Prometheus is one of our five Rising gods of the modern West. This thread is intended as a place to post sources of information about Prometheus. If you're aware of any good books about Prometheus, please tell us about them here. If you're aware of any good websites about Prometheus, please post the links here. Also, if you have a favorite prayer or chant to Prometheus, or a favorite poem about Prometheus, please call our attention to it here (without violating copyright, please). Please use this thread to refer us to any sources of info (online or offline) you find interesting.

Right now, I'm especially interested in learning more about the ways that Prometheus was actually worshiped in ancient Greece. But feel free to post other kinds of information relevant to Prometheus as well.

The current version of the Wikipedia article on Prometheus says, "Prometheus had a small shrine in the Kerameikos, or potter's quarter, of Athens, not far from the Academy. The Academy had its own altar dedicated to Prometheus. According to the 2nd-century AD Greek traveler Pausanias, this site was central to a torch race dedicated to Prometheus."

The existence of an ancient Greek shrine to Prometheus is also mentioned in the article Prometheus - Worship, Myth, Comparative perspectives, Promethean myth in culture on the website of the U.S. University Directory.

It would, of course, be desirable to learn more about this ancient shrine, if more is known about it, and about any ancient rites to Prometheus, if these are known (besides the torch race). Note that we are NOT Pagan Reconstructionists and hence do NOT necessarily seek to reconstruct the ancient Promethean rites. Nevertheless, it would be good to know about them, if possible, and to incorporate those aspects of the ancient rites that we reasonably can. Can anyone recommend any good sources of info, whether online or offline?

An online source I'm NOT particularly inclined to trust, but I'll mention it anyway, is something called the New World Encyclopedia, run by the Moonies. Their article on Prmetheus says: "As the introducer of fire and inventor of crafts, Prometheus was seen as the patron of human civilization, thus, it is not surprising that he was commemorated to some extent in Greek worship. A small shrine to Prometheus was located in the Kerameikos, or potter's quarter, of Athens, not far from Plato's Academy. As is common in many altars and votive reliefs to Prometheus, he was honored in an altar with Hephaestus. In the Akademia, located just outside of Athens, there stood another altar to Prometheus, from which athletes raced to the city carrying burning torches. The contest involved keeping the torch alight while running; if the torch of the lead runner came to be extinguished, he lost his claim to victory. The festival during which these torch races took place was known as Promethia."

Judging by this article (to whatever extent it is correct), it would seem that in some parts of Greece, Prometheus was regarded as a full-fledged immortal god, but in other places was regarded as just a "hero". The above article goes on to say: "In Argos, the chief city of Argolis in Southern Greece, the citizens kept a tomb of Prometheus and honored him as a dead hero. The city of Opous in Central Greece also claimed to honor a grave of Prometheus." However, in the myths presented in nearly all other sources I've looked at, Prometheus was clearly seen as a full-fledged immortal god, albeit not as one of the main gods (the twelve Olympians).

Another online encyclopedia article about Prometheus can be found on the website Hellenica: Information about Greece and Cyprus by Michael Lahanas. This one has lots of pictures.

Anyhow, one of these days, if/when we have a lot more people and resources than we have now, the hopefully forthcoming Order of Prometheus and/or its associated larger allied spiritual group, devoted to Prometheus, should hold an occasional torch race (by the more athletic folks amongst us) somewhere here in NYC. It would be a fun way to get some publicity, as well as a way to honor Prometheus.

A new agey website of something called the "Global Oneness Foundation" contains an article on Prometheus which lists various modern cultural references to Prometheus. Anong other things, it mentions the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, here in New York City. More info about this statue can be found on the following pages:

• Prometheus -- detalls about the original sculpture and subsequent small-scale replicas, on a website of the Chi Mei Museum of Taiwan
  
• Rockefeller Center - - Statue of Prometheus -- photo on About.com
  
• Wikipedia article on Rockefeller Center
  

That statue is also mentioned in lots of other online sources I won't bother to list. "Conspiracy theorists" have had a field day with it. (Supposedly it proves that the Rockefellers are -- yikes! -- evil Pagans! -- and part of an evil Pagan/occultist/Luciferian/Satanist plot to kill off 80% of the world's population!)

According to the Wikipedia article about Rockefeller Center: "Paul Manship's highly recognizable bronze gilded statue of the Greek legend of the Titan Prometheus recumbent, bringing fire to mankind, features prominently in the sunken plaza at the front of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The model for Prometheus was Leonardo (Leon) Nole, and the inscription from Aeschylus, on the granite wall behind, reads: 'Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.'"

I'll post more later. In the meantime, I'd love it if others could recommend whatever sources they find interesting, on any topic relevant to Prometheus, as seen either in ancient Greece or in the modern West.

I just now came across a treasure trove of online info about Prometheus (as perceived in ancient Greece): The page about Prometheus on the website of the Theoi Project, "a site exploring Greek mythology and the gods in classical literature and art." This page includes lots of quotes from the original ancient Greek sources.

However, it contains no further information about ancient rites to Prometheus, beyond confirmation of various things I've already mentioned in my previous post.

The article Zeus Immortal: The Presence of Zeus in the Modern World, which is mostly about modern-day revivals of the worship of Zeus, plus modern secular traditions rooted in the worship of Zeus, contains the following: "Another ritualistic activity that occurred in both the ancient and modern Olympic Games is the torch relay. The origin of the torch relay ritual lies in the commemoration of Prometheus’ theft of fire from Zeus." This page then gives some further description of the Olympic torch relay in both its ancient and modern versions, and then says: "The antiquated method of lighting the flame through allowing the sun’s rays to reflect on a parabolic mirror is also maintained in the contemporary Olympic Games (Olympic Museum Lausanne 2002: 2)."

On a Yahoo Answers page about how various people today celebrate the summer solstice, I found some information on how some modern Hellenic Reconstructionists celebrate the Promethia, which, according to them, takes place on the summer solstice. For the most part, this ritual is not appropriate for us, since (1) we don't do animal sacrifice, and (2) we're not trying to revive the worship of all the Greek gods. However, we might perhaps borrow some aspects of it. Another mention of the Promethia being celebrated on the summer solstice, by modern Hellentic Reconstructionists, can be found on this page.

It appears, so far, that not much is known about the ancient rites to Prometheus. Even the Reconstructionist "Promethia" festival mentioned above is said to be a "modern practice," i.e. something developed by modern Hellenic Reconstructionists as their best guess as to what the ancient Promethia festival might have been like.

So it looks like we'll need to develop our own rites to Prometheus, without very much reference to ancient sources.

Anyhow, apart from any rituals, I personally feel that the most important ways to honor Prometheus (who "teaches all the arts") in today's world are: (1) Excel at your own artistic or technical skill, whatever it might be, if any. (2) Learn about science, especially those aspects of science that are under political attack in today's world (e.g. evolution, stem cell research, and the scientific consensus on global climate change).

On modern views of Prometheus, and His association with Satan:

The Wikipedia article on Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Prometheus Unbound has a section titled "Satanic hero".

Apparently, lots of poets and literary critics in the early 1800's remarked that that Milton's portrayal of Satan in Paradise List seemed to them at least half sympathetic. The literal portrayal of Satan as a rebel against tyranny is known as "Romantic Satanism." There's now a book about this phenomeneon, Romantic Satanism by Peter A. Schock, with a Kindle edition available on Amazon.

Apparently, though, Percy Bysshe Shelley's wife Mary Shelley was a dissenter from his favorable view of Prometheus. (See Prometheus, "Paradise Lost" and Shelley's "Frankenstein" by Scott A. Boulding.) However, I would point out that an important difference between the Greek myths of Prometheus and Mary Shelley's character of Victor Frankenstein is that Frankenstein promptly abandoned his creature, whereas Prometheus stuck around and taught humans the use of fire and various arts.

George Bernard Shaw wrote, in "On Diabolonian Ethics," a preface to one version of his play The Devil's Disciple (a favorable portrayal of a Devil worshiper): "The Diabolonian position is new to the London playgoer of today, but not to lovers of serious literature. From Prometheus to the Wagnerian Siegfried, some enemy of the gods, unterrified champion of those oppressed by them, has always towered among the heroes of the loftiest poetry." (A complete copy of the text of Shaw's play The Devil's Disciple, including the preface "ON DIABOLONIAN ETHICS," can be found here.)

Here's a collection of The Classics (writings from ancient Greece and Rome) on the Internet Sacred Texts Archive.

I just now ran into a Wikipedia article about the book Lucifer and Prometheus by R.J. Zwi Werblowsky, published in 1952.

As mentioned on my page about the five Rising gods of the modern West: Although most Christians today (other than the Amish) do not oppose science and technology in general, there are some specific areas of science that the more conservative Christians do tend to oppose, such as evolution and embryonic stem cell research.

Here's an interesting Talk to Action post on how the Catholic Church and religious right wing activists have lied about embryonic stem cell research: When the Truth Is Shown to Be Lies by Frank Cocozzelli, Sunday, March 07, 2010.

We mustn't let the sheeple hold us back from scientific research. We should be able to do whatever it takes to defeat disease, and further our knowledge and if that means breaking old taboos, then so be it. The human race has already wasted hundreds of years thanks to those who would have us live in some medieval time trap.

We should use whatever resources are available to us including embryonic stem cells, animals (we also research animal diseases), humans who are terminal (and agree), humans who are dependent on life support (if their immediate family agree), even criminals who could earn sentence reductions in return for being human guinea pigs. The potential benefits far outweigh any "moral" issues.

Satan is enlightenment, and Prometheus is the epitome of discovery. There is no greater justification.

I just now created a new Facebook page about Prometheus.

So far, I've posted links to much of the info also found here in this thread. Hopefully it may attract other people also interested in Prometheus. If you too feel a strong personal connection to Prometheus, then I would appreciate it very much if you too could post on that page and help make it a success.