PART
2 – Ch.XIV.14
(KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on
in
the country of the Hyperboreans)
XIV.
14. The legend of Prometheus in history.
The name of Prometheus,
under which appears in Greek legends this ancient representative of Pelasgian
civilization, was just a simple epithet characteristic of the qualities of his
mind and soul.
(In Eschyl’s “Prometheus vinctus”, v. 85,
the divinity Kratos addresses Prometheus: “The gods call you Prometheus with a false name”).
The word Prometheu in its original form had only
the meaning of: the first in mind, brainy man, wise, with deep understanding.
Exactly as the
country of Prometheus was in the regions of
The origin of the
word is northern Pelasgian. In Romanian traditions this term has been still
preserved under the form of “Preminte”,
but applied to a biblical personality: “Preminte
Solomon”, meaning Solomon the most wise (Sezatoarea,
Flaticeni, An. III. 84. 110; V. 4. 49).
So the Greek form
of Prometheus
(Lat. Providus) appears only as a modification of the primitive Pelasgian word
“Preminte”, having preserved
nevertheless a similar meaning, although somewhat different. In Greek language
the words Prometheus and promethes had the primary meaning of
clear sighted, or seeing in advance (providus) and only
its secondary meaning was that of “wise
man” (Fulgentius, Myth. II. 9).
The legends of
Prometheus, these religious, historic and poetic traditions, present a
particular interest for the countries from the Carpathians and the
According to the
traditions of antiquity, Prometheus was the representative of the entire state
of culture in the Stone Age and the beginning of the epoch of metals.
He was the man with
the deepest understanding. Prometheus taught mankind to build dwellings in the
light of the sun. He taught man how to use the power of animals. He made from
the divine element of fire the most powerful agent of human civilization. He
found the way to overcome the obstacles presented by waters, sending the
sailing ships on the expansive surface of the seas. He introduced the knowledge
and use of metals. He discovered many secrets of nature. He discovered the
occult properties of plants, in order to combat the evils which attack man’s
organism (Aeschyl, Prometheus
vinctus, v. 447 seqq). He tried to know, by the art of divination, the secrets
of the future and fate. Even more. Prometheus tried to influence even the
spirit of man. He created new types of humans from earth and water, and even
tried to give them life, which, as the sacred books of Pelasgian theology said,
he succeeded (Apollodorus, Bibl. I.
7. 1). So that the Hebrew legend according to which Jehova had formed man from earth, gave him soul and wisdom, appears
only as a copy of a much older legend about the creation of man by Prometheus.
But what presents a
positive value for science is that, according to all these sacred legends which
form the Promethean cycle, the beginnings of the awakening of the human genus,
the entire state of culture, anterior to the Trojan and Pharaonic times, are
owed to this illustrious representative of the northern countries of Thrace.
Here, at the
Carpathians and the