The mythology of ancient Greece and Italy

290 MYTHOLOGY OP GREECE.
that fed on the inconsumable liver of Prometheus a . In a word
we have here a Grecian mythe of the Fall of man, which we
shall presently find carried out in that of Pandora b .
The simple narrative of Hesiod was as usual expanded by
later writers, and Mount Caucasus was fixed on as the place
of Prometheus 5
punishment. The pragmatisers also explained
the mythe after their own fashion. Prometheus was, they
say, a king of the Scythians, and his country was wasted by
a river named Eagle (Aerbsf), whose inundations when he was
unable to prevent, his subjects laid him in chains. But Hera-
cles coming thither opened a passage for the Eagle into the sea,
and thus freed the captive monarch .
The name of Prometheus led to his being viewed as the
bestower of all knowledge on mankind d . A philosophical
mythe in Plato e says that the gods formed man and the other
animals of clay and fire within the earth, and then committed
to Prometheus and his brother the task of distributing powers
and qualities to them. Epimetheus prayed to be allowed to
make the distribution. Prometheus assented ; but when he
came to survey the work, he found that the silly Epimetheus
had abundantly furnished the inferior animals, while man was
left naked and helpless. As the day for their emerging from
the earth was at hand, Prometheus was at a loss what to do
at length as the only remedy he stole fire, and with it the
artist-skill of Athena and Hephaestos, and gave it to man. He
was also regarded as the creator of the human race. Another
Compare Lucret. iii. 992. seq.
a Qui vultiir jecur intimum pererrat,
Et pectus trahit intimasque fibras,
Non est quern tepidi vocant poetae,
Sed cordis mala, livor atque luxus.
Petronius, ap. Fulgent, ii. 9.
b We are fully aware of the difficulty presented by the Hesiodic narrative of the
stealing of the fire, and that it would seem from it that Zeus had deprived man-
kind of it in consequence of the trick played him by Prometheus. Still we think
with Vblcker that the sense of the original mythe is the one given above.
c See Apoll. Rh. ii. 1248.
d iEsch. Prom. 442. seq.
Bpa^fit Si iivQij) iravTa crvWi)(3()i]v fiaQe,
Hartal rex vai fipoTolmv 6K ITpo/uyOfc'w?.—vv. 505, 506.
e Polit. p. 274. Protag. p. 320. Phileb. p. 16.
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