BOOK II.
Prometheus and
16.
beseeches Zeus to restore mankind, now that the race has been swept away, as his father had entreated him to stay his hand when first he resolved to destroy them. The answer, whether given by Zeus or by Theseus, is that they must cast the bones of their mother behind them as they go upon their way ; and the wisdom of Prome- theus, which had warned them of the coming deluge, now teaches them that their common parent must be the Earth, and that her bones were to be seen in the rocks and stones strewn around them. These, accordingly, they cast backwards over their heads ; and from those which Deukalion hurls spring up men, from those cast by Pyrrha worn en. ^
But Prometheus is one of those beings over whom tortures and death have no lasting hold. Memnon, Sarpedon, and Adonis may all die, but they must rise again to more than their ancient splendour; and thus Prometheus must be delivered from his long torments by one of those bright heroes whose nature he shares. The Promethean legend thus becomes intermingled with that of 16 as a parent of Herakles, for only beings like Herakles, Phoibos, or Asklepios may achieve such deliverances. Since, again, the sufferings of Prometheus have been caused by his resisting the will of Zeus, it follows that his rescue must involve the humiliation of Zeus ; and thus the indomi- table son of lapetos is represented as using language which seems to point distinctly to the Norse belief in Ragnarok, the Twilight of the gods, when the long day of the deities of Asgard shall be quenched in endless night.^ Nor are 16 and Herakles the only names denoting the brilliance of the morning or the sun, which are associated with the name of Prometheus. The whole legend teems with a trans- parent mythical history in its very names, if we confine ourselves to these alone. Deukalion and Pyrrha are the parents of Protogeneia, who, being wedded to Zeus, becomes the mother of Aethlios, whose wife, Kal}ke, is the mother of Endymion, the husband of Asterodia, who bears him fifty children. Translating these words into English,
- This myth, in Professor Rfax
Miiller's opinion, "owes its origin to a mere pun on Xahs and aas." — Chips, (3'c,,i. 12. The temptation so to assign it is great ; but it seems unlilcely that the same equivocation should run through the language of other tribes, among whom the story is found, as among the Macusi Indians of South America, who believe that the stones were changed into men, and the Tama- naks of Orinoko, who hold that a pair of human beings cast behind them the fruit of a certain palm, and out of the kernels sjirang men and women.
- It may be doubted whether this
idea is anything more than an inference conceived by the mind of yEschylos ; for no other mention of the downfall of the Olympian hierarchy seems to be found in any other Greek writer. The notion, which agrees well with the gloomy climate of the North, was not likely to fasten on the imagination of Hellenic tribes in their sunnier home.
