torment. Then Zeus will finally bow to reconciliation. And Zeus himself is under the omnipotent power of Moira, and he cannot escape the formidable fate without the help of Prometheus. The curse of the father of Kronos, whom he overthrew from the throne, threatens him with the same overthrow, if only he concludes the marriage he is thinking about. The fate of Zeus is in the hands of Prometheus. He alone knows, from his mother's things, the name of the goddess, who, if Zeus marries her, will bear him a son - a son: this one will be stronger than his father and deprive him of power over the world. Prometheus will hide this secret in his chest, and no torture, no tricks will force him to reveal it if Zeus does not free him from the shackles; if he does not do this, his throne will be overthrown, and he himself will fall in great shame.

From his high sky, Zeus heard the threats of the titan. He sent his herald Hermes to Prometheus with the command to reveal the fatal secret. With thunder and lightning, he threatens to crush the rock to which the titan is chained, and overthrow him into a gloomy abyss, where he will languish for millennia, and if he returns to the bright world, Zeus' powerful and greedy eagle will torment his suffering body and devour his liver. . And these torments will not end until one of the gods voluntarily descends for him into Hades, into the gloomy region of death. But do not frighten Prometheus with any threats; he decided to keep his secret - even when everything around him collapsed. And now the earth trembled, a deaf echo of thunder roared, lightning sparkled with fiery coils, dust rose in a whirlwind; all the winds, released from the chains, are torn into a common battle; the uplifted sea merges with the heavens, and the rock, together with the titan, falls into the abyss when the storm howls.

For millennia, chained Prometheus, alone, languishes in a gloomy, deep crevice of rocks; but his heart is unshakable. By order of Zeus, he again saw the light, and for another millennium he hung chained to a rock in the Scythian desert, and, as Zeus once threatened him, the merciless eagle tore at his chest and liver. Invariably, every third day, the powerful-winged eagle slowly descends from the height, plunges its fierce claws into the belly of the sufferer and pecks out his liver, and the liver grows again after each time. The blood flowing from the wounds and accumulating on his body for centuries is warmed by the scorching sun and falls in drops on the stony ground.

Such torments, lasting for thousands of years, can break the most stubborn spirit, the most gigantic strength. And Prometheus finally got tired; he wants reconciliation and freedom. His former accomplices, the titans, have long since reconciled with the new world order, reconciled with Zeus. Free from chains, they again left the tartare, came to their unfortunate relative and gave him advice - to submit. Themis, the old, mournfully bent mother of Prometheus, also comes and reminds him that now the time is near when Zeus wishes to enter into a fatal marriage, which will be the cause of his fall. “Now,” Themis said, “Zeus will ask you for advice and reconciliation; this is the last opportunity to be saved: it should not be missed.”

Zeus hears the words of the wise Themis and, in view of the imminent danger, begins to think about reconciliation with Prometheus. Over time, the former power-hungry spirit of Zeus softened: his throne is so strong that he has nothing to fear from the titans.

And then Zeus commanded Hercules, who wandered the earth, to go to the Scythian rock and kill the greedy eagle on the chest of Prometheus with his arrow. And when Hercules promised that his friend, the divine centaur Chiron, who accidentally received an incurable wound from a poisoned arrow, would voluntarily die for Prometheus, Zeus ordered him to break the Prometheus shackles. With friendly speeches, Kronion sends to the titan Hermes, and the titan willingly reveals his secret at last. Here it is: if Zeus marries the daughter of Nereus Thetis, then by the decision of fate she will give birth to a son stronger and more powerful than her father, and this son will overthrow him from the throne. Therefore, let Zeus give her away for the leader of the Achaeans, Peleus: he will have a son from this marriage - the most beautiful of the heroes of Hellas. To complete the reconciliation, Chiron also came and announced that he was ready to descend for Prometheus into the underworld. In memory of his captivity and as a sign that he submitted and surrendered to Zeus, Prometheus put a willow wreath on his head and for the same purpose began to wear an iron ring, into which a pebble beaten off from a Caucasian rock was inserted. So the fatal misfortune passed Zeus, and Prometheus became free from the shackles, and at the wedding of Thetis with Peleus, the gods celebrated their reconciliation with the titans.

The myth of Prometheus, which has gained importance in the Greek religion, has become one of the favorite subjects of poetry, is a legend about the course of development of human civilization. Prometheus, the son of the titan Iapetus, was originally, like Hermes, the personification of fire in its application to human needs. From this, the concept of him developed in myths, as a representative of a person’s attraction to mental development, to dominion over nature, the idea developed that this attraction easily leads a person to resist the gods, to revolt against them.

The myth of Prometheus by Hesiod

Another myth about Prometheus, which also gave substance to many works of art and poetry, said that Prometheus was the creator of people - according to one story, at the beginning of the world, according to another, after Deucalion flood. He molded the bodies of people from clay, and, according to one myth, he also revived them through heavenly fire; according to other stories, life was invested in them by other gods or forces of nature. Prometheus is a human spirit striving for freedom, feeling himself the master of nature, and in the consciousness of his strength rebelling against Zeus. The myth of Prometheus is a myth about the awakening of human self-consciousness, about the struggle and suffering that accompanies this awakening.

Prometheus- the hero of the ancient Greek epic, titan, chthonic creature. Is the son of Titan Iapetus and oceanids Clymenes.

Known for being gave people the fire of knowledge and crafts, turning them from beasts into intelligent beings and launching technological progress. Moreover, he committed this act against the will of the gods, for which he paid.

There are several variants of the legend of Prometheus, but the main facts and events remain unchanged.

It all started in ancient times, which only gods and titans remember.

About people and gods

The legend says about those ancient, ancient times, when people were still practically animals, huddled in caves, died in the hundreds, did not know the fire, and did not know how to fend for themselves.

A the gods lived on the top of Olimpa were strong and beautiful. They had invincible power over the world and over people. If you read the Myths of Ancient Greece and think a little, having drawn the necessary conclusions, few of them cared about people, for the most part the gods indulged in revelry, feasts, the struggle for power and entertainment over people. For example, Zeus - sort of like the main deity, was very fond of turning into, say, a bull in his free time, seducing an innocent girl and producing animal-like offspring. Nothing so fun?

But there were also older creatures - Titans- creatures of the Earth and Sky, creatures, called chthonic, that is, leading their origin from the primordial Chaos. The Titans at that time were not yet defeated, and the conductor between the Titans and the gods of Olympus was Prometheus, the cousin of Zeus.

The Titans, apparently, did not know fire, and they did not need it, but on Olympus it was already with the blacksmith god Hephaestus and Athena, his wife.

fire theft

And then Prometheus saw that the gods on Olympus were only having fun, and below, on Earth, people suffer from cold and hunger. And Prometheus decides to help people. It is for the sake of people that he goes against and against the will of the gods, and subsequently he will go to a lengthy execution.

Prometheus each time came to Olympus with a rod, and one day he brought with him instead of a rod a hollow reed stalk. Arriving at the forge of his friend Hephaestus, Prometheus imperceptibly, distracting the hosts with a conversation, took an ember from the fire of the forge, and put it in his hollow original staff.

No one suspected anything, and Prometheus managed to quietly carry the fire to the ground and transfer it to people.

The fire given to people is only a symbol, a material embodiment of divine skills stolen from Olympus and transferred to people - knowledge, skills, understanding, the ability to distinguish between evil and good - technical progress.

Paying for helping people

And everything would be fine, but one day Zeus looked at the earth and I saw that people are no longer those people in skins, vicious, almost beasts, that they already know how to heat their homes, cook food, make tools for labor and hunting, trim skins, in general, received knowledge and began the path of evolution.

Zeus was angry, because he realized that over time people could become rivals to him, and also that someone had disobeyed him. Of course, the deception was revealed, and they learned about Prometheus.
And for his deed he was overthrown from Olympus and chained for eternity to a rock on Earth, doomed to suffering. Moreover, Zeus ordered his friend to chain him Hephaestus, thrusting a steel stake into his chest, and no matter how painful it was, he had to follow the order.

And it was predicted to Prometheus that he would suffer until one of the mortals will not free him.

Prometheus gritted his teeth, and not a single groan escaped his lips. Only when Hephaestus left did he allow himself to scream in pain. But he did not regret his act, because he saw that he was able to help people. His suffering did not end there. Zeus, burning with anger, sent his eagle to him, and every day this eagle flew in and pecked at the liver of Prometheus. A person could have avoided suffering by going into death, but Prometheus was an immortal Titan. And every night his wounds healed, and the next day it all started again.

Liberation of Prometheus

Fortunately, the suffering of Prometheus did not last forever. Hercules, a famous Greek hero, freed him. During his journey, Hercules stumbled upon Prometheus chained to a rock and wanted to know why he was doomed to such torment. And Prometheus told him how he brought the fire of knowledge to people, stealing it from the gods, for which Zeus doomed him to such torment. Hercules was horrified, but it seemed that he had not yet seen everything. During the conversation, the Eagle of Zeus flew in and aimed at Prometheus, but Hercules did not allow him to torment the flesh of the titan, striking him with an arrow. The eagle fell into the sea, and the airy Hermes appeared from Olympus, to find out. What happened. Hercules, another son of Zeus, began to ask Hermes to speak with his father for Prometheus.
By this time, Zeus had already managed to change his anger to mercy, realizing that people were not his rivals. Yes, and he began to favor them, sometimes condescending to the fate of individuals. The autocratic god gives the go-ahead, and Hercules rips out the pin that held him from the chest of the titan.

So the prediction came true and that a mortal would free the suffering titan.

Studying the legend of Prometheus, I noticed a number of interesting features. Read and think, remember nothing?
1. Prometheus is a creature from Chaos, a relative of Zeus.
2. Subsequently, he became an opponent of Zeus, going against his will.
3. Brought people the fire of knowledge, and they began to "know good and evil"
4. For which he was overthrown from the heavens of Olympus down.
5. And doomed to eternal suffering.
6. According to some versions of the legend, Zeus, angry with people, sends a global flood to the earth, and only two people survive.
7. And one of them is the son of Prometheus. And all the people who lived after are his descendants.

There are a few other small signs of where some of the Christian legends were written off from, but I think it is already clear why the parallel is so often drawn between Lucifer and Prometheus. And speaking of whose descendants we really are.

From this legend originates olympic fire. It is lit in Olympia and carried through cities and countries to the site of the Olympics.

Prometheus

Wikipedia

Prometheus(ancient Greek Προμηθεύς, also Prometheus) - in ancient Greek mythology, a titan, a protector of people from the arbitrariness of the gods. The son of Iapetus and Clymene (according to Apollodorus - Asia, according to Aeschylus - the son of Themis-Gaia, according to Euphorion - the son of Hera and the titan Eurymedon). His wife Hesiona.
The name of the titan "Prometheus" means "thinking before", "foreseeing" (as opposed to the name of his brother Epimetheus, "thinking after") and is derived from the Indo-European root me-dh-, men-dh-, "to reflect", "to know" .

Creation of people

According to Hesiod, Prometheus fashioned people from the earth, and Athena endowed them with breath;

Prometheus and the first man
(after the model of Simon Louis Buano) Pietro Stagegi,
1783-1793, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

in a more detailed version, set forth by Propertius, he fashioned people from clay, mixing earth with water (Hesiod does not have this); or he revived the people created by Deucalion and Pyrrha from stones. Near Panopia (Phocis) in ancient times there was a statue of Prometheus, and next to it were two large stones left from the clay from which people were fashioned. Fraser visited this valley and saw reddish earth at its bottom.
When the gods and men bickered at Mekon, Prometheus deceived Zeus by offering him a choice, and he chose a larger but worse part of the victim. So Prometheus changed the order of sacrifices to the gods, previously the whole animal was burned, and now only the bones. Prometheus killed the bull first. People set to burn the liver of sacrificial animals on the altars, so that the gods would enjoy their liver instead of Prometheus.

Fire theft

Prometheus. Stealing Fire (Jan Cossiers)

According to the oldest version of the myth, Prometheus stole fire from Olympus and gave it to people. He ascended to heaven with the help of Athena and raised the torch to the sun. He gave people fire, hiding it in a hollow reed stalk (narfex) and showed people how to keep it, sprinkling it with ashes. This reed has an interior filled with white pulp that can burn like a wick.

Prometheus' Punishment

For the theft of fire, Zeus ordered Hephaestus (or Hermes) to nail Prometheus to the Caucasus Range.

According to Durid, he was punished for falling in love with Athena. Some writers attributed the action of the myth to a cave in the area of ​​paropamisads.
Prometheus was chained to a rock and doomed to incessant torment: an eagle that flew every day (or every third day) pecked at Prometheus's liver, which grew again.

Hephaestus and Prometheus (Dirck van Baburen)

These torments, according to various ancient sources, lasted from several centuries to 30 thousand years (according to Aeschylus), until Hercules killed an eagle with an arrow and freed Prometheus. According to Empedocles, a demon that has defiled itself wanders away from the blessed for 30,000 years.
Prometheus showed Hercules the way to the Hesperides. In gratitude, Hercules killed the eagle with an arrow from a bow and persuaded Zeus to calm his anger. When Zeus freed Prometheus, he bound one of his fingers with a stone from a rock and iron, since then people have been wearing rings. There is a story about how Prometheus tried to bribe Charon, but to no avail.
His altar at the Academy of Athens. Cult of Prometheus at Colon. The graves of Prometheus were shown in Argos and Opunt (although Phoroneus was considered the inventor of fire in Argos). According to some, he became the constellation of the Kneeling.

In literature and art

In the tragedy of Aeschylus “Prometheus Chained”, the image of Prometheus as the discoverer of all cultural benefits that made possible the achievements of human civilization was added to the motif of the theft of fire: Prometheus taught people to build dwellings and mine metals, cultivate the land and sail on ships, taught them to write, count, observe stars, etc. Executed for the love of people, Prometheus Aeschylus throws a bold challenge to Zeus and is ready, despite the terrible torment, to defend his innocence.
The protagonist of the tragedies of Aeschylus "Chained Prometheus", "Prometheus Unchained" and "Prometheus the Fire-bearer", the satyr drama "Prometheus the Fire-Breaker", the play by an unknown author "Prometheus", the comedy "Birds" by Aristophanes, the tragedy "Prometheus" Action, the comedies of Antiphanes " The Creation of Man (Anthropogony)." Mentioned in the tragedy of Sophocles "Colchian Women" (fr. 340 Radt).

* See Plato. Protagoras 321d (interpretation of the myth).

The humanistic features of the image of the rebel-martyr Prometheus were developed in poetry (, P. B. Shelley, N. P. Ogaryov (Prometheus), T. Shevchenko, John Updike, Gauthier (Prometheus, and others), as well as in music (F. Liszt, A. N. Scriabin and others) and fine arts (Titian, F. G. Gordeev and others).
Robert Anton Wilson created the image of Prometheus Risen in the book of the same name, as a symbol of the most fundamental and radical liberation.
The works of Calderon, Goethe, Beethoven reflected the late antique version of the myth of Prometheus, the creator of the first people, fashioned by him from the earth and endowed with consciousness.
The name of the spaceship "Prometheus" in the film of the same name by Ridley Scott (premiere May 30, 2012).

* Losev A.F. The problem of the symbol and realistic art. M., 1976. Ch.7 (pp. 226-297) - a detailed examination of the image of Prometheus in world literature

* In New York, at the Rockefeller Center, there is a statue of Prometheus. The statue itself is made of bronze, and its surface is covered with gilding.

Prometheus. At the Rockefeller Center

Prometheus- the most sublime and tragic image in Greek mythology, a hero who voluntarily went to torment in the name of his convictions, a symbol of the indestructible and all-conquering strength of the spirit. His name means "Seer".
Prometheus was the son of the titan Iapetus and the goddess of justice Themis. When the war of the gods and titans began, Prometheus, on the advice of his grandmother, Gaia, the goddess of the earth, sided with the gods, and the gods won, largely thanks to the wisdom of Prometheus.

Prometheus helps Zeus fight the Titans

Zeus the Thunderer reigned on Olympus, and Prometheus became his adviser.
Zeus instructed Prometheus to create humans.
(There is an assumption that initially Prometheus was the supreme deity before the Greek tribes that inhabited the territory of Greece in ancient times. Subsequently, the Greeks included Prometheus in the system of their mythology, retaining the role of the creator of mankind for him. Before the Greek origin of Prometheus, his further opposition to Zeus, a purely Greek deity.)

Prometheus and Athena create people

Prometheus kneaded the clay and set to work. As an assistant, he took his brother Epimetheus. According to the plan of Prometheus, people were supposed to turn out to be perfect creatures, but the stupid Epimetheus (his name means “thinking after”) ruined everything.
According to one version, Epimetheus first of all sculpted animals from clay, endowing them with various means of protection from enemies: some with sharp teeth and claws, others with quick feet, and others with a subtle instinct, but forgot to leave something to the lot of a person. Therefore, people are naturally weak and ill-adapted to life.

Prometheus and Epimetheus

In another version of the myth, Epimetheus generally exterminated all the clay on animals, and Prometheus had to create humanity by pinching off pieces from different animals. Therefore, people have donkey stubbornness, fox cunning, hare cowardice, and the like in the most unexpected combinations.
Prometheus taught people to cultivate the land and grow bread, build houses and make things useful in the household, read and write, distinguish between the seasons and treat diseases.
But the people created by Prometheus did not worship the Olympian gods, and Zeus, dissatisfied with this, decided to destroy them. Prometheus went to Zeus and delivered a lengthy speech in defense of mankind (in memory of this, the Greeks revere him as the creator of oratory). He promised to teach people to worship the gods and make sacrifices to them.
Prometheus slaughtered the sacrificial bull in advance and divided it into two parts: he covered the meat with a skin, and hid the bare bones under a layer of fat.
On the appointed day, the gods descended to earth and met with people in a large clearing. Prometheus invited Zeus to choose any part of the bull for sacrifice to the gods. Zeus chose the one that seemed fatter to him, and since then people began to sacrifice fat and bones to the gods, and ate the meat themselves.
Zeus, seeing that he was taken, became angry and in retaliation took away the fire from people. Cold and hunger reigned on the earth.
Prometheus felt himself the unwitting culprit of the disaster that befell the mankind he created, and swore by the waters of the Styx, a river in the underworld of the dead, that he would get for people an unquenchable heavenly fire burning in the hearth of Zeus himself.
He turned to Athena, asking permission to visit the home of Zeus, allegedly in order to admire the amazing servants that the blacksmith god Hephaestus forged from gold for the Thunderer. Athena secretly led Prometheus to her father's house. Passing by the hearth, Prometheus put a reed stalk into the fire. Its core caught fire, and Prometheus in a hollow stem brought divine fire to the earth.
Upon learning of this, Zeus became more angry than ever and came up with a new punishment for people. He ordered Hephaestus to make a girl out of earth and water. Aphrodite endowed her with beauty and charm, Athena made her skillful in needlework, the god of cunning and deceit Hermes taught her to speak flattering speeches. The girl was called, that is, "gifted with all the gods."
Zeus sent her to Prometheus. However, he, not trusting Zeus, refused to accept the beauty. But his brother Epimetheus fell in love with Pandora at first sight and married her.
Zeus gave Pandora a tightly closed box as a dowry, without saying what was in it. Curious Pandora, having barely entered the house of her husband, opened the lid, and human vices, illnesses and misfortunes scattered from the box all over the world. Epimetheus and Pandora had a daughter, Pyrrha, who eventually married the son of Prometheus Deucalion.
Zeus again began to think about how to exterminate humanity - and sent a flood to the earth. But the seer Prometheus warned his son about this, Deucalion built a ship and escaped with his wife.
When the waters of the flood subsided, Deucalion and Pyrrha found themselves alone on the desert land. The ship took them to the temple of Themis, the mother of Prometheus. Themis appeared to Deucalion and Pyrrha, ordered them to pick up stones and throw them behind their backs. These stones turned into people: thrown by Deucalion into men, thrown by Pyrrha into women. Thus the human race was reborn.

Deucalion and Pyrrha (Andrea_di_Mariotto)

Later, Deucalion and Pyrrha had a son, Hellen, the founder of the Hellenic tribe, who founded Hellas, that is, Greece.
Zeus, seeing that he could not succeed in exterminating the human race, brought down his anger on Prometheus.
He called on his faithful servants Kratos and Biya - Power and Strength, ordered them to take Prometheus to the very end of the world, to wild Scythia, and there the blacksmith god Hephaestus chained him to a rock. Hephaestus was a friend of Prometheus, but did not dare to disobey Zeus.

Prometheus

In the tragedy of the Greek poet of the 5th century BC. e. Aeschylus "Prometheus chained" Hephaestus addresses Prometheus:

The super-wise son of Themis is right-minded,
For evil to you, for evil to yourself with glands
I will chain you to the desert cliff. (…)
Here is the reward of humanity!
God himself, heavy gods despising anger,
You were sympathetic to people beyond measure.
For this, stand the rocks as a sad watchman. (…)
You will scream and complain to the wind
Throw without counting: Zeus knows no pity.

(Translation edited by S. Apt)

Zeus condemned Prometheus to eternal fetters, but Prometheus knew that the power of Zeus himself was not eternal. Moira, the goddess of fate, revealed to Prometheus that from marriage with the nymph Thetis, Zeus would have a son who would be stronger than his father and overthrow him from the throne.
The Moirai also told that Zeus could avoid such a fate if Thetis married a mortal man. Then the son born by her will become the greatest hero, but will not compete with Zeus.

Prometheus

Years and centuries passed. The immortal titan Prometheus languished, chained to a rock. He was tormented by heat and cold, tormented by hunger and thirst.
Zeus found out that Prometheus possessed the secret of his own destiny, and sent his son, the herald of the gods Hermes, to him to offer release in exchange for this secret.
But Prometheus demanded that Zeus recognize the injustice of the punishment he had imposed and release him without any conditions. Prometheus said to Hermes:

“There is no execution, know that there is no trick so that Zeus will
Forced the fatal secret to blurt out,
While I am bound with shameful chains.
So let the flaming lightning throw,
It thunders with underground thunder, the vault of the sky circles,
Let it destroy everything with a white-winged blizzard, -
Can't bend me!
I won't tell him
Whose hands will wrest dominion from him!”

Wanting to break Prometheus, Zeus subjected him to new torments: he plunged the immortal titan into Tartra, into impenetrable darkness, where the souls of the dead roam, and then again raised him to the surface of the earth, chained him to a rock in the mountains of the Caucasus and sent his sacred eagle bird to torment Prometheus. With its claws and beak, the terrible bird tore apart the belly of the titan and pecked at his liver. The next day, the wound healed, and the eagle flew again.

The groans of Prometheus carried the echo far, they were echoed by mountains and seas, rivers and valleys.
The oceanid nymphs wept with pity for Prometheus, begged him to humble himself, to reveal the secret to Zeus and thereby ease their torment. The same was asked of Prometheus by his titan brothers and mother goddess Themis. But he answered them all that he would reveal the secret only if Zeus admits that he punished him innocently and restore justice.
And Zeus gave up.

Prometheus and Hercules (Christian Griepenkerl (1839-1912)

He sent his son Heracles to the mountains of the Caucasus. Hercules killed the eagle and broke the chains of Prometheus with his club. Prometheus kept one link of the chain with a fragment of a stone as a keepsake, and since then, people, in order not to forget about the suffering that Prometheus endured for the human race, began to wear rings with stones.
The liberated Prometheus revealed the secret to Zeus, and he, heeding the warning of the moira, gave the nymph Thetis in marriage to King Peleus. Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, was born from this marriage.
Prometheus is the only character in Greek mythology who openly opposes Zeus and ultimately wins a moral victory over him.
In various versions of the myth, told by different Greek authors, the image of Prometheus changed. The poet of the VIII century BC. e. Hesiod Prometheus, first of all, is a cunning one, deftly deceiving Zeus. Later, in the tragedy of Aeschylus, Prometheus is a hero endowed with great moral strength and drawing courage in the consciousness of his rightness.
The myth of Prometheus was addressed by poets and thinkers of different times and peoples: Voltaire, Goethe, Byron and Shelley. V.G. Belinsky wrote: “Prometheus (...), chained to a mountain (...) and with proud contempt responding to the reproaches of Zeus, is a purely Greek form, but the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe unshakable human will and energy of the soul, proud and in suffering, which is expressed in this form, is understandable and now".

PROMETHEUS

Titanium! To our earthly lot,
To our mournful vale,
For human pain
You looked without contempt;
But what was the reward?
Suffering, stress
Yes kite, that without end
Torments the liver of the proud,
Rock, chains a sad sound,
The suffocating burden of torment
Yes, the groan that is buried in the heart,
You suppressed, calmed down,
So that about your sorrows
He couldn't tell the gods.

Titanium! Did you know what the fight means
Courage with flour ... you are strong,
You are not afraid of torture
But bound by a violent fate.
Almighty Rock is a deaf tyrant,
Obsessed with universal malice,
Creating for the joy of heaven
That which can destroy itself
Delivered you from death
Gifted immortality.
You accepted the bitter gift as an honor
And the Thunderer from you
I was able to achieve only a threat;
So the proud god was punished!
Loving your suffering
You didn't want to read to him
His fate is but a sentence
Opened your proud eyes to him.
And he comprehended your silence,
And lightning bolts trembled...

You are good - that is your heavenly sin
Ile crime: you wanted
Put an end to misfortune
So that the mind makes everyone happy!
Rock destroyed your dreams
But in the fact that you did not reconcile, -
An example for all human hearts;
What was your freedom
Greatness is hidden pattern
For the human race!
You are a symbol of strength, demigod,
You have lit the way for mortals, -
Human life is a light current,
Runner, sweeping the path,
Partly a person can
Your watch to anticipate running:
aimless existence,
Resistance, vegetative...
But the soul will not change
Breathing immortal firmness,
And the feeling that he can suddenly
In the depths of the most bitter torment
Get yourself a reward
Celebrate and despise
And turn death into victory.

George Byron

- (Prometheus, Προμηθεύς), that is, “thinking forward”. The son of the titan Iapetus, brother of Epimetheus, i.e., "thinking after." He was a great benefactor of people and, for their good, deceived Zeus. When Zeus took fire from people, Prometheus stole fire from Olympus and ... ... Encyclopedia of mythology

The image of ancient mythology, which has taken a prominent place in world literature. The myth of P. was first recorded by Hesiod (see) in his poems Works and Days and Theogony. According to Hesiod, "the quirky mind Prometheus deceived" Zeus, defrauding him during the division ... ... Literary Encyclopedia

1) an ancient Greek mythological person who made a man out of clay and stole fire from heaven in order to revive him, for which he was chained by Jupiter to a rock in the Caucasus, where birds pecked at his insides until Hercules freed him; after… … Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (Greek foresight, seer) 1. the hero of the tragedy of Aeschylus (525 456 BC) "Prometheus chained" (the year of composition and staging of the tragedy is unknown; the authorship of Aeschylus is regarded as hypothetical). In Greek mythology, P. is the son of the titan Plaque and ... ... literary heroes

In the myths of the ancient Greeks, the cousin of Zeus; a titan who stole fire from the gods from Olympus and gave it to people. For this, by order of Zeus, he was chained to a rock and doomed to torment: an eagle that flew every day pecked at his liver, which grew back ... ... Historical dictionary

- (inosk.) gifted, daring benefactor of mankind (creator of rational culture) a hint of mithol. Prometheus. Wed Poetry! your sanctuary nature! As the ancient Prometheus from the cloudless vault Stole a ray of living pre-eternal fire, So you draw yours ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

PROMETHEUS, in Greek mythology, a titan who stole fire from the gods from Olympus and transferred it to people. By order of Zeus, he was chained to a rock and doomed to torment: an eagle flying every day pecked at his liver, which grew back overnight. Hercules ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

From ancient Greek mythology. Prometheus is one of the titans who stole fire from the gods and gave it to people. He taught them how to use heavenly fire and thereby undermined people's faith in the power of the gods. For this, the angry Zeus ordered the god of fire and ... ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions

"Prometheus"- "Prometheus", a publishing house of a democratic direction in St. Petersburg in 190716. Founded by N. N. Mikhailov. It published literature on philosophy and social problems (works by L. Feuerbach, J. J. Rousseau and other philosophers), works on history ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

In Greek mythology, a titan who stole fire from the gods from Olympus and gave it to people. For this, by order of Zeus, he was chained to a rock and doomed to constant torment: an eagle that flew in every day pecked at his liver, which grew back overnight. ... ...

Russian publishing house of a democratic direction, 1907 16, St. Petersburg. Books mainly on philosophy, Russian history, literary history; fiction ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Prometheus, Vyacheslav Ivanov. Life edition. Petrograd, 1919. Publishing house "Alkonost". Typographic cover. The safety is good. One of the largest works of V. Ivanov is the tragedy "Prometheus". By belief...