1) Prometheus raged against Zeus for the suffering Zeus had inflicted on mankind by having Pandora open her box. 2) Prometheus screamed in anger at the gods who remained unmoved by mankind's suffering. 3) Gaia tried to console Prometheus, saying the Earth's beauty would return, but Prometheus remained enraged at the current state of human misery and blindness to beauty.

1. Prometheus’ Rage
Tobias Stapf

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Prometheus' Rage
a visual poem
Tobias Stapf

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4. And after Pandora had opened her box and released its cursed contents,
mankind was afflicted by many plights and there was great suffering in all
the lands.
Abhorred by the suffering and plight all around him, Prometheus climbed
atop the tallest hill near him - there he stood and screamed in anger at
Zeus for the devastation he had brought on mankind in his thirst for
revenge.
Even though Prometheus’ booming voice filled the skies until the far ends
of the Earth, Zeus awarded him no response. Seeking out another target,
Prometheus’ rage attacked all the gods, titans, giants and deities who were
watching events unfold from high above.
How DARE you keep on gazing unmoved …
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5. …as the lands are scorched ....
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7. …and all green is burned.
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9. Under this merciless blue sky, women, men and
children are left with naught but barren rocks
that cut their soles and rob them of the little
rain that falls.
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11. And as wild winds blow the dust across the
plains …
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14. … what sweet waters that are left, are turned
to sharp icicles atop the mountains, …
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15. … leaving them to wrest a living from the
roaring waves on the battered shores where
salt crystals crack their lips and coat their eyes.
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17. What little green and fertile land that is left is
kept under close guard by the fortunate few in
isolated lands, behind tall mountain ranges,
granted ample access to the sources of life …
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19. But this isolated abundance only serves to
make a mockery of the many, who cannot
partake in it.
It drives humans into insanity - the sight of all
that lush life within view, yet beyond their
reach.
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21. For at the same time, Helios has dried up their
thoughts and burned their retinas, planting
mirages of long lost lands at the horizon ...
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23. … and he has burnt into the human skins that
they must be onto each other like strangers.
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26. So as the red sun rises above their misery …
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27. … with their angry, reddened eyes, they howl at
that untouchable blue sky from the shadows.
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29. Exhausted, Prometheus slumped against a rock. The gods, titans, giants and
deities turned away in embarrassment.
Only Gaia attempted to console him.
Do not despair, do not cling on to what will pass.
Whatever destruction, whatever devastation might be wrought onto her
crust, Earth is still beautiful and innocent as on the first day.
All you have to do is to see her beauty to realize that all that is lost can be
regained.
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30. Gaia’s words rekindled Prometheus’ ire and he jumped up to rage against
her.
How can you speak about beauty on Earth, as mothers wail behind tent
walls and children are calling for their parents in the night between the
troughs of the waves.
How can you speak about beauty on Earth, as lands are either washed
away or scorched into dust, while humans wonder aimlessly in the
darkness, having forgotten who they were.
How can you speak about beauty on Earth, when even upon birth humans
are denied their innocence and are made to race their grown bodies in
endless lines through cities without names.
And Prometheus closed his eyes in pain.
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32. Gaia responded.
I made Earth beautiful long before you laid eyes on her,
long before Pandora’s presents ravaged her,
and she will continue to be beautiful when mankind and all that is theirs
will have long passed.
As she is hurtling through space, Earth knows not of misery or beauty.
To see her beauty is to see and to accept the beauty and the hope that is
within yourselves.
Unless you learn to SEE HER BEAUTY, you will pass by Earth without having
had even a glimpse of why you were here.
But see for yourself if you resist to believe me.
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33. Where there was fire and death,
life grows again …
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35. … sprouting from the rocks …
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37. … and even where life is hard to come by,
colors and patterns delight your eyes.
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43. Yet the meaning of all of Earth’s beauty is born
from the eyes of its observer only.
Without the gaze there is nothing.
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45. Reflecting on Gaia’s response, the steely anger of Prometheus’ words
started to turn into pleading.
Then how DARE you let Zeus blind mankind to be ignorant of the beauty
that surrounds them, gazing into black mirrors, waiting for reflections of
beauty lost.
Alas, what else, BUT THE BEAUTY OF EARTH has the power to remind them
of that what they lost and are losing, that last reminder of who and why
they are. The beauty of Earth, which they cast away: paradise unwanted,
disregarded and unseen.
Teach them to see, let them learn how to see inside themselves and see
each other and to be awed and blown away by the beauty inside and
around them.
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46. Gaia closed her eyes wistfully.
But don’t you know, my Dear - I merely exist. I cannot act upon what
happens to me or to others. Those humans you care so much about are the
ones missing out.
Thus, I cannot teach what the humans already know but have chosen to
forget, burying it deep down in the recesses of their memories.
You may try to remind them how to see what is around them and what is
inside – for the beauty that we recognise around us is merely a reflection of
the beauty we carry inside.
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47. But pray do it fast, ‘cause unless they start to see
soon, it will be too dark to catch a glimpse…
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49. … and in perpetual darkness they shall wander.
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51. Prometheus' Rage
a visual poem by Tobias Stapf
2016
Images taken at :
Acatenango, Guatemala, 2007,
Pico del Teide and San Cristóbal la de Laguna, Spain, 2015
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