Prometheus #atozchallenge

*minor language advisory
P - One of the most fascinating characters to come from the Greek era is Prometheus. This Titan is one of humanities' greatest allies. He is also a very intelligent and cunning character in the Greek tradition, which has led to a bit of a fascination with Prometheus by scholars around the world. Some of the most recognized names from the classical era - Hesiod, Homer, Plato, and Pythagoras - all explored the various myths surrounding Prometheus.

Prometheus Bound.

When the Greek gods destroyed the Titans, Prometheus was one of the fortunate few who managed to escape that fate. He opted out of the great battle, which saved his life. But that didn't exactly endear him to the Greek gods. Nor did his fascination with irritating Zeus. As a result of these issues, Prometheus and Zeus clashed often.

Prometheus is credited with the creation of humans from clay, which probably didn't earn him any points with Zeus to begin with. From there, Prometheus pulled one over on the gods during a feast and set two choices in front of Zeus. One was meat stashed inside the stomach of an animal. The second were bones covered with fat. Zeus chose the bones, which led the humans to believe the gods preferred sacrifices of bones and fat. That wasn't the case, and it pissed Zeus off.

Naturally, Zeus decided the humans had to pay for their ignorance, so he withheld fire from them. Without the ability to warm themselves, cook, or even protect themselves in the darkness, humanity began to fail.

Prometheus found this particularly irksome since he'd created these amazing people and viewed them almost as his children. So he crept into Olympus and stole fire from the Gods, which he then handed over to humanity in direct defiance of Zeus's warning. 

If Zeus was pissed before, this not-so-little act by Prometheus absolutely infuriated the God. So he sent Pandora to earth with her box of unpleasantness. Prometheus had been told this was happening, so he warned the humans. But we aren't always the brights bulbs in the box. Epimetheus accepted the box, and then opened it. Some pretty gnarly things escaped to plague humanity before Pandora was able to shut it again. Despite the awfulness now ravaging humanity, people didn't lose hope because they still had foresight (aka Prometheus) on their side.

Think Zeus was thrilled about the way humanity pinned their hopes and faith on the Titan?

Of course not!

In another display of fury, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock on the Kazbek Mountain in Europe. Zeus then sent an eagle to eat the liver of Prometheus. Because the Titan was immortal, he felt every moment of the horrible pain. To make matters worse, because of that immortality, Prometheus's liver regenerated each night, pretty much guaranteeing his punishment would last for eternity. Thanks to Hercules, that part of Prometheus's punishment didn't play out like planned... the hero rescued Prometheus during one of his trials. 

This story of Prometheus's punishment is one of the three myths used in the Great and Powerful Theme Reveal, found here.

Another version of the punishment myth suggests that Prometheus knew who would replace Zeus as the Supreme Being in the great Cosmic order. When Zeus found out he would be replaced, he demanded Prometheus reveal his successor's name. Prometheus refused, so Zeus chained him to the rock, swearing the Titan would remain there until he told Zeus what the God wanted to know.

Regardless of why Prometheus was chained to the rock... that's got to be the worst punishment ever! I'm definitely Team Prometheus in this particular battle. How could you not support him when he endured all kinds of unpleasantness for us?!

xoxo,

Ayden

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