Prometheus

Force and Violence seized Prometheus and led him to the Caucasus Mountains. They bound him to a rock with unbreakable adamantine chains. In another account, Hephaestus drove a shaft through his body and fixed him to the highest summit. Zeus ordered this punishment after Prometheus aided mortals against him.

Prometheus had prepared a great ox for a joint meal. He concealed the meat beneath the animal's bones and placed the fat and organs in a separate pile. Zeus chose the portion covered in fat, but found that it contained only bones. Angry that Prometheus had deceived him and that humans had gained the better portion, Zeus withheld fire from them. Prometheus then stole fire and carried it to mortals in a hollow fennel stalk. Another account says that he took the flame from the sun.

While Prometheus lay on the mountain, an eagle came each day and ate his liver. During the night, the liver grew back, so the bird returned to consume it again. One account gives the punishment as lasting a thousand years or more. Prometheus endured it without resisting, while no one dared speak against Zeus. The sources differ on the bird, since some name a vulture instead of an eagle.

The punishment was eventually ended in different ways. One account says that someone offered to die in Prometheus's place, and Zeus accepted. Another says that Heracles killed the eagle and released him. A prophecy known to Prometheus also foretold that his chains would one day fall away and that the world age of Zeus would come to an end. Zeus later sent Hermes to ask Prometheus about the future, since Prometheus had the gift of foreknowledge, but the surviving passage does not give the answer.

Prometheus placed the meat of a great bull in one leather bag, hiding it beneath offal and the stomach. He put the bones in another bag and covered them with white fat. He then asked Zeus to choose his portion. Zeus took the bag that looked larger and richer, but found only the skull, bones and ribs inside. The meat belonged to humans. Angered that Prometheus had outwitted him, Zeus withheld fire from mortals. From then on, their meat would remain raw and inedible.

Prometheus’s brother Epimetheus feared that humans could not withstand the cold or defend themselves from dangerous animals. Prometheus went to Olympus and asked Zeus to grant them fire, at least during winter. He explained that fire would warm them, cook their food and help them make weapons. Zeus refused. He feared that fire would make humans too powerful, since they were ignorant and might use it as a threat against the gods.

Prometheus then stole fire for them. He hid a flame in the hollow stem of a fennel plant, or carried a splinter from its stalk, and brought it back from the divine realm. One account says that he lit the stalk from the chariot of Helios, the sun god. He carried it away openly, growing faster as he moved from Olympus. Back on earth, he used the stolen ember to light the fires in human halls and encampments. Humans could warm themselves, cook food and make weapons. When they sacrificed to Zeus, they left the bones beneath fat on his altars and kept the meat.

Zeus decided to punish Prometheus. He had him chained to a mountain, opposite the place where Atlas held up the sky. An eagle came each day to tear at his liver. By night, the liver grew back, so the torment continued. Other accounts say that Zeus ordered Hephaestus to fasten Prometheus to the rock with nails or a shaft driven through his body. Zeus also planned a punishment for humans. In one account, he ordered Hephaestus to make Pandora, whom he sent to Epimetheus with blessings and evils.

Prometheus knelt in a patch of mud and began shaping figures from the earth. Zeus had assigned him the task of creating a race of mortals. Prometheus was the wisest of the gods and served as Zeus’s chief adviser, so he accepted the task eagerly. At first, he was unsure how humans should look. He then remembered that mortals would have a close relationship with the gods. He decided that they should resemble them, and formed several figures with bodies like his own.

When the figures were complete, Prometheus had to give them movement and thought. One ancient account says that sparks of life remained from the fragments Eros had brought together in Chaos. Other accounts say that Athena helped Prometheus by breathing life into the clay figures. In this way, the first people were animated. They became a race of mortals made from earth, shaped in the likeness of the gods.

Prometheus watched the new humans from a distance. He soon became sad because they struggled to survive. During winter, they nearly froze to death. Wild beasts threatened them, and the humans found it difficult to kill those animals without metal weapons. Prometheus knew that fire would keep them warm and allow them to melt metal for tools and weapons. Zeus, however, had forbidden him to give fire to mortals, since that gift was reserved for the immortal gods. Prometheus began to consider what he should do.

Prometheus alone among the gods favoured mortals. He had refused to support the Titans when they made war on Zeus, and had offered his services to Zeus instead. He also persuaded his brother Epimetheus to take the same side. Prometheus was counted among the Titans and was known for his wisdom and cunning. Some traditions say that he made human beings from water and clay, while others give them a different origin.

Mortals lived without the knowledge needed to order their lives. They saw and heard, but understood little of what surrounded them. They did not know how to build walls, roofs, or houses, and lived in caves beneath the earth. They did not mark the seasons or understand the stars. Prometheus taught them fire, then gave them the arts that allowed them to live with greater skill and security.

He taught them crafts, architecture, agriculture, medicine, prophecy, writing, mathematics, astronomy, navigation, and metallurgy. He showed them how to observe the stars, including their rising and setting. He taught them numbers and letters. Through these lessons, mortals learned to build, cultivate the land, treat illness, interpret signs, travel, and work metal. Athene had taught Prometheus architecture, astronomy, mathematics, navigation, medicine, metallurgy, and other useful arts, which he passed on to humanity.

Zeus had decided to destroy the human race, but spared it after Prometheus pleaded for its survival. He later grew angry at the powers and talents that mortals gained through Prometheus's teaching. Zeus ordered that Prometheus be chained to a boulder near the top of a distant mountain. Each day, a great eagle tore out and ate his liver. During the night the liver grew back, and the same torment began again the next day.

Bound to a rock in the Caucasus, Prometheus endured an eagle that descended each day to eat his liver. The liver grew back during the night, and the torment continued. Heracles later found the Titan while seeking the Garden of the Hesperides. Prometheus gave him guidance, and Heracles killed the eagle. Zeus then released Prometheus, but only after securing his advice about Thetis. Accounts differ over whether Prometheus kept the prophecy secret during Zeus’s pursuit or revealed it in exchange for his freedom.

Thetis, daughter of Nereus and Doris, was desired by Zeus because of her beauty. Prometheus knew that she was destined to bear a son more powerful than his father. This fate made marriage to Thetis dangerous for Zeus, since her son would surpass him. Prometheus therefore kept the secret while Zeus pursued her, or delayed revealing it until Zeus offered him freedom. Once released, he warned Zeus not to marry Thetis.

Zeus abandoned his suit and decreed that Thetis should marry a mortal. With the help of Chiron, the centaur, Peleus won her as his bride. Their son was Achilles. The prophecy was therefore fulfilled through Thetis and Peleus, while Zeus avoided fathering a son who would become greater than himself.