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141-435: The caves of Khvamli feature in the 14th-century Georgian chronicle as the abode of treasures of the kings of Georgia. A local legend also makes Prometheus enchained to the bluffs of Khvamli, being perpetually tortured by a raven. The Tekenteri cave is located at 1,400 metres (4,593 ft) above sea level . Its only entrance—the hole of a large beech tree—has no bottom but the karst sinkhole 18 metres (59 ft) deep, with

282-485: A constellation and the rock, according to the 18th-century scholar Prince Vakhushti , was named so because of its height. The "royal treasures" (სამეფო საჭურჭლე, samep'o sach'urch'le ) hidden in the caves of Khvamli (Khomli) is mentioned by the 14th-century anonymous Georgian Chronicle of a Hundred Years in connection with the division of the Kingdom of Georgia between the two cousins, David VI and David VII , during

423-544: A cult to Prometheus himself is not widespread. He was a focus of religious activity mainly at Athens , where he was linked to Athena and Hephaestus , who were the Greek deities of creative skills and technology. In the Western classical tradition , Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving (particularly the quest for scientific knowledge) and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences . In particular, he

564-404: A philosophy that assumed there were innate differences between "civilized" and "uncivilized" peoples. "Civilization" can also refer to the culture of a complex society, not just the society itself. Every society, civilization or not, has a specific set of ideas and customs, and a certain set of manufactures and arts that make it unique. Civilizations tend to develop intricate cultures, including

705-636: A state -based decision-making apparatus, a literature , professional art , architecture , organized religion and complex customs of education , coercion and control associated with maintaining the elite. The intricate culture associated with civilization has a tendency to spread to and influence other cultures, sometimes assimilating them into the civilization, a classic example being Chinese civilization and its influence on nearby civilizations such as Korea , Japan and Vietnam Many civilizations are actually large cultural spheres containing many nations and regions. The civilization in which someone lives

846-467: A "civilized" way of living. In the 19th century, the idea of European culture as "civilized" and superior to "uncivilized" non-European cultures was fully developed, and civilization became a core part of European identity. The idea of civilization can also be used as a justification for dominating another culture and dispossessing a people of their land. For example, in Australia , British settlers justified

987-561: A Greek gem roughly dated to the time of the Hesiod poems, which show Prometheus with hands bound behind his body and crouching before a bird with long wings. This same image would also be used later in the Rome of the Augustan age as documented by Furtwangler . In the often cited and highly publicised interview between Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers on Public Television, the author of The Hero with

1128-458: A Thousand Faces presented his view on the comparison of Prometheus and Jesus . Moyers asked Campbell the question in the following words, "In this sense, unlike heroes such as Prometheus or Jesus, we're not going on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves." To which Campbell's well-known response was that, "But in doing that, you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. The world without spirit

1269-450: A characteristic of early civilizations. This " urban revolution "—a term introduced by Childe in the 1930s—from the 4th millennium BCE, marked the beginning of the accumulation of transferable economic surpluses , which helped economies and cities develop. Urban revolutions were associated with the state monopoly of violence , the appearance of a warrior , or soldier, class and endemic warfare (a state of continual or frequent warfare),

1410-404: A civilization as a complex system , i.e., a framework by which a group of objects can be analysed that work in concert to produce some result. Civilizations can be seen as networks of cities that emerge from pre-urban cultures and are defined by the economic, political, military, diplomatic, social and cultural interactions among them. Any organization is a complex social system and a civilization

1551-537: A civilization has often been understood as a larger and "more advanced" culture , in implied contrast to smaller, supposedly less advanced cultures. In this broad sense, a civilization contrasts with non-centralized tribal societies, including the cultures of nomadic pastoralists , Neolithic societies, or hunter-gatherers ; however, sometimes it also contrasts with the cultures found within civilizations themselves. Civilizations are organized densely-populated settlements divided into hierarchical social classes with

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1692-444: A complex recording system consisting of knotted strings of different lengths and colours: the " Quipus ", and still functioned as a civilized society. Aided by their division of labour and central government planning, civilizations have developed many other diverse cultural traits. These include organized religion , development in the arts, and countless new advances in science and technology. Assessments of what level of civilization

1833-614: A continuing debate among scholars of comparative religion and the literary reception of mythological and religious subject matter as to whether the typology of suffering and torment represented in the Prometheus myth finds its more representative comparisons with the narratives of the Hebrew scriptures or with the New Testament narratives. In the Book of Job , significant comparisons can be drawn between

1974-539: A critic to construct an Aeschylean theology would be as quixotic as designing a typology of Aeschylean man. The needs of the drama prevail." In a rare comparison of Prometheus in Aeschylus with Oedipus in Sophocles, Harold Bloom states that "Freud called Oedipus an 'immoral play,' since the gods ordained incest and parricide. Oedipus therefore participates in our universal unconscious sense of guilt, but on this reading so do

2115-470: A critical threshold where collapse is inevitable. Politically associated with over-reach, and as a result of the environmental exhaustion and polarization of wealth between rich and poor, he concludes the current system is fast arriving at a situation where continuation of the existing system saddled with huge deficits and a hollowed-out economy is physically, socially, economically and politically impossible. Although developed in much more depth, Berman's thesis

2256-423: A cruciform manner, possibly reflecting an Aeschylus-inspired manner of influence, again with an eagle and with Heracles approaching from the side. Some two dozen other Greek and Roman authors retold and further embellished the Prometheus myth from as early as the 5th century BC ( Diodorus , Herodorus ) into the 4th century AD. The most significant detail added to the myth found in, e.g., Sappho , Aesop and Ovid

2397-436: A day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste" ( 44–47 ). Hesiod also adds more information to Theogony ' s story of the first woman, a maiden crafted from earth and water by Hephaestus now explicitly called Pandora (" all gifts ") ( 82 ). Zeus in this case gets the help of Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes,

2538-676: A division of labour and a more diverse range of human activity, a defining trait of civilizations. However, in some places hunter-gatherers have had access to food surpluses, such as among some of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest and perhaps during the Mesolithic Natufian culture . It is possible that food surpluses and relatively large scale social organization and division of labour predates plant and animal domestication. Civilizations have distinctly different settlement patterns from other societies. The word civilization

2679-466: A dramatist revisiting the myth of Prometheus in the age of Athenian prominence has been discussed by William Lynch. Lynch's general thesis concerns the rise of humanist and secular tendencies in Athenian culture and society which required the growth and expansion of the mythological and religious tradition as acquired from the most ancient sources of the myth stemming from Hesiod. For Lynch, modern scholarship

2820-450: A few other religious sites in Greece devoted to Prometheus. Both Argos and Opous claimed to be Prometheus' final resting place, each erecting a tomb in his honour. The Greek city of Panopeus had a cult statue that was supposed to honour Prometheus for having created the human race there. Prometheus' torment by the eagle and his rescue by Heracles were popular subjects in vase paintings of

2961-472: A key role in bringing Zeus to power, he also attributed to him secret knowledge that could lead to Zeus's downfall: Prometheus had been told by his mother Themis , who in the play is identified with Gaia (Earth), of a potential marriage that would produce a son who would overthrow Zeus. Fragmentary evidence indicates that Heracles, as in Hesiod, frees the Titan in the trilogy's second play, Prometheus Unbound . It

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3102-433: A lake of cold, clean water. A water stream stemming from it flows through a horizontal passage to form a waterfall, judging by noises from the depths. There are many metal buckets and pitchers floating in the lake, suggesting that cave water had been used by locals for many years. Khvamli is located in the western portion of the historical Georgian province of Lechkhumi . The name of Khvamli stems for an old Georgian word for

3243-542: A mountainside – though the rest of his career is dissimilar to that of Prometheus. The three most prominent aspects of the Prometheus myth have parallels within the beliefs of many cultures. "The Prometheus myth of creation as a visual symbol of the Neoplatonic concept of human nature, illustrated in (many) sarcophagi , was evidently a contradiction of the Christian teaching of the unique and simultaneous act of creation by

3384-685: A new approach was developed, especially in Germany, first by Johann Gottfried Herder and later by philosophers such as Kierkegaard and Nietzsche . This sees cultures as natural organisms, not defined by "conscious, rational, deliberative acts", but a kind of pre-rational "folk spirit". Civilization, in contrast, though more rational and more successful in material progress, is unnatural and leads to "vices of social life" such as guile, hypocrisy, envy and avarice. In World War II , Leo Strauss , having fled Germany, argued in New York that this opinion of civilization

3525-580: A polity has reached are based on comparisons of the relative importance of agricultural as opposed to trading or manufacturing capacities, the territorial extensions of its power, the complexity of its division of labour , and the carrying capacity of its urban centres . Secondary elements include a developed transportation system, writing, standardized measurement, currency, contractual and tort -based legal systems, art, architecture, mathematics, scientific understanding, metallurgy , political structures, and organized religion. The idea of civilization implies

3666-417: A progression or development from a previous "uncivilized" state. Traditionally, cultures that defined themselves as "civilized" often did so in contrast to other societies or human groupings viewed as less civilized, calling the latter barbarians , savages , and primitives . Indeed, the modern Western idea of civilization developed as a contrast to the indigenous cultures European settlers encountered during

3807-430: A rock, and each of them received punishment for the gift which they bestowed to humankind, for Jesus this was the gift of propitiation from Heaven, and, for Prometheus this was the gift of fire from Olympus. Significantly, Campbell is also clear to indicate the limits of applying the metaphors of his methodology in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces too closely in assessing the comparison of Prometheus and Jesus. Of

3948-518: A ruling elite and subordinate urban and rural populations, which engage in intensive agriculture , mining , small-scale manufacture and trade . Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings. The word civilization relates to the Latin civitas or ' city '. As the National Geographic Society has explained it: "This

4089-556: A sarcophagus of the Church at Mas d'Aire as well, and in an even more direct comparison to what Raggio refers to as "a coarsely carved relief from Campli ( Teramo ) (where) the Lord sits on a throne and models the body of Adam, exactly like Prometheus". Still another such similarity is found in the example found on a Hellenistic relief presently in the Louvre in which the Lord gives life to Eve through

4230-587: A son greater than the father – Achilles , Greek hero of the Trojan War . Pseudo-Apollodorus moreover clarifies a cryptic statement (1026–29) made by Hermes in Prometheus Bound , identifying the centaur Chiron as the one who would take on Prometheus' suffering and die in his place. Reflecting a myth attested in Greek vase paintings from the Classical period, Pseudo-Apollodorus places the Titan (armed with an axe) at

4371-455: A species of developed humanity is capable". This "unified culture" concept of civilization also influenced the theories of historian Arnold J. Toynbee in the mid-twentieth century. Toynbee explored civilization processes in his multi-volume A Study of History , which traced the rise and, in most cases, the decline of 21 civilizations and five "arrested civilizations". Civilizations generally declined and fell, according to Toynbee, because of

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4512-411: A surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as artificial fertilization , irrigation and crop rotation . It is possible but more difficult to accumulate horticultural production, and so civilizations based on horticultural gardening have been very rare. Grain surpluses have been especially important because grain can be stored for a long time. Research from

4653-517: A vertical and a horizontal piece of wood to produce fire by friction. The oldest record of Prometheus is in Hesiod , but stories of theft of fire by a trickster figure are widespread around the world. Some other aspects of the story resemble the Sumerian myth of Enki (or Ea in later Babylonian mythology), who was also a bringer of civilization who protected humanity against the other gods, including during

4794-513: Is a large organization. Systems theory helps guard against superficial and misleading analogies in the study and description of civilizations. Systems theorists look at many types of relations between cities, including economic relations, cultural exchanges and political/diplomatic/military relations. These spheres often occur on different scales. For example, trade networks were, until the nineteenth century, much larger than either cultural spheres or political spheres. Extensive trade routes, including

4935-507: Is a subject of both ancient and modern culture . Zeus , king of the Olympian gods , condemned Prometheus to eternal torment for his transgression. Prometheus was bound to a rock, and an eagle—the emblem of Zeus—was sent to eat his liver (in ancient Greece, the liver was thought to be the seat of human emotions). His liver would then grow back overnight, only to be eaten again the next day in an ongoing cycle. According to several major versions of

5076-454: Is a wasteland. People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules [...] No, no! Any world is a valid world if it's alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself." For Campbell, Jesus suffered mortally on the Cross while Prometheus suffered eternally while chained to

5217-453: Is any complex society characterized by the development of the state , social stratification , urbanization , and symbolic systems of communication beyond signed or spoken languages (namely, writing systems and graphic arts ). Civilizations include features such as agriculture , architecture , infrastructure , technological advancement , currency , taxation , regulation , and specialization of labour . Historically,

5358-569: Is apparently not until Prometheus reveals this secret of Zeus's potential downfall that the two reconcile in the final play, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer or Prometheus Pyrphoros , a lost tragedy by Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound also includes two mythic innovations of omission. The first is the absence of Pandora 's story in connection with Prometheus' own. Instead, Aeschylus includes this one oblique allusion to Pandora and her jar that contained Hope (252): "[Prometheus] caused blind hopes to live in

5499-436: Is believed by some archaeologists to be the oldest known town in present-day Europe. The 8.2 Kiloyear Arid Event and the 5.9 Kiloyear Inter-pluvial saw the drying out of semiarid regions and a major spread of deserts . This climate change shifted the cost-benefit ratio of endemic violence between communities, which saw the abandonment of unwalled village communities and the appearance of walled cities, seen by some as

5640-625: Is hampered by not having the full trilogy of Prometheus by Aeschylus, the last two parts of which have been lost to antiquity. Significantly, Lynch further comments that although the Prometheus trilogy is not available, the Orestia trilogy by Aeschylus remains available and may be assumed to provide significant insight into the overall structural intentions which may be ascribed to the Prometheus trilogy by Aeschylus as an author of significant consistency and exemplary dramatic erudition. Harold Bloom , in his research guide for Aeschylus, has summarised some of

5781-405: Is presented as superior to merely natural instincts ( physis ). For Plato, only the virtues of "reverence and justice can provide for the maintenance of a civilised society – and these virtues are the highest gift finally bestowed on men in equal measure". The ancients by way of Plato believed that the name Prometheus derived from the Greek prefix pro - (before) + manthano (intelligence) and

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5922-454: Is seen living on Mount Olympus after the end of his long torture, apparently having reconciled with the other gods. He is presented not as the dauntless rebel who questioned Zeus, but rather as a timid god who goes to negotiate with the titular Birds disguised, so that Zeus will not notice him talking to the enemy. Zahhak , an evil figure in Iranian mythology , also ends up eternally chained on

6063-410: Is similar in some ways to that of Urban Planner, Jane Jacobs who argues that the five pillars of United States culture are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism and

6204-409: Is sometimes defined as "living in cities". Non-farmers tend to gather in cities to work and to trade. Compared with other societies, civilizations have a more complex political structure, namely the state . State societies are more stratified than other societies; there is a greater difference among the social classes. The ruling class , normally concentrated in the cities, has control over much of

6345-569: Is that Hephaestus split Zeus's head to allow Athena's birth, that story has also been told of Prometheus. A variant tradition makes Prometheus the son of Hera like Hephaestus. According to that version, the Giant Eurymedon raped Hera when she was young, and she had Prometheus. After Zeus married Hera, he threw Eurymedon into Tartarus and punished Prometheus in Caucasus, using the theft of fire as an excuse. Ancient artists depict Prometheus wearing

6486-558: Is that person's broadest cultural identity. It is precisely the protection of this cultural identity that is becoming increasingly important nationally and internationally. According to international law, the United Nations and UNESCO try to set up and enforce relevant rules. The aim is to preserve the cultural heritage of humanity and also the cultural identity, especially in the case of war and armed conflict. According to Karl von Habsburg , President of Blue Shield International ,

6627-496: Is the key indicator in determining the extent of a civilization. David Wilkinson has proposed that economic and military-diplomatic integration of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations resulted in the creation of what he calls the "Central Civilization" around 1500 BCE. Central Civilization later expanded to include the entire Middle East and Europe, and then expanded to a global scale with European colonization, integrating

6768-461: Is the key to his religious significance and to the alignment with Athena and Hephaestus that was specific to Athens and its "unique degree of cultic emphasis" on honouring technology . The festival of Prometheus was the Prometheia (τὰ Προμήθεια). The wreaths worn symbolised the chains of Prometheus. There is a pattern of resemblances between Hephaestus and Prometheus. Although the classical tradition

6909-552: Is why the most basic definition of the word civilization is 'a society made up of cities.'" The earliest emergence of civilizations is generally connected with the final stages of the Neolithic Revolution in West Asia , culminating in the relatively rapid process of urban revolution and state formation , a political development associated with the appearance of a governing elite. The English word civilization comes from

7050-574: The Journal of Political Economy contradicts the surplus model. It postulates that horticultural gardening was more productive than cereal farming. However, only cereal farming produced civilization because of the appropriability of yearly harvest. Rural populations that could only grow cereals could be taxed allowing for a taxing elite and urban development. This also had a negative effect on rural population, increasing relative agricultural output per farmer. Farming efficiency created food surplus and sustained

7191-496: The Protagoras as an important contributor to the early development of the Prometheus myth. Raggio indicates that many of the more challenging and dramatic assertions which Aeschylean tragedy explores are absent from Plato's writings about Prometheus. As summarised by Raggio, After the gods have moulded men and other living creatures with a mixture of clay and fire, the two brothers Epimetheus and Prometheus are called to complete

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7332-574: The Archaic and Classical periods seems to have been limited. Writing in the 2nd century AD, the satirist Lucian points out that while temples for the major Olympians were everywhere, none for Prometheus is to be seen. Athens was the exception; here Prometheus was worshipped alongside Athena and Hephaestus . The altar of Prometheus in the grove of the Academy was the point of origin for several significant processions and other events regularly observed on

7473-568: The Athenian calendar . For the Panathenaic festival , arguably the most important civic festival at Athens, a torch race began at the altar, which was located outside the sacred boundary of the city, and passed through the Kerameikos , the district inhabited by potters and other artisans who regarded Prometheus and Hephaestus as patrons. The race then travelled to the heart of the city, where it kindled

7614-512: The Graces and the Hours ( 59–76 ). After Prometheus steals the fire, Zeus sends Pandora in retaliation. Despite Prometheus' warning, Epimetheus accepts this "gift" from the gods ( 89 ). Pandora carried a jar with her from which were released mischief and sorrow, plague and diseases ( 94–100 ). Pandora shuts the lid of the jar too late to contain all the evil plights that escaped, but Hope is left trapped in

7755-803: The Neolithic and Mesolithic stage of the cultures of many of the peoples they encountered. Nonetheless, developments in the Neolithic stage, such as agriculture and sedentary settlement, were critical to the development of modern conceptions of civilization. The Natufian culture in the Levantine corridor provides the earliest case of a Neolithic Revolution, with the planting of cereal crops attested from c. 11,000 BCE. The earliest neolithic technology and lifestyle were established first in Western Asia (for example at Göbekli Tepe , from about 9,130 BCE), later in

7896-566: The Royal Cemetery at Ur is suggested was traded northwards from Mozambique. Many theorists argue that the entire world has already become integrated into a single " world system ", a process known as globalization . Different civilizations and societies all over the globe are economically, politically, and even culturally interdependent in many ways. There is debate over when this integration began, and what sort of integration – cultural, technological, economic, political, or military-diplomatic –

8037-643: The Silk Road through Central Asia and Indian Ocean sea routes linking the Roman Empire , Persian Empire , India and China, were well established 2000 years ago when these civilizations scarcely shared any political, diplomatic, military, or cultural relations. The first evidence of such long-distance trade is in the ancient world . During the Uruk period , Guillermo Algaze has argued that trade relations connected Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and Afghanistan. Resin found later in

8178-574: The Titanomachy , securing victory for Zeus and the other Olympians. Zeus' torture of Prometheus thus becomes a particularly harsh betrayal. The scope and character of Prometheus' transgressions against Zeus are also widened. In addition to giving humanity fire, Prometheus claims to have taught them the arts of civilisation, such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science. The Titan's greatest benefaction for humanity seems to have been saving them from complete destruction. In an apparent twist on

8319-482: The Trinity ." This Neoplatonism of late Roman antiquity was especially stressed by Tertullian who recognised both difference and similarity of the biblical deity with the mythological figure of Prometheus. The imagery of Prometheus and the creation of man used for the purposes of the representation of the creation of Adam in biblical symbolism is also a recurrent theme in the artistic expression of late Roman antiquity. Of

8460-552: The Yellow River and Yangtze basins in China (for example the Peiligang and Pengtoushan cultures), and from these cores spread across Eurasia. Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest civilizations developing from 7,400 years ago. This area has been evaluated by Beverley Milton-Edwards as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history including the invention of

8601-427: The agent suffix - eus , thus meaning "Forethinker". In his dialogue titled Protagoras , Plato contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother Epimetheus , "Afterthinker". In Plato's dialogue Protagoras , Protagoras asserts that the gods created humans and all the other animals, but it was left to Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to give defining attributes to each. As no physical traits were left when

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8742-668: The silurian hypothesis , however, considers whether it would "be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record" given the paucity of geological information about eras before the quaternary . Astronomers speculate about the existence of communicating with intelligent civilizations within and beyond the Milky Way galaxy, usually using variants of the Drake equation . They conduct searches for such intelligences – such as for technological traces, called " technosignatures ". The proposed proto-scientific field " xenoarchaeology "

8883-549: The titans in general, and like other titans, was punished for his opposition. As an advocate for humanity he gains semi-divine status at Athens, where the episode in Theogony in which he is liberated is interpreted by Casanova as a post-Hesiodic interpolation. According to the German classicist Karl-Martin Dietz , in Hesiod's scriptures, Prometheus represents the "descent of mankind from

9024-634: The "true clash of civilizations" between the Muslim world and the West is caused by the Muslim rejection of the West's more liberal sexual values, rather than a difference in political ideology, although they note that this lack of tolerance is likely to lead to an eventual rejection of (true) democracy. In Identity and Violence Sen questions if people should be divided along the lines of a supposed "civilization", defined by religion and culture only. He argues that this ignores

9165-567: The 1760s, again from French. The first known use in French is in 1757, by Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau , and the first use in English is attributed to Adam Ferguson , who in his 1767 Essay on the History of Civil Society wrote, "Not only the individual advances from infancy to manhood but the species itself from rudeness to civilisation". The word was therefore opposed to barbarism or rudeness, in

9306-633: The 1840s yielded no result. Khvamli also housed a church of St. George probably built in the 12th or 13th century, of which only ruins remain. Digs in 1910 revealed a medieval Georgian stone inscription recording the name of the church's donor, Ioane, eristavi ("duke") of the Svans . Of a series of legends, the one identifying Khvamli as the site of punishment of Prometheus, or his local counterpart, Amirani , feature in some 19th-century European travel accounts and even found its way in Jules Verne 's Kéraban

9447-503: The 18th century, civilization was not always seen as an improvement. One historically important distinction between culture and civilization is from the writings of Rousseau , particularly his work about education, Emile . Here, civilization, being more rational and socially driven, is not fully in accord with human nature , and "human wholeness is achievable only through the recovery of or approximation to an original discursive or pre-rational natural unity" (see noble savage ). From this,

9588-456: The 19th century were taller than their "civilized" American and European counterparts. The average stature of a population is a good measurement of the adequacy of its access to necessities, especially food, and its freedom from disease. Writing , developed first by people in Sumer , is considered a hallmark of civilization and "appears to accompany the rise of complex administrative bureaucracies or

9729-470: The 6th to 4th centuries BC. He also sometimes appears in depictions of Athena's birth from Zeus' forehead. There was a relief sculpture of Prometheus with Pandora on the base of Athena's cult statue in the Athenian Parthenon of the 5th century BC. A similar rendering is also found at the great altar of Zeus at Pergamon from the second century BC. The event of the release of Prometheus from captivity

9870-632: The Americas, Australia, China and Japan by the nineteenth century. According to Wilkinson, civilizations can be culturally heterogeneous, like the Central Civilization, or homogeneous, like the Japanese civilization. What Huntington calls the "clash of civilizations" might be characterized by Wilkinson as a clash of cultural spheres within a single global civilization. Others point to the Crusading movement as

10011-510: The European colonization of the Americas and Australia. The term "primitive," though once used in anthropology , has now been largely condemned by anthropologists because of its derogatory connotations and because it implies that the cultures it refers to are relics of a past time that do not change or progress. Because of this, societies regarding themselves as "civilized" have sometimes sought to dominate and assimilate "uncivilized" cultures into

10152-423: The French civilisé ('civilized'), from Latin : civilis ('civil'), related to civis ('citizen') and civitas ('city'). The fundamental treatise is Norbert Elias 's The Civilizing Process (1939), which traces social mores from medieval courtly society to the early modern period . In The Philosophy of Civilization (1923), Albert Schweitzer outlines two opinions: one purely material and

10293-444: The German word Kultur , "culture", for what many call a "civilization". Spengler believed a civilization's coherence is based on a single primary cultural symbol. Cultures experience cycles of birth, life, decline, and death, often supplanted by a potent new culture, formed around a compelling new cultural symbol. Spengler states civilization is the beginning of the decline of a culture as "the most external and artificial states of which

10434-498: The Greek hero Heracles , with Zeus' permission, killed the eagle and freed Prometheus from this torment ( 521–529 ). Hesiod revisits the story of Prometheus and the theft of fire in Works and Days ( 42–105 ). In it the poet expands upon Zeus's reaction to Prometheus' deception. Not only does Zeus withhold fire from humanity, but "the means of life" as well ( 42 ). Had Prometheus not provoked Zeus's wrath, "you would easily do work enough in

10575-545: The Inflexible , which mentions "the rock of Khomli, overlooking Koutais , to which Prometheus was bound, and where the vultures eternally feed upon his entrails as a punishment for having stolen the bolts of heaven". Another local legend explains the alternating course of the nearby Verdzistava spring with the movement of an immortal dragon living in the caves of Khvamli. There is also a holiday called Khvamloba celebrated in nearby villages on July 20. Archaeological surveys of

10716-622: The Khvamli area in the 2000s was a focus of coverage by the Georgian media, which also ran stories about alleged Nazi and Soviet KGB covert operations in search of the Georgian royal treasure. The territory of Khvamli is a protected area in Georgia and borders with the Tvishi dam, which is projected to serve the proposed Namakhvani Hydro Power Plant cascade. In 2011, environmental groups expressed fears that

10857-455: The New Testament narratives and the Greek mythological narratives remains at the limiting level of the cataclysmic eternal struggle of the eschatological New Testament narratives occurring only at the very end of the biblical narratives in the Apocalypse of John (12:7) where, "Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there

10998-467: The Olympian: a selection of beef hidden inside an ox's stomach (nourishment hidden inside a displeasing exterior), and the bull's bones wrapped completely in "glistening fat" (something inedible hidden inside a pleasing exterior). Zeus chose the latter, setting a precedent for future sacrifices ( 556–557 ). Henceforth, humans would keep that meat for themselves and burn the bones wrapped in fat as an offering to

11139-710: The Titanomachy epic and the account of events in Hesiod; and that the Titanomachy may be the source of later variants of the Prometheus myth not found in Hesiod, notably the non-Hesiodic material found in the Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus . The two major authors to have an influence on the development of the myths and legends surrounding the Titan Prometheus during the Socratic era of greater Athens were Aeschylus and Plato . The two men wrote in highly distinctive forms of expression which for Aeschylus centered on his mastery of

11280-523: The active pursuit of progress characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment . In the late 1700s and early 1800s, during the French Revolution , "civilization" was used in the singular , never in the plural, and meant the progress of humanity as a whole. This is still the case in French. The use of "civilizations" as a countable noun was in occasional use in the 19th century, but has become much more common in

11421-458: The amount of energy a civilization is able to harness. The scale is only hypothetical, but it puts energy consumption in a cosmic perspective. The Kardashev scale makes provisions for civilizations far more technologically advanced than any currently known to exist. The current scientific consensus is that human beings are the only animal species with the cognitive ability to create civilizations that has emerged on Earth. A recent thought experiment,

11562-649: The birth of Athena , thus explaining how the goddess sprang forth from the forehead of Zeus. Other minor details attached to the myth include: the duration of Prometheus' torment; the origin of the eagle that ate the Titan's liver (found in Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus); Pandora's marriage to Epimetheus (found in Pseudo-Apollodorus); myths surrounding the life of Prometheus' son, Deucalion (found in Ovid and Apollonius of Rhodes ); and Prometheus' marginal role in

11703-532: The collapse of civilization. Some focus on historical examples, and others on general theory. According to political scientist Samuel P. Huntington , the 21st century will be characterized by a clash of civilizations , which he believes will replace the conflicts between nation-states and ideologies that were prominent in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, this viewpoint been strongly challenged by others such as Edward Said , Muhammed Asadi and Amartya Sen . Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris have argued that

11844-462: The communion with the gods into the present troublesome life". The Titanomachy is a lost epic of the cosmological struggle between the Greek gods and their parents, the Titans, and, in addition to the works of Hesiod , is a probable source of the Prometheus myth. Its reputed author was anciently supposed to have lived in the 8th century BC, but M. L. West has argued that it can't be earlier than

11985-524: The conquest state". Traders and bureaucrats relied on writing to keep accurate records. Like money, the writing was necessitated by the size of the population of a city and the complexity of its commerce among people who are not all personally acquainted with each other. However, writing is not always necessary for civilization, as shown by the Inca civilization of the Andes, which did not use writing at all but except for

12126-721: The critical attention that has been applied to Aeschylus concerning his general philosophical import in Athens. As Bloom states, "Much critical attention has been paid to the question of theodicy in Aeschylus. For generations, scholars warred incessantly over 'the justice of Zeus,' unintentionally blurring it with a monotheism imported from Judeo-Christian thought. The playwright undoubtedly had religious concerns; for instance, Jacqueline de Romilly suggests that his treatment of time flows directly out of his belief in divine justice. But it would be an error to think of Aeschylus as sermonising. His Zeus does not arrive at decisions which he then enacts in

12267-505: The culminating narratives corresponding to Easter Sunday . The symbolic import for comparative religion would maintain that suffering related to justified conduct is redeemed in both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament narratives, while in Prometheus there remains the image of a non-forgiving deity, Zeus, who nonetheless requires reverence. Civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English )

12408-597: The destruction of cultural assets is also part of psychological warfare. The target of the attack is often the opponent's cultural identity, which is why symbolic cultural assets become a main target. It is also intended to destroy the particularly sensitive cultural memory (museums, archives, monuments, etc.), the grown cultural diversity, and the economic basis (such as tourism) of a state, region or community. Many historians have focused on these broad cultural spheres and have treated civilizations as discrete units. Early twentieth-century philosopher Oswald Spengler , uses

12549-628: The development of state structures, in which power was further monopolized by an elite ruling class who practiced human sacrifice. Towards the end of the Neolithic period, various elitist Chalcolithic civilizations began to rise in various "cradles" from around 3600 BCE beginning with Mesopotamia , expanding into large-scale kingdoms and empires in the course of the Bronze Age ( Akkadian Empire , Indus Valley Civilization , Old Kingdom of Egypt , Neo-Sumerian Empire , Middle Assyrian Empire , Babylonian Empire , Hittite Empire , and to some degree

12690-747: The displacement of Indigenous Australians by observing that the land appeared uncultivated and wild, which to them reflected that the inhabitants were not civilized enough to "improve" it. The behaviours and modes of subsistence that characterize civilization have been spread by colonization , invasion , religious conversion , the extension of bureaucratic control and trade , and by the introduction of new technologies to cultures that did not previously have them. Though aspects of culture associated with civilization can be freely adopted through contact between cultures, since early modern times Eurocentric ideals of "civilization" have been widely imposed upon cultures through coercion and dominance. These ideals complemented

12831-409: The early Iron Age , contemporary civilizations developed money as a medium of exchange for increasingly complex transactions. In a village, the potter makes a pot for the brewer and the brewer compensates the potter by giving him a certain amount of beer. In a city, the potter may need a new roof, the roofer may need new shoes, the cobbler may need new horseshoes, the blacksmith may need a new coat and

12972-478: The energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities" and considers slavery to be a common feature of pre-modern civilizations. All civilizations have depended on agriculture for subsistence, with the possible exception of some early civilizations in Peru which may have depended upon maritime resources. The traditional "surplus model" postulates that cereal farming results in accumulated storage and

13113-438: The failure of a "creative minority", through moral or religious decline, to meet some important challenge, rather than mere economic or environmental causes. Samuel P. Huntington defines civilization as "the highest cultural grouping of people and the broadest level of cultural identity people have short of that which distinguishes humans from other species". Another group of theorists, making use of systems theory , looks at

13254-479: The first step in globalization. The more conventional viewpoint is that networks of societies have expanded and shrunk since ancient times , and that the current globalized economy and culture is a product of recent European colonialism . The notion of human history as a succession of "civilizations" is an entirely modern one. In the European Age of Discovery , emerging Modernity was put into stark contrast with

13395-485: The food surplus through decreasing rural population growth in favour of urban growth. Suitability of highly productive roots and tubers was in fact a curse of plenty, which prevented the emergence of states and impeded economic development. A surplus of food permits some people to do things besides producing food for a living: early civilizations included soldiers , artisans , priests and priestesses, and other people with specialized careers. A surplus of food results in

13536-500: The form of technology, knowledge and, more generally, civilization . In some versions of the myth , he is also credited with the creation of humanity from clay . Prometheus is known for his intelligence and for being a champion of mankind and is also generally seen as the author of the human arts and sciences. He is sometimes presented as the father of Deucalion , the hero of the flood story . The punishment of Prometheus for stealing fire from Olympus and giving it to humans

13677-474: The four symbols of suffering associated with Jesus after his trial in Jerusalem (i) the crown of thorns, (ii) the scourge of whips, (iii) the nailing to the Cross, and (iv) the spearing of his side, it is only this last one which bears some resemblance to the eternal suffering of Prometheus' daily torment of an eagle devouring a replenishing organ, his liver, from his side. For Campbell, the striking contrast between

13818-467: The gods" [...] "I sometimes wish that Freud had turned to Aeschylus instead, and given us the Prometheus complex rather than the Oedipus complex." Karl-Martin Dietz states that in contrast to Hesiod's, in Aeschylus' oeuvre, Prometheus stands for the "Ascent of humanity from primitive beginnings to the present level of civilisation." Olga Raggio , in her study "The Myth of Prometheus", attributes Plato in

13959-407: The gods. This angered Zeus, who hid fire from humans in retribution. In this version of the myth, the use of fire was already known to humans, but withdrawn by Zeus. Prometheus stole fire back from Zeus in a fennel stalk and restored it to humanity ( 565–566 ). This further enraged Zeus, who sent the first woman to live with humanity ( Pandora , not explicitly mentioned). The woman, a "shy maiden",

14100-456: The great flood, as well as created man from clay. While the theory lost favour in the 20th century that Prometheus descends from the Vedic fire bringer Mātariśvan , it was suggested in the 19th century and is still supported by some. The first recorded account of the Prometheus myth appeared in the late 8th-century BC Greek epic poet Hesiod 's Theogony ( 507–616 ). In that account, Prometheus

14241-409: The growing gulf between rich and poor. Cultural critic and author Derrick Jensen argues that modern civilization is directed towards the domination of the environment and humanity itself in an intrinsically harmful, unsustainable, and self-destructive fashion. Defending his definition both linguistically and historically, he defines civilization as "a culture... that both leads to and emerges from

14382-671: The growth of cities", with "cities" defined as "people living more or less permanently in one place in densities high enough to require the routine importation of food and other necessities of life". This need for civilizations to import ever more resources, he argues, stems from their over-exploitation and diminution of their own local resources. Therefore, civilizations inherently adopt imperialist and expansionist policies and, to maintain these, highly militarized, hierarchically structured, and coercion-based cultures and lifestyles. The Kardashev scale classifies civilizations based on their level of technological advancement, specifically measured by

14523-609: The hearts of men." Second, Aeschylus makes no mention of the sacrifice-trick played against Zeus in the Theogony . The four tragedies of Prometheus attributed to Aeschylus, most of which are lost to the passages of time into antiquity, are Prometheus Bound ( Prometheus Desmotes ), Prometheus Unbound ( Lyomenos ), Prometheus the Fire Bringer ( Pyrphoros ), and Prometheus the Fire Kindler ( Pyrkaeus ). The larger scope of Aeschylus as

14664-455: The imposition of his two fingers on her eyes recalling the same gesture found in earlier representations of Prometheus. In Georgian mythology, Amirani is a cultural hero who challenged the chief god and, like Prometheus, was chained on the Caucasian mountains where birds would eat his organs. This aspect of the myth had a significant influence on the Greek imagination. It is recognisable from

14805-477: The jar because Zeus forces Pandora to seal it up before Hope can escape ( 96–99 ). Casanova (1979), finds in Prometheus a reflection of an ancient, pre-Hesiodic trickster -figure, who served to account for the mixture of good and bad in human life, and whose fashioning of humanity from clay was an Eastern motif familiar in Enuma Elish . As an opponent of Zeus, the titan Prometheus can be seen as characteristic of

14946-408: The land. Because a percentage of people in civilizations do not grow their own food, they must trade their goods and services for food in a market system, or receive food through the levy of tribute , redistributive taxation , tariffs or tithes from the food producing segment of the population. Early human cultures functioned through a gift economy supplemented by limited barter systems. By

15087-449: The late 7th century BC. Presumably included in the Titanomachy is the story of Prometheus, himself a Titan, who managed to avoid being in the direct confrontational cosmic battle between Zeus and the other Olympians against Cronus and the other Titans (although there is no direct evidence of Prometheus' inclusion in the epic). M. L. West notes that surviving references suggest that there may have been significant differences between

15228-539: The later 20th century, sometimes just meaning culture (itself in origin an uncountable noun, made countable in the context of ethnography ). Only in this generalized sense does it become possible to speak of a "medieval civilization", which in Elias's sense would have been an oxymoron. Using the terms "civilization" and "culture" as equivalents are controversial and generally rejected so that for example some types of culture are not normally described as civilizations. Already in

15369-448: The literary form of Greek tragedy, while for Plato this centered on the philosophical expression of his thought in the form of the various dialogues he wrote during his lifetime. Prometheus Bound , perhaps the most famous treatment of the myth to be found among the Greek tragedies , is traditionally attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus . At the centre of the drama are

15510-575: The living standards of the populace. For example, although the Middle Ages is often portrayed as an era of decline from the Roman Empire, studies have shown that the average stature of males in the Middle Ages (c. 500 to 1500 CE) was greater than it was for males during the preceding Roman Empire and the succeeding Early Modern Period (c. 1500 to 1800 CE). Also, the Plains Indians of North America in

15651-563: The many others identities that make up people and leads to a focus on differences. Cultural Historian Morris Berman argues in Dark Ages America: the End of Empire that in the corporate consumerist United States, the very factors that once propelled it to greatness―extreme individualism, territorial and economic expansion, and the pursuit of material wealth―have pushed the United States across

15792-609: The mortal world; rather, human events are themselves an enactment of divine will." According to Thomas Rosenmeyer , regarding the religious import of Aeschylus, "In Aeschylus, as in Homer, the two levels of causation, the supernatural and the human, are co-existent and simultaneous, two ways of describing the same event." Rosenmeyer insists that ascribing portrayed characters in Aeschylus should not conclude them to be either victims or agents of theological or religious activity too quickly. As Rosenmeyer states: "[T]he text defines their being. For

15933-561: The myth of Jason and the Argonauts (found in Apollonius of Rhodes and Valerius Flaccus ). "Variants of legends containing the Prometheus motif are widespread in the Caucasus " region, reports Hunt, who gave ten stories related to Prometheus from ethno-linguistic groups in the region. Prometheus finally makes an appearance in Athenian playwright Aristophanes 's comedy The Birds , where he

16074-521: The myth of the so-called Five Ages of Man found in Hesiod's Works and Days (wherein Cronus and, later, Zeus created and destroyed five successive races of humanity), Prometheus asserts that Zeus had wanted to obliterate the human race, but that he somehow stopped him. Moreover, Aeschylus anachronistically and artificially injects Io , another victim of Zeus's violence and ancestor of Heracles, into Prometheus' story. Finally, just as Aeschylus gave Prometheus

16215-519: The myth, most notably that of Hesiod , Prometheus was eventually freed by the hero Heracles . In yet more symbolism, the struggle of Prometheus is located by some at Mount Elbrus or at Mount Kazbek , two volcanic promontories in the Caucasus Mountains beyond which for the ancient Greeks lay the realm of the barbari . In another myth, Prometheus establishes the form of animal sacrifice practiced in ancient Greek religion . Evidence of

16356-475: The other material and ethical . He said that the world crisis was from humanity losing the ethical idea of civilization, "the sum total of all progress made by man in every sphere of action and from every point of view in so far as the progress helps towards the spiritual perfecting of individuals as the progress of all progress". Related words like "civility" developed in the mid-16th century. The abstract noun "civilization", meaning "civilized condition", came in

16497-431: The pair came to humans, Prometheus decided to give them fire and other civilising arts. It is understandable that since Prometheus was considered a Titan (distinct from an Olympian) that there would be an absence of evidence, with the exception of Athens, for the direct religious devotion to his worship. Despite his importance to the myths and imaginative literature of ancient Greece, the religious cult of Prometheus during

16638-626: The period of the Mongol hegemony in 1259. The two Davids divided the lands and vassal nobles, but from the Khomli treasure only certain articles were taken, of which the share falling to David VI was "the famous chain of diamonds, the superb jewel cut in the form of an anvil and a great pearl, of which the like was never seen". Much of the treasure, the chronicle states, remained hidden in the caves. The 19th-century French historian Marie-Félicité Brosset reports that excavations made at Khvamli by Prince Dadiani in

16779-512: The pointed cap of an artist or artisan, like Hephaestus, and also the crafty hero Odysseus . The artisan's cap was also depicted as worn by the Cabeiri , supernatural craftsmen associated with a mystery cult known in Athens in classical times, and who were associated with both Hephaestus and Prometheus. Kerényi suggests that Hephaestus may in fact be the "successor" of Prometheus, despite Hephaestus being himself of archaic origin. Pausanias recorded

16920-602: The project might have a negative impact on the Khvamli Planned Managed Reserve. Prometheus In Greek mythology , Prometheus ( / p r ə ˈ m iː θ i ə s / ; Ancient Greek : Προμηθεύς , [promɛːtʰéu̯s] , possibly meaning " forethought ") is one of the Titans and a god of fire . Prometheus is best known for defying the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and giving it to humanity in

17061-498: The rapid development of hierarchies , and the use of human sacrifice . The civilized urban revolution in turn was dependent upon the development of sedentism , the domestication of grains, plants and animals, the permanence of settlements and development of lifestyles that facilitated economies of scale and accumulation of surplus production by particular social sectors. The transition from complex cultures to civilizations , while still disputed, seems to be associated with

17202-516: The relatively rare expressions found of the creation of Adam in those centuries of late Roman antiquity, one can single out the so-called "Dogma sarcophagus" of the Lateran Museum where three figures (commonly taken to represent the theological trinity) are seen in making a benediction to the new man. Another example is found where the prototype of Prometheus is also recognisable in the early Christian era of late Roman antiquity. This can be found upon

17343-458: The results of Prometheus' theft of fire and his current punishment by Zeus . The playwright's dependence on the Hesiodic source material is clear, though Prometheus Bound also includes a number of changes to the received tradition. It has been suggested by M.L. West that these changes may derive from the now lost epic Titanomachy . Before his theft of fire, Prometheus played a decisive role in

17484-531: The sacrificial fire on the altar of Athena on the Acropolis to conclude the festival. These footraces took the form of relays in which teams of runners passed off a flaming torch. According to Pausanias (2nd century AD), the torch relay, called lampadedromia or lampadephoria , was first instituted at Athens in honour of Prometheus. By the Classical period, the races were run by ephebes also in honour of Hephaestus and Athena. Prometheus' association with fire

17625-594: The surplus and exercises its will through the actions of a government or bureaucracy . Morton Fried , a conflict theorist and Elman Service , an integration theorist, have classified human cultures based on political systems and social inequality . This system of classification contains four categories. Economically, civilizations display more complex patterns of ownership and exchange than less organized societies. Living in one place allows people to accumulate more personal possessions than nomadic people. Some people also acquire landed property , or private ownership of

17766-443: The sustained suffering of Job in comparison to that of eternal suffering and torment represented in the Prometheus myth. With Job, the suffering is at the acquiescence of heaven and at the will of the demonic, while in Prometheus the suffering is directly linked to Zeus as the ruler of Olympus. The comparison of the suffering of Jesus after his sentencing in Jerusalem is limited to the three days, from Thursday to Saturday, and leading to

17907-486: The tanner may need a new pot. These people may not be personally acquainted with one another and their needs may not occur all at the same time. A monetary system is a way of organizing these obligations to ensure that they are fulfilled. From the days of the earliest monetarized civilizations, monopolistic controls of monetary systems have benefited the social and political elites. The transition from simpler to more complex economies does not necessarily mean an improvement in

18048-493: The task and distribute among the newly born creatures all sorts of natural qualities. Epimetheus sets to work but, being unwise, distributes all the gifts of nature among the animals, leaving men naked and unprotected, unable to defend themselves and to survive in a hostile world. Prometheus then steals the fire of creative power from the workshop of Athena and Hephaistos and gives it to mankind. Raggio then goes on to point out Plato's distinction of creative power ( techne ), which

18189-800: The territorial expansions of the Elamites , Hurrians , Amorites and Ebla ). Outside the Old World, development took place independently in the Pre-Columbian Americas . Urbanization in the Caral-Supe civilization in coastal Peru began about 3500 BCE. In North America, the Olmec civilization emerged about 1200 BCE; the oldest known Mayan city, located in Guatemala, dates to about 750 BCE. and Teotihuacan in Mexico

18330-432: The thief of fire. The Vedic myth of fire's theft by Mātariśvan is an analogue to the Greek account. Pramant was the fire-drill, the tool used to create fire. The suggestion that Prometheus was in origin the human "inventor of the fire-sticks, from which fire is kindled" goes back to Diodorus Siculus in the first century BC. The reference is again to the "fire-drill", a worldwide primitive method of fire making using

18471-613: The variant name of Ithas, and adds "whom others call Ithax", and describes him as the Herald of the Titans. Kerényi remarks that these names are "not transparent", and may be different readings of the same name, while the name "Prometheus" is descriptive. It has also been theorised that it derives from the Proto-Indo-European root that also produces the Vedic pra math , "to steal", hence pramathyu-s , "thief", cognate with "Prometheus",

18612-512: The wheel, the building of the earliest cities and the development of written cursive script". Similar pre-civilized "neolithic revolutions" also began independently from 7,000 BCE in northwestern South America (the Caral-Supe civilization ) and in Mesoamerica . The Black Sea area served as a cradle of European civilization. The site of Solnitsata – a prehistoric fortified ( walled ) stone settlement (prehistoric proto-city ) (5500–4200 BCE) –

18753-498: The world, incorporating earlier cultures into the technological and industrial society of the present. Civilizations are traditionally understood as ending in one of two ways; either through incorporation into another expanding civilization (e.g. as Ancient Egypt was incorporated into Hellenistic Greek, and subsequently Roman civilizations), or by collapsing and reverting to a simpler form of living, as happens in so-called Dark Ages. There have been many explanations put forward for

18894-562: Was a son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene or Asia , one of the Oceanids . He was brother to Menoetius , Atlas , and Epimetheus . Hesiod, in Theogony , introduces Prometheus as a lowly challenger to Zeus 's omniscience and omnipotence. In the trick at Mecone ( 535–544 ), a sacrificial meal marking the "settling of accounts" between mortals and immortals, Prometheus played a trick against Zeus. He placed two sacrificial offerings before

19035-506: Was behind Nazism and German militarism and nihilism . Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society. Civilizations have been distinguished by their means of subsistence, types of livelihood , settlement patterns, forms of government , social stratification , economic systems, literacy and other cultural traits. Andrew Nikiforuk argues that "civilizations relied on shackled human muscle. It took

19176-507: Was fashioned by Hephaestus out of clay and Athena helped to adorn her properly ( 571–574 ). Hesiod writes, "From her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth" ( 590–594 ). For his crimes, Prometheus was punished by Zeus, who bound him with chains and sent an eagle to eat Prometheus' immortal liver every day, which then grew back every night. Years later,

19317-512: Was frequently revisited on Attic and Etruscan vases between the sixth and fifth centuries BC. In the depiction on display at the Museum of Karlsruhe and in Berlin , the depiction is that of Prometheus confronted by a menacing large bird (assumed to be the eagle) with Heracles approaching from behind shooting his arrows at it. In the fourth century this imagery was modified to depicting Prometheus bound in

19458-464: Was no longer any place for them in heaven." This eschatological and apocalyptic setting of a Last Judgement is in precise contrast to the Titanomachia of Hesiod which serves its distinct service to Greek mythology as its Prolegomenon , bracketing all subsequent mythology, including the creation of humanity, as coming after the cosmological struggle between the Titans and the Olympian gods. It remains

19599-754: Was one of the largest cities in the world in 350 CE, with a population of about 125,000. The Bronze Age collapse was followed by the Iron Age around 1200 BCE, during which a number of new civilizations emerged, culminating in a period from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE which Karl Jaspers termed the Axial Age , presented as a critical transitional phase leading to classical civilization . A major technological and cultural transition to modernity began approximately 1500 CE in Western Europe , and from this beginning new approaches to science and law spread rapidly around

19740-510: Was regarded in the Romantic era as embodying the lone genius whose efforts to improve human existence could also result in tragedy: Mary Shelley , for instance, gave The Modern Prometheus as the subtitle to her novel Frankenstein (1818). The etymology of the theonym prometheus is debated. The usual view is that it signifies "forethought", as that of his brother Epimetheus denotes "afterthought". Hesychius of Alexandria gives Prometheus

19881-523: Was the central role of Prometheus in the creation of the human race. According to these sources, Prometheus fashioned humans out of clay. Although perhaps made explicit in the Prometheia , later authors such as Hyginus , the Bibliotheca , and Quintus of Smyrna would confirm that Prometheus warned Zeus not to marry the sea nymph Thetis . She is consequently married off to the mortal Peleus , and bears him

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