Enlightenment was as old as the human species and as threatened as it was. Prometheus, who belonged to an older deity, had not only brought mankind sacrificial fire (thus making the sacrifice edible and at the same time taking it away from the gods), but also the spirit fire of civilisation: all of mankind's inventions came from him, with the exception of the state - which remained the domain of Zeus. The enlightener Prometheus, mastermind of the human race, was powerful of ambiguous speech and objection, he had seen the end of Zeus' reign coming and was forged on the rock as a representative sacrifice - representative of all the exiles - his liver sacrificial food for Zeus' eagle. - That one must "take the myth away from intellectual fascism and convert it into the human": this programmatic consensus between Karl Kerényi and Thomas Mann during the Second World War also conducted this lecture. It is important to me today, as it was then, to recall the genre goal of the Enlightenment, which is not enlightenment, but illumination - so much illumination that the coming to terms with the genre horror succeeds. For me, this is still the central topic of a study of religion that takes itself and its subject matter seriously. Contents Anamnetic preface First lecture, Second lecture, Third lecture, Fourth lecture, Fifth lecture, Sixth lecture, Seventh lecture, Eighth lecture, Ninth lecture, Tenth lecture, Eleventh lecture Notes Keyword-like overview Editorial note.