Prometheus and the creation of mankind
According to Hesiod, Prometheus, though a Titan, was one of the few to support Zeus in his fight against Cronus. Prometheus was unusual, he took the side of Zeus, not for glory or personal gain but because he was opposed to the dictatorship of Cronus. After Zeus’s victory Prometheus asked as his reward the freedom of his brother the Titan Epimetheus.
After the second war, this time against the Giants and after sharing the world with his brothers, sisters and others, Zeus decided to give life on Earth, in the oceans and also to create death as the Underworld as well needed to be populated. He asked Prometheus to take care of this task, requesting that each species should have means of survival.
For an obscure reason Prometheus delegated this mission to his brother Epimetheus. Unfortunately Epimetheus was just as disorganised as his brother was methodical. So he started distributing defensive and attacking means of survival to each species : claws, poisonous tail, sharp teeth, speed, camouflage skin, venom …..
But at the end of the task, Epimetheus realised that nothing was left for the last living creature : the men. In a panic, he asked his brother Prometheus for help.
Prometheus felt so sorry for the human race as they were so fragile and vulnerable.
Prometheus and the theft of fire
Prometheus decided to help : he climbed up on Mount Olympus and stole the fire from Hephaestus’ workshop, put it in a hollow reed and gifted it to the humans. This way, humans could create fire, warm up and make tools.
Zeus stormed into a terrifying fury against Prometheus.
An outrage towards the gods
Moreover Prometheus taught the men how to trick the gods.
He showed them how to make sacrifices to honour the gods.
He killed a beef and divided the meat. On one plate he put the organs, the intestines, the liver …..under a layer of a thin white fat mixed with deliciously odorous herbs and on the other plate he put the best meat under the smelly beef’s skin. Then he asked Zeus to choose which plate he would want the men to do their offerings.
Zeus of course chose the wrong plate. And he
became hysterical when he realised that Prometheus had tricked him, had made him a fool, had disgraced him, had insulted him, had stolen from him.
He decided to take his revenge first from the men.
As the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod depicted : “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”….
Prometheus, starting to get worried about the ire of Zeus, decided to assemble in a box all the problems, sicknesses, torments that could harm the human creatures and locked them all in a solid sealed box which he asked Epimetheus to hide in his house for him. He made Epimetheus sworn never to open the box and made him promised never to accept a gift from Zeus.
The Suffering of Prometheus
Zeus was determined to punish Prometheus . He sent him to a high mountain, the Mount Caucasus, and chained him on a rock with thick chains made by the smith god, Hephaestus. And every day, Zeus would send an eagle that devoured Prometheus’ liver.
Zeus asked repeatedly where the box with all the sufferings was hidden as he wanted to spread them on the men to take his revenge on them. But Prometheus never gave in, demonstrating to the men their first example of fighting against injustice and tyranny.
For thirty years Prometheus remained bound with his liver eaten alive , until the great hero Hercules, Zeus’ demigod son, released him finally from his torment.
Pandora the First Woman
While Prometheus was being tortured , Zeus decided to take vengeance on mankind . He ordered Hephaestus to create the first human woman out of soil and water, this creature,he thought would be more disastrous for the men as all the torments hidden by Prometheus.
The evil thing meant to punish the men was the creation of the first woman Pandora, made by Hephaestus with the help of his beautiful and witty wife Aphrodite.
Each god gave the woman a gift: Athena gave her wisdom, Aphrodite beauty, Hermes wit and so on. The name of the woman was Pandora (meaning “all gifts” in Greek).
Zeus sent her to Prometheus’ brother, Epimetheus who immediately felt passionately in love and forgot his promise about never accepting a present from Zeus.
Prometheus had vehemently warned his brother not to accept any gifts from Zeus. However, the now madly in love Epimetheus accepted Pandora, the gift from Zeus.
Pandora’s Box
Pandora soon discovered the hidden box of torments. Although she tried her best to resist the temptation, she finally opened the box and all the evils upon the world scrambled away , now free to roam and to torture the mankind. Hatred, war, death, hunger, sickness, envy, jealousy, greediness and all the disasters were immediately released.
But in this box, the wise Prometheus had also hidden the only antidote for all these torments, the only universal remedy for all these sufferings : Hope.
And from this dark day that is what has kept the human race going on.
Hope is our single force.