Helping Zeus By Tricking Him? Prometheus And The Poetics Of Succession In Hesiod’S Theogony 538–541

Two fruitful successions have paved the way from Chaos to Zeus, from some amorphous past to a well-ordered present within the familiar religious structures of a Greek of the late 8th century BC. By bringing the already bound Prometheus back into action in the course of the events in Mecone, «when men and gods separated» (theog. 535 f.), however, Hesiod embraces the concept of succession as the ruling force of the universe and presents a possible threat to Zeus, whose ascendancy is yet unfinished.1 Thus the Prometheus-myth fulfils an important function within the narrative strategy of the Theogony as a continuing Succession Myth. This reading challenges the common approach of regarding the Prometheus-myth as an excursion from the principal plot, which is told either to establish the aition of sacrifice2 or to entertain the recipient with a well-known trickster story.3 It also illuminates a textual ‹problem› which is closely connected with the interpretation of the Prometheus-myth as a whole: The question of 9 ... 9 in 538 and 540. Finally, we will show that Prometheus’ ambiguous division of the ox not only operates on Zeus but also on the recipient of the Theogony who is ensnared by a cunning narration that aims to create ambiguity.