greek mythology stuff

Chapter 13 Taking away the fire bestowed on mankind
There is no doubt that the prophet Prometheus was a young and vigorous god, he was wise and wise, and had the gift of prophecy.

Like young people, he doesn't like to give up. No matter what difficulties and obstacles lie ahead, he will do his best to overcome them with wisdom.

But he also has shortcomings, that is, his wisdom has not been accumulated over time, and he does not have enough experience to support him.

Although he has also experienced two changes in the position of the king of gods, his two older brothers, Epimetheus, the god of ignorance, and Atlas, the giant god of the sky, have always protected him and prevented him from being swept up by conspiracy.

So as soon as Prometheus returned to the world and saw that the human beings he created lived in caves, he instantly became selfish.

Gods are not ruthless, they also have joys, sorrows, sorrows, loves and hates, and their own preferences.

As a matter of course, compared with non-intelligent animals, intelligent humans are more likely to be favored by Prometheus, the creator.

He found all the human beings he created one by one, and moved them to a big river that flows into the sea with divine power. In the distance is the endless blue sea, and beside it are forests and grasslands full of berries and inhabited by cattle and sheep. Not only that, he It also severely drove away the beasts that threatened humans in the surrounding area.

For living beings, food and water are two essential conditions for survival. Prometheus solved these two problems at once, and gave "safety" as a gift to human beings.

There is no need to run around for food, human minds are liberated, and people can have more time to think about the connection between man and nature, what is his ideal, where will I end up, and so on, and so on, among which new life What human beings think about the most is what is the difference between human beings and gods, and how to get along with each other.

For the next period of time, Prometheus ate and lived with the newborn humans.

He gave human beings writing so that they could exchange ideas with each other, taught them to make ships and sails so that they could sail long distances, and let them try to tame cattle and sheep to share their labor, and helped build houses to resist the cold wind.

Of course, he did not forget his mission. He led mankind to build the temples of the gods, and even built the largest and most exquisite temple of the god king Zeus.

But in offering sacrifices to the gods, Prometheus took a trick. He wanted to keep as much property as possible from his creation.

His clever brain was keenly aware of one thing: the gods don't care what the sacrifices offered by humans are, they only care about piety or not.

What kind of sacrifice can be called piety?
Human beliefs have never been touched by gods before, because the belief of a single human being is too weak, so weak that the gods can't feel it.

Then it can only be judged from the scale of the sacrifice and the property owned by this person.A person who has nothing but a cow is all he has next to him, but he still dedicates the cow to the gods, so there is no doubt that this person must be devout.

Prometheus had a calculation in his mind.

He ordered the humans to slaughter the largest bull, cut the sacrificed bull into pieces, and divided them into two piles.

One pile is all beef, which is covered with cowhide; the other pile is all beef bones, which are wrapped with cow suet.This pile is much larger than the other pile.

According to Prometheus' plan, human beings put two piles of fragments in the temple of Zeus, put the larger pile on the altar for sacrifice, and took away the small one, which is all beef. that bunch.

Prometheus successfully deceived Zeus, the king of gods. Human beings not only kept the meat of the cattle, but the next year was also a good year.

Human beings who have tasted the sweetness will use this trick every year in the future, and the results have been tried and tested.

……

During the harvest, Prometheus would gather the newborn humans to talk with them and answer their doubts.

He will tell the stories of the gods to mankind, starting from the chaos of the world, how the gods were born, how human beings were born, how human beings in the golden age have eternal life, never die, and how they are destroyed Yes, human beings in the Silver Age are just like them, with a lifespan of only a hundred years.

Newborn humans have no concept of death at all. Although they only have a lifespan of a hundred years like humans in the Silver Age, they have not even reached half of their life path, and they are still young.

Then someone asked, "What is death?"

The person who asked the question was Calus. He was the most intelligent and eager to learn among the first humans. Prometheus liked him very much.Prometheus also participated in blinding the god king Zeus with a bull bone.

Prometheus answered him: "Death is death."

"Unlike gods with eternal life, you will all face it after a hundred years."

"The body is destroyed, the soul goes to the barren underworld, becomes the undead of the dark dead country, and then stays there forever."

Kalus became frightened: "Desolate underworld? Isn't it difficult to find food, and you will be hungry easily?"

Prometheus told him, and to all the humans present: "The undead don't need to eat."

"They're neither hungry nor thirsty."

"But you can only stay in the underworld forever, and you can't come to the world."

Kalus showed a relieved expression: "I won't be hungry, I won't be thirsty, isn't that great?"

"Anyway, mortals can't go to the underworld, isn't it the same as the undead can't come to the world."

"In this way, death is nothing special."

Prometheus looked at him lovingly: "Because you are young, Calus."

"Every year, your strength is stronger than the previous year."

"When you are young, you don't feel the feeling of aging."

"But one day."

"You'll face death head on and see what it really is."

"Then, be in awe of it."

Kalus said proudly: "Then I wait for that day to see how death makes me awed!"

……

Time flies, and 100 years quickly slipped through the fingers.

On the earth, human beings have replaced crops like crops.

As one of the few old men still alive, Calus is revered by newborn humans and is called a wise man.

In the darkness, Kalus, who was very old, knelt in the temple of Zeus, with a slaughtered cow in front of him.There is no falsehood, and the flesh and bones of the cow are clearly visible under the candlelight of the temple.

Everyone around has fallen asleep, and no one thought that their wise men would sneak into the god-king's temple in the middle of the night.

The flames on the candlesticks were dancing, making the expression on Calus's thin and wrinkled cheeks uncertain and unrecognizable.

He thought of what he said when he was young: "Then I will wait for that day to see how death makes me awed!" '

Now, he sees it.

His body was exhausted and his appearance became ugly. Although he was called a wise man by the newborn youth, he couldn't fill his heart torn by fear.

He... doesn't want to die.

Similarly, he also found the answer to the question that he thought about when he was young, 'what is the difference between man and God, and how should we get along with each other'.

His answer is simple: God is eternal, and people should fear God.

After a long time, it seemed that he had made up his mind, and he began to chant Zeus's prayer song, praying that the eyes of the king of the gods would look down on him.

Calus's soft chanting echoed in the empty temple:

"Exalted Zeus, indestructible Zeus."

"We pray to you for forgiveness:"

"O king, you bring the holiness to light."

"Echoing barrier of mother earth and mountains."

"The waters of the sea and the stars all over the sky."

"Zeus, son of Cronus, god-king, blows smoke and throws thunder."

"Father of all, beginning and end of all things."

"You shake the earth, you grow and purify."

"O Shaker of the World!"

"Zeus with lightning and thunder and thunderbolt, power to multiply."

"Listen to me!"

"Bless me with perfect health, holy peace, and the glory of wealth beyond reproach."

Immediately afterwards, Calus began to tell how he feared Zeus, how Prometheus used bull bones to perfuse the gods, and how he hated Prometheus' actions.

Finally, Kalus finally stated his purpose: "God! I believe in you so devoutly, please grant me eternal and immortal life!"

A beam of moonlight shone into the corner of the temple, and also saw Zeus standing in the dark corner.

Some people in the world read his name and praised his holiness, so he came.

He was expressionless, as if he was looking at Kalus kneeling in the center of the temple, trying to find out the quality of piety from him.

However, he couldn't find it.

There is only fear in this mortal's heart, no pious belief.

At half-pay, Zeus looked to the sky, a thunderbolt streaked across the night, shattered the dome of the temple and landed on Calus's head.

At the same time, Prometheus was awakened by the thunder, and the voice of Zeus suddenly appeared in his ear: "From today, take back the fire given to mankind."

(End of this chapter)