The History of … Prometheus in Books and Movies

I love the Aliens movies and was excited to go to see the prequel, Prometheus.  Watching it sparked my curiosity about the enduring use of the ancient Greek immortal Prometheus as a morality tale in film and literature.  I decided to refresh my memory of Prometheus and how and why he is repeatedly used as a cautionary reference.

In Greek mythology Zeus is the ruler of all the gods.  The Greek creation story has Zeus assigning the task of making mortal beings to two Titan brothers, Epimetheus and Prometheus.  Epimetheus means ‘afterthought’ and Prometheus means ‘forethought’.  True to their names, Epimetheus was not considered to be very bright and gave all the good gifts to the animals as they were created; swiftness, courage, strength, claws, wings, and shells.  When it came time to give gifts to man nothing was left.  Prometheus, who was considered to be the wisest of the Titans, realized that humans needed some gifts of their own so he gave them a unique form and allowed them to walk upright.

When he was done giving gifts to humans, Prometheus felt they needed one more thing to protect themselves, the gift of fire.  Fire belonged to the gods and was kept at the top of Mount Olympus.  Prometheus decided to steal some of that fire and took a stalk of fennel (a kind of hollowed out reed), concealed one of the embers from the sacred fire in the reed and gave it to man.

When Zeus discovered this he punished Prometheus by impaling him on a mountain.  When Prometheus defied Zeus further by refusing to give him information about the future, an eagle was added to the punishment that would come and eat Prometheus’ liver every day.  Since Prometheus was immortal, the liver would grow back at night and the horrific process would repeat itself daily.   In some tellings, like “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus, Prometheus is eventually rescued by Hercules.  However, the crux of the story is the stealing of fire, giving it to man and the punishment received for doing so.

How does this tale apply to Western culture after Prometheus?  The story is generally used as a way of showing the joys and sorrows of self-awareness.  The fire that Prometheus steals is not just fire to cook things and keep warm.  It is fire from the sacred fire of knowledge so it imparts wisdom on its recipients.  The story is a kind of Adam and Eve tale (in the Bible Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden tree of knowledge, gain self-awareness and are thrown out of the Garden of Eden).  In references to Prometheus in literature and movies there is usually suffering and punishment for exploring forbidden enlightenment or taking on God-like power.  Much like the story of Adam and Eve this kind of morality lesson is an enduring one and explains why the legend of Prometheus lives on in Western culture to this day.

In Prometheus the movie (spoiler alert!) the creators of humans are a superior race called the Engineers.  Clues about who they are have been found at archeological sites of different ancient societies.  A group of scientists interprets these findings as an invitation to find the Engineers.  They seek enlightenment and take a voyage of discovery on the aptly named ship Prometheus.  In the end they receive the pleasure of wisdom but also the pain.  Most of the crew dies by the conclusion of the movie.

In literature the most commonly known reference to Prometheus is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein whose full title is Frankenstein:  or, The Modern Prometheus.   As we all remember, in the novel Victor Frankenstein seeks God-like powers in making his Creature.  He produces life but is eventually destroyed by his creation.

More obscurely (and for far more of a stretch), there are also references to Prometheus in Moby Dick.  Ahab can be seen as Promethean because he makes a God-like decision that the white whale must die.  There are disastrous consequences to his choice.  In Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment the main character Raskolnikov can be viewed as Promethean in his choice to plan and kill the old pawn broker to test his belief that murder is legitimate in pursuit of greater purpose.  Once again, a protagonist electing to ‘play God’ has bad results.

Incidentally, while Zeus’ punishment of Prometheus was very severe, he also decided that the mortals who had accepted Prometheus’ gift had to be penalized.  With the help of the other gods, Zeus formed a creature of great charm and beauty but also with cunning and guile.  According to the Greek writer Hesiod this creature was “an evil to mortal men with a nature to do evil.”  He called her Pandora meaning ‘all gifts’ and sent her to the mortals as the first woman.