Friday, February 17, 2006

A Wee Bit of Culture

Prometheus is by far my favorite figure in Greek mythology. Defiant. Intelligence. A bit of a wise ass but also the patron of human civilization. Like the authors that wrote of him (notably Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelly), he recognized the grand potential of free minds and free societies.

I stumbled on this poem about Prometheus, written by Lord Byron and published in 1816. Comparing Prometheus to the human spirit Byron wrote,

And a firm will, and a deep sense,
Which even in torture can descry
Its own concenter'd recompense,
Triumphant where it dares defy

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's an album "To Touch the Stars" there's a track called "Fire In the Sky" which is about the the highest dream of space travel. I can't think of a more fitting tribute than using Prometheus's gift to journey into the realms of the gods.

Prometheus they say brought god's fire down to Man
And we've caught it, trained it, tamed it
Since our history began

Now we're going back to Heaven
Just to look him in the eye
And there's a thunder across the land
and a fire in the sky.

Anonymous said...

(and again I forgot to sign my name)
Jason

David said...

Oh that's nice.