The Ontology of Digitalism

“I also invented for them numbers.”

Prometheus Bound (detail), begun c. 1611–18, by Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640) and Frans Snyders (Flemish, 1579–1657)

Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound

….

§ 435

PROMETHEUS: Don’t think that it’s out of delicacy or willfulness
That I’m silent. My heart is devoured with anxiety
When I see myself being insulted like this.

And yet, who else but I completely determined
Their privileges to these new gods?
But that’s enough of that --- you know
The story I could tell you. Now listen to the plight
Of human beings, how they were childish before,

And I made them intelligent and possessed of mind.
I’ll tell you about them, not because I blame them at all,
But to explain the kindness I granted them.
First of all, though they could see, they saw to no purpose,
Though hearing they didn’t hear, but like

Shapes in dreams in their long life
They muddled up everything at random. They didn’t know
Brick-built sunny houses, or word-working;
But like ants that burrow, light as air,
They lived in the sunless corners of caves.

They had no reliable sign of winter,
Flowering spring, or fruitful
Summer --- they did everything
Without intelligence, until I showed them
When the stars rose, and their settings that are hard to tell.

I also invented for them numbers,
The most outstanding cleverness, and how to put letters together,
The recording of everything, working mother of the muses.
I first yoked the wild beasts
Enslaving them in harnesses and in pack-saddles, so that

People might have a relief from their heavy
Burdens, and brought under chariots rein-loving
Horses, the adornment of proud wealth.
And no-one else but me invented the sea-wandering
Fabric-winged vehicles of ships.

Although I invented all these devices for mortals,
Alas! I myself do not have a clever means whereby
I can escape my present distress.

…

(From Seven Tragedies, translated by Herbert Weir Smyth (1857-1937), from the Loeb edition of 1926, now in the public domain, with thanks to www.theoi.com and the Perseus Project for making the text available online. https://topostext.org/work/15)

Characters:
PROMETHEUS, cousin of ZEUS, a Titan HEPHAESTUS, son of ZEUS, an Olympian POWER (Kratos) and FORCE (Bia), servants of ZEUS
OCEAN, uncle of Prometheus, a Titan (also uncle of ZEUS) IO, daughter of Inachus HERMES, Son of ZEUS, an Olympian CHORUS of OCEANIDS, daughters of OCEAN and cousins of Prometheus.

NOTE: The Ontology of Digitalism is the title of coming book by Veysel Batmaz ...