EPISODE 35

IN WHICH PROMETHEUS STEALS FIRE FROM THE GODS

Previously: Prometheus has managed to deceive Zeus. From now on, mankind would not lack food. In retaliation, however, Zeus has taken fire away from them.

A great sadness reigned upon earth. Until then, the fire had kept men warm, had kept the wild animals at bay, it had cooked their food. Since Zeus had taken fire away from them, human beings were dying one after the other. The cold was fierce; it bit through their skin and killed those who were weakest among them. At night, the wild animals took advantage of the darkness to draw near the compounds and devour them. They had to feed themselves with raw meat, like animals. They were doomed.

One night, when Hermes was not sleeping, he saw a shadow slither onto one of the palace terraces. Another shadow came out of the palace and joined the first. Hermes flew noiselessly up to them and listened.

“How sad you look, my friend,” a female voice murmured. “Things are not as grim as you say.”

A male voice replied to her: “Alas, yes, things are very grim indeed! Men are dying one after the other. Soon there will be none left on earth!”

At these words, Hermes recognized Prometheus. He certainly lacked no pluck to dare return to Olympus in this manner! The one who had come surreptitiously to join him had to be Athena.

“But what would you propose to do?” Athena was asking. “It is very risky to go against my father’s will…”

Prometheus whispered a few words into Athena’s ear, but Hermes could not hear what he was saying. Then the two shadows separated and Hermes returned to his room.

On the following nights, Hermes wandered about the palace, yet nothing happened. One morning, he ran into Athena in one of the palace corridors and asked her with an air of feigned innocence:

“Have you any news of your friend Prometheus?”

The goddess hardly looked at him and replied drily: “Friend? What friend? You are talking nonsense, my poor Hermes.”

He was beginning to wonder whether he might not have dreamt it all, when one night something happened. It was a night of black darkness, one of those nights when Selene, the goddess of the Moon, must have fallen asleep and forgotten to take the moon out on her chariot. Hermes, who was fluttering about the palace before going to bed, heard the leaves rustle. Prometheus had come to join Athena.

“Have you brought what we need?” Athena was whispering.

“Yes, yes,” replied the Titan.

“Well then, follow me,” said the goddess of Wisdom. She led Prometheus towards a secret door of the palace.

Athena pushed gently at the door and gestured to Prometheus to follow her. Astonished, Hermes saw the banished Titan enter stealthily into the palace. What was he planning to do? Hermes slipped in quietly behind them.

Once inside, the two conspirators headed towards the centre of the palace. They entered like shades the room situated at the very heart of the palace, the room of the sacred fire. Here goddess Hestia looked after the fire of the gods throughout the entire night. Her task was never to let it die out by stoking it up constantly with wood, and also to keep an eye on it. Prometheus had taken hold of a heavy jar, intending to knock Hestia senseless. Yet that was not going to be necessary: the goddess of the Hearth had fallen asleep. Prometheus immediately bent down over the fire, took out from his tunic a sort of hollow stalk, and slipped some embers inside the hollow. Then he went away once more, as silently as he had come. Hermes was relieved: Prometheus did not wish to take the place of the god of gods; what interested him was to save his children, the human beings.

“Thank you, Athena,” murmured the Titan as they came back to the exit. “You have just helped me save mankind.” Hermes looked at him for a long time as he disappeared into the night. The glowing red dot which the Titan had trapped inside the stalk allowed him to follow his course. In a single night, Prometheus went around the entire earth and lit fires everywhere. Wherever he passed, the shadows were repelled, light triumphed over darkness. In the early morning the Titan, exhausted, contemplated his work: everywhere in the world the fire that he had stolen from the gods blazed up to keep men warm and to give them light.

 

To be continued…