Prometheus by Carl Kerényi

Prometheus by Carl Kerényi

A landmark account of the Prometheus story as myth and archetype

The god Prometheus stole fire from heaven and bestowed it on humans. In punishment, Zeus chained him to a rock, where an eagle clawed unceasingly at his liver until Herakles freed him. For the Greeks, the myth of Prometheus’s release reflected a primordial law of existence and the fate of humankind. Carl Kerényi examines the story of Prometheus and the very process of mythmaking as a reflection of the archetypal function and seeks to discover how this primitive tale was invested with a universal fatality, first in the Greek imagination and then in the Western tradition of Romantic poetry. Kerényi traces the evolving myth from Hesiod and Aeschylus, and in its epic treatment by Goethe and Shelley. He goes on to consider the myth from the perspective of Jungian psychology as the archetype of human daring signifying the transformation of suffering into the mystery of the sacrifice.

Carl Kerényi (1897–1973) was a Hungarian scholar of classical philology and the history of religion. He made significant contributions to the modern study of Greek mythology and collaborated with figures like C. G. Jung in exploring mythological archetypes.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780691281759
ISBN 10	0691281750
Title	Prometheus
Author	Carl Kerényi
Series	Bollingen Recollections
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Princeton University Press
Year published	2026-04-14
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.