Greek Mythology I - Prometheus and Pandora

Prometheus "Forethought"

In Greek Mythology - after Zeus rebelled against the Titans, overthrew them, and established divinity as the rulers of the worlds - Prometheus was still son of a Titan - Gaia and Uranus were his grandparents.

It was he who saw beyond the animals of the earth, the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, to something meant for more - the seed of civilization.  He dug deep into the earth and molded mankind out of clay - he took the best and the worst parts of nature, of the raw and untamed nature of the beasts and the fierce drive of survival into his creation.  Athene, marveling at his craftiness, lent a speck of divinity to illuminate this creation and elevate mankind to an immortal soul.

While the gods frolicked in Olympus, Prometheus taught mankind the talents of language and logic, martial and mathematical arts, medicinal remedies and poetic expression.  Prometheus, in Greek Mythology, was the supernatural father of mankind.  He gave all his effort and shared all his knowledge - and for this he would be eternally punished.

When the gods took notice of these men that Prometheus had created, Zeus sought a way to take advantage, but Prometheus defended his creation.  Zeus then denied them fire.  Prometheus took a stalk of pithy fennel and held it to the chariot of the sun until it was ablaze and then descended to gift it to mankind.  When Zeus saw the smoke rising, he was less than pleased.  Prometheus had betrayed the gods in favor of mankind.

Thus did Zeus plot the punishment of Prometheus and man alike.

Pandora.  Forged by the fire-god Hephaestus, gowned and garlanded by Athene, marked with mischief by Hermes, charmed in beauty by Aphrodite, dazzled in misfortune by Zeus himself, thus was formed the first woman, Pandora - "she who has gifts from all."

She beguiled Prometheus's brother, Epimetheus "afterthought", who was not so quick-witted as Prometheus.  Despite Prometheus's warnings, Epimetheus gladly accepted Pandora, beguiled by her beauty and charm and mystery.  Once accepted, she immediately opened her box and unleashed all manner of calamity on the world - madness, disease, despair, pestilence, violence, jealousy, fury, death... what was open and done could not be undone.  There was one glimmering good thing left at the bottom of the box - Hope - but she shut the lid before it could escape.

Then Zeus turned his fury to Prometheus.

A punishment devised by Cratos and Bia "Force and Violence", servants to Hephaestus, Prometheus was dragged to the Scythian wastes and chained him to the height of the Caucasus mountaintop, where a great eagle would soar down, tear out out his liver and devour it.  The eagle would then fly away and his liver would regrow so that he could relive the same torture every day - for all eternity.
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In this creation myth, man is made from clay by a rebel Titan-god, who is later punished for his intervention.  (Fire being the straw that broke the camel's back).  Woman, Pandora in this case, was used as the cause of the release of evil in the world. Sound familiar, Eve?

Are there ties between Prometheus and Lucifer - both cast off servants of the ruling divinity who intervened with mankind?  Perhaps.  But Prometheus aimed to educate men, who he created in secret.  Lucifer aimed to deceive man out of jealousy and revenge against his creator. 

Was Pandora's box another parable, as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil?  Was opening a box the same as eating an apple?  Pandora waited for Epimetheus to accept her before opening her box.  Eve, after first tasting, offered the forbidden fruit to Adam.  In both cases, the female was the bringer of calamity and the male was duped by her beauty and charm. 

Obviously, in history, mythological or theological, women are always to blame.  This is what happens when men write everything.  Especially old men in a patriarchal society.  We can all acknowledge that.  However, one cannot deny that there is a hint of truth - not to women being to blame (that's ridiculous) - but that men are easily deceived and duped by women.  And some women can destroy everything and prey upon the weakness of men.  This seems to me a theme of humanity's history.

Epimetheus should've listened to his brother, who was looking out, not only for him, but for all humanity.  Adam should've been a man and warned Eve what God had told him.  At least Prometheus tried to warn his brother.  Adam just stood by and watched Eve be deceived, watched her eat the forbidden fruit.  Rather than warn her what he had been told, he ate the fruit, too!!  And when God came thundering into the Garden - he tried to blame it on Eve (and God!).  "The woman YOU made me ate the fruit and gave it to me."  Damn....   Talk about lack of accountability.

Pandora or Eve, either did not ask for what they were given.  They were instruments of divinity used to punish mankind.  And men blamed the women instead of the gods.

Literature III - Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics is not a term one hears often, if ever.  Hermes was the Greek messenger of the gods, whose task was to make known to human intelligence the utterances of the divine.  Ironically enough, he was also the patron of liars.  Quick not just on his winged feet, but with his witty cunning.  Thus, this word, hermeneutics (literal translation: interpretation) is the realm of how meaning is communicated and how we make sense of it once it is.

The first question is where the meaning is located.  Phenomenology (a philosophical school of thought) says meaning comes from the mind that conceives the poetry/literature/art.  Practical Criticism (and fundamentalist religion) say meaning is embedded in the text itself (as in the Bible). Or is meaning something that the readers/viewers/audience decide upon together - like juries or social groups?

Is there a single meaning or as many as their are minds that perceive it?  Can it change as times change?  As social values change?

There's an example given of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and understanding it.  If you had a choice to go forward or backward: Forward all the way into the future, when every analysis and critique has been written throughout the ages on the ideas and views and extrapolations of Hamlet... or backward, back in time to 1601, to the very first production and performance of Hamlet in Elizabethan England at the Globe Theatre on the London South Bank - before anyone had seen it... which would you choose?

People usually always choose to go back and see the original.  Why is this?

In the 1800s and 1900s, German commentators debated whether Biblical texts were to be taken literally or figuratively, or whether their meanings were debatable.  Back in those days and earlier, living or acting out one's interpretation of the Bible could land one in a dungeon or burning at the stake.

One puzzle is the 'Hermeneutic Circle'.  Can you know a text as a whole if you don't understand all the parts?  Can you understand a part if you don't know the whole of it?  What if the author dies before finishing the story - can the meaning ever be known?

Another paradox, posed by Roland Barthes, is first vs second reading.  Upon first reading we follow the 'hermeneutic code' - paying attention to what happens next, in relation to what came before, gathering data without really knowing what will be important later and what won't.  The second and consequent readings we follow the 'symbolic code' - situational attention to background and side details we overlooked before, with an overarching knowledge of the big picture and how things fit into it all.

It is one thing to read literature, and another entirely to understand it.

(this is a paraphrasing of chapter 3 of 50 Literature Ideas by John Sutherland)