In the ancient myth, Prometheus (a Titan), decides he will steal fire from the gods and bestow it upon humans. Inside a stalk of fennel, he transported a few embers and gave them to us. For humankind, it is a game-changer – we can stay up after dark, ward off wild beasts, warm our homes and cook our food. For the gods, however, it was an outrage – Prometheus was banished to Tartarus, where every single day, an eagle came and pecked out his liver while he was fully conscious, only for it to grow back overnight.
It’s a story with deep resonances for western culture – for
instance, may an artist or poet be likened to Prometheus when they bestow their
insights on us ordinary mortals? It also
feeds into the narrative that artists must suffer for their art.
But what has always bothered me is the little detail of the fennel
stalk. The fennel I’ve cultivated in my garden or seen growing wild near the
sea simply has not got stalks which would be capacious enough.
However, here in Sicily, fennel (finocchio) is one of the
national plants. And what fennel! It can
be as much as ten feet tall and is an architectural shrub really. We even saw
one guy who appeared to have the job of strimming fennel to stop it encroaching
on the roads. The stalks on this giant fennel are an entirely different
proposition and could easily accommodate a few embers, and maybe even a fire
extinguisher to go with them.
Some might say the fennel stalk was not the most important
part of that myth…but it mattered to me.
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