What has Prometheus to do with Da Vinci?

This weblog is to come up with a rather disordered mixture of medical knowledge I come across in my studies, in my life and where ever I'll end up ;-)
In the following I'm not going to write an essay about the correlation between the figure Prometheus and Da Vinci. It's more about gaining a slight insight in their beings.

Prometheus was the titan who gave the knowledge of fire to mankind in Greek myth. For doing this Prometheus was punished by Zeus, the king of the Olympian gods, and eventually freed by Herakles.

"Aeschylus, in his trilogy Prometheus, added various new features to it, for, according to him, Prometheus himself is an immortal god, the friend of the human race, the giver of fore, the inventor of the useful arts, an omniscient seer, an heroic sufferer, who is overcome by the superior power of Zeus, but will not bend his inflexible mind. Although he himself belonged to the Titans, he is nevertheless represented as having assisted Zeus against the Titans (Prom. 218), and he is further said to have opened the head of Zeus when the latter gave birth to Athena (Apollod. i. 3 § 6). But when Zeus succeeded to the kingdom of heaven, and wanted to extirpate the whole race of man, the place of which he proposed to give to quite a new race of beings, Prometheus prevented the execution of the scheme, and saved the human race from destruction (Prom. 228, 233). He deprived them of their knowledge of the future, and gave them hope instead (248, &c.). He further taught them the use of fire, made them acquainted with architecture, astronomy, mathematics, the art of writing, the treatment of domestic animals, navigation, medicine, the art of prophecy, working in metal, and all the other arts (252, 445, &c., 480, &c.). But, as in all these things he had acted contrary to the will of Zeus, the latter ordered Hephaestus to chain him to a rock in Scythia, which was done in the presence of Cratos and Bia, two minsters of Zeus."

(William Smith, 1849)

Prometheus derives from Greek (prometheia - προμηθεια) meaning 'foresight or forethought'. Given that he 'formed' the human being and demonstrated them the use of fire to be able to survive he is considered as the benefactor of mankind who is credited with bringing enlightenment to humans.

Da Vinci was one of the World's genius, maybe even the one. He was born in Italy in 1452 and died in France in 1519. His body is laid down in Amboise, a charming French city close to Tours, where he lived for the last days of his life. The grave is in the outstanding Royal Château d'Amboise, not far away from the Clos Lucé, his own manor house in Amboise. There is a park around this house where nowadays some of his inventions are set up. The house itself can be visited as a museum. It's great and I can highly recommend it for all those who are into his paintings, his ideas, his life, his relations to several kings, ...

When I studied Art at school I was faced with his paintings and got to know him as one of the great painters during the High Renaissance. I didn't have a clue where else his ideas took him to. His curiosity, inventive spirit formed some kind of ambition which made him to a man in great demand. It is said that in Amboise there was a secret underground connection between the palace and the Clos Lucé. This corridor was especially used by the Queen who had needed some advices here and then.

Da Vinci seems to have followed his own thoughts, not being influenced of the already existing or universal (social and ethical) rules of those times. He imagined, tried out, build up ideas, focused, set up machines. He fulfilled requests, broke rules and ended up to compose - next to Michelangelo - a major contribution to all other following innovations concerning math, science, anatomy, art and many more.