Baby Don't Fear the Adversary [REPOST]
31/5/2024
Greetings again, welcome back to another installment of my lovely blog. Back in April, on my previous post about the solar eclipse, I received a comment on my post calling me ‘adversarial’. A user suggested that I am ‘adversarial to others’, their reasoning for this assertion was unclear to me.
My initial reaction was to be like “um no?” however, the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that they might be onto something.
According to the Oxford Languages, Google’s online English dictionary, the definition for the word ‘adversarial’ is thus:
‘Ad·ver·sar·i·al
/,advər’serēəl/
Adjective
Involving or characterized by conflict or opposition.
Prior to looking up the official definition, my own personal definition of ‘adversarial’ was one of fire, brimstone, and pure evil. That an adversary was the ultimate villain, someone who is cold, callus and out for blood. I was offended that anyone would see me in such a light. However, I realized upon reading the definition that my idea of an ‘adversary’ or ‘adversarial’ character was very much coloured by modern, American, perceptions of Satan! Indeed, the name Satan (ha-satan in Hebrew, if I’m not mistaken) is associated with the word ‘adversary’. This connection in my mind makes sense linguistically as well as culturally.
However, as a pagan, an occultist, and someone who prides themself on not getting caught up in that arbitrary dichotomy of ‘God vs. Satan’, this connection was no good! I wanted to go deeper, I wanted to find examples of the ‘Adversary’ within the scope of my own spiritual world. Naturally, I sought mythology- more specifically Greek mythology, as that seems to be the path I’m going down these days.
There were so many figures I could have chosen to write about. Hera is pretty adversarial, Aries is quite literally a war god… Even Hekate, my main deity to whom I have dedicated my life and service, would make an excellent candidate for this writing. She is often invoked in ancient curse tablets, her myths show her as a powerful and terrifying commander of the dead, and an unforgiving force of nature. This is why I love her. One could argue that she is even indirectly mentioned in the bible as an adversarial force. In everyone’s favorite little book of doomsday prophecies - The Book of Revelation, chapter 22, Jesus is proclaiming his return and he says in lines 14 and 15:
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they might have a right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates
But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehoods.”
A few pagan scholars have argued that this line could be a reference to Hekate herself, as the story of Revelations takes place during a turning point in history when tensions between the ancient pagans and christians had reached a boiling point, resulting in violence between the two groups. Hekate was a highly revered goddess of her time, considered by many to be even more powerful than Zeus himself.
However, as I tried to write Hekate as the ‘adversary’ for this project, she seemed to nudge me away, pointing me in a different direction. I found myself returning again and again to the story of Prometheus.
The story of Prometheus, like many myths, has a few different ways you could slice it. There are variations depending on who you ask, however this is the story as it was told to me. If you have thoughts to add, or know of a different version, I welcome you to leave a comment below. I will italicize and bold the retelling of this myth, so if you wish to skip over it, you may.
Prometheus’s story begins with the Titanomachy, a decade long war between the Titans, led by Kronos, and the Olympians, led by Zeus. Kronos was the father of Zeus and his siblings and as his children were born, he devoured them one by one. Rhea, the mother of Zeus, tricked Kronos into sparing Zeus by replacing him with a rock, and hiding him away. Zeus grew to resent his father and desired to free his siblings and dethrone Kronos.
Zeus found allies in two titans, the brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. Prometheus, or the ‘forward thinking’ brother, was regarded as one of the wisest and insightful beings in the known universe- even more so than the gods themselves. His brother, Epimetheus or ‘backwards thinking’, was not so wise. He was foolish and prone to impulse, yet possessed a good heart.
Prometheus, seeing that Zeus was destined to be the winner, convinced his brother to switch sides and join the Olympians. With the help of Prometheus’s strategic mind, the Olympians won and gained dominion over the Titans, who were then trapped within the Earth. For their bravery and loyalty, Zeus bestowed upon the brothers a very important task- to create the beings with which the Earth should be populated.
Excitedly, Epimetheus created all the Earth's animals, using up the most mighty and amazing gifts bestowed by Zeus. Claws, teeth, strength, size, and flight… all these amazing gifts were used up by Epimetheus as he fashioned the animals. When it came time to create man, however, there was nothing left.
Prometheus thought long and hard about what to give to mankind, the most special of all the beasts on Earth. Fashioning man from earth and water, he made them in the shape of the gods, standing upright rather than stooping like beasts and breathing life into them. Zeus was not entirely pleased by this and bestowed mortality upon men, so that nothing would surpass the Gods of Olympus. He also decreed that humans must live below Olympus and must worship the Gods.
Prometheus adored his creation so much that when it came time for him to give Man his gift, he chose to give them fire. From this fire, Prometheus taught them crafting, cooking, and the creation of tools and weapons. Prometheus, being as wise as he was, saw the risks in giving mankind fire, yet chose to do so anyways.
Upset by Prometheus’s decision, Zeus decreed that man would have to make animal sacrifices to the Gods to appease them. Prometheus, not wishing to see his creation starve, devised a plan to trick Zeus. An ox was slaughtered and then Prometheus took two turtle shells, in one he placed the nourishing meat of the ox, and in the other the bones. He covered the meat with the hooves and pelt of the animal, while the bones were covered in a layer of glistening, gleaming fat. Prometheus presented the shells to Zeus and asked him to choose which one he would like as his sacrifice.
Zeus chose the shell containing the layer of fat, expecting to find the meat within. However, he was angered to find that Prometheus had tricked him. Zeus took fire away from Man and crafted Woman as a form of punishment for tricking him. He instructed Hephaestus to create Woman from earth and water, just as Prometheus had done. Hermes gave her the mind of a ‘dog’- selfish and thieving. Athena gave her clothes and taught her to craft with her hands. Aphrodite gifted her beauty unparalleled. But most importantly, Hera, sister and wife to Zeus, gifted her with curiosity. Thus, her name was Pandora, the first woman. Zeus gifted Pandora a vessel known as a pithos and instructed her never to open it. He then gifted her and the jar to Epimetheus, and returned to Olympus with the fire.
Prometheus, meanwhile, was devastated that his creation was without their gift of fire. Unable to warm themselves or cook their food, they were suffering. Deciding he must retrieve the fire from Olympus, Prometheus warned his brother not to accept any gifts from Zeus while he was away, undoubtedly seeing with his foresight that Zeus would plan to seek revenge. Epimetheus did not listen to his brother and fell madly in love with Pandora. Taking advantage of his love, Pandora tricked Epimetheus into letting her open the pithos. From the vessel, many evils were released into the world. Famine, sickness, war, corruption, and more all flew from the vessel to wreak havoc on the world of men. Left inside was the element of hope, alone.
Prometheus scaled Olympus, not knowing what his brother and Pandora had done in the world below. He found his way to the forge of Hephestus, and stole one of Zeus’s lightning bolts, hiding it in a fennel stalk. He returned to man to find them plagued with misfortune, and returned his gift of fire so that they may fight back the woe’s of the world.
Angered, Zeus bound Prometheus in the mountains and set forth a great eagle to torment Prometheus by eating his liver every day. At night, his liver would grow back, and come sunrise the process would repeat again and again for all eternity. Zeus hoped that this torture would make Prometheus share his forsight, as Prometheus knew that Zeus would one day have a son who would dethrone him. Yet Prometheus never relinquished his knowledge, choosing torture and his own integrity over comfort.
I remember as a child being captivated by this story in particular. Of course, I was given the child-friendly abridged version without the sexism or liver-eating bits. Yet still, the overarching theme of rebellion was clear to me, even if I was too young to put words to it. I knew from a young age that Prometheus was meant to be someone to look up to.
Yet, while we are meant to admire him, Prometheus’s character has also been an adversarial one right from the beginning. He left his own people, the Titans, to fight with Zeus. He stole, tricked, and lied to the Gods to save his own creation. He did not do all this for selfish reasons. By being the manifestation of foresight, he likely saw the result of his actions. He did this because it was, to him, the correct course of action. He knew the risks, but he also knew that mankind would suffer and die if he did not do something. Zeus is the law, quite literally. He is the supreme ruler of the Gods, and he gets to decide what is right and wrong. He gets to decide what happens and how things should be. Prometheus was brave enough to stand up and say no. He saw corruption, he saw unfairness, and he fought back against it, even at the cost of his own safety. This is a story about the spirit of rebellion, human kind’s ability to think and reason, and it is a story about radical action against injustice.
It is for the themes of this story that I make my case- the adversary isn’t always evil. In fact, I will even go as far to say that one can be a good person and adversarial at the same time. Two things can be true at once. Just as he was capable of deceit and dishonesty, he was also capable of great acts of self-sacrifice and kindness towards others.
It can also be argued that the fire gifted to man by Prometheus is symbolic of something else. Sure this story can be taken at a sort of surface level as being about the industrialization of human society- the creation of tools and such. However, more importantly, I think if we dig a little bit deeper, we will see that the fire represents man’s resilience in hard times. Prometheus gifted us with the ability to change and think freely. There is no single human nature, because we are always shifting and transforming as we move through life. We as humans have the unique ability to form opinions, to learn things, to create things, and to stand up in defense of ourselves and others when some external force wishes to extinguish us. It is that spark of life that makes us unique, and it is that same spark the Zeus fears, that governments fear, that corrupt authority fears.
The sparks within each of us, when combined, create a raging fire of change that will not be dampened. Feeding one’s own fire with knowledge, experience, and passion is how we ensure it will never die out. Humankind holds so much more ability and strength than we give ourselves credit for. Our metaphorical fires have been put within boundaries, made to be controlled, because we are told our passions are ‘too much’ for society. Freedom from these bonds requires sacrifice, as Prometheus sacrificed himself.
Of course, it should go without saying that I’m not advocating for arson here. What I’m saying is that I, and others like me, speak from the heart. We speak with passion about the things that we love. We advocated for ourselves and each other. We speak our truth loudly, even if our voices shake. That internal ‘spark’, dear reader, is the most precious thing a human can possess- whether you are a witch or not.
So, in conclusion, perhaps I am an adversary in the eyes of some. Yet I take comfort in Prometheus, for he shows me that I can be both adversary and creator.
Blessed Be,
Sigrid
