Prometheus, a titan god, a god of crafty counsel and forethought, was task to mold man of clay. He loved his creation. Because of this love, he wanted to make their live better and stole fire from the heavens and brought it to man kind. As a punishment, Zeus created the first woman, Pandora, and sent it to mankind; she was sent to bring misfortune to mankind. Meanwhile, Prometheus was sent to Mount Kaukasos where his punishment was waiting. An eagle was set to feed on his liver during the day, and his liver would regenerate during the night, to be fed upon by the next day.
What Prometheus has for man is an absurd love. He made man, he made every effort to make man’s life better, he gave man every pinch of love they could possibly get, but at the end of the day, his effort boils down to nothing. What could he possibly get from all his efforts? Let us recall that he is a titan, from this fact alone, it means that he could get anything he wants, but why give and give and give even to a point wherein he could compromise his freedom and comfort to an eternity of pain and suffering?
As the great thinker, Albert Camus, would say “Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them”, one things comes to my mind when relating this quotation to the story; the free smile of Prometheus during the night. In this pause, he looks at man, sees what they have become, and even though amidst the pain his is bearing, and a pain he is to bear, he is able to make that small but great act of smiling; A pure kind of gladness. “What makes them happy, makes me happy”, absurd isn’t it? How could one’s happiness make you happy? Taking that pause, making that glimpse, and having that smile, simple yet intriguing.
Perhaps no one could tell me, no matter how great one’s name in the field of philosophy maybe, how this absurd love is. Only one thing is for sure for me, Prometheus made a choice. His happiness was not just a product of any given fate, if that would be the case, he would not be able to do does acts, his act of giving and loving, why should he do it if he knows for certain that he would end up in an eternity of pain and suffering. This choice was so mystical and great that it made his punishment not an eternity of pain and agony but of pain and gladness. Prometheus learned to live in spite of his absurd situation.
As what Albert Camus has done to Sisyphus in his essay, I leave Prometheus in the dawn. Wherein he would leave his comforts of the night, and welcome the pain of tomorrow. And I conclude this in the manner in which Camus concluded his, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” Everything is in the hands of choice, no matter how absurd the situation is.
life raisonneur 