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Legends, Lore & Ancient Tales
MYTH OF THE MONTH
MYTH OF THE MONTH
Prometheus and Epimetheus
Prometheus and Epimetheus
There are many different beliefs on how the human race came to be, and it is only natural the Ancient Greeks had an opinion on the matter as well. Today I will be telling you about the myth of how animals and humans were created, and how Prometheus was punished for his desire to help the mortals of earth.
It all started with The Titanomachy. This was a series of battles fought over the span of ten years in Ancient Thessaly between the Gods and the Titans. Prometheus and Epimetheus were two titans, twin brothers and sons of the titan Iapetus, who betrayed the rest of their kind and joined the side of the Gods. The winning side. Once the war was won, instead of banishing the twins to Tartarus along with the other titans, Zeus gave Prometheus and Epimetheus a task. This task was to go down to earth and create creatures to live there. Just before he sent the two down from Olympus, Zeus gave Epimetheus gifts to bestow upon the creatures after they had been made.
Once down on earth, the brothers used river clay to sculpt their creations and Prometheus, being the more thoughtful of the brothers, took his time. Putting great care into how he made his creatures, human beings. Epimetheus on the other hand, was not so careful. He worked as fast as he could. Making as many creatures as he could as quickly as possible. Each time he finished a sculpture he would hand out one of Zeus’ gifts. He gave the creatures gifts of endurance and strength, acute senses of smell and sight, wings, claws, the ability to swim, protective scales and thick coats of fur. By the time Prometheus finished his first creation, his brother had already given away all of Zeus’ gifts. Leaving the humans defenceless and at a disadvantage compared to the gifted animals Epimetheus had sculpted. Zeus thought this was wonderful, and that these creatures could worship the gods and their powers since they had none. Prometheus thought his humans were more important than this, but kept quiet.
Zeus thought that now there were people to worship the Gods, they should be taught how to properly sacrifice and so he sent Prometheus back to earth. He instructed the Titan to tell the humans to always give the Gods the first pick of the most valuable items. Prometheus offered to show the humans how to sacrifice a bull, and Zeus agreed, but Prometheus was not planning on helping Zeus. He was planning on tricking him.
Prometheus told the humans to make two piles out of the bull once it was sacrificed. On one side, they placed all the healthy meat and warm skins, but buried it under horrible smelling guts. In the other pile, they placed the bones and cartilage and covered it in the fattiest meat. Once they were finished, Prometheus called Zeus down to choose his share. When presented with his options, Zeus was disgusted by the pile covered in innards, quickly chose the fatty meat and flew back to Olympus. However when Zeus uncovered the bones beneath all that fat, he was embarrassed and furious. He had been fooled.
Zeus knew that Prometheus cared deeply for the humans and so, to punish the Titan Zeus took away the humans' fire. By doing this he also took away their source of warmth and the ability to cook food.
When the moon rose and darkness eclipsed the sun, the humans suffered. They got horribly cold and Prometheus couldn’t stand watching his humans suffer. He would get the humans back their fire. Even if he had to steal it.
Secretly that night, Prometheus climbed up the side of Olympus and to the workshop of Hephaestus, God of blacksmiths and fire. Hephaestus’ workshop was a great forge, where the gods' weapons were made. Prometheus snuck over to the large hearth and stole an ember of the gods’ fire and stored it inside a hollow stalk of fennel. Safely he brought the stalk back down to earth and presented it to the humans. While he was there, he also taught them how to be strong. He taught them mathematics and architecture to build strong towns, he taught them astronomy and navigation and before long they could sail the seas. Prometheus taught them how to write, forge and create things that would last. They forged weapons and then they waged wars, they used trees to create boats and soon they spread all over the world.
Zeus was furious. Not only had Prometheus defied him, but he had taken away the humans' unyielding willingness to obey the gods without question, possibly forever. He captured Prometheus and had Hephaestus chain him to a cliff in unbreakable bonds. However, that wasn’t the worst part. Zeus then called upon a vulture who flew to Prometheus each day and pecked and clawed at his liver until nightfall when he would fly away. Since Prometheus was immortal, he would not die from this and each night his liver would regenerate. Each morning the vulture would return and continue to peck at his liver.
He stayed this way for many years until Heracles arrived and killed the vulture. He then asked his father Zeus to free Prometheus from the rock he was chained to so that he could help Heracles on one of his quests, and after a bit of bugging Zeus agreed to set him free. Prometheus’ torture was over.
Prometheus’ gift of fire and love for his creations was responsible for the rise and fall of civilizations and empires. Even today he is celebrated for bringing knowledge to the humans of earth.
Written by Claire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanomachy
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