Introduction: An Encounter with the Children of Nimrod

Abstract

There is something valiant and noble about the stories of Prometheus, Greek god and friend to humanity. I must admit that I am drawn to the defiance, the determination to celebrate human tenacity, found in those mythic accounts of Prometheus’ s daring. According to some accounts, Prometheus was the creator of humanity whereby he “fashioned them in a nobler shape than the animals, upright like the gods; and then he went to heaven, to the sun, where he lit a torch and brought down fire, a protection” and ultimately the means for humans to exercise various talents and abilities.¹ The theft of fire from mount Olympus resulted in punishment from Zeus. Prometheus was chained to a rock and his liver, which regenerated perpetually, was consumed by a bird until he was freed many years later.

Edith Hamilton, Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (New York: New American Library, 1969), 69.