Prometheus : archetypal image of human existence
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Prometheus : archetypal image of human existence
（Bollingen series, 65,
Princeton University Press, [1997]
- : pbk.
- Other Title
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Prometheus
Available at 2 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-143) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Prometheus the god stole fire from heaven and bestowed it on humans. In punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle clawed unceasingly at his liver, until Herakles freed him. For the Greeks, the myth of Prometheus's release reflected a primordial law of existence and the fate of humankind. Carl Kerenyi examines the story of Prometheus and the very process of mythmaking as a reflection of the archetypal function and seeks to discover how this primitive tale was invested with a universal fatality, first in the Greek imagination, and then in the Western tradition of Romantic poetry. Kerenyi traces the evolving myth from Hesiod and Aeschylus, and in its epic treatment by Goethe and Shelley; he moves on to consider the myth from the perspective of Jungian psychology, as the archetype of human daring signifying the transformation of suffering into the mystery of the sacrifice.
Table of Contents
List of PlatesIntroductionIWho Is Goethe's Prometheus?3IIThe Titanic, and the Eternity of the Human Race19IIIThe Prometheus Mythologem in the 'Theogony'33IVArchaic Prometheus Mythology50VMethodological Intermezzo63VIThe World in Possession of Fire69VIIThe Fire Stealer77VIIIThe 'Prometheus Bound'83IXPrometheus the Knowing One93XThe Promethean Prophecy107XI'Prometheus Delivered'112XIIConclusion after Goethe129Abbreviations134List of Works Cited135Index145
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