(), is sometimes called a Titan, though in
reality he did not belong to the Titans, but was only a son of the Titan lapetus (whence he is
designated by the patronymic Prom. 18), or of Uranus and
Clymene, or of the Titan Eurymedon and HIera (Potter, Comment. ad Lyc.
Cass. 1283; Eustath. ad Horn. p. 987). By Pandora, Hesione, or
Axiothea, he is said to have been the father of Deucalion (Aesch. Prom.
560 ; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 1283; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod.
2.1086), by Pyrrha or Clymene he begot Hellen (and according to some also Deucalion; Schol.
ad
Apollon. l.c.; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. 9.68), and by
Celaeno he was the father of Lvcus and Chimareus (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 132,
219), while Herodotus (ad Pind. Nem. 9.123), Prometheus, with a view to deceive Zeus and rival him in
prudence, cut up a bull and divided it into two parts : he wrapped up the best parts and the
intestines in the skin, and at the top he placed the stomach, which is one of the worst parts,
while the second heap consisted of the bones covered with fat. When Zeus pointed out to him
how badly he had made the division, Prometheus desired him to choose, but Zeus, in his anger,
and seeing through the stratagem of Prometheus, chose the heap of bones covered with the fat.
The father of the gods avenged himself by withholding fire from mortals, but Prometheus stole
it in a hollow tube (ferula,
Prom. 110). Zeus
now, in order to punish men, caused Hephaestus to mould a virgin, Pandora, of earth, whom
Athena adorned with all the charms calculated to entice mortals; Prometheus himself was put in
chains, and fastened to a pillar, where an eagle sent by Zeus consumed in the daytime his
liver, which, in every succeeding night, was restored again. Prometheus was thus exposed to
perpetual torture, but Heracles killed the eagle and delivered the sufferer, with the consent
of Zeus, who thus had an opportunity of allowing his son to gain immortal fame (Op. et Dies, 47, &c.
; Ilygin. Poet. Astr. 2.15; Op. et Dies, 83, &c.; comp. Prometheus,
added various new features to it, for, according to him, Prometheus himself is an immortal
god, the friend of the human race, the giver of fire, the inventor of the useful arts, an
omniscient seer, an heroic sufferer, who is overcome by the superior power of Zeus, but will
not bend his inflexible mind. Although he himself belonged to the Titans, he is nevertheless
represented as having assisted Zeus against the Titans (Prom. 218), and
he is further said to have opened the head of Zeus when the latter gave birth to Athena (Prom. 228, 233). He deprived them of their
knowledge of the future, and gave them hope instead (248, &c.). He further taught them the
use of fire, made them acquainted with architecture, astronomy, mathematics, the art of
writing, the treatment of domestic animals, navigation, medicine, the art of prophecy, working
in metal, and all the other arts (252, 445, &c., 480, &c.). But, as in all these
things he had acted contrary to the will of Zeus, the latter ordered Hephaestus to chain him
to a rock in Scythia, which was done in the presence of Cratos and Bia, two ministers of Zeus.
In Scythia he was visited by the Oceanides; Io also came to him, and he foretold her the
wanderings and sufferings which were yet in store for her, as well as her final relief (703,
&c.). Hermes then likewise appears, and desires him to make known a prophecy which was of
great importance to Zeus, for Prometheus knew that by a certain woman Zeus would beget a son,
who was to dethrone his father, and Zeus wanted to have a more accurate knowledge of this
decree of fate. But Prometheus steadfastly refused to reveal the decree of fate, whereupon
Zeus, by a thunderbolt, sent Prometheus, together with the rock to which he was chained, into
Tartarus (Vit. Apoll. 2.3; Hygin. Poet. Astr. 2.15;
Aeschyl. Prom. 1015, &c.). This state of suffering was to last until
some other god, of his own accord, should take his place, and descend into Tartarus for him
(Prom. 1025). This came to pass when Cheiron, who had been incurably
wounded by an arrow of Heracles, desired to go CHEIRON). According to others, however, Zeus himself delivered
Prometheus, when at length the Titan was prevailed upon to reveal to Zeus the decree of fate,
that, if he should become by Thetis the either of a son, that son should deprive him of the
sovereignty. (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. 6.42 ; Pronm. 167, &100.376.)
There was also an account, stating that Prometheus had created men out of earth and water,
at the very beginning of the human race, or after the flood of Deucalion, when Zeus is said to
have ordered him and Athena to make nmen out of the mud, and the winds to breathe life into
them (s. v.
Carm. 1.16. 13). The kind of earth out of which Prometheus formed men was shown in
later times near Panopeus in Phocis (ad Apollon. Rhod. 2.1249)
and he is further said, with her assistance, to have ascended into heaven, and there secretly
to have lighted his torch at the chariot of Helios, in order to bring down the fire to man
(Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. 6.42). At Athens Prometheus had a sanctuary in the
Academy, from whence a torch-race took place in honour of him (ad Soph. Oed. Col. 55; Harpocrat. s. v.