Prometheus
Greek mythology · titan · fire, foresight, craft
The Titan who sided with Zeus in the Titanomachy, then defied him by stealing fire for humankind. Punished by being chained to a mountain where an eagle devoured his ever-regenerating liver.
Stories
Prometheus Steals Fire
After tricking Zeus over the division of sacrifices, Prometheus steals fire in a fennel stalk and gives it to humankind. Zeus chains him to a crag where an eagle eats his liver, which regrows each night.
The Titanomachy
For ten years the young gods war against Cronus and the Titans, until Zeus frees the hundred-handed giants and the Cyclopes forge his thunderbolt. The old order falls into Tartarus; Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades divide the cosmos by lot, and only Prometheus among the Titans stands with the victors.
Pandora's Jar
To repay the theft of fire, Zeus orders Hephaestus to shape a woman of clay, beautiful and inescapable. Epimetheus ignores his brother Prometheus's warning and takes her in; Pandora lifts the lid of her jar, every evil flies loose into the world, and only hope is left beneath the rim.
The Apples of the Hesperides
For the eleventh labor Heracles must fetch golden apples no mortal may pick. He frees Prometheus from his eagle for directions, then holds up the sky while Atlas fetches the fruit; when the Titan is slow to take the burden back, Heracles tricks him into it and walks away.