Prometheus: Four Theories from Kafka + One From Oliverio

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There are four legends concerning Prometheus: 

According to the first, he was clamped to a rock 
in the Caucasus for betraying the secrets
of the gods to men, and the gods
sent eagles to feed on his liver, 
which was perpetually renewed.

According to the second, Prometheus, 
goaded by the pain of the tearing beaks,
pressed himself deeper and deeper
into the rock until he became one with it.

According to the third, his treachery was forgotten
in the course of thousands of years, 
the gods forgotten, the eagles, 
he himself forgotten.

According to the fourth, every one grew weary 
of the meaningless affair. The gods grew weary, 
the eagles grew weary, the wound closed wearily.
There remained the inexplicable mass of rock.--
The legend tried to explain the inexplicable. 
As it came out of a substratum of truth it
had in turn to end in the inexplicable.

Franz Kafka
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Prometheus was re-created to protect
the skaters at Rockefeller Center.

Prometheus also provided entertainment
for some of them, such as
nine-year-old  Linda Oliverio,
a very adept skater in 1956.

She was thoroughly entertained
by her six-year-old brother,
a most inept skater.

He set a rink record by falling on his ass
thirteen times within a half-hour.

The boy refused his mother's entreaties
to stop skating.

He much preferred making his sister laugh.

Sixty years later,
that is still his preference!

The next GoFather/Kafka page is  here.   

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