Prometheus Prometheus was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene. Even though a Titan himself, together with his brother Epimetheus, he sided with Zeus during the Titanomachy. However, after helping Zeus to achieve victory in the war, he started a quarrel with him over his supposed unfair treatment of humanity. This led to Prometheus stealing the fire from the gods and gifting it to humanity, which resulted in Zeus chaining Prometheus and sending an eagle to prey upon his continually regenerating liver. After some time, Zeus’ son Heracles shot the eagle and freed Prometheus, and the Titan subsequently made peace with his savior’s father.
Family and Name
Prometheus was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, and the brother of Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius.
Even though modern scholars tend to disagree, as far as the Ancient Greeks were concerned, the name “Prometheus” had been derived from the Greek prefix pro- (“before”) and the verb manthano (“to learn,” “to be increased in knowledge”), making Prometheus the “Forethinker,” that is, the One Who Thinks Ahead. Analogously, Prometheus’ brother’s Epimetheus was the “Afterthinker,” i. e., the One Who Thinks Afterward.
Prometheus vs. Zeus
Things, however, got sour between Prometheus and Zeus soon after Zeus had established himself as the sovereign ruler of all gods and men. The primary cause for this was Zeus’ tyrannical treatment of humankind, which, in the eyes of Prometheus, deserved a far better master.
The Trick at Mecone
The rift between the Thunderer and the Forethinker seems to have started at Mecone when Zeus charged Prometheus with the task of dividing the meat of a great ox into two meals, one for the gods and the other one for the humans. Ever the lover of the latter, Prometheus tried tricking Zeus by producing one portion of bones wrapped in fat, and another one consisting of the finest meat covered with the ox’s insides. Strangely enough, Zeus chose the fat-covered bones, thus setting a precedent which allowed humans, from that day forward, to keep the meat for themselves and sacrifice only the bones to the gods.
The Stealing of Fire
Angered by Prometheus’ trick, Zeus tried punishing humankind by hiding from them the gift of fire. Prometheus didn’t think this just, so he stole the fire from Olympus and brought it back to earth in a fennel stack. In honor of this act, the Athenians instituted a race, during which runners of the same team passed between them a flaming torch until the last runner of the winning team had the privilege to use it to kindle the sacrificial fire on the altar of Athena on the Acropolis. This, of course, marked the origin of both relay races and the modern Olympic flame ceremony.
Humankind’s Punishment: Pandora and Her Jar
It was now Zeus’ turn to react and react he did: he tasked Hephaestus with molding a creature as beautiful and as devious as no mortal had ever seen before. Even the gods – all of whom had gifted this being with seductive gifts – were amazed when they saw the “beautiful evil” it embodied, the “sheer guile” of her appearance. This creature was Pandora, the very first woman in history: “of her,” writes Hesiod, “is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth.”
To make matters worse, soon after coming to Earth, Pandora was foolishly accepted by the afterthinking Epimetheus, against the better advice of his much smarter brother. Once this happened, Pandora promptly opened the jar she had brought with herself, and out of it all kinds of diseases and pains gushed forth, plaguing humanity ever since.
Prometheus’ Punishment: The Eagle
As gruesome as this punishment for humanity had been, it didn’t seem to alleviate Zeus’s anger. So, he decided to punish Prometheus as well. Once again, he was as cruel as one can be: he had the Titan chained to a rock in the Caucasus and sent an eagle to prey on him. Every day the eagle tore a part of Prometheus’ liver which grew back again during the night so that the unbearable torment could go on indefinitely.
Prometheus’ Secret
In addition to the theft of fire, Zeus had one more reason to be mad at Prometheus. Namely, being a Forethinker, Prometheus was the only one who knew the identity of the mortal woman Zeus wasn’t allowed to sleep with since it had been prophesized that the offspring of this marriage was destined to overthrow his father. And the Titan wasn’t interested in telling Zeus anything more than this for no reason whatsoever.
The Freeing of Prometheus
Neither Zeus nor Prometheus backed down in their hardheadedness for centuries.

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