Prometheus and the first people is a short story by Olivia E. Coolidge. The book is an intriguing tale about a Titan, Prometheus. Prometheus in this story is tormented by Zeus since he had given people fire. Obviously, Zeus was miserable as was his nature the reason being this implied the people now had good information. Prometheus paid the cost by being affixed to a mountain by Zeus, and as he is chained to the tree, a bird would come each day to eat his liver out. The book talks about how the Greeks contemplated how humanity began, and it closes in the most unusual ways. This essay will examine Prometheus and the First People by Olivia E. Coolidge and how she has used elements in creating this intriguing story.
The theme that is most dominant in the story is religion. The author attempts to connect the story with the Christian religion. An example is when Pyrrha and Deucalion are caught in floods. They, however, survive because they are considered as worthy, and they swim to an ark similar to Noah's ark in the bible. The author also tries to connect the humans to the gods. An example is when Prometheus gave the humans the gift of fire, and they were punished for it because they were deemed not worthy of possessing that gift. Other themes included in the story are loyalty and humanity.
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Symbolism was also depicted highly in the story. An example is the part of the god's creation where they named their creation Pandora, and they gave all their gifts her. This was symbolic because according to the author Pandora means "all gifted." Therefore, in this case, Pandora was all gifted. The author uses an ancient setting for the story since the story is based on myths. Also, the story talks about creation which was, therefore, depicting the ancient extraterrestrial beginning of life (Graves, Riordan, MacDonald & Coolidge, 2012).
Olive also uses figurative language in the story to create visual images in the mind of the reader and to make the story more interesting. Some of the symbolic forms of language the writer uses are allusion, imagery, metaphors, and personification among others. The use of allusion was evident in the story of how the author made indirect reference to certain things and people. For example, at the beginning of the story where the author describes them, he uses the word "one" to refer to the Greeks. The use of was also very dominant in the story as the author went on to describe the things in the story such as where Prometheus describe the earth as he was talking to Epimetheus. Metaphors such as "Milk and sweet nectar flowed in rivers of men to eat" were also used which was successful in suggesting resemblance between the unrelated things (Graves, Riordan, MacDonald & Coolidge, 2012). Finally, personification was also predominant in the story as she often describes people using inanimate objects.
In conclusion, through examining Prometheus and the First People by Olivia E. Coolidge and how she has used elements in creating this intriguing story, it is clear that the use of these elements has been properly utilized. The author is successful in using the Greek culture and the myths from ancient times to come up with a story that is relatable to date.
References
Graves, R., Riordan, R., MacDonald, R., & Coolidge, O. (2012). The Greek myths . New York: Penguin Books.
