-The Myth of Prometheous
The classical greek story of Prometheus may well be the most relevant of the Greek Myths in relation to our own era in which progress is considered the sacred birthright of the human race. Prometheus ( the word prometheus means foresight ) is best known in the modern age for giving the gift of fire to mankind in defiance of the orders of the dominating Greek God Zeus.
His punishment was to be chained to a rock while by day a giant bird would eat his liver which would grow back every night. The domestication of fire, of course, may be the single most important event in the civilization of mankind.
Personally, the Promethean myth has been one of my favorites since early childhood. At one time I seriously considered changing the name of this web site to 'The Promethean Quotation Collage.' I even wrote and debugged the code for this page with the beforesaid title replacing the heading 'The Curmudgeon Quotelist.'
The potential new title was discarded ( wisely, looking back ) when I decided that the younger adults who make up such a large block of internet users had relatively little knowledge of the Promethean legend.
The above image Prometheus on the Rock was downloaded from the web site featuring the work of painter Elsie Russell.
A synopsis of the Promethean myth may be found at The Myth of Prometheus.
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