Chapter III: Prometheus and Epimetheus

After the Golden Age was over, the world went on just as it does now; summer and winter followed each other, and there were times of bad weather as well as of bright sunshine; there were also many people who had not everything they wanted, but were obliged to struggle against hunger and cold and other evils. But they were happy and contented, and had still a spark of the god-like spirit left in them, so that under the pressure of need they learnt all kinds of useful arts.

There were two brothers of the race of the gods, whose father had been a Titan and had fought against Zeus. These brothers were kind to men and lived among them; one of them was called Prometheus, or the Fore-thinker, because he was always looking forward and planning for the future; and the other was called Epimetheus, or the Afterthinker, because he never thought seriously about things till they had already taken place. Zeus had not gifted men with fire, but Prometheus foresaw that by the help of fire they would be able to make out of bronze and iron many useful tools and weapons which would add to their comfort. So he begged Zeus to give it to them, but Zeus said, 'They will become too clever, and at last they will think {10} themselves equal to the gods.' Prometheus thought it would be a noble thing to scorn the anger of Zeus and bring down fire to the earth in order to benefit mankind, and though he knew that Zeus would punish him severely for doing so, he was willing to bear that. He took a reed in which there was a great deal of pith of the same kind that still grows in warm countries and is used for fuel, and he climbed up to the sun with this reed in his hand, and held it in the blaze till it caught fire and burned like tinder. Then he came down to earth again, and made a fire which gave out warmth and a clear blaze, so that all men wondered at it. And when it was dark Zeus looked down upon the earth. There appeared to be a great many stars there, but the lights which he saw were not stars,--they were the flickering fires that men had kindled, and Zeus knew it, and was very, very angry.

Now at that time there were no such things as diseases and cares among men, so Zeus resolved to send them these unwelcome guests, because they had obtained fire against his will. The god Hephaestus fashioned a marvellously beautiful woman out of clay, and Zeus gave life to her, and the other gods endowed her with many of those gifts that call forth the love of men. They gave her goodly gifts indeed--good-nature, pleasant speech, and skill in many arts, but no one gave her an honourable, straightforward mind. The gods called her Pandora, or the All-gifted, because they had all brought her some gift. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, took her to Epimetheus and said, 'Zeus sends this beautiful woman to be your wife.' Prometheus had warned his brother not to {11} accept any gift from Zeus, because he knew that he would act treacherously, but when Epimetheus saw the lovely woman, he forgot that she had come from Zeus and took her home to live with him. Pandora showed him a golden casket which she said contained her dowry, and as he was very anxious to see the precious jewels he expected to find in it, he begged her to open it. But when she had taken off the lid, instead of any jewels, there were a number of winged figures inside with corpse-like faces who struggled out and flew about all over the world: these were the diseases and cares that Zeus had said he would send. They fly into the houses of men and nestle beside them without anyone being able to see or hear them come in. Even now it often happens that when a man is seated at dinner with his guests, well and happy, one of the diseases flies in without any one knowing it, and in the night it seizes upon him and puts an end to all his enjoyment. Zeus had meant to send into the world a still worse fellow, called Foreboding, so that men might know all their troubles beforehand, and thus lose all pleasure in life. Foreboding was in the casket with the others, but when Pandora took off the lid, he was in such a hurry to get out that his wings caught in the inner edge of the casket, and when Pandora shut down the lid again she did not see that he was left behind. If Foreboding had come into the world, everyone would have known in childhood of the diseases and troubles in store for him in his old age, and would thus have lost all his spirits, even in his days of health.

Thus did Zeus punish men by sending disease and {12} care among them; but for Prometheus, who had taken the fire to them, he reserved a far severer punishment. He commanded two gods to carry him to Mount Caucasus, and the god Hephaestus, who was an excellent smith, bound him to a rock with strong iron chains so that he could neither move hand nor foot; but Hephaestus did so very unwillingly, for it seemed to him that Prometheus had done a great and god-like thing in braving the wrath of Zeus. Every morning a huge eagle came and pecked open the body of Prometheus and ate his liver, and every night the liver grew again and the body healed over it. Prometheus suffered inexpressible agony, but he never would beg for mercy from Zeus nor say that he was sorry for having brought down the fire, for he was still of the same mind about it.

But after many years had passed, there came a great hero named Heracles, who shot the eagle with his bow and arrow and delivered Prometheus. Prometheus was now free, but he was still obliged to wear on his finger a ring of the chain with which he had been bound to remind him of his punishment, and from that time it has always been the custom for people to wear rings as reminders.

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