A few of my pagan friends suggested to me that this month would go much smoother if I picked a principal deity to worship and focus on. Something that fit, something that I could identify with and thus make this whole experience more personal. At the moment I am taking an introductory course on classical mythology, so I already had a decent idea about what most of the Greek Gods and Goddesses were about, and which ones were interesting to me.

It’s interesting being able to pick from a group of deities, something totally unlike most of the other religions we have practiced so far. Jainism had various Tirthankars, and Buddhism similarly had many Bodhisattvas, both numerous, semi-divine beings who tend to represent a specific trait or idea in their religions. But these were all secondary characters, for the most part. In this particular flavour of paganism you get to pick the protagonist of your own faith, your own figure of worship, and still be a part of a whole community of like minded people. Not only that, but each God, Goddess, and Titan are linked, not only as a complex family, but in the grand story that details their births, trials, and characters. Each of them is needed to form a complete theogeny.  So in theory, even though everyone could be worshiping different Gods or Goddesses, they are all needed in order for us to understand who they are. It initially seems individualistic, but it can actually be quite the communal religion.

So after a bit of consideration, I settled on the second generation Titan Prometheus as my patron deity. His father is Iapetus, the son of two of the primordial forces, Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and his mother is Clymene, an Oceanid, which is one of the many daughters of two other Titans- Tethys and Oceanus. He is probably most widely known for stealing fire from the Olympian Gods and giving it to mankind, thus ushering in the first enlightenment in human civilization. It is for this act, as well as other qualities, that I find Prometheus to be quite a fitting match.

Prometheus constantly defied the authority of the Gods and of Zeus. He took the initiative to create mankind out of the earth, and for this the new mortals honored him.  However, this brought out Zeus’ bad side (as worshiping ‘false idols’ tends to do), and as punishment he forbade Prometheus from teaching the fledgling humans about civilization. But after Athena taught him how, that is exactly what Prometheus did. Zeus, who had gotten thoroughly pissed by now, then demanded that the humans give the Gods and Goddesses some kind of recognition, a sacrifice (a kind of toll for being allowed to exist). After all, if you are going to allow such a weak little group of monkeys to carry on, you might as well get something out of it.

Well, Prometheus, being a sly fellow (the God of foresight, in fact) made sure that the humans could keep all the tasty bits of their animal sacrifices, and gave all the bones and stuff to the Gods. Zeus saw right through this ploy, but opted to take the animal bones anyway so he would have an excuse to get back at Prometheus once more. This is also really convenient as it happened to match exactly what the ancient Greeks had been sacrificing to the Gods already. Thereby giving them ample excuse to carry on with the status quo.

As punishment for this further snub against the Gods, Zeus took fire away from humanity, and forbade them to ever acquire it again.  But Prometheus, being a sly fellow, snuck some away from Mt. Olympus  within a hollow wand of fennel.  He then rekindled this missing spark of human ingenuity, not only with fire but with the gift of intelligence and invention, and the ability to create whatever the mind perceived.  In short, almost every technological advancement and creative work of man, we owe to Prometheus and his selfless deeds.

For they were selfless, as Zeus’ furry was now fully unleashed on Promethus for this last act of rebellion.  He ordered Hephaestus to chain Prometheus to Mt. Caucasus where,  among other tortures, an eagle would devour his liver.  Since  Prometheus is  immortal, these  tortures would last for centuries.  Zeus would rain thunderbolts down onto the suffering Titan, quakes would shake the mountain, and every night his liver would regenerate only to be eaten again by the merciless eagle.  All this for helping humanity.  For forming us, for giving us insight and the tools with which to build or culture and our vast myriad of civilizations.

That is why I chose Prometheus.  He is described as the patron of human civilizations.  Not only did he create us, but he defied those who would have extinguished humanity, and suffered greatly for it (remind you of any other religious figures?).  By the end of this month hopefully I will have a little shrine set up, dedicate to him.  It will have lots of candles, and therefore lots of fire.
So… here’s to the God of foresight, the master of ingenuity, creativity, and boldness.  To the one who resisted tyranny, and the one who gave us the first spark.

To Prometheus.