Prometheus in popular culture

Sculpture of Prometheus in front of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center, New York City

The figure of Prometheus from classical mythology has appeared in many examples of popular culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In painting

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  Chained Prometheus (1611–12), by Peter Paul Rubens

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  Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan (1623), by Dirck van Baburen

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  Prometheus (1868), by Gustave Moreau

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  Prometheus (1927), by José Clemente Orozco, at Pomona College

In landscape painting

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  Prometheus Chained on the Snowy Peaks of the Caucasus by Francesco Foschi (1710–1780)

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  Prometheus Bound by Thomas Cole (1801–1848)

In sculpture

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  Paul Manship, 1933 (Rockefeller Center)

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  Jacques Lipchitz, 1943 (Philadelphia Museum of Art)

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  Menashe Kadishman, 1980–87 (Meyerhoff Art Education Center, Tel Aviv)

Television and film

• Prometheus appears as a character in an episode of the eighth season of the TV series Supernatural, "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 and Sam Winchester 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, thus sparing Oliver from having to endure his curse.
• Prometheus is the name of a space exploration ship and the title of a 2012 science-fiction film directed by Ridley Scott. The film's plot also involves an ancient alien race who were involved in the creation of human life.
• In the science fiction TV Series Stargate_SG-1, the Prometheus is human kind's first interstellar space craft -made possible with technology stolen from the Goa'uld, a parasitic race that enslaves humanity throughout the galaxy by posing as gods.

Fiction

• Prometheus appears in The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan, where he is a diplomat of the antagonistic Titan Army.

Cartoons and comics

• A Soviet cartoon called Prometheus (Прометей) was created in 1974.^[1]
• 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 man has proven themselves worthy of Prometheus's gift.

Gaming

• In Portal 2, 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 is cast into the deepest levels of the Aperture Science facility and is pecked by a bird.
• The game BioShock's 12th level is called Point Prometheus.
• In the game God of War II, the protagonist Kratos encounters and frees Prometheus from his eternal torment, in turn gaining the power of the Titans.
• In the Mass Effect 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.
• In Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, Prometheus is Baofu's ultimate Persona.

Music

• The Norwegian symphonic black metal band Emperor released, in 2001, an album entitled "Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise".
• The American Metalcore band Trivium pointed out similarities of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and Prometheus' torment of being eternally tortured in their song "Of Prometheus and The Crucifix".
• The American punk band The Menzingers mention Prometheus in their song "Sir Yes Sir."

Science

Prometheus by Theodoor Rombouts (1597–1637)

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 horse Prometea, and Prometheus, a moon of Saturn, are named after this Titan, as is the asteroid 1809 Prometheus.
• The name of the sixty-first element, promethium, is derived from Prometheus.
• The Prometheus Society is a High IQ society. The name of its magazine, Gift of Fire, is explained by the ancient association of fire with mental gifts.^[2]
• Prometheus Books, a publishing company for scientific, educational, and popular books, especially those relating to secular humanism or scientific skepticism, takes its name from the myth.
• The Prometheus Award is given by the Libertarian Futurist Society for Libertarian science fiction.
• In 1983 Robert Anton Wilson published a non-fiction book called Prometheus Rising (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^[3] the myth even indicates that the ancient Greeks knew about the liver’s remarkable capacity for self-repair. The Greek word for liver, hēpar, hepat- (ἧπαρ, cf. English "hepatitis", "hepatology", etc.) is derived from the verb hēpaomai (ἠπάομαι), meaning "mend, repair".^[4] While others doubt the significance to Greek medical knowledge,^[5] Prometheus's name is associated with biomedical companies involved in regenerative medicine.

See also

• Olympic flame
• Prometheism, a political project in Poland named for Prometheus.

References

1. "Russian animation in letters and figures | Films | ╚PROMETHEUS╩". Animator.ru. Retrieved 2012-05-18.
2. Prometheus Society website.
3. See arguments for the ancient Greeks' knowledge of liver regeneration in Chen T and Chen P (1994), Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 87(12): 754-755.
4. LSJ entry ἠπάομαι meaning mend, repair
5. A counterargument is provided by Power C and Rasko J (2008). "Whither Prometheus' Liver? Greek Myth and the Science of Regeneration". Annals of Internal Medicine 149(6): 421-426.

External links

• Prometheus a sci-fi movie of Zoltan Deme
• The Post Modern Prometheus a short story by Phillip Donnelly