Prometheus
Heaven and earth were created, and the waves of the sea undulated and crashed on the shore. Fish are playing in the water and birds are singing in the air.
There are swarms of animals on the ground, but there is no advanced creature with a soul that can dominate the surrounding world. At this time, Prometheus
was born. He was a descendant of the ancient tribe of gods who were exiled by Zeus. He was Iapetus, born of the earth mother Gaia and Uranus
’s son. He was smart and wise, and knew that the seeds of the gods were contained in the soil, so he took the soil, moistened it with river water, mixed it, and molded it into a human form according to the image of the gods, the rulers of the world. In order to give life to the clay figure, he absorbed the good and evil characters from the souls of animals and sealed them into the human chest. Among the gods, he had a girlfriend, Athena, the goddess of wisdom; she marveled at the creation of the son of the Titans, so she blew her divine breath on the clay figurine with half a soul, causing it to
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It acquires spirituality.
In this way, the first batch of people appeared in the world. They multiplied and multiplied, and soon formed a large group, spreading everywhere. But for a long time, they didn't know how to use their limbs, nor what to do with their God-given souls. They turn a blind eye and hear but not hear, like human figures in a dream, walking around aimlessly but not knowing how to play their role. They don't know how to quarry stone, burn bricks, cut down forest trees to make rafters and beams, and then use these materials to build houses. They are like ants
living dormantly in soil holes without sunlight, unaware of the passing of winter and the coming of spring and summer solstice; they do everything without any plan.
So Prometheus came to help his creation. He taught them to observe the rising and setting of the sun, moon and stars; he invented numbers and words for them, so that they could calculate and exchange ideas with words; he also taught them to control animals to share his burden< /p>
Their labor enabled them to know how to put reins on horses to pull carts or serve as mounts. He invented ships and sails to sail the seas. He is concerned with all other activities of human life. In the past, sick people did not know how to treat their illnesses with medicine, nor did they know how to apply ointment
or take medicine to relieve pain. Many patients died miserably due to lack of medical treatment and lack of medicine. Now, Prometheus taught them to prepare potions to prevent and cure various diseases. In addition, he taught them divination, the interpretation of dreams, the interpretation of the flight of birds and the various omens displayed by sacrifices.
He guided them to explore underground minerals, allowing them to discover ore and mine iron, gold and silver. He taught them farming skills to make their lives more comfortable.
Not long ago, Zeus banished his father Cronus and overthrew the ancient clan of gods. Prometheus also came from this clan of gods.
Now that Zeus and his sons were the new masters of heaven, they began to take notice of the fledgling human race.
They require humans to respect them as a condition for protecting humans. One day, in Mecone, Greece, the gods met to discuss and determine the rights and obligations of humans. Prometheus was present as the defender of mankind. At the meeting, he tried to prevent the gods from demanding harsh sacrifice conditions because they promised to protect humans. The son of the Titans was determined to use his wisdom to deceive the gods. He slaughtered a large bull on behalf of his creation, asking the gods to choose only the part they liked. He cut the sacrificial bull into pieces and divided them into two piles. One pile is filled with meat, offal, and fat, covered with cowhide, and topped with tripe; the other pile is full of cow bones, cleverly wrapped in cow suet. This pile is larger than the other pile.
Zeus, the omniscient and omnipotent father of the gods, saw through his trick and said: "Son of Iapetus, noble king, my good friend
Friend, how unfair you are in dividing the sacrifices!" At this time, Prometheus became more and more convinced that he had deceived Zeus, so he smiled secretly and said: "Honorable Zeus, eternal people! Ancestor of the gods, just pick a bunch according to your wish!" Zeus was very angry, but he deliberately stretched out his hands to take the snow-white suet. When he peeled off the suet and saw that they were all bare bones, he pretended to have only now discovered that he had been deceived, and said angrily: "I saw it, son of Iapetus, You have not forgotten your trick of deception
"
Zeus was deceived and decided to take revenge on Prometheus. He refused to provide mankind with the last thing necessary for life:
Fire. But the son of Iapetus was very clever and immediately came up with an ingenious solution. He took a thick and long fennel stalk, carried it towards the approaching solar chariot, put the fennel stalk into its flame and ignited it, and then returned with the flickering fire. On the ground, the first pile of firewood soon started to burn. The fire grew stronger and stronger, and the flames shot into the sky. When Zeus saw the fire rising in the world, he was furious
Seeing that he could no longer take the fire away from humans, he quickly came up with new disasters to punish humans in order to offset the fire< /p>
The blessings brought to mankind. He ordered Hephaestus, the god of fire, who was famous for his craftsmanship, to build a stone statue of a beautiful woman. Athena gradually became jealous of Prometheus and lost her goodwill towards him. She personally put a shiny white dress on the stone statue, covered it with a veil, and
He wore a garland of flowers and a blond hairband. This golden ribbon was also made by Hephaestus. In order to please his father, he made it carefully. The blond ribbon was exquisitely shaped and decorated with animal images with different expressions. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, imparted the skill of language to this charming human form; Aphrodite, the goddess of love, endowed her with all kinds of seductive charms. So Zeus injected evil into this beautiful image
He named her Pandora, which means "the woman with all gifts", because all the gods gave her
Give her a gift that is harmful to humanity. He sent this young woman to the human world, and the gods who were roaming freely on the earth were amazed and envious when they saw this incomparably beautiful woman. She came directly to Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, and asked him to accept the gift from Zeus. Epimetheus was kind-hearted and had no suspicion.
Prometheus once warned his brother not to accept any gift from Zeus on Mount Olympus, but to return it immediately
. However, Epimetheus forgot this warning and happily accepted the young and beautiful woman. It was not until
later that he realized the disaster he had caused. Before that, humans followed Prometheus's warnings, so there were no disasters, no hard work, and no tormenting diseases. Now, the girl holds the gift in her hands, which is a large closed box. As soon as she walked in front of Epimetheus, she suddenly opened the lid of the box, and the disaster inside flew out like black smoke and spread quickly to the ground. There is still the only beautiful thing hidden deep at the bottom of the box: hope, but Pandorayi
According to the warning of the All-Father, he quickly closed the lid before it could fly out, so hope will last forever. Locked in a box
. From then on, all kinds of disasters filled the earth, sky and ocean. Diseases spread and wreak havoc among humans day and night,
but silently, because Zeus did not let them make a sound. All kinds of fevers are rampant on the earth, and the god of death is running around the world. Zeus then took revenge on Prometheus himself. He delivered this enemy into the hands of Hephaestus and two servants, whose nicknames were Cratos and Pia, meaning Strength and Violence. They dragged Prometheus to the wild mountains of Scutia. Here, he was chained to a cliff in the Caucasus Mountains, facing the terrifying abyss.
Hephaest
Thos was reluctant to carry out his father's orders because he liked the son of the Titan very much. He was his relative, peer, and
his A descendant of his great-grandfather Uranus, he is also a descendant of gods. However, the two rough servants who carried out the cruel orders scolded him for
his many sympathetic words. Prometheus was forced to be chained to the cliff. He was hung upright, unable to sleep or bend his tired knees. "No matter how many whining and lamentations you make, it will be in vain," Hephaestus said to him, "for the will of Zeus is unshakable, and these have only recently been taken from others. Gods who gain power are very cruel. "The prisoner was sentenced to be tortured forever, at least thirty thousand years. Although he screamed loudly and called to the winds, rivers, seas, the earth, the mother of all things, and the sun that watches all things to bear witness to his suffering, he still The spirit is indestructible. "Whoever learns to recognize the unconquerable power of destiny," he said, "must bear the pain of destiny." Zeus repeatedly threatened him and asked him to explain his ominous prophecy. , that is,
"A new marriage will bring destruction to the King of Gods", ① but he never spoke. True to his word, Zeus sent an evil eagle to eat the liver of the bound Prometheus every day. No matter how much the liver is eaten, it quickly returns to its original state. This painful torture
he had to endure until someone in the future volunteered to die for him.
①Refers to the marriage to Thetis, the goddess of the sea. His son is more powerful than his father.
The day finally came to relieve the unfortunate Prometheus from his suffering. After he was hung on the hanging rock and spent a long period of misery, one day, Heracles came here in search of Hesperides. He saw the evil eagle pecking at the liver of poor Prometheus. At this time, he took out his bow and arrow and shot the cruel evil eagle from the liver of the suffering man< /p>
Fall. Then he loosened the chains, freed Prometheus, and led him off the cliff. But in order to satisfy Zeus's conditions, Hera
Celes left Chiron, a centaur and half horse of the Centaurus tribe, as a substitute on the cliff. Although Chiron could ask for eternal life, he was willing to sacrifice his life in order to save Prometheus. In order to fully implement Zeus's judgment, Prometheus must always wear an iron ring with a stone from the Caucasus Mountains on it. In this way, Zeus can proudly claim that his enemy is still chained to the cliffs of the Caucasus Mountains.
Deucalion and Pyrrha
In the age of bronze humans, Zeus, the ruler of the world, kept hearing about the evil deeds of this generation, and he decided to disguise himself as a mortal and come to < /p>
Go and check it out in the human world. When he came to the ground, he found that the situation was much more serious than the legend said. One day, late at night, he walked into the hall of King Lycaon of Arcadia. Lycaon was not only indifferent to guests, but also cruel. Zeus showed himself to be a god with miraculous omens. People knelt down and worshiped him. But Lycaon did not take it seriously and laughed at their pious prayers. "Let us test," he said, "to see whether he is a mortal or a god!" So he secretly decided to kill the visitor while he was sleeping in the middle of the night. Before that, he first quietly killed a hostage, a poor man sent by the Molossians. Lycaon had his limbs chopped off and then boiled in boiling water. The remaining parts were roasted on the fire and served as dinner to the strange guests. Zeus saw all this, and he was enraged. He jumped up from the table, summoned a group of vengeful fury, and threw it into the palace of the unjust king. The king was so frightened that he wanted to run away from the palace.
However, his first cry turned into a shrill howl; the skin on his body turned into rough and hairy skin; his arms fell to the ground and turned into It became two front legs. From then on Lycaon became a bloodthirsty wolf.
Zeus returns to Olympus.
He consulted with the gods and decided to eradicate this shameful generation. He was about to punish the entire earth with lightning
but he was worried that heaven would be affected and the axis of the universe would be burned down. So, he gave up this idea of ??brutal revenge, put down the thunder hammer forged by One Eye, and decided to rain heavy rain on the ground and wipe out mankind with floods. At this time, except for the south wind, all the winds were locked in the cave of Aeolus. Nanfeng accepted the order and flapped its wet wings straight to the ground. Nanfeng's terrifying face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and his beard was as heavy as the sky full of dark clouds. Torrents flowed from his white hair, mist
covered his forehead, and water gushes from his chest. The south wind rose in the sky, grabbing the thick clouds tightly with its hands and squeezing them hard. Suddenly
thunder rumbled and heavy rain fell. The storm destroyed the crops in the fields. The farmers' hopes were dashed, and a whole year's hard work was in vain.
Zeus’ brother, Poseidon, the god of the sea, was not to be left alone. He hurried over to help with the destruction. He summoned all the rivers
to come together and said: "You should make waves. , swallowing up houses, breaking down dikes!" They all obeyed his orders. Poseidon himself
entered the battle, holding the trident in his hand, and struck the earth to clear the way for the flood. The river was turbulent and unstoppable. The floodwaters surged over the fields, like wild beasts, knocking down temples, temples and houses. The water continued to rise and soon flooded the palace. Even the spire of the church was caught in the rapid whirlpool. In an instant, land and water were indistinguishable, and the entire land was boundless.
Facing the torrential floods, human beings are desperately looking for ways to save their lives. Some climbed to the top of the mountain, and some drove wooden boats and sailed on the submerged roofs. The water covered the vineyards, and the bottom of the boat swept over the grape trellises. Fish struggled among the branches and vines all over the mountains and fields.
The escaping wild boars were swallowed up by the waves and drowned. Groups of people were swept away by the floods, and those who survived later starved to death on the bare mountain tops. In Phocus, there is a high mountain with two peaks rising out of the water. This is Mount Parnassus. Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, built a large ship with his father's warning in advance. When the flood came, he and his wife Pyrrha sailed
to Parnassus. There was never any kinder, more godly kind of man or woman in creation. Zeus summoned a great flood to flood the earth and took revenge on mankind. He looked down at the world from the sky and saw only a pair of poor people floating on the water among the millions of people. This couple was kind and believed in gods. Zeus calmed down. He summoned the north wind, which drove away the dark clouds and
thick fog, allowing the sky to see light again. Upon seeing this, Poseidon, who was in charge of the ocean, also lowered his trident, causing the rolling waves to recede.
The seawater retreated tamely to the high banks, and the river water returned to the river bed. The treetops emerged from the deep water, and the leaves were stained with mud. The mountains reappeared, the plains expanded, and the land recovered.
Deucalion looked around. The land was barren and muddy, as dead as a tomb. Looking at all this, he couldn't help but shed tears and said to his wife Pila: "Dear, I looked into the distance and there was not a single living person behind me. The two of us are big.
The only remaining human beings on the earth have been swallowed up by the flood, but it is difficult for us to survive.
Every cloud I see scares me. The danger is over, what can we two lonely people do in this desolate world
Oh, if only my father Prometheus taught me the ability to create humans, taught me How wonderful it would be to give the soul to the clay figurine!" After hearing what he said, his wife was also very sad, and the two of them couldn't help crying. They had no idea, so they had no choice but to kneel down in front of the semi-deserted altar and plead with the goddess Themis: "Goddess, please tell us how to create the already abandoned altar." >A lost generation of humanity.
Ah, help the sunken world to regenerate!
“Leave my altar,” answered the goddess’s voice, “put on your veil, untie your girdle, and carry your mother’s bones behind you. go! "
The two people were very surprised and confused after hearing these mysterious words. Pyrrha broke the silence first and said: "Noble goddess
Forgive me. I have to go against your wishes because I can't throw away my mother's remains without offending her ghost! "
But it suddenly became clear to Deucalion. He understood it immediately, so he comforted his wife with good words and said: "If my understanding is correct, then the goddess' command We are not asked to do anything disrespectful. The earth is our kind mother, and the stones must be her bones. Pyrrha, we should throw the rocks behind us! "
Having said that, the two of them were still hesitant and thought they might as well give it a try. So they turned around, covered their heads
, loosened their belts, and then Following the goddess's command, he threw the stone behind him, and a miracle happened: the stone suddenly became soft and huge, and began to take shape like a human being. It appears, but it is not completely formed, as if the rough outline that the artist has just carved out of marble has turned into pieces of flesh. The strong and hard stones turned into bones, and the lines between the stones turned into human veins. Strangely, the stones thrown by Deucalion turned into men, and his wife's skin turned into men. All the stones thrown by Ra turned into women. To this day, mankind does not deny their origin and origin. This is a strong, hard-working and hard-working generation.
Human beings will always remember. What kind of material are they made of?
Domestic:
Jingwei Reclamation
Before the Xia Dynasty, the country had not yet been formed, and the emperors at that time. , far less lavish than later emperors, enjoying many privileges; rather, they were pure servants of the people, only fulfilling their duties. The children of emperors did not have special titles such as princes or princesses, and their status was not as noble as that of ordinary people. Children are the same.
Emperor Yan has a daughter named Jingwei, who is cheerful and lively and likes to fight against injustice. One day, she walked out of the small village to play with children and saw an older child riding a small child. They climbed down tiredly, but the eldest child refused to give up.
Jingwei walked over, pointed at the eldest child’s head and angrily said, "You are so shameless, what is your ability to bully a child?" If you have the strength to fight tigers and bears, people will say you are a hero. "
The eldest child saw that Jingwei was a little girl and was born weak and weak, so he didn't take her seriously at all. He jumped off the child's back, walked up to Jingwei and said, "I am the Sea Dragon King. Son, who are you? How dare you come to control me! "
Jingwei said: "What's so great about being the son of the Dragon King? I'm still the daughter of Emperor Yan. From now on, you can't go wild on land. Be careful, I'll hang you on a tree to dry in the sun. "
The son of the Dragon King said: "I will let you know how powerful I am first, and from now on, please stop meddling in my business. "As he said, he started to fight. Jingwei followed his father to the mountains to hunt since he was a child. His hands and feet are very flexible and his strength is not small. When he saw the other party being rude and rude, he did not show any weakness. He dodged the opponent's fist, flew up and killed the Dragon King's son. The Dragon King's son stood up, refused to admit defeat, and punched him again and again, but was punched in the chest by Jingwei.
Seeing that he could not defeat Jingwei, the Dragon King's son had no choice but to return to the sea in despair.
A few days later, Jingwei went swimming in the sea and was having a great time, when the Dragon King's son happened to find him swimming over. , said to Jingwei: I let you take advantage of me on land one day. Today you run to my door and admit your mistake quickly, or I will make trouble and drown you. "
Jingwei said stubbornly. : "I'm right, admit your mistake."
The son of the Dragon King saw Jingwei's stubbornness and had no intention of admitting defeat. He immediately stirred up the sea water and set off strong winds and waves. Jingwei had no time to struggle and was drowned. .
After Jingwei died, he turned into a little bird with red claws and white beak, determined to fill up the sea. She picked up stones and branches with her mouth and threw them into the sea, shouting "Jingwei, Jingwei" as if to encourage herself.
She never stops, year after year, month after month.
Nuwa mends the sky
In the myths and legends of ancient Chinese history, there is a goddess named Nuwa. What is Nuwa like? Legend has it that she has the head of a human and the body of a snake. Nuwa is a kind-hearted god who has done many good things for mankind. For example, she taught people about marriage and made an instrument called the Shenghuang for humans. What moved people the most was the story of Nuwa patching up the sky.
Legend has it that when humans multiplied, a sudden war broke out between the God of Water and the God of Fire, Zhu Rong. They fought from the sky to the ground, causing unrest everywhere. In the end, Zhu Rong won, but Zhu Rong won. The defeated *** worker refused to accept it and in a rage, he banged his head against Mount Buzhou. Buzhou Mountain collapsed, the pillars supporting the sky and earth broke, half of the sky fell down, a big hole appeared, the ground also sunk into big cracks, fires broke out in the mountains and forests, and floods spewed out from under the ground. Dragons, snakes and beasts also came out to devour the people. Humanity is facing an unprecedented disaster.
Nuwa felt extremely painful when she witnessed such a strange disaster happening to mankind, so she decided to mend the sky to stop this disaster. She selected a variety of five-color stones, set up a fire and melted them into slurry. She used this slurry to fill up the incomplete holes in the sky. Then she cut off the four legs of a giant turtle and used them as four pillars to support the collapsed sky. Half of the sky is lifted up. Nuwa also captured and killed the black dragon that was killing the people, and stopped the arrogance of the dragon and snake. Finally, in order to stop the flood from overflowing, Nuwa also collected a large amount of reeds, burned them into ashes, and buried them in the torrent spreading everywhere.
After some hard work by Nuwa, the sky was finally replenished, the land was leveled, the water stopped, dragons, snakes and beasts disappeared, and the people once again lived a peaceful life. But this catastrophic disaster left its mark. From then on, the sky still tilted slightly to the northwest, so the sun, moon, and stars naturally returned to the west. And because the earth tilted to the southeast, all the rivers converged there.