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The myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods, comes to us from the Greeks, but they took it from its origins in Georgia where the hero was named Amirani, and where he stole metal from the gods in the Caucasus Mountains.
Vakhtang Oniani, a famous Georgian artist, illustrated the myth in the following book, using the version taken by the Greeks where Amirani steals fire from the gods instead of metal (see pages 52 and 53).
Vakhtang was the brother of Tengiz Oniani, in whose laboratory I worked in Tbilisi. They grew up in the village of Svanetia
high in the Caucasus Mountains, with its unique towers as we can see in upper part of the illustration on page 24. I had the privilege to visit Svanetia with Tengiz.
Because the pdf file for the book is very heavy, it is divided here into three parts. Even so, each part may take several minutes to load on your computer.
Cover, Info Page, Contents, and Pages 2-23
Pages 24 to 47
Pages 48 to 63 and Author's comments 65-70
I have not tried to translate the book from its original Georgian, but here is a synopsis of the legends for the illustrations listed according to the page on which they appear:
12. The tempering of Amirani's sword
13. Amirani kills the dragon that swallowed the sun, thus setting free the sun.
16-17. The hunter Sulkalmakhin climbed up into the cave where he stole the baby Amirani out of the womb of his mother Dali.
20-21. The hunter set Amirani down on the Irmany's spring and she adopted Amirani.
24-25. With Irmany's sons Badri and Usuip, Armani started hunting, including a deer with golden antlers.
28-29. The deer led the brothers to the crystal tower where the hero Tsandnamy lay dead.
32-33. The brothers met the giant who told Amirani the location of Kamar's tower. Amrirani killed the giant.
36-37. The giant gave birth to three dragons. One of thesze dragons swallowed Amirani but the brothers freed him from its belly.
3!-39.
40-41. Amirani abducted Kamar from heaven.
44-45. Kamar's father caught up with Amirani and gave battle. In the battle Amirani's brothers were killed and Amirani killed himself, but Kamar brought them back to life.
48-49. Amirani came to the nine brother giants' palace. He met their woman and killed the giants.
52-53. Amirani stole fire from the gods and brought it to the people.
56-57. God punished Amirani by tying him to an oak tree where the crows came to peck at him.
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