“But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”― George Orwell, 1984
Since the dawn of man the use of fire has been seen as the key defining factor in terms of identifying intelligence that separates humans from the rest of the other animals.
Fire obviously has ancient origins and is in a major way even referenced in Greek mythology. When we look at Greek mythology the Titan Prometheus was seen as the Supreme Trickster and granted mankind the gift of fire.
He did this by tricking Zeus to eat bone and fat that was undesirable and by doing so it angered Zeus and Zeus would retaliate by forcing humans to eat their meat raw by denying mankind the gift of fire.
As the story goes it was at this point that Prometheus saw this as an opportunity to swoop in and earn favor from mankind and to give mankind the gift of fire after what Zeus had done with stripping away that very gift.
This would obviously anger Zeus which resulted in him chaining Prometheus to the side of Mount Caucasus where a huge eagle would fly in daily to eat the immortal liver of Prometheus only to have the liver regenerate for the eagle to return to eat it again and again for eternity.
Later, with Zeus’s permission, Promotheus would be rescued by Hercules who would free him from his torment.
Since the discovery of fire it’s easy to understand even now in the present day how fire can be used for a variety of reasons and for a variety of different causes.
On one hand, fire can be one of the most destructive forces in nature using its unquenchable appetite to spread across forest land, towns, cities, and a significant portion of an entire countryside for that matter incinerating everything in its path.
At the same time, fire can be used as an instrument for good and for healing. Fire can be used to keep us warm in the cold, to provide light in the darkness, and to cook our food for the purpose of nourishment.
To me this shifts the focus from the fascination of the element of fire back to the focus of how man ultimately chooses to end up using this element for his own purpose.
In other words, the real focus isn’t the intriguing discovery of a fascinating element such as fire by itself, but rather man’s nature and behavior in how he uses this element for his own self-interests just like Zeus and Prometheus used it for their own self-interests in that story of Greek mythology.
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