PART
2 – Ch.XIV.11
(KION OURANOU. The Sky Column on
in
the country of the Hyperboreans)
XIV.
11. The legend of Prometheus in Romanian heroic songs. The second version.
The titan
Prometheus, wanting to lighten the lot of unhappy mankind, had tricked Jove for
the second time, as Hesiod tells us, stealing a few sparks from the celestial
fire, which he had hidden in the stalk of the plant called ferula, had brought
on the earth and had lighted again the fire on the hearths of the mortals.
This had been the
second reason for which Prometheus drew upon him Jove’s hate and anger, Jove,
the new monarch of the world, who ordered Vulcan to chain him on the middle
column of the sky, after which he sent the gigantic vulture born of Typhon and
Echidna to devour his liver, the site of his passions (Hesiod, Theog. v. 520 seqq), or according to other versions, to devour
his heart, the origin of his wisdom and energy (Hyginus, Fabularum lib. CXLIV; Fulgentius,
Mythol. II. 9).
There still existed
in antiquity a very popular second legend about the ordeal of Prometheus,
according to which this benefactor of humankind had been firstly shut up in a
cave on the
“In the middle of
the Caucasus”, writes Diodorus Siculus,
“there is a rock, or better said a piece of a rock (petra), with a circumference
of 10 stades, and 4 stades high, and here the inhabitants of the neighborhood
show the cavern of Prometheus, the nest of the vulture and the marks of the
chains and the manacles with which he had been chained”.
And in Eschyl’s poem, Mercury addresses the
following words to Prometheus:
“Firstly the father
of gods will shatter with his thunders and lightning this corner of Pharang,
and your body will hide in a womb of rock, and after a long interval of time
you will again come out into the light and then the winged dog of Jove, the
bloodthirsty aquila, will avidly rip pieces off your body and will eat your
black liver” (Prometheus vinctus, v. 1016 seqq).
This second version
about the suffering of Prometheus, who was firstly thrown into a cave, or in a deep rocky bosom, and was afterwards tortured by the terrible vulture of Jove, is also
represented in the Romanian epic poetry.
In this series of
epic songs, the Romanian hero is called Corbea
the brave, Corbea the blameless, Badea, Marza, etc (Teodorescu,
Poesii pop. p.517-536; Tocilescu,
Materialuri folkloristice, Vol. I. 147. 149. 179. 1225; Tocilescu, Revista pentru istoria, An. II, Vol. III. 399, VII. 2.
423; Densusianu Aron, Revista
critica literara, An. III. p. 60; Bibicescu,
Poesii pop. din Transilvania, p. 329; Catana,
Balade populare, p.17; Negoescu,
Poesii pop., Balade, p.201; Pompiliu,
Balade, p.36; Bugnariu, Musa
Somesiana, Balade, p.82. 87; Burada,
O calatorie in Dobrogea, p.151; Marianu,
Balade romane, 1869, p.38-43; Daul,
Colinzi, p.30).
He was, as the folk
texts tell us, “son of a Domn (TN - Lord, King)”, one of the great boyars, a
“smart” man, a man with a titanic voice, who “when he spoke, the mountains
shook”. The Romanian hero is shut up and chained in a “damned cave, damp and
poisoned, 9 fathoms deep into the ground”, or in a “stone prison, dug deep into
the ground”. Here he lies “prostrated, face upwards, with hands in shackles and
feet in stocks”, or according to other versions “in steel manacles and iron
chains, locked on his chest with 5 liters of silver”.
The causes of his
imprisonment are two.
On the one hand is
his aspiration to reign, like the titan Prometheus, who also appears in Hesiod’s legend (Theog. v. 534) as a
rival of Jove for the rule of the world.
The second cause
for which the hero suffers in his cave is a very characteristic symbolic representation of the fire which had been
stolen.
Stefan, the Lord of
the country, accuses the Romanian hero for stealing from him a crazy
horse, red and sprightly, red as fire, so
red that the sun paled before it, a horse which ate only live coals, which blew
sparks off his nostrils, which took heart when the summer wind blew, and the
evening breeze blew, so that in his wake the stones flashed and red furrow
turned; it was an enchanted horse, a winged horse, which when running, mixed
with the clouds, and when neighing, the mountains shook and great trees
overturned. The Romanian hero had hidden this horse, which ate only live coals,
in a stone stable, 7 fathoms deep underground.
It is the same idea
which we find at the ancient authors, that Prometheus, stealing from Jove the
celestial fire, had hidden it in the stalk of the plant called ferula, but with
another metaphor.
In Romanian traditions,
the hero is tortured at the beginning not by the vulture, but by an infernal
she-snake, which coiled her tail around his body and heart, a dreadful serpent,
which incubated in his bosom, where then she reared her young, biting either
form his flesh, or from his ribs, and drinking his blood.
According to
antique legends, Prometheus sustained his ordeal for 30 years and the same
number of years is mentioned also in the Romanian legend.
The Romanian hero
is tortured in his poisoned cave, or in the stone underground prison, for 27
and a half years, or for 32 years according to other versions.
After this long
interval of time, during which the hero is incarcerated, tortured and forgotten
by everybody, time in which, as he tells us, only the ravens brought him food, the mother of the hero, an old widow, “an
old woman, thin but fiery and with a wise mind”, presents herself in front of
the Lord of the country and ardently
beseeches him to free her son from prison.
But the pitiless
Lord ironically answers her that he will forgive her son “high up on the
The country of the
Romanian hero is the country of
The cave or stone
prison in which he is shut up is high up on the water of Nistru, or according
to other versions on the shore of the Danube, on the plain of Baragan and the
road of Rusalim (Jerusalem), or he is jailed in the prison of Opris, in the
prison of Sanfius, or in the prison at Zarlat across the Carpathians.
In the folk
Romanian texts the hero appears like in the Greek legends, as the most tortured
man in the world, thrown by Stefan Voda, or by the emperor of Tarigrad (Constantinople),
in a poisoned cave, 9 fathoms deep under the ground, where the venomous snakes
squeeze him and suck his blood, where he lies as a great sinner, although he is
innocent, not tried, and forgotten by everybody. His torments are such, that
“he screams so loudly, it can be heard across the sea, but nobody hears him,
only his sweet mother” (Catana,
Balade pop. p. 17).
These ancient epic
songs from the
The guardian of the
prison of the Romanian hero is one so-called Valcea (Tocilescu,
Materialuri folk.
Valcea of the Romanian folk texts is the famous
smith Vulcan, to whom the ancient
traditions had attributed the sad task of chaining and nailing the greatest
benefactor of humankind. (According to Homer
– Iliad. XVIII. 397 – Vulcan had
been lame since birth. The Romanian hero cripples Valcea, leaving him with only one leg).
Finally, after long
and terrible suffering, the Romanian hero triumphs over the anger and power of
the wicked Lord. He escapes from prison, or from the deep cave, due to his
cleverness, and in the end becomes Lord of the country, or a great king on the
throne of Tarigrad (Tocilescu,
Revista, An. II, vol. III. p.400; vol. VII. 2. 424).
As we see, the
Romanian tradition presents the same episode from the battle of the ancient
titans, the same development of events do the legend of Eschyl and Diodorus.
The element of fire in particular, as a mysterious and
beneficial power, is often mentioned and symbolized in this cycle of Romanian
songs.
The horse of the hero,
an enchanted horse, is red as the fire, so red that even the sun darkens; he
eats only live coals, on his wake the stones flash and a red furrow appears.
His mother is an old, thin, ardent woman, but with a wise mind. She “fiercely”
beseeches the Lord of the country to free her son from prison, so that “when she will be weak, to bring her an
ember, to kindle a fire in the hearth” (Tocilescu, Materialuri folk. I. 192).
This is another
echo of some deeds, which we cannot understand today, but which had left deep
marks in the soul of the people: that Prometheus had fetched to the unhappy
humans the sparks of the celestial fire, hidden in the stalk of the plant
called ferula.
Finally, some
Romanian songs celebrate also the triumph of the hero, by saying that under the
canopy of the forest is seen the light
of a big fire, where Corbea
warms himself (Marianu, Poesii pop.
Tom. I, 1873, p. 116).
Prometheus had been
one of the most popular figures of the heroic times of humankind.
He appears in the
same way in the Romanian songs. They express the feelings of sadness of the
people for the undeserved punishment of a hero, and its happiness for his
victory.
These are ancient
accents echoing in these traditional songs.
But the legend of
Prometheus has reached us only in a fragmented form.
From the great
treasury of epic songs which once resounded at the north of Istru, in the lands
so-called of the Hyperboreans, only a small part has reached us.
A hero with the
name of Corbea was also known to
Homeric antiquity.
The ancient cyclic
poet Lesches mentions in “Little
Iliad” a legendary Pelasgian hero called Coroeb(os),
who had participated to the Trojan war, as allied of Priam.
We find the same
legend also with Virgil.
When Aeneas tells queen
Dido about the desperate battle of the fatal night, when
“Inspired by gods,
I throw myself in the middle of the fight and flames, everywhere where I am
called by sad Erinnys, the fury of battle and the screams rising to the sky. At
the same time arrived also our allies Rhipeus
and Epytus, the oldest man bearing
arms. In the moonlight gather around me Hypanis,
Dymas and young Coroebus, the son of Mygdon. He had come to Troy exactly in these
fatal days, burning with a mad love for Cassandra, and as son-in-law he brought
now help to Priam and the Phrygians, unlucky he, who had not heard the
prophecies of his bride, inspired by divinity (Aen. II. v. 341).
An old painting
from the walls of
The names of the
heroes Rhipeus and Hypanis, who had run to
Rhipaei were the mountains of the Hyperboreans or
today Carpathians. Virgil calls Rhipeus, justissimus unus (Aen. II. 426), an epithet characteristic for the
Hyperboreans and the Getae (Mela,
lib. III. 5; Herodotus, lib. IV.
93).
And Hypanis is according to Strabo the name of the river Nistru.
The hero Coroebos
seems to have had the same Hyperborean origin.
A series of epic
songs had therefore existed in Homeric antiquity about a famous Pelasgian hero
called Coroebos, although the Greek mythographers could not imagine that this
hero from near the Rhipaei mountains was the same legendary personality of Prometheus of Scythia [1].
[1. Prometheus and the flood of Deucalion.
In the ancient Greek traditions
Prometheus was also connected with the flood which had covered in a remote
epoch the entire
We find even today in
Another version, identical in
essence with the former tells us: “The giants have perished at the time of the
flood. In fear of drowning they climbed up on the mountain peaks, and the birds
of the sky, which had filled the air with their numbers, having no place to
rest, alighted on the giants, and as they were hungry they pecked their flesh
until they finished them” (Upper Drajna village, Prahova district)].