Prometheus had cautioned his brother Epimetheus against accepting any present from Zeus, but Epimetheus, disregarding the advice, accepted Pandora, who was sent to him by Zeus, through the mediation of Hermes. Prometheus was thus exposed to perpetual torture, but Heracles killed the eagle and delivered the sufferer, with the consent of Zeus, who thus had an opportunity of allowing his son to gain immortal fame.
Zeus now, in order to punish men, caused Hephaestus to mold a virgin, Pandora, of earth, whom Athena adorned with all the charms calculated to entice mortals Prometheus himself was put in chains, and fastened to a pillar, where an eagle sent by Zeus consumed in the daytime his liver, which, in every succeeding night, was restored again. The father of the gods avenged himself by withholding fire from mortals, but Prometheus stole it in a hollow tube ( νάρθηξ, narthēx). When Zeus pointed out to him how badly he had made the division, Prometheus desired him to choose, but Zeus, in his anger, and seeing through the stratagem of Prometheus, chose the heap of bones covered with the fat. Once in the reign of Zeus, when gods and men were disputing with one another at Mecone (afterwards Sicyon 9), Prometheus, with a view to deceive Zeus and rival him in prudence, cut up a bull and divided it into two parts: he wrapped up the best parts and the intestines in the skin, and at the top he placed the stomach, which is one of the worst parts, while the second heap consisted of the bones covered with fat. The following is an outline of the legends related of him by the ancients. 4 By Pandora, Hesione, or Axiothea, he is said to have been the father of Deucalion, 5 by Pyrrha or Clymene he begot Hellen (and according to some also Deucalion 6), and by Celaeno he was the father of Lycus and Chimaereus, 7 while Herodotus 8 calls his wife Asia. 2 His name signifies "forethought," as that of his brother Epimetheus denotes "afterthought." Others call Prometheus a son of Themis, 3 or of Uranus and Clymene, or of the Titan Eurymedon and Hera. "Forethought." Is sometimes called a Titan, though in reality he did not belong to the Titans, but was only a son of the Titan Iapetus (whence he is designated by the patronymic Iapetionides, Ἰαπετιονίδης 1) by Clymene, so that he was a brother of Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus.
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