The figure and name of

Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...

from

classical mythology Classical mythology, Greco-Roman mythology, or Greek and Roman mythology is both the body of and the study of myths from the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans as they are used or transformed by cultural reception. Along with philosophy and polit ...

has appeared in various art and literature.

Cartoons and comics

* Soviet director Aleksandra Snezhko-Blotskaya created two cartoons in which Prometheus appears - ''The Return from Olympus'' (Возвращение с Олимпа, 1969) and ''Prometheus'' (Прометей, 1974), as part of her 5-film series about the Ancient Greek myths. *Prometheus appears in an episode of '' Hercules: The Animated Series'', where protagonist Hercules takes it upon himself to release Prometheus from his punishment, subsequently defending his decision to his father Zeus by arguing that humanity has proven themselves worthy of Prometheus' gift.

Film and television

* Prometheus appears as a character in an episode of the TV series eighth season of the TV series ''

Supernatural Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...

'', "Remember the Titans", now suffering from amnesia after an avalanche eight years prior to the episode. Here Prometheus's curse is portrayed as granting him a form of immortality; although no longer chained to the mountain, Prometheus still dies every day in various ways, ranging from being hit by a car to having a heart attack, with his seven-year-old son Oliver having 'inherited' his curse (Seven being the age at which the Greeks believed boys began to become men). Series protagonists

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

and

Sam Winchester Samuel "Sam" Winchester is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists of the American drama television series ''Supernatural'' along with his older brother, Dean. He is portrayed primarily by Jared Padalecki. Other versions of the char ...

attempt to help Prometheus break his curse by summoning Zeus- reasoning that mankind owes Prometheus for giving them fire and the ability to stand against the dark- but in the end Prometheus is forced to sacrifice himself to kill Zeus with the aid of

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

, thus sparing Oliver from having to endure his curse. * ''

'' is the name of a space exploration ship and the title of a 2012 science-fiction film directed by

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades thr ...

. The film's plot also involves an ancient alien race that were involved in the creation of human life. * In the science fiction TV series ''

Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction Adventure fiction, adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate, ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wrigh ...

'', the ''

'' is humankind's first interstellar spacecraft – made possible with technology stolen from the

Goa'uld The mythology of the ''Stargate'' franchise is the historical backstory of the ''Stargate'' premise, which centers around xeno-mythology as experienced by humans during episodic contact. In the fictional universe of the franchise, the people of ...

, a parasitic race that enslaves humanity throughout the galaxy by posing as gods. * The plot of the 2019 horror film '' The Lighthouse'', directed by

Robert Eggers Robert Houston Eggers (born July 7, 1983) is an American filmmaker, director, and production designer. He is best known for writing and directing the historical horror films ''The Witch (2015 film), The Witch'' (2015) and ''The Lighthouse (2019 f ...

, loosely resembles the myth of Prometheus. * The animated film ''

Promare is a 2019 Japanese animated film co-produced by Trigger and XFLAG. It was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima. It features character and mecha designs by Shigeto Koyama, 3DCG animation by Sanzigen, and music by H ...

'' is heavily based on the story to the point where various characters' names come from Greek terminology, the word 'Promare' coming from Prometheus, its plot revolving around fire, and callbacks to the mythos such as Fennel Volcano. This would later be confirmed by staff in interviews.

Gaming

* In ''

Portal 2 ''Portal 2'' is a 2011 puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve Corporation, Valve for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The digital PC version is distributed online by Valve's Steam (service), Steam service, while al ...

'', the tale of Prometheus is used by the ''oracle'' turret to foreshadow future events in the game. It recounts how Prometheus was cast into the depths of the earth and pecked by birds. Later, the antagonist/anti-hero

GLaDOS GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) is a fictional artificially superintelligent computer system from the video game series ''Portal''. GLaDOS later appeared in ''The Lab'' and ''Lego Dimensions''. The character was created by ...

is cast into the deepest levels of the

Aperture Science The ''Half-Life'' video game series features many locations set in a dystopian future stemming from the events of the first game, ''Half-Life''. These locations are used and referred to throughout the series. The locations, for the most part, a ...

facility and is pecked by a bird. * The game ''

BioShock ''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 pla ...

s 12th level is called Point Prometheus. * In the game ''

God of War II ''God of War II'' is an action-adventure hack and slash video game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). First released for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) console on March 13, 2007, it is the second inst ...

'', the protagonist Kratos encounters and frees Prometheus from his eternal torment, in turn gaining the power of the Titans. * In the game ''

Destiny 2 ''Destiny 2'' is a free-to-play Online game, online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie. It was originally released as a pay to play game in 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. It became free-to-play, ...

'', There is a weapon obtainable from exotic engrams in world drops throughout the various maps called Prometheus Lens. A powerful trace rifle added in the ''

Curse of Osiris There have been several pieces of downloadable content (DLC) released for Bungie's 2017 first-person shooter video game ''Destiny 2'' (also known as ''Destiny 2: New Light''). The packages of downloadable content generally add new player versus en ...

'' DLC expansion. * In '' Borderlands 3'', there is a planet with metropolis-like city called Promethea. * In the ''

Mass Effect ''Mass Effect'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk. The franchise depicts a distant future where humanity and several alien civilizations have colonized the known univers ...

'' game series, the 'Protheans' are an extinct ancient race that are believed to have built the Citadel and mass relays present in the game's lore and known to have uplifted several younger races. Their ruins are the original source of all mass effect and FTL technology for the younger races. Some people believe the species name sounds similar to Prometheus. * Godfire: Rise of Prometheus is a mobile game in which the player character,

steals an artifact called the "Spark of Godfire" from

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...

with the help of

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...

. It features numerous Greek monsters, including the

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur ( , ;. grc, ; in Latin as ''Minotaurus'' ) is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "pa ...

Cyclops In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...

Lamia LaMia Corporation S.R.L., operating as LaMia (short for ''Línea Aérea Mérida Internacional de Aviación''), was a Bolivian charter airline headquartered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, as an EcoJet subsidiary. It had its origins from the failed ...

, and

Scylla In Greek mythology, Scylla), is obsolete. ( ; grc-gre, Σκύλλα, Skúlla, ) is a legendary monster who lives on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's r ...

* In '' Persona 2: Eternal Punishment'', Prometheus is Baofu's ultimate Persona. * In ''

Chrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first game in the ''Chrono'' series. The game's development team included three designers th ...

'', Prometheus is Robo's real name, as revealed by Atropos in Geno Dome.

Magazines

The Eulenspiegel Society The Eulenspiegel Society, also known as TES, is the first BDSM organization founded in the United States. It was founded in 1971 and based in New York City. History The Eulenspiegel Society was the first BDSM organization founded in the United St ...

began the magazine ''Prometheus'' in the early 1970s; it is a decades-long-running magazine exploring issues important to kinksters, ranging from art and erotica, to advice columns and personal ads, to conversation about the philosophy of consensual kink. The magazine now exists online.

Music

* The

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

symphonic A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

band

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

released, in 2001, an album entitled " Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise". * The

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

Metalcore Metalcore (also known as metallic hardcore) is a fusion music genre that combines elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. As with other styles blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use of ...

band

Trivium The trivium is the lower division of the seven liberal arts and comprises grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The trivium is implicit in ''De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii'' ("On the Marriage of Philology and Mercury") by Martianus Capella, but the ...

pointed out similarities of the

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, and Prometheus' torment of being eternally

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...

d in their song " Of Prometheus and The Crucifix". * The

a mobile game inspired by the myth of Prometheus

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

band

The Menzingers The Menzingers are an American punk rock band from Scranton, Pennsylvania, formed in 2006. The band consists of Greg Barnett (vocals, guitar), Tom May (vocals, guitar), Eric Keen (bass) and Joe Godino (drums). To date, the band has released sev ...

mention Prometheus in their song "Sir Yes Sir".

Novels/Short stories

* Prometheus appears in ''

The Last Olympian ''The Last Olympian'' is a fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology by Rick Riordan, published on May 5, 2009. It is the fifth and final novel of the ''Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' series and serves as the direct sequel to ''The Battle ...

'' by Rick Riordan, where he is a diplomat of the antagonistic Titan Army. * "

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific exp ...

" is the title of the 1818 novel written by

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of scie ...

. * The spaceship in Arthur C. Clarke's Summertime on Icarus is called 'Prometheus'

Paintings

File:Gioacchino Assereto - The Torture of Prometheus.jpg, ''The Torture of Prometheus'' by

Gioacchino Assereto Gioacchino Assereto (1600 – 28 June 1649) was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period and one of the most prominent history painters active in Genoa in the first half of the 17th century. Life He initially apprenticed at age 12 with Luci ...

(1620–48) File:Prometheus door Vulcanus geketend, SK-A-1606.jpg, ''

Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan ''Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan'' is an oil painting of 1623 by Dirck van Baburen of the Utrecht School, and an example of Baroque chiaroscuro. The painting represents a tale from Greco-Roman mythology. Mercury, the messenger of the gods, ...

'' by

Dirck van Baburen Dirck Jaspersz. van Baburen (c. 1595 – 21 February 1624) was a Dutch painter and one of the Utrecht Caravaggisti. Biography Dirck van Baburen was probably born in Wijk bij Duurstede, but his family moved to Utrecht when he was still youn ...

(1623) File:Jacob Jordaens - Prometheus bound.jpg, ''Prometheus bound'' by

Jacob Jordaens Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Fle ...

(1640) File:Cole Thomas Prometheus Bound 1846-47.jpg, ''

Prometheus Bound ''Prometheus Bound'' ( grc, Προμηθεὺς Δεσμώτης, ''Promētheús Desmṓtēs'') is an Ancient Greek tragedy traditionally attributed to Aeschylus and thought to have been composed sometime between 479 BC and the terminus ante ...

'' by

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history paintin ...

(1847) File:Prometheus by Gustave Moreau.jpg, ''Prometheus'' by

Gustave Moreau Gustave Moreau (; 6 April 1826 – 18 April 1898) was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence".Cassou, Jean. 1979. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of Symbolism.' ...

(1868) File:Prometheus (1930) de José Clemente Orozco en Pomona College.jpg, ''

'' by

José Clemente Orozco José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949) was a Mexican caricaturist and painter, who specialized in political murals that established the Mexican Mural Renaissance together with murals by Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Sique ...

(1930)

Sculptures

File:Rockefeller Center MAM.JPG, ''

'' by

Paul Manship Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...

, 1933 (

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

) File:Lipshitz PMA.JPG,

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of Cr ...

, 1943 (

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

) File:Prometheus, Dobnov st 001.jpg, Menashe Kadishman, 1980–87 (Meyerhoff Art Education Center, Tel Aviv)

Science

The myth of Prometheus, with its theme of invention and discovery, has been used in science-related names and as a metaphor for scientific progress. * The

cloned Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

horse

Prometea Prometea (born May 28, 2003), a Haflinger foal, is the first cloned horse and the first to be born from and carried by its cloning mother. Her birth was announced publicly on August 6, 2003. Born 36 kilogram after a natural delivery and a full-te ...

, and

, a

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

, are named after this Titan, as is the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

1809 Prometheus. * The name of the sixty-first element,

promethium Promethium is a chemical element with the symbol Pm and atomic number 61. All of its isotopes are radioactive; it is extremely rare, with only about 500–600 grams naturally occurring in Earth's crust at any given time. Promethium is one of onl ...

, is derived from Prometheus. * The

Prometheus Society The Prometheus Society is a high IQ society, similar to Mensa International, but much more restrictive. The entry criterion, achievable by a number of tests, is designed to be passable by 1 in 30,000 of the population, while Mensa entry is achiev ...

is a

High IQ society A high-IQ society is an organization that limits its membership to people who have attained a specified score on an IQ test, usually in the top two percent of the population (98th percentile) or above. These may also be referred to as genius socie ...

. The name of its magazine, ''Gift of Fire'', is explained by the ancient association of fire with mental gifts. * Prometheus Books, a publishing company for scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those relating to

secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality an ...

scientific skepticism Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (also spelled scepticism), sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a position in which one questions the veracity of claims lacking empirical evidence. In practice, the term most commonly refe ...

, takes its name from the myth. * The

Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newl ...

is given by the

Libertarian Futurist Society The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. American author and activist L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly ...

for

Libertarian science fiction Libertarian science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on the politics and social order implied by right-libertarian philosophies with an emphasis on individualism and private ownership of the means of production—and in some ...

. * In 1983 Robert Anton Wilson published a non-fiction book called ''

Prometheus Rising ''Prometheus Rising'' is a 1983 guidebook by Robert Anton Wilson. The book includes explanations of Timothy Leary eight-circuit model of consciousness, Alfred Korzybski general semantics, Aleister Crowley Thelema, and various other topics related t ...

'' (which was followed by '' Quantum Psychology'') * Scientific and medical literature about liver regeneration often alludes to Prometheus and the devouring and daily regrowth of his liver. Some think the myth even indicates that the

ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cultu ...

knew about the liver’s remarkable capacity for self-repair. The Greek word for liver, ''hēpar, hepat-'' (, cf. English "

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...

", "

hepatology Hepatology is the branch of medicine that incorporates the study of liver, gallbladder, biliary tree, and pancreas as well as management of their disorders. Although traditionally considered a sub-specialty of gastroenterology, rapid expansion ...

", etc.) is derived from the verb ''hēpaomai'' (), meaning "mend, repair". While others doubt the significance to Greek medical knowledge, Prometheus's name is associated with biomedical companies involved in regenerative medicine.

Military

A Russian air defense system called

S-500 missile system The S-500 Prometey (russian: C-500 Прометей, lit=Prometheus), also known as 55R6M "Triumfator-M", is a Russian hypersonic surface-to-air missile/anti-ballistic missile system replacing the A-135 missile system currently in use, and sup ...

is named after Prometheus

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Prometheus''
a sci-fi movie of Zoltan Deme
Post Modern Prometheus''
a short story by Phillip Donnelly Classical mythology in popular culture

Cartoons and comics

Film and television

Gaming

Magazines

Music

Novels/Short stories

Paintings

Sculptures

Science

Military

See also

References

External links