Prometheus: The benefactor of mankind | Greek mythology

Greek mythology- Prometheus, The benefactor of mankind.

During the war between the olympians and the titans, prometheus, and his brother, epimetheus, sided with the olympians, thus, escaping the wrath of zeus, after the defeat of the titans. Prometheus then molded the very first mortal men, out of earth and water, and took great pride in them.

Long after the titanomachy had passed, after the olympians had gained control of the universe, after zeus had become the all powerful king of the gods, prometheus began to see that the olympians were not so different from the old titan gods, they were even more tyrannical. He saw their ill-treatment, and injustice towards mankind, the cruel fate, and undeserved punishments man endured.

Prometheus had regard for mankind, and felt they deserved better. One fateful day, at Mecone, Zeus put Prometheus in charge of sharing the meat of a great ox, into two meals, one for the gods and the other one for the humans.

 The bigger and better share for the gods,and the lesser for the humans. The crafty prometheus, wrapped the ox's bones inside nice looking fat, something useless with a pleasant covering, and set it as the first share.

Then he hid all the finest meat inside the ox's stomach, something pleasant, with an ugly covering, and set it as the second share. Zeus fell for the trick, indeed the portion of fat covered bones, was pleasing to the eye, so he chose it as the meal for the gods.

This set a new order, which allowed humans thenceforth, to keep the best meat for themselves, and burn the bones wrapped in fat, as sacrifice to the gods, no longer the other way round.

 When zeus realized prometheus trick, the angry god punished mankind by hiding fire away from them. at that time, the use of fire was already known to humans, now zeus had withdrawn it from them, and hidden it in the deepest parts of olympus.

But prometheus found where he hid it on olympus, stole the fire, and brought it back to earth in a fennel stark. When zeus learned of this, he visited the god of the forge, hephaestus, and instructed him to sculpt a creature more beautiful, and more devious than anything any mortal man had ever seen.

Hephaestus molded the creature out of clay, and called it woman. the very first woman to exist. Each of the gods gave the woman a distinct gift, and zeus gifted the woman with a beautifully decorated box. In that box, zeus placed all kinds of evil and sicknesses, that he planned to plagued mankind with, as punishment for prometheus' crimes.

Hermes then named her pandora, and carried her  down to earth. Prometheus the forethinking titan warned his after thinking brother, epimetheus, against accepting any gifts from the gods. But his advice fell on deaf ears, when epimetheus saw the beautifully endowed pandora, and took her as his wife. No sooner had this happened, pandora opened the box she came along with, out of curiosity.

Thus, unleashing all sorts of evil, diseases and pains, that still plague mankind till today. Only hope was left in the box, as she shut the lid before it could escape. As for prometheus, Zeus bound the titan toa rock in Caucasus, for eternity, and sent an eagle, his emblem, to feast on the Titan's liver daily. Every day, the eagle devoured prometheus' liver, which grew back by night, due to his immortality.

Prometheus endured this excruciating torture for a very long time, until the day the demigod, heracles, killed the eagle, and freed him from his eternal torment. After zeus and prometheus made peace, prometheus had a son, named Deucalion, who would later survive the great flood sent by zeus to wipeout humanity, and go on a head to repopulate the earth with his own consort, pyrrha.