Appendix II
The following appendix cites the remaining occurrences of Prometheus in the literature that predates Birds. Though some of it is not immediately relevant to Birds, it is included here to offer the reader a full account of the ancient evidence.
In 472 Aischylos produced the satyr play PromhyeÊ! PurkaeÊ! along with Phineus, the extant Persians, and Glaukos Potnieus. Although we only have the title and three fragments, we can safely say that Prometheus was a character in the play. Firstly, his name appears in the title. Secondly, Prometheus probably spoke the words of one of the fragments from the play. All the fragments have to do with fire and/or the handling of it,[13] but in one (Nauck2 206) Prometheus says to a curious satyr holding an ignited faggot, §jeulaboË d¢ mØ !e pro!bãl˙ !tÒma/p°mfij: pikrå går koÈ diå zÒh! étmo€. In coordination with this fragment one can examine several vase paintings that began to appear between the years 430 and 410 which seem to depict scenes from a satyr play that looks much like Aischylos'. On these vases Prometheus holds a torch amidst satyrs who dance (or race as the Athenians did in the Prometheia?) carelessly with torches of their own.[14] In some cases they seem to be about to burn themselves as the fragment above suggests. Prometheus remains calm in all cases, standing in nearly an admonitory fashion. These vases probably reflect "eine Wiederaufführung des äschyleischen Dramas oder eine Wiederholung des alten Themas durch einen anderen, späteren Dichter."[15] Accordingly, a satyrically comical Prometheus[16] would have been recently familiar to Aristophanes' audience through the burlesque of his myth in this satyr play.
In Olympian 7 (written in 464 for Diagoras of Rhodes) Pindar mentions Prometheus. His association with the god is not the golden age, Pandora, etc., but the gift of fire and the institution of sacrifices. In his usual manner of exploring or creating a myth associated with the victor of his ode or the victor's city, Pindar explains how fireless sacrifices were inaugurated on Mt. Atabyris in Rhodes. He tells us that the Heliadai were to set up an altar for Athena (who had just been born from the head of Zeus) on the mountain there. But when they reached the top of the mountain they realized they had forgotten to bring fire with them. Pindar elaborates on the situation — in a gnomic transition — thus (line 46[17]): §n d' éretãn/¶balen ka‹ xãrmat' ényr≈poi!i promay°o! a‡dv!:/§p‹ mån ba€nei ti ka‹ lãya! ét°k¸marta n°fo!,/ka‹ par°lkei pragmãtvn Ùryån ıdÒn/¶jv fren«n. The sons did not exercise this prudence, promatheos,[18] since they forgot the fire and did not make burnt offerings to the gods — the practice that Prometheus himself had established. Prometheus is no major character in the ode's myth, nor is there judgment about Prometheus' ethical valence, but this reference shows that when Pindar thought of fire and sacrifice, he thought of Prometheus.
Further evidence for Prometheus' association with fire and travesty of his myth is found in Sophokles' satyr play Kvfo€ (whose performance date we do not know). Although we cannot know if Prometheus was a character, the scholiast on Nicander, Theriaca 343 does give us an outline of the story in which certain humans betray Prometheus to Zeus for his theft of fire. Zeus rewards them by giving them a drug for immortality, but the drug is lost. Aelian, who tells roughly the same story,[19] says (in the following order) that Sophokles, Deinolochos,[20] Ibykos, Aristias and Apollophanes (both comic poets) also wrote about this story. A similar story is also attributed to Aesop.[21] Here, as in Aischylos, the story of Prometheus' gift of fire is made fun of and burlesqued.
There is a veiled mention of Prometheus in a fragment of Xenophanes (565-?473).[22] It is important to mention it because it is the earliest reference that associates Prometheus with the Titanomachy[23] (the other reference being PV). The fragment is part of a sympotic song in which Xenophanes advises what best to sing at such occasions: xrØ d¢ pr«ton m¢n yeÚn Ímne›n eÎfrona! êndra!. But one should not
mãxa! di°pein TitÆnvn oÈd¢ Gigãntvn
oÈd¢ < > KentaÊrvn, plã!ma<ta> t«n prot°rvn,
µ !tã!ia! !fedanã!: to›! oÈd¢n xrh!tÚn ¶ne!tin:
ye«n <d¢> promhye€hn afi¢n ¶xein égayÆn.
Xenophanes is playing on the noun prometheia within the context of Prometheus' role in the Olympians' war with the Titans,[24] and staseis sphedanai in general. The mention of prometheia here has the same meaning it has in Pindar, a kind of prudence that does not lead to hybris, especially when singing about the gods. The reference serves to link Prometheus with war and rebellion. Since Xenophanes criticized the gods of Homer and Hesiod (DK11, 11B), it is not surprising that he thought topics different from Olympian conquest better for singing. And since Prometheus is always against violence, Xenophanes may in fact indirectly praise Prometheus in this poem.
Prometheus was probably a character in Epicharmos' Prometheus or Pyrrha.[25] This play, perhaps produced sometime after 469,[26] gives us early evidence for Prometheus' part in the beginnings of humankind. The father of Deukalion, who with his wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, Prometheus warned his son of the flood Zeus would use to destroy humankind. After escaping the flood and propitiating Zeus, Deukalion created new humans by throwing stones behind his back. The fragments from Epicharmos' play are few but in one Pyrrha says that "she is afraid that Prometheus will make off with all their possessions" which they saved for surviving the flood that would destroy humankind, and "Deucalion begs her not to think so ill of him."[27] Was Prometheus' penchant for deceit and theft made fun of here and cast in a displeasing light?
Aesop, whose dates are uncertain,[28] modifies this theme somewhat and makes Prometheus directly responsible for the creation of humans. Whatever his dates, we know from Birds (417) that there was some type of book circulating around Athens in the late fifth century, containing at least Aesopica.[29] In five Aesopic fables[30] Prometheus is recognized as the creator of humans (usually having created humans out of clay). Therefore, due to this evidence, and that in Epicharmos' play, it is probable that this image of Prometheus as creator of humans was known early on.[31]