BULFINCH’S MYTHOLOGY

THE AGE OF FABLE

OR STORIES OF GODS AND HEROES

by Thomas Bulfinch

[1855]

CHAPTER II

PROMETHEUS AND PANDORA

THE creation of the world is a problem naturally fitted to excite the liveliest
interest of man, its inhabitant. The ancient pagans, not having the information
on the subject which we derive from the pages of Scripture, had their own way
of telling the story, which is as follows:

Before earth and sea and heaven were created, all things wore one aspect, to
which we give the name of Chaos- a confused and shapeless mass, nothing but dead
weight, in which, however, slumbered the seeds of things. Earth, sea, and air
were all mixed up together; so the earth was not solid, the sea was not fluid,
and the air was not transparent. God and Nature at last interposed, and put an
end to this discord, separating earth from sea, and heaven from both. The fiery
part, being the lightest, sprang up, and formed the skies; the air was next in
weight and place. The earth, being heavier, sank below; and the water took the
lowest place, and buoyed up the earth.

Here some god- it is not known which- gave his good offices in arranging and
disposing the earth. He appointed rivers and bays their places, raised mountains,
scooped out valleys, distributed woods, fountains, fertile fields. and stony plains.
The air being cleared, the stars began to appear, fishes took possession of the
sea, birds of the air, and four-footed beasts of the land.

But a nobler animal was wanted, and Man was made. It is not known whether the
creator made him of divine materials, or whether in the earth, so lately separated
from heaven, there lurked still some heavenly seeds. Prometheus took some of this
earth, and kneading it up with water, made man in the image of the gods. He gave
him an upright stature, so that while all other animals turn their faces downward,
and look to the earth, he raises his to heaven, and gazes on the stars.

Prometheus was one of the Titans, a gigantic race, who inhabited the earth
before the creation of man. To him and his brother Epimetheus was committed the
office of making man, and providing him and all other animals with the faculties
necessary for their preservation. Epimetheus undertook to do this, and Prometheus
was to overlook his work, when it was done. Epimetheus accordingly proceeded to
bestow upon the different animals the various gifts of courage, strength, swiftness,
sagacity; wings to one, claws to another, a shelly covering to a third, etc. But
when man came to be provided for, who was to be superior to all other animals,
Epimetheus had been so prodigal of his resources that he had nothing left to bestow
upon him. In his perplexity he resorted to his brother Prometheus, who, with the
aid of Minerva, went up to heaven, and lighted his torch at the chariot of the
sun. and brought down fire to man. With this gift man was more than a match for
all other animals. It enabled him to make weapons wherewith to subdue them; tools
with which to cultivate the earth; to warm his dwelling, so as to be comparatively
independent of climate; and finally to introduce the arts and to coin money, the
means of trade and commerce.

Woman was not yet made. The story (absurd enough!) is that Jupiter made her,
and sent her to Prometheus and his brother, to punish them for their presumption
in stealing fire from heaven; and man, for accepting the gift. The first woman
was named Pandora. She was made in heaven, every god contributing something to
perfect her. Venus gave her beauty, Mercury persuasion, Apollo music, etc. Thus
equipped, she was conveyed to earth, and presented to Epimetheus, who gladly accepted
her, though cautioned by his brother to beware of Jupiter and his gifts. Epimetheus
had in his house a jar, in which were kept certain noxious articles for which,
in fitting man for his new abode, he had had no occasion. Pandora was seized with
an eager curiosity to know what this jar contained; and one day she slipped off
the cover and looked in. Forthwith there escaped a multitude of plagues for hapless
man,- such as gout, rheumatism, and colic for his body, and envy, spite, and revenge
for his mind,- and scattered themselves far and wide. Pandora hastened to replace
the lid! but, alas! the whole contents of the jar had escaped, one thing only
excepted, which lay at the bottom, and that was hope. So we see at this day, whatever
evils are abroad, hope never entirely leaves us; and while we have that, no amount
of other ills can make us completely wretched.

Another story is that Pandora was sent in good faith, by Jupiter, to bless
man; that she was furnished with a box containing her marriage presents, into
which every god had put some blessing, She opened the box incautiously, and the
blessings all escaped, hope only excepted. This story seems more probable than
the former; for how could hope, so precious a jewel as it is, have been kept in
a jar full of all manner of evils, as in the former statement?

The world being thus furnished with inhabitants, the first age was an age of
innocence and happiness, called the Golden Age. Truth and right prevailed, though
not enforced by law, nor was there any magistrate to threaten or punish. The forest
had not yet been robbed of its trees to furnish timbers for vessels, nor had men
built fortifications round their towns. There were no such things as swords, spears,
or helmets. The earth brought forth all things necessary for man, without his
labour in ploughing or sowing, Perpetual spring reigned, flowers sprang up without
seed, the rivers flowed with milk and wine, and yellow honey distilled from the
oaks.

Then succeeded the Silver Age, inferior to the golden, but better than that
of brass. Jupiter shortened the spring, and divided the year into seasons. Then,
first, men had to endure the extremes of heat and cold, and houses became necessary.
Caves were the first dwellings, and leafy coverts of the woods, and huts woven
of twigs. Crops would no longer grow without planting. The farmer was obliged
to sow the seed, and the toiling ox to draw the plough.

Next came the Brazen Age, more savage of temper, and readier to the strife
of arms, yet not altogether wicked. The hardest and worst was the Iron Age. Crime
burst in like a flood; modesty, truth, and honour fled. In their places came fraud
and cunning, violence, and the wicked love of gain. Then seamen spread sails to
the wind, and the trees were torn from the mountains to serve for keels to ships,
and vex the face of the ocean. The earth, which till now had been cultivated in
common, began to be divided off into possessions. Men were not satisfied with
what the surface produced, but must dig into its bowels, and draw forth from thence
the ores of metals. Mischievous iron, and more mischievous gold, were produced.
War sprang up, using both as weapons; the guest was not safe in his friend’s house;
and sons-in-law and fathers-in-law, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives,
could not trust one another. Sons wished their fathers dead, that they might come
to the inheritance; family love lay prostrate. The earth was wet with slaughter,
and the gods abandoned it, one by one, till Astraea* alone was left, and finally
she also took her departure.

* The goddess of innocence and purity. After leaving earth, she was placed
among the stars, where she became the constellation Virgo- the Virgin. Themis
(Justice) was the mother of Astraea. She is represented as holding aloft a pair
of scales, in which she weighs the claims of opposing parties.

It was a favourite idea of the old poets that these goddesses would one day
return, and bring back the Golden Age. Even in a Christian hymn, the “Messiah”
of Pope, this idea occurs:

“All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail,
Returning Justice lift aloft her scale,
Peace o’er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed Innocence from heaven descend.”

See, also, Milton’s “Hymn on the Nativity,” stanzas xiv. and xv.

Jupiter, seeing this state of things, burned with anger. He summoned the gods
to council. They obeyed the call, and took the road to the palace of heaven. The
road, which any one may see in a clear night, stretches across the face of the
sky, and is called the Milky Way. Along the road stand the palaces of the illustrious
gods; the common people of the skies live apart, on either side. Jupiter addressed
the assembly. He set forth the frightful condition of things on the earth, and
closed by announcing his intention to destroy the whole of its inhabitants, and
provide a new race, unlike the first, who would be more worthy of life, and much
better worshippers of the gods. So saying he took a thunderbolt, and was about
to launch it at the world, and destroy it by burning; but recollecting the danger
that such a conflagration might set heaven itself on fire, he changed his plan,
and resolved to drown it. The north wind, which scatters the clouds, was chained
up; the south was sent out, and soon covered all the face of heaven with a cloak
of pitchy darkness. The clouds, driven together, resound with a crash; torrents
of rain fall; the crops are laid low; the year’s labour of the husbandman perishes
in an hour. Jupiter, not satisfied with his own waters, calls on his brother Neptune
to aid him with his. He lets loose the rivers, and pours them over the land. At
the same time, he heaves the land with an earthquake, and brings in the reflux
of the ocean over the shores. Flocks, herds, men, and houses are swept away, and
temples, with their sacred enclosures, profaned. If any edifice remained standing,
it was overwhelmed, and its turrets lay hid beneath the waves. Now all was sea,
sea without shore. Here and there an individual remained on a projecting hilltop,
and a few, in boats, pulled the oar where they had lately driven the plough. The
fishes swim among the tree-tops; the anchor is let down into a garden. Where the
graceful lambs played but now. unwieldy sea calves gambol. The wolf swims among
the sheep, the yellow lions and tigers struggle in the water. The strength of
the wild boar serves him not, nor his swiftness the stag. The birds fall with
weary win, into the water, having found no land for a resting-place. Those living
beings whom the water spared fell a prey to hunger.

Parnassus alone, of all the mountains, overtopped the waves; and there Deucalion,
and his wife Pyrrha, of the race of Prometheus, found refuge- he a just man, and
she a faithful worshipper of the gods. Jupiter, when he saw none left alive but
this pair, and remembered their harmless lives and pious demeanour, ordered the
north winds to drive away the clouds, and disclose the skies to earth, and earth
to the skies. Neptune also directed Triton to blow on his shell, and sound a retreat
to the waters. The waters obeyed, and the sea returned to its shores, and the
rivers to their channels. Then Deucalion thus addressed Pyrrha: “O wife, only
surviving woman, joined to me first by the ties of kindred and marriage, and now
by a common danger, would that we possessed the power of our ancestor Prometheus,
and could renew the race as he at first made it! But as we cannot, let us seek
yonder temple, and inquire of the gods what remains for us to do.” They entered
the temple, deformed as it was with slime, and approached the altar, where no
fire burned. There they fell prostrate on the earth, and prayed the goddess to
inform them how they might retrieve their miserable affairs. The oracle answered,
“Depart from the temple with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast behind
you the bones of your mother.” They heard the words with astonishment. Pyrrha
first broke silence: “We cannot obey; we dare not profane the remains of our parents.”
They sought the thickest shades of the wood, and revolved the oracle in their
minds. At length Deucalion spoke: “Either my sagacity deceives me, or the command
is one we may obey without impiety. The earth is the great parent of all; the
stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; and I think this is what the
oracle means. At least, it will do no harm to try.” They veiled their faces, unbound
their garments, and picked up stones, and cast them behind them. The stones (wonderful
to relate) began to grow soft, and assume shape. By degrees, they put on a rude
resemblance to the human form, like a block half finished in the hands of the
sculptor. The moisture and slime that were about them became flesh; the stony
part became bones; the veins remained veins, retaining their name, only changing
their use. Those thrown by the hand of the man became men, and those by the woman
became women. It was a hard race, and well adapted to labour, as we find ourselves
to be at this day, giving plain indications of our origin.

The comparison of Eve to Pandora is too obvious to have escaped Milton, who
introduces it in Book IV. of “Paradise Lost”:

“More lovely than Pandora, whom the gods
Endowed with all their gifts; and O, too like
In sad event, when to the unwiser son
Of Japhet brought by Hermes, she insnared
Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged
On him who had stole Jove’s authentic fire.”

Prometheus and Epimetheus were sons of Iapetus, which Milton changes to Japhet.

Prometheus has been a favourite subject with the poets. He is represented as
the friend of mankind, who interposed in their behalf when Jove was incensed against
them, and who taught them civilization and the arts. But as, in so doing, he transgressed
the will of Jupiter, he drew down on himself the anger of the ruler of gods and
men. Jupiter had him chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture preyed
on his liver, which was renewed as fast as devoured. This state of torment might
have been brought to an end at any time by Prometheus, if he had been willing,
to submit to his oppressor; for he possessed a secret which involved the stability
of Jove’s throne, and if he would have revealed it, he might have been at once
taken into favour. But that he disdained to do. He has therefore become the symbol
of magnanimous endurance of unmerited suffering, and strength of will resisting
oppression.

Byron and Shelley have both treated this theme. The following are Byron’s lines:

“Titan! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity’s recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain;
All that the proud can feel of pain;
The agony they do not show;
The suffocating sense of woe.
“Thy godlike crime was to be kind;
To render with thy precepts less
The sum of human wretchedness,
And strengthen man with his own mind.
And, baffled as thou wert from high,
Still, in thy patient energy
In the endurance and repulse
Of thine impenetrable spirit,
Which earth and heaven could not convulse,
A mighty lesson we inherit.”

Byron also employs the same allusion, in his “Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte”:

“Or, like the thief of fire from heaven,
Wilt thou withstand the shock?
And share with him- the unforgiven-
His vulture and his rock?”