Genealogy: Iapetus (titan) + Themis. Brother to Atlas and Epimetheus.
Claim to Fame: Trickster figure. Greek Culture Hero responsible for theomorphism of humans, religious sacrifice, and deliverance of technology and innovation to mankind.
Literature: Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound. Ovid's Metamorphosis.
Myth
I. Anthropogonal: The birth of humankind is rumoured to have been Prometheus' doing, who fashioned our form out of clay and bestowed within all of us a divine spark.II. Religious Sacrifice: Prometheus, with sympathy for starving humankind at odds with the Gods, sacrificed an ox and portioned the animal evenly. To Zeus he offered the first choice of portions, either the bones, cleverly and appealingly disguised by the dripping fat and gristle, or the meat, unappealingly disguised and reduced in ration. Zeus foolishly chooses the fat, leaving the sustaining portion to be consumed by humankind.
Etiologically, burnt sacrifice to the gods now holds only bones and fat, the meat and innards we consume ourselves first.
III. Gifts/Curses: Unfortunately Zeus, a young and wrathful god at the time, punishes mortals by removing fire and direct contact with the gods. Prometheus recovers the flame by hiding it in a fennel stalk, the first incidence of technology for humans to develop upon.
A prophecy bestows Prometheus with the knowledge of Zeus' future usurper, but refuses to reveal the information to the sky god. For this, he is shackled by Kratos ("strength") and Bia ("force") to the cliffs of Mt. Caucasus, gorged upon daily by Zeus' eagle, only to have his innards grow back nightly.
Zeus also gives the gift/curse of women in the form of Pandora to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother, and once her box is opened humankind is faced with infinite scourge.
