90 THE MYTHS OF CREATION: THE GODS
and angry Zeus against the defiant determination of a glorious and philanthropic
Prometheus.^14
Hephaestus, in contrast to savage Strength and Force, is sensitive and hu-
mane; he curses his craft, hates the job he has to do, and pities the sleepless tor-
ment of Prometheus. Hephaestus also expresses an important theme of the play
in his realization that Zeus has seized supreme rule of gods and mortals only
recently: "The mind of Zeus is inexorable; and everyone is harsh when he first
comes to power." The contrast is presumably intended to foreshadow the later
Zeus, who will learn benevolence through experience, wisdom, and maturity.
Certainly Zeus, fresh from his triumphant defeat of his father and the Titans,
might indeed be uneasy and afraid. He may suffer the same fate as Cronus or
Uranus before him; and Prometheus, his adversary, knows the terrifying secret
that might lead to Zeus' undoing: Zeus must avoid the sea-nymph Thetis in his
amorous pursuits, for she is destined to bear a son mightier than his father. In
his knowledge of this lies Prometheus' defiant power and the threat of Zeus' ul-
timate downfall.
The first utterance of Prometheus after Strength, Force, and Hephaestus have
done their work is glorious, capturing the universality of his great and in-
domitable spirit (88-92):f
O divine air and sky and swift-winged breezes, springs of rivers and countless
laughter of sea waves, earth, mother of everything, and all-seeing circle of the
sun, I call on you. See what I, a god, suffer at the hands of the gods.
In the course of the play, Prometheus expresses his bitterness because, al-
though he with his mother fought on the side of Zeus against the Titans, his
only reward is torment. It is typical of the tyrant to forget and turn against his
former allies. Prometheus lists the many gifts he has given to humankind for
whom he suffers now (442-506):f
PROMETHEUS: Listen to the troubles that there were among mortals and how
I gave them sense and mind, which they did not have before. I shall tell you
this, not out of any censure of humankind, but to explain the good intention of
my gifts. In the beginning they had eyes to look, but looked in vain, and ears to
hear, but did not hear, but like the shapes of dreams they wandered in confu-
sion the whole of their long life. They did not know of brick-built houses that
face the sun or carpentry, but dwelt beneath the ground like tiny ants in the
depths of sunless caves. They did not have any secure way of distinguishing
winter or blossoming spring or fruitful summer, but they did everything with-
out judgment, until I snowed them the rising and the setting of the stars, diffi-
cult to discern.
And indeed I discovered for them numbers, a lofty kind of wisdom, and
letters and their combination, an art that fosters memory of all things, the mother
of the Muses' arts. I first harnessed animals, enslaving them to the yoke to be-
come reliefs for mortals in their greatest toils, and I led horses docile under the
reins and chariot, the delight of the highest wealth and luxury. No one before