During
the war between the olympians and the titans,
prometheus, and his brother, epimetheus, sided
with the olympians, thus, escaping the wrath
of zeus, after the defeat of the titans.
Prometheus then molded the very first mortal
men, out of earth and water, and took great
pride in them.
Long after the titanomachy had passed, after
the olympians had gained control of the universe,
after zeus had become the all powerful king
of the gods, prometheus began to see that
the olympians were not so different from the
old titan gods, they were even more tyrannical.
He saw their ill-treatment, and injustice
towards mankind, the cruel fate, and undeserved
punishments man endured . Prometheus had regard
for mankind, and felt they deserved better.
One fateful day, at Mecone, Zeus put Prometheus
in charge of sharing the meat of a great ox,
into two meals, one for the gods and the other
one for the humans.
The bigger and better share for the gods,
and the lesser for the humans.
The crafty prometheus, wrapped the ox's bones
inside nice looking fat, something useless
with a pleasant covering, and set it as the
first share.
Then he hid all the finest meat inside the
ox's stomach, something pleasant, with an
ugly covering, and set it as the second share.
Zeus fell for the trick, indeed the portion
of fat covered bones, was pleasing to the
eye, so he chose it as the meal for the gods.
This set a new order, which allowed humans
thenceforth, to keep the best meat for themselves,
and burn the bones wrapped in fat, as sacrifice
to the gods, no longer the other way round.
When zeus realized prometheus trick, the angry
god punished mankind by hiding fire away from
them.
at that time, the use of fire was already
known to humans, now zeus had withdrawn it
from them, and hidden it in the deepest parts
of olympus.
But prometheus found where he hid it on olympus,
stole the fire, and brought it back to earth
in a fennel stark.
When zeus learned of this, he visited the
god of the forge, hephaestus, and instructed
him to sculpt a creature more beautiful, and
more devious than anything any mortal man
had ever seen.
Hephaestus molded the creature out of clay,
and called it woman.
the very first woman to exist.
Each of the gods gave the woman a distinct
gift, and zeus gifted the woman with a beautifully
decorated box.
In that box, zeus placed all kinds of evil
and sicknesses, that he planned to plagued
mankind with, as punishment for prometheus'
crimes.
Hermes then named her pandora, and carried
her down to earth.
Prometheus the forethinking titan warned his
afterthinking brother, epimetheus, against
accepting any gifts from the gods.
But his advice fell on deaf ears, when epimetheus
saw the beautifully endowed pandora, and took
her as his wife.
No sooner had this happened, pandora opened
the box she came along with, out of curiosity.
Thus, unleashing all sorts of evil, diseases
and pains, that still plague mankind till
today.
Only hope was left in the box, as she shut
the lid before it could escape.
As for prometheus, Zeus bound the titan to
a rock in Caucasus, for eternity, and sent
an eagle, his emblem, to feast on the titan's
liver daily.
Every day, the eagle devoured prometheus'
liver, which grew back by night, due to his
immortality.
Prometheus endured this excruciating torture
for a very long time, until the day the demigod,
heracles, killed the eagle, and freed him
from his eternal torment.
After zeus and prometheus made peace, prometheus
had a son, named Deucalion, who would later
survive the great flood sent by zeus to wipe
out humanity, and go on ahead to repopulate
the earth with his own consort, pyrrha.
