y that their struggle has become internalised, it is now a fight for the human spirit.The struggle of the individual against a superior power is a very common emblem to us today, from Malcolm X to Saddam Hussian (depending on your point of view of course) . The history of this cultural myth can be traced back to human necessity; when in our embryonic stage of intellectual development we needed to make sense of our surroundings, in our effort to begin to explain the unexplainable the myth was born. A myth that fledgling religions absorbed and made their own so completely that the original myth has very nearly been eclipsed. But when does myth become reality again? Did Jimi Hendrix really sell his soul to the devil in order to wield the axe as a modern day Faustus or what can we make of Ruben Hurricane Carter, the innocent boxer forced to struggle against an unyeilding power for freedom - a real life Prometheus? Bob Dylan sums up:Here comes the story of the Hurricane, the man the authorities came to blamefor something that he never done, put in a prison cell, but one time he coulda been the champion of the world19 The circularity of the reality myth reality theme is still evident and as pertinent today as it was when we still sacrificed animals to gain the gods benevolence, as is the continuing struggle (as illustrated by Prometheus and Faustus) to recognise and understand our own fragile spirit. BIBLIOGRAPHYPrimary textsAeschylus, Prometheus Bound, Penguin Classic Edition 1961C. Marlowe, The Complete Plays, Penguin Classic Edition 1969Secondary textsS. Radhakrishnan ed, The Bhagavagita, HaperCollins 1993J. Fraser, Myths of the Origin of Fire - an essay, Hacker Art Books, as cited in Pyne SJ (1991) Burning Bush - A fire history of Australia (Allen & Ungin 1991) W. Shakespeare, Loves Labour Lost, Norton Critical Edition 1997W Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Norton Critical Edition 1997F. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, Pengu...
