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Patrizia Tedesco Busetto

1. Prometheus – A myth of age-passage

Multifaceted, rich in aspects that, at a superficial glance, might seem contradictory, the figure of Prometheus, a titan lineage, son of Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene with beautiful ankles1, stands tall. In Aeschylus, he himself states: “Themis, my mother, Gaia who has many names and a form”2. Conversely, Apollodorus says that Prometheus and his brothers were born from Iapetus and Asia3. However, it is our protagonist who clarifies possible doubts, defining his mother as the one with many names and a form4.

He, therefore, is one of the Titans, the primordial rulers of the world, who “the great father Sky generated from himself”5. The great Sky, Oυρανόϛ, called them Titans, those who strive, alluding with reproach, from their very birth, to the fierce struggle they would engage in against Zeus. Indeed, the violent Titans, who represent the primordial chaos6 and had their seat on the peaks of Otris, faced off in a terrible melee with the Gods from Olympus in defense of cosmic order7:

… and the boundless sea roared; the earth sent forth a huge rumble, while the vast sky groaned in turmoil, and from the depths the vast Olympus vibrated under the onslaught of the immortals. A dark vibration reached even to the gloomy Tartarus, and together the immense rumble of feet, and of the indescribable tumult, and of violent blows.8

The Hesiodic narrative continues with terrifying images of crackling flames and dark rumbles coming from the bowels of the earth and of impetuous winds, until the Titans were defeated by the thunderbolt and relegated to the darkness-immersed Tartarus.

Similarly to the Asura of the hindū, always described as the elder brothers of the Deva, the Titans are the Gods of the past, as clearly emerges from the words of Hesiod who alludes with plastic accents to the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new era with new deities: “Then, after Zeus had driven the Titans from the sky […]”9,“These defeated ones belong to a past so remote that we know them only from stories in which they appear in a specific role”, rightly says Kàroly Kerényi10. It is interesting to note that the name of Iapetus, Ἰαπετός, may derive from the verb ἰάπτω, which means to deform, to spoil, to corrupt, to damage: the allusion to the role of the Titans, who operate at the end of an era, spoiling the laborious cosmic order, is evident. Generally, the name Titans is derived from the middle form of the verb τιταίνω, to stretch, to extend, to strive, referring to the struggle sustained against the Celestials. But more interesting, in my opinion, is the possible derivation from the feminine noun τίτανος, which means lime, gypsum, marble dust, from which the verb τιτανόω, to cover with lime or gypsum.

The Titans indeed, incinerated by Zeus, being the deities of the previous cycle, are rocks, stones, those stones that, in another mythological episode, Deucalion and Pyrrha will throw behind them after the flood and from which a new human race will arise, contaminated by such negativity.

Prometheus is a God. He is emphasized by Hephaestus in the Aeschylean tragedy: “O God, who do not bend to the wrath of the Gods…”11 and is affirmed by Prometheus himself a few verses later: “… behold a God who suffers because of the Gods”12.

His name is accompanied by adjectives that designate his strong spirit, κρατερόφρων, with cunning thoughts, αἰολόμητις13, versatile, astute, ποικίλος, complex, obscure, ἀκακήτης, beneficial, and, as his name suggests, prophetic.

Death, of course, does not touch him “for fate does not grant me death”14.

Hermes thus addresses him: “You, the first of the wise, you the bitterest of bitter hearts, you, who have sinned against the Gods by giving ephemeral men the stolen fire”15.

In the Theogony, Hesiod says that Prometheus “opposed the son of Cronus of exalted power”16, Zeus, deceiving him. This alludes to a mysterious contest that saw men and Gods gathered at Mekone, a place called the field of poppies, later named Sicyon, a location in the Peloponnese.

Prometheus placed before the assembly a great bull, divided into two entirely unequal parts. In one of the two halves, he placed the opulent meats and viscera with the fat; in the other, he hid the bones covered with white fat17.

Smiling with malice, he challenged Zeus, inviting him to freely choose one of the two offerings. Zeus, in his omniscience, despite seeing the deception, deeply enraged, took for himself the part full of fat and bones, foreseeing grave harm for mortals.

This is the first trick of Prometheus against the omnipotent Olympian, who must make the choice that ἀνάγκη (anankē), necessity, imposes. It is undoubtedly an act of arrogance, of ὕβρις (hybris), which risks destabilizing the cosmic order.

Hesiod continues by saying that, from that day on, on earth the lineages of men burned the white bones of the offerings on the altars of the Gods. From then on, therefore, men consumed the cooked sacrificial meats, the rest of the rite18, dedicating to the Gods the inedible part.

Thus, from then on, at feasts and in religious sacrifices, the flesh of the victims is eaten, while the rest, the part of the Gods, is burned on the same fire.19

Unlike the Gods, men feed on food and distinguish themselves from animals because they consume it cooked20.

“O son of Japetus, wiser in counsel than all, you, my dear, have truly not forgotten your cunning deceit.” Thus spoke Zeus and, continues Hesiod, from that moment on, He no longer granted mortal men “the power of tireless fire through the ashes”21. “ἐκ τούτου δήπειτα […] οὐκ ἐδίδου μηλίησι πυρὸς μένος ἀκανάτοιο θνητοῖς ἀνθρώποις”.

What the author reports demonstrates that men, in a very distant era of peace and prosperity, the Gold Age probably22, in which Gods and mortals could sit close to resolve disputes, possessed fire. After this deception, everything changes for the human world, perhaps everything ends, an era comes to an end: it is a pralaya, the cyclical dissolution according to hindū tradition23. It is necessary to restore the cosmic order with the consequent respect for the laws24. Everything must have a new beginning. Without fire, understood in both real and symbolic form, there can be nothing for men. Prometheus himself says this in the Aeschylean drama.

Moreover, in this episode of the myth, Prometheus appears as the one who gives rise to sacrifice, in which, on the altars, amidst the fragrance of incense, the offerings are burned. He is the first officiant, but with the final punishment, he will also be the sacrificed one, thus the sacrifice itself. Through his actions, he establishes a clear separation between immortals and mortals, among whom, from that moment on, contact, communication, will only occur through ritual. The son of Japetus kills, sacrificing, a bull, one of the hypostases of Zeus, an animal symbolizing strength and inexhaustible fertility. Just as, having sacrificed the supreme divinity, the world manifests itself, so human beings, through the sacrificial rite, reconstitute the unity of the divine. After having sacrificed the divinity in favor of the world, by tearing apart the bull, it is subjected to the ritual sacrifice of integration, as in hindū tradition the sacrifice reunites the dismembered parts of Prajāpati25.

It can also be hypothesized that in the choice made by Zeus, who took for himself a certain part of the sacrificed animal, one can discern, in the whiteness of the bones, a reference to the whiteness of lime, of stones. Zeus, therefore, by doing so, seizing through the sacrificial fire the bones, once again determines his sovereignty over the lineage of the Titans, lime, bones of the earth, elements passed from another time, rebels crushed by his omnipotence.

The close link between lime, bones, and stones brings to mind the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha. Deucalion is the son of Prometheus who, with his wife, Pyrrha, the auburn, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, survives the flood that destroys the generation of the Bronze Age. The flood annihilates a corrupt and wicked world, erasing it as it was already undone. Water, however, is above all an element of purification and, with it, a humid element, the world is regenerated.

Therefore, it is necessary that both souls, both corporeal and incorporeal26, but that attract to themselves a body, and especially those that are about to bind themselves to blood and to humid bodies, incline to the humid and become incarnate having become humid. […] The flesh, in fact, forms around the bones, and in living beings the bones are the stone, because similar to stone…27

Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only living beings, after having sacrificed to Zeus28, question the oracle of Themis29 in dismay and despair. Obedient to the response, they throw the stones behind them, a dry element, which, absorbing the humidity of the ground soaked by the flood rain, will give rise to a new humanity30. From that moment on, people, λαός (láos), and stone, λᾶος (lāos), are designated by terms that differ only by the accent31.

The very punishment to which Prometheus will be subjected, consciously, since he is Προμηθεύς (Prometheús), that is, the one who thinks and knows in advance, confirms the link between Prometheus and the sacrifice after having stolen fire from the sky. He sacrifices himself, offers himself, for the good of humanity, always siding with men, perhaps because being a descendant of the Titans32 he is driven to act against Zeus, and, like Prajāpati33, who is torn to pieces, he identifies with the ritual sacrifice. In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa it is said that the Gods are glory and beauty; but they do not owe this privilege to their nature. They have become such through sacrifice. Sacrifice is the food of the Gods34.

Apparently, the worst part of the offering went to the Gods, for this reason Zeus, overwhelmed by anger, deprived men “of the power of tireless fire through the ash trees”21 and with it, we must deduce, the possibility of celebrating sacrifices and nourishing the Celestials with the aromas35 of the offerings: it is, clearly, an allusion to a total change, the end of a world.

It is difficult to establish when men began to celebrate sacrifices. Hesiod considers five different humanity distributed across four ages. In the first, that of gold, under the reign of Cronos, men lived like Gods, without anguish, toil, misery, or old age. They fed on the fruits that the fertile earth produced abundantly, spontaneously, on honey and milk. The presence of such foods, particularly honey, attests to a vegetarian regime, a sign of a human condition of innocence and purity, compared to a diet that includes meat which presupposes the guilt of killing36. They died as if struck in their sleep, falling asleep. Men and Gods spoke to each other, there was no need for offerings.

In a later time, a second lineage followed, much inferior to the previous one: the silver lineage. Contrary to the Gold Age, men had a very long childhood and a very brief youth, because as soon as they knew the problems of life, due to their foolishness, they lived in anguish becoming violent nor did they want to venerate the immortals and perform sacrifices on the altars of the sacred blessed. Over time, Zeus hid these undergrounds, “moved to indignation because they did not render the honors due to the blessed Gods”37.

Then, the Omnipotent created another lineage of mortals, the third, of bronze, terrible and violent, who loved the works of Ares, war. They are the Giants, described by the author as shining in arms, with long spears in hand38. Overcome by their strength, they too descended into Hades.

Still in the Bronze Age, then appeared the fourth lineage of heroic men, called demigods, the most just and the best that preceded ours, that of the Iron Age. They fought against the Giants as the Gods had fought against the Titans. They are the protagonists of the Homeric works, of a distant past in which the Gods were friends and enemies of men, lying with their women, as the heroes did with the Goddesses: their worlds were in permanent relation. “For the protection of the just, for the removal of the wicked, to restore the Law, I reveal myself from age to age”39, says Kṛṣṇa to Arjuna. In this context, as kṣatriya, the heroes operate who, fighting for glory, fulfill their dharma, thus becoming truly immortal. The Trojan War and that under the walls of Thebes caused their extinction40. The age of heroes interrupts the deterioration of the human lineage, slowing its unstoppable degeneration; it also grants mortals the certainty of their identity of origin with the Gods themselves41. The Homeric Gods are similar to men, but by virtue of their immortality, they demand sacrifices. Already in the first book of the Iliad there is confirmation of this. “«Listen to me, Silver Bow, who protects Crisa, and divine Cilla, and reigns sovereign over Tenedon, Sminteus, if ever I have erected a pleasing temple to you, and if ever I have burned the fat thighs of bulls and goats, fulfill this vow: let the Danai pay my tears with your arrows».”42 Thus speaks Chryses, priest of Apollo. In the heroic age, therefore, sacrifices were celebrated.

Hesiod thus continues:

Later, may the heavens will that I should not have to live among the men of the fifth race, but to die before, or to be born after. For now, it is indeed the Iron Age; nor will men ever cease from toil and misery by day, and from anguish by night, and the Gods will give them heavy sorrows. Zeus will therefore also destroy this race of mortal men, when men with white temples from birth will come into the world. Nor then will the father be like the sons, nor the sons like the father; nor will the guest be dear to the one who hosts him, and the friend to the friend, as in the past. They will hold their parents in contempt, as soon as they begin to grow old […] they will honor the man who is a maker of evils and himself violence; justice will be in the hands, modesty will no longer exist […] And then Shame, Αἰδώς (Aidos), and Respect, Νέμεσις (Nemesis), will leave the spacious earth for Olympus, hiding their beautiful bodies with a white mantle, they will go among the race of the immortals, leaving men behind; then mortal men will be left with pains that are sources of tears; and there will be no escape from evil.43

This is the tragic picture of the last age44.

In the Protagoras Plato, after narrating the theft of fire, as a gift from Prometheus to humanity, thus continues:

How then man was a participant in divine fate, above all for his kinship with the divinity, unique among living beings, believed in the Gods, and began to erect altars and sacred statues…45

This would seem to be a reference to the beginning of a yuga, when, after an end, everything begins anew: humanity erects altars to the Gods and, consequently, celebrates sacrifices in their honor.

In the Gold Age, a privileged time, close to perfect order, there was no sacrifice, it was not necessary. Men were always in contact with the divine and tapas, the inner heat of the Self46, was the mode of union. Even in the second age, the silver one, there was no sacrifice. Clearly, Hesiod emphasizes that humanity did not celebrate it: knowledge, γνῶσις (gnosis), jñāna47, brought Gods and men closer.

It is only in the second lineage that populates the Bronze Age, that of heroes, that the sacrificial act, yajña47, appears, necessary for blessed men and gods. But with the end of an era in which an entire world is destroyed, there is a need, in the subsequent age, to begin ex novo; everything starts from a principle, new beings populate the earth, a new first sacrificer initiates the sacrifice that reaffirms the cosmic order and reconstitutes divinity. Just as Prometheus, in the Bronze Age, sacrifices the bull, so Deucalion, after the flood, sacrifices to Zeus on Mount Parnassus48 and is the first sacrificer of the Iron Age. However, in this cyclical restarting, there is necessarily an implicit gradual distancing from the divine order with the prevalence of ignorance. In support of what has been said, in the Iron Age, the last one, in order to maintain contact with the divine reality, there is a need for an additional action according to the dharma of the time: the gift, dāna49. As the time approaches the darkness of kaliyuga, Prometheus’s action occurs necessarily, but remains a cursed theft. Furthermore, in the Iron Age, the sacrifice loses part of its effectiveness, becoming complex, almost unattainable, as attested, in the hindū tradition, by the sacrificial practice, in which constant attention from the priests is required so that there is not the slightest interruption50.

After the dolum of Sicyon, Prometheus reacts against Zeus who has taken fire from men by means of the ashes.

The reference to the ash trees, μελλίαι (mellíai)51, further broadens the panorama. In fact, one must not forget that another possible meaning of the name Prometheus (Promantheus) is that derived from the Sanskrit pramantha, the vertical male stick used to ignite fire in the hindū context. It is ridiculous to think, as has often happened, of an allusion to the ash trees struck by Zeus’s lightning from which men would have obtained fire. Why the ash trees? It could instead be that with the wood of these plants, traditionally, fire was kindled52. Moreover, in Greece, the ash tree was the sacred plant of Poseidon and his nymphs, the Meliae. They had taken care of little Zeus, as nurses in Crete, when Mother Rhea had hidden him there to save him from Cronus, who devoured all his children for fear of being, one day, dethroned by one of them. The spears of the Homeric heroes were also made of ash tree wood. It is the tree of the power of the sea or the power of water53.

It is inevitable to associate all this with the “churning of the ocean of milk.” Interesting is the testimony of Santillana regarding a legend from British Columbia: “The navel of the ocean was a vast whirlpool where the sticks that, when rubbed, would ignite, drifted. Then the maiden took the bow, struck the navel of the ocean, and the tools to light the fire sprang to shore” and from that moment there was fire54.

In this way, a new cycle begins, our current yuga, the kaliyuga, the Iron Age. Other elements confirm this.

Apollodorus recounts that Prometheus, with water and earth, shaped men: “ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ γῆς ἀνθρώπους πλάσας”55. In classical times, it was said that the remains of the clay used for this operation were kept in Panopeus in Phocis56.

He is therefore an organizer of the pre-existing matter that was pure chaos57. In relation to living beings, he is not only the shaper, the one who gives form, but he is also the benefactor, as he grants them knowledge and the consciousness of the self: ἔννους ἔθεκα καὶ φρενῶν ἑπηβόλους58.

It is interesting what the Vedic tradition says about Prajāpati, who in this case is not the primordial deity, but a secondary creator, linked to a determined cycle and therefore similar to Prometheus: “Prajāpati emitted the creatures; they were indistinct, without consciousness, and they ate each other; Prajāpati lamented; he saw the rite and then organized the world: the cows were cows; the horses, horses; the men, men; the beasts, beasts”59.

To this Vedic organization of the world corresponds, in the Greek context, the distribution of natural faculties to all beings that are to exist.

The Gods entrust Prometheus and Epimetheus, his brother, with this task. Epimetheus, whose name means the one who thinks afterward, asks Prometheus that the responsibility of distribution be his: “And when I have completed my distribution – he says – you will oversee”60. During this task, he assigned strength without speed to some, while providing speed to the weaker; he armed some, while for others, whom he rendered defenseless by nature, he devised some other means of salvation. To some, he gave wings, to others great size. And so on, careful that everything was in balance. He also devised easy ways to protect them from the storms of Zeus’s seasons. But Epimetheus, who lacked complete wisdom, consumed, without realizing it, all the natural faculties in favor of the beings devoid of reason: he had yet to endow humankind and did not know how to do so. Meanwhile, Prometheus arrived to oversee his brother’s work. He saw that the other beings possessed everything to live harmoniously; man, however, was naked, barefoot, lacking a bed and weapons, and the fateful day was imminent when even this last creature was to emerge from the earth as a substance – or, better, materia secunda – from which the human individual derives its form. Then Prometheus, for his salvation, steals from the Celestials, it is said from Hephaestus or the chariot of the Sun, fire, and from Athena knowledge and technique, ἔντεχνος σοφία61.

Some important elements bring Prometheus and Prajāpati closer: from them, humans originate, both give rise to sacrifice.

Here begins the second episode of the myth. It should be noted that in the oldest versions of the legend, specifically in Hesiod, Prometheus appears only as a benefactor of humanity, which comes to light spontaneously from the ground, just like plants62, and not as its creator, according to the account of Apollodorus.

After having materially shaped man with water and clay, moved because the creature “had eyes and did not see”, he steals fire63, the light, the source of all knowledge. Thus, one interpretation of the Promethean function concerns the creation of man.

“They had eyes and did not see, οἵ πρῶτα μὲν βλέποντες ἔβλεπον μάτην”64: thanks to fire, to the fiat lux, everything appears, man discovers what is outside of him, the world, which he did not see before.

“They had ears, but did not hear, κλύοντες οὐκ ἥκουον”65. Now, always thanks to Prometheus, they hear.

In the Aeschylean tragedy, the chorus says: “New lords reign in Olympus, Zeus dominates with new customs…”66. And Oceanus, addressing the chained Titan: “Recognize who you are, adapt to the new forms: a new lord is among the Gods.”67 A new era has begun in which humanity is that produced by Deucalion, who, casting behind him the “bones of the earth,” ensures that the new lineage of mortals descends from the dark Giants and not from heroes. Thus, the malevolent seed of the Giants managed to overcome the purifying barrier of the flood68 and spread in the Iron Age69.

  1. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 209-210. Cf. Davide Susanetti (ed.), Aeschylus, Prometheus, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2010.[↩]
  2. Ibid. 209-210.[↩]
  3. Apollodorus, Library, I.2.3.[↩]
  4. It is the χώρα (chora) of Plato, the receptacle and nurse of every generation (Plato, Timaeus, 49). It corresponds to the prakṛti of Sāṃkhya. Cf. Francesco Fronterotta (ed.), Plato, Timaeus, Milan, Bur, 2011. “In the beginning down here, there was nothing”, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (I.2.1); “He desired: «May I have a second…»” Ibid. (I.2.4). Ancient and Medieval Upaniṣads, Pio Filippani Ronconi (ed.), Turin, Bollati Boringhieri, 2007.[↩]
  5. Hesiod, Theogony, 207-208. Cf. Aristide Colonna (ed.), Hesiod, Works, Turin, Utet, 2011, Theogony, pp. 507-508.[↩]
  6. Luc Ferry, The Wisdom of Myths, Milan, Garzanti, 2010.[↩]
  7. In the hindū tradition, the struggle between the Olympians and the Titans finds a perfect correspondence in the perennial war between the Gods(Deva) and the anti-Gods (Asura). It is noteworthy, in this latter case, that the Indian myth also contemplates a microcosmic interpretation: “Since time immemorial there has been a struggle between Deva and Asura that continues even in the body of all individual beings, with the will to conquer one another.” (ChUŚBh I.2.1). It is the subconscious chaos that continually tries to re-emerge and overwhelm the order of human reason.[↩]
  8. Hesiod, cit., 678-683.[↩]
  9. Ibid. 820.[↩]
  10. Kàroly Kerényi, The Gods of Greece, Milan, Est, 2001, p. 29.[↩]
  11. Aeschylus, 29.[↩]
  12. Ibid. 92.[↩]
  13. Alberto Camerotto, “The Other Hybris of Prometheus”, in A. Camerotto and S. Carniel (eds), Hybris. The Limits of Man between Waters, Skies, and Lands, Milan, Mimesis, 2014.[↩]
  14. Ibid. 753.[↩]
  15. Ibid. 944-946.[↩]
  16. Ibid. 534.[↩]
  17. The burned bones become ashes: the ashes, being basic, are mineral salts. Otus and Ephialtes were sons of Poseidon, God of the sea, and of Iphimedea, who was married to Aloeus. These Aloidae, sons of salt, ἂλς (als), grew so quickly and disproportionately that they wanted to challenge the Gods: on Mount Olympus they placed the Bones and Pelion, threatening to scale the sky and boasting that, by filling the sea with mountains, they would transform the sea into land and vice versa (Apollodorus, Library I, 4). They were plunged into the Underworld where they were bound with serpents to a column, one against the shoulders of the other. Here they were tormented by an owl that cried out incessantly.[↩]
  18. Ucchiṣṭa, the remainder of the rite in India. Part of the sacrificial victim that remains after the offerings have been made. The food remnants of a sacrifice, therefore, are purified by fire and, after the food has been offered to the gods, they have become leftovers of divine food (prasāda), and can then be consumed by the faithful. Giovanni Torcinovich, Food, Sacrifice, and Knowledge. Material Food and Allegorical Food.[↩]
  19. Hyginus, De Astronomia, 1. Cf. G. Chiarini, G. Guidorizzi (eds.), Hyginus, Astral Mythology, Milan, Adelphi, 2009.[↩]
  20. “In Vedic sacrifices, yesterday as today, the food offering was cooked during the performance of the sacrifice. All the foods needed for the offerings were cooked by fire.” G. Torcinovich, cit.[↩]
  21. Aeschylus, 562-564.[↩][↩]
  22. In the Latin tradition, it was called Saturnia regia, the kingdom of Saturn, the Kronos of the Greeks. Giorgio de Santillana, Herta von Dechent, The Mill of Hamlet, Milan, Adelphi, 1983, p. 179.[↩]
  23. What has an end is a world, understood as an age of the world. The catastrophe sweeps away the past. Ibid.[↩]
  24. Cf. Luc Ferry, cit. It corresponds to the concept of dharma in Hinduism.[↩]
  25. Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, XI.1.8.2. Cf. J. Eggeling (ed.), The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1972 [1st ed. 1882]. Cf. Puruṣa Sūkta. Inno al Puruṣa, Milano, Ekatos Editions., 2024.[↩]
  26. Incorporated or free of the body.[↩]
  27. Porphirius, The cave of the Nymphs, XI, 11-15. Laura Simonini (ed. by), Porfirio, L’antro delle ninfe, Milano, Adelphi, 2009, p. 59.[↩]
  28. In the plain of Dion in Greece, near Mount Olympus, the remains of a large altar stand out. It is believed to be the altar where Deucalion and Pyrrha celebrated the first sacrifice after the flood.[↩]
  29. Ovid, Metamorphoses, I.318-415.[↩]
  30. In the hindū tradition, the pitṛyāṇa is the wet path. The smoke produced by cremation is the evaporation of the water from the human body, which will become rain for the growth of the plants that nourish man. Cf. Gian Giuseppe Filippi, The post mortem of the sādhaka according to the doctrine of Śaṃkarācārya, Milan, Ekatos, 2019.[↩]
  31. In Porphyry (cit.) the stone frames are assimilated to bones.[↩]
  32. Cf. Luc Ferry, cit.[↩]
  33. Prajāpati is the Lord of creatures, he is the hindū deity who presides over procreation, but he is also the sacrifice, Cf. G. Torcinovich, cit.[↩]
  34. This theme has been extensively addressed by Sylvain Lévi, The Doctrine of Sacrifice in the Brāhmaṇa, Milan, Adelphi, 2009.[↩]
  35. The Gods feed on offerings through their aroma, that is, the subtle state. Cf. G. Torcinovich. Op. cit.[↩]
  36. Cf. Porphyry, De abstinentia, 2.20.3.[↩]
  37. Hesiod, Works and Days, 138-139. Cf. A. Colonna (ed.), cit.[↩]
  38. Hesiod, Theogony, 185-186.[↩]
  39. Bhagavad Gītā, IV. 8. Cf. Raphael (ed.), Bhagavad Gita, The Song of the Blessed, Rome, Asram Vidya, 2006. One can notice a close analogy between the struggle of the heroes against the Giants and the war between the Pāṇḍava and the Kaurava.[↩]
  40. It would correspond to what happened with the war of the Mahābhārata in the Sanskrit tradition.[↩]
  41. Cf. C. Miralles, How to Read Homer, Milan, Rusconi, 1992, p. 34.[↩]
  42. Iliad, I, 37-43. Cf. Homer, Iliad, A. Calzecchi Onesti (ed.), Turin, Einaudi, 1990.[↩]
  43. Hesiod, Works and Days, 174-201.[↩]
  44. “… I will reveal to you the nature of the age of Kali […] The respect for social orders and their institutions will not be widespread in the age of Kali […] Marriages in this age will not conform to the ritual […] The rules underlying married life will be destroyed and no fire sacrifice will be offered to the Gods. […] The minds of men will be completely occupied with the thought of acquiring wealth. And wealth will be spent only to gratify the senses.” Śri Viṣṇu Purāṇa, La storia universale secondo gli antichi trattati indiani, Valentino Bellucci (ed.), Sesto San Giovanni (Milan), 2020, pp. 419-420.[↩]
  45. Plato, Protagoras, XII, b. Cf. Francesco Adorno (ed.), Plato, Protagoras, Bari, Laterza, 1996.[↩]
  46. Manu, I, 86, in G. Bueller (ed.), The Laws of Manu, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1975 [1st ed. 1886].[↩]
  47. Ibid, I. 86.[↩][↩]
  48. Apollodorus, Biblioteca, 7.2.[↩]
  49. In the hindū world, the relationship with the divine is indicated by various terms: in the kṛtayuga, the tapas; the inner heat; in the tretāyuga, jñāna, knowledge; in the dvāparayuga, yājña, the sacrifice; in the kaliyuga, dāna, the gift, charity (Manu, I. 86).[↩]
  50. It is necessary to prevent the sacrifice from unraveling. Just as in everyday life knots are made at both ends of a rope to prevent it from fraying, so knots are made at the ends of the sacrifice to prevent it from coming undone. Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, II, 5, 13-14. Accuracy, reality is the sacrifice. Maitrāyaṇī-Saṃhitā, I.10.11, Sylvan Lévi, The Doctrine of Sacrifice in the Brāhmaṇa, Milan, Adelphi, 2009, p. 180. The reality is the Gods, the inaccuracy is humanity. Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa, I.1.1.4. The way of the Gods is the way of accuracy. Ibid, IV, 3, 4, 16, Sylvain Lévi, Ibid.[↩]
  51. The term is related to μέλι-τος, honey. Honey is liquid fire. Cf. G. G. Filippi, “The Sweetness of Knowledge: madhu vidyā”, in A. Cadonna (ed.), In Memory of Alain Daniélou, Florence, Leo S. Olschki ed., 1996.[↩]
  52. Giorgio de Santillana and Herta von Dechend, The Hamlet Mill, Milan, Adelphi, 1969, pp. 438-441. On the contrary, the fire produced by the friction of flints is characteristic of the subsequent era, that of humanity in the Iron Age, born from stone. The pierres de foudre, or Neolithic flint axes, had this ritual function. The interpretation that the ancients awaited the fall of lightning to take its fire is foolishly a Darwinian interpretation based on a misreading of Diodorus Siculus. Cf. A. Dureau, “Is the art of making fire a characteristic of man?”, Bulletins de la Société d’anthropologie de Paris, II Série, tome 5, 1870 p. 5.[↩]
  53. In Ireland, the Ash Tree of Tortu, the Tree of Dathi, and the Leafy Tree of Ash Tree, three of the five magical trees whose felling in 665 A.D. symbolized the triumph of Christianity over paganism. Always in Ireland, the wood of an Ash Tree, descended from a sacred tree, constituted a talisman against drowning. Robert Graves, The White Goddess, Milan, Adelphi, 1992, p. 193.[↩]
  54. Cf. de Santillana, cit., p. 376. It is interesting to note that the string of the bow is comparable to the serpent. Vāsukī is the serpent used as a string in the churning of the ocean of milk in the Hindu tradition. One must not forget the function of the bowstring in the fire drill.[↩]
  55. Apollodorus, I.7.[↩]
  56. Pausanias, 10.4.4.[↩]
  57. Enrico Schiavo Lena, A text on the gods and the world of late antique paganism: the treatise of Salustius, Patti, Kimerik, 2013, p. 81.[↩]
  58. Aeschylus, 444.[↩]
  59. Tandya-Mahābrāhmaṇa, XXIV.11.2. Sylvain Lévi, The doctrine of sacrifice in the Brahmanas, Milan, Adelphi, 2009, p. 56.[↩]
  60. Plato, Protagoras, XI. d.[↩]
  61. Plato, Protagoras, XI. 320 d, e; 321 a, d.[↩]
  62. The jῑvātman of those who have followed the pitṛyāṇa, after falling to earth, associate with the plants. In this already earthly, yet subtle and prenatal condition, they are compared to plants for their seminal existence. Filippi. cit. pp. 48-49.[↩]
  63. Prometheus hid the fire, after extinguishing it, in a reed or in the hollow of a wild fennel stalk. For this reason, in the games, athletes run with a torch in hand, in memory of the titan. Hyginus, cit., II.2. It is curious to note that the stalk of fennel was used in Europe until a few centuries ago to fight against witches. Carlo Guinzburg, The Benandanti. Witchcraft and agrarian cults between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, Turin, Einaudi, 1966, pp. 36-40.[↩]
  64. Aeschylus, 445.[↩]
  65. Ibid. 448.[↩]
  66. Aeschylus, 150–151.[↩]
  67. Aeschylus, 309-310.[↩]
  68. Cf. Filippi, The mystery of death, cit., p. 31[↩]
  69. “For this we are a hard and broken race accustomed to toil, and our deeds prove what origin we are from.” Ovid, 414-415.[↩]