Epimetheus

I was driving with my partner yesterday, and we were talking about Epimetheus. Epimetheus was the titan who made humanity, along with Prometheus. Epimetheus means hindsight; and he symbolizes making mistakes, regardless of intention. In his epic he is tasked with giving all of the natural advantages to creatures of the world, and yet in his eagerness he gives them all away; leaving nothing for humankind. Prometheus (standing for foresight) steps in then to give humanity creativity and fire.

As I was talking about these two titans, the fathers of humanity; I sideswiped a car as I turned into the parking lot and put some damage on both of our vehicles. My first reaction was shock, and then the humiliation set in. How do I sideswipe a parked car? What is wrong with me? I went through the motions of providing my insurance info and calling my own insurance to file the claim, feeling tormented all the while. Comforting words felt hollow, as I was confronted with my own capacity for inattention and lack of awareness.

I was also aware of the timing. I talk about Epimetheus and hindsight, and then I get a real world example of playing that role in my life. One of the painful things about being human is the Epimethean quality of our existence. We often experience that feeling that I felt yesterday of just hitting a wall (a car in my case), and then having to reconcile with our own ignorance. We learn, but we most often seem to learn from hindsight. I learned a powerful lesson yesterday about what can happen when I let my attention lapse behind the wheel.

We, a fusion of Epimethean and Promethean material, find true nobility. Epimetheus must be humble because he must confront his own well intentioned wrongness. When we do this we become Promethean, investing in understanding our future better, as we learn from our mistakes.

In no man is this tragic and fateful mix of qualities embodied like that of Hercules. Hercules was the hero of the Greeks, a man who embodied their ideals fully. A lusty and powerful man, in the face of his fury, nothing and no one could obstruct his path. When Hercules set his mind to a task, however miraculous, it got done. Yet Hercules knew defeat, and it was brought about by his own hand.

In a terrible fit of madness, Hercules murders his wife Megara, and their children. He returns to his senses surrounded by the corpses of his family and demands the name of their murderer. Only his brother has the courage to tell him that it was he. Hercules resolves to die then, and climbs a cliff to offer justice for his evildoing. Another legend, Theseus, convinces Hercules that it is more noble to live, and by his court they absolve Hercules of his crime; putting the fault with the gods for creating Hercules' mad rage. Yet Hercules does not take the exemption given to him. He undertakes a journey to the Oracle to find a way to take accountability for his sin. This way of life characterizes Hercules. In his immense and reckless power he finds himself thoughtlessly laying about himself and harming people. And each time Hercules resolves to make amends as best he can and to live with this cruel facet of his existence. Hercules never learned to avoid hurting people, and neither do we. Yet we can learn much from a man who didn't shy away from his failures when confronted with them.

This epic provides a message for our generation. We are at a crossroads in the west. At a point of immense tension between the spirit of the youth and spirit of the old. The spirit of youth demands social change and reform, a more equal and equitable distribution of resources and sensitivity to those who are less fortunate. Yet beneath this well intentioned quest lies a more subversive temptation to revenge themselves in bitterness onto those more successful than they and shortcut themselves into an abundance they have not earned.

The spirit of the old seeks to uphold the institutions that they know to be timeless and valuable, and that each person can rise or fall of their own merit. Beneath these noble intentions lies the temptation to treat those underneath them unfairly and to resist and deny new ideas and change.

Each side tends to demand the whole ownership of moral superiority, refusing to concede the possibility that they are fully half right, and that the missing parts of their truth lay with their adversaries. Those caught up in this struggle from each side of the fence seek to vanquish each other. Both claim the other to be demonic, yet there are no guiltless parties in a war and no side wants to concede that they too have become cruel. Each insists their cruelties are necessary and just responses to the cruelties of their nemesis. Each convinced that their trifle of violence pales in the face of the travesties of those on the other side of the aisle.

When we rely on hating wrongness in order to prove our own goodness we avoid the truth of our nature. That we are all born of Epimetheus, and therefore we are often not able to grasp the full picture right away. Like Hercules, despite our good intentions we will hurt people, including those we love. When we can acknowledge this about ourselves we become happier and more secure, as well as wiser. We no longer need to shame those we disagree with in order to justify our truths.

Hercules did not become the avatar of the Greeks just through his power alone. His might contained a seed of something much greater, something that stirred the hearts of men and women for generations. Hercules modeled for humanity a version of hero that does not shy away from the evil he creates. A hero who laments and grieves his own failures, and takes on decades of hard labor to try and become a better person than he was before. He is the hero that offers a path to redemption through the terrible discomfort of discovering when we err. He models for us the ability to withstand our own failures and keep trying to be better.

We can be so critical of ourselves for making mistakes, but making mistakes is part of the founding myth of our creation. It takes great courage to acknowledge and tolerate our mistakes in life. Doing so frees us from the need to seek scapegoats in those who think and feel differently from us. After all, we share a common ancestor in Epimetheus and we know well what it’s like to wade through mistakes to reach wisdom.