The Poetic Presentation of Prometheus.

The Director of The Lighthouse , Robert Eggers has openly declared that the character of ‘Ephraim Winslow’ (played quite brilliantly by Robert Pattinson) is meant to symbolise the greek god who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humanity, Prometheus. There are scenes that definitely reproduce the essential elements of this myth but there is also, far more complexity to his character and that of ‘Thomas Wake’ (played quite magnificently by Willem Dafoe) than just a simple one to one correlation. I will in my next piece be looking closer at the film and its mortal and mythic elements, but here for now is my short history of how the myth of Prometheus has been adapted by some of the greatest artists to have ever pondered upon the true importance of the story.

From a thief to a revolutionary figure, the classic Promethean myth has witnessed great changes through the works of Hesiod, Aeschylus, Goethe, Byron, Shelley, Al Shaby and Hughes. Hesiod’s Theogony and Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound explore the reconciliation model and do not provide any direct ammunition for rebellious human instincts but undoubtedly there are already hints here pointing in that direction. In the Theogony Hesiod recites the history of the cosmos as a series of usurpations of power culminating in the final usurper Zeus. Zeus’s coronation is meant to represent mankind’s evolution from savagery to civilization.