A Greek Myth Teaches the
Law of Self-Sacrifice
Henry Wadsworth
An Editorial Note:
Noble actions suppose a degree of self-sacrifice.
Challenging the routine of established ignorance can be a painful experience,
until the good karma is ripe enough to return to its origin.
In her book “The Secret Doctrine”, Helena P. Blavatsky
includes a number of references and commentaries to the Greek myth of
Prometheus, whose symbolism teaches the courage and determination that are
necessary to help mankind.
H.P.B. writes on Prometheus:
“The subject of Aeschylus’ drama (the trilogy is lost)
is known to all cultured readers. The demi-god robs the gods (the Elohim) of
their secret - the mystery of the creative fire. For this sacrilegious attempt
he is struck down by KRONOS [Time] and delivered unto Zeus, the FATHER and
creator of a mankind which he would wish to have blind intellectually
(…..). Hence Prometheus, ‘the fire and
light-giver’, is chained on Mount
Caucasus
The very life of H.P. Blavatsky illustrates the
myth. In another paragraph, H. P. B.
adds:
“Our Saviours, the Agnishwatta and other divine
‘Sons of the Flame of Wisdom’ (personified by the Greeks in Prometheus) may
well, in the injustice of the human heart, be left unrecognized and unthanked.
They may, in our ignorance of the truth, be indirectly cursed (….) ”. [2]
History shows that self-sacrifice is a precondition for anyone who wants to have the
privilege of helping others, and Henry
Longfellow demonstrates in his poem that there are many who follow the example
given in the Greek myth.
“Prometheus, Or the Poet’s Forethought” is reproduced
from “The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, The Wordsworth Poetry
Library, U.K.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
NOTES:
[1] “The Secret Doctrine”, Theosophy Co., Vol. II, p. 415.
[2]
“The Secret Doctrine”, Vol. II, pp. 411-412.
Prometheus, Or the Poet’s Forethought
Henry Wadsworth
Of Prometheus, how
undaunted
On Olympus ’ shining bastions
His audacious foot he planted,
Myths are told and songs are chanted,
Full of
promptings and suggestions.
Beautiful is the tradition
Of that
flight through heavenly portals,
The old classic superstition
Of the theft and the transmission
Of the fire
of the Immortals!
First the deed of noble daring,
Born of
heavenward aspiration,
Then the fire with mortals sharing,
Then the vulture, - the despairing
Cry of pain
on crags Caucasian.
All is but a symbol painted
Of the Poet,
Prophet, Seer;
Only those are crowned and sainted
Who with grief have been acquainted,
Making
nations nobler, freer.
In their feverish exultations,
In their
triumph and their yearning,
In their passionate pulsations,
In their words among the nations,
The
Promethean fire is burning.
Shall it, then, be unavailing,
All this toil
for human culture?
Through the cloud-rack, dark and trailing,
Must they see above them sailing
O’er life’s
barren crags the vulture?
Such a fate as this was Dante’s,
By defeat and
exile maddened;
Thus were Milton and Cervantes,
Nature’s priests and Corybantes,
By affliction
touched and saddened.
But the glories so transcendent
That around
their memories cluster,
And, on all their steps attendant,
Make their darkened lives resplendent
With such
gleams of inward lustre!
All the melodies mysterious,
Through the
dreary darkness chanted;
Thoughts in attitudes imperious,
Voices soft, and deep, and serious,
Words that
whispered, songs that haunted!
All the soul in rapt suspension,
All the
quivering, palpitating
Chords of life in utmost tension,
With the fervor of invention,
With the
rapture of creating!
Ah, Prometheus! heaven-scaling!
In such hours
of exultation
Even the faintest heart, unquailing,
Might behold the vulture sailing
Round the cloudy crags Caucasian!
Though to all there is not given
Strength for
such sublime endeavor,
Thus to scale the walls of heaven,
And to leaven with fiery leaven
All the
hearts of men for ever;
Yet all bards, whose hearts unblighted
Honor and
believe the presage,
Hold aloft their torches lighted,
Gleaming through the realms benighted,
As they
onward bear the message!
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