And don’t look now, but the old Titan is enjoying a renaissance of adulation from the new titans of Big Tech, not the least of whom is Mark Zuckerberg.
But what is really behind this adulation, past the obvious and mundane connections some might make?
Is Prometheus ultimately a symbol - like Mithras, like the Watchers - of a lost time and place when men spoke to gods and gods spoke to men?
And does all this somehow tie into the connections we’ve explored in the Lucifer’s Technologies series?
To that, I’d say it all ties together, and codebreaking the Prometheus myth is a major piece of this puzzle.
First, let’s look at the basic plot points of the Prometheus myth:
Prometheus allies with Zeus in the war against the Titans
Most of the Titans are defeated and imprisoned
Prometheus gives fire to mankind, offending Zeus
Prometheus is chained to a rock in Caucasus Mountains
Every day an eagle comes to eat his liver, which grows back at night
Prometheus is eventually freed by Hercules/Heracles, who kills the eagle
Now let’s review the basics of the last Sumerian king:
Lugalzagesi allied with Sargon to conquer Kish
Lugalzagesi sets fire to the city of Lagesh, offending Enlil
Sargon turns on Lugalzagesi and defeats him in battle
Sargon frogmarches Lugalzagesi in chains through the Enlil Gate
Sargon deposes the remaining Sumerian kings, who head for the mountains
Finally, let’s look at how Sargon’s empire ultimately fared:
Sargon’s dynasty falls to Gutian invaders, leading to Dark Age
Utu-hengal defeats and expels the Gutians
Sumerians then reconquer Akkad, establish “Ur III” dynasty under Ur-Nammu
Ur-Nammu adopts goddess Ninsun — mother of Gilgamesh — as patroness
So we’ve covered Lugalzagesi and Sargon’s brief alliance and then their falling out (thought by some to be sparked by Sargon bonking Zagesi’s queen), but let’s now look at Zagesi’s “great affront against the gods" circa 2350 BC:
Following a long-standing territorial dispute, Lugalzagesi besieged Lagash three times before breaching the city.
The assault was brutal, involving the burning of temples, looting of sacred sites, and uprooting crops.
Make special note of the “burning of temples.”
A famous poem was written about the siege titled, Lament about the Fall of Lagash, bringing us to his particular sacrilege:
“(Lugalzagesi) set fire to the Antasur and bundled off its precious metals and lapis lazuli. He plundered the “palace” of Tiraß, he plundered the Abzu-banda
He plundered the chapels of the gods Enlil and Utu.
And after losing the Mandate of Heaven, Lugalzagesi was defeated by Sargon and led through the Enlil Gate at Nippur in chains.
Again with the gates; no accident, because gates where man can meet the gods are an important part of this story. And I wrote before:
A Lugal — literally a giant — bound in chains to appease a sky god: why does that sound so familiar?
Oh yeah, because that’s Prometheus’ story as well.
