Why are Prometheus and Lucifer cast as the enemy of (the) God(s)?

Question

Lucifer and Prometheus are parallel figures in mythology. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucifer, the light bringer, is cast as The Adversary. In the book of Genesis the original sin of Adam and Eve was to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All in all, this seems to indicate that there is something wicked about seeking to shine the light of understanding on life. Why, when the signature attribute of human Being is the power of choice, would this be so? Is it really necessary to check one's brain at the door of the Church? Is ignorance really our only avenue to Life more abundant? Or is the Gospel According to Thomas which begins- "Let him who seeks not cease seeking until he finds..." - the true gospel?

Caution: I do not believe in an anthropomorphic "god", so spare me the inane superficiality of the conventional, Pharisaic Christianity of Paul of Tarsus.

Answer 1

Many people say that the purpose of religion is to allow the people in positions of authority to maintain control of minds and hearts of their followers.

Looking at the stories of Prometheus and Lucifer from this prospective, I would have to guess that the priests found it easier to manipulate uneducated people, and thus created stories to try and discourage people from seeking too much knowledge.

Answer 2

Joseph Campbell, one of the preeminent scholars of comparative mythology, does not believe that Satan and Prometheus should be considered as similar characters.
In the Christian tradition, Satan *is* seen as evil, of course.
But the Greeks thought of Prometheus as a hero for all humanity when he said to the messenger of Zeus, when asked to give that powerful being a message: "You tell him I despise him." And that, while having his entrails torn out, over and over again!
And of course, Prometheus brought fire to mortal man, in direct defiance of the gods. Perhaps there are some similarities between the two figures in that they oppose a more powerful being, but the way it is interpreted by the two civilizations could not be more opposed.

Zeus is also not all good, by any means, as the Christian God is supposed to be. In Greek mythology the gods are more like older brothers-- usually jerks, trying to push around the human beings, but those humans had better do what they say! That is why many of the Greek heroes were half-man half-god... this was considered ideal. The power of the gods with human sensibilities.

Prometheus is one of the great heroic figures in all of fiction.

Answer 3

The word satan in Hebrew means “enemy” or “adversary,” and its verb form means “to be adverse to,” or, “to plot against.” In Christian theology, Satan is the great enemy of man and of goodness, and he is usually, as in Milton’s Paradise Lost, identified with Lucifer, the chief of the fallen angels. In the Old Testament, Satan appears as a serpent before Adam and Eve, and in the New Testament he tempts Jesus in the desert by offering him all the kingdoms of the world, if Christ will but fall down and worship him, but Christ, as the perfect man and perfect devotee of the Father, replies perfectly: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” (Matt. 4.10)
Although Christ emerges victorious, the temptation certainly gives Satan a certain prominence as the ruler or viceroy of the world. Christ explicitly says, “My kingdom is not of this world,” which implies that as far as he is concerned, this material world is Satan’s domain.
The Lord's supremacy is equal in both the spiritual and material worlds, but the spiritual world is called the kingdom of God, and the material world is called the kingdom of mäyä(illusion, ignorance). Mäyä refers to that which is not actually fact. The opulence of the material world is a reflection. It is stated in Bhagavad-gitä that this material world is just like a tree whose roots are up and branches down. This means that the material world is the shadow of the spiritual world. Real opulance is in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world the predominating Deity is the Lord Himself, whereas in the material world there are many lords(all the living entities covered by maya, trying to be the Lord).
That which is relative, temporary and far away from the Absolute Truth is called mäyä, or ignorance. This illusion is exhibited in two ways, as explained in the Bhagavad-gitä. The inferior illusion is inert matter, and the superior illusion is the living entity. The living entities are called illusory in this context only because they are implicated in the illusory structures and activities of the material world.
We, the living entities, are actually the "Satan" who are trying to be competitors of Krishna: "Why Krishna shall be God?

The lower stratum of those who strive for perfection are the karmés, or fruitive workers, who look to gratify their senses. Above them are the jïänés, or seekers of knowledge, who restrain the urges of their senses and become situated on the subtle, mental plane. Superior to them are the yogés who seek mystic perfection. Lord Caitanya has described all these persons as ashanta, restless. Among them, those who are free of all material designations and are rid of the false ego, and who are thus liberated beings situated in the self—they alone can understand Lord Krishna, the Supreme Person, in truth.

Answer 4

At the end of creation everything was good

The lucifer saw man worshiping God in a garden called Eden and desired to be worshiped himself

He then said, i will be worshiped like the most high, and it is my name that shall be the highest above all the stars

He then went to rally support from other angels and a great battle ensued.

The tale of Prometheus is about a titan a demi-god type giant that stole taught the gods how to make fire, promotheus was also responsible for creating man and so took pity on the fact that he had to eat raw meat and so gave him fire knowing what the consequences could be.

Of the giants and titans in Greek mythology prometheus was supposed to be a good giant, as he did not take part in the clash of the giants versus the god, spearheaded by mother earth demeter.

Despite his actions for teaching man fire, prometheus was chained to a rock, while an eagle tore out his liver.
Unfortunately for him his liver grew back each day.

The format of the greek myths is supposed to have been delivered to man by the nephilim

These are the fallen sons of god that vacated their first estates, and desired the women that were the result of humans procreating over the earth.

God gave strict instructions that his creatures were not to be touched, but still they went ahead and did it.

and so the result of fallen angels interacting with women resulted in gigantic creatures, but with a twisted nature and a predisposition for evil. In genesis 6: it says that the women they slept with gave birth to mighty men, men of old, men of re known.

Prometheus, Hercules, theses, the minotaur, all of these so called myths and legends were as a result of the nephilims interactions.

And so with the nephilims introduced other religions of course all paganistic as now they really could be worshiped as gods by man, which is what they wanted to do along

As lucifer was ejected from heaven, the story says that prometheus was cast away by the gods, but those 'gods' have been cast away themselves, so its their own mockery of the original genesis story.

The lucifer was supposed to be the light bearer, leading a chorus of praise.
He was supposed to sit in the garden of eden on one side, and the angel Gabriel on the other, as is represented on the arc of the covenant. the lucifer and Gabriel were both cherubims.

What the lucifer did, why he chose to rebel no one knows, so its called the m,mystery of iniquity.
But what he did to, was to stop bearing the light of praise to god, and started to seek the light within himself.
This led to pride. Note the phase pride comes before the fall.

Be careful of religions that seek the way to enlightenment.
I.e. searching for the light within yourself. There is a difference between knowing yourself, and seeking the light within yourself. As peaceful as Hare Krishna and Bhuddaism look, they still rely on the same principle that the devil used, which was to abandon the glory of god, and seek the light within himself.
In the mockery of the genesis event, prometheus becomes the light bearer, by delivering the torch to mankind, he tells them that now you can be as gods, as you have the same tools as they do

but of course those gods weren't really gods, merely falen angels that wanted to be god, fell to earth and convinced man to worship them as a result.

Answer 5

Satan tried to overthrow God in Heaven, so God created Hell for satan and his angel,s,,we go to Hell as an intruder.

Answer 6

The dilemma is "Free will".

We have it and obviously Lucifer had it.

Answer 7

Sorry but......

I lost you at the part where you said that Lucifer is a myth.

The devil is real.......and so is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Get your facts straight.

Answer 8

There is something about fire that bothers many