11/1/2022 0 Comments Portal 2 castWhen you find the Oracle Turret, you’re on the run. But here’s a curveball: what if there’s a third match, when we consider the all-important tone and imagery of the legend, especially that tragic image of being cast down from an orderly and pristine life into the unpleasant depths below? So GLaDoS works as the best match for Prometheus in the more literal sense, and Wheatley works best in terms of his role in the story. Not to the bowels of the earth this time, but to space, but the effect is largely the same. He isn’t satisfied with disrespecting a superior once, he was to do it twice. Nah, he lives, but like Hesiod’s Prometheus, Wheatley’s crimes are layered. Wheatley helps her get it back, and in retribution for this he’s… straight up murdered, geez. She had but lost the power of fire, or portals, to Zeus, now played by GLaDoS. Okay, what about Wheatley? This way we actually do have an analogue for man, that being, well, man, and more specifically Chell. Not that this means this comparison is invalid, but let’s switch gears and see if we can apply this comparison to anyone else. That’s where the analogy to GLaDoS really breaks down, because her actions up to this point were purely selfish. But what about man? Two of the defining traits of Prometheus is that he disrespected some authority figure, and that he did so at least partially because he was trying to help someone else. We could even say that Chell fills the role of Heracles, as the mythical hero eventually saved Prometheus from his fate. If we say that GLaDoS is Prometheus, then that obvious makes Wheatley Zeus, since he’s the one that punished her for her transgressions. If we’re trying to make a comparison here, the most obvious thing to do is attempt to see what parts of the different stories match up with each other. In both versions he chains Prometheus to a rock for his liver to be eaten by a bird every day, while simultaneously devising his plan to ruin humanity even further with Pandora and her, uh, jar. Prometheus then took the fire back, which, big surprise, made Zeus even madder. In Hesiod’s version, humanity already existed and discovered fire on their own, but after Prometheus screwed with Zeus’ sacrificial offerings, the king god took revenge by targeting Prometheus’ pet project and taking the fire away, leaving them cold and defenseless. In Plato’s version, Prometheus created man, but his idiot brother Epithemeus forgot to give them any notable qualities to help them survive, prompting Prometheus to steal fire from Haphaestos’ workshop. So when we refer to these legends, it’s often more about the broad strokes and the feelings associated with it.Ī common element between tellings is that Prometheus had a fondness for humankind, while Zeus, and the other gods in general, were either indifferent or outright hostile. Most of these started from oral traditions, after all, emerging from an explanation for natural phenomena, communicating some sort of lesson, or just telling an interesting story. Before we hit the road, let’s get some background on the actual legend of Prometheus.Īn easy thing to forget about Greek myth and mythology in general is that there was rarely only one version of any given story. But if you think I’ll be satisfied with that, I’m not sure why you think we’re here. She is, after all, cast into the bowels of the earth not long after you hear this, and indeed pecked at by a bird. The Portal wiki would have you believe that it’s a simple reference to the fate of GLaDoS. This one is different, though, as it’s the only one that doesn’t seem to be making any explicit reference to the story. It spouts off some other lines that allude to the plot at varying levels of directness, such as the first mention of Caroline or stating that you should not, in fact, make lemonade. It shows up after, to give a brief recap, you’re on the run from GLaDoS, the murderous AI that runs Aperture Science who’s super mad that you killed her in the last game. This line is spoken by the Oracle Turret, an easter egg character in Portal 2. He was cast into the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds.” “Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man.
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