Prometheus and Pandora

Well, since I'm liking subtle names for movies at the moment, I think the name for Prometheus's sequel should be "Pandora".....or at least some fancy Greek name like that, though having seen the movie, in spite of everything I can definitely see the Pandora comparison.....though the first religious/mythological comparison that comes to mind is Eve, of the story of Adam and Eve, point here being that Eve, a woman, was the first one to eat from the Forbidden Fruit....however, all things considered, the Pandora comparison works best.

I think these urns are definitely Pandora's. In the Project Genesis materials, one of the urns is pictured in Shaw's notes (from earth). That means that at some point in human past the story (of the urns) was shown or at least TOLD to our ancestors.

PROMETHEUS was the Titan god (look at the size of them in the movie) of forethought and crafty counsel who was entrusted with the task of moulding mankind out of clay. His attempts to better the lives of his creation (the guy who drank the liquid in the beginning of the movie) brought him into direct conflict with Zeus. Firstly he tricked the gods out of the best portion (the liquid he drank) of the sacrificial feast, acquiring the meat for the feasting of man. Then, when Zeus withheld fire, he stole it from heaven and delivered it to mortal kind hidden inside a fennel-stalk. As punishment for these rebellious acts, Zeus ordered the creation of Pandora (the first woman - "the alien queen") as a means to deliver misfortune into the house of man, or as a way to cheat mankind of the company of the good spirits. Prometheus meanwhile, was arrested and bound to a stake on Mount Kaukasos (sleeping on the moon) where an eagle was set to feed upon his ever-regenerating liver (or, some say, heart). Generations later the great hero Herakles came along and released the old Titan from his torture. PANDORA was the very first woman who was formed out of clay (the gooey liquid) by the gods. The Titan Prometheus had originally been assigned with the task of creating man. But because he was displeased with their lot, stole fire from heaven. Zeus was angered, and commanded Hephaistos and the other gods to create a woman, Pandora, and endow her with the beauty and cunning (alien queen = perfect organism). He then delivered her to Epimetheus, the foolish younger brother of Prometheus, for a bride. When he had received her into his house, Pandora opened the [u]pithos[/u] (storage jar) which Zeus had given her as a wedding present, and released the swarm of evil spirits trapped within. They would ever afterwards plague mankind. Only Elpis (Hope) remained behind, a single blessing to succor mankind in their suffering. Pandora's daughter Pyrrha (Fire) was the first-born mortal child. She and her husband Deukalion alone survived the Great Deluge. To repopulate the earth they each cast stones over their shoulder. Those cast by Deukalion formed men, and those of Pyrrha women. In ancient Greek vase painting Pandora was depicted in the scene of her creation as either a statue-like figure surrounded by gods, or as a woman rising out of the earth (the anodos). Sometimes she is surrounded by dancing Satyroi, in a scene from a lost Satyr-play of Sophokles. anyways i think ridley is totally into greek mythology and he did a nice job imho. this is just some greek mythology facts that almost seem to fit the movie too perfectly. i hope this starts a lively discussion.

pithos & Belial81 - fascinating commentaries. . . . I just read Hesiod and Aeschylus' versions... it is very interesting to compare both to the film. You can read them too, they are all over the web, but I am using Aaron Atsma's Theoi.com website. http://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodTheogony.html Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914. http://www.theoi.com/Text/AeschylusPrometheus.html Aeschylus. Translated by Smyth, Herbert Weir. Loeb Classical Library Volumes 145 & 146. Cambridge, MA. Harvard Universrity Press. 1926. I kind of am skeptical that Scott used Hesiods' version as a source. Mainly because Hesiod seems to be very down on women. For example: [size=50]"For 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. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies – even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil."[/size] I wouldn't expect the auteur of Thelma and Louise to want this kind of thing to find it's way into any of his other works. Let's compare with Aeschylus' version. First, it's easier to read because it's a play written in a more modern style, with characters and dialogue. Aeschylus barely mentions Pandora. Instead, Prometheus says that he himself gave hope to mankind - why and how? "CHORUS Did you perhaps transgress even somewhat beyond this offence? PROMETHEUS Yes, I caused mortals to cease foreseeing their death. CHORUS Of what sort was the cure that you found for this affliction? PROMETHEUS I caused blind hopes to dwell within their breasts. " Second, Aeschylus' Prometheus doesn't just give fire to the humans. He gives them astronomy, mathematics, carpentry, animal husbandry, etc etc etc. Thirdly, Aeschylus' Prometheus doesn't just do it for fun or to smite Zeus. In fact, he does it to save the human race from extinction - which is Zeus's desire. Check this out "As soon as he had seated himself upon his father's throne, he immediately assigned to the deities their several privileges and apportioned to them their proper powers. But of wretched mortals he took no notice, desiring to bring the whole race to an end and create a new one in its place. Against this purpose none dared make stand except me—I only had the courage; I saved mortals so that they did not descend, blasted utterly, to the house of Hades. This is why I am bent by such grievous tortures, painful to suffer, piteous to behold." ... "They had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but dwelt beneath the ground like swarming ants, in sunless caves. They had no sign either of winter or of flowery spring or of fruitful summer, on which they could depend but managed everything without judgment" So essentially, Prometheus gives man the constructs of civilization (agriculture, math, writing, medicine, 'divination') to save man from his own ignorance. For some reason, to me, these features of Aeschylus really 'ring' when thinking of them in context of the film. --- An interesting aside. I notice others on this board have discussed the links between the film and Sumerian mythology, especially Gilgamesh searching for the secret of eternal life, meeting the Gods, and being rejected by them. An interesting myth from Sumeria that doesn't seem to get mentioned much, but parallells Prometheus in some strange ways, is that of Inanna taking from the god Enki the roots of civilization ("Divine Powers", or "Mes", like art, medicine, etc) and bringing them to the people of her city. You can read a version of this from the The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL), a project of the University of Oxford,Faculty of Oriental Studies, translated by "JAB" et al. It's entitled "Inana and Enki" http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.1.3.1# The funny thing about this story is that Enki is a god who dwells in the city Uridu -- Uridu is also a city that one of the pictograms in the film came from, you can see it during Holloway's briefing presentation. Maybe its just a coincidence, but I find it rather amusing.