Prometheus
Literary Sources:
- Aeschylus
- Ovid
- Apollodorus
Role/Important Job: - Titan god of forethought and crafty counsel
- Creator of mankind
- Gave fire to man
The Story of Prometheus' Punishment:
When Prometheus created man, he also introduced them to fire and made it so that men would get the best part of an ox for a sacrifice, and the gods the worst. This angered Zeus, and he swore revenge.
So, Zeus created women to be an evil for man. The first woman was Pandora. Pandora was very curious and the gods presented her with a box of evil things and told her to never open it. She was then turned over to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother, as his wife. Prometheus warned his brother to never accept anything from Zeus, but his brother didn't listen and decided to take Pandora anyway. Later, Pandora's curiosity got the best of her and she opened the box and many evil things escaped, but only one good thing came out of the box, hope.
After Zeus gave man their punishment of woman, he turned his focus towards the punishment of Prometheus. Although Prometheus helped Zeus conquer the titans, Zeus still decided to punish him. Zeus called upon his servants and told them to bind Prometheus to a rock at Caucasus. Zeus not only did this to punish Prometheus, but to also get a very important secret out of him. Zeus' fate had said that one day he would bear a son who would overthrow him and drive the gods out of Olympus; But only Prometheus knew who would. So, Zeus sent Hermes to get the answer from Prometheus, but Prometheus never told so he was punished even further. An eagle would come every day and rip his body to shreds, but their would be unending pain because he was immortal.
Eventually, it was told that Chiron, the great centaur would take Prometheus' place and suffer for him so Prometheus could be free. Although, it was also told that Hercules slayed the eagle and freed Prometheus.