Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 106
PROMETHEUS: But listen further and marvel at the arts I devised. If anyone fell ill, they had no remedies—no medicines or treatments—and wasted away. I showed them how to mix healing potions. I taught them how to interpret dreams, signs, and the flight of birds. I explained the omens in animal entrails and guided them in understanding hidden meanings. I revealed the treasures beneath the earth—metals like bronze, iron, silver, and gold. Who can claim to have discovered these before me? In short, all human arts come from me.
1 Enoch 8:1
1 And Azâzal taught men to make swords, knives, shields, and breastplates, and revealed to them the metals of the earth and how to work with them, as well as how to make bracelets, ornaments, and the use antimony, beautifying the eyelids, along with all kinds of precious stones and various dyes. 2 Widespread wickedness arose, and they engaged in fornication, were led astray, and corrupted all their ways. Semjâzâ taught spells and the cutting of roots, Armârôs taught how to break spells, Barâqîjâl taught astrology, Kôkabîal taught about the constellations, Ezêqêal taught about the clouds, Araqiêal taught the signs of the earth, Shamsiêal taught the signs of the sun, and Sariêal taught the course of the moon. And as men died, they cried out, and their cries ascended to heaven.
Notes and References
"... The Greek Prometheus myth offers close parallels to 1 Enoch. The oldest version of the story is found in Hesiod (Theogony 307–616; Works and Days 42–105). At a banquet, Prometheus, the benefactor of humankind, cheats Zeus out of some meat, which he gives to human beings. When Zeus refuses to provide mortals with the fire necessary to prepare the meat, Prometheus steals it for them. For this affront, Zeus consigns Prometheus to perpetual punishment. The later version, in Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, is especially relevant to the present discussion. Although the dramatist refers only in passing to the version of the myth preserved in Hesiod, Prometheus’s theft of fire is the act of rebellion against Zeus that immediately causes his punishment (7–11, 106–12, 254–60). In the drama, Prometheus’s benefaction of humankind—revealing and teaching—is broadly construed. He taught woodworking and the construction of houses, the rising and setting of the stars, numbers and writing, the domestication of animals, medicines, and the interpretation of dreams and bird flights (442–82). Of particular interest here, he taught the mining of copper, iron, silver, and gold—an expansion on the idea of his theft of fire (106–10, 254–56). For his rebellion against Zeus, Prometheus is taken into the wilderness where he is chained hand and foot to the side of a cliff (1–81, 142, 271, 618). When he continues his defiance against the high god, Zeus opens up the rock and Prometheus is entombed until a later time when he will be subjected to terrible torment (1016). The Asael material has significant points of similarity to the Prometheus myth, especially Aeschylus’s version. Asael, a heavenly being, rebels against God by teaching humankind about metallurgy, mining, and the making of dyes—all of which require fire. For this act of rebellion, Asael is bound hand and foot, the earth is opened, and he is cast on a rocky bed in the wilderness, where he is entombed until a later time of punishment ..."
Nickelsburg, George W. E. A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (pp. 192-193) Fortress Press, 2001