What I didn't know about Prometheus

In my on-going attempt to read all of “The Great Books,” I just finished “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus.  My previous acquaintance with Prometheus was through a book given to me by my favorite aunt when I was a child.  It was a large, but not very thick book of Greek myths.  As I remember it, each myth was told on one to three pages and included a color picture portraying the story.  The grizzly image of Prometheus chained to rocks with a bird about to tear into his liver became branded in my visual memory where it still resides.

I don’t know if in the attempt to make the story appropriate for young readers, major themes in the myth were simplified to the point of being unrecognizable, or if I, in my immaturity, just didn’t catch them.  I knew that Prometheus had angered Zeus by giving fire to humans, but I have now come to realize that I didn’t have the whole picture regarding Prometheus.

What I didn’t know about Prometheus:

1.        It is not only fire that he gave to humans.  He claims that prior to his involvement, humans lived in caves.  He taught them to build homes with timber and bricks, to use animals for their benefit for farm work and transportation, to make ships, to compound drugs to combat disease, and to use writing.  Prior to his involvement, he says, men were senseless beasts, and he gave them sense.  He sees himself as the savior of man who has mitigated man’s suffering.

2.       He rails against Zeus.  He does not believe Zeus to be the most powerful god, but the god who currently wields control through self-made laws and intimidation.  Other characters in this play, admonish him to hold his tongue lest his punishment become greater.  Prometheus persists in his defiance.  At one point he says:

Go thou and worship; fold thy hands in prayer,

And be the dog that licks the foot of power!

Nothing care I for Zeus; yea, less than naught!

Let him do what he will, and sway the world

His little hour; he has not long to lord it among the Gods.

3.        Prometheus also claims to be a prophet.  He foretells the future of Io who appears in the play.  He also claims to know when his own suffering will end, and when and how Zeus will fall from power, although this he refuses to reveal.

With whirl of feathery snowflakes and loud crack

Of subterranean thunder; none of these

Shall bend my will or force me to disclose

By whom ‘tis fated he shall fall from power.

Among the intriguing concepts in this play:

*Thou are a better counselor to others than to thyself …..a common problem for most of us.  We see problems and recognize corrective actions for others, but we don’t have the insight to see the same in ourselves.

*True marriage is the union that mates equal with equal.  I’m all in favor of that!  I have seen some unions that appeared to be a mismatch, but that have seemed to work as observed from the outside.  I would have stayed single before entering into such a union.

*I would not, if I might, change my misfortunes for thy vassalage…spoken like a patriot. 

The question arises while reading “Prometheus Bound,” when is it appropriate to be defiant?  Was the original Tea Party appropriate?  Is the current Tea Party appropriate?  Prometheus shakes his fist in the face of Zeus.  That’s OK with me.  Some individuals today shake their fist in the face of the One I believe to be the one true God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe.  I’m afraid that is not OK.  I might be wrong in my beliefs, but I fear for those who are defiant, if I am right.

When is it right and good to defy authority?

When is it just plain foolish?

Who has asked this of you?

“The multitude of your sacrifices---what are they to me?....who asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?”  Isaiah 1:11-12

                                    I rushed into His presence,

                                    To say a prayer or two,

                                    I heard a voice whisper,

                                    “Who has asked this of you?”

                                    A check dropped in the offering,

                                    The pride was wrong, I knew.

                                    I heard a voice behind me,

                                    “Who has asked this of you?”

                                    I lit incense and candles,

                                    As the flame and perfume grew,

                                    A haunting voice questioned,

                                    “Who has asked this of you?”

                                    I sang a worship chorus,

                                    The words I mouthed weren’t true,

                                    I heard a voice like thunder,

                                    “Who has asked this of you?”

                                    “This trampling of my courts,

                                    This hasty running through,

                                    This thoughtless careless worship,

                                    Who has asked this of you?”

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Services offered at Brook Haven House include:  transportation to doctor’s appointments, GED/tutoring, on site visits by public health nurses, instruction in natural childbirth, financial planning, and help with homemaking, parenting, family planning and other life-skills.  There is also help in making the transition to independent living when the young lady is ready.  A young mother may stay at the home until her baby’s first birthday.

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Even so, Come

A New Year,

Sweep away the old,

Earthquake

Oil Spill

War

Economic woes.

A ball drop,

Welcomes the new,

Encouragement

Optimism

Hope

Better times ahead.

But, under the sun,

Nothing is new.

Today North Korea

Threatens

War

Nuclear holocaust.

There will be

More difficulties.

Disasters

Natural or

Manmade

Personal and national.

The human race

Muddles on through

Days

Year

Centuries

Both “somehow” and triumphantly.

An endpoint will come,

For human history or

For my own life.

Someday

Some year

This one?

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.

Angels in Blue

I have a daughter who is the adult version of ADHD.  Her lack of focus causes her to constantly “shoot herself in the foot.”  When she was little, well-meaning folks would tell us that if we didn’t intervene, and she suffered the consequences of her behavior, she would eventually learn.  What they didn’t understand is that she DID suffer the consequences of her behavior over and over and over again.  She is nearly 40 and is still doing so.

A couple of months ago this inability to keep the pieces of her life put together caused her to allow her auto insurance to lapse.  Most of us would not have allowed this to happen, because we pay attention to things like bills and notices of termination.  But, she went on her merry and oblivious way.  Early in December she was short on money and hoping she could make it to and from work with the gas in the tank.  She got to work, but not home.  She left the car on the side of the road, hitch-hiked home, and begged a few dollars here and there from neighbors, planning to hitch-hike back with a can of gas.  By this time, a passing policeman had noticed the car, run the plate numbers, and determined that her insurance had lapsed for 15 days in September.  The plates were confiscated and the car impounded.

Daughter has trouble holding a job…of course.  Someone who lacks focus does have difficulty showing up on time and doing their work. Besides that, when one is doing the modern equivalent of "ditch-digging," one is not always treated well by employers, and she has gotten some rotten deals.  She has done relatively well at the current job and desperately wants to keep it.  So, for the 15 days she had to go without plates and therefore, her car, she tried every conceivable way of getting to work.  She apparently wore out the generosity and patience of all her friends, acquaintances and enemies.  A couple of nights ago, the person who was to pick her up at 9 PM and take her home, did not show up.

And so it was, that after 10 PM, she called me sobbing.  I, by the way, live at the other end of the state, so I could not help her.  She was trying to walk the 14 miles home in the dark and cold of December in New York.  She was walking with traffic on a busy highway hoping someone would take pity and pick her up.  I could hear the cars whizzing by.  She called 3 times, as it became increasingly apparent that she simply couldn’t walk 14 miles in the cold.  I tried to think of possible solutions to the dilemma.  The buses don’t run after 9 PM.  A taxi all the way home would take more money than she had.  She talked of trying to go to a friend’s house along the way, or spending the night in the bus station.  Finally, I suggested that she try finding a shelter….she was within the limits of a small city…perhaps, the city had some shelters. 

Between these phone calls, I prayed.  “Oh, Lord,” I said, “I have no idea how to solve this problem.  She isn’t safe.  Please have mercy.  In your grace, send her an angel.  I don’t know what else to pray for.”

She called back a few minutes later.  She had called the police, and they were coming to pick her up.  I thought that if there was a shelter available, surely they would know of it.  I couldn’t go to sleep wondering where she was, and if she would be safe and warm.

The phone rang again.  “I’m home,” she said.

The policeman who had picked her up had been given permission to take her as far as the interstate exit nearest her home.  He had pushed a bit beyond his permission and delivered her to her doorstep.

The next day, she walked the 3-plus miles to the end of the bus route and caught the bus in to the DMV.  She picked up her plates, took the bus back to the end of the route, and began the 3-plus mile walk home.  Along came a different policeman, who picked her up, lectured her about the dangers of walking with the traffic on a busy highway, and delivered her to her front door.

I have no idea what municipalities these two policemen work for……city, county or state.  That is, I don’t know who pays them.  I do know who they were working for in regard to this story.  They were the answer to my prayers.  God sent some “angels in blue.”

"Ave Maria"

A few days ago, just before Christmas, I was in the car on my way to finish up some shopping.  The car radio was on a station that plays all Christmas music from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  I was struck by the hauntingly beautiful but almost mournful tone in which a female soloist was singing "Ave Maria." 

As I listened to these strains, I rounded a corner onto a street where there is a small private nursing home.  At the curb, an elderly gentleman was getting out of his car...slowly and with obvious discomfort.  He had a newspaper under his arm.  As I drove by, I watched him teeter around the car and head towards the nursing home entrance.

Although that was my last actual glimpse of him, a video clip began to play in my mind, accompanied by the mournfully rendered "Ave Maria."  He slowly ascended the stairs into the building and painfully walked down a corridor.  In my mind, the corridor was much longer than could have been contained in the actual building.  It was dimly lit, and I watched his silhouette become smaller as he got further away.  Then I saw him, the image of loneliness, enter a room.  In the bed was an elderly woman...his wife....who no longer recognized him.  He kissed her brow, and then sat heavily in the chair and opened the newspaper.  He would spend his day there, although his wife wouldn't appreciate it.  He had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.

The last sad note of the "Ave" was sung and my private little mental video faded to black.
It has replayed in my mind numerous times since.

The Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus

Eteocles is King of Thebes and son of Oedipus (he of the infamous complex).   A messenger arrives with news that an army prepares to attack Thebes.  Seven of the invaders’ champions have been assigned to storm each of seven gates into the city.  Eteocles must decide which of his mighty men to post at each gate to repel the onslaught.

The chorus in this play is comprised of a group of Theban women whom Eteocles considers to be more or less hysterical.  He chides them for their carrying on, since it may cause others to lose courage.  They, of course, don’t see things that way.  They believe they are offering legitimate prayers to the gods.  Chauvinist that he is, he eventually tells them, “These be men’s matters…your business is submiss silence, and to bide within.”

After some interaction between Eteocles and the chorus, he gets around to deciding which soldier to post at each gate.  He is especially grieved that one of the gates is to be attacked by a man for whom he has great respect.  He bemoans that, “’Tis unhappy chance that couples oft the just with many wicked!”  When he finds that Polyneices will attack the last of the gates, he decides to confront him himself.  The chorus protests that Polyneices and Eteocles are brothers….both sons of Oedipus.  It is not fitting for brothers to be fighting each other to the death.

Eteocles and Polyneices end up killing each other.  Both of their bodies are brought into the city.  As their sisters, Antigone and Ismene, grieve, a herald arrives and announces that the Governors have declared that while Eteocles is to be buried with pomp, Polyneices’ body is to be thrown to the dogs.  Antigone is prepared to defy this order and carries off the body of Polyneices.  Antigone is not into submissive silence. Ismene leaves with the body of Eteocles.  The chorus of women splits, some going with Antigone and others with Ismene. 

In addition to the tension between men and women in the play, a strong current running throughout is that the sins of the fathers are visited on their children.  Many references are made to the wrong-doing of Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother.  Now the sons of this union are both dead.  “O curse of Oedipus!  O malison dark…unrelenting…damning all his line!”

My husband once told me that as a young man, he avoided some temptations by thinking that he couldn’t bear the idea that wrong-doing on his part might harm his future children.  The world would be a better place if more young men and women gave that notion some consideration.