Prometheus Bound
“Prometheus is, as it were, the type of the highest perfection of moral and intellectual nature, impelled by the purest and the truest motives to the best and noblest ends.” Shelly, Prometheus Unbound
What was great in Prometheus was not his greatness itself, it was that his concern was for what would come after him. As the Greek proverb goes, "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Prometheus planted the seed not for himself but so that others could watch it grow. It was not this, however, that exemplified his greatness. His greatness was epitomized by the act of letting go of the self. There is a type of self sacrifice that, when performed in state of higher consciousness, is no longer self sacrifice, but rather an act that brings as much meaning to the agent of self sacrifice as it does to those who benefit from the sacrifice.
Shelley is partially incorrect in his description of Prometheus. Perfection is not the moral of the myth. It is the opposite, imperfection. The fire Prometheus bequeathed to man was a force of warmth but also the progenitor of war and chaos. In the flames weapons were forged and wars were waged. The importance of the myth is that humanity continues to carry the fire in spite of everything. The importance is that Prometheus does not regret his eternal punishment, being tied to boulder and having his liver eaten by an eagle during the day and then having it regenerate at night for eternity.
The symbolism of carrying the fire persists to this day in literature, as in The Road, for instance. The fire symbolizes resilience and courage in the face of impossible odds and horrible despair:
“You have to carry the fire."
I don't know how to."
Yes, you do."
Is the fire real? The fire?"
Yes it is."
Where is it? I don't know where it is."
Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.”
It does not matter whether Prometheus is bound or unbound. It matters only whether he carries the fire. Do we not imagine Christ as eternally bound, in every Church you will find an image of him nailed to the cross. Have we not eternalized his binding?
“From this moment one felt oneself in mutiny against the social order, one subsequently understood Jesus as having been in mutiny against the social order. Up till then this warlike trait, this negative trait in word and deed, was lacking in his image; more, he was the contradiction of it. Clearly the little community had failed to understand precisely the main thing, the exemplary element in his manner of dying, the freedom from, the superiority over every feeling of ressentiment: – a sign of how little they understood of him at all! Jesus himself would have desired nothing by his death but publicly to offer the sternest test, the proof of his teaching…But his disciples were far from forgiving his death – which would have been evangelic in the highest sense…Precisely the most unevangelic of feelings, revengefulness, again came uppermost… But with this everything is misunderstood: the ‘kingdom of God’ as a last act, as a promise! For the Evangel had been precisely the existence, the fulfillment, the actuality of this ‘kingdom’. Such a death was precisely this ‘kingdom of God’.” - Nietzsche, The Antichrist
As Nietzsche explained, the “Kingdom of Heaven” is a state of the heart. It is a state of forgiveness and absence of ressentiment. Prometheus always remained unbound in his heart. When Heracles killed the eagle he did not save Prometheus, as he was already free.