The son of Iapetus and Clymene, he was an independent and radical visionary — in other words a total pain in Zeus’s ass. Prometheus was constantly pursuing his own private projects, attempting to stamp his genius upon the Universe. He was a rival to his brother Epimetheus in the creature creation game, finally coming up with the controversial but strangely popular homo sapiens.

As protector of mankind he was always keen to do the best for them. Which was much appreciated by the poor huddled mortals as life was extremely tough down there on the hard cold Earth.

But eventually he went too far. In a daring raid, he stole fire from the gods and brought it down to mankind. Who were amazed and delighted with — and slightly terrified by — this splendid new gift.

In Zeus’s eyes this illicit exporting of restricted items was the most terrible crime. Fire was for gods, not those squirming creatures. What if those pesky mortals used fire for evil? Rich nations have never been happy giving the developing world access to technology and a high standard of living.

The Lord of Olympus was furious, and dished out a terrible punishment. Don’t mention liver. Let’s just say Prometheus was chained to a rock with Bia’s patented God-bonds which only an immortal could break. He was left there to suffer agony and torment forever. Ewww and Ouch.

The punishment was supposed to last for all eternity. We ask you. Is that fair? What a terrible injustice. It’s just as well there was a reasonably happy ending when Chiron the Centaur came along...

Article last revised on September 05, 2018 by Rowan Allen.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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