un / bound

To start off, I think this throwaway line from Sea of Monsters is hilarious:

“Yeah,” the jogger said. “Listen—I know, but . . . I don’t care if he is chained to a rock with vultures pecking at his liver, if he doesn’t have a tracking number, we can’t locate his package. . . . A gift to humankind, great . . . You know how many of those we deliver—Oh, never mind. Listen, just refer him to Eris in customer service. I gotta go.”

Now on to the actual canon stuff.

Context: All excerpts were taken from The Last Olympian. The demi-gods are the last line of defence. They’re protecting the entrance to Olympus from the titan army. Prometheus has come to negotiate with them, hoping that they will surrender.

Prometheus winced. He touched the scratches on his face. “Please, don’t mention the vultures. But yes, I stole fire from the gods and gave it to your ancestors. In return, the ever merciful Zeus had me chained to a rock and tortured for all eternity.”

“But—”

“How did I get free? Hercules did that, eons ago. So you see, I have a soft spot for heroes. Some of you can be quite civilized.”

—

Prometheus looked pained, like he really cared what happened to me. “Percy, I’m the Titan of forethought. I know what’s going to happen.”

“Also the Titan of crafty counsel,” Grover put in. “Emphasis on crafty.”

Prometheus shrugged. “True enough, satyr. But I supported the gods in the last war. I told Kronos: ‘You don’t have the strength. You’ll lose.’ And I was right. So you see, I know how to pick the winning side. This time, I’m backing Kronos.”

This, I do have a minor issue with. While I do not have an issue with Prometheus picking the winning side in the original Titanomachy, I do have an issue with him siding with Kronos in the Second Titan War. Let me explain.

In Greek mythology, Prometheus allegedly saw that the gods would win, and this convinced his brother Epimetheus to join him on the side of the gods. Fair enough. However, the times have changed quite radically.

(I ended up writing my BA thesis on how Percy Bysshe Shelley misinterpreted Aeschylus’ Prometheus Unbound. While this would be a perfect time to go on that tangent, let’s just say that both Prometheus and Zeus needed to become better people before Prometheus was released from the mountain. They both needed to atone and reconcile. Might write a short analysis on that later.)

In short: Prometheus and Zeus have reconciled. 

“Because Zeus chained you to a rock,” I guessed.

“Partly, yes. I won’t deny I want revenge. But that’s not the only reason I’m supporting Kronos. It’s the wisest choice. I’m here because I thought you might listen to reason.”

However, I would argue the main thing that has changed between the First and Second Titan War, is mankind. Mankind did not play a factor in the Titanomachy, while it does in the Second Titan War.

Prometheus says:

“... When Kronos destroys Olympus, the gods will fade. They will become so weak they will be easily defeated. Kronos would rather do this while Typhon has the Olympians distracted in the west. Much easier. Fewer lives lost. But make no mistake, the best you can do is slow us down. … The gods and Mount Olympus will still be destroyed, but it will be much messier. Much, much worse for you and your city. Either way, the Titans will rule.”

Thus implying that mankind will be safe.

Prometheus shook his head. “You don’t understand. I helped shape your nature.”

A wiggling lump of clay appeared in his hands. He fashioned it into a little doll with legs and arms. The lump man didn’t have any eyes, but it groped around the table, stumbling over Prometheus’s fingers. “I have been whispering in man’s ear since the beginning of your existence. I represent your curiosity, your sense of exploration, your inventiveness. Help me save you, Percy. Do this, and I will give mankind a new gift—a new revelation that will move you as far forward as fire did. You can’t make that kind of advance under the gods. They would never allow it. But this could be a new golden age for you. Or . . .” He made a fist and smashed the clay man into a pancake.

Not only that, he allegedly believes that mankind will thrive.

However, the book also mentioned this:

Within a week, Olympus might fall. If the Age of the Gods really did end, the world as we knew it would dissolve into chaos. Demigods would be hunted to extinction. There would be no more summers for us.

While you could argue that this is written from Percy’s perspective, we don’t get much reason to doubt this. The titans are explicitly written as the “villains.”

Thus, Riordan established Prometheus to be the “helper of mankind” and someone who likes demi-gods, yet is also under the impression that they will be spared in the aftermath of the war — despite being the god of forethought?

Prometheus should know that Kronos hates demi-gods. Even if mankind gets spared, demi-gods would not be. While Riordan’s Prometheus might be fine with this, mine would never be.

Moreover, Prometheus would not fight a war in order to give mankind this supposed “new gift.” Like Grover said before, he is the god of “crafty counsel.” If Prometheus had a new gift to give to mankind, he would have found a way to give it to them without the needless loss of life.

“At any rate,” the Titan said, “you need not be my enemy. I have always been a helper of mankind.”

“That’s a load of Minotaur dung,” Thalia said. “When mankind first sacrificed to the gods, you tricked them into giving you the best portion. You gave us fire to annoy the gods, not because you cared about us.”

Thalia, or Rick Riordan, is wrong here. Prometheus did not trick the gods into giving him the best portion. He tricked Zeus so that mankind would get to keep the meat for themselves. This, in turn, is the reason why Zeus denied mankind fire. Depending on the myth, he either took the fire from mankind as punishment for Prometheus’ trickery, or he decided that they would never receive it in the first place.

Regardless, Prometheus stole the fire so mankind would thrive. So that they would keep the bountiful fruits of their labour in the form of the meat, as well as receive fire anyway. Everything Prometheus did in both scenarios, he did because he believed it would benefit mankind.

He did not steal fire to “annoy the gods.” Prometheus was right here, he has “always been a helper of mankind.”

My stomach did a queasy somersault. “What about the other Titans?”

“In hiding,” Hermes said. “Prometheus sent Zeus a message with a bunch of excuses for supporting Kronos. ‘I was just trying to minimize the damage,’ blah, blah. He’ll keep his head low for a few centuries if he’s smart. Krios has fled, and Mount Othrys has crumbled into ruins. Oceanus slipped back into the deep ocean when it was clear Kronos had lost. Meanwhile, my son Luke is dead. He died believing I didn’t care about him. I will never forgive myself.”

I think this would have been a smarter, more crafty, idea than him siding with the titans fully. However, Riordan never shows this and thus we have to believe that Prometheus is just trying to cover for himself in this scenario. Even though Prometheus never really tried to cover for himself, outside of siding with the gods in the Titanomachy. 

And even then you could still argue that Prometheus chose to side with the gods because he knew he would be rewarded with the creation of mankind.