Prometheus
Prometheus and his brother Epimethus were Titans trusted by Eros, God of Love, to give special gifts and abilities to the beasts, birds, and fishes of the world. They were also given the task of making a creature less great than the gods and the Titans, but higher in knowledge and understanding than the beasts, birds and fishes. Prometheus and Epimethus were so generous with their gifts for the beasts, birds, and fishes that nothing was left for the creature that was to be called Man.
Prometheus took some clay from the ground at his feet, moistened it with water, and formed it to look like the gods. Into its nostrils was breathed the spirit of life, and it was given a soul. And so the first Man looked wonderingly round on the earth. He was naked, unprotected, and more helpless than any of the beasts. Prometheus pitied him more than the animals, since Man had a soul to suffer. He looked to Zeus, ruler of Olympus, to have compassion for Man and to help him, but Zeus refused.
Prometheus thought of a power belonging only to the gods. He said to Epimethus, “We shall give fire to the Man we have made.” He waited patiently and, unseen by the gods, made his way into Olympus, lighted a torch with a spark from the chariot of the Sun, and brought this royal gift to Man. With fire, Man no longer trembled in the darkness of caves when Zeus hurled his lightning across the sky. He was no longer scared of the animals that hunted him. With fire, Man made weapons, defied the frost and cold, made tools and money, introduced the arts, and was able to destroy as well as to create.
From his throne on Olympus, Zeus looked down on the earth and saw blue-gray smoke that curled upward to the sky. He watched more closely and realized with terrible wrath that what he saw came from fire. Fire had been the gods’ own sacred power. He was apathetic to Man and gathered a council of the gods to decide how to punish Prometheus for deceiving him. Zeus chained Prometheus to the top of a mountain, and every day an eagle came and ate Prometheus’ liver. Every night, his liver grew back.
This council also decided to punish Man. They decided to create something that should forever charm the souls and hearts of men and forever be Man’s downfall. They created Pandora, the first woman. She carried with her a jar filled with sickness, death, and evil.