Prometheus complex
“Prometheus in Greek means ‘the fore-thinker’, a man with ‘foresight’. The name derives from the Indo-European root ‘man’, extended to ‘man-dh’, a semanteme containing the idea of thought, wisdom, and reflection. In this respect Prometheus is opposed to his brother Epimetheus (‘hindsight’), the clumsy character who does not think until after the event.” — Caroline Corbeau-Parsons [1]
Paul Manship’s artwork Prometheus overlooking the sunken plaza at the Rockefeller Plaza has been a source of inspiration for me. The specific design of the artwork gives me hints about the nature of time.
The inscription on the granite wall behind this wonderful art installation reads: “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends” — Aeschylus.
There were various interpretations of the Prometheus myth in history. I consulted Caroline Corbeau-Parsons’ book [1] for some insights. Prometheus is someone who plays with fire and gets punished for it. Fire represents light which is the symbol of knowledge. Prometheus stole the fire (forbidden knowledge) from the gods of Olympus. His act was a transgression.
There are symbolic similarities between the Prometheus story and the story of Adam and Eve eating the apple (forbidden knowledge) in the garden of Eden. One could find promethean themes in Goethe’s Faust as well. The common theme of these stories is that knowledge is power and knowledge can be dangerous.
Goethe wrote an influential poem titled Prometheus in 1774. It is claimed that the early development of Faust part 1 took place between 1772–75. Goethe finally published Faust part 1 in 1808 and finished part 2 in 1831. It is clear that Goethe had thought about the Prometheus archetype for a long time.
One big difference between the Prometheus story and other stories mentioned above is that Prometheus is not an egotistical character. He sacrifices himself for the good of humanity. Characters in the other stories are ego driven.
Prometheus exists as a myth, symbol and archetype. There is also the “Prometheus complex”. Gaston Bachelard defined the Prometheus complex as follows:
“all those tendencies which impel us to know as much as our fathers, more than our fathers, as much as our teachers, more than our teachers” [2]
“the Prometheus complex is the Oedipus complex of the life of the intellect” [2]
We don’t find this in Bachelard’s definition but Prometheus complex is a type of “hero complex”. People with this complex think they have a mission and they consider themselves as heroes.
I can think of the pathological cases but people with Prometheus complex have made great contributions in history. This is not a bad complex to have.
Human beings are continuously pushing the limits of “forbidden knowledge”. In modern age, there are many Prometheus-like characters. Are we playing with fire? If you consider the recent developments in biotechnology (CRISPR-Cas9, for example) and advances in AI (machine learning, deep learning and all that), yes, we are playing with fire. Is there any other option? No. We will learn to control the fire.
[1] Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, “Prometheus in the Nineteenth Century: From Myth to Symbol”, Routledge (2013)
[2] Gaston Bachelard, “Psychoanalysis of Fire”, Boston Beacon Press (1964)
Author’s articles on physics and philosophy: sureshemre.wordpress.com