Prometheus

Also known as: Prom. · Family: Titans · Role: god and benefactor of mankind · First appears: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound — Scene 1

Prometheus, also known as Prom, is a Titan, god, and benefactor of mankind. In the beginning, he was the son of Earth or Themis and supported Zeus, whose victory he helped secure with his counsels; he also joined Themis against Kronos, who was cast into Tartaros with his allies. After seeing the misery of mortals, Prometheus stole divine fire from Hephaestus and gave it to mankind, along with essential arts: “Allarts of mortals from Prometheus spring.”

For this deed, Zeus ordered Hephaestus, Strength, and Force to bind Prometheus to a rock, and they fastened him in adamantine chains at Skythia. Prometheus remained a prisoner beneath dreadful suffering, though he had made mortals cease contemplating death, given them blind hopes, and taught them through fire. Okeanos came as a friend offering help, while Prometheus urged him to accept him as a teacher and recognize the unchecked rule of Zeus. Prometheus was married to Hesione, and later spoke plainly with Io as a friend, explaining that Zeus’s love and Hera’s hatred caused her wanderings; he identified himself to her as “Prometheus who gave fire to men.”

Prometheus then revealed that Zeus would eventually lose his sovereignty through his own plans, and that one of Io’s descendants would free him, a royal descendant from Argos who would arise in the third generation after ten. When Hermes came as an enemy to demand the secret of Zeus’s overthrow, Prometheus refused: “There is no torture nor device by which Zeus can impel me to disclose these things Before these bonds that outrage me be loosed.” Hermes announced that Zeus would crush him and prolong his torment, and Zeus unleashed a violent storm of thunder, lightning, shaking earth, and swirling winds.