First Steps

This Blog will serve as a jumping off point for further research into the significance of the myth of Prometheus. I am starting this blog as part of a project for one of my classes at Pacifica Graduate Institute. For the next several weeks I will be focused on gathering as much insight as possible into the message of the Prometheus myth. Those who have not heard of Prometheus
can find a good heal of information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus .

According to Edward F. Edinger, the Author of Ego and Archetype, Prometheus is a symbol of humankind's rise to consciousness. This myth is common in many cultures and traditions. I recall hearing a Native American tale in which a raven stole knowledge of fire from the gods and told of it to men only to be punished by angry powers. Edinger also sites the tale of Adam and Eve as representative of the same message. When the first humans eat of the tree of knowledge they are expelled from Eden and made to work the earth in order to live. Death, disease and war fall upon them in the following books of the Bible.

It seems that what is represented in these stories is a common event for all people and cultures, a rise to consciousness. As we progress from childhood to adulthood we undergo several psychological changes. We become morally conscious subjects in the world, no longer do we live in the paradise of mothers arms, we must make our own way in the world eventually. Edinger would have it that this is what the above myths are explaining to us. We must rebel against the powers that be in order to achieve these new states of mind.