Prometheus

by Kerenyi, Karl; Manheim, Ralph

• ISBN13: 9780691019079
• ISBN10: 069101907X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-11-10
• Publisher: Bollingen Foundation

Summary

Prometheus the god stole fire from heaven and bestowed it on humans. In punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle clawed unceasingly at his liver, until Herakles freed him. For the Greeks, the myth of Prometheus's release reflected a primordial law of existence and the fate of humankind. Carl Kerényi examines the story of Prometheus and the very process of mythmaking as a reflection of the archetypal function and seeks to discover how this primitive tale was invested with a universal fatality, first in the Greek imagination, and then in the Western tradition of Romantic poetry. Kerényi traces the evolving myth from Hesiod and Aeschylus, and in its epic treatment by Goethe and Shelley; he moves on to consider the myth from the perspective of Jungian psychology, as the archetype of human daring signifying the transformation of suffering into the mystery of the sacrifice.

Table of Contents

List of Plates	ix	(2)
Introduction	xi
I Who Is Goethe's Prometheus?	3	(16)
Prometheus and Christ	3	(1)
The `Prometheus' of Goethe	4	(2)
The Dramatic Fragment	6	(6)
Goethe Interprets His Mythologem	12	(3)
The Modern Element in Goethe's Mythologem	15	(4)
II The Titanic, and the Eternity of the Human Race	19	(14)
The Human Race and the Races of Men	19	(1)
A Pythagorean Doctrine	20	(2)
The World View of Greek Mythology	22	(1)
Who Were the Titans?	23	(4)
What Did Titanic' Mean to the Greeks?	27	(3)
The Sufferings of Hera	30	(3)
III The Prometheus Mythologem in the `Theogony'	33	(17)
What Are Theogonies?	33	(1)
The Marriage of Iapetos	33	(2)
The Brothers of Prometheus	35	(4)
Prometheus' Wound	39	(1)
The Deeds of Prometheus	40	(2)
The Original Sacrifice	42	(2)
Pre-Hesiodic Elements in Hesiod	44	(3)
The Mind of Zeus	47	(1)
Parallel in `Works and Days'	48	(2)
IV Archaic Prometheus Mythology	50	(13)
`The Herald of the Titans'	50	(3)
Prometheus and Hermes	53	(2)
Women of Prometheus	55	(2)
Prometheus among the Kabeiroi	57	(3)
Titans and Kabeiroi	60	(3)
V Methodological Intermezzo	63	(6)
The Limits of Reconstruction	63	(1)
How Much Can Be Known	64	(3)
What Is Communicable	67	(2)
VI The World in Possession of Fire	69	(8)
From `The Fire Kindler'	69	(2)
The Oxyrhynchus Fragment	71	(1)
The Heidelberg Fragment	72	(3)
The Position of the `Pyrphoros'	75	(2)
VII The Fire Stealer	77	(6)
The Deficient Nature of the Thief	77	(2)
The Inevitable Theft	79	(4)
VIII The `Prometheus Bound'	83	(10)
Cosmogonic Tragedy	83	(1)
The Rule of Zeus	84	(1)
Prometheus and the Elements	85	(2)
`In Excess of Justice'	87	(1)
The Zeus World and Human Existence	88	(1)
The Suffering of Prometheus	89	(4)
IX Prometheus the Knowing One	93	(14)
The Two Threads of the Tragedy	93	(1)
Zeus, the Father	93	(1)
Okeanos and His Daughters	94	(2)
The Knowledge of Prometheus	96	(3)
Mother Themis	99	(3)
Prometheus and Io	102	(3)
The Oracular Words of Prometheus	105	(2)
X The Promethean Prophecy	107	(5)
The Foundation of the Prophecy	107	(2)
The Son of Thetis	109	(3)
XI `Prometheus Delivered'	112	(17)
The Last Prophecy in the `Prometheus Bound'	112	(1)
Bodily Pain	113	(4)
Immortals Who Long to Die	117	(4)
The Redemption	121	(8)
XII Conclusion after Goethe	129	(5)
Abbreviations	134	(1)
List of Works Cited	135	(10)
Index	145