The clever Titan Prometheus and his stupid brother Epimetheus were spared imprisonment in Tartarus because they had kept their neutrality in the war between the Olympians and the Titans. According to one tradition Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into the clay figure. Once man was created, however, Prometheus allowed his scatterbrained brother, Epimetheus, to dispense various qualities to the animals and man. So Epimetheus began by giving the best traits to the animals—swiftness, courage, cunning, stealth, and the like—and he wound up with nothing to give to man. So Prometheus took the matter in hand and gave man an upright posture like the gods. And this gift enabled him to survive.
Prometheus had little love for the Olympians, who had banished his fellow Titans to the depths of Tartarus. His primary affection was for man. Now man had to make animal sacrifices to the gods, but a certain portion of the animal was to be given to the gods and a certain portion to man. Zeus had to decide. So Prometheus made two piles. He wrapped the bones in juicy fat and he hid the meat under the ugly hide. Zeus chose the bones wrapped in fat, much to his anger.
In retaliation Zeus deprived man of fire. But Prometheus was not to be stopped. He went up to heaven and lighted his torch at the sun and carried it back to earth. Zeus was livid with rage when he saw that man had fire. He ordered that Hephaestus create a mortal of stunning beauty, and when Hephaestus had done so the gods gave this new creature many gifts. But Hermes gave it a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. This was the first woman, Pandora, and a worse calamity never befell man.
Prometheus had warned his brother Epimetheus about accepting gifts from Zeus. Yet when Epimetheus saw this radiant creature Pandora he could not resist her. She had brought with her a jar that she was forbidden to open. But being a woman, her curiosity won out. As she opened the lid a multitude of evils flew out and scattered over the world to afflict man. Still, there remained in the jar one consolation for man—Hope. With all the misery Pandora had unleashed hope was the only thing that could keep mankind going.
For Prometheus, Zeus reserved a special punishment. In addition to anger at the sacrifice trick and the theft of fire, Zeus knew that Prometheus held the secret of the god who would finally dethrone him. In defiance Prometheus would not tell the secret. Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock in the Caucasus, and every day he sent an eagle to peck out the Titan's liver, which grew back again every night. This agony was drawn out for ages. There were two conditions on which he could be released from the rock: first, that an immortal must suffer death for Prometheus, and, second, that a mortal must slay the eagle and unchain him. And in time the Centaur Chiron did agree to die for him, while Heracles killed the eagle and unbound him.
