Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

The Fire-drill

329

The Sanskrit word for 'fire-drill' is pramantha, and persistent
attempts have been made to bring the name Prometheus into con-
nexion with it1. Strictly speaking, however, we cannot regard
Prometheu's as the phonetic equivalent of pramantha^ \ and it is
only by invoking the uncertain aid of popular etymology that we
are enabled to set the two side by side3. On the other hand, it is
highly probable4 that pramantha the 'fire-drill' does explain

the Kabeiros are not lacking. Several versions of the Kyklops-tale make the giant give
the hero a ring that binds him to the spot etc. (Append. E Abruzzo, Dolopathos,
Oghuzians, Roumania). Zeus, when he fastened Prometheus to Mt. Kaukasos, swore
never to release him from his chains; but, on being warned by Prometheus not to marry
Tethys, lest he should beget a son to dethrone him as he had himself dethroned Kronos,.
he did out of gratitude release Prometheus, and, to keep his oath, gave him a ring to
wear fashioned out of his chains, in which was set a stone from Mt. Kaukasos (interp.
Serv. in Verg. eel. 6.4.2, cp. Hyg. poet. astr. 2. 15, Plin. not. hist. 37. 2, Isidor. orig. 19.
32. 1). Aisch. frags. 202, 235 Nauck2 ap. Athen. 674 D appears to have given
Prometheus a garland instead of a ring. An Etruscan mirror shows him wearing a
willow(?)-wreath and presented by Herakles and Kastor with two rings (Gerhard Etr.
Spiegel iii. 131 pi. 138, Roscher Lex. Myth. hi. 3094 f. fig. 5 b). On the rings of the
Kabeiroi see supra p. 108 f.

Again, Prometheus, like the Kabeiros {supra p. 108 ff.), was an axe-bearer {infra
ch. ii § 9 (h) ii (17)); and K. Bapp in Roscher Lex. Myth. iii. 3041 acutely compares
Axiothea the name of his wife (Tzetz. in Lyk. Al. 1283) with the Cabiric names Axieros,
Axiokersa, Axiokersos {supra p. 109). Odysseus' wife too is famous for her ordeal of the
'axes' {Transactions of the Third International Congress for the History of Religions
Oxford 1908 ii. 194, infra ch. ii § 3 (c) i (%)).

1 A. Kuhn Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Gottertranks1 Gutersloh 1858 p. 17, ib.2
Giitersloh 1886 p. 18, A. F. Pott in the Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung i860
ix. 189 f., cp. ib. 1857 vi- io4> A. Kaegi The Rigveda trans. R. Arrowsmith Boston
1886 p. 132 n. 121, E. W. Hopkins The Religions of India Boston etc. 1895 pp. 107,
168.

Miss J. E. Harrison has kindly drawn my attention to W. Schultz ' Das Hakenkreuz
als Grundzeichen des westsemitischen Alphabets' in Memnon 1909 iii. 175 ff- This in-
genious, but over-venturesome, writer attempts to connect Prometheus as inventor of the
fire-drill with Prometheus as inventor of the alphabet, the link being the swastika.

2 J. Schmidt Zur Geschichte des indogermanischen Vocalismus Weimar 1871 i. 118,
A. A. Macdonell Vedic Mythology Strassburg 1897 p. 91.

3 E.g. by assuming that Prometheus' name was originally Tlpo/xavdevs or *Ilpo/xev6e6i,
' He of the fire-drill,' and that it was distorted into Upofx-qdeis to suit the supposed con-
nexion with irpo^deia, 'fore-thought.'

4 Pramantha, the 'fire-drill,' can hardly be separated from Pramanthu, the younger
brother of Manthu and son of Vira-vrata, the son of Madhu and Sumanas (Sir M.
Monier-Williams A Sanskrit-English Dictionary new ed. Oxford 1899 pp. 685, 1006),
who is mentioned in the Bhagavata Purana. My friend Prof. E. J. Rapson writes to
me : ' The names Manthu and Pramanthu occur in a long genealogy of one Priyavrata,
a kingly sage, but none of their achievements are recorded. It is quite possible that they
may occur elsewhere in the Puranas, but at present I have failed to find them mentioned
anywhere else. They belong to a class not of deities, but of mighty men of old who as
kings and priests became almost gods on earth.' It is certainly tempting to suppose
that the brothers Pramanthu and Manthu correspond with the brothers Prometheus and
Epimethetls\ but evidence is lacking.