Neither Good Nor Bad: How Prometheus Stole Fire for Humankind
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flesh--and feed on his liver! And every day his liver will grow back, and the vulture will return. Prometheus will suffer and suffer and suffer! And there will be no relief from all that pain!"
Athena laughed. "You don't take into account Prometheus' character, Father. He is very wise and clever, and he can foretell the future. If I am not mistaken, he knows already what you are going to do to him."
"It will still hurt!" said Zeus.
Athena laughed again. "Poor Prometheus," she said. "He will suffer anything for the well-being of his beloved creatures. Why not get at him through them. Have Hephaistos make out of mud a creature in the shape of the goddesses, and have each of the goddesses give this creature a special gift. In the end, she will be, of course, everything to all men. She will be intelligent, charming, beautiful, inquisitive and gay, graceful, kind--"
"Inquisitive...," said Zeus.
"Then set her down among Prometheus' men and see what happens. I guarantee that she will make men suffer--and Prometheus!"
"You are indeed my brainchild!" said Zeus.
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"Who are they?" asked Pandora, the creature Hephaistos had created.
In the distance, the men Prometheus had created were roasting a boar.
"You stay away from them," said Epimetheus. He sat down on the ground beside the dead remains of the sacrificial fire, and laid the box of evils entrusted to him in his lap.
"Where have Power and Force taken your brother?"
Epimetheus did not answer.
"Why is Zeus angry at Prometheus?"
Again Epimetheus did not answer.
Pandora began dancing gaily around Epimetheus. She whirled and whirled, her lovely green skirt rising. She had orange hair.
"Stop it!" said Epimetheus.
"Am I beautiful?" asked Pandora, stopping. "Am I irresistible?"
"Yes! No!" said Epimetheus.
"Why?"
Epimetheus pulled his hair.
Round and round Pandora whirled , her skirt rising, her hair caressing. Stopping close to Epimetheus, she reached over and raised the lid of his box. "What's--"
And out flew all the evils--War, Hatred, Disease, and all the rest. "Oh no, no, no ... ," said Epimetheus. He tried to recapture the last one, Blind Rope, and ran after it. But away it fled, faster than Zeus' lightning, and hid among the men Prometheus had created.
"No, no, no," moaned Epimetheus.
"Why?" asked Pandora.
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Its ugly beak clamped on Prometheus' liver, the vulture rooted and pulled. Finally its head came away, and the huge black bird swallowed heavily. Again it rooted and pulled, grasping Prometheus' ribs for balance and leverage. And again its head came away, a dripping gob of liver in its beak.
Finally, the liver was gone, and the vulture flapped its huge black wings, resting. Then it flew off, circling round and round, higher and higher, among the weathered crags of Mount Caucasus.
Every day, the vulture returned and devoured Prometheus' liver.
On the third day, Athena flew down from Olympus and chased the vulture away.
"Neither good nor bad," said Prometheus. "Neither good nor bad...."
"Friend Prometheus...How are you?"
Prometheus raised his pained and blistered head.
"Athena...."
"I'm very sorry...."
Prometheus blinked his eyes at the sun and watched the circling vulture drawing nearer.
"The men you created," said Athena, "are now plagued by all the evils. War, Hatred, Disease, Pain, Blind Hope--"
"Ahh," said Prometheus.
The vulture lighted on his chest.
"Shall I chase it away," asked Athena.
"No...," said Prometheus.
"Oh, Prometheus! But he's tearing your flesh!"
Prometheus' head fell backward, and struck the rock. The vulture tore his belly open.
"I know the future, I know what I'm doing," Prometheus said.
Glossary
Cronos--the youngest of the first generations of Titans, who led his cohorts in the battle with Zeus and the Olympians.
Zeus--Olympian and God of Heaven.
Hades--Olympian and God of the Underworld.
Poseidon--Olympian and God of the Seas.
Phocis--a region in central Ancient Greece.
Cephissus River--a river in central Greece, with which the river god Cephissus was associated.
Athena--Zeus' daughter and Goddess of Wisdom, Courage, Inspiration, Just War.
Hephaistos--Zeus' kind and loving son, God of Fire and the forge, patron of smiths and weavers.
Hermes--Zeus' son, known as the Messenger God.
Prometheus--a Titan who fought on the side of the Olympians, whose name means foresight or forethought. He plans ahead.
Epimetheus--a Titan and Prometheus' brother, whose name means hindsight. He learns after the fact.
Pandora--the first human woman, molded out of mud by Hephaistos at Zeus' behest. Each of the other gods gave Pandora a unique gift, and all joined in gracing her with seductiveness. Her name meant "all-gifted" or "all-giving."
Mount Olympus--part of the Olympus range, the highest mountain in Greece, and regarded the home of the gods of Ancient Greece.
Caucasus Mountains--a range of mountain between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, one of the pillars supporting the world in Greek mythology.
Brief Bio of the Author
A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Lowell Uda has taught English at the U. of Hawaii and the U. of Montana, and worked in Montana state government. After that he became a United Methodist minister, pastoring churches in Colorado and Montana. His short story, “The Cherry Tree,” won first prize in the 2011 Common Review Short Story Prize contest. Stories, poems, and creative nonfiction of his have appeared in literary and other magazines, including The North American Review, the Hawaii Review, the Chariton Review, and, most recently, A River and Sound Review, Written River, The Whirlwind Review, 5x5, Assisi, In Our Own Voice, Divide: Journal of Literature, Arts and Ideas, Poems Across the Big Sky, Moonrabbit Review, and The Other Side.
Under the Hala Tree by Lowell Uda
19090 words. Published on November 10, 2012. Fiction.
In ancient Polynesia the people used their own body parts to grow life sustaining plants. Under the Hala Tree, a retelling of their stories about their origins, sparkles with wit and slightly bawdy humor. Author Lowell Uda comes by his love of these tales from his mother, who was reared as Hawaiian in a Hawaiian family.
Parable of the Promise by Lowell Uda
1820 words. Published on November 28, 2012. Fiction.
A childless couple, the Man of the Forest and the Woman of the Forest, spend many happy years caring for God's creation but nurture one sadness in their life together. God makes them a promise: "Some day you will care not only for the trees, waterways and creatures of the forest, but also for your own children." But the years go by and the old couple remain barren.
Parable of the Uncoordinated Pigeon by Lowell Uda
3340 words. Published on November 29, 2012. Fiction.
When launched miles from home, as many of us are, King suffers with his homing instinct. Paradoxically, the harder he tries to wing his way home, the further and further away from home he finds himself. In the end, he learns where home really is.
Yoga and Other Poems by Lowell Uda
3300 words. Published on December 13, 2012. Fiction.
While practicing Yoga, I learned that the stretching exercises I did not only disciplined my body, mind and spirit, but also challenged my imagination to apprehend points of view far different than mine. I began to wonder what it was really like to stand like a stork, or drink like a cat in the wild, or be a fish looking up out of water, or rise like a cobra.
Keeping Shop and Other Early Poems by Lowell Uda
1780 words. Published on December 17, 2012. Fiction.
/> Keeping Shop is about staying in touch with language during a difficult period in my life. In these early poems I tried different voices in order to arrive at change in myself, but learned that all I'd done was to hide from others, even those closest to me, because of a fear of commitment. Which voice was really mine? The self-irony I used became a barrier to my deepest desire for wholeness.
Get Poi? Childhood Memories of Hawaii during World War II by Lowell Uda
20210 words. Published by Rice Universe Publishing on March 3, 2013. Creative Nonfiction.
Get Poi? is creative nonfiction in which I remember and recreate my experiences as a child in wartime Honolulu, a world of growing ethnic diversity in which the ability to speak Standard English was a touchstone of one's trustworthiness and loyalty to the United States of America, and in which my Japanese-American parents did their best to raise me and my siblings to become full human beings.
Mo-o of the Kawainui by Lowell Uda
Price: $3.99 USD. 39110 words. Published by Rice Universe Publishing on March 16, 2013. .
This collection of seven short stories and one long one, "Mo-o of the Kawainui," after which the volume is named, represents an experiment in voice, my struggle to express fictively the complexities of my personal background and upbringing as a third generation Japanese American born in Hawaii, raised as a Mormon by a mother who as an infant was hanai'd or adopted by a native Hawaiian family.
Where to Find Lowell Uda online
Website: https://www.riceuniversepublishing.com
Twitter: UdaLowell
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lowell-uda/50/282/506
Blog: https://www.lowelluda.wordpress.com