Prometheus: A Generous God


Prometheus was a Greek Titan, to be more precise the son of another Titan, Iapetus and Clymene (who was one of the marine deities collectively called Oceanids). Unlike the other Titans that rebelled against the gods and Prometheus was in fact welcome in Olympus, home of the gods. It was while at Olympus and when Zeus was unaware, that Prometheus took the fire that only existed in that realm and gave it to mankind. He's believed to be the creator of man (not woman for Hephaestus did that) and is also described as the owner of great intelligence and thepossessor of the unique  ability to foresee the future. 
Were his acts for mankind acts of love? At least that's how it was perceived by ancient Greeks. Let's not forget that a titan was basically a god, perhaps more powerful than some of them. In other words this was the god that should have been worshipped by the Greeks and not Zeus who was more a tyrant ruler and cared very little for human beings.
For his "transgression" Prometheus was bound to suffer for an eternity until Zeus's predilect son, Heracles, came to the place of the torture and slayed the beast thus liberating Prometheus. Currently anbody who wants to portray generosity uses Prometheus's story. Now Hollywood intends to come back to the sci fi genre and the universe of the Alien xenomorphs. Ridley Scott, the director, has shot a movie that tells the story of a human expedition that goes to a distant planet to find out about an extinct race of aliens that probably created us and may also have the keys to our doom.
I'm already curious to see how all that will be connected to the mythos of the generous and crafty titan, though.



















































































































                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 


































































































































































































































































































 to relive the myth of the visionary titan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more