Such a story tempts the allegorist, and indeed the main drift of its meaning is unmistakable.  Cornutus, a contemporary of Christ, explained it “of forethought, the quick inventiveness of human thought chained to the painful necessities of human life, its liver gnawed unceasingly by cares.”  In the main, and as a general description, this is quite unquestionable.  Prometheus is the prototype of a thousand other figures of the same kind, not in mythology only, but in history, which tell the story of the spiritual effort of man frustrated and brought to earth.  It is the story of Tennyson’s youth who

     “Rode a horse with wings that would have flown
     But that his heavy rider bore him down.”

Only, in the Prometheus idea, it is not a man’s senses, as in Tennyson’s poem, but the outward necessity of things, the heavy and cruel powers of nature around him, that prove too much for his aspirations.  In this respect the story is singularly characteristic of the Greek spirit.  That spirit was always daring with truth, feeling the risks of knowledge and gladly taking them, passionately devoted to the love of knowledge for its own sake.

The legend has, however, a deeper significance than this.  One of the most elemental questions that man can ask is, What is the relation of the gods to human inquiry and freedom of thought?  There always has been a school of thinkers who have regarded knowledge as a thing essentially against the gods.  The search for knowledge thus becomes a phase of Titanism; and wherever it is found, it must always be regarded in the light of a secret treasure stolen from heaven against the will of contemptuous or jealous divinities.  On the other hand, knowledge is obviously the friend of man.  Prometheus is man’s champion, and no figure could make a stronger appeal than his.  Indeed, in not a few respects he approaches the Christian ideal, and must have brought in some measure the same solution to those who were able to receive it.  Few touches in literature, for instance, are finer than that in which he comforts the daughters of Ocean, speaking to them from his cross.

The idea of Titanism has become the commonplace of poets.  It is familiar in Milton, Byron, Shelley, and countless others, and Goethe tells us that the fable of Prometheus lived within him.  Many of the Titanic figures, while they appeared to be blaspheming, were really fighting for truth and justice.  The conception of the gods as jealous and contemptuous was not confined to the Greek mythology, but has appeared within the pale of Christian faith as well as in all heathen cults.  Nature, in some of its aspects, seems to justify it.  The great powers appear to be arrayed against man’s efforts, and present the appearance of cruel and bullying strength.  Evidently upon such a theory something must go, either our faith in God or our faith in humanity; and when faith has gone we shall be left in the position either of atheists or of slaves.  There have been those