PROMETHEUS, .Pro-me'-theus (Forethought), son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, and brother of Atlas, Mencetlus, and Epimetheus (Afterthought), was renowned for his cunning, and the benefits conferred by him on men. To punish men, Jupiter had taken away fire from earth ; but Prometheus, by Minerva's aid, climbed the heavens and stole fire from the chariot of the Sun, conveying it to earth in a tube. This provoked Jupiter, who ordered Vtotsan to make a woman of clay, Pandora, and ,aving endued her with life, sent her to Premetheus. Pandora, who had received from each of the gods some attraction, bore with her a box containing, according to the earlier legend, all human ills, but Pro metheus, suspecting some artifice of Jupiter, sent her to Epimetheus, who, forgetful of the advice of Prometheus to receive no gifts from the gods, married her, and opened the box ; when at once all the evils flew forth and spread over the earth, Hope alone remaining ; but, according to the later legend, the box was full of blessings, which escaped when it was opened by Pandora. Prometheus was then, by
Jupiter's order, seized by Mercury (or Vulcan) and chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an enormous eagle, offspring of Typhon and Echidna, daily preyed on his liver, which was miraculously restored every night. He was at last delivered from his torture by Her who killed the eagle. Prometheus had rade the first man and woman on earth out of clay and water, which he animated by the fire he stole from heaven ; and he gave man a part of the qualities peculiar to each animal. He had the gift of prophecy, and he invented many useful arts, and taught men the medi cinal, ecu, use r` plants, taming different animals, &c. The Athenians raised an altar to him in the grove of Academus, where they annually celebrated games, lanzPielOherla (see HEMESTIA, I), &c., in his honour.