Prometheus annotation

     Both the Theogony and the Works and Days traditionally ascribed to “Hesiod” mention the figure of Prometheus in what at first sight appear to be mythical narratives.  This has led to the traditional construal that the two accounts simply constitute different “versions” of “a” myth.  Indeed, commentators have used this assumption in pursuing further exegesis of the narratives, notably in Jean-Pierre Vernant’s analysis based on Structuralist premises (which has been widely cited as of now, the first decade of the 21^st century, although it had been ignored in such places as West’s commentaries on the poems at the time I wrote).  This article, however, argues from a detailed comparison of the two narratives that they are not of a piece generically.  Rather, the account appearing in the Works and Days advances with respect to that in the Theogony (itself already advanced with respect to the typical mythical narrative of a tribal culture) in a certain way (which the article characterizes), so that it might rather be described as meta-myth.  As such it takes a step toward a more rational means of accounting for matters in the world.

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