The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. The Prometheus Myth

[ 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 that, may seem somewhat more distant. But we will see how we will come to understand the depth of human evolution more and more fully.

[ 2 ] You have probably gathered from my various Friday lectures that the legends of different peoples have 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 evolution 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 way. 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 subject and, from it, also discern the profound meaning behind 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 is a figure from 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 deity, Uranus, and his wife, Gaia. Translated into German, Uranus would mean “the sky” and Gaia “the earth.” I would like to expressly note that Uranus in Greek is the same as Varuna in Indian mythology. Prometheus, then, is a Titan—a descendant of the sons 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 above all the use of fire. By doing so, however, he incurred the wrath of Zeus. Because of Zeus’s wrath, he was chained to the Caucasus Mountains, where he had to endure great torment for a long time.

[ 7 ] We are further told that the gods, led by Zeus, then instructed Hephaestus, the god of blacksmithing, to fashion a female statue. This female statue was endowed with all the characteristics that constitute the outward appearance of the human race of the fifth root race. This female statue was Pandora. Pandora was instructed to bring gifts to humanity, first to Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus. Although Prometheus warned his brother not to accept these gifts, he was nevertheless persuaded and accepted the gifts of the gods. Everything was poured out upon humanity; only one thing was held back: hope. These gifts are, for the most part, 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. But he knows something that is the key to his salvation. He knows a secret that even Zeus does not know, but which Zeus wants to know. He does not reveal it, however, 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 such an initiate was the Greek Heracles—Heracles, who performed the Twelve Labors. The completion of these twelve labors is the achievement of an initiate. They are the twelve initiation trials, expressed symbolically. Furthermore, it is said of Heracles that he was initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. He is able to save Prometheus. But someone else still had to sacrifice himself, and the centaur Chiron sacrificed himself for Prometheus. He was already suffering from an incurable illness. He was half animal, half human. He met his death, and Prometheus was 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 embodies genuine mystery truth. This legend was indeed told as a legend in Greece. But it was also actually reenacted in the Mysteries, so that the initiate could see the fate of Prometheus before him. And in this, he was to perceive 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” was [achieved]; humanization in the sense that we understand humanity today. This humanity was guided by great teachers and leaders whom we refer to as 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 at that time.

[ 12 ] You must now understand this difference clearly. There is a great difference between the leaders of the two preceding races and the leaders of our fifth root race. The leaders of those races, too, were united in a white brotherhood. However, they had not undergone their previous development on our planet Earth, but in other realms. They had descended to Earth already as mature, higher human beings to instruct the people—who were still in their infancy—during their earliest stages of development, teaching them the fundamental arts they needed. This period of instruction lasted through 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 provided the impetus for this phase of human development was one of the so-called Manus—the Manu of the fifth root race. This Manu still belongs to that group of 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 of such Manus begins—beings who are human like ourselves, who, like us, have undergone their evolution solely on Earth, and who, so to speak, develop on Earth from the ground up. We thus 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 lead 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—will hand 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 an entirely different way. Their technology and their art were completely different. It was only with our fifth root race that what we call technology and the arts in our sense of the term began to develop. The most important invention is the invention of fire. 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 at all; thus, we can say that the invention of fire was the fundamental invention—the impetus for all other inventions.

[ 16 ] In addition, you must bear in mind that, at the time the Prometheus myth originated, the term “fire” was understood to encompass 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 race stands under the sign of fire is first expressed in the Prometheus legend. 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.” Here you have the two activities of human thought clearly distinguished in the reflective person and the forward-thinking person. The reflective person is one who allows the things of this world to take effect upon them and then thinks about them afterward. Such thinking is Kama-Manas thinking. Viewed from a certain perspective, Kama-Manas thinking means: first allowing the world to take effect upon oneself and then thinking about it afterward. People of the fifth root race still think mainly like Epimetheus today.

[ 18 ] But insofar as human beings do not merely allow what already exists to influence them, but rather 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 made when a human being creates something that does not yet exist. First it exists in thought, and then the thought is transformed 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 yet another distinctive characteristic. We can understand this when we look back at the Atlantean root race. That race possessed 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 transport cargo, so the Atlanteans had large stores of plant seeds containing forces that they could transform into propulsive power, which drove 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 race can subdue only lifeless nature—the forces of becoming inherent in stone and minerals. Thus, the Manas of the fifth root race is bound to mineral forces, just as the Atlantean race was bound to the forces of life. All Promethean power is bound to the rock, to the earth. That is why Peter is also 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 a general idea of what is meant when we speak of this technique of the Fifth Race. What is its purpose? If you take the time to understand this, you will see that —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, it is nevertheless, on the whole, human egoism, human self-interest, to which all these powers of invention and discovery of the fifth root race are ultimately 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 that, while these inventions and discoveries have indeed harnessed great and mighty forces for our use, what purpose do they serve? What do we bring back from distant lands via railroads and steamships? We bring back food; we demand food through the telephone. Essentially, it is human kama that craves these inventions and discoveries in the fifth root race. This is what one must clarify for oneself through objective observation. Then one will also understand how that higher human being, who is transported into 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; for now, I will simply mention which organs our seven principles are specifically related to.

[ 23 ] First, we have what is called the physical body. It has an occult relationship to the upper part of the human face, to the root 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—had its origin in this region. The physical body emerged and first took shape 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 the 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 constitution, second in their etheric double, and third in their astral body—you have the foundation that, as you can see, is bound to what constitutes the mineral bond of the fifth root race.

[ 26 ] Through the higher bodies, the human being once again breaks free from this bondage and ascends to higher realms. Kama-Manas is already working its way upward again. Thus, the human being once again frees itself 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 cuts him off from it. 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 cut off from the mother in this way.

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

[ 28 ] These are the seven occult relationships. If you keep these in mind, we must emphasize—as the most important ones for our fifth race—those relating 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 is what permeates the etheric double—then you will be able to conclude that, in a certain sense, the Atlanteans were still one step lower on the ladder. Their etheric double still retained 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 through Prana, they must now work with Kama on the physical plane.

[ 29 ] 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, which in fact truly consumes the forces of the fifth race. The vulture gnaws at man’s liver—at his very foundation—and thus this force of the fifth 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 man must conquer his own nature, so that he is no longer chained to the mineral realm, to the Caucasus.

[ 30 ] Only those who are born as human initiates during the fifth root race can bring liberation to humanity, which is bound in chains. Heracles, a human initiate, must journey to the Caucasus himself to free Prometheus. But in this way, the Initiates will lift humanity out of bondage, and that which is doomed to perish must sacrifice itself.

[ 31 ] The human being who is still connected to the animal nature—the centaur Chiron—must be sacrificed. The human being of antiquity must be sacrificed. The sacrifice of the centaur is just as important for the evolution of the fifth race as the liberation brought about by the initiates of the fifth race.

[ 32 ] 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 to develop toward the future. And what was to develop as human power was presented in the great mystery drama Prometheus.”

[ 33 ] One must now imagine, among the three divine lineages—Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus—three successive leading beings of humanity. Uranus is the name of the sky; Gaia is the name of the earth. If we go back beyond the middle of the third race, the Lemurians, we do not yet find the human being as we know him today, but rather a human being whom the Esoteric Teaching 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 at the same moment. 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 Greeks initially symbolized the leading beings under Uranus, later under Cronus, 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 immortals.

[ 34 ] Mortals are to stand on their own two feet during the Fifth 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 humanity is maturing into its own initiates, who will take the lead in the sixth root race. But humanity must first earn this right. Therefore, its primordial initiate must first take all the suffering upon himself.

[ 35 ] 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 suffering, and he is liberated by the one who matures to gradually set humanity free and lift it above the mineral realm.

[ 36 ] This is how the myths present the great cosmic truths to us. That is why I told you at the beginning: whoever ascends to the third level of interpretation is able to take them literally again... [Several unclear sentences follow; see “Notes.”] In the Prometheus legend, you have the vulture gnawing at the liver. This is to be taken quite literally. The vulture is truly gnawing at the liver of the fifth root race. It is the struggle of the stomach against the liver. During the fifth root race, this Promethean struggle of suffering is repeated within every single human being. What is expressed here in the Promethean legend must be taken completely literally. If this struggle were not there, the fate of the fifth root race would be entirely different.

[ 37 ] There are thus three interpretations of the legends: first, the exoteric, literal interpretation; second, the allegorical—the struggle of human nature; and third, the occult meaning, in which a literal interpretation of the myths once again comes into play. 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 initiate experienced within the mysteries in order to gain strength and energy for life in the future.