hile running; if the torch of the lead runner came to be extinguished, he lost his claim to victory. The festival during which these torch races took place was known as Promethia. In Argos, the chief city of Argolis in Southern Greece, the citizens kept a tomb of Prometheus and honored him as a dead hero. The city of Opous in Central Greece also claimed to honor a grave of Prometheus.
The myth of Prometheus is one of the most popular Greek myths, and has enjoyed reverberations in art, literature, and even science. His story has inspired many authors, composers, and artists throughout the centuries, and various works have been created that either allude to Prometheus or use his story as a template. Among the most famous of these are the play Prometheus Bound, traditionally attributed to Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E.), and Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, the alternative title of which is The Modern Prometheus. The following year, Shelley's husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, also contributed a play with similar themes entitled Prometheus Unbound. Shelley, among other Romantics, saw Prometheus as the prototypical genius. Prometheus inspired a number of poems in which he was the titular character, such as those by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Lord Byron. Ludwig van Beethoven provided a musical composition inspired by the Promethean myth entitled Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, op. 43. Additionally, Prometheus is alluded to in the works of literary giants such as Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, James Joyce, and Thomas Hardy. In the twentieth and twenty-first century, Prometheus has also been a subject of numerous avenues of popular culture in general, spanning a gamut of mainstream media including fiction, film, and comic books.
Additionally, Prometheus has also been widely acknowledged by science, as he represents the continuous unraveling of human understanding. As such, many scientific discoveries have been given his name. One of Saturn's inner satellites is named Prometheus after the Titan, as is the asteroid 1809 Prometheus. The name for the sixty-first element Promethium is also derived from Prometheus. In 2003, the first ever cloned horse to be born from and carried by its cloning mother was named Prometea, the feminine form of Prometeos, the Italian form of "Prometheus."
- Graves, 52.
- Avery, 470.
- C. Galli, et al., 635.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Avery, Catherine B. The New Century Handbook of Greek Mythology and Legend. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1972. ISBN 0390669466
- Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion (John Raffan, trans.). Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1985. ISBN 0631112413
- Buxton, Richard. The Complete World of Greek Mythology. Thames & Hudson, 2004. ISBN 978-0500251218
- Galli, C., et al. "A cloned horse born to its dam twin." Nature 424 (Aug. 7), 2003. 635.
- Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1960. ISBN 014020508X
- Rose, H. J. A Handbook of Greek Mythology. Routledge, 1990. ISBN 978-0415046015
All links retrieved December 1, 2022.
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