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Prometheus in Greek Mythology

The history of Prometheus in mythology Let's start first with his name, Prometheus, which comes from the Greek language and means premeditation, which has everything to do with what he practices the most during his trajectory.

Since he is in the habit of plotting, well in advance, his cunning plans, whose intention is to deceive the Olympian gods. Just to remind you, the Olympian gods are the main figures in Greek mythology and live on Mount Olympus.

Origin of Prometheus

One of the strands points out that Prometheus is the son of Asia (one of the Oceanids, daughter of Thetis and Oceanus) and Jeppetus (a Tito-god of time, son of Gaia and Uranus. In fact, he is the brother of

• Atlas, a giant doomed to carry the world on his back;
• Epimetheus, a second generation titan;
• Menoethius, also a titan (second generation) who lives in the depths of Tartarus.

Still according to this idea, Prometheus is one of the creators of the human race, who gave it the divine fire.

Relationship with the god Zeus

Many stories point out that Prometheus is very good friends with Zeus (god of the gods in Greek mythology). In this friendship, the cunning Prometheus helped Zeus to circumvent the fury of his father Kronos, who was dethroned by his son.

Humanity

Even if he was immortal, that didn't stop Prometheus from approaching Men (something he created as we saw in the second strand). He conceived Mankind with water and clay, after his brother ran out of all the raw material he had by generating the other animals.

In addition, another of Prometheus' contributions to human beings was the power to think and reason, as the transmission in the most varied skills. However, this preference of the god fire for company with men, makes Zeus quite angry.

Because of this, Zeus killed an ox and divided it into two parts, one part having only bones and fat, while the other part had meat. Prometheus tried to offer the latter part to the Olympian gods, but the god of lightning did not accept, because he wanted the other part.

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Therefore, the son of Jápeto tries to fulfill this whim, however, he tries to deceive Zeus, who, upon realizing this situation, becomes enraged. As a form of revenge, he subtracts from humanity the mastery of fire, something given to him by Prometheus.

When Prometheus realizes this, he decides to favor mankind, so he steals the fire from Olympus. However, another version of this story shows that Prometheus did all this to guarantee mankind a supremacy over all other animals and living beings.

Punishment

However, something that is in both versions is that Zeus punished Prometheus by having the blacksmith Hephaestus bind him in chains on Mount Caucasus. This punishment would last for 30,000 years, in which he would be pecked every day by an eagle, with the intention of destroying his liver.

Being immortal, Prometheus' organ was constantly regenerating itself, and the destructive cycle started anew every day This situation lasted until the hero Hercules freed him, in fact, Hercules ended up replacing him in captivity with the centaur Chiron, who was also immortal.

Upon learning of this exchange, Zeus determines that Prometheus' freedom be restored. However, Chiron is struck by an arrow and this wound had no cure, so he suffers eternally with stabbing pain. Because of this, Zeus replaces him with Prometheus, but rather makes him mortal and he perishes in a serene manner.

Prometheus and Epimetheus

As we already know, and as we have already mentioned in our post, Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus played an important role in the creation of mankind.

Epimetheus was sort of a "boss" of the work and Prometheus' job was just to examine it when it was finished. With that, Epimetheus assigned each animal various gifts such as:

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• strength;
• courage;
• speed;
• wit.

In addition, other features such as wings and claws so that they could protect themselves from other animals. However, when the time came for mankind, which needed to be superior to the other animals, there were no more resources with such prodigality.

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Because of this situation, Epimetheus turns to his brother Prometheus, and with the help of Minerva, Prometheus ascends to heaven and lights his torch on the chariot of the sun, which brings fire to mankind. With this ability, man becomes superior to all other animals.

Since with fire we can build weapons against ferocious animals and tools for the purpose;

• cultivate the land;
• warm the dwellings;
• to create the art of minting coins.

Greek mythology and psychoanalysis

To finish our post, we will talk about the relationship between psychoanalysis and the Greek myths, such as Prometheus. As we already know, psychoanalysis is a therapeutic method developed by Sigmund Freud. In general, this theory is employed in cases of psychosis and neurosis, aiming to interpret the unconscious contents of words and actions.

In many situations, Freud resorts to both myths and mythological metaphors to explain his theories. Some examples of this use are:

• the Oedipus myth with the intention of explaining the key point of the libidinal organization;
• of the original myth of the primitive horde for the explanation of the birth of culture).

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As we know, these myths were created by primitive people with the intention of explaining the relationship between humans and the physical world. At a time when science and philosophy did not exist, these fanciful stories were a way for ancient people to transfer their information to future generations.

So psychoanalysis in many situations used Greek mythology to build concepts and explain the human psyche.

Final considerations on the summary of the Prometheus myth

As we have seen, the relationship between mythology and psychoanalysis is quite complex. In fact, to understand about this subject, it is important to bet on a very solid knowledge. That is why we have an invitation for you!

With our online Clinical Psychoanalysis course, you can learn more about this rich area of human knowledge. myth of Prometheus Sign up now and get started today!