PROMETHEUS (Forethought), the son of the Titan Iapetus and of Clymene, brother of Atlas, Menmtius, and Epimetheus (Afterthought)—or, according ,to other legends, the son of Iapetus and Asia, or of Uranus and Clymene, or of Eurymedon and Here—the father of Deucalion, Hellen, Lycus, and Chyrncerus. The myth of Prometheus is one of the oldest of Greek antiquity, being mentioned by Hesiod, and is briefly as follow: Once, under the reign of Zeus, men and gods were disputing with one another at Mecone; Prometheus, with a view to outwit Zeus, cut up a bull, and divided it into two parts, hiding the meat and the intestines in the skin, and putting a bad piece (the stomach) at the top of it; while he laid in another heap the bones, which were covered with fat. Zeus pointed out the unequal division, but was asked to choose, whereupon he guessed the deceit practiced, and selected the good portion; but, irate at the stratagem, he avenged himself on the mortals by withholding from them the fire necessary for the cooking of the meat; whereupon Prometheus stole it in a hollow staff and brought it to them. Zeus, to punish the mortals, caused to mold a virgin of rapturous. beauty, Pandora, whom Epimetheus was unwise enough to receive as a present from Heroics; and thus brought, through her box, all imaginable ills that flesh is heir to upon humanity. Prometheus himself was chained to a rock, and an eagle sent to consume his. liver in daytime, while Zeus caused it to grow again at night. Heracles, however, killed the eagle, and, by the permission of Zeus, delivered the suffering Prometheus. Thus. far Hesiod's legend. .tEschylus, in his tragedy with the name of the hero, has perpetu ated another view of the myth. Prometheus, according to him, is an immortal god, a friend of the human race, who does not shrink even from sacrificing himself for their salvation. He is the long-suffering hero, who, although overcome by Zeus's superior might, yet does not bend his mind. He at first assists Zeus against his own kindred, the Titans, and even opens his head at/the birth of Minerva. But when Zeus, having come to the throne, conceived evil plans against mankind, wishing to destroy them entirely, in order to create a new race, Prometheus throws himself into the breach; and while taking from them the evil gift of foreseeing the future, gives them the two infinitely superior gifts of hope, and of fire. He is the inventor of architecture, astronomy, writ
ing, figures, medicine, navigation, the mystery Of prophecy, the arts of working in metal, and all other arts which embellish and adorn life. For these boons conferred on the human race, he is, by Zeus's order, chained to a rock in Scythia by ITephxstus, who fulfills this task reluctantly. Here he is visited by the Oceanides, by To, who tells him of her own miserable wanderings, and by Hermes, who endeavors to find out that which Prometheus only knows, viz., who will be the son of Zeus and his successor. Refusing to divulge this secret, he is struck by Zeus's lightning, and burled into Tartarus, whence he only reissues after a time to undergo new sufferings. He is now fastened to mount Caucasns, and the eagle, an offspring of earth and Tartarus, comes to torment him daily. Cheiron, the centaur, at last offers himself to supply Prometheus's place in hades—for on no other condition was he to be liberated than that some other immortal should offer himself in his stead. Cheiron, incurably wounded by Heracles, is accepted by Zeus.— Other legends give varying accounts. One makes Prometheus the creator of man out of earth and water—Zeus having, after the flood of Deucalion, ordered both him and Here to make man out of the mud left, and the winds to breathe life into them; and at Pano peus, in Phocis, a piece of that creative earth was in after-times shown to the wonder struck multitude. It was also at his suggestion that Deucalion and Pyrrha built the vessel that bore them safely through the floods. Prometheus bad a sanctuary at Athens, and torch-races took place in his honor. Many have been the explanations of this myth, one of which is, that it represents the human mind, which, in the consciousness of its own power, refuses to obey the will of Zeus; another, that it embodies the first struggles between the ancient (Pelasgian) powers of nature and the awaking of the mind, as represented by Zeus and the Olympians, etc. The subject is fully discussed in works on Prometheus by Welcker (1824), Weiske, Schumann, and Lasaulx (1845).