A Summary and Analysis of the Prometheus Myth

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• Prometheus was the son of Iapetus and Clymene

• Mount Olympus

• a cousin of Zeus and a brother of Atlas

• Moneotius and Epimetheus

• credited with creating the very first humans from clay

• ‘forethought’,

• ‘afterthought’.

• ‘to steal’,

• Prometheus stealing fire and giving it to humans

• Vedic texts had Mātariśvan, who even brought fire to humankind.

• The tale of Prometheus is well-known because it explains how mankind came into possession of fire, thus enabling man to form civilisations.

• steal fire back from the gods and give it back to humankind.

• man already had possession of fire, but Zeus withdrew it

• It all goes back to a tasty bit of ox, which Prometheus served up for his cousin and the other gods

• Inside the stomach, he had concealed the meat and entrails rich in fat, as well as the fleshy skin of the ox.

• Prometheus served up the ox’s bones, which he had concealed beneath a tasty-looking layer of the animal’s fat.

• Zeus denied man the power of fire.

• Denied man the power of fire. Which, of course, suggests that man had formerly had it.

• But Prometheus, being cunning and rebellious, outwitted his cousin, and stole the flare of eternal fire from Mount Olympus in, of all things, a tube of fennel.

• chained to a rock and then subjected to the agonising ordeal of having his liver pecked out by an eagle