Prométhée : sage-femme au chevet de l’humanité ?

Abstract

We study the myths that consistently present Prometheus acting as midwife in contexts where a social birth is in question. We start from the myth of Pandora to show how Prometheus tries to abort her birth. Then, we will analyse in more detail this quality of the Titan by examining the birth of humankind narrated by Plato in the myth attributed to Protagoras. Finally, we will analyse the story of the birth of the Athenians, in which we do not find Prometheus, but other gods protagonists in previous stories: Gaia, Athena and Hephaestus. This will allow us to explore the role of the τέχναι in these social births as well as the determining role of Zeus.

Keywords

• Prometheus
• Midwife
• Abortion
• Humankind
• Women
• Techne