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"It is easy for him who
keeps his foot free from harm to counsel and
admonish him who is in misery" [Prometheus
1. Aeschylus,
Prometheus
Bound 265]
"Thus I helped the tyrant
of the gods and with this foul payment he has
responded; for it is a disease that is somehow
inherent in tyranny to have no faith in
friends." [Prometheus 1. Aeschylus,
Prometheus
Bound 225]
"Prometheus, you are glad
that you have outwitted me and stolen fire ... but
I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing
in which they may all be glad of heart while they
embrace their own destruction."
[Zeus to Prometheus 1.
Hesiod,
Works
and Days 55]
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Prometheus 1 is mainly remembered for having
stolen fire from the gods, and for the terrible
punishment he suffered as a consequence.
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Creator of men
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The Titan Prometheus 1 is usually regarded as
one of the greatest friends of mankind, and the
saviour of all men. For when
Zeus attempted to destroy
the men of the
Bronze Age
through The Flood, he gave
instructions to his son
Deucalion 1, so that
he could survive and mankind could start anew.
Some have even asserted that man was moulded out
of water and earth by Prometheus 1 himself, who
gave him the form of the gods and
" ... bade him
to stand erect and turn his eyes to heaven."
[Ovid,
Metamorphoses
1.85]
But others say that he and his brother just
distributed abilities among creatures:
It has been told that when the time arrived for
mortal creatures to be created, the gods, after
moulding their forms, charged Prometheus 1 and his
brother Epimetheus to deal faculties to each
creature. Epimetheus, they say, persuaded
Prometheus 1 to let him do the dealing himself,
saying that afterwards Prometheus 1 could examine
what he had done. And to some creatures Epimetheus
gave strength, and to others speed; some he armed
and others he left unarmed, though giving them some
other faculty so that they could survive. To some
he gave wings, so that they could escape, and to
others he gave the capacity to live underground.
And while he distributed all capacities he took the
precaution that no species should be extinguished.
Likewise Epimetheus took into consideration the
seasons, giving to all creatures the faculty of
resisting both cold and heat. In similar manner he
furnished each kind of creature with its proper
food, so that some should feed on grass, others on
fruits, and still others on creatures which they
could devour.
This is how Epimetheus, lacking in wisdom and
forethought, distributed all properties suited for
survival among animals, leaving unequipped the race
of men. Now, when the day arrived for the emergence
of all creatures and Prometheus 1 came to examine
his brother's work, he noticed that Epimetheus had
not devised anything for the preservation of
humans. So in order to correct his brother's
mistake, Prometheus 1 stole wisdom in arts from
Hephaestus and
Athena, along with fire,
so that men could exercise those crafts, and gave
all these gifts to humanity. Accordingly,
Prometheus 1, for correcting mistakes in such a
way, was later charged with theft.
[For another angle om Epimetheus,
see
Epimetheus
- Brief One-Act Play in Three Scenes]
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More cleverness
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It has also been said that Prometheus 1 taught
men to sacrifice to the gods in a clever way,
casting only a part of the victim into the fire,
and keeping the rest for their own food. It is told
that Prometheus 1 deceived
Zeus with a trickery
concerning the part which should be sacrificed to
the god and the part which would remain for men.
For Prometheus 1 concealed the different parts in a
certain way, and having given
Zeus the chance to choose
among them, the god, without any forethought, chose
just the bones for his half. They believe that it
was because of this trickery that
Zeus decided to hide the
fire, and prevent men to use it.
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Pandora 1
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Probably fearing the consequences of his own
cleverness, Prometheus 1 told his brother
Epimetheus never to take a gift from
Zeus, but Epimetheus, a man
with no foresight, accepted
Zeus' gift
(Pandora 1), and he
only later understood what had happened. For until
that time men lived free from ills, toil and
sicknesses, but Pandora
1 opened a jar containing all kinds of evils,
and these flew out, afflicting mankind ever since.
Only Hope remained there.
Prometheus 1 fashioned man from clay, and the
gods fashioned the first woman,
Pandora 1. This is the
reason why Pyrrha 1, the daughter of Epimetheus and
Pandora 1, is called
the first mortal woman ever born.
Others affirm that
Pandora 1 was not a
curse sent from heaven, but that
Pandora 1, who was
endowed with all kinds of gifts, was given by the
gods to men because the gods wished to show all
mortals that they could do even better than
Prometheus 1, who had given them fire.
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Friend of mankind
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Now, when Cronos was
king in heaven, the
OLYMPIANS fought a war
against him, and having dethroned him, gave the
rule to Zeus, who punished
both Cronos and the
TITANS that supported his
cruel order. Prometheus, himself a Titan,
forewarned by the Titaness
Themis, who knew that
neither the brute nor the violent would prevail,
rallied with her to the side of
Zeus, who finally
prevailed.
The new ruler proceeded then to apportion to the
gods their prerogatives, but the race of man, which
some assert was moulded out of water and earth by
Prometheus 1 himself, he purposed to destroy. It
was then that Prometheus 1, out of compassion for
that wretched breed of mortals, planted blind hope
in their hearts, and having stolen fire from
heaven—which he hid in a stalk of
fennel—, gave it to men, teaching them many
arts and handicrafts.
For this audacious deed, Prometheus 1 paid a
high price, being severely punished by the
Zeus, the new king of
heaven. But among men he came to be called
'benefactor', a curious title considering that
humans rapidly made a habit of employing Prometheus
1's gifts to cook and burn one another in many
ways.
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Prometheus 1 steals the
fire from Zeus while the god
rests with Ganymedes
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Prometheus 1' tortured
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When Zeus learned about
the theft, he ordered
Hephaestus to nail
Prometheus 1's body to Mount Caucasus, which he did
with the help of Cratos (Power) and Bia (Force),
but some affirm that it was
Hermes who nailed
Prometheus 1.
On a rock in that mountain, Prometheus 1 was
kept bound for many years. And every day an eagle
swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver,
which grew by night as much as the eagle had
devoured during the day. Some say that this eagle
(which some say ate his heart, not his liver) was
the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, but others
affirm that
Hephaestus fashioned
it. Medea is said to have
used in her sorcery a Caucasian herb of great
potency, sprung from the gore that dropped from the
liver of Prometheus 1. She is also said to have
used a charm, called 'the charm of Prometheus' that
anointed on the body (along with other rites)
bestowed invulnerability.
Being a Titan, Prometheus 1 should be immortal
by birth (a sad privilege since ages of torture
awaited him). Yet, some affirm that Prometheus 1
was granted immortality, after
Heracles 1 shot the
Centaur Chiron with a
poisoned arrow. The wound proved incurable, and
Chiron wished to die, but
being immortal, he could not. It was then that
Prometheus 1 offered himself to
Zeus to be immortal in his
stead, and the request being granted by the god,
Chiron died and
Prometheus 1 obtained immortality.
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Credit to Phoroneus
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There are those who do not admit that fire was
given to mankind by Prometheus 1, and claim that
the discoverer of fire was
Phoroneus, a son of
the river god Inachus and king in Peloponnesus,
called 'the first man'. Prometheus 1, they say, did
not steal the fire from the gods, but was the
discoverer of the procedure from which fire may be
kindled.
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Freedom in exchange for information
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Prometheus 1 is also admired for his resistance
against what he perceived as the tyranny and
ingratitude of Zeus. Though
chained to a rock, he was not deprived of means of
resistance:
For Zeus contemplated,
at the time, marriage with Thetis. And there was a
prediction about this nereid, which the god
ignored: That her son would be greater than his
father.
And if that secret were not revealed to
Zeus, he would be hurled
from his throne as Cronos
had been before him. Being in possession of this
secret Prometheus 1 warned the god, declaring that
he would provide him with vital information if he
would free him from his chains. When the god
accepted the bargain, Prometheus 1 advised
Zeus not to wed Thetis, for
if one greater than he were born he might become
the ruler of heaven in
Zeus' place.
This is why Thetis was given in marriage to
Peleus, being delivered
of a child Achilles,
who became greater than his father. Others say,
however, that Thetis would not consort with
Zeus in any case because
she had been brought up by
Hera, and that
Zeus, wishing to punish
her, married her to a mortal, his own grandson
Peleus.
When the agreement was reached,
Heracles 1 was sent to
kill the eagle that ate Prometheus 1's heart or
liver, and release the prisoner after thirty
thousand years of torture.
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Rings and Wreaths
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It is said that Zeus did
not release Prometheus 1 from all binding, since he
had sworn to that, but for commemoration bade him
bind his finger with stone and iron; and that is
why, men adopted the custom of wearing rings
fashioned of stone and iron, that they may seem to
appease Prometheus 1.
Similarly, it has been said that Prometheus 1
wore a wreath, as if to claim that he as victor had
revolted and yet did not suffer punishment for
ever. And so the practice began of wearing wreaths
at time of victory or rejoicing.
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Birth of Athena
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Some assert that it was Prometheus 1 who smote
the head of Zeus with an
axe, and Athena, fully
armed, leaped up from the top of his head. Others
say that it was
Hephaestus who did
this.
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Another with the same name
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Prometheus 2 is the name of a Boeotian to whom
Demeter entrusted
something. What was entrusted is a sacrilege to put
into writing. Prometheus 2 had a son Aetnaeus.
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