The Modern Prometheans and the Excess of the Real

Prometheus is the first and only God to make common cause with man, to assume responsibility for them, to take their side against another tyrannical God, to commit the first crimes for their benefit and willingly accept suffering to guarantee their progress and survival. All this Dr. Frankenstein now rejects. He only now wants to destroy the very thing he has created. Why? Because it is an abomination to him.

This Modern Prometheus has become a forerunner of the Engineers from Ridley Scott’s film’s Prometheus and Alien Covenant who disenchanted with their creation upon Earth are now intent, like Zeus, on our total obliteration with their own version of the Promethean fire, a biological weapon. However they will fail and ultimately will suffer a torturous transformation when David unleashes that very weapon upon them. The scenes of transformation at the beginning of Alien Covenant as the Engineers writhe in agony are a visceral reminder of Prometheus chained to his crag with the eagle devouring his liver. This is their punishment for aspiring to a condition of superiority to the conditions and processes of nature’s laws. Their hubristic days are over.

As David unleashes the black goo he speaks these words from Shelley’s Ozymandias:

‘‘Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair!’’