Stephen Pyne identifies “first fire” as that fire which occurs external to human influence, the product of lightning strikes or other climatic phenomena. In all likelihood, humans would have seen this fire before they were able to generate it themselves. Perhaps this is why so many origin stories reflect that fire was stolen for the benefit of humans, rather than created by them. The story of Prometheus is the most classic example, but the Popol Vuh makes reference to the Cakchiquels stealing fire from the original four humans, and Reed’s Aboriginal Legend of The Meat Ants and the Fire tells of the theft of fire from another tribe. Nonetheless, the differences in these three accounts merit additional examination.
In Plato’s “Protagoras,” Prometheus finds that “man alone was naked and shoeless, and had neither bed nor arms of defense.” Prometheus then steals not only fire, but also the mechanical arts of Hephaestus and Athena which come along with it. These he gives to man to make up for a deficiency which he has, and afterwards is prosecuted for his theft. Overall, the story presents an image humans as defenseless—until they are given the tools of the gods, which allow humans to emulate them.
In the Popol Vuh, the original four humans have fire, which was given to them by their god Tohil. When the other tribes of humans ask Tohil for fire, he agrees to give it to them if they allow him to “suckle” them—removing their hearts through their sides. In this way, the other tribes are said to have been defeated by the dominance of those who had both fire and the favor of their god.
One group, however, stole fire, and so escaped defeat. The Popol Vuh recounts “those fiery Cokchiquels didn’t ask for their fire. They didn’t give themselves up in defeat, but all the other tribes were defeated when they gave themselves up to being suckled on their sides, under their arms.” Despite the fact that fire is used to illustrate the dominance of the original humans and their god, the Popol Vuh still seems to celebrate those who escaped their defeat through stealth.
In Reed’s Aboriginal Legend of The Meat Ants and the Fire, by contrast, the people stealing the fire defeat those previously in possession of the fire. The young man central to this story does not come from an impoverished, deficient people the way that the fireless humans of the previous stories do. Rather, he steals fire from a far-off tribe to improve the welfare of his people by allowing them to cook meat. As he flees the people he has stolen from, he tricks them into climbing down a cut vine so that they fall to their death. Their defeat is illustrated when Reed recounts that “the children of the people from whom the young man took the fire turned into meat ants and meat ants they are to this day.” The aboriginal legend seems to be moreso a story of man’s triumph over his environment.
