The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. The Legend of Prometheus

[ 1 ] Last time, I tried to show you how initiation took place in the ancient Druidic lodges. Today I would like to discuss something that, while related to this, may seem somewhat more distant. But we will see how we can gain an ever deeper understanding of the evolution of humanity.

[ 2 ] You have probably gathered from my various Friday lectures that the folklore of different peoples has profound meaning and that myths are expressions of deep, esoteric truths. Today I would like to speak about one of the most interesting legends—a legend connected to the entire development of our fifth root race. In doing so, you will also see how the esotericist can always pass through three stages of understanding the world of legends.

[ 3 ] At first, legends live on among a people, and they are taken exoterically, in a literal, outward sense. Then disbelief in this literal interpretation of the legends begins, and the educated attempt a symbolic, allegorical interpretation of them. Behind these two interpretations, however, lie five others, for every legend has seven interpretations. The third is the one in which you are able to take the legends literally again, in a certain sense. Of course, you must first learn to understand the language in which the legends are written. Today I would like to speak about a legend that is not so easy to understand—the legend of Prometheus.

[ 4 ] In a chapter of the second volume of H. P. Blavatsky’s *The Secret Doctrine*, you will find some information on this and will also see what profound meaning lies within this legend. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to express the ultimate truths in printed works. Today we can go a little beyond the explanations in H. P. Blavatsky’s *The Secret Doctrine*.

[ 5 ] Prometheus belongs to Greek mythology. He and his brother Epimetheus are the sons of a Titan, Iapetus. And the Titans themselves are the sons of the oldest Greek deities, Uranus and his wife, Gaia. Translated into German, Uranus would mean “the sky” and Gaia “the earth.” I would also like to explicitly note that Uranus in Greek is the same as Varuna in Indian mythology. Prometheus, then, is a Titan—a descendant of Uranus and Gaia—as is his brother Epimetheus. The youngest of the Titans, Cronus (Time), dethroned his father Uranus and seized power for himself. In turn, he was dethroned by his son Zeus and banished, along with all the Titans, to Tartarus—the abyss or the underworld. Only the Titan Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus remained loyal to Zeus. At that time, they stood by Zeus’s side and fought against the other Titans.

[ 6 ] But Zeus now also wanted to destroy the human race, which had become arrogant. So Prometheus made himself the advocate of the human race. He pondered how he could give the human race something with which it could save itself and no longer be merely dependent on Zeus’s help. Thus, we are told that Prometheus taught humans the use of writing and the arts, but especially the use of fire. By doing so, however, he incurred the wrath of Zeus. Because of Zeus’s wrath, he was chained to a rock in the Caucasus and had to endure great torment there for a long time.

[ 7 ] We are also told that the gods, led by Zeus, then instructed Hephaestus, the god of blacksmithing, to fashion a female statue. This female statue had been endowed by the gods with all the characteristics that constitute the outward adornment of the human race of the fifth root race. This female statue was Pandora. Pandora was instructed by Zeus to bring calamitous gifts to humanity, first to Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus. Although Prometheus warned his brother not to accept these gifts, the latter nevertheless allowed himself to be persuaded and accepted the calamitous gifts of the gods from Pandora. Everything was poured out upon humanity; only one—the good gift—was retained: hope. The other gifts were plagues and sufferings for humanity; only hope was retained in “Pandora’s box.”

[ 8 ] Prometheus is thus chained to the Caucasus, and a vulture constantly gnaws at his liver. Here he endures his punishment. But he knows something that holds the key to his salvation. He knows a secret that even Zeus does not know—but which Zeus wants to know. Prometheus, however, does not reveal it, even though Zeus sends Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to him.

[ 9 ] Now, as the legend unfolds, we are told of his remarkable liberation. It is said that Prometheus can only be freed through the intervention of an initiate. And one such initiate was the Greek Heracles—Heracles, who had performed the Twelve Labors. The completion of these twelve labors is the achievement of an initiate. These are twelve initiation trials, expressed symbolically. Furthermore, it is said of Heracles that he had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. He is able to save Prometheus. But someone else still had to sacrifice himself in Prometheus’s place, and the centaur Chiron sacrificed himself for Prometheus; he was half-animal, half-human. He was already suffering from an incurable illness, [but was actually immortal. In order to die, he sacrifices himself.] He suffers death, and Prometheus is thereby saved. This is the outer structure of the Prometheus myth.

[ 10 ] This legend contains the entire history of the fifth root race, and it holds within it true mystery wisdom. This legend was actually told in Greece. But it was also depicted in the Mysteries, so that the initiate could truly see the fate of Prometheus before him. And in this, he was to see the past and future of the entire fifth root race. You can only gain an understanding of this if you take one thing into account.

[ 11 ] It was not until the middle of the Lemurian race that what is referred to as “humanization”—humanization in the sense of the human beings we know today—was [achieved]. This humanity was guided by great teachers and leaders whom we call the “Sons of the Fire Nebula.” Today, the humanity of the fifth root race is also guided by great Initiates, but our Initiates are of a different kind than the leaders of humanity in those days.

[ 12 ] You must now understand this difference. There is a great difference between the leaders of the two preceding root races and the leaders of our fifth root race. The leaders of those root races, too, were united in a White Brotherhood. However, they had not undergone their prior development on our Earth but in other realms. They had descended to Earth as mature, higher human beings to instruct the people—who were still in their infancy—during their early development, teaching them the foundational skills they needed. This period of instruction spanned the third, fourth, and even into the fifth root race.

[ 13 ] This fifth root race originated from a small group of people who had been set apart from the preceding root race. They were raised in the Gobi Desert and then spread out in a radial pattern across the Earth. The first leader who gave the impetus to this development of humanity was one of the so-called Manus, the Manu of the fifth root race. This Manu still belongs to those leaders of the human race who descended during the time of the third root race. He was one of the leaders who not only underwent their development on Earth but also brought their maturity to our Earth.

[ 14 ] It is not until the fifth root race that the development begins of such Manus who are human beings like ourselves, who, like us, have undergone their development solely on Earth, who, so to speak, develop on Earth from the ground up. We therefore have people who are already higher leaders and master personalities, and those who are striving to become leaders and master personalities, so that within the fifth root race we have chelas and masters who belong to the previous root race, and chelas and masters who have gone through everything that human beings have gone through since the middle of the Lemurian epoch. One of the Masters who leads the fifth root race is destined to assume leadership of the sixth root race. The sixth root race will be the first to be led by an Earth brother as Manu. The earlier Masters—the Manus of the other worlds—are handing over the leadership of humanity to the Earth brother.

[ 15 ] Everything we call the development of the arts coincides with the dawn of our fifth root race. The Atlanteans led a completely different kind of life. They had no inventions or discoveries. They worked in a completely different way. Their technology and their art were entirely different. It was not until our fifth root race that what we call technology and the arts in our sense began to develop. The most important invention is the invention of fire. Just think about that for a moment. Realize just how much of our modern technology, industry, and art depends on fire. I believe engineers will agree with me when I say that without fire, none of our technology would be possible. Thus, we may say: with the invention of fire, the fundamental invention—the impetus for all other inventions—was established.

[ 16 ] You must also take into account that, at the time the Prometheus legend arose, the term “fire” was understood to mean everything that was in any way connected with heat. It was also understood to include the cause of lightning. The causes of all heat phenomena were summarized under the term “fire.” The awareness that humanity of the fifth root race is under the sign of fire is first expressed in the Prometheus myth. And Prometheus is nothing other than the representative of the entire fifth root race.

[ 17 ] His brother is Epimetheus. First, let’s translate these two words: Prometheus means “the one who thinks ahead” in German, and Epimetheus means “the one who thinks afterward.” There you have the two activities of human thought clearly distinguished: the person who thinks afterward and the person who thinks ahead. The person who thinks after the fact is the one who allows the things of this world to affect them and then reflects afterward. Such thinking is Kama-Manasic thinking. Viewed from a certain perspective, Kama-Manasic thinking means: first allowing the world to affect you, and then thinking afterward. People of the fifth root race still think mainly like Epimetheus today.

[ 18 ] But insofar as human beings do not merely let what already exists affect them, but instead create the future—as inventors and discoverers—in that sense they are Prometheuses, visionaries. Inventions could never be made if human beings were merely Epimetheuses. An invention is created when a human being creates something that does not yet exist. First it exists in thought, and then the thought is translated into reality. This is Promethean thinking. Within the fifth root race, this Promethean thinking is manasic thinking. Kama-manasic and manasic thinking flow side by side like two streams in the fifth root race. Gradually, manasic thinking spreads farther and farther.

[ 19 ] This Manasic thinking of the fifth root race has another distinctive feature. We can understand this when we look back at the Atlantean root race. That race had a more instinctive form of thinking, which was still connected to the life force. The Atlantean root race was still capable of transforming the power of the seed into a force of motion. Just as people today have a kind of reservoir of energy in coal deposits, which they convert into steam to power locomotives and move cargo, so the Atlanteans had large stores of plant seeds containing forces that they could transform into a motive force, which powered the vehicles described in Scott-Elliot’s pamphlet on Atlantis. This art has been lost. The spirit of the Atlantean still subdued living nature—the seed force. The spirit of the fifth root race can subdue only lifeless nature—the forces of becoming that lie in stone and minerals. Thus, the Manas of the fifth root race is bound to the mineral forces, just as the Atlantean race was bound to the life forces. All Promethean power is bound to the rock, to the earth. That is why Peter is the rock upon which Christ built. It is the same as the rock of the Caucasus. The human being of the fifth root race must seek his development on the purely physical plane. He is bound to inorganic, mineral forces.

[ 20 ] Try to get an overview of what it means when we speak of this technique of the fifth root race. What is its purpose? If you gain an overview, you will see —as magnificent and powerful as the results may be when the power of the intellect, the Manasic principle, is applied to the inorganic, the mineral realm—that, on the whole, it is ultimately human egoism, human self-interest, to which all these powers of invention and discovery of the fifth root race are applied.

[ 21 ] If you start with the very first discovery and invention and work your way up to the telephone, all the way to our most recent inventions and discoveries, you will see how, although great and mighty forces have been put at our service through these inventions and discoveries—but what purpose do they serve? What do we bring back from distant lands by rail and steamship? We bring back food; we demand food through the telephone. Fundamentally, it is human kama that craves these inventions and discoveries in the fifth root race. This is what one must make clear to oneself through objective observation. Then one will also understand how that higher human being, who is placed within matter, is in fact bound to matter during the Fifth Root Race because his Kama demands satisfaction within matter.

[ 22 ] If you explore the esoteric teachings, you will find that the principles of the human being are related to very specific organs of the body. I will explain this topic in greater detail later; today I will simply mention which organs our seven human principles are specifically related to.

[ 23 ] First, we have what is known as the physical. This is connected in an occult way to the upper part of the human face, to the bridge of the nose. The physical constitution of the human being, once it had begun—for in the past, the human being was merely astral and built itself into the physical—originated from this region. The physical body emanated from there and first developed at the root of the nose, so that the esotericist recognizes the root of the nose as belonging to the actual physical-mineral realm.

[ 24 ] The second is Prana, the etheric double. Esoterically, the liver is associated with it. This organ has a certain occult relationship to it. Next comes Kama, the astral body. It, in turn, has developed its activity in the formation of the digestive organs, which find their symbol in the stomach. If the astral body did not have this very specific form that it has in humans, then this human digestive system—with the stomach—would not have the specific form it has today.

[ 25 ] If you consider human beings—first in their physical basis, second in their etheric double, and third in their astral body—you will see that this foundation is bound to what constitutes the mineral bond of the fifth root race. Through the higher bodies, the human being rises once again out of this bondage and ascends to higher realms. Kama-Manas is already working its way upward again. Thus, the human being frees itself once more from the purely natural foundation. Therefore, there is an occult relationship between Kama-Manas and that which lifts the human being out of the natural foundation and severs the connection. This occult connection is the one between the lower Manas and the so-called umbilical cord. If there were no Kama-Manas in the human form, the embryo would not be severed from the mother in this way.

[ 26 ] If we turn to the higher Manas, it has a similar occult relationship to the human heart and blood. Budhi has an occult relationship to the human larynx, the pharynx, and the throat. And Atma has an occult relationship to something that fills the entire human being, namely, the Akasha contained within the human being.

[ 27 ] These are the seven occult relationships. If you keep these in mind, the most important ones for our fifth root race—which we must emphasize—are those related to the etheric double and to Kama. And if you add to this what I said earlier about the Atlanteans’ mastery of prana—the life force that permeates the etheric double—you will be able to conclude that, in a certain sense, the Atlantean still stood one level lower. Their etheric double still had its original connection with all that is etheric in the external world, and through this they controlled the prana of the external world. Because human beings have ascended one level higher, their work has descended one level lower. This is a law: that when ascent occurs on one side, descent must occur on the other. Whereas human beings formerly worked with kama from the prana, they must now work with kama on the physical plane.

[ 28 ] Now you will understand how deeply the myth of Prometheus symbolizes this occult connection. A vulture gnaws at Prometheus’s liver. Kama is symbolized by the vulture; it actually consumes the forces of the fifth root race. The vulture gnaws at man’s liver—at his very foundation—and thus this force of the fifth root race gnaws at man’s very life force, because man is bound to the mineral nature, to Peter, the Rock, the Caucasus. This is the price man had to pay for his resemblance to Prometheus. That is why the human being must conquer his own nature, so that he is no longer chained to the mineral realm, to the Caucasus.

[ 29 ] Only those who are born as human initiates during the fifth root race can bring liberation to humanity, which is bound in bondage. Heracles, a human initiate, must journey to the Caucasus himself to free Prometheus. Thus, the initiates will lift humanity out of bondage, and that which is doomed to perish must be sacrificed. The human being who is still connected to the animal nature—the centaur Chiron—must be sacrificed. The human of antiquity must be sacrificed. The sacrifice of the centaur is just as important for the development of the fifth root race as the liberation brought about by the initiates of the fifth root race.

[ 30 ] It is said that in the Greek mysteries, people were given prophecies about the future. However, this did not mean a vague, abstract account of what was to happen in the future, but rather an indication of the paths that lead human beings into the future—what a person must do in order to develop toward the future. And what was to develop as human power was presented in the great mystery drama of Prometheus.

[ 31 ] One must now imagine, among the three divine lineages of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus, three successive leading beings of humanity. Uranus is the name of the heavens, Gaia that of the earth. If we go back beyond the middle of the third root race, the Lemurians, we do not yet find the human being as we know him today, but rather a human being whom the Esoteric Doctrine calls “Adam Kadmon”—the human being who is still asexual, who did not yet belong to the Earth, who had not yet developed the organs for earthly vision, and who still belonged to the Uranian realm, to the heavens. Through the union of Uranus with Gaia, the human being came into being, descending into matter and thereby entering into time. Kronos—Chronos, Time—becomes the ruler of the second generation of gods from the middle of the Lemurian epoch through to the beginning of the Atlantean epoch. The leading beings were symbolized by the Greeks first as Uranus, later as Kronos, and then they transitioned to Zeus. Zeus, however, is still one of those leaders who did not complete their training on Earth. He is still one of the immortals, just as all the Greek gods still belonged to the ranks of the immortals.

[ 32 ] Mortals are to stand on their own two feet during the Fifth Root Race. This humanity is represented by Prometheus. It was this humanity that first brought about the human arts and the primordial art of fire. Zeus is jealous of them, for within humanity are growing their own initiates, who will take the lead in the sixth root race. But humanity must first earn this right. Therefore, their primordial initiate must first take all the suffering upon himself. Prometheus is the primordial initiate of the fifth root race, the one who is initiated not only into wisdom but also into action. He endures all the sufferings, and he is liberated by the one who is maturing to gradually free humanity and raise it above the mineral realm.

[ 33 ] This is how the myths present the great cosmic truths to us. That is why I also told you at the beginning: whoever ascends to the third level of interpretation is able to take them literally again.^{1See note.} In the Prometheus legend, you have the vulture gnawing at the liver. This is to be taken quite literally. The vulture truly gnaws at the liver of the fifth root race. It is the struggle of the stomach against the liver. Within every single human being, this Promethean struggle of suffering repeats itself during the fifth root race. What is expressed here in the Prometheus myth must be taken completely literally. If this struggle did not exist, the fate of the fifth root race would be entirely different.

[ 34 ] There are, then, three interpretations of the legends: first, the exoteric-literal one; second, the allegorical one—the struggle of human nature; and third, the occult meaning, in which a literal interpretation of the myths comes into play once again. From this you can see that all these legends—at least all those that have such a meaning—originate from the mystery schools and are nothing other than a retelling of what was presented in the mystery schools as the great drama of humanity’s destiny. Just as I was able to show you, in the context of the Druidic mysteries, that [the legend of] Baldur represents nothing other than what took place within the Druidic mysteries, so too do you find in Prometheus what the Greek mystery initiate experienced within the mysteries in order to gain strength and energy for life in the future.