The Unofficial Heroes of Olympus Companion by Natalie Buczynsky

Author:Natalie Buczynsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ulysses Press
Published: 2012-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

PROMETHEUS

ROMAN NAME: PROMETHEUS

TYPE: Titan

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE: Fire, technology, forethought, crafty counsel

ORIGINS AND MYTHS: Prometheus was entrusted with molding mankind out of clay. He is most famous for trying to help his mortal creations by stealing from the Titan gods. First he stole meat from the sacrificial feasts for them. Then he stole fire to cook it on and so man could both have light in the darkness and warmth in the cold. As punishment for these crimes, he was bound to a stake on Mount Kaukasos, where an eagle (some stories say a vulture) was sent to eat out his liver every day; since he was immortal, the liver would regenerate at night. He was eventually freed by Heracles.

Prometheus was also indirectly responsible for the creation of Pandora, the first mortal woman, and the delivery of misfortune into the house of humans. Zeus wanted to punish mortals because they had received fire from Prometheus. He ordered Pandora’s creation from clay and sent her to be the wife of Prometheus’s brother, and he gave her a special box that she was never to open. But Pandora’s curiosity got the better of her, and when she opened the box she unleashed on the world all the evil and misfortune the gods had stored inside it.

Prometheus has often been cited in modern times as a metaphor for unleashing technology that was beyond man’s ability to control. In the 19th century, novelist Mary Shelley subtitled her novel Frankenstein “or The Modern Prometheus” because it dealt with bringing an inanimate being to life, and in 2005, with unintended irony, NASA named its effort to launch nuclear reactors into space “Project Prometheus.”

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