Leonid Zhmud The Origin of the History of Science in Classical Antiquity

Prometheus and thus to postulate a philosophical or Sophistic source that he

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3. Inventors and imitators. Greece and the Orient
37
but the fact that arithmetic immediately follows astronomy may show his
awareness of an intrinsic kinship between these sciences.
65
He was unlikely to
single them out as abstract sciences, contrasting them with such practical arts as
agriculture, cattle breeding, and ship-building: astronomy remained for Aes-
chylus a practical discipline indispensable to farmers and navigators.
66
We
should recall, however, that research in astronomy and mathematics was joined
from the time of Thales. In Anaximander’s or, to a still greater extent, Pythago-
rean teaching, numbers and heavenly bodies hold a special place. Pythagorean
arithmetic was even parodied in Epicharmus’ comedy (23 B 2). It is also reveal-
ing that Prometheus speaks not of separate discoveries, but of already mature
técnai, which occupy a deserved place among crafts traditional from Homeric
times, like medicine and shipbuilding.
To what extent do Prometheus’ words reflect the attitude of Aeschylus him-
self? Did he really associate the emergence of all the arts and sciences, as well
as of civilized life as a whole, with the activities of a philanthropic Titan, thus
debarring humanity from any participation in their discovery?
67
Prometheus as
pro¯tos heurete¯s is undoubtedly Aeschylus’ own creation, for the earlier tradi-
tion does not know of such a figure. In the tragedy featuring the inventor Pala-
medes, who was renowned already in the archaic epoch, Aeschylus credits him
with the discovery of writing, astronomy, and mathematics (fr. 303a Mette), in
accord with most of the fifth-century writers.
68
The version of the divine origin
of técnai seems then to be connected with artistic ends Aeschylus pursued
when writing the
Prometheus, rather than with his views on the origin of cul-
ture. As for Palamedes, he was, unlike Prometheus, a hero, i.e., a mortal, not a
god; besides, the inventions originally ascribed to him (weights and measures)
reflected the glory conferred on human discoverers.
69
It is hard to say whether the transference of Palamedes’ discoveries to
Prometheus was part of the growing tendency toward the ‘secondary sacraliz-
ation’ of inventors. Anyway, by the end of the fifth century, the tendency had
might have used: Conacher, D. Prometheus as founder of the arts,
GRBS 18 (1977)
189–206.
65
Joos,
op. cit., 34. Further in the same play, medicine adjoins mantic, in keeping with
current opinion on the close kinship between these técnai.
66
For his attitude to the value of knowledge, see: ô cr2sim’ eıdø~, oÿc ô póll^ eıd§~
sofó~ (fr. 390 Nauck).
67
Cf. Guthrie, W.K.C.
In the beginning, London 1957, 83f.; Boer, W. den. Prometheus
and progress,
Miscellanea tragica in honorem J. C. Kamerbeek, ed. by J. M. Brem-
mer et al., Amsterdam 1976, 17–27. By contrast, Joos,
op. cit., 35, regards Aeschy-
lus’ Prometheus as embodying the idea that culture can exist against the will of gods,
which foreshadows the Sophistic notion of culture without gods.
68
Kleingünther,
op. cit., 78f. See Sophocles (fr. 399 Nauck), Euripides (fr. 578 Nauck),
Gorgias (76 B 11a, c. 30), Alcidamas (
Od. 22); cf. Pl. Res. 522d 1f. The invention of
writing by Palamedes is first mentioned by Stesichorus (fr. 213 Page), so that this
version is obviously older than Aeschylus.
69
See above, 28 n. 23.

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Chapter 1: In search of the first discoverers
38
become quite pronounced. Besides a protest against attributing to people the
discovery of all the important técnai, it reflected the attempts to justify the ac-
tivity of gods from the standpoint of new notions of culture, namely, by show-
ing them as inventors.
70
In his well-known list of human accomplishments,
Sophocles does not make direct reference to the participation of the gods in the
progress of civilization (