The Creation Of Humanity

The Creation of Humanity

(the creation of humans, the Day of Fire, Prometheus' punishment)

The Gods were bored and needed something to do, something to provide them with entertainment. So Zeus set the Gods to work - having them each mold the creatures to populate the Earth with. They quickly busied themselves with their jobs, and soon all of the Earth's creatures were formed.

Next the creatures needed abilities - something to set them apart from others and give them a fighting chance of survival, after all, it wouldn't be very entertaining if they all died of within a couple hundred years. For this job, Prometheus was chosen. Prometheus is the Titan God of forethought, making him very suited for the job of ensuring species' survival. However, Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus (Titan God of afterthought), wanted a chance to prove himself and asked to do Prometheus' job, promising that he would let him inspect his work before they presented it to the rest of the Gods.

Prometheus begrudgingly agreed and Epimetheus began his work, taking great care with the abilities he gives to the creatures. Once he had finished his job he proudly showed his handiwork to his brother. Prometheus was pleasantly surprised, until he noticed a neglected figure that hadn't been given any abilities. He turned to his brother, asking him about the creature. Distraught at his mistake, Epimetheus admitted that he didn't have any abilities left to give to the creature - the 'human being'. There was no time to make amends and the creatures were presented to the rest of the Gods, who - delighted with their creations - populated the Earth with the various species.

It was immediately clear that humanity would not survive very long, their lack of abilities put their species at a huge disadvantage. Despite them being doomed to extinction, Prometheus felt a strong affinity towards human beings and realised that they needed a unique ability to survive as a species. And so he gave them one.

It came down like a lightning bolt, and suddenly the previously helpless humans were gifted Promethean intelligence.

Their newfound intelligence allowed humans to develop speech and spread survival techniques amongst themselves. The rest of the Gods naturally assumed that intelligence was humanity's ability. The Gods realised that due to their intelligence, human beings could fear the future.

And of course, the Gods were doing this for entertainment, so they made it so humans had to offer sacrifices to the Gods and ask them for the future to turn out the way they wanted. In order to give sacrifices they needed to have fire. Prometheus realised this quickly and convinced Zeus to allow humans to have fire in exchange for a portion of the human's sacrifices. Zeus declared that 'this is the Day of Fire,' adding that 'What is done today is final.'

Prometheus is given the task of separating the portions of the sacrifice for the Gods to decide which sections would be offered to the Gods. Prometheus wraps all of the best bits of meat in the cow's stomach, giving it the appearance of haggis. Next he covered the skeleton with fat and put the hide back on it. Zeus picks the skeleton.

When he realised he had been tricked Zeus was enraged. As punishment for Prometheus' deception, he took the fire away from the humans, wanting Prometheus to have to watch the humans he loves so dearly die out. Prometheus still wanted to help humanity to survive, so he broke into Hephaestus' workshop in a last ditch effort. He stole fire from the workshop, hiding it in the stalk of a fennel plant. Once he gave human beings fire, they celebrated and danced all night, overjoyed at the gift of fire. No matter what the Gods wanted to do, what was done that day was final.

Safe to say, Zeus is pissed. Prometheus is bound with chains forged by Hephaestus. He's dragged down from Mount Olympus and the chains binding him are driven into a rock. Everyday an eagle ate his liver. Overnight his liver regenerated and his body healed only for the eagle to come back again the next day.

And so he was stuck in his cruel punishment until 30,000 years later when Heracles is tasked with killing the eagle that has been tormenting Prometheus. He succeeds and Prometheus is left bound and naked, but at least the worst part of his punishment was over.

Years later, Prometheus negotiated with Zeus, offering him information on his and Thetis' future son in exchange for his freedom. At Mount Olympus Prometheus is made to wear a garland around his head, as a constant reminder of his chains.

His job was done - humanity was well and truly alive.

I have an unpopular opinion: Some of you care too much about what’s “disrespectful” to the Gods in others’ practice. 

“Calling Gods by nicknames is disrespectful!”, “being casual with Gods is disrespectful!”, “liking modern media about Gods is disrespectful!’, etc. etc. etc. It’s usually utterly safe practices that hurt no one - but are deemed unseemly because they’re not by the book, because they’re modernized, or because they’re subjectively misinterpreted. 

Look. Sometimes people practice in ways that aren’t familiar to you. If it’s ahistorical and they claim it’s the gospel truth, you can call it out. If it’s appropriated and they can’t use it, then call it out. But loudly proclaiming something as invalid because of your utterly specific, subjective distaste? Sounds like reinvented cringe culture to me. 

Also. Even if something is disrespectful in Gods’ eyes, I do believe They have all the power in the world to let the person know they’re making a genuine mistake or purposefully insulting Them. Get off that high horse of authority; if someone’s doing something wrong, it’s their consequences - not yours. 

there's... something in praying and slowly starting to feel like one of your hands is being held as you whisper sincere words to the world, to yourself, to the gods

ηλιόλουστος (ilióloustos) - sun-drenched, sun-soaked, sun-bathed; sunny.

no matter how important your deity is, remember it's okay to say no. you don't automatically have to do what they say, you're allowed to question and refuse. it's genuinely very healthy to exercise this.

Making a helpol poll (mouthful) because I'm curious -

Please reblog I really am curious what other people do :) + feel free to elaborate if you want <3