In Prometheus Bound, the author told as a myth how the primitive creatures that were created to be human at first had no knowledge, skills, or culture of any kind—so they lived in caves, in the dark, in constant fear for their lives. Zeus, the king of the gods, decided to destroy them, but Prometheus, a Titan whose name meant “forethought,” out of his “philanthropos tropos” or “humanity-loving character”, gave them two empowering, life-enhancing gifts: fire, symbolizing all knowledge, skills, technology, arts, and science; and “blind hope” or optimism. The two went together—with fire, humans could be optimistic; with optimism, they would use fire constructively, to improve the human condition.
The new word, φιλάνθρωπος philanthropos, combined two words: φίλος philos, “loving” in the sense of benefitting, caring for, nourishing; and ἄνθρωπος anthropos, “human being” in the sense of “humanity”, or “human-ness”. At that mythical point in time, human individuality did not yet exist because there was no culture—including language, skills, and other differentiating attributes.
What Prometheus evidently “loved”, therefore, was not individual humans or groups of individuals, but humanity as a kind of being, human potential—what these proto-humans could become with “fire” and “blind hope”. The two gifts in effect completed the creation of humankind as a distinctly civilized being. ‘Philanthropía’—loving what it is to be human—was thought to be the key to and essence of civilization.
-Description from “Philanthropy” on Wikipedia.
I’m the artist and I think the above commentary, whether it is intended as a caption for my piece or for Doctor Who in general, is beautiful. Thank you.
