Prometheus
The question as to the harm done by my innovation is best answered by an appeal to the past, to those days when the race of heayen-born Gods stood alone, and earth was a hideous shapeless mass, a tangle of rude vegetation. The Godshad no altars then, nor temples (for who should raise them?), no images of wood or stone, such as now abound in every corner of the earth, and are honoured with all observance. It was to me that the idea occurred—amid my ceaseless meditations on the common welfare, on the aggrandizement of the Gods and the promotion of order and beauty in the universe—of setting all to rights with a handful of clay; of creating living things, and moulding them after our own likeness. I saw what was lacking to our godhead: some counterpart, some foil wherein to set off its blessedness. And that counterpart must be mortal; but in all else exquisitely contrived, perfect in intelligence, keen to appreciate our superiority.
Thereupon, I moulded my material, With water mingling clay, and created man, calling in Athene to aid me in the task. And this is my rank offence against the Gods.. Destructive work,— to reduce inanimate clay to life and motion! The Gods, it seems, are Gods no longer, now that there are mortal creatures on the earth. To judge at least by Zeus’s indignation, one would suppose that the Gods suffered some loss of prestige -from the creation of mankind; unless it is that he is afraid of another revolt, of their waging war with heaven, like the Giants.
