Description
PROMETHEUS – 2012
ORIGINAL PAINTING HAND-PAINTED IN BLACK CALLIGRAPHY INK ON PAPER BY EMMA J V HOGG
PRINT DIMENSIONS | UNFRAMED –
A4 – 21 X 29.7 CM / 8 X 12″
A3 – 29.7 x 42 CM / 12 x 16.5″
A2 – 42 x 59.4 CM / 16.5 x 23.4″
‘Prometheus’ – Greek mythology – Creation myth
A summary of the Greek creation myth is as follows:
The Titan Prometheus, meaning forethought, was wise and sensible. His brother Epimetheus, meaning afterthought or hindsight, was impulsive and unsuspecting.
These two Titans were given the task of creating man. Prometheus shaped man out of mud and the god Athena breathed life into his figure.
Prometheus gave Epimetheus the task of giving all of the creatures of the earth their various traits needed to aid them in their preservation, such as the swiftness of a Cheetah, cunning of a Chimpanzee, strength of an Elephant, fur of an Arctic Fox and the wings of the Peregrine Falcon.
But in his haste by the time Epimetheus got to man he had given all of the gifts out. So Prometheus decided to make man stand upright to set his new creation above all other creatures and gave them the gift of fire, which he stole from the gods, hiding the flames inside a fennel seed.
Prometheus loved his creation of man very much, so when Zeus decreed that man must present a portion of each animal as a sacrifice to the gods, Prometheus decided to trick Zeus.
He created two piles, one with bones wrapped in juicy fat, the other with the good meat hidden in an animal hide and asked Zeus to pick which pile the humans would give to the gods.
Zeus impulsively picked the larger pile that was actually mostly bones, but he had given his word and so had to accept that as his share from each animal sacrifice. Allowing man to forever keep the most desired part of the animal for himself.
In his anger at being tricked by Prometheus he took fire away from man. But Prometheus lit a torch from the sun and brought it back to man.
Zeus was again enraged that man had fire. And so he inflicted a terrible punishment on man by giving them the first woman, Pandora, who would bring with her all that was evil and unleash it onto the earth.
And for Prometheus he had his servants, Force and Violence, seize him and chain him to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains. Here he would be tortured day and night as a Giant Eagle would tear out his liver every day, only for it to grow back again during the night.
Zeus gave Prometheus two ways out of this torment. To tell him who would in the future dethrone him or meet his two conditions: that an immortal must volunteer to die for him and that a mortal must kill the Giant Eagle.
The centaur Chiron was the only immortal centaur. He was unlike others of his kind and was wise, gentle and learned. Chiron was accidentally wounded in the knee with a poisoned arrow in a fight between Hercules and the other centaurs. As he was immortal and could not die he would live forever in terrible pain.
Chiron, in order to be relieved of his tormenting wound, bestowed his immortality onto Prometheus and so allowed himself to die.
Hercules came and killed the Giant Eagle while on his adventure of the “Twelve Labours”, freeing Prometheus.
Prometheus’ name has stood through the centuries as the great rebel against injustice and the authority of power.
Written by Emma J V Hogg
