It is a very complex and difficult myth: therefore I needed a long time before writing this post.
The main difficulty comes from the fact that this myth, like all myths in their more authentic meaning, value and role, are stories, narratives, groups of words related to the Gods and Goddesses with a strong religious foundation, destined to a small group of initiated persons. A myth is aimed to transmit a secret knowledge not accessbile to ordinary people. In the myth, everything is alien to the profane.
The object of the mythical story consists of deep and hidden truths of the existence - a secret theology - whose narration is not aimed to captivate a potential audience, but to provoke and dissuade if composed of not-initiated.
Sometimes the mythical story is expressed in riddles, enigmas, that add additional sacred value : I stress the term "story" (Vox), since the transfer of the myth in writing is already a first form of desecration, profanation. This is why the myth is never a dogma: it appears fluid with a range of versions because filtered by the spirituality of those who, once understood in its deepest essence, can articulate it the level of logos.
For this reason, the formal reading of a mythical tale for the profane and/or for modern looks like a fairy tale "nonsense" for the most foolish, contradictory and incomprehensible.
The mythical story is never clear and it can not be as such: it is contradictory, the true and the false are confused, symbols, paradoxes, meanings, allegories, riddles, levels of understanding are difficult to discern. The more the myth speaks of the immediate, natural, elementary and basic truth, the harder it will grasp its meaning. Its most authentic message is then accessbile only after a long process of inner preparation. The myth is therefore the land on which it grows the traditional spirituality of a Cultor and a Cultrix.
If this applies to all myths, this is particularly true for the myth of Prometheus which is a "foundation" myth.
Based on these premises, it becomes really difficult for me to "write" something about the myth of Prometheus, to explain this or that. What can I write? I have a so limited knowledge of these topics in this deep perspective. Some things were told to me, and others I have always been advised to not talk about it. Let alone write about it on a blog: it could give rise to many misconceptions and misunderstandings. Just think that the epithet is given to Pandora - the Woman - as "Beautiful Evil", the poisoned gift ("Gift of all the Gods") that the Divine gave to the humanity as a punishment.
The only thing I can do is to invite Cultores and Cultrices to read between the lines of the myth, to think about its deeper meanings. I can only emphasize that this myth at the end describes the human condition in an intermediate level between the Divine and the animals, the characteristic of humanity to fluctuate between cunning and stupidity (Prometheus and Epimetheus), the definition of the basic rites, the birth of civil institutions (eg. the marriage), the role of the agricultural practices, the fact that everything related to humanity is precarious and requires support (human fire and Divine Fire), etc ...
But the thing that maybe is more useful to highlight is how this myth is focused on the idea of "hiding", to "conceal", the deception of appearances. We live in a world where good and evil are intimately linked and hidden inside each other. As the yin and yang the benefits are hidden and intersected in evil and vice versa. Nature appears in this way to humanity: there is a veil of deception, of illusion that makes us unable to see what is behind the reality.
Wisdom (in the deepest and authentic sense of the term) is the only way to dispel appearances and being able to distinguish the "real" reality without falling into deception.
We have to remain along the Via.
3 commenti:
Outstanding post. I really like how you are looking at mythology here and I absolutely agree about hidden truths as well as that in “the transfer of the myth in writing is already a first form of desecration, profanation”. When a religion obsesses with the written word it is liable to becoming doctrinally obsessed, inflexible and confused – the written word becomes even more problematic when it is translated into another language. There is a reason that the God of trickery is also the God of language and communication, for nothing deceives so well as words.
I accept that you don’t want to go into the story of Prometheus too much but in thinking about it over the past couple of weeks I have had very similar thoughts to yours when you say “… this myth at the end describes the human condition in an intermediate level between the Divine and the animals, the characteristic of humanity to fluctuate between cunning and stupidity”. Early humans used tools, but so do certain other intelligent animals; the uptake of the use of fire is likely the point when we can say that humans made a great evolutionary leap. We humans think ourselves so clever but all around we see so much evidence that shows that we are perhaps as stupid (as a species) as we are cunning. Every time we manipulate forces of nature we risk upsetting the natural balance of nature and ultimately this may not be in our favour, though at first it may seem so. It is a bit like the myth of Midas – at first we self-congratulate ourselves when we acquire the skill to turn all that we touch into gold, but ultimately this talent to acquire wealth fast becomes the means which undermines our health and happiness …
Thank you for you kind words.
I agree with your considerations in particular about the myth of Midas. When reading your comments my mind went also to a very peculiar (and definitively less mythological but more practical) imagine from the Roman Tradition. In several occasions - in particular during public "spectacular" manifestations - i.e. the Triumph - the Roman Emperor had beside him a slave having the task to repeat this phrase in his ears: "do not forget to be just a human being".
This "circular" imagine of the Primus (the First and the most powerful man on Earth) accompanied by the Last among the humans (a slave, not free) who reminded him his real nature had, in my opinion, not only a political value (limiting the power of a single man) but also a psychological value to dissipate the clouds of irreality produced by the illusion of power - in a very broad sense.
Probably our contemporary society (who live immersed in the illusion of an unlimited power generated by Science and Technology) has totally forgotten to be composed by very fragile human beings. We should need a similar psychological support everyday whispering in our ears: "do not forget to be just a human being"
Absolutely!
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