8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
1/18
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Hesiod's Prometheus and Development in MythAuthor(s): E. F. BeallSource: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1991), pp. 355-371Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
2/18
Hesiod's Prometheus
nd
Development
n
Myth
E.
F. Beall
Hesiod'sPrometheus
as
not
somegiven ntity, conceptwith
propertiesieweds fixedhroughouthe imes f he wopoemswhich
mention
t.*
Prometheus as a
process,
s it
were, lready perating
n
the
Greek
rchaic
eriod,
ot
ust
n thehands f aterwritersuch s
Plato.
The
development
etweenhe
Theogony
nd
the
Worksnd
Days
bespeaks
certain onsciousness
f thevalues
underlying
he
modeof
expression
e
call
myth.
One
might
lso
ayprovisionally
hat
ome
eed
to transcend
yth
s
implied
s well.
In
our
entury
cademic
hought
as
ncreasingly
ound
t
difficulto
ignore
he Romantic hesis hat
myth
s
inherent
n
human xistence.
Earlier,
n
the
wake
of the
Enlightenment,
estern
hilosophers
nd
philologistsypically
reatedhe
ategories
f
myth
nd
reason
n
such
way
s to considerhe
particular
istorical
rena
farchaicGreece he
scene
f discreteransitionrom he irst
o
the
econd
s
the ominant
mode
of
thought.
hat s to
say,
Homer
nd
Hesiod
gaveway
to new
heroes,he resocratichilosophers.ome till dhereothis icture,ut
nowwe
have lsohad he
hilosopherrnst assirer,
or
xample,resent
myth
s
something
hich
lways
ompetes
ith cience.
o
Hans Blu-
menberg,umanityxerts work
n
myth
n
a continuingttempt
o
tame
eality.2
lassicistsuch s
F. M.
Comford ave
n effecteld hat
the arliest resocratics
epresented
stage
n
a continuous
rowth
rom
*
I have profited rom he comments y Pamela Long, DorothyNaor, Sally Rogers,
DorothyRoss, ThomasAfrica, eborah Lyons,Mark Griffith,nd RichardJanko.
'
The literature ttemptingo define hisconceptprecisely mounts o a bottomless
pit, and the discussion elow will rest ontentwith roughunderstanding: myth s a
story bout anthropomorphiceings, et
in
the dim
past,
with ymbolic mport
or he
given ulture's ife xperience.
2
ErnstCassirer, hePhilosophyfSymbolic orms, r.Ralph Manheim 3 vols.;
New
Haven, 1953-57), specially I,
xiii-xviii. ans
Blumenberg,
Work n
Myth,
r.
RobertM.
Wallace (Cambridge,Mass., 1985).
355
Copyright
1991
by JOURNAL
OF THE HISTORY OF
IDEAS, INC.
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
3/18
356
E.
F.
Beall
thecreation
myth
xemplified
y
the Theogony.3
r it s sometimes
s-
serted
hat he rchaic reeks
ere
ware funderlying
tructures
ithin
myth.4
n a
related ormulation
ythe
iterarycholar
Albert
ook,
t
least omeof thePresocraticsnd others artookfa higher haseof
myth
tself,
eached
hrough
eflectionn
ts
meaning
n
the arlier hase
we
normally
all
myth.5
But
whether
r
not
myth
emains ith
stoday,
f
t
s
now espectable
to consider
he
Hesiodic
orpus
mportant
o the ntellectual
rowth
f
archaic reece,
hen hould
wenot xamine
evelopment
ithint s
well
as
the elation
f
ts
reation
yths
o
Presocraticosmogony?
n the ase
of he rometheusarratives,
e
have wo ccounts
ith
ufficiently
lose
contentoensure hat he atters modelled n the arlierneat east n
part.
The
sources fthe
arlier
re
essentially
nknown,
utmovement
fromt
n
the
atter
s
presumably
f nterest
s an achievement
f rchaic
Greece.
To say
this
s to oppose
he
dominant
rend
n
classical cholarship
proper
n
the
particular
ssue fthe dentification
f myth. lassicists
concerned
ith
esiod
ave
endedoview
he wo rometheus
arratives
asvariantccountsf he ame nderlyingntity.hedifferences
etween
them,
t
s
held,
merely oint
o authorialesires oemphasizeifferent
features
f the
tory.6
Thepresumption
hat wothematically
imilar
arrativesonstitute
a
story
an
certainly
e
useful s a
first
pproximation,
nd
here
thas
no
doubt elped
larify
he
tructuresf
archaicGreek
hought.7ow-
ever,
he
underlying
otion
hat heGreeks anonized
he
tory
ineof
3F. M. Cornford,rincipiumapientiaeCambridge, 952).The olderviewofcourse
remains,
nd
is perhapsbest represented
y
W. K.
C. Guthrie,
A
History
f
Greek
Philosophy.
6 vols.;Cambridge,
962-81), , 26-38.A prominent
ntermediate
ormulation
is G. S.
Kirk,Myth:ts Meaning
nd
FunctionsnAncient
nd Other
ulturesCambridge,
1970),
238-51.
4E.g., myth
n
Homer
displays metaliterary
r
metalingual
onsciousness
nd
ar-
chaic
art generally tresses
he
paradigmatic
elations
f
semiotics,
n the formulation
of CharlesSegal,
Greek Myth
s
a
Semiotic
nd Structural ystem
nd
the Problem
f
Tragedy,
Arethusa,
6 1983), 175-78.
5
AlbertCook,Myth nd
Language
Bloomington,980).
6This
assumptions exemplifiedy the eadingHesiodcommentatorscitedbelow),
but a fewclassicists
ave
paid attention o the
so-calledvariations.
or example,
rnst
Heitsch, Das
Prometheus-Gedicht
ei Hesiod,
nHesiod,
d. Heitsch Darmstadt,
966),
419-35,uses them
n an attempt
o extrapolate
ackward
o the presumed re-Hesiodic
Prometheusmyth.
7
For our particularxample,
otably
n Jean-Pierre
ernant, The
Myth f Prometh-
eus
in
Hesiod,
in
hisMyth nd Society
n
Ancient
Greece, r. Janet
loyd (New
York,
1988), 183-201.
He actuallyargues
the unity
o the extent f noting
ome
apparent
references f each
story o
the other.However
and apartfromuncertainties
n these
referenceso be noted below),we do not, forexample, ssign a jazz piecebased on a
popular
ballad
to
the atter'sgenre,
ven though heyhave
some sequences
of notes
n
common.
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Hesiod and Myth
357
any given
myth
eems derivedfrom tradition nformed
y Biblical
scholarship. hey supposedly
onstruedmythical vents s
contiguous
with
the quotidian
present,
n
the
way
that
Christian undamentalism
sees the creation, lood,etc., in Genesis.But the earliestGreeks had
trouble
venconceiving f
a continuous onnection etween
hemythical
time of gods
and their
wn time
of
men. 8
f
they ndeed believed
in
theirmyths
n
some absolute
ense,9
his tilldoes not establish heir
relation fmythical ime
to historical
ime nor even thatof the Mt.
Olympus,
where eus
et
al.
still
llegedly
welled
n
the
time f men, o
the
physical
peak
in
Thessaly.
At
the
least
theydid
not agree on the
actualities
f a
myth.
he treatmentsfthe
gods
n
the
Homericpoems
certainly anifestreativityr, s itperhaps eemed o thepoet(s),discov-
ery.
0
hus
it s
possible
hat
he
Muses
had a
basically
ltered
oncept
n
mind by the
time
they
nspired
he author of the second Prometheus
narrative.
Another
ifficultys the
allegation frecent ecadesthat
arlyGreek
epic was
oral-formulaic
nd
improvisatory.
his
stress as
produced
belief hat
he
composition
f the
surviving
orks
was
highly rotracted.
Also, a long-held
otion hat
heHesiodic
poems
n
particular
ack coher-
ence mplies lack ofconstraintn the mprovisations.hus someschol-
ars hold
that neither
work was a definite
ntity
ntil
t
was
written
down
much
later than the
main
compositional
ctivity). I
he
logical
conclusion
s that ne cannot ven
peak
ofdistinct
rometheus arratives
assignable
o two different
imes.
It seems
to me that
that would
carry
he
point
too far. The
early
hexameter oemsprobably
id build
upon
long,overlappingraditions,
and
we must
lso
respect
he
possibility
hat
ny given assage
of nterest
came nto tspoem ong fterhemain omposition.
2
Nonetheless,tatisti-
8
As is argued specially
y
M.
I. Finley, Myth,Memory,
nd History,
istory nd
Theory, (1965),
281-302, n
284-89.One is reminded hat
heNativeAustralians o not
connect he
Dream Time of theirmyths
o their
uotidian
ime.
9
One can also be skeptical
f
that.
For example,Theogony
7-28 say the Muses
tell
both truth
nd falsehoods
esemblingruethings. The
author(s)mighthave thought
that that poem's
own myths ell
n
the
former ategory,
ut the statement eemsto
presuppose situationwhere thersmight ot agree.
10
A good
recent iscussionn Hartmut
rbse,UntersuchungenurFunktion
er
G6tter
im homerischenpos (Berlin,
986), 1-5.Of
course,we also find ifferent
ersions f a
myth n a typical o-called
ribal ociety.
11
An
accessible
ecent reatmentf the
composition rocess
which eflectshis rend
is RobertLamberton, esiod
New Haven,
1988), 1-37.
12
The
latest chemafor
uch additionss Friedrich olmsen,
The Earliest
tages n
the
History
f
Hesiod's Text,
HarvardStudies
n Classical
Philology,
6
(1982),
1-31.
However, ome
wouldquarrelwith he extent
o whichhe takes
heoriginal exts' oher-
encetoderive romogical, s opposed opoetic, onsiderations.is paper lso raises he
issueof ustwho made the
additions.Here
one can agreewithLamberton,
oc. cit., hat
the
personality
f
Hesiod
is a tenuous onstruct.
While use that
erm,
r the
poet,
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
5/18
358
E.
F
Beall
cal study
hows
thatour own
liad,
Odyssey, heogony,nd Works nd
Days
use
language
as
if
they
coalesced
in
that
temporal rder; nd we
must assume that,forthe most part,
theydid.'3 Most authorities ow
hold that, arfrom etraying rimitivism,heoral-formulaiconventions
are used
at least
in Homer in a mannerwhich
enhances he
artistry.14
Thus
it would
appear
that uccessive
performances
ill
have
needed o
respect verall
structure
egardless
f
variations.15 ecently,moreover,
the
view thatthe
Hesiodic
poems
ack
structure
as been
strongly hal-
lenged,even thoughquestions
ertainly emain
s
to just what either
work's
oherence onstitutes.'6
n
particular,
he
Theogony's
rometheus
narrative
eemswell
ntegrated
ith
he
overall
oem
t the
evel
of
verbal
echoes ndsimilar
uances.17
Apartfrom versehere ndthere, vidently
it cannot
have been
added after
hebulk
of the work
not
to
mention he
Works
nd
Days)
came
together.
Thus
I
believe
we
may
ndeed
onsider he
twonarrativeso be
given,
historically
onstituted
ntities.
he
following
reatment
ompares heir
main stages ystematically,
nd
thendiscusses he
results
n
context.
Trickery
ersusOmniscience
r
Superior rickery?
The
Theogony egins
ts
account
s follows
vv. 535-70).
8
When
gods
and
men
originally ivided,
rometheus ivided n
ox, cheating
he
mind
of Zeus.
He
cunningly isguised
hemeatto
look
like the
skin,
hebones
like
the meat.
Zeus
who
knows
mperishable
ounsels saidmockingly
that
the divisionwas
unfair,
ut devious Prometheus
nvited
him
to
below as a figure fspeech, t does seempossible hateachpoem s theworkof several
hands or
rather, oices)
over a decade or
so.
13See
RichardJanko, omer,Hesiod
and the
Hymns Cambridge,
982).
The results
are consistent
or
everal
tatistical ests f
inguisticrchaism,
nd believe
re
nexplica-
ble on anyhypothesisf
conscious
archaizing
r of
regional
ialect
variation.
14
The Landmarks f World iterature iscussions or
henon-specialisteader re
not
incompatible ith he point; ee
M.
S.
Silk,Homer,
The liad
(Cambridge, 987), 16-26;
and Jasper
Griffin, omer,
The
OdysseyCambridge, 987),
14-23.
Among specialized
work
only
mention
good study
f that
inchpin
f the oral
theory,
he
noun-epithet
formula: aolo
Vivante,
The
Epithets n Homer
New Haven, 1982).
15
Cf.Griffin,3.
16
Most
recently, ichardHamilton,
The
Architecture
f
Hesiodic
Poetry Baltimore,
1989) gives
ntricatenalyses
f
the
aspects
f the
poemsmost
often
hought
ot to fit
n
overall tructure. ithout
laiming hat
his
contribution illfinally ettle he
matter,
ne
can suggest hat ts
prodigious
cholarship uts
the
burden
f
proof
n
anyonedenying
coherence.
17
Notwithstanding
he
appearance
that t
digresses hematically
rom
he
main
account
of
origins
f the
gods.
Hamilton, 3-40,
s for
he
most
part
persuasive
ere.
18
Since t
is
necessary
o
refer o
the texts, provide ynopses or he benefit f the
non-specialisteaderwhile pelling ut somekeyexpressions). number f reasonably
cogent omplete ranslations
nto
he
major
Western
anguages
re also
readily vailable;
e.g.,
R. M.
Frazer,
The Poems
ofHesiod
Norman,Oklahoma, 1983).
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
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Hesiod and
Myth
359
choose
his
portion.
Whilerealizing
hedeception, his mperishably
oun-
seled Zeus
chose
the nferior ortion nd planned rouble
ormen. Ever
since,men
haveburned
he ox's
bones for
he
gods
in sacrifice. ngrily
chastising rometheus's reachery,mperishablyounseledZeus ceased
sending untiring
ire to ash treesfor men.However,deceivinghim,
Prometheus
tole
fire's far-shiningplendor formen,
hiding t in the
hollow talk
of the narthex
lant.Seeinguntiring ire's ar-shining
plen-
dor among
men
again angered
high-thundering
eus,
who
insteadof
fire onstructed
n
evil
for
men.'9
The
poet
has
evidently
ade use here
of
specifically
reek
raditions:
Prometheus's
ssociationwithmen,
Zeus's epithets, se of
the moldering
pithof thenarthex o transportire,20nd perhapsrecognitionhathu-
mans
once
obtained heir
ire
rom
ightning-struck
rees.
We also find
myth
n
the
generic ense:
he
aetiological
igression oting
heorigin f
the sacrifice
nd a
long
noticed
imilarity
etween rometheus nd the
so-called
Trickster.
n
incarnations
uch as
Coyote NativeAmerica)
or
Ananse
the
spider West
Africa),
he
latter
s
also known o act
in
an
impudent
nd
crafty
ashion, epeatedly,
n
a
way
which
yields
isastrous
consequences.2'
But careful onsiderationeveals more ophisticatedasis.The no
longer
heriomorphic
rickster
rometheus
eems,
unlike
Coyote, cut
above
menthemselves.22
ore
mportantly,
he
Trickster-Highod
con-
frontation
s cast
n
sharp
relief:we
actually et
n
impression
f
clashing
principles
f
stealth-concealment
nd of
angry,
bsoluteknowledge.23
he
stress n
the stamina nd
radiance
f
the
stolenfiremakes n attack
on
Zeus's
very
divinity pparent.
inally,
while
n
general
ne
can
be
too
quick
to
invoke he
concept
of
phallic
symbol,Coyote/Ananse's
vert
19
follow he Greek texts
of
M.
L.
West, Hesiod, TheogonyOxford,1966), and
Hesiod, Works
nd Days (Oxford, 978),and
cite
his
associated
ommentariess West
I and West
I, respectively. lso, W. J.Verdenius, Hesiod, Theogony
07-616. ome
Comments n a Commentary,
nemosyne,
4 (1971), 1-10, and
A
Commentary
n
Hesiod.
Works ndDays,
vv.
1-382 Leiden,
1985),
re cited s Verdenius and Verde-
nius
I,
respectively.
20
West
, 324-25,gives omeancient eferences
o the method.
21
For a review f the theory f the Trickster,ee RobertD. Pelton,The Trickstern
West
Africa
Berkeley, 980),
1-24.
A
good
collection f actual
Coyote tories s Barry
HolstunLopez,
Giving irth o Thunder, leeping
with is Daughter
Kansas City,1977);
forAnanse,
ee
R.
S.
Rattray,
kan-Ashantiolk-Tales Oxford,
930). The classic
com-
parisonwith
Prometheus
s Karl
Kerenyi,
The Trickster
n Relation o Greek
Mythol-
ogy,
tr.
R. F.
C. Hull,
in
Paul Radin, The
TricksterLondon,1956), 173-91.
22 As is notedby JaroldRamsey,Reading the
Fire
Lincoln,Nebraska,1983),
40-43.
However,Prometheuss not
as god-like s
Zeus.
23
Apart
from eus's obvious) mniscience,
here re actually
referenceso hisanger
and 12to Prometheus's eviousnessna mere36verses, ssuminghatwe readcholou t
v.
562 with
West (Zeus never
orgot is anger), ather han
dolou as
in
mostMSS (Zeus
never orgot he deception).
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
7/18
360
E.
F
Beall
phallicism
s
wellattested. reud'scorrespondingiew
of
thehollowplant
stalk24ust might oint
to
an abstraction f that
phallicism,
ven f t is
combinedwith
he
plant'sutility
n
transporting
ire. n
short,
rometheus
may be closerto meta-TricksterhanTrickster lready nthispoem.
However,we cannot
ellhow muchofthe Theogony'sbstraction ere
is original o t and how
much
o
ts
ources,
whereas he Works
nd Days
innovatesn tsown rightvv. 47-59).Zeusengaged
n
concealment,ngry
because crooked
Prometheus
ad deceivedhim.25
e
wroughtwoe for
men. He
hid
fire,
ut
the son
of
Iapetus (Prometheus)
tole it from
Zeus of he ounsels for
men, oncealing
t
from Zeus the
hunderer's
sight
n
the narthex.
n
anger
Zeus the
cloud-gatherer
aid
that,
while
Prometheus as an unsurpassedchemer ndmight ejoiceoverthe de-
ception,
his
would be to
rejoice
ver
greatpain
to
himselfr6
nd
to men.
Insteadof
fire
Zeus continued)
he would
give
men an evil
theywould
love.
So
(he) spoke;
and
laughed
out
loud/
did)
the
father f men
and
gods. 27
In
a sophisticated
tructural
nalysis
f
the
Hesiodic Prometheus
myth, ernant
ontributes
he
nsight
hatZeus's
concealing ctivity
ere
is importantothestory's ogic. n thishe assigns mplicit hiding, .e.,
a devious
eus,
to
the
arlier
ccount swell.28
owever,
eus as trickster
has more
facets
n
the later one:
in
a
compact
thirteen erseshe hides
things
nd
then
promises orcefully,
n
effect,
o
out-trick
rometheus,
n
high
humor
ven
f
still
n
anger.
This timethe
single
reference
o
his
counsels
eems
ronic,
while
his
mockery
s
made
graphic: you rejoice
over tealing
ire
..
and
over
great ain
..
(actually,
he
atter lready
suggestswoman:
t alludes to Hector's
bitterly
umorous emark
n
the
Iliad thathisbrother as brought greatpain for ll inbringing elen
hometo Troy29). o vowthatmenwill
ove
the
evil s
surely diabolical
24
Sigmund reud, The Acquisition nd Control
fFire, n his Complete sychologi-
cal Works,
4
vols.,ed./tr.James trachey London,
1953-74),XXII, 187-93.
25
JustwhatZeus concealed
s
syntacticallyncertain.
Most scholars ead therelevant
verb's bject s themeans f ivelihoodmentioned ive erses arlier, ut nother ossibility
is thefirementioned hree erses ater.Most simply ssume hatPrometheus's eception
citedhere
s
the Theogonyvariant's windle ver
hemeat: .g.,West I, 156; Verdenius
II, 44; Vernant, 83. However, t mayonlybe a reflection
f the Trickster's haracter s
having lready cted n form t any pointwe come
n on his story.
26
This
may refer o the Greek tradition which,
ndeed, s mentioned t Theogony
521-25) thatPrometheus'siverwas devoured y an eagle daily.
27
Ho-s
ephat',,
k d' egelasse ater andron te theon e. My translation's blique line
denotes he
verse'scaesura. Given Homeric
usage,pater andron
te
theon
e is not the
grammaticalubject f ephat'.
28
Vernant, 90-92.Cf. PeterWalcot,Hesiodand theNear East (Cardiff, 966), 60,
who cites ome subtleword
order ffects
n
the
Theogony.
29
II.
3.48-50.Verdenius I, 47, notes he syntacticalonnection.
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Hesiod
and Myth
361
twist.
inally, hepoet
gives
eus the
ast
augh,
s wewould ay,
n an
impressive
erse.30
Thus, e the
differenceonsidered
ubtle
rstriking,
o far he
hrust
ofthe ater ccounts not hatZeus opposes uperior isdomer e to
Prometheuss
in the
arlier utthat
he is to
beatthe atter t
his own
game.
Fleshing ut
theBait;Nymph
r Vamp?
At the
next
tage vv.
571-84)
he
Theogony
ives etails f he
vil t
has ust
said Zeus created.
At his orders,he famous
ripple
i.e.,
Hephaestus)ashionednimage f maiden romlay.Athena ressed
her,
eiled er, arlanded
erwith lowers,nd
crowned
erwith gold
headband
n which
he
amousripple
adworked any
ntricatemages
ofmarvelous
ildbeasts
which
eemedike
iving eings.
While heres nothing
emarkable
n itself hen
myth forigins
includes
omething
s basic
s
woman,
ere he
oet oes
o
some rouble
to citedeities
n
a manner
onsistentith
heir
ompartmentalized
oles
in
thepantheon. ephaestus
s
the raftsman
od,
Athena he
goddess
f
domesticity,o that t is logical or hem ocreate female rinciple.
There
may
lsobe more
ubtle vertones:
ephaestus'shysical
nfirmity,
which endered
im
figure
ffun
n
Greek
yes,
ndAthena's
erocity.31
Homeric
models
ave
probably
eenused, pecifically
he
beautification
ofHeraby
ertain
pirits
n
order
o
deceive
eus,
nd
Hephaestus's
ork
on the
Shield
f Achilles.32
he crown
withmarvelous
eings
s
more
enigmatic.
ome cholars
ssociate
t
with
n earth
oddess.33
t s
perhaps
related
o
the mistress
f
he
nimals,
hich
was
ndeed n
aspect
f
n
earth oddessnthe ncient earEast.However,heGreeks hemselves
assimilated
his
dea
to
Artemis.34
hus t seems
o me
plausible
hat
Zeus's
image
f maiden
s
meant
s
an erotic
bject
f
ontemplation
in
henymph-like
ense, ay,
f
Homer's
omparison
f
hemaiden ausi-
caa
with
Artemis.35
n
any
ase onedoes
notfind uch vocative
magery
in
Coyote
tories.
30
Cf.
Heinz Neitzel,
Pandora
und
das
Fass, Hermes,
04 1976),
417.
I
also
suggest
the ine s enhanced y theformulaiconnectiono father f menand gods anchoring
the end
of numerous
Homeric
verses.
31
On
Hephaestus
nd
Athena,
ee
Walter
Burkert,
reekReligion,
r. John
Raffan
(Cambridge,
Mass.,
1985), 167-68
nd
139-43.
32 In
II. 14
see Heinz Neitzel,
HomerRezeption
ei
Hesiod
Bonn,
1975),20-34),
nd
II. 18 (see Verdenius
, 6),
respectively.
3
I. Trencsenyi-Waldapfel,
The Pandora
Myth, Acta Ethnographica,
(1955),
99-128,
n 105-7;
Patricia
M.
Marquardt,
Hesiod'sAmbiguous
View of
Woman, Classi-
cal Philology,
7 (1982),
283-91,
n 286-87.
34
Notwithstandingarquardt,oc.cit.;see Burkert, 49.
35
Od. 6.102-9.
See Burkert,
50-51.Other
speculations
re
of course
possible;
.g.,
Hamilton,
3.
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Hesiod
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363
snare. 42 ut the
aterpoem
has it
thus vv.83-89).After eus
completed
the
sheer nescapable nare,
he sentHermes, the swiftmessenger
f the
gods
leading
he
gift Pandora)
or
the
swift
messengereading he
gift
ofthegods, depending nhowwereada syntacticalmbiguity.43ermes
led her,
namely, o a personage dentifieds
Epimetheus whose
name,
the
original udience
willhave
noticed,
meant
afterthought ).he latter
forgot he warning
f
Prometheus
forethought ) ever o
accept a
gift rom
eus. He received t and, having he
evil,realized hathe
did.44
Two
points
are
striking. irst,Hephaestus s
replaced as
transport
agent
by
Hermes.
Possibly
he
instead
of
fire
phrase
n
the
Theogony
account erves
o
counterpose
ephaestus
o
Prometheuss
two
different
conceptions ffire-god.n any case, to use Hermes nstead s, again,a
matter f
opposing rickery
ith
rickery.
t a
more ubtle
evel
though,
Hermes s
the
generalized boundary-crosser.
s
examples,
he
leads
King
Priam
to
and
fromAchilles' ent
nd,
more
pithily,
onducts
ouls
from he
and of lifeto that of death.45 hus not
only
s
he the
ogical
choice
to takethenewcreature
o
men;
his ction
tself
s
rich
n
nuance.
For
example,
t
may
be
correct
o
say,
as do
some,
hat
Zeus
gives
the
female reature
s father
f the
bride.46
n
that ase
Hermes
helps
ndow
the nstitutionfmarriage ith we aswell s diffilculty.henuanceswere
probably nhanced
or he
original
udience
by
the
segment's yntactical
ambiguity,
hichhas
the effect f
conflating
he
characters
ermes nd
Pandora.
Second,
the
clever
etymological
ssociation
n
the relative
ttitudes
of Pro-
and
Epi-metheus
owardZeus's
gift
brings
hem from
imple
personalities
o
the evelofcharacter
ypes.Mythical
haracters
enerally
have
symbolic
ssociations
which t least scholarsbelieve
hey
an dis-
cover,buthere these re relativelybvious. t seems mplied hatthere
are
people
who
perceive
vil
n
advance and otherswho do not
but are
nonetheless
ble to
learn
from
mistakes.
omething
ike
that
point
willbe
42
So Frazer translates olon aipun amechanon.
f
one could construe olos here
as
trick r deception n the bstract, hen hiswould lready mply n overtly eceptive
Zeus. As applied o Prometheus'swn ctions hewordprobably oes mean his.However,
its mostdirect ense seemsto have been the moreconcrete bait, as in fishing.
43
The ambiguityeemsbasicto the ext; f.R. Renahan, ProgressnHesiod, review
of West II), Classical Philology, 5 (1980), 339-58,on 347. In disputing his solution
Verdenius I, 61, does notconsider heoriginal udience's ctualresponse o words t had
heard only fewversespreviously.
I
The
having nd the realizing
re
simultaneous;
ee
Verdenius I, 62, contra
West
II, 168. But thismeansbothpropertiesre important,o thatEpimetheuss a two-sided
figure.
45 11.24,
Od.
24, respectively.ee Burkert, 57-58.
46
So most recently,n effect,
enevieve
Hoffman, Pandora, le jarre et l'espoir,
Quadernidi Storia, 4 (1986), 55-89.To be sure, heclaimalready ppears nBulfinch's
Mythology,
hich
suggests hat Pandora's famous
vessel
discussed below) contained
Zeus's wedding resents.
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364
E. F.
Beall
made
more
xplicitlyater
n
thepoem.47
rue, heres
precedentf orts
for
uch
development
n
Trickster
olklore
roper.In
particular,nanse
once utup
a
person
amed
hate-to-be-contradictednd
scatteredhe
pieces obe absorbedyothers;hisswhyomany eople oday ate o
be
contradicted.48)
ut
at
the
east,
urnarrative
s more
rtistic.
Gynoid
r
FirstWoman?
Wisdom
iteraturer
Symbolism?
The Theogonyow oncludests
ccount
vv.
590-612).49 ehear hat
theprincipleustcreatedwasthe ncestressfmortal omen,oth he
race
nd ribe
f hese anefulreatures.Then
full
wenty-oneerses
areused
o
say
hat
a)
women re
ikedrones
n
a
beehive,iving
ff he
labor f
others,nd that b)
to remain
ingle
r
marryomes
own o a
choice etween
ying
lone
with
ne's
nheritance
tolen
y
kinsmen,
nd
life
f
t best
lternatingood
nd
evil
with
woman.
n
contrast,
n
the
most
amous ortion
f the
myth
n
either
version,
Works
nd
Days
90-104 ell
us
this.
As
v.
89
states, pimetheus
new
e had
an
evil;
or
beforehis ime,menwere ar romrudgeryndpain, ut hewoman
opened
some)
jar, 5 ispersed
ts
contents,
nd
wrought
oefor
men.
A
spirit
amed
lpis
usually
ranslated
Hope, lternatively
Expecta-
tion 52)
lone
id
not
ly
utbefore
t
closed, y
will fZeus
if
disputed
verse
s
genuine). ow
vils oam
mong
men
y
and nd
by
ea;
diseases
come
utonomouslyy day
and
by night,
ilently
ecause eus of
the
counsels emovedheir
oices.
In
an article ublished
n
this
ournal
ver our
ecades
go,
Frederick
Teggartlreadybservedhat heTheogony'semalerincipledoesnoth-
47
Vv. 293-97
compare he
strengthsndfailings f he who
plans n advance,he
who
at least
istens
o
good advice, nd he who
does neither.
Walcot,62,suggests connection
between he twopassages,
lthough
he
and most
others
ake Epimetheus o be
simply
stupid. That
would be the latter'sreputation n
later Greece,
and a segment n the
Theogony's
heogony roper lreadycalls him
wrong-headed.
owever, ome have
suspected
nterpolation. nother iew hathe is
two-sided t least n
the Works ndDays
is that fWilliam
Berg, Pandora:Pathology fa
CreationMyth,
abula, 17 1976),
25.
48
As relayed y Rattray, 06-9, nd by Pelton, 5-27.
49Apart
from moral.
Theogony
13-16
and
Works
nd Days
105
are to the
effect
thatone
cannot
fool
Zeus.
Neither specially alls
for
omment.
50
Perhaps
he mplications both
he general nd theparticular
f women; f.
Nicole
Loraux, Sur la Race
des femmes t quelques-unes
e
ses
tribus,
Arethusa,
1
(1978),
43-87. West
I,
329-30,
denies the
authenticityf
the
verse.
However,
his reasons
are
contingentn its
beingrepetitive,nd I disagree
hat hat
s
an
issue; cf. Verdenius, 8.
s The reason
we now speak,
rather, fPandora's box is that
Erasmus onfused
he
stories
f
Pandora's
pithos nd
Psyche's yxis; ee Dora and Erwin
Panofsky, andora's
Box (2nd ed.,Kingsport, ennessee, 962), 14-26.
52
Hope may unduly mport
hristian
onnotations;
ee
mostrecently aldis
Lei-
nieks, Elpis
in
Hesiod, Works
nd
Days 96,
Philologus,
28
1984), 1-8, n
8.
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Hesiod
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Myth
365
ing, n contrast
o the other's
oncrete ction
subjectingmen
to
evil.53
Alternatively,
e may put
the
structural
imilarities
nd differences
e-
tween
the two
narrative egments
n
the followingway.
In
the
earlier
account hediscoursemodemythctually ollapses nfavor f thediffer-
ent genre
f maxims.
The
principle
ephaestushas
brought ut to
show
gods
and
men does
not
participate
n a story bout
anthropomorphic
characters
with
personalities
ut
s
simply
aken
s occasionto
espouse
cracker-barrel
isogyny
f the sort
endemic
o
male-only
atherings f
many imes
nd places.
4
In
the
other ccount
somewhat
ifferent
reak-
down
has
already
aken
lace
at a
prior tage:
he
mbiguity
boutwhether
Hermesor
Pandora
is of
the
gods
and
the shift o an
etymological
focus. t maybe that hese ollaboratedo distract heoriginal udience's
attention,
hus
allowing
he
poet
to
smuggle
n
something
ew. In
any
case,
as has
long
been
recognized,
he Works nd
Days segment
erewas
originally different
yth.
t musthave
been
familiar,
ince
knowledge
of
the
ar's provenance
s assumed.55
We need
not
attempt
econstruction
f the details
of
the
prior ar
narrative
o see
that
this time
the
poet
has resorted
o
an archetypal
mythical
orm
n
order
o
develop
hefemale
rinciple
nd that
his treat-
mentof it is rich n symbolism.t is common n world folklore or a
woman
often
irst
Woman
herself)
o act
foolishly
nd
bring
n
some
Ur-calamity.56
ne can
certainly peculate
hat
ome
specifically
reek
development
f he
heme, erhaps
lready
nvolving
andora,
onstituted
the
prior
narrative.57
n
any
case,emergence
rom n earthenware
essel,
also
a common
motif,
eems
to stand
for transformation
f
the
world,
notnecessarily
he pecific
ne of
imple
ctivation
f hevessel's
ontents.
(For
example, Hopi
myth
ssigns
he
origin
f
the
tribe
o
an
originally
53 Frederick
.Teggart,
The
Argument
f Hesiod's
Works nd
Days,
JHI,
8
(1947),
45-77,on
48-50,
although e
calls thefirst
rinciple
Pandora
and believes
he
second
was originally
omeone
lse.
54 t is
easy to
believe hat
uch a
locus was the
smithy's hop
of Works
nd
Days
493
ffwhich,
o
be sure, aythat
you should
findwork
to
do
rather han congregate
here
during
he slack
wintereason.
55 his hasbeenunderstoodt least ince1913;see A. S. F. Gow, ElpisandPandora
in Hesiod's Works
nd
Days,
in
Essays
nd Studies
Presented
o William
Ridgeway,
d.
E. C. Quiggin Freeport,
N.Y., 1966),
99-109,
on 99-100.
56
One listof
examples s
Robert
Briffault,
he Mothers,
vols. New
York, 1927),
I,
571.
Cf. Trencsenyi-Waldapfel,
15-16.
Pandora
can be read
as
attemptingo
get the
id
back
on the
ar but too
late,
by willof Zeus
(if
v. 99 is genuine);
f.
Verdenius I,
71.
A
comparable
xample
rom heBlackfeet
f
Montana
s Ramsey, -9)
First
Woman
wishing
to undo
a
wager
whichhas originated
eath,but
Old Man saying
hat he aw
is
now
fixed.
5 There is archaeological videnceof pictorialrepresentationf a vesselwitha
chthonic
arth
goddess.
To
be
sure,
ther
peculations
or he
prior
narrative
bound,
not
necessarily
nvolving
andora;e.g.,
Verdenius
I, 64.
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366
E. E
Beall
non-Hopiperson
scaping
from jug
in
which
he had been born.)58
he
import
f the devoicing
f
the
evils
s much
discussed.59
nd
then here
is the
enigmaticetention
fElpis
n
the ar.The meaning
ere
dmittedly
turns n a certain ispute ver whether his ays sheis kept mprisoned
awayfrom
men
or is what remains
omen.60
But if we
accept
the atter
reading,
s seems
mostnatural,
hen s
a result
f
the
myth's ctions
man
is
now an elpidic
being. 961
n
thisconnection ome
suggest
hat still
another
tymological
onnection s meant:
Men no
longer
have
fore-
thought
withPrometheus,
ut
only
fore-seeming
prosdokia,ynony-
mous
with lpis
t least
to the aterGreeks).62 citation
f elpis ater n
the poem
suggests
hat
t
amounts o
self-deception.63erhaps
the myth
givestheorigin f Sartre's
mauvaisfoi.4
In any case, in the accountof
theWorks
nd
Days
theend
result
f
Prometheus'shenanigans
s
highly
nuanced.
ReligiousAmalgamation
r Ethical Abstraction?
How do
these
Prometheus
arratives
it nto ultural
istory? iscus-
sions
of the
role have
often
een thisas a matter
f
prefiguring
hose
componentsf aterculturewhoseemotive spect s predominant,uch
as art
or
systematized
eligion.
As observed
bove,
other ections f
the
Theogonyi.e.,
creation
myth) re sometimes
hought
o
anticipatemore
academic
matters
Presocratic
hilosophy).
et
Hans-Georg
Gadamer,
for
xample,
iewsHesiod's
Prometheus
n relation o the
tragic figure
of theclassical
Athenian
rama
Prometheus ound attributedo
Aeschy-
lus.65 thers ompare
with he
Eden
narrative f
original
in n
Genesis,66
58
Relayed by H. R. Voth,The Traditions f the Hopi, Field ColumbianMuseum
Anthropological
eries,
VIII
(Chicago,
1905), 155-56.
59Most recently
y
Leinieks,
-7.
However,
ts eemsdifficult
o
determine
hatZeus's
action
meanswithout
nowing
ts time ndplace
withrespect
oPandora's, nd
on
that
point he text
s silent.
60
Represented,or xample,
yVerdenius
I, 66-70,
ndWest I, 169-70,
espectively.
The
first osition
s dependent
n reading
he ar's contents s
themselvesvil, nd
it as
a
prison,
ut this
has
long
been
disputed.
or recent
lternatives,
ee Neitzel, Pandora
und
das Fass;
and E.
F.
Beall,
The Contents
f Hesiod's
Pandora
Jar:Erga 94-98,
Hermes,
117
1989),
227-30.
61
In the terms f SiminiaNoica, La bofte e Pandoreet L'ambiguite'de l'elpis,
Platon,
36
(1984),
100-124,
n 116-18.
62
See Hermann
urck, andora und
Eva (Weimar,
931),9-10; Richard
Onians,The
Origins
f European
ThoughtCambridge,
951),404.
63
Namely,many
men
rely n
empty lpiswhen
hey ack
the meansof
ivelihood,
instead f working
vv.
498-501).
6
n the construal
f Walter
Kaufmann,
xistentialism
rom Dostoevsky
o Sartre
(Cleveland,
1956),
222.
65 Hans-Georg
Gadamer, Prometheus
nddie Tragodieder Kultur,
n his
Kleine
Schriften, vols. Tubingen, 967-72), I, 64-74. Cf. Blumenberg,99-326.
The more ophisticated
reatmentsssignmyths
where
vil/sin xistsprior
o man
to
one
type;
Adam-Eve
to another.
ee,
e.g.,
Paul
Ricoeur,
The
Symbolism
f
Evil,
tr.
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14/18
Hesiod
and
Myth
367
exploiting
parallel
etween
andora
nd Eve which
as
beennoticed
since ncient
imes.67
As to
this,
t s
proper
o
relate heTheogony's
rometheus
oreligion.
The narrativehereannot eally eisolated romtsprimordialetting
of he rigins
fgods
nd
theirmutilations
fone nother
hichnforms
the overall oem.
For Prometheus
s treated
s one
of theTitans,
he
group f
beingsntermediate
etween
he
primeval
rinciples
fearth,
Eros,etc.,
which
pawned
hem nd
theOlympian
ods
who came
to
vanquish
hem.
is story
splaced
mmediately
fter he heogony
rop-
er's isting
fhim
nd some fthe thers,
nd hisdefeat
s one
example
among
thers
f Zeus's conquest
f them.68
hus
theconfrontation
f
principlesf tealth ndangry isdom oted arliers inseparablerom
theology
r something
ike
t. It is
noteworthy
ere
hat,
or
ll our
account's reater
tress
n
underlying
tructure,
oyote
toriesre ompa-
rable
nsofar
s Native
Americans
ypically
eel
hat
iving
uch narra-
tive ut
of
context istorts
t.69
But
the
Works
nd
Days
narrative
s
another
matter.
hile t can
be
interpreted
n
religious
erms,
ay,by
assigning
he
origin
f
human
autonomy
is
a
vis the
gods
to Pandora's
ct,70
tnonethelessrings
certainmoral lose o the urface:fyou Prometheus)ttemptodeceive
the world's
tructure
Zeus),
t will
ust
reflect
our
pproach
with
vengeanceZeus
out-tricks
rometheus).pecifically,
he
giving
f ife
itself
ill
become
eceptivePandora
ia
Hermes),
nd
you
will
nd
n
self-deception
Elpis)
even
s eviloverwhelms
ou.71
ou
can
earn
his
lesson Epimetheus).
lso,
he ontext
ssists
n
abstracting
hisogic.
n
the
ctual
oem
henarrative
ollows
realisticiscussion
f
working
or
a
living,
.e.,
different
enre.
t
begins
s
if twill
xplain
men's
ot,
nd
it is followedytwoother iscretelyresentedarrativeshichmany
scholarsto
be
sure,while
ebatingetails)
ee
as
offering
essons
n
their
own
ways, reparatory
o the
main idactic
ortion
fthe
poem.72
hat
is
to
say,
he econd
rometheusccount
oes
ppear
o
anticipate
ome-
thing
cademic,
ssentially
n
thedomain
fethical
hilosophy.
It is
instructive
o
compare
ith
myth
latowould
ater
ut
n the
mouth
f he sophist
hilosopher
rotagoras.
o
besure,
he
articular
logic
hat deception erpetuates
tself'
oes
not
occur
here
although
EmersonBuchanan
New
York,
1967), 175-210,
32-78;
ormorerecently,
go
Bianchi,
Prometeo,
rfeo, damo
Rome,
1976),
55-70.
67
Among
uthors
ited
here,
ee
Turck;
Trencsenyi-Waldapfel,
07;
O'Brien.
68
See
Ricoeur,
206-10;
or
for hepoetic
ntegration
amilton,
3-40.
69
Some
tribes
venbelieve
hat
elling
oyote
tories
ut
of context
psets
hecourse
of
the universe;
ee Barre
Toelken,
The
Dynamics
f
Folklore Boston,1979),
283-84.
70
See,
e.g.,
Blumenberg,
2.
71
Assumingwe takeappropriate ositions n thecontroversiesoted bove.
72
West
I and
Verdenius
I
give
numerous
eferences
oncerning
he
'five aces
of
men
and
thehawk-nightingale
able
t the appropriate
ocations.
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
15/18
368
E.
F.
Beall
we
find
t
implicit
lsewhere
n
European
culture.)73
onetheless, rota-
goras s made to begin speech
n the
eachability
fvirtuewith mythos,
while
distinguishing
his nd
logos argument )
n
places
as
each useful
in its respective ay.
Assigned o createmortal
beings, rometheus nd
Epimetheus greed
the
atter
would allot them heir
haracteristics. e
failed o reserve
ome
good qualities
or
men while reating he animals.
So
Prometheus
tole fire nd craft
nowledge
ormen from
Hephaestus
and
Athena.
Fearing
for
heir
urvival,
eus then
gave
them
hameand
justicevia Hermes, nsuring
hese
o
all whereas
rometheus ad allotted
crafts
ndividually.
his s
why
mentake dvice
on
virtues
rom
veryone
buton crafts nly
from ew.
Arguments
bout Athenian
iews
ndprac-
ticeson virtue
hen
follow.74
We notice
mmediately
hat the
second Hesiodic
and Protagorean
variations
n the theme
f' Prometheus ave somemotifs
n
common
(such as Epimetheus ackingforesight,airing
Hephaestus
nd
Athena,
Zeus
and
Hermes).
But the
mportantoint
s
their
ommon
uxtaposition
of
differentypes
f
discourse, ndicating onceptualization
f
each
type
as
an
entity
n and of itself. he
fiveraces of men narrative
which
followsnthe WorksndDays is even stated obe another ogos with
respect
o its antecedent.
he
understanding
f the term
ogos tself,
o
encompass
oth
narratives,
s
different,75
nd Plato
may
of
course ntend
irony
n
having
the
much
despised Sophism peak
as
if
mythwere as
useful
s
logical argumentation.76lso, Protagoras
s said
to
make his
pointdirectly,
hereas
withHesiod
the moral
notedabove remains e-
neath
the
surface.
Yet
the
ability
o see
myth
s one
discoursetype
among
others eems
ommon o both ases.
Giventhe
vagaries
fartistic
compositionwe cannotbe precise n justhow the Works nd Days au-
thor(s) graspedmyth bstractly.77
ut
surely
t
is
fairto
say
that
the
treatment
anifests
ythology,
ot
ust mythography.78
73 Notably
n
Wagner's Ring cycle.
n
Das Rheingold he
haracter ith Trickster-
likerole Loge) persuadesheHigh
God
(Wotan)
o employ tealth
o secure heNibelung's
ring,
n thegroundshat he
atter
ad
already tolen hegold to
fashiont. Heretooruin
ensues,
t the
cycle's
nd.
74
The
myth roper s at Plato, Protagoras
20C-323A, he speech
at 320C-328D. A
recent ommentary
s
Patrick oby, ocrates
nd the ophistic nlightenmentLewisburg,
Pennsylvania, 987),53-70.
75 Most translate ogon t Works nd
Days 106 as story, ollowing
omericusage
with
he
plural ogoi.
But the
ucceeding
ccount
f
entire roups
fmen,not ndividuals,
is not a story
n
the
normal ense, ven f Hesiod does not yetmean
argument s does
Plato.
I
suggest discourse.
76
Cf. Blumenberg,
28-35.
I
doubt
we can tell whereHesiod or the earliestPresocratics
tood in the gray
area between
heer
poetic nspiration nd
the methodical etting
f
prior oncepts
o
communicativeiscourse. hus
we
cannot
mpute,
or
xample,
Vernant's nalysis f
the
Prometheusmythnto hree iscreteevelsformal,emantic,ocial-cultural)oany ctual
consciousness
t
the time.
78
At least
with
respect
o
the
Prometheus
myth
tself nd
probably
more.
Cook, 54,
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Hesiod and Myth
369
At the same time,however, here s a certain ontrary rend
n the
matter fwoman.The developmentrom heTheogonyrometheus
arra-
tive to that
of
the
Works nd
Days
is
in
the direction f
an essentially
mystical iewof woman s problematicntity. he earlier oem'smisog-
yny s replaced yone which, lthough
ess crudeon the urface, onethe-
less conceives
of woman as monstrous
n
a manner pproaching he
psycho-analyticallyrimordial.
oth
thatHesiodic scholarshipwhich s
feminist
n
orientation
nd thatwhich ees the Hesiodic ttitude
oward
women as
relatively enign
have
tended
toward the
common
view of
essentialdentity
fthe wo ccounts.79
owever,
he ater
ne's diabolical
detail
n
fleshing
ut the female
rinciple,
he
perversion
f thechthonic
image Pandora, andthefateful utcome fher ctiongo rather eyond
the view
thatwomen
re like drones
n
a beehive.
nstead,
he
magery
suggests orothy
Dinnerstein's
Dirty
Goddess
psychological
oncept,
whereby
e
experience
oman
s awesome ven
as we
reject
her
body.80
Her
allegedproblematic
ature
ffectively
ecomes
religion
n
the
Works
and
Days.
Presumably
he
author(s)
f the
ater
Hesiodic
poem
wished
o
com-
pose
a
piece
more relevant
o
daily
ife
n
the small scale
agricultural
settingfBoeotia nthe ateeighth r early eventh enturies
.C.,
than
had
been theearlier.
till,
he atter's
tility
s a
poetic
model
was
recog-
nized,perhaps
n
the
manner hat
he
Odyssey'suthor(s)had viewed
he
Iliad.8 We
may speculate
hat
retrenchmentnto a
purer
form f
myth
in
denigrating
omen was occasioned
by
the latter
having
become
an
easy target
n
agricultural
ircleswith
the
onset
of
male-oriented
low
techniques
omecenturies
reviously.
2
Perhaps
lso an increased
opula-
tionwas seen
as a
threat,83
nd as conditioned
y
femalewantonness.
n
backhandedlyllowsthat
the HesiodicPrometheus
myth s allegorized,
while laim-
ingthatmost fthetext f
theHesiodicpoems
remains n the Neolithic phase
ofmyth.
However, ne maydoubt ny
urningn and
off f elf-consciousnessithin
n artistically
integrated
oem.
'9
Most prominentlymong
recentwork,despite
heir
isagreements:
inda
S. Suss-
man, Workers
ndDrones: Labor, dleness
nd Gender
DefinitionnHesiod's Beehive,
Arethusa,
11 (1978), 27-41; Marquardt;
Jean Rudhardt,
Pandora, Hesiode
et les
femmes, Museumelveticum,2 (1986),231-46.Marylin . Arthur,Cultural trategies
in Hesiod's
Theogony: aw, Family, Society,
Arethusa,
5 (1982), 63-81, on 74-75,
differentiates
hem bit
more.
80
DorothyDinnerstein, he
Mermaid
nd
theMinotaur New York, 1976),
124-56.
81
As evidenced y linguistic
ependences,
he Works nd Days
is verymuch aware
of all threeearlierpoems.
Perhaps ts
author(s) also profited rom
certain rtistic
self-consciousnessomerists
ave noticed
n the Odyssey.
82
So
Thalia
PhilliesHowe, Linear
B
and Hesiod's
Breadwinners, ransactions
f
theAmerican
hilological ssociation, 9
(1958), 44-65,
on 62-63.
83
However, hattherewas objectively crisis s unproven. Nor can thisbe shown
from urpoem
tself;
ee,
.g.,ErnestWill,
Hesiode: CriseAgraire? u
reculde
'aristocra-
tie?,
Revue des Etudes
Grecques,
8
(1965),
542-56.)
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8/16/2019 Hesiod's Prometheus as a Myth
17/18
370
E.
F.
Beall
any
vent
he rend etween
he
poems
s
certainly
onsistentithGreek
history:
fter
omerhad at
leastbeenwilling
o allotpersonality
o
an
Andromacher Penelope,lassicalAthens
ecame highly
exist
oci-
ety.84
or
all that, heagricultural ilieuwill haverequired ositive
appraisal
f
straightforwardness
s compared
ith rickery
n
personal
relations.
urely
his
s what roduced
nd colored
he mployment
f
Prometheus-Zeus
yth
n a
fundamentally
thical
ontext.
FromMyth
o Sociology?
The
above
discussion
oints
o a development
till ssentially ithin
myth, hich, owever, ightlso prefacemovementwayfrommyth,
toward
he
more iteral
modes f
representing
heworldwhichhe
ater
Greeks
onceived.
ne can
certainly
e
suspicious
f he deathat
Greek
myth
led to philosophy
n
any
continuous
ay,
ut nother
ossible
model
s
myth's
nadequacy
ecoming
o manifest
s tonecessitate
eeking
alternatives.
Consider
he
respective
ontexts
f
the
econd rometheus
arrative
and
the
parallel
dam-Eve
tory.
he
atter oes
ead
continuously
o
somethingore iteral, ithinheOld Testamenttself:t s integrated
into
purported
istory,
rom
he
mmediately
ucceeding
ain-Abel
story
own
o
the
uthor's ecent
ast.85
n
contrast,
heGreek arrative
is
followed y
another
ogos
bout
five aces.
t is the atter
which
begins
with primordial
ituation,oughly
rders
ther
enerations
f
men hronologically,
nd ends
with
he
poet's uotidian
resent/future.
Thus,
notwithstanding
tendency
o see t
as
myth
n the
ame ense
as
its
antecedent,
ts
treatment
f
events
n
time
s different
rom he
latter'soncegods cted;nowwe havedisease. t actuallyeads s if
therewere
hree
ven arlier
times
f
gods
beforeheone
where hey
intervened
n
Homer's attlefields,
entioned
ust
prior
o
the
present
time f
men. 86t seems
ntermediate
etween
myth
nd a
theory
f
social
evelopment
hich,
ad t
been
historically
ealized
ike henatural
science
he
earliest resocraticsnitiated,
ould
not
havebeen
spe-
cially mpirically
riented.
84
A
review
f the relevant
iteratures PhyllisCulham, Ten Years After omeroy:
Studies
f the mage
and Reality f
Women
n
Antiquity,
elios,
13.2
1986),
9-30.
85
If
the
o-called
Documentary
ypothesiss
valid
n something
ike ts
classicform,
then he
ssimilation
o a
putative
istoryown hrough
heentrance
ntoCanaan
which
surely
as some actual
historical asis) had already
akenplace
a few
hundred
ears
fter
that,
till ome hundreds
f
yearsprior
o
redaction
f the Pentateuch
s we
nowhave t.
Of
course ll this
s
controversial.
non-dogmaticnd
accessible,
f
cursory
eference
s
JohnBright,
History
f srael (3rd
ed.,
Philadelphia,
981),
67-74.
86 Thus Finley,
86-87, nd
Rowe, 132-34,
re
incorrectn saying
hat
his
narrative
contains o time lementwhatever.Whileonemight eny t the tatus f history ince
it has deviations
rom hronological
rder,
s
quite symbolic,
nd
is less critical
han
Herodotus,
t
simply
s not myth
n the
generic
enseof concrete
torywith
haracters.
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Hesiod nd Myth
371
My suggestion
ere s that hefailure o
integrate
he
Prometheus
narrativetselfnto ny ype
f
quasi-historical
arratives related o ts
tendencyo transcendstory, wherehigh egreef ymbolismnds nconflatingandora ndHermes nd nstressingtymology.rue, ven
afterhat
heneed
f
concrete
llustrationhat
pimetheusnew ehad
an
evil
may
dictate
omething
ike the
ar
story
he
poet mports o
conclude
is account.
erhaps, owever,
hat
xhausts
he
momentum,
necessitatingnentirelyewmode
fdiscourse
n
order
o continuehe
poem
tself.
Hans
Blumenbergpeculates
hat he
nigmatic
aying
f he
o-called
first hilosopherhales centuryr o ater,allthingsrefull fgods,
is a reductio
d absurdum
f
myth.87owever,
ndto
speak rovisionally
(the
matter
might
e
exploredlsewhere),
he Worksnd
Days may
l-
ready ring
heTrickster
ale othe
point
f
requiring
ewmeans
f
more
is to
be
said.
Washington,
.C.*
87
As one ofa number f attemptso bringmyth o an end he notes during he
course
of his book; Blumenberg,
5-26.
*
721 6th Street, .E.,
Apt.
B, Washington,
.C.
20003.