Prometheus the Titan
Prometheus was a Titan and creator of mankind, son of the Titan
Laepethus and Oceanus daughter Clymene or Themis. His name means "he
who thinks first".
His brother was Epimetheus ("afterthought"), and together they had
the task to create the human beings and give them what they would
need to survive. Prometheus made the humans out of clay and stole
the fire from Zeus and brought it to them. He also gave them the
best part of the sacrifice, wich upset the gods so much that he was
tied to a rock in Caucasus, the edge of he world, where an eagle
came to pick his liver each day. He was finally saved by Heracles.
Zeus was also angered at the humans, and to punish them he gave them
Pandora - the first woman. Prometheus tried to save the humans, but
they had become so depraved that Zeus sent a flood to drown them
all.
Only Prometheus good son Deuchalion made it since he told him to
make an ark.
The story states that this distribution of knowledge and talents by
Prometheus to man angered Zeus, especially when they began to
surpass the gods in their wisdom. Zeus was further incensed from a
cunning deception by Prometheus which again favoured man above the
gods. The gods had met with all the people of the earth to decide
which sacrificial rights belonged to the gods and which to man.
Prometheus was given the responsibility of dividing up the
sacrificial ox and portioning it out, some to men and some to the
gods. After slaughtering the beast, Prometheus cut its skin into two
halves. In one half he placed the meat and succulent edible parts,
wrapping them in the coarse skin of the ox. In the other skin he put
the carcass, inedible parts and the bones and wrapped them up but
placed on top of the skin a rich layer of white fat. He then asked
Zeus to choose which portion of the sacrifice he would like the gods
to have as a divine offering. Tricked by the sight of the juicy fat,
the greedy Zeus chose the one containing the bones allowing
Prometheus to then give the meat to man.
This, it is said, is how the form of sacrifices to gods by humans
was established. Man would burn the fat and bones as an offering to
the gods and then keep the meat to eat.
Zeus’ retaliation to this trick of Prometheus was to deny fire to
mankind. However, the wise and benevolent Prometheus travelled to
the forge of Hephaestus, blacksmith of the gods, on the isle of
Lemnos and stole a few of the embers from the eternal sacred flame,
giving them to man so that they did not have to eat their meat raw.
Zeus then directed his attention to punishing mankind for their
acceptance of fire and the knowledge that should rightly be only
known to the gods. He ordered Hephaestus to create a mortal woman as
beautiful as a goddess from clay and water. Zeus named her Pandora
and once she had been adorned and blessed with passion and
gracefulness by the goddesses of Olympus, Zeus sent her as a wife to
Epimetheus. However, Epimetheus had been forewarned by his brother
not to accept gifts from Zeus because they would only bring bad
fortune and suffering. At this Zeus was furious and decided to rid
himself of Prometheus once and for all. Thus he expelled him to the
eastern extremities of the earth where he was tied to a stake at the
top of the Caucasus Mountains. There, each morning, an eagle would
swoop down and tear at his torso until his liver was revealed. The
eagle would then eat his liver which, overnight regenerated only to
be eaten again the next day. So Prometheus was condemned to a life
of perpetual torture and agony until, thirty years later, Heracles
released him by killing the eagle with his arrows.
