The Hanged Man Upright: Yeah, it’s pretty much as bad as it looks. There’s poor Prometheus, the god who gave the gifts of fire and healing to mankind, and there’s the eagle, pecking out his liver. And because he’s a god, of course the liver grew back every night. And every morning, just like clockwork if the ancient Greeks had had clocks, which they didn’t so I don’t know why I brought it up, here comes the eagle again. This soon got a bit old.
Why was one of the few nice gods being tortured? It seems that the other deities weren’t thrilled with Prometheus giving so much good stuff to mankind, whose creation was generally viewed as having been a bad idea. Most of the time humans had to be threatened with earthquakes and lightning bolts just to part with a few measly offerings in the temples, and if not watched closely they ended up drinking the sacrificial wine. Yet there went Prometheus, giving those rebellious sots even more power! Pretty soon, the gods could be heard muttering, they’ll emancipate themselves completely and take their fate into their own hands, and who’ll build the temples then?
So, what is the point to all this? That, like Prometheus, we sometimes have to take the long view. Prometheus suffered in the short term (he eventually got loose and hopefully had eagle for dinner), but by his sacrifice, he brought precious gifts to humanity. Sometimes, a personal loss can bring a greater gain.
The Hanged Man Reversed: Prometheus is our hanged man. Okay, he hasn’t actually been hanged, but being chained to a rock and having an eagle peck out your liver once a day isn’t a bed of roses, either. Zeus, the god responsible for Prometheus’ predicament, had decreed that he’d only be released from his torture if another immortal offered to go to Tartarus (the Greek version of hell) in his place. Since that would mean that the volunteer was giving up his immortality and would die, there weren’t a lot of takers. Not, that is, until the centaur Chiron heard about the offer.
Chiron was the last of the centaurs and was finding life a little dull without the rest of his species for company. Not to mention the constant pain he was in due to having been hit by a poisoned arrow in the thigh. Immortality isn’t a blessing when it brings nothing but eternal emotional and physical torment. For Chiron, death was a relief, and he went to Tartarus gladly, thereby obtaining Prometheus’ release.
The Hanged Man Reversed warns of the dangers of seeing things from a single, limited perspective. What Zeus saw as a punishment, someone else viewed as an opportunity. If you look at your own situation in a new way, you may also find opportunity in apparent adversity.