[Helena Smith]

Prometheus stole the secret of fire from the gods and gave it to man kind.

Do you consider him a hero for bettering humanity?
Or a Villain for stealing from the gods?

[Shreyasfc]

In Hesiod’s Theogeny we are introduced to the Titan Prometheus. Prometheus is the son of the Titan Iapetos and Clymene, daughter of the Ocean. Prometheus is described as wily, intelligent and tricky, such as when Zeus, upset with Prometheus for tricking him, says to Prometheus, “Iapetos’ boy, if you’re not the smartest of them all. So you still haven’t forgotten your tricks, have you?” (561). This shows not only that Zeus sees Prometheus as the “smartest of them all”, but also that Prometheus has a reputation of playing tricks in the past.

Prometheus, from what we are told in Theogeny, could be seen as either a hero or a villain, depending on which of his actions you take into account and whom it affects. At first he could be considered a hero, at least to the Olympian gods, when he joined with the Olympians in their war against Cronos and the original Titans, as we see when Zeus forgives Prometheus for escaping from his eternal torture “…Because Prometheus matched wits with mighty Cronion” (535), which shows that he was able to match wits with Cronos, the king of the Titans. After that, however, he tricks Zeus into accepting ox bones for his sacrificial burnings, allowing humans to keep the edible parts. Even though this seems to be a heroic action for humans, Zeus “…always remembered this trick, and wouldn’t give the power of weariless fire to the ashwood mortals who live on the earth” (564), and so even though his action may have benefitted humans, it also caused Zeus to withhold fire from humans. That being said, Prometheus was consequently able to outwit Zeus, steal fire from him and give it back to humans. Again, while this is seemingly heroic for humanity, this “bit deeply the heart of Zeus, the high lord of thunder, who was angry when he saw the distant gleam of fire among men, and straight off he gave them trouble to pay for the fire” (569). This “trouble”, we come to find out, is that Zeus “…made women as a curse for mortal men” (604), and also curses men so that “Whoever escapes marriage and women’s harm, comes to deadly old age without any son to support him” (607), ensuring that men cannot escape Zeus’ curse if they want descendants. As we can see, although Prometheus does perform some heroic deeds, both for the gods and for humans, his deeds often end up causing more harm than good, intentionally or. So he must be cast as a villain in the eyes of both gods and men.

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