PART 2 – Ch

PART 2 – Ch.XIV.10

(KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on Atlas Mountain

in the country of the Hyperboreans)

XIV. 10. The legend of Prometheus in Romanian heroic songs. The first version.

If Prometheus, Jove’s rival in wisdom, has been a hero from the parts of Dacia, if the tragic scene, which had moved so much the antiquity, has really taken place in these countries, then this must have had, without doubt, a strong echo in these parts. The traditions about the suffering of this blameless friend of humankind must have been preserved for a long time in the memory of the generations from near the Carpathians and Istru.

The legend of Prometheus was known to Greek antiquity in several versions, all of which preserved various episodes consecrated to the history of this great genius of the Pelasgain times.

One of these versions is represented by the poems of Hesiod .

The titan Prometheus, according to this author, had diminished the rights and honors which the gods believed the humans owed them during their sacrifices.

At the common assembly from Mecone, where the gods and men got together in order to discuss and establish the rights and responsibilities of each part, Prometheus appears as a “rex sacrificulus”, as the great priest of the religious ceremonies.

He chose, he brought and slaughtered the sacrificial bulls. He distributed the meat of the victims between the gods and men, but he made the two parts so well, that the gods ended up with the bones, while the men took the meat and the intestines, things good to eat (Theog. v. 521 seqq; Dies et Opera, v. 50 seqq).

The gods saw they had been tricked by this unequal distribution of the victims.

In his wrath Jove withdrew the use of fire from the humans, so that they won’t be able to boil their food. But Prometheus, always inventive, tricked Jove for a second time, stealing a few sparks of the celestial fire. Now Jove’s ire fell on Prometheus and his creatures. The titan, the friend of mankind, was tied on the middle column of the sky, and all the worldly evils and miseries were sent against the men (hidden in Pandora’s box).

The second legend about the chaining of Prometheus is transmitted by the Greek historian Herodorus of Heraclea, who had lived before Herodotus.

This Herodorus had composed two important works, one about the deeds of Hercules and the other about the expedition of the Argonauts.

According to the tradition found in his work (Fragm. 23 in Frag. Hist. Graec., Ed Didot, II. p. 34), Prometheus had been a king from Scythia. During his reign had happened that the river called Aetos had flooded and had covered the plains with water. And because Prometheus could not give his subjects what they needed in order to live, they had chained him, but Hercules had come, had diverted the river into the sea and had freed Prometheus [1].

[1. According to Hesiod (Theog. v. 507 seq) Atlas and Prometheus had been the sons of Iapet and Clymene, a daughter of Oceanos (Istru), and in Theog. v. 543 he calls Prometheus “the most illustrious among all the kings”.

We could suppose that the name ‘Aetos might refer to the river called today Oituz in Moldova, which springs in Transilvania and flows into Trotus. But the plain of Moldova where the river Oituz flows is too small for its flooding to have such destructive consequences.

It is more probable that the name of this river of Scythia had been altered in order to get a Greek significance in relation to the legend of Prometheus (‘aetos, aquila) and that the original form of the name which this river had in the ancient Greek legends had been ‘Altos, meaning Oltul. In Romanian carols and folk songs the Olt is the river which, when in flood, covers the plains with water on vast areas; it is the river whose sources, according to the poetical ideas of the people, should be dried out (Tocilescu, Materialuri folkloristice, I. 387; Francu, Motii, p.231; Bibicescu, Poesii pop. din Transilvania, p.237; Alexici, Texte, I. 136)].

We find even today these two ancient legends of Hesiod and Herodorus, represented in a certain cycle of heroic Romanian songs.

In the Romanian version Prometheus, the prehistoric hero of this ordeal, has the name of Badiu, Badea and Badu. Badus aner in ancient Greek language had two meanings, of wise man and wealthy man.

The courts of the Romanian hero were across the river Prut, near the long road – the ancient road which passed through the vast deserted areas of Scythia towards Asia. (According to other fragments the princely courts of Badea were in Bucuresci – Tocilescu, Materialuri, I. 511. 512).

As in the legend of Hesiod, Prometheus appears as a great priest who sacrificed, similarly it is said about the Romanian hero that he was a butcher of the Turks and “haham” of the Hebrews (one who cuts the meat by the Judaic rite), and that he had with him fifty butchers, all great boyars and Turks [2].

[2. In heroic songs of old of the Romanian people, which by their contents refer to obscure epochs, events and personalities, are often mentioned battles with the Turks (Turci) and Francs (Franci).

These Turks are not the Osmans, whose invasions at the Danube began only in the 14^th century, but are, as we shall see later, the prehistoric Turks, the Trojans, called by Greek and Roman authors Teuchroi, Teucri, either from their king Teucer, or from the name of a tribe migrated there from Thrace. And under the name of Franci (sing. Frang) must be understood the Phrygians (Phryges)].

Against him rise seven hundred men of Braila, eight thousand Carabineni from Bugeac, who at the same time appear as former friends of the hero.

We do not know the cause of their discontent. These inhabitants of the lower parts of the Danube get hold of the hero and tie him up, not on a mountain peak, but on the column of the chimney, near the blaze of the fire, where is tough for the brave one, until Marcul Vitezul (TN – the brave), the little brother of Badiu, comes along and frees him. Marcul Vitezul represents Mars (Marte) in Romanian heroic songs, the old Pelasgian god of wars and battles, about whom the Getae said that had been born in their country (Jornandis, De reb. Get. C. 5) [3].

[3. The Athenians called promethees the makers of pots, hearths and any object of clay.

Badea of the Romanian songs is also a man rich in gold. But the Turks despise his gold and go on torturing him. This fact is very important. Horatio mentions (Odae, lib. II. 18. 35) that Prometheus, thrown by Jove into hell, could not convince Charon, despite all his gold, to bring him back to the shore of the world of the living].

The departure of Marcul Vitezul to free his brother hero, Badiu, has in the Romanian folk songs a very archaic and really epic character.

(TN – At this point in the original text, the more essential fragments of the heroic cycle about Badiu are presented at length, extracted from the ballad communicated by the teacher of the village Vutcani, Falciu district, and from Teodorescu, Poesii pop. p. 538-540 and Tocilescu, Materialuri folkloristice, Partea I. p. 1245-46, 72).

NEXT