Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the origins of the myth, and the constitution of what we shall call Prometheus's persona, the fortune of Prometheus from Antiquity to Christianity, and the crucial period of the Renaissance, during which a rediscovery of the Prometheus figure was witnessed. Even though Goethe's tremendously influential poem 'Prometheus' dates from 1774, and his dramatic fragment bearing the same title from 1773, it would have been a methodological mistake to separate the study of these works from that of Romanticism. The book explores the Symbolist understanding of the Prometheus myth. It draws a map of Symbolist Europe, outlining the variations taken by Symbolism depending on the various cultural, political, and religious climates. The book focuses on Prometheus at the heart of the Symbolist syncretism, particularly in France and in Belgium, where the religious crisis was especially strong.