Prometheus, same name was used by Latin authors.
Show NotesNotes:
1. Prometheus was a son of Iapetus and Clymene, the daughter of Ocean(Hesiod, Hyginus). Alternatively he was a son of Iapetus(Apollodorus, Apollonius Rhodius, Diodorus Siculus) and Asia(Apollodorus). Another version is that Themis or Gaea was his mother, also suggesting that she was one and the same goddess as she had many names(Aeschylus).
2. Prometheus had a son Deucalion(Apollodorus, Apollonius Rhodius, Hesiod) with Pronoea(Hesiod). Pyrrha was also the daughter of Prometheus(Clement), while other authors are mentioning her as the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora.
3. Prometheus was credited for creation of men. He was also known as the champions of mankind. But not all the myths are the same of how he made them and helped them. Prometheus created men with clay or with the mixture of water and earth(Hyginus, Fulgentius, Apollodorus, Ovid, Pausanias). Alternatively, gods made them of water and clay and assigned Prometheus and Epimetheus to equip them with positive traits(Plato).
4. It can also be told from the sources that Prometheus fancied the race of men. He really cared for them and taught them how to keep the fire alive when they first got it from the gods(Hyginus). Prometheus explained how he taught them to make remedies, how to read the future from dreams, their various modes of live, their mutual feuds and loves and instructed them into occult art among many other things(Aeschylus). And we also have the famous theft of fire, which is mentioned by all the authors. Mankind seemed to had fire before, but there was a dispute between Prometheus and Zeus when Zeus taught men to sacrifice the half part of the meat to the gods by throwing it to fire. However, Prometheus wanted for men to eat all the meat and at gathering of both gods and mankind, Prometheus tricked Zeus by sacrificing two bulls and placed all flesh in oxhide and the rest which were the bones he put in the hide dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat and told Zeus to pick one for himself. Zeus picked the one that looked better and would justify him being godly, although he was not feeling justice doing that. But in the end when the flesh was consumed, and bones that are everlasting like gods were burnt, he realised that Prometheus tricked him and therefore took away fire from mankind as therefore the flesh would not be so useful to men, if not cooked(Hesiod, Hyginus). Prometheus, when found out that all the traits have been used his brother on animals, stole Hepahestus` and Athena`s wisdom in arts and gave it to mankind and along with fire enable them to preserve their kind(Plato).
5. By almost all the authros, Prometheus was mentioned to be chained to a rock on Mount Caucasos, where Eagle is set to feed upon his immortal livers. But not all of them explain how and why he was chained there....Most of them, however, do state that Prometheus was chained there because of theft of fire. It seemed that this second trickery was not taken lightly by Zeus who then decided to punish him by chaining him to a rock for thirty-thousand years(Hyginus). He also punished mankind by creating Pandora that would release the horrors among mankind.
6. Prometheus was also prophetic as he saw the future. The most famous was his prophecy of Zeus being dethroned by his own heir, if he married Thetis(Apollodorus, Clement, Hyginus, Quintus Smyrnaeus, Aeschylus). There are different variations of the myth. One version, for example, Prometheus promised to tell Zeus of this prophecy if he was to release him and told him after being released from chains(Hyginus' Fables), alternatively it was just the opposite and Prometheus first told Zeus about this prophecy and was therefore released by Zeus as a token of gratitude. But not completely as he bound his finger with iron and stone and this was the reason why people wore rings as a memory to their champion Prometheus. Prometheus was said to had heard this prophecy from the Parcae or Fates(Hyginus' Astronimica). Another version is that Prometheus would tell Zeus about the prophecy if he was to release him, but instead Zeus sent Hermes to try persuading Prometheus and nothing happened(Aeschylus). Alternatively, Apollodorus Themis was the one who actually made this prophecy(Apollodorus).
7. There is more to the story above, how Prometheus was released. And many of the authors include Heracles for being his saviour, when he came to Mount Caucasos in his quest of the Apples of Hesperides. He shot down the eagle with his poisonous arrow amd released Prometheus in exchange for information of the garden`s whereabouts. However, in some cases, Heracles was only the saviour, killing the eagle with his arrow, but there was no mentioning about his labour.
8. Another prophecy was that his son Deucalion constructed a boat on Prometheus` advice, when Zeus was about to destroy the men of bronze age(Apollodorus). It does not say this is a prophecy directly, but Prometheus must had known what was about to happen, if he gave instructions to Deucalion to build a boat and provision it.
9. It was Prometheus who helped Zeus with the headache and when opened it with an axe, Athena jumped out(Appolodorus). However, the author himself said that some believed it was Hephaestus who helped Zeus.
- Aeschylus
- Apollodorus
- Apollonius Rhodius
- Claudian
- Clement
- Diodorus Siculus
- Fulgentius
- Hesiod
- Hyginus
- Nonnus
- Ovid
- Pausanias
- Plato
- Quintus Smyrnaeus
- Valerius Flaccus
AESCHYLUS, PROMETHEUS BOUND, translated by W. H. SMYTH (NOT THE WHOLE STORY)
(ENTER POWER AND FORCE, BRINGING WITH THEM THE CAPTIVE PROMETHEUS; ALSO HEPHAESTUS)
POWER: [82] There now, indulge your insolence, keep on wresting from the gods their honors to give them to creatures of a day. Are mortals able to lighten your load of sorrow? Falsely the gods call you Prometheus,1 for you yourself need forethought to free yourself from this handiwork.
PROMETHEUS: [88] O you bright sky of heaven, you swift-winged breezes, you river-waters, and infinite laughter of the waves of ocean, O universal mother Earth, and you, all-seeing orb of the sun, to you I call! See what I, a god, endure from the gods.
[94] Look, with what shameful torture I am racked and must wrestle throughout the countless years of time apportioned me. Such is the ignominious bondage the new commander of the blessed has devised against me. Woe! Woe! For present misery and misery to come I groan, not knowing where it is fated that deliverance from these sorrows shall arise.
[100] And yet, what am I saying? All that is to be I know full well and in advance, nor shall any affliction come upon me unforeseen. I must bear my allotted doom as lightly as I can, knowing that the might of Necessity permits no resistance.Yet I am not able to speak nor be silent about my fate. For it is because I bestowed good gifts on mortals that this miserable yoke of constraint has been bound upon me. I hunted out and stored in fennel stalk the stolen source of fire that has proved a teacher to mortals in every art and a means to mighty ends. Such is the offence for which I pay the penalty, riveted in fetters beneath the open sky.
[115] Ha! Behold! What murmur, what scent wings to me, its source invisible, heavenly or human, or both? Has someone come to this crag at the edge of the world to stare at my sufferings—or with what motive? Behold me, an ill-fated god, chained, the foe of Zeus, hated of all who enter the court of Zeus, because of my very great love for mankind. Ha! What's this? What may be this rustling stir of birds I hear again nearby? The air whirs with the light rush of wings. Whatever approaches causes me alarm. (AFTER CHAINING HIM, COMES THE DAUGHTERS OF OCEANUS)
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CHORUS (daughters of Oceanus): [196] Unfold the whole story and tell us upon what charge Zeus has caught you and painfully punishes you with such dishonor. Instruct us, unless, indeed, there is some harm in telling.
PROMETHEUS: [199] It is painful to me to tell the tale, painful to keep it silent. My case is unfortunate every way. When first the heavenly powers were moved to wrath, and mutual dissension was stirred up among them —some bent on casting Cronus from his seat so Zeus, in truth, might reign; others, eager for the contrary end, that Zeus might never win mastery over the gods—it was then that I, although advising them for the best, was unable to persuade the Titans, children of Heaven and Earth; but they, disdaining counsels of craft, in the pride of their strength thought to gain the mastery without a struggle and by force. Often my mother Themis, or Earth (though one form, she had many names), had foretold to me the way in which the future was fated to come to pass. That it was not by brute strength nor through violence, but by guile that those who should gain the upper hand were destined to prevail. And though I argued all this to them, they did not pay any attention to my words. With all that before me, it seemed best that, joining with my mother, I should place myself, a welcome volunteer, on the side of Zeus; and it is by reason of my counsel that the cavernous gloom of Tartarus now hides ancient Cronus and his allies within it. Thus I helped the tyrant of the gods and with this foul payment he has responded; for it is a disease that is somehow inherent in tyranny to have no faith in friends.
[228] However, you ask why he torments me, and this I will now make clear. As soon as he had seated himself upon his father's throne, he immediately assigned to the deities their several privileges and apportioned to them their proper powers. But of wretched mortals he took no notice, desiring to bring the whole race to an end and create a new one in its place. Against this purpose none dared make stand except me—I only had the courage; I saved mortals so that they did not descend, blasted utterly, to the house of Hades. This is why I am bent by such grievous tortures, painful to suffer, piteous to behold. I who gave mortals first place in my pity, I am deemed unworthy to win this pity for myself, but am in this way mercilessly disciplined, a spectacle that shames the glory of Zeus.
CHORUS: [244] Iron-hearted and made of stone, Prometheus, is he who feels no compassion at your miseries. For myself, I would not have desired to see them; and now that I see them, I am pained in my heart.
PROMETHEUS: [248] Yes, to my friends indeed I am a spectacle of pity.
CHORUS: [249] Did you perhaps transgress even somewhat beyond this offence?
PROMETHEUS: [250] Yes, I caused mortals to cease foreseeing their doom.
CHORUS: [251] Of what sort was the cure that you found for this affliction?
PROMETHEUS: [252] I caused blind hopes to dwell within their breasts.
CHORUS: [253] A great benefit was this you gave to mortals.
PROMETHEUS: [254] In addition, I gave them fire.
CHORUS: [255] What! Do creatures of a day now have flame-eyed fire?
PROMETHEUS: [256] Yes, and from it they shall learn many arts.
CHORUS: [257] Then it was on a charge like this that Zeus—
PROMETHEUS: [258] Torments me and in no way gives me respite from pain.
CHORUS: [259] And is there no end assigned to your ordeal?
PROMETHEUS: [260] No, none except when it seems good to him.
CHORUS: [261] But how will it seem good to him? What hope is there? Do you not see that you have wronged? And yet it is not pleasant for me to talk about how you have wronged, and for you it is pain. So, let us quit this theme; and may you seek some release from your ordeal.
PROMETHEUS: [265] It is easy for him who keeps his foot free from harm to counsel and admonish him who is in misery. I have known this all the while. Of my own will, yes, of my own will I erred—I will not deny it. By helping mortals I found suffering for myself; nevertheless I did not think I would be punished in this way—wasting away upon cliffs in mid-air, my portion this desolate and dreary crag. And now, bewail no more my present woes; alight on the ground and listen to my oncoming fortunes so that you may be told them from end to end. Consent, I beg you, oh consent. Take part in the trouble of him who is now in sore distress. In truth, affliction wanders impartially abroad and alights upon all in turn.
CHORUS: [279] Not to unwilling ears have you made this appeal, Prometheus. And so now with light foot I will quit my swift-speeding seat and the pure air, the pathway of birds and draw near to this rugged ground; for I want to hear the whole story of your sorrows.
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(OCEANUS ENTERS ON A WINGED STEED)
OCEANUS: [337] In truth, you are far better able to admonish others than yourself. It is by fact, not by hearsay, that I judge. So do not hold back one who is eager to go. For I am confident, yes, confident, that Zeus will grant me this favor, to free you from your sufferings.
PROMETHEUS : [342] I thank you for all this and shall never cease to thank you; in zeal you lack nothing, but do not trouble yourself; for your trouble will be vain and not helpful to me—if indeed you want to take the pain. No, keep quiet and keep yourself clear of harm. For even if I am in sore plight, I would not wish affliction on everyone else. No, certainly, no! since, besides, I am distressed by the fate of my brother Atlas, who, towards the west, stands bearing on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and earth, a burden not easy for his arms to grasp. Pity moved me, too, at the sight of the earth-born dweller of the Cilician caves curbed by violence, that destructive monster of a hundred heads, impetuous Typhon. He withstood all the gods, hissing out terror with horrid jaws, while from his eyes lightened a hideous glare, as though he would storm by force the sovereignty of Zeus. But the unsleeping bolt of Zeus came upon him, the swooping lightning brand with breath of flame, which struck him, frightened, from his loud-mouthed boasts; then, stricken to the very heart, he was burnt to ashes and his strength blasted from him by the lightning bolt. And now, a helpless and a sprawling bulk, he lies hard by the narrows of the sea, pressed down beneath the roots of Aetna; while on the topmost summit Hephaestus sits and hammers the molten ore. There, one day, shall burst forth rivers of fire, with savage jaws devouring the level fields of Sicily, land of fair fruit—such boiling rage shall Typho, although charred by the blazing lightning of Zeus, send spouting forth with hot jets of appalling, fire-breathing surge.
[375] But you are not inexperienced, and do not need me to teach you. Save yourself, as you know best; while I exhaust my present lot until the time comes when the mind of Zeus shall abandon its wrath.
OCEANUS: [379] Do you not know then, Prometheus, that words are the physicians of a disordered temper?
PROMETHEUS: [381] If one softens the soul in season, and does not hasten to reduce its swelling rage by violence.
OCEANUS: [383] What lurking mischief do you see when daring joins to zeal? Teach me this.
PROMETHEUS: [385] Lost labor and thoughtless simplicity.
OCEANUS: [386] Leave me to be affected by this, since it is most advantageous, when truly wise, to be deemed a fool.
PROMETHEUS: [388] This fault will be seen to be my own.
OCEANUS: [389] Clearly the manner of your speech orders me back home. (SOON AFTER OCEANUS EXITS)
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CHORUS: [399] I mourn your unfortunate fate, Prometheus. Shedding from my eyes a coursing flood of tears I wet my tender cheeks with their moist streams. For Zeus, holding this unenviable power by self-appointed laws, displays towards the gods of old an overweening spirit.
[407] Now the whole earth cries aloud in lamentation; . . . lament the greatness of the glory of your time-hallowed honor, the honor that was yours and your brother's; and all mortals who make their dwelling place in holy Asia share the anguish of your most lamentable suffering; and those who dwell in the land of Colchis, the maidens fearless in fight; and the Scythian multitude that inhabits the most remote region of the earth bordering the Maeotic lake; and the warlike flower of Arabia, which hold the high-cragged citadel near the Caucasus, a hostile host that roars among the sharp-pointed spears.
[425] One other Titan god before this I have seen in distress, enthralled in torment by adamantine bonds —Atlas, pre-eminent in mighty strength, who moans as he supports the vault of heaven on his back. The waves of the sea utter a cry as they fall, the deep laments, the black abyss of Hades rumbles in response, and the streams of pure-flowing rivers lament your piteous pain.
PROMETHEUS: [436] No, do not think it is from pride or even from wilfulness that I am silent. Painful thoughts devour my heart as I behold myself maltreated in this way. And yet who else but I definitely assigned their prerogatives to these upstart gods? But I do not speak of this; for my tale would tell you nothing except what you know. Still, listen to the miseries that beset mankind—how they were witless before and I made them have sense and endowed them with reason. I will not speak to upbraid mankind but to set forth the friendly purpose that inspired my blessing.
[447] First of all, though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but they did not understand ; but, just as shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. They had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but dwelt beneath the ground like swarming ants, in sunless caves. They had no sign either of winter or of flowery spring or of fruitful summer, on which they could depend but managed everything without judgment, until I taught them to discern the risings of the stars and their settings, which are difficult to distinguish.
[459] Yes, and numbers, too, chiefest of sciences, I invented for them, and the combining of letters, creative mother of the Muses' arts, with which to hold all things in memory. I, too, first brought brute beasts beneath the yoke to be subject to the collar and the pack-saddle, so that they might bear in men's stead their heaviest burdens; and to the chariot I harnessed horses and made them obedient to the rein, to be an image of wealth and luxury. It was I and no one else who invented the mariner's flaxen-winged car that roams the sea. Wretched that I am—such are the arts I devised for mankind, yet have myself no cunning means to rid me of my present suffering.
CHORUS: [472] You have suffered sorrow and humiliation. You have lost your wits and have gone astray; and, like an unskilled doctor, fallen ill, you lose heart and cannot discover by which remedies to cure your own disease.
PROMETHEUS: [477] Hear the rest and you shall wonder the more at the arts and resources I devised. This first and foremost: if ever man fell ill, there was no defence—no healing food, no ointment, nor any drink—but for lack of medicine they wasted away, until I showed them how to mix soothing remedies with which they now ward off all their disorders. And I marked out many ways by which they might read the future, and among dreams I first discerned which are destined to come true; and voices baffling interpretation I explained to them, and signs from chance meetings. The flight of crook-taloned birds I distinguished clearly—which by nature are auspicious, which sinister—their various modes of life, their mutual feuds and loves, and their consortings; and the smoothness of their entrails, and what color the gall must have to please the gods, also the speckled symmetry of the liver-lobe; and the thigh-bones, wrapped in fat, and the long chine I burned and initiated mankind into an occult art. Also I cleared their vision to discern signs from flames,which were obscure before this. Enough about these arts. Now as to the benefits to men that lay concealed beneath the earth—bronze, iron, silver, and gold—who would claim to have discovered them before me? No one, I know full well, unless he likes to babble idly. Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word—every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.
CHORUS: [507] Do not benefit mortals beyond reason and disregard your own distress; although, I am confident that you will be freed from these bonds and will have power in no way inferior to Zeus.
PROMETHEUS: [511] Not in this way is Fate, who brings all to fulfillment, destined to complete this course. Only when I have been bent by pangs and tortures infinite am I to escape my bondage. Skill is weaker by far than Necessity.
CHORUS: [515] Who then is the helmsman of Necessity?
PROMETHEUS: [516] The three-shaped Fates and mindful Furies.
CHORUS: [517] Can it be that Zeus has less power than they do?
PROMETHEUS: [518] Yes, in that even he cannot escape what is foretold.
CHORUS: [519] Why, what is fated for Zeus except to hold eternal sway?
PROMETHEUS: [520] This you must not learn yet; do not be over-eager.
CHORUS: [521] It is some solemn secret, surely, that you enshroud in mystery.
PROMETHEUS: [522] Think of some other subject, for it is not the proper time to speak of this. No matter what, this must be kept concealed; for it is by safeguarding it that I am to escape my dishonorable bonds and outrage.(AFTER FURTHER CONVERSATION, ENTER IO AND WANTS TO KNOW WHAT IS THIS AND WHO THEY ARE)
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PROMETHEUS: [609] I will tell you plainly all that you would like to know, not weaving riddles, but in simple language, since it is right to speak openly to friends. Look, I whom you see am Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind.
IO: [613] O you who have shown yourself a common benefactor of mankind, wretched Prometheus, why do you suffer so?
PROMETHEUS: [615] I have only just now finished lamenting my own calamities.
IO: [616] You will not then do this favor for me?
PROMETHEUS: [617] Say what it is you wish; for you can learn all from me.
IO: [618] Tell me who has bound you fast in this ravine.
PROMETHEUS: [619] Zeus by his will, Hephaestus by his hand.
IO: [620] And for what offence do you pay the penalty?
PROMETHEUS: [621] It suffices that I have made clear to you this much and no more.
IO: [622] No, also tell me the end of my wandering—what time is set for wretched me.
PROMETHUES: [624] It would be better not to know than to know, in your case.
IO: [625] I beg you, do not hide from me what I am doomed to suffer.
PROMETHUES: [626] No, it is not that I do not want to grant your request.
IO: [627] Why then your reluctance to tell me everything?
PROMETHUES: [628] I am not unwilling; but I hesitate to crush your spirit.
IO: [629] Do not be more kind to me than I myself desire.
PROMETHUES: [630] Since you insist, I must speak. Listen, then.
CHORUS: [631] No, not yet. Grant us too a portion of the pleasure. Let us first inquire the story of her affliction and let her with her own lips relate the events that brought horrid calamity upon her. Then let her be instructed by you as to the toils still to come.
PROMETHEUS: [635] It is for you, Io, to grant them this favor, especially since they are your father's sisters. For it is worthwhile to indulge in weeping and in wailing over evil fortunes when one is likely to win the tribute of a tear from the listener.
IO: [640] I do not know how to refuse you. You shall learn in truthful speech all that you would like to know. Yet I am ashamed to tell about the storm of calamity sent by Heaven, of the marring of my form, and of the source from which it swooped upon me, wretched that I am. (THEN SHE TELLS HER STORY...)
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PROMETHUES: [700] You gained your former request easily from me; for you first desired the story of her ordeal from her own lips. Hear now the sequel, the sufferings this maid is fated to endure at Hera's hand. And may you, daughter of Inachus, lay to heart my words so that you may learn the end of your wanderings.
[707] First, from this spot, turn yourself toward the rising sun and make your way over untilled plains; and you shall reach the Scythian nomads, who dwell in thatched houses, perched aloft on strong-wheeled wagons and are equipped with far-darting bows. Do not approach them, but keeping your feet near the rugged shore, where the sea breaks with a roar, pass on beyond their land. On the left hand dwell the workers in iron, the Chalybes, and you must beware of them, since they are savage and are not to be approached by strangers. Then you shall reach the river Hybristes, which does not belie its name. Do not cross this, for it is hard to cross, until you come to Caucasus itself, loftiest of mountains, where from its very brows the river pours out its might in fury. You must pass over its crests, which neighbor the stars, and enter upon a southward course, where you shall reach the host of the Amazons, who loathe all men. They shall in time to come inhabit Themiscyra on the Thermodon, where, fronting the sea, is Salmydessus' rugged jaw, evil host of mariners, step-mother of ships. The Amazons will gladly guide you on your way. Next, just at the narrow portals of the harbor, you shall reach the Cimmerian isthmus. This you must leave with stout heart and pass through the channel of Maeotis; and ever after among mankind there shall be great mention of your passing, and it shall be called after you the Bosporus. Then, leaving the soil of Europe, you shall come to the Asian continent.
[736] Does it not seem to you that the tyrant of the gods is violent in all his ways? For this god, desirous of union with this mortal maid, has imposed upon her these wanderings. Maiden, you have gained a cruel suitor for your hand. As to the tale you now have heard—understand that it has not even passed the introduction.
IO: [742] Ah me, ah me, alas!
PROMETHUES: [743] What! You are crying and groaning again? What will you do, I wonder, when you have learned the sufferings still in store for you?
CHORUS: [745] What! Can it be that you have sufferings still left to recount to her?
PROMETHEUS: [746] Yes, a tempestuous sea of calamitous distress.
IO: [747] What gain have I then in life? Why did I not hurl myself straightaway from this rugged rock, so that I was dashed to earth and freed from all my sufferings? It is better to die once and for all than linger out all my days in misery.
PROMETHUES: [753] Ah, you would hardly bear my agonies to whom it is not foredoomed to die; for death would have freed me from my sufferings. But now no limit to my tribulations has been appointed until Zeus is hurled from his sovereignty.
IO: [757] What! Shall Zeus one day be hurled from his dominion?
PROMETHEUS: [758] You would rejoice, I think, to see that happen.
IO: [759] Why not, since it is at the hand of Zeus that I suffer?
PROMETHEUS: [760] Then you may assure yourself that these things are true.
IO: [761] By whom shall he be despoiled of the sceptre of his sovereignty?
PROMETHEUS: [762] By himself and his own empty-headed purposes.
IO: [763] In what way? Oh tell me, if there be no harm in telling.
PROMETHEUS: [764] He shall make a marriage that shall one day cause him distress.
IO: [765] With a divinity or with a mortal? If it may be told, speak out.
PROMETHEUS: [766] Why ask with whom? I may not speak of this.
IO: [767] Is it by his consort that he shall be dethroned?
PROMETHEUS: [768] Yes, since she shall bear a son mightier than his father.
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(AFTER FURTHER CONVERSATION BETWEEN PROMETHEUS AND IO, HERMES ARRIVES, SENT BY ZEUS; WANTING TO KNOW OF WHAT MARRIAGE DOES PROMETHEUS SPEAK)
HERMES: [944] To you, the clever and crafty, bitter beyond all bitterness, who has sinned against the gods in bestowing honors upon creatures of a day—to you, thief of fire, I speak. The Father commands that you tell what marriage you boast of, whereby he is to be hurled from power—and this, mark well, set forth in no riddling fashion, but point by point, as the case exactly stands; and do not impose upon me a double journey, Prometheus—you see Zeus is not appeased by dealings such as yours.
PROMETHEUS: [953] Bravely spoken, in truth, and swollen with pride is your speech, as befits a minion of the gods. Young you are, as young your power, and you think indeed that you inhabit heights beyond the reach of grief. Have I not seen two sovereigns cast out from these heights? A third, the present lord, I shall live to see cast out in ruin most shameful and most swift. Do you think I quail, perhaps, and cower before these upstart gods? Far from it—no, not at all. But scurry back the way you came; for you shall learn nothing about which you question me.
HERMES: [964] Yet it was by such proud wilfulness before, too, that you brought yourself to this harbor of distress.
PROMETHEUS: [966] For your servitude, rest assured, I'd not barter my hard lot, not I.
HERMES: [967] Better, no doubt, to serve this rock than be the trusted messenger of Father Zeus!
PROMETHEUS: [970] Such is the proper style for the insolent to offer insult.
HERMES: [971] I think you revel in your present plight.
PROMETHEUS: [972] I revel? Oh, I wish that I might see my enemies revelling in this way! And you, too, I count among them.
HERMES: [974] What! You blame me in some way for your calamities?
PROMETHEUS: [975] In one word, I hate all the gods that received good at my hands and with ill requite me wrongfully.
HERMES: [977] Your words declare you stricken with no slight madness.
PROMETHEUS: [978] Mad I may be—if it is madness to loathe one's enemies.
HERMES: [979] You would be unbearable if you were prosperous.
PROMETHEUS: [980] Alas!
HERMES: [980] “Alas”? That is a word unknown to Zeus.
PROMETHEUS: [981] But ever-ageing Time teaches all things.
HERMES: [982] Yes, but you at least have not yet learned to keep a sober mind.
PROMETHEUS: [983] Or else I would not have addressed you, an underling.
HERMES:[984] It seems you will answer nothing that the Father demands.
PROMETHEUS: [985] Yes, truly, I am his debtor and I should repay favor to him.
HERMES: [986] You taunt me as though, indeed, I were a child.
PROMETHEUS: [987] And are you not a child and even more witless than a child if you expect to learn anything from me? There is no torment or device by which Zeus shall induce me to utter this until these injurious fetters are loosed. So then, let his blazing lightning be hurled, and with the white wings of the snow and thunders of earthquake let him confound the reeling world. For nothing of this shall bend my will even to tell at whose hands he is fated to be hurled from his sovereignty.
HERMES: [997] Look now whether this course seems to profit you.
PROMETHEUS: [998] Long ago has this my course been foreseen and resolved.
HERMES: [999] Bend your will, perverse fool, oh bend your will at last to wisdom in face of your present sufferings.
PROMETHEUS: [1001] In vain you trouble me, as though it were a wave you try to persuade. Never think that, through terror at the will of Zeus, I shall become womanish and, with hands upturned, aping woman's ways, shall importune my greatly hated enemy to release me from these bonds. I am far, far from that.
HERMES: [1007] I think that by speaking much I will only speak in vain; for you are not soothed nor are you softened by my entreaties. You take the bit in your teeth like a new-harnessed colt and struggle against the reins. Yet it is a paltry device that prompts your vehemence, for in the foolish-minded mere self-will of itself avails less than anything at all. But if you will not be won to belief by my words, think of what a tempest and a towering wave of woe shall break upon you past escape. First, the Father will shatter this jagged cliff with thunder and lightning-flame, and will entomb your frame, while the rock shall still hold you clasped in its embrace. But when you have completed a long stretch of time, you shall come back again to the light. Then indeed the winged hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle, coming an unbidden banqueter the whole day long, with savage appetite shall tear your body piecemeal into great rents and feast his fill upon your liver until it is black with gnawing.
[1026] Look for no term of this your agony until some god shall appear to take upon himself your woes and of his own free will descend into the sunless realm of Death and the dark deeps of Tartarus.
[1030] Therefore be advised, since this is no counterfeited vaunting but utter truth; for the mouth of Zeus does not know how to utter falsehood, but will bring to pass every word. May you consider warily and reflect, and never deem stubbornness better than wise counsel.
CHORUS: [1036] To us, at least, Hermes seems not to speak untimely; for he bids you to lay aside your stubbornness and seek the good counsel of wisdom. Be advised! It is shameful for the wise to persist in error.
PROMETHEUS: [1040] No news to me, in truth, is the message this fellow has proclaimed so noisily.Yet for enemy to suffer ill from enemy is no disgrace. Therefore let the lightning's forked curl be cast upon my head and let the sky be convulsed with thunder and the wrack of savage winds; let the hurricane shake the earth from its rooted base, and let the waves of the sea mingle with their savage surge the courses of the stars in heaven; and let him lift me on high and hurl me down to black Tartarus with the swirling floods of stern Necessity: do what he will, me he shall never bring to death.
HERMES: [1054] Such indeed are the thoughts and the words one hears from men deranged. Where does his prayer fall short of raving? Where does he abate his frenzy?—But, at all events, may you who sympathize with his anguish, withdraw in haste from this spot so that the relentless roar of the thunder does not stun your senses.
CHORUS: [1063] Use some other strain and urge me to some other course in which you are likely to convince me. This utterance in your flood of speech is, I think, past all endurance. How do you charge me to practise baseness? With him I am content to suffer any fate; for I have learned to detest traitors, and there is no pest I abhor more than this.
HERMES: [1071] Well then, bear my warning in memory and do not blame your fortune when you are caught in the toils of calamity; nor ever say that it was Zeus who cast you into suffering unforeseen. Not so, but blame yourselves. For well forewarned, and not suddenly or secretly shall you be entangled in the inextricable net of calamity by reason of your folly.
PROMETHEUS: [1080] Indeed, now it has passed from word to deed—the earth rocks, the echoing thunder-peal from the depths rolls roaring past me; the fiery wreathed lightning-flashes flare forth, and whirlwinds toss the swirling dust; the blasts of all the winds leap forth and set in hostile array their embattled strife; the sky is confounded with the deep. Behold, this stormy turmoil advances against me visibly, sent by Zeus to frighten me. O holy mother mine, O you firmament that revolves the common light of all, you see the wrongs I suffer!
(AMID THUNDER AND LIGHTNING PROMETHEUS VANISHES FROM SIGHT; AND WITH HIM DISAPPEAR THE DAUGHTERS OF OCEANUS(CHORUS).)
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 1, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[1.2.3] to Iapetus and Asia was born Atlas, who has the sky on his shoulders, and Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Menoetius, he whom Zeus in the battle with the Titans smote with a thunderbolt and hurled down to Tartarus.
[1.3.6] Zeus had intercourse with Metis, who turned into many shapes in order to avoid his embraces. When she was with child, Zeus, taking time by the forelock, swallowed her, because Earth said that, after giving birth to the maiden who was then in her womb, Metis would bear a son who should be the lord of heaven. From fear of that Zeus swallowed her. And when the time came for the birth to take place, Prometheus or, as others say, Hephaestus, smote the head of Zeus with an axe, and Athena, fully armed, leaped up from the top of his head at the river Triton.
[1.7.1] Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth and gave them also fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus, which is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Hercules afterwards released him, as we shall show in dealing with Hercules.
[1.7.2] And Prometheus had a son Deucalion. He reigning in the regions about Phthia, married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, the first woman fashioned by the gods. And when Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, Deucalion by the advice of Prometheus constructed a chest, and having stored it with provisions he embarked in it with Pyrrha. But Zeus by pouring heavy rain from heaven flooded the greater part of Greece, so that all men were destroyed, except a few who fled to the high mountains in the neighborhood. It was then that the mountains in Thessaly parted, and that all the world outside the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. But Deucalion, floating in the chest over the sea for nine days and as many nights, drifted to Parnassus, and there, when the rain ceased, he landed and sacrificed to Zeus, the god of Escape. And Zeus sent Hermes to him and allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to get men. And at the bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw them over his head, and the stones which Deucalion threw became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women. Hence people were called metaphorically people (laos) from laas, “a stone.” And Deucalion had children by Pyrrha, first Hellen, whose father some say was Zeus, and second Amphictyon, who reigned over Attica after Cranaus; and third a daughter Protogenia, who became the mother of Aethlius by Zeus.
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 2, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[2.5.4] ...Hercules shot an arrow at them, which, passing through the arm of Elatus, stuck in the knee of Chiron. Distressed at this, Hercules ran up to him, drew out the shaft, and applied a medicine which Chiron gave him. But the hurt proving incurable, Chiron retired to the cave and there he wished to die, but he could not, for he was immortal. However, Prometheus offered himself to Zeus to be immortal in his stead, and so Chiron died. The rest of the centaurs fled in different directions, and some came to Mount Malea, and Eurytion to Pholoe, and Nessus to the river Evenus.
[2.5.11] ...And passing by Arabia he slew Emathion, son of Tithonus, and journeying through Libya to the outer sea he received the goblet from the Sun. And having crossed to the opposite mainland he shot on the Caucasus the eagle, offspring of Echidna and Typhon, that was devouring the liver of Prometheus, and he released Prometheus, after choosing for himself the bond of olive, and to Zeus he presented Chiron, who, though immortal, consented to die in his stead. Now Prometheus had told Hercules not to go himself after the apples but to send Atlas, first relieving him of the burden of the sphere; so when he was come to Atlas in the land of the Hyperboreans, he took the advice and relieved Atlas. But when Atlas had received three apples from the Hesperides, he came to Hercules, and not wishing to support the sphere he said that he would himself carry the apples to Eurystheus, and bade Hercules hold up the sky in his stead. Hercules promised to do so, but succeeded by craft in putting it on Atlas instead. For at the advice of Prometheus he begged Atlas to hold up the sky till he should put a pad on his head. When Atlas heard that, he laid the apples down on the ground and took the sphere from Hercules. And so Hercules picked up the apples and departed. But some say that he did not get them from Atlas, but that he plucked the apples himself after killing the guardian snake. And having brought the apples he gave them to Eurystheus. But he, on receiving them, bestowed them on Hercules, from whom Athena got them and conveyed them back again; for it was not lawful that they should be laid down anywhere.
APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 3, translated by J. G. FRAZER
[3.13.5] Afterwards he married Thetis, daughter of Nereus, for whose hand Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals; but when Themis prophesied that the son born of Thetis would be mightier than his father, they withdrew. But some say that when Zeus was bent on gratifying his passion for her, Prometheus declared that the son borne to him by her would be lord of heaven; and others affirm that Thetis would not consort with Zeus because she had been brought up by Hera, and that Zeus in anger would marry her to a mortal.
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 2, translated by R. C. SEATON
[1245] And lo, as they sped on, a deep gulf of the sea was opened, and lo, the steep crags of the Caucasian mountains rose up, where, with his limbs bound upon the hard rocks by galling fetters of bronze, Prometheus fed with his liver an eagle that ever rushed back to its prey. High above the ship at even they saw it flying with a loud whirr, near the clouds; and yet it shook all the sails with the fanning of those huge wings. For it had not the form of a bird of the air but kept poising its long wing-feathers like polished oars. And not long after they heard the bitter cry of Prometheus as his liver was being torn away; and the air rang with his screams until they marked the ravening eagle rushing back from the mountain on the self-same track.
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 3, translated by R. C. SEATON
[841] Thereupon the handmaids were making ready the chariot; and Medea meanwhile took from the hollow casket a charm which men say is called the charm of Prometheus. If a man should anoint his body therewithal, having first appeased the Maiden, the only-begotten, with sacrifice by night, surely that man could not be wounded by the stroke of bronze nor would he flinch from blazing fire; but for that day he would prove superior both in prowess and in might. It shot up first- born when the ravening eagle on the rugged flanks of Caucasus let drip to the earth the blood-like ichor of tortured Prometheus.
[1085] There is a land encircled by lofty mountains, rich in sheep and in pasture, where Prometheus, son of Iapetus, begat goodly Deucalion, who first founded cities and reared temples to the immortal gods, and first ruled over men. This land the neighbours who dwell around call Haemonia. And in it stands Iolcus, my city, and in it many others, where they have not so much as heard the name of the Aeaean isle;
CLAUDIAN, GIGANTOMACHIA, translated by M. PLATNAUER
[14] Children, ye shall conquer heaven: all that ye see is the prize of victory; win, and the universe is yours. At last shall Saturn’s son feel the weight of my wrath; shall recognize Earth’s power. What! can any force conquer me? Has Cybele born sons superior to mine? Why has Earth no honour? Why is she ever condemned to bitter loss? Has any form of injury passed me by? There hangs luckless Prometheus in yon Scythian vale, feeding the vulture on his living breast; yonder, Atlas supports the weight of the starry heavens upon his head, and his grey hair is frozen stiff with cruel cold.
CLEMENT, RECOGNITIONS, Book 10, translated by REV. THOMAS SMITH
CHAPTER 20 - DOINGS OF JUPITER - Again Jupiter produced Minerva from his brain, and Bacchus from his thigh. After this, when he had fallen in love with Thetis, they say that Prometheus informed him that, if he lay with her, he who should be born of her should be more powerful than his father; and for fear of this, he gave her in marriage to one Peleus.
CHAPTER 21 - A BLACK CATALOGUE - Pyrrha, the daughter of Prometheus
DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 4, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER
[4.15.2] And Zeus, when Prometheus had taken fire and given it to men, put him in chains and set an eagle at his side which devoured hi liver. But when Heracles saw him suffering such punishment because of the benefit which he had conferred upon men, he killed the eagle with an arrow, and then persuading Zeus to cease from his anger he rescued him who had been the benefactor of all.
DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 5, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER
[5.67.2] To Coeus and Phoebê was born Leto, and to Iapetus was born Prometheus, of whom tradition tells us, as some writers of myths record, that he stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind, though the truth is that he was the discoverer of those things which give forth fire and from which it may be kindled.
FULGENTIUS, MYTHOLOGIES, Book 2, translated by L. G. WHITBREAD
[2.6] No protection was sought across the lands of earth until stealing finally reached heaven; there, there was absence of silver or gold, but flame could be stolen. They say that Prometheus made man of clay, but made him without soul or feeling. Minerva in her admiration pledged this office, that if there were anything he desired by way of heavenly gifts, he might ask it to assist his task; if it were possible she would carry him up to the gods and thereafter, if he saw anything suitable for his pottery shop, he might be the more readily taken for a sharp-eyed judge in the matter. She brought away the workman, bearing him up to the sky between the folds of her seven-coated shield; and when he saw all the heavenly substance of life stirred up in flaming vapors, he secretly attached a stick of fennel to the wheels of Phoebus’s chariot and stole some fire; implanting this in the puny breast of man he gave his body life. Thus they describe how he was bound and endlessly exposed his liver to a vulture. And although Nicagorus, in the book he wrote called Distemistea, describes how he first gave rise to the image and explains the exposing of his liver to the vulture as a representation of spite, compare also Petronius Arbiter, who says:
The vulture picks over the liver within him and probes the breast and the intestines;
But this is not he whom lukewarm poets name, but spite and debauchery in the heart;
So too Aritoxenus in the book he wrote called Lindosecemarium makes a similar suggestion. Yet I take Prrometheus to be for pronianeu which in Latin we call divine foresight. By such divine foresight, and Minerva as heavenly wisdom, man was made and the divine fire they wanted they explain to us as the soul divinely inspired, which according to the pagans is said to be taken from the skies. The liver which Prometheus exposes to the vulture is what we call the heart, because no small number of philosophers have declared that wisdom dwells in the heart, whereby Juvenal says: “The rustic youth feels no flutter in his left breast.” Thus they explain the vulture as an allegory of the world, because the world is both impelled by a sudden swift flight and fed with an endless supply of corpses and the newly born. Thus is fed and sustained the wisdom of divine providence, which cannot have an end to itself, nor can the world in any way cease from such food. Then it is told how Pandora was fashioned, for Pandora is the Greek for the gift of all, because the soul is universally bestowed on all.
HESIOD, CATALOGUES OF WOMEN, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iii. 1086:
That Deucalion was the son of Prometheus and Pronoea, Hesiod states in the first Catalogue, as also that Hellen was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha.
HESIOD, THEOGONY, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[507] Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready-witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction -- not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honoured his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of Cronos.
[545] For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of gods said to him: “Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!”
[545] So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick: “Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids. So he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief against mortal men which also was to be fulfilled. With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly vexed and said to him: “Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!”
[560] So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the Melian race of mortal men who live on the earth. But the noble son of Iapetus outwitted him and stole the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk. And Zeus who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was angered when he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire. Forthwith he made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous Limping God formed of earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of Cronos willed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she spread with her hands a broidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene, put about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God made himself and worked with his own hands as a favour to Zeus his father. On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it, wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty shone out from it.
[585] But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men. For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her 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. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies – even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be healed.
[613] So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped his heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he knew many a wile.
HESIOD, WORKS AND DAYS, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
[42] For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger:
[54] Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire -- a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.
[60] So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.
[69] So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora (All Endowed), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.
[83] But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood.
HYGINUS, ASTRONOMICA, translated by MARY GRANT
[2.15.1] ARROW - This arrow, they say, is one of the weapons of Hercules, with which he is said to have killed the eagle which ate the liver of Prometheus. It seems not unprofitable to speak of Prometheus at greater length. When the men of old with great ceremony used to carry on the sacrificial rites of the immortal gods, they would burn the victims entire in the flame of the sacrifice. And so, when the poor were prevented from making sacrifices on account of the great expense, Prometheus, who with his wonderful wisdom is thought to have made men, by his pleading is said to have obtained permission from Jove for them to cast only a part of the victim into the fire, and to use the rest for their own food. This practice custom later established. Since he had obtained this permission, not as from a covetous man, but easily, as from a god, Prometheus himself sacrifices two bulls. When he had first placed their entrails on the altar, he put the remaining flesh of the two bulls in one heap, covering it with an oxhide. Whatever bones there were he covered with the other skin and put it down between them, offering Jove the choice of either part for himself. Jupiter, although he didn’t act with divine forethought, nor as a god who ought to foresee everything, was deceived by Prometheus - sine we have started to believe the tale! - and thinking each part was a bull, shoe the bones for his half. And so after this, in solemn rites and sacrifices, when the flesh of victims has been consumed, they burn with fire the remaining parts which are the gods.
[2.15.2] But, to come back to the subject, Jupiter, when he realized what had been done, in anger took fire from mortals, lest the favour of Prometheus should seem to have more weight than the power of the gods, and that uncooked flesh should not be useful to men. Prometheus, however, who was accustomed to scheming, planned by his own efforts to bring back the fire that had been taken from men. So, when the others were away, he approached the fire of Jove, and with a small bit of this shut in a fennel-stalk he came joyfully, seeming to fly, not to run, tossing the stalk so that the air shut in with its vapours should not put out the flame in so narrow a space. Up to this time, then, men who bring good news usually come with speed. In the rivalry of the games they also make it a practice for the runners to run, shaking torches after the manner of Prometheus.
[2.15.3] In return for this deed, Jupiter, to confer a like favour on men, gave a woman to them, fashioned by Vulcan, and endowed with all kinds of gifts by the will of the gods. For this reason she was called Pandora. But Prometheus he bound with an iron chain to a mountain in Scythia named Caucasus for thirty thousand years, as Aeschylus, writer of tragedies, says. Then, too, he sent an eagle to him to eat out his liver which was constantly renewed at night. Some have said that this eagle was born from Typhon and Echidna, other from Terra and Tartarus, but many point out it was made by the hands of Vulcan and given life by Jove.
[2.15.4] The following reason for the release of Prometheus has been handed down. When Jupiter, moved by the beauty of Thetis, sought her in marriage, he couldn’t win the consent of the timid maiden, but none the less kept planning to bring it about. At that time the Parcae were said to have prophesied what the natural order of events should be. They said that the son of Thetis’ husband, whoever he might be, would be more famous than his father. Prometheus heard this as he kept watch, not from inclination but from necessity, and reported it to Jove. He, fearing that what he had done to his father Saturn in a similar situation, would happened to him, namely, that he would be robbed of his power, gave up by necessity his desire to wed Thetis, and out of gratitude to Prometheus thanked him and freed him from his chains. But he didn’t go so far as to free him from all binding, since he had sworn to that, but for commemoration bade him bind his finger with the two things, namely, with stone and with iron. Following this practice men have rings fashioned of stone and iron, that they may seem to be appeasing Prometheus. Some also have said that he wore a wreath, as if to claim that he as victor had sinned without punishment. And so men began the practice of wearing wreaths at times of great rejoicing and victory. You may observe this in sports and banquets.
[2.15.5] But to come back to the beginning of the inquiry and the death of the eagle. Hercules, when sent by Eurystheus for the apples of the Hesperides, out of ignorance of the way came to Prometheus, who was bound on Mount Caucasus, as we have shown above. When victor, he returned to Prometheus to tell him that that dragon we have mentioned was slain, and to thank him for his kindness since he had pointed out the way. Straightway he gave what honour he could to the one that deserved it, for [he killed the eagle?] and since it was slain, men began, when victims were sacrificed, to offer livers on the altars of the gods to satisfy them in place of the liver of Prometheus.
[2.15.6] Eratosthenes says about the Arrow, that with this Apollo killed the Cyclopes who forged the thunderbolt by which Aesculapius died. Apollo had buried this arrow in the Hyperborean mountain, but when Jupiter pardoned his son, it was borne by the wind and brought to Apollo along with the grain which at that time was growing. Many point out that for this reason it is among the constellations.
[2.42.1] PLANETS - It remains for us to speak of the five stars which many have called “wandering,” and which the Greeks called planets. One of them is the star of Jove, Phaenon by name, a youth whom Prometheus made excelling all others in beauty, when he was making man, as Heraclides Ponticus says. When he intended to keep him back, without presenting him to Jove as he did the others, Cupid reported this to Jove, whereupon Mercury was sent to Phaenon and persuaded him to come to Jove and become immortal. Therefore he is placed among the stars.
HYGINUS, FABULAE, translated by MARY GRANT
From Iapetus and Clymene, Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus.
Fable [54] - LIV. THETIS - A prediction about Thetis, the Nereid, was that her son would be greater than his father. Since no one but Prometheus knew this, and Jove wished to lie with her, Prometheus promised Jove that he would give him timely warning if he would free him from his chains. And so when the promise was given he advised Jove not to lie with Thetis, for if one greater than he were born he might drive Jove from his kingdom, as he himself had done to Saturn. And so Thetis was given in marriage to Peleus, son of Aeacus, and Hercules was sent to kill the eagle which was eating out Prometheus’ heart. When it was killed, Prometheus after thirty thousand years was freed from Mount Caucasus.
Fable [142] - PANDORA - Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first fashioned men from clay. Later Vulcan, at Jove’s command, made a woman’s form from clay. Minerva gave it life, and the rest of the gods each gave come other gift. Because of this they named her Pandora. She was given in marriage to Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus. Pyrrha was her daughter, and was said to be the first mortal born.
Fable - [144] - PROMETHEUS - Men in early times sought fire from the gods, and did not know how to keep it alive. Later Prometheus brought it to earth in a fennel-stalk, and showed men how to keep it covered over with ashes. Because of this, Mercury, at Jove’s command, bound him with iron spikes to a cliff on Mount Caucasus, and set an eagle to eat out his heart; as much as it devoured in the day, so much grew again at night. After 30,000 years Hercules killed this eagle and freed Prometheus.
NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 2, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE
[295] I will keep the chains of Iapetos for Poseidon; and soaring round Caucasos, another and better eagle shall tear the bleeding liver, growing for ever anew, of Hephaistos the fiery: since fire was that for which Prometheus has been suffering the ravages of his self-growing liver.
[572] The throne of Olympos awaits you: accept the robes and sceptre of Zeus, God-defying Typhoeus! Bring back Astraios to heaven; if you wish, let Eurynome and Ophion return to the sky, and Cronos in the train of that pair! When you enter the dappleback vault of highranging stars, let crafty Prometheus leave his chains, and come with you; the bold bird who makes hearty meals off that rejuvenescent liver shall show him the way to heaven.
NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 7, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE
[55] But (some may say) a medicine has been planted to make long-suffering mortals forget their troubles, to save their lives. Would that Pandora had never opened the heavenly cover of that jar – she the sweet bane of mankind! Nay, Prometheus himself is the cause of man’s misery – Prometheus who cares for poor mortals! Instead of fire which is the beginning of all evil he ought rather to have stolen sweet nectar, which rejoices the heart of the gods, and given that to men, that he might have scattered the sorrows of the world with your own drink. But never mind the cares of the tempest-tossed life, just consider your own ceremonials brought to sadness. Are you pleased at the empty vapour of the burnt-offering that strays without libation?
OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 1, translated by BROOKES MORE
[76] But one more perfect and more sanctified, a being capable of lofty thought, intelligent to rule, was wanting still man was created! Did the Unknown God designing then a better world make man of seed divine? or did Prometheus take the new soil of earth (that still contained some godly element of Heaven's Life) and use it to create the race of man; first mingling it with water of new streams; so that his new creation, upright man, was made in image of commanding Gods? On earth the brute creation bends its gaze, but man was given a lofty countenance and was commanded to behold the skies; and with an upright face may view the stars:—and so it was that shapeless clay put on the form of man till then unknown to earth.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 1, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[1.30.2] In the Academy is an altar to Prometheus, and from it they run to the city carrying burning torches. The contest is while running to keep the torch still alight; if the torch of the first runner goes out, he has no longer any claim to victory, but the second runner has. If his torch also goes out, then the third man is the victor. If all the torches go out, no one is left to be winner. There is an altar to the Muses, and another to Hermes, and one within to Athena, and they have built one to Heracles. There is also an olive tree, accounted to be the second that appeared.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 2, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[2.19.5] Here is dedicated the throne of Danaus, and here Is placed a statue of Biton, in the form of a man carrying a bull on his shoulders. According to the poet Lyceas, when the Argives were holding a sacrifice to Zeus at Nemea, Biton by sheer physical strength took up a bull and carried it there. Next to this statue is a fire which they keep burning, calling it the fire of Phoroneus. For they do not admit that fire was given to mankind by Prometheus, but insist in assigning the discovery of fire to Phoroneus.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 5, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[5.11.6] Hippodameia the daughter of Oenomaus with her mother, and Prometheus still held by his chains, though Heracles has been raised up to him. For among the stories told about Heracles is one that he killed the eagle which tormented Prometheus in the Caucasus, and set free Prometheus himself from his chains. Last in the picture come Penthesileia giving up the ghost and Achilles supporting her; two Hesperides are carrying the apples, the keeping of which, legend says, had been entrusted to them. This Panaenus was a brother of Pheidias; he also painted the picture of the battle of Marathon in the painted portico at Athens.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 9, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[9.25.6] But there is nothing to prevent my declaring to all what the Thebans say was the origin of the ritual. They say that once there was in this place a city, with inhabitants called Cabeiri; and that Demeter came to know Prometheus, one of the Cabeiri, and Aetnaelis his son, and entrusted something to their keeping. What was entrusted to them, and what happened to it, seemed to me a sin to put into writing, but at any rate the rites are a gift of Demeter to the Cabeiri.
PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 10, translated by W. H. S. JONES
[10.4.4] At Panopeus there is by the roadside a small building of unburnt brick, in which is an image of Pentelic marble, said by some to be Asclepius, by others Prometheus. The latter produce evidence of their contention. At the ravine there lie two stones, each of which is big enough to fill a cart. They have the color of clay, not earthy clay, but such as would be found in a ravine or sandy torrent, and they smell very like the skin of a man. They say that these are remains of the clay out of which the whole race of mankind was fashioned by Prometheus.
PLATO, PROTAGORAS, Volume 3, translated by W. HEINEMANN
[320c] do not grudge us your demonstration. No, Socrates, I will not grudge it you; but shall I, as an old man speaking to his juniors, put my demonstration in the form of a fable, or of a regular exposition? Many of the company sitting by him instantly bade him treat his subject whichever way he pleased. Well then, he said, I fancy the more agreeable way is for me to tell you a fable. There was once a time when there were gods, but no mortal creatures.
[320d] And when to these also came their destined time to be created, the gods moulded their forms within the earth, of a mixture made of earth and fire and all substances that are compounded with fire and earth. When they were about to bring these creatures to light, they charged Prometheus and Epimetheus to deal to each the equipment of his proper faculty. Epimetheus besought Prometheus that he might do the dealing himself; “And when I have dealt,” he said, “you shall examine.”
[320e] Having thus persuaded him he dealt; and in dealing he attached strength without speed; to some, while the weaker he equipped with speed; and some he armed, while devising for others, along with an unarmed condition, some different faculty for preservation. To those which he invested with smallness he dealt a winged escape or an underground habitation; those which he increased in largeness he preserved
[321a] by this very means; and he dealt all the other properties on this plan of compensation. In contriving all this he was taking precaution that no kind should be extinguished; and when he had equipped them with avoidances of mutual destruction, he devised a provision against the seasons ordained by Heaven, in clothing them about with thick-set hair and solid hides, sufficient to ward off winter yet able to shield them also from the heats, and so that on going to their lairs they might find in these same things a bedding of their own that was native to each; and some he shod with hoofs,
[321b] others with claws and solid, bloodless hides. Then he proceeded to furnish each of them with its proper food, some with pasture of the earth, others with fruits of trees, and others again with roots; and to a certain number for food he gave other creatures to devour: to some he attached a paucity in breeding, and to others, which were being consumed by these, a plenteous brood, and so procured survival of their kind. Now Epimetheus, being not so wise as he might be,
[321c] heedlessly squandered his stock of properties on the brutes; he still had left unequipped the race of men, and was at a loss what to do with it. As he was casting about, Prometheus arrived to examine his distribution, and saw that whereas the other creatures were fully and suitably provided, man was naked, unshod, unbedded, unarmed; and already the destined day was come, whereon man like the rest should emerge from earth to light. Then Prometheus, in his perplexity as to what preservation he could devise for man, stole from Hephaestus and Athena wisdom in the arts
[321d] together with fire—since by no means without fire could it be acquired or helpfully used by any—and he handed it there and then as a gift to man. Now although man acquired in this way the wisdom of daily life, civic wisdom he had not, since this was in the possession of Zeus; Prometheus could not make so free as to enter the citadel which is the dwelling-place of Zeus, and moreover the guards of Zeus were terrible: but he entered unobserved the building shared by Athena and Hephaestus
[321e] for the pursuit of their arts, and stealing Hephaestus's fiery art and all Athena's also he gave them to man, and hence it is
[322a] that man gets facility for his livelihood, but Prometheus, through Epimetheus' fault, later on (the story goes) stood his trial for theft.
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS, FALL OF TROY, Book 5, translated by A. S. WAY
[394] Against the wise Prometheus bitter-wroth the Sea-maids were, remembering how that Zeus, moved by his prophecies, unto Peleus gave Thetis to wife, a most unwilling bride. Then cried in wrath to these Cymothoe: O that the pestilent prophet had endured all pangs he merited, when, deep-burrowing, the eagle tare his liver aye renewed!
QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS, FALL OF TROY, Book 6, translated by A. S. WAY
[289] And there, a dread sight even for Gods to see, was Cerberus, whom the Loathly Worm had borne to Typho in a craggy cavern's gloom close on the borders of Eternal Night, a hideous monster, warder of the Gate of Hades, Home of Wailing, jailer-hound of dead folk in the shadowy Gulf of Doom. But lightly Zeus' son with his crashing blows tamed him, and haled him from the cataract flood of Styx, with heavy-drooping head, and dragged the Dog sore loth to the strange upper air all dauntlessly. And there, at the world's end, were Caucasus' long glens, where Hercules, rending Prometheus' chains, and hurling them this way and that with fragments of the rock whereinto they were riveted, set free the mighty Titan. Arrow-smitten lay the Eagle of the Torment therebeside.
VALERIUS FLACCUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 4, translated by J. H. MOZLEY
[68] Even as he spoke, from the crags amidst the very ravening of the dreadful vulture Prometheus too himself besets Jove with groans and piteous pleas, uplifting eyes that the cruel frosts have seared; the rivers and rocks of Caucasus redouble the loud complaint; the bird itself is amazed at the clamour of the god. Then too from Acheron up to heaven’s heights is heard the cry of Iapetus himself; sternly, as he pleads, does Erinnys thrust him aside, looking to the law of lofty Jove.
VALERIUS FLACCUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 7, translated by J. H. MOZLEY
[355] Then she[Medea] girds up her robe and takes forth a Caucasian herb, of potency sure beyond all others, sprung of the gore that dropped from the liver of Prometheus, and grass wind-nurtured, fostered and strengthened by that blood divine among snows and grisly frosts, when the vulture rises from his feasting on the flesh and from his open beak bedews the cliffs.