Neither Good Nor Bad: How Prometheus Stole Fire for Humankind

by Lowell Uda

cleaver Prometheus must help them divide the deer, and tell them which parts to leave for the gods and which parts to take for themselves."

  "Hnmm," said Prometheus. "That is not a bad idea--if Zeus is really that angry."

  Prometheus took both the carcass and the skin from the men he had created, and asked for the guts. Then he split the skin in half and made two bags. The carcass he stripped first of fat, then of lean meat, until only the bones were left. He put all the bones in one bag and covered them with fat. He put the lean meat in the other bag and covered it with guts. Then, taking the loaded, dripping bags in his hands, he left for Mount Olympus, the home of the gods.

  4

  "Yes!" roared Zeus, his voice echoing through the halls of Olympus. "Show him in, so I can get him with one of my thunderbolts!"

  "A-a-all r-r-right," said Hephaistos. "Her-her-her--"

  "Hermes!" roared Zeus.

  Hermes, another of Zeus' sons, and Zeus' messenger, appeared in the doorway with Prometheus. Prometheus held the two loaded, dripping deerskin bags before him. Hermes shoved Prometheus into the council hall.

  "Traitor!" shouted Zeus. "Culprit!" He picked up a thunderbolt from beside his throne of black marble and gold.

  "0 Zeus," said Prometheus, "God of Heaven, all mighty King of Olympus! I come before you on a sacred errand for the men I have created." The flames of the council hall fire flickered on the walls, and in the north doorway flickered the fires of Hephaistos' workshop.

  "Damn you," said Zeus, raising the thunderbolt slowly over his mighty head. "Damn you, damn you..."

  On the left side of the hall sat Athena on her silver throne. She was weaving a basket. Athena said, disapprovingly, "Father...I think you ought to listen to what Prometheus has to say before you do anything rash. After all, he did help you to win your throne."

  "Ye-ye-ye-yes," said Hephaistos , "Be na-na-not...lllllllike---"

  "Shut up, you stuttering, blustering idiot!" said Zeus. He raised the thunderbolt slowly over his head again.

  "O Zeus!" said Prometheus. "The men I have created fear the Almighty Zeus! They cower in their dark, cold caves. At night, when there is neither fire nor light--when there is no warmth--they huddle together in their dark, cold caves. And when the clouds of Zeus roll darkly overhead, and the voice of Zeus thunders loud and long, they kneel hard floors of their dark, cold caves. They are not like gods, 0 Zeus, but like animals! All fear the power of Great Zeus!" The flames of the council hall fire flickered on the walls, beautifully, hauntingly.

  "So they are afraid of me," said Zeus. He lowered his thunderbolt.

  "All fear the power of Great Zeus!" said Prometheus. "And they send me on this sacred errand. I have here two bags containing portions of a deer they slew. They wanted to make sacrifice to the Great and Mighty Zeus--'to appease him'--and they asked me to help them decide which portions to keep for themselves and which portions to leave for the Almighty. But no one but Zeus can decide that, and that's why I am here."

  Chuckling, the pleased Zeus laid down his thunderbolt. "So they want to make sacrifice to me...

  Prometheus brought the bags forward. "You must choose...."

  Zeus looked into one bag. "Ugh! Guts!" he said. "I don't want guts." He looked into the other bag. "Hmm," he said, "Hmnm! Fat...I'll take this bag."

  Prometheus laid the bag down carefully. "I have one more thing to ask," he said. "In order for the men I have created to sacrifice properly, they must have fire. Then they can burn your portion, and the smoke will ascend to heaven."

  "Fire!" said Zeus. "No! They can not have fire!" Anger rose in him.

  "Remember," said Prometheus, "I have helped you in the past. You owe me--"

  "I--owe--you--nothing!" said Zeus.

  "I created men," said Prometheus, "--out of mud. I have taught them to make and do a number of things. But I cannot teach them anything more without fire. They must have fire. If you are a just god--if you are at all grateful for the help I gave you in defeating Old Cronos, then you will let me take a bit of Hephaistos' fire down to them."

  "Damn you, Prometheus!" said Zeus. "When will he stop? Get him out of here, Hermes, before I kill him. Out, out: GET HIM OUT OF HERE!"

  5

  "Damn him, damn him, damn him!" said Zeus. "Tricks! Damn! DAMN!"

  Longer and louder than ever he had done before, Zeus cursed Prometheus. Hermes had opened the bag Zeus had chosen, and found under the covering layer of fat nothing but bones. Afraid to tell Zeus about it, he had asked Hephaistos to do it. Stuttering more than ever, Hephaistos had asked Athena to do it. And Athena, Zeus' beloved brainchild, had done it. "Damn him, damn him, damn him, damn him!"

  On the slopes of Olympus, Prometheus, a fennel stalk in his hand, heard Zeus rampaging, thundering, crashing his lightning bolts about.

  The commotion was shaking the whole mountain. The whole universe shook. Doom hoom, doom hoom, doom hoom! DOOM! Doom hoom, doom hoom, doom hoom, doom hoom!

  In the council hall, Athena could stand the noise no longer. Having put the finishing touches to her basket, she laid it down, left the council hall, and the palace, descended the mountain a ways, and sat down on a rock. She watched Prometheus sneaking about with his fennel stalk.

  "I do hope you know what you're doing," she said.

  Prometheus was surprised, and pleased, to see Athena. "I need your help. You must get me into the palace."

  "No," said Athena.

  "But why?"

  "Zeus is angry."

  Just then came Zeus' thundering again:

  DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!

  "Athena, I know what I'm doing," said Prometheus. "I know the future, I know--"

  DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!

  "And what does the future hold?" asked Athena.

  "For men, neither good nor bad," said Prometheus.

  "And for yourself?"

  "Neither good nor bad."

  Athena got up from the rock. Night was falling.

  DOOM! DOOM! DOOM!

  "Come," she said, "--since you know what you're doing."

  Athena led Prometheus up a back stairway, and hid him in a closet.

  Then she retired to her bedchamber.

  Doom! Doom! Doom! Zeus' curses shook Prometheus in his dark closet. Long into the night his anger lasted. Zeus stormed and raged. He would not go to sleep.

  "He is indeed angry," said Prometheus.

  Finally Zeus did fall asleep. But he did not stop cursing. From his sleeping head came the same frightening noise. Doom! Doom! Doom!

  Prometheus stuck his head out the doorway of the closet. At the end of the long dark corridor, a huge doorway glowed. On the wall opposite the glowing doorway, and on the ceiling, orange light of flames wavered and writhed. Sometimes like the hair of a beautiful young goddess, sometimes like orange vipers in a nest, the flame-light on the wall and ceiling wavered and writhed.

  Down the corridor went Prometheus, fennel stalk in his hand, Doom, doom, doom, went Prometheus' footsteps. Doom! Doom! Doom! echoed Zeus' dark, sleeping head. Doom! Doom! Doom!

  Plunging through the glowing doorway, Prometheus found himself beside Zeus' throne. On the arm of the throne was lay Zeus' huge sleeping head. From the huge open mouth came the even huger sound. It shook the throne. It shook the council hall. It shook the flames of the council hall fire. And Zeus' eyes were not entirely closed. His huge eyeballs, though motionless and sightless, were still dark and alive. In them flickered the flames of the council hall fire.

  Prometheus opened up his fennel stalk. The flames leapt beautifully from the crumbling faggots. Hissing like snakes now, they struck at his hands, and curled the hair on it. Then the snakes writhed together, wavered, and formed a mass of beautifully warm, caressing hair. The face of a lovely woman appeared. She took Prometheus' hand. "Neither good nor bad," she said, "neither good nor bad."

  Fumbling with the spark, Prometheus placed it in his fennel stalk.

  Then, closing the fennel stalk, he to
ok one last look at sleeping Zeus, at the huge head on the huge arm of the huge throne. Doom, doom, doom, the head murmured, and Prometheus fled.

  Out the council hall and out the palace he went. Down the slopes of Olympus he plunged. Down, down, down, into the blackness.

  Prometheus gave the spark of heavenly fire he had stolen to the men he had created. "Do not burn your sacrifices to Zeus," he warned. "Let vultures continue to take them up to heaven."

  6

  When Zeus found out that the men Prometheus had created had fire, he damned only once, and very loudly. "DAMN!"

  After that, he damned no more. He was too angry, too offended. He could still smell the smoke from a sacrificed deer--the smoke of deer bones and deer fat.

  "If Prometheus thinks he can placate me with miserable sacrifices," said Zeus, "he's badly, badly mistaken! Hephaistos!"

  "Ye-ye-yes," answered Hephaistos. He was in his workshop. When his father had spotted the sacrificial fire, and smelled the smoke, and damned his one loud damn, Hephaistos had fled into his workshop and busied himself with a hammer and a piece of molten metal.

  "Make me a chain, a strong one," said Zeus, "and hurry up about it!"

  "All ri-ri-right, Father," said Hephaistos.

  Then Zeus asked Hermes to bring Power and Force to him. "Power and Force," said Athena, setting aside the pot she was putting a design on. "Why Power and Force?"

  "I plan to have Prometheus," said Zeus, "chained to a rock on one of the crags of Mount Caucasus! Wind and rain and sun will weather his skin! Blisters will form and burst! The sores will fester and fester, and maggots and flies will feed on them! I plan to send a vulture down to tear his