Prometeo y las versiones romanas de la creación del hombre

Abstract

This study develops the topic of human creation by Prometheus, according to three Roman authors: Propertius (3,5),Horace (Od. 1,16) and Ovid (Met. 1, 76 ff). In Propertius and Horace's poems, which alludes to the matter of love, the reference to Prometheus' creation of man is included to explain human wrong deeds: there were flaws in creation and, because of that, man has been inclined to war and avarice (according to Propertius), or to anger (according to Horace). In Propertius, specifically, the amans is able to part with this attitude. This escape is not only a fact, but also a litterary attitude (to despise the epic and to vindicate the elegy), as well as a political attitude (a subtle critic to the Augustan order).The Ovid's passage is a mixture of myth and philosophy. The hesiodic Prometheus (satus Iapeto -v. 82) creates man, but this man is a sanctiusanimal(v.76),endowed with all the attributes that philosophers have placed on him (particularly Cicero). This is a crucial issue, taking into account that conception of man ends in the apotheosis and in Rome