Prometheus
Inventor of Sacrifice
Prometheus, or Prometheas ("forethought") is the Titan chiefly
honored for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mortals for their use.
He was a son of Iaptus by Clymene (one of the Oceanides). He was a brother of
Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus. He surpassed all in cunning and deceit. He
held no awe for the gods, and he ridiculed Zeus and Zeus's lack of insight by
killing two bulls, filling one bull skin with nothing but the animals' bones and
the other with the animals' flesh. He then offered Zeus his choice of "bulls"
for sacrifice. Zeus picked the bull made of bones, and Prometheus took the fruit
of the flesh sacrifice for himself. To punish Prometheus for this hubris (and
all of mankind in the process), Zeus took fire away from the earth. In turn,
Prometheus set out to steal fire back. He climbed Olympus with the help of
Athena and stole fire from the chariot of Apollo.
To get revenge on Prometheus for this further offense, Zeus had Hephaestus
(Vulcan) make a woman made of clay named Pandora. Zeus brought her to life and
sent her to Prometheus, along with a box of all the valuable presents she had
received from the gods. Prometheus was suspicious and would have nothing to do
with Pandora, claiming that she was foolish (lacking foresight), but he made
Epitmetheus marry her.
Zeus was further enraged by Prometheus's escape and had Prometheus carried to
mount Caucasus, where a vulture or an eagle named Ethon would eat out his liver;
it would grow back each day and the vulture would eat it again. This punishment
was to last 30,000 years. About 30 years into the punishment, he was freed by
Heracles and returned to Olympus. As the introducer of fire and inventor of
sacrifice he is seen as the patron of human civilization. Uncertain sources
claim he was worshipped in ancient Rome.
He was the father of Deucalion with Celaeno. Epimetheus, the husband of
Pandora, is his brother.
In mythography, Prometheus may be classed among the trickster gods, such as Loki
in Norse mythology (who likewise is a giant rather than a god, is associated
with fire (a fire god), and is punished by being chained to a rock and tormented
by an animal (a viper dripping venom on him).
The motif is believed, by some, to have been borrowed from the Nart sagas of the
Caucasian peoples, but the analogies with Loki seem to reveal an older
Indo-European source.
The cloned horse Prometea and Prometheus, a moon of Saturn, are named after this
Titan, as is the asteroid 1809 Prometheus. The story of Prometheus has inspired
many authors through the ages, and the Romantics saw Prometheus as a prototype
of the natural daemon or genius.
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