Epimetheus

In Greek mythology, Epimetheus (/ɛpɪˈmiːθiəs/ ⓘ; Ancient Greek: Ἐπιμηθεύς, lit.'afterthought') is the brother of Prometheus, with the complementary pair serving as archetypal representations of mankind. Both are sons of the Titan Iapetus; while Prometheus ("forethought, or foresight") is portrayed as ingeniously clever, Epimetheus ("afterthought, or hindsight") is considered inept and foolish. In some accounts of the myth, Epimetheus unleashes the unforeseen troubles in Pandora's box.

Mythology

According to Plato's use of the old myth in his Protagoras (320d–322a), the two Titan brothers were entrusted with distributing the traits among the newly created animals. Epimetheus was responsible for giving a positive trait to every animal, but when it was time to give man a positive trait, lacking foresight he found that there was nothing left. Prometheus decided that humankind's attributes would be the civilising arts and fire, which he stole from Athena and Hephaestus. Prometheus later stood trial for his crime. In the context of Plato's dialogue, "Epimetheus, the being in whom thought follows production, represents nature in the sense of materialism, according to which thought comes later than thoughtless bodies and their thoughtless motions."

According to Hesiod, who related the tale twice (Theogony, 527ff; Works and Days 57ff), Epimetheus was the one who accepted the gift of Pandora from the gods. Their marriage may be inferred (and was by later authors), but it is not made explicit in either text. In later myths, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora was Pyrrha, who married Deucalion, a descendant of Prometheus. Together they are the only two humans who survived the deluge. In some accounts, Epimetheus had another daughter, Metameleia, whose name means "regret of what has occurred" for those that do not plan ahead will only feel sorrow when calamity strikes. According to a scholion (marginal comment) on Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, Eumelos states that Epimetheus's wife was called Ephyra, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. In the fifth of Pindar's Pythian Odes, he is called the father of Prophasis.

In modern culture

In his seminal book Psychological Types, in Chapter X, "General description of the types", Carl Jung uses the image of Epimetheus (with direct reference to Carl Spitteler's Epimetheus) to refer to the false application of a mental function, as opposed to its whole, healthy, and creative use.

Genealogy

Notes

• Fowler, R. L., Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0198147404. .
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-18636-0. .
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. . .
• Kerényi, Karl, The Gods of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1951. .
• Pindar, Olympian Odes. Pythian Odes, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 56, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-674-99564-2. .
• Wendel, Carl, Scholia in Apollonium Rhodium vetera, Hildesheim, Weidmann, 1999. ISBN 978-3-615-15400-9. .
• Yasumura, Noriko, Challenges to the Power of Zeus in Early Greek Poetry, Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2011. ISBN 978-1-472-51968-9. .

External links

• Media related to Epimetheus at Wikimedia Commons