Prometheus
Archetypal Image of Human Existence
1st Edition
Published on 22. March 2021
184 pages
978-0-691-21458-0 (ISBN)
Description
Prometheus the god stole fire from heaven and bestowed it on humans. In punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle clawed unceasingly at his liver, until Herakles freed him. For the Greeks, the myth of Prometheus's release reflected a primordial law of existence and the fate of humankind. Carl Kerényi examines the story of Prometheus and the very process of mythmaking as a reflection of the archetypal function and seeks to discover how this primitive tale was invested with a universal fatality, first in the Greek imagination, and then in the Western tradition of Romantic poetry. Kerényi traces the evolving myth from Hesiod and Aeschylus, and in its epic treatment by Goethe and Shelley; he moves on to consider the myth from the perspective of Jungian psychology, as the archetype of human daring signifying the transformation of suffering into the mystery of the sacrifice.
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11/1997
Princeton University Press
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Persons
Carl Kerényi was a professor of classics and the history of religion in his native Hungary. His works include Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter and Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, and he collaborated with C. G. Jung to write Essays on a Science of Mythology; all three books are available in Mythos paperback editions.
Content
- Cover Page
- Half-title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- List of Plates
- Introduction
- I. Who is Goethe's Prometheus?
- Prometheus and Christ
- The 'Prometheus' of Goethe
- The Dramatic Fragment
- Goethe Interprets His Mythologem
- The Modern Element in Goethe's Mythologem
- II. The Titanic, and the Eternity of the Human Race
- The Human Race and the Races of Men
- A Pythagorean Doctrine
- The World View of Greek Mythology
- Who Were the Titans?
- What Did 'Titanic' Mean to the Greeks?
- The Sufferings of Hera
- III. The Prometheus Mythologem in the Theogony'
- What Are Theogonies?
- The Marriage of Iapetos
- The Brothers of Prometheus
- Prometheus' Wound
- The Deeds of Prometheus
- The Original Sacrifice
- Pre-Hesiodic Elements in Hesiod
- The Mind of Zeus
- Parallel in Works and Days'
- IV. Archaic Prometheus Mythology
- The Herald of the Titans'
- Prometheus and Hermes
- Women of Prometheus
- Prometheus among the Kabeiroi
- Titans and Kabeiroi
- V. Methodological Intermezzo
- The Limits of Reconstruction
- How Much Can Be Known
- What Is Communicable
- VI. The World in Possession of Fire
- From 'The Fire Kindler'
- The Oxyrhynchus Fragment
- The Heidelberg Fragment
- The Position of the 'Pyrphoros'
- VII. The Fire Stealer
- The Deficient Nature of the Thief
- The Inevitable Theft
- VIII. The 'Prometheus Bound'
- Cosmogonic Tragedy
- The Rule of Zeus
- Prometheus and the Elements
- 'In Excess of Justice'
- The Zeus World and Human Existence
- The Suffering of Prometheus
- IX. Prometheus the Knowing One
- The Two Threads of the Tragedy
- Zeus, the Father
- Okeanos and His Daughters
- The Knowledge of Prometheus
- Mother Themis
- Prometheus and Io
- The Oracular Words of Prometheus
- X. The Promethean Prophecy
- The Foundation of the Prophecy
- The Son of Thetis
- XI. 'Prometheus Delivered'
- The Last Prophecy in the 'Prometheus Bound'
- Bodily Pain
- Immortals Who Long to Die
- The Redemption
- XII. Conclusion after Goethe
- Abbreviations
- List of Works Cited
- Index
