Classics 10: Chapter 5 Myths of Creation: The Origins of MortalsThemes in Greek Creation StoryWhat about Human Beings?I. Prometheus and Human ProgressPrometheus: Maker of MortalsThe Incident at MeconêZeus Punishes PrometheusAeschylus’ Prometheus BoundPrometheus UnboundWhy do we suffer?II. Pandora and Human SufferingPandora and EpimetheusWoman as “Original Sin”Pandora’s “Box”: Women as ContainersIII. Further Punishment for Human DeclineThe Five RacesSlide 17Slide 18Slide 19Universal FloodGreek Flood StorySlide 22Deucalion and PyrrhaThe Race of the HellenesOrigin of Mortals: SummaryHuman vs. DivinePlato’s Comical Myth of Human Origins and Need for SexPlato on True LoveClassics 10: Chapter 5Myths of Creation:The Origins of MortalsI. Prometheus and Human ProgressII. Pandora and Human SufferingIII. Further Punishment for Human DeclineA. The Five RacesB. The Universal FloodRubens, Promethus Bound, 1610-1Themes in Greek Creation Story•The role of the female is ambiguous – creative and destructive–Women needed to produce next generation, yet cannot be trusted by ruling male•Ascendancy of male over female–Gaea empowers Cronus, later the victim of Zeus–Zeus prevents succession by co-opting the female•The story culminates to answer the question: How did Zeus come to rule the world?–Myth corroborates the understanding of the worldWhat about Human Beings?On the understanding that the gods were the origin and power of the world: •What is the role of the human in the world?•Where did we come from?•Are we unique? How?•Why are we here?•Why do we suffer?I. Prometheus and Human Progress•No account of the origin of mortals in Hesiod (a striking omission)•Other, later sources generally identify Prometheus as the creator of mortals–Other accounts: Zeus, other gods responsible•Prometheus (“forethought” = trickster), the son of Titans and so as old as Zeus •Prometheus (and his mother) the only Titans to take Zeus’ side in the Titanomachy–Suggests a special role for him laterPrometheus: Maker of Mortals•In Near Eastern myth, humans explicitly created as servants to the gods–Hebrew account (Genesis): dust of the earth plus the breath of life from the Creator•Prometheus makes man from earth and water (the primordial mud?)–Man walks upright to look at heaven - not like beasts who stare at the ground - but does this mean man is to be the plaything of the gods?The Incident at Meconê•Prometheus offered sacrifice bundles to Zeus and asked which Zeus preferred (= a trick)–One was huge pieces of fat wrapped about bones–One was fatty meat wrapped inside the ox’s stomach•Zeus chose the better looking fat•Etiological myth: why Greeks ate the meat and offered the bones and pure fat to the gods•Hesiod protects Zeus by saying he saw through the trick, but took the bones in order to justify punishing men, Prometheus’ favorite–But remember Cronus swallowing the stone instead of Zeus; sometimes the Father God is deceivedZeus Punishes Prometheus•To punish Prometheus, Zeus harms man by removing fire from the human world–Zeus as god of lightning, thus sort of a fire god–Mortals could no longer cook their meat, were starving•Prometheus sneaks some fire from heaven in a fennel stock and gives it back to mankind–Man has since been able to cook his meat, though he must work both to hunt the meat and to burn it–Life for mankind forever after one of labor to survive•Prometheus punished by being bound to a rock, where every day an eagle eats his liver, which grows back at nightAeschylus’ Prometheus Bound•A play in a trilogy about Prometheus, the other two of which are lost–Athenian Tragedy of 430 BCE•Zeus eventually learns to rule with justice •Prometheus presented as one who taught man all the civilized arts–crafts, math, writing, farming, husbandry, seafaring, medicine, metallurgy, divination–human evolution thanks solely to Prometheus; he is the savior of mankind from cluelessnessPrometheus Unbound•Zeus eventually allows Heracles to break Prometheus’ chains•Prometheus told him from which female deity a threat to his rule would come (“A son greater than his father”):–Thetis, a sea nymph (a daughter of Nereus) whom Zeus then had the hots for–So Zeus marries Thetis to a mortal, Peleus: the son will be AchillesWhy do we suffer?•Zeus sought to punish men because Prometheus gave fire back to them•Man’s ultimate affliction from Zeus (says Hesiod): Woman•But how else would men have reproduced?•And why so openly misogynistic? –Constraints of monogamy?–Perceived impurity of female anatomy?–More mouths to feed?–Anxiety that man cannot control his own reproduction? (Remember how Cronus and Zeus trick their fathers!)II. Pandora and Human Suffering•Zeus recruits the other gods to build him a woman from clay and water –Pandora (“All-gift”)–Woman is not from Adam’s rib (as in Genesis), but made independently from the same muddy materials, though with evil intent•Given good looks, womanly skills (weaving), the power of desire and heartbreak, “thievish morals,” “the soul of a bitch”•“a curse to men who must live by bread”Pandora and Epimetheus•Epimetheus (“Afterthought” = “Dummy”) is Prometheus’ brother•Told not to receive any gift from Zeus, but he is foolish and discovers he is horny–He wants the woman’s company and thus accepts her as a gift•She suddenly opens a jar (or box), from which all ills and sorrows for men escape•Hope alone fails to escape –What does this mean? Is it evil? Or is it all that we have to save us? Yet why is it in the jar?Woman as “Original Sin”•Compare Pandora to Eve –Woman responsible for downfall of man (yet Epimetheus should have known better, too)•Compare Pandora to Incident at Meconê–What looks good on the outside (pure fat, female beauty) is full of deceit inside (bones, feminine wiles)•Compare Pandora to Gaea/Mother Earth–Fertile source of all, yet unreliable to menPandora’s “Box”: Women as Containers•Women associated with water jugs, hope chests, scent boxes, ritual baskets•Perhaps the jar/box is just a metaphor and Pandora herself is the jar–i.e., Women are the containers that receive and transport men’s seed–Men have to place all their hope for offspring on/in women and all kinds of heartbreak can happen, but there is no other way (Hope?)III. Further Punishment for Human DeclineA.