Prometheus
**Prometheus** ([/prəˈmiːθiəs/](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Help:IPA_for_English) _[prə-](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key" \o "Help:Pronunciation respelling key)_**_[mee](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key" \o "Help:Pronunciation respelling key)_**_[-thee-əs](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Help:Pronunciation_respelling_key" \o "Help:Pronunciation respelling key)_; [Greek](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Greek_language): Προμηθεύς[[promɛːtʰeús]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Help:IPA_for_Greek), meaning "forethought")[[1]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenotePrometheus1) is a [Titan](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titan_(mythology)) in [Greek mythology](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Greek_mythology), best known as the deity in Greek mythology who was the creator of mankind and its greatest benefactor, who[stole fire](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Theft_of_fire) from [Mount Olympus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mount_Olympus) and gave it to mankind.
Ancient myths and legends relate at least four versions of the narratives describing Prometheus, his exploits with Zeus, and his eternal punishment as also inflicted by Zeus. There is a single somewhat comprehensive version of the birth of Prometheus and several variant versions of his subjection to eternal suffering at the will of Zeus.
The most significant narratives of his origin appear in the[_Theogony_](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Theogony) of Hesiod which relates Prometheus as being the son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanids. Hesiod then presents Prometheus as subsequently being a lowly challenger to Zeus's omnipotence. In the [trick at Mecone](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Trick_at_Mecone), Prometheus tricks Zeus into eternally claiming the inedible parts of cows and bulls for the sacrificial ceremonies of the gods, while conceding the nourishing parts to humans for the eternal benefit of humankind. The two remaining central episodes regarding Prometheus as written by Hesiod include his [theft of fire](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Theft_of_fire) from Olympus for the benefit of humanity against the will of Zeus, and the eternal punishment which Prometheus would endure for these acts as inflicted upon him by the judgment of Zeus.
For the greater part, the pre-Athenian ancient sources are selective in which of these narrative elements they chose by their own preferences to honor and support, and which ones they chose to exclude.
Etymology
The etymology of the theonym _prometheus_ is debated. The classical view is that it signifies "forethought," as that of his brother [Epimetheus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epimetheus_(mythology)" \o "Epimetheus (mythology)) denotes "afterthought".[[1]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenotePrometheus1) It has been theorized that it derives from the [Proto-Indo-European root](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Proto-Indo-European_root) that also produces the [Vedic](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Vedic_Sanskrit) _pra math_, "to steal," hence _pramathyu-s_, "thief", [cognate](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cognate) with "Prometheus", the thief of fire. The[Vedic myth](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Vedic_mythology) of fire's theft by [Mātariśvan](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/M%C4%81tari%C5%9Bvan" \o "Mātariśvan) is an analog to the Greek account. _Pramantha_ was the tool used to create fire.
## Myths and legends
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|[**Greek deities**](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Greek_mythology)** <br>series**|
|- [Titans](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titan_(mythology))<br>- [Olympians](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Twelve_Olympians)<br>- [Aquatic deities](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Greek_sea_gods)<br>- [Chthonic deities](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Chthonic)<br>- [Mycenaean deities](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_Mycenaean_deities)<br>- [Personified concepts](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures#Personified_concepts)<br>- [Other deities](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures#Other_deities)|
|[**Titans**](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titan_(mythology))|
|**The Twelve Titans**<br><br>[Oceanus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Oceanus) and [Tethys](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tethys_(mythology)),<br><br>[Hyperion](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hyperion_(mythology)) and [Theia](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Theia" \o "Theia),<br><br>[Coeus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Coeus) and [Phoebe](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Phoebe_(mythology)),<br><br>[Cronus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cronus) and [Rhea](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Rhea_(mythology)),<br><br>[Mnemosyne](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mnemosyne), [Themis](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Themis" \o "Themis),<br><br>[Crius](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Crius), [Iapetus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Iapetus_(mythology)" \o "Iapetus (mythology))<br><br>**Children of Cronus**<br><br>[Zeus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Zeus), [Hera](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hera), [Poseidon](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Poseidon), [Hades](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hades),<br><br>[Hestia](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hestia), [Demeter](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Demeter), [Chiron](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Chiron)<br><br>**Children of Oceanus**<br><br>[Oceanids](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Oceanid), [Potamoi](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Potamoi" \o "Potamoi)<br><br>**Children of Hyperion**<br><br>[Helios](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Helios), [Selene](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Selene), [Eos](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Eos)<br><br>**Children of Coeus**<br><br>[Lelantos](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lelantos), [Leto](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Leto" \o "Leto), [Asteria](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Asteria_(mythology)" \o "Asteria (mythology))<br><br>**Sons of Iapetus**<br><br>[Atlas](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Atlas_(mythology)), **Prometheus**,<br><br>[Epimetheus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epimetheus_(mythology)), [Menoetius](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Menoetius_(Greek_mythology)" \o "Menoetius (Greek mythology))<br><br>**Sons of Crius**<br><br>[Astraeus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Astraeus), [Pallas](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Pallas_(Titan)), [Perses](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Perses_(Titan)" \o "Perses (Titan))|
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### The oldest legends
The four most ancient sources for understanding the origin of the Prometheus myths and legends all rely on the images represented in the [Titanomachy](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titanomachy" \o "Titanomachy), or the cosmological struggle between the Greek gods and their parents, the Titans.[[3]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote3) Prometheus, himself a Titan, managed to avoid being in the direct confrontational cosmic battle between Zeus and the other [Olympians](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Twelve_Olympians) against[Cronus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cronus) and the other Titans.[[4]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote4) Prometheus therefore survived the struggle in which the offending Titans were eternally banished by Zeus to the chthonic depths of [Tartarus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tartarus" \o "Tartarus), only to survive to confront Zeus on his own terms in subsequent climactic struggles. The greater _Titanomachia_ depicts an overarching metaphor of the struggle between generations, between parents and their children, symbolic of the generation of parents needing to eventually give ground to the growing needs, vitality, and responsibilities of the new generation for the perpetuation of society and survival interests of the human race as a whole. Prometheus and his struggle would be of vast merit to human society as well in this mythology as he was to be credited with the creation of humans and therefore all of humanity as well. The four most ancient historical sources for the Prometheus myth are Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, and Pythagoras.
#### Hesiod and the Theogony and Works and Days
The Prometheus myth first appeared in the late 8th-century BCE [Greek](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ancient_Greece) epic poet [Hesiod](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hesiod)'s _[Theogony](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Theogony" \o "Theogony)_ (lines 507–616). He was a son of the [Titan](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titan_(mythology)) [Iapetus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Iapetus_(mythology)" \o "Iapetus (mythology)) by[Clymene](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Asia_(mythology)), one of the [Oceanids](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Oceanids" \o "Oceanids). He was brother to [Menoetius](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Menoetius_(mythology)" \o "Menoetius (mythology)), [Atlas](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Atlas_(mythology)), and[Epimetheus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epimetheus_(mythology)). In the _Theogony_, Hesiod introduces Prometheus as a lowly challenger to [Zeus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Zeus)'s omniscience and omnipotence.[[5]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteHesiod2CTheogony590935) In the [trick at Mekone](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Trick_at_Mecone), a sacrificial meal marking the "settling of accounts" between mortals and immortals, Prometheus played a trick against Zeus (545–557). He placed two[sacrificial](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sacrificial) offerings before the Olympian: a selection of beef hidden inside an ox's stomach (nourishment hidden inside a displeasing exterior), and the bull's bones wrapped completely in "glistening fat" (something inedible hidden inside a pleasing exterior). Zeus chose the latter, setting a precedent for future sacrifices.[[5]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteHesiod2CTheogony590935)
Henceforth, humans would keep that meat for themselves and burn the bones wrapped in fat as an offering to the gods. This angered Zeus, who hid fire from humans in retribution. In this version of the myth, the use of fire was already known to humans, but withdrawn by Zeus.[[6]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote6) Prometheus, however, stole fire back in a [giant fennel-stalk](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ferula_communis) and restored it to humanity. This further enraged Zeus, who sent [Pandora](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Pandora), the first woman, to live with humanity.[[5]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteHesiod2CTheogony590935) Pandora was fashioned by [Hephaestus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hephaestus) out of clay and brought to life by the four winds, with all the goddesses of Olympus assembled to adorn her. "From her is the race of women and female kind," Hesiod writes; "of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no [helpmeets](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/helpmeet) in hateful poverty, but only in wealth."[[5]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteHesiod2CTheogony590935)
Prometheus Brings Fire by [Heinrich Friedrich Füger](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Heinrich_Friedrich_F%C3%BCger). Prometheus brings fire to mankind as told by Hesiod, with its having been hidden as revenge for the trick at Mecone.
Prometheus, in eternal punishment, is chained to a rock in the [Caucasus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Caucasus" \o "Caucasus),[Kazbek](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Kazbek) Mountain or Mountain of [Khvamli](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Khvamli" \o "Khvamli), where his liver is eaten daily by an eagle,[[7]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote7) only to be [regenerated](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Liver_regeneration) by night, due to his immortality. The eagle is a symbol of Zeus himself. Years later, the Greek hero[Heracles](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Heracles) ([Hercules](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hercules)) slays the eagle and frees Prometheus from the eagle's torment.[[8]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote8)
Hesiod revisits the story of Prometheus in the [_Works and Days_](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Works_and_Days) (lines 42–105). Here, the poet expands upon Zeus's reaction to Prometheus's deception. Not only does Zeus withhold fire from humanity, but "the means of life," as well (42). Had Prometheus not provoked Zeus's wrath (44–47), "you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste." Hesiod also expands upon the _Theogony'_s story of the first woman, now explicitly called Pandora ("_all gifts_"). After Prometheus' theft of fire, Zeus sends Pandora in retaliation. Despite Prometheus' warning, Epimetheus accepts this "gift" from the gods. [Pandora carried a jar with her](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Pandora%27s_box), from which were released (91–92) "evils, harsh pain and troublesome diseases which give men death".[[9]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote9) Pandora shuts the lid of the jar too late to contain all the evil plights that escaped, but Hope is left trapped in the jar because Zeus forces Pandora to seal it up before Hope can escape. [[10]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote10)
Angelo Casanova,[[11]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote11) Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Florence, finds in Prometheus a reflection of an ancient, pre-Hesiodic[trickster](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Trickster)-figure, who served to account for the mixture of good and bad in human life, and whose fashioning of humanity from clay was an Eastern motif familiar in _[Enuma Elish](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Enuma_Elish" \o "Enuma Elish)_; as an opponent of Zeus he was an analogue of the [Titans](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titan_(mythology)), and like them was punished. As an advocate for humanity he gains semi-divine status at Athens, where the episode in _Theogony_ in which he is liberated[[12]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote12) is interpreted by Casanova as a post-Hesiodic interpolation.[[13]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote13)
According to the German classicist [Karl-Martin Dietz](https://www.wikiwand.com/de/Karl-Martin_Dietz), in Hesiod's scriptures, Prometheus represents the "descent of mankind from the communion with the gods into the present troublesome life."[[14]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteKarlMartinDietz19892Cp6614)
#### Homer and the Homeric Hymns
The banishment of the warring Titans by the Olympians to the chthonic depths of [Tartarus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Tartarus" \o "Tartarus) was documented as early as Homer's _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ where they are also identified as the _hypotartarioi_, or, the "subterranean." The passages appear in the _Iliad_ (XIV 279)[[15]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote15) and also in the Homeric hymn to Apollo (335).[[16]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote16) The particular forms of violence associated especially with the Titans are those of _hybristes_ and _atasthalie_ as further found in the _Iliad_ (XIII 633-34). They are used by Homer to designate an unlimited, violent insolence among the warring Titans which only Zeus was able to ultimately overcome. This text finds direct parallel in Hesiod's reading in the _Theogony_ (209) and in Homer's own _Odyssey_ (XIX 406). In the words of Kerenyi, "Autolykos, the grandfather, is introduced in order that he may give his grandson the name of Odysseus."[[17]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote17) In a similar fashion, the origin of the naming of the Titans as a group has been disputed with some voicing a preference for reading it as a combination of _titainein_ (to exert), and, _titis_ (retribution) usually rendered as "retribution meted out to the exertion of the Titans."[[18]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote18) It should be noted in studying material concerning Prometheus that Prometheus was not directly among the Titans warring with Zeus though Prometheus's association with them by lineage is a recurrent theme in each of his subsequent confrontations with Zeus and with the Olympian gods.
#### Pindar and the Nemean Odes
The duality of the gods and of humans standing as polar opposites is also clearly identified in the earliest traditions of Greek mythology and its legends by Pindar. In the sixth Nemean Ode, Pindar states: "There is one/race of men, one race of gods; both have breath/of life from a single mother. But sundered power/holds us divided, so that one side is nothing, while on the other the brazen sky is established/a sure citadel forever."[[19]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote19) Although this duality in strikingly apparent in Pindar, it also has paradoxical elements where Pindar actually comes quite close to Hesiod who before him had said in his_Works and Days_ (108) "how the gods and mortal men sprang from one source."[[20]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote20) The understanding of Prometheus and his role in the creation of humans and the theft of fire for their benefit is therefore distinctly adapted within this distinguishable source for understanding the role of Prometheus within the mythology of the interaction of the Gods with humans.
#### Pythagoras and the Pythagorean Doctrine
In order to understand the Prometheus myth in its most general context, the Late Roman author Censorinus states in his book titled _De die natali_ that, "Pythagoras of Samos, Okellos of Lukania, Archytas of Tarentum, and in general all Pythagoreans were the authors and proponents of the opinion that the human race was eternal."[[21]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote21) By this they held that Prometheus's creation of humans was the creation of humanity for eternity. This Pythagorean view is further confirmed in the book _On the Cosmos_ written by the Pythagorean Okellos of Lukania. Okellos, in his cosmology, further delineates the three realms of the cosmos as all contained within an overarching order called the _diakosmesis_ which is also the world order _kosmos_, and which also must be eternal. The three realms were delineated by Okellos as having "two poles, man on earth, the gods in heaven. Merely for the sake of symmetry, as it were, the daemons – not evil spirits but beings intermediate between God and man – occupy a middle position in the air, the realm between heaven and earth. They were not a product of Greek mythology, but of the belief in daemons that had sprung up in various parts of the Mediterranean world and the Near East."[[22]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote22)
### The Athenian tradition
The two major authors to have an influence on the development of the myths and legends surrounding the Titan Prometheus during the Socratic era of greater Athens were Aeschylus and Plato. The two men wrote in highly distinctive forms of expression which for Aeschylus centered on his mastery of the literary form of Greek tragedy, while for Plato this centered on the philosophical expression of his thought in the form of the various dialogues he had written and recorded during his lifetime.
#### Aeschylus and the ancient literary tradition
[_Prometheus Bound_](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus_Bound), perhaps the most famous treatment of the myth to be found among the [Greek tragedies](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Greek_tragedy), is traditionally attributed to the 5th-century BCE Greek tragedian [Aeschylus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Aeschylus).[[23]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteTheoicom23) At the center of the drama are the results of Prometheus' theft of fire and his current punishment by [Zeus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Zeus); the playwright's dependence on the Hesiodic source material is clear, though _Prometheus Bound_ also includes a number of changes to the received tradition.[[24]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote24)
Before his theft of fire, Prometheus played a decisive role in the [Titanomachy](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Titanomachy" \o "Titanomachy), securing victory for Zeus and the other Olympians. Zeus's torture of Prometheus thus becomes a particularly harsh betrayal. The scope and character of Prometheus' transgressions against Zeus are also widened. In addition to giving humankind fire, Prometheus claims to have taught them the arts of civilization, such as writing, mathematics, agriculture, medicine, and science. The Titan's greatest benefaction for humankind seems to have been saving them from complete destruction. In an apparent twist on the myth of the so-called Five [Ages of Man](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ages_of_Man) found in Hesiod's _Works and Days_ (wherein Cronus and, later, Zeus created and destroyed five successive races of humanity), Prometheus asserts that Zeus had wanted to obliterate the human race, but that he somehow stopped him.
.jpg>)
Heracles freeing Prometheus from his torment by the eagle ([Attic](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Pottery_of_ancient_Greece) [black-figure](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Black-figure) cup, c. 500 BCE)
Moreover, Aeschylus anachronistically and artificially injects [Io](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Io_(mythology)), another victim of Zeus's violence and ancestor of Heracles, into Prometheus' story. Finally, just as Aeschylus gave Prometheus a key role in bringing Zeus to power, he also attributed to him secret knowledge that could lead to Zeus's downfall: Prometheus had been told by his mother [Themis](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Themis" \o "Themis), who in the play is identified with [Gaia](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Gaia_(mythology)) (Earth), of a potential marriage that would produce a son who would overthrow Zeus. Fragmentary evidence indicates that Heracles, as in Hesiod, frees the Titan in the trilogy's second play, [_Prometheus Unbound_](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus_Unbound_(Aeschylus)). It is apparently not until Prometheus reveals this secret of Zeus's potential downfall that the two reconcile in the final play, [_Prometheus the Fire-Bringer_](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus_the_Fire-Bringer) or _Prometheus Pyrphoros_, a lost tragedy by Aeschylus.
_Prometheus Bound_ also includes two mythic innovations of omission. The first is the absence of [Pandora](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Pandora)'s story in connection with Prometheus' own. Instead, Aeschylus includes this one oblique allusion to Pandora and her jar that contained Hope (252): "[Prometheus] caused blind hopes to live in the hearts of men." Second, Aeschylus makes no mention of the sacrifice-trick played against Zeus in the _Theogony_.[[23]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteTheoicom23) The four tragedies of Prometheus attributed to Aeschylus, most of which are sadly lost to the passages of time into antiquity, are _Prometheus Bound_(_Desmotes_), _Prometheus Delivered_ (_Lyomens_), _Prometheus the Fire Bringer_ (_Pyrphoros_), and _Prometheus the Fire Kindler_(_Pyrkaeus_).
The larger scope of Aeschylus as a dramatist revisiting the myth of Prometheus in the age of Athenian prominence has been discussed by William Lynch.[[25]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote25) Lynch's general thesis concerns the rise of humanist and secular tendencies in Athenian culture and society which required the growth and expansion of the mythological and religious tradition as acquired from the most ancient sources of the myth stemming from Hesiod. For Lynch, modern scholarship is hampered by not having the full trilogy of Prometheus by Aeschylus, the last two parts of which have been lost to antiquity. Significantly, Lynch further comments that although the Prometheus trilogy is not available, that the _Orestia_ trilogy by Aeschylus remains available and may be assumed to provide significant insight into the overall structural intentions which may be ascribed to the Prometheus trilogy by Aeschylus as an author of significant consistency and exemplary dramatic erudition.[[26]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote26)
Harold Bloom, in his research guide for Aeschylus, has summarized some of the critical attention that has been applied to Aeschylus concerning his general philosophical import in Athens.[[27]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote27) As Bloom states, "Much critical attention has been paid to the question of theodicy in Aeschylus. For generations, scholars warred incessantly over 'the justice of Zeus,' unintentionally blurring it with a monotheism imported from Judeo-Christian thought. The playwright undoubtedly had religious concerns; for instance, Jacqueline de Romilly[[28]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus" \l "citenote28) suggests that his treatment of time flows directly out of his belief in divine justice. But it would be an error to think of Aeschylus as sermonizing. His Zeus does not arrive at decisions which he then enacts in the mortal world; rather, human events are themselves an enactment of divine will."[[29]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote29)
According to Thomas Rosenmeyer regarding the religious import of Aeschylus, "In Aeschylus, as in Homer, the two levels of causation, the supernatural and the human, are co-existent and simultaneous, two way of describing the same event." Rosenmeyer insists that ascribing portrayed characters in Aeschylus should not conclude them to be either victims or agents of theological or religious activity too quickly. As Rosenmeyer states: "[T]he text defines their being. For a critic to construct an Aeschylean theology would be as quixotic as designing a typology of Aeschylean man. The needs of the drama prevail."[[30]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote30)
In a rare comparison of Prometheus in Aeschylus with Oedipus in Sophocles, Harold Bloom with more than simple irony has quoted Freud as stating that, "Freud called _Oedipus_ an 'immoral play,' since the gods ordained incest and parricide. Oedipus therefore participates in our universal unconscious sense of guilt, but on this reading so do the gods. I (states Bloom) sometimes wish that Freud had turned to Aeschylus instead, and given us the Prometheus complex rather than the Oedipus complex."[[31]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote31)
[Karl-Martin Dietz](https://www.wikiwand.com/de/Karl-Martin_Dietz) states that in contrast to Hesiod's, in Aeschylus' oeuvre, Prometheus stands for the "Ascent of humanity from primitive beginnings to the present level of civilization."[[14]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenoteKarlMartinDietz19892Cp6614)
#### Plato and philosophy
Olga Raggio in her study "The Myth of Prometheus" for the Courtauld Institute attributes Plato in the _Protagoras_ as an important contributor to the early development of the Prometheus myth.[[32]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote32) Raggio indicates that many of the more challenging and dramatic assertions which Aeschylean tragedy explores are absent from Plato's writings about Prometheus.[[33]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote33)
As summarized by Raggio, "After the gods have moulded men and other living creatures with a mixture of clay and fire, the two brothers Epimetheus and Prometheus are called to complete the task and distribute among the newly born creatures all sorts of natural qualities. Epimetheus sets to work, but, being unwise, distributes all the gifts of nature among the animals, leaving men naked and unprotected, unable to defend themselves and to survive in a hostile world. Prometheus then steals the fire of creative power from the workshop of [Athena](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Athena) and Hephaistos and gives it to mankind." Raggio then goes on to point out Plato's distinction of creative power (_techne_) which is presented as superior to merely natural instincts (_physis_).
For Plato, only the virtues of "reverence and justice can provide for the maintenance of a civilized society – and these virtues are the highest gift finally bestowed on men in equal measure."[[34]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote34) The ancients by way of Plato believed that the name _Prometheus_ derived from the Greek [prefix](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prefix) _pro_- (before) + _manthano_ (intelligence) and the [agent suffix](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Agent_suffix) -_eus_, thus meaning "Forethinker".
In his dialogue titled _Protagoras_, [Plato](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Plato) contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother [Epimetheus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epimetheus_(mythology)" \o "Epimetheus (mythology)), "Afterthinker".[[35]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote35)[[36]](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Prometheus#citenote36)In Plato's dialogue [_Protagoras_](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Protagoras), Protagoras asserts that the gods created humans and all the other animals, but it was left to Prometheus and his brother [Epimetheus](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Epimetheus_(mythology)" \o "Epimetheus (mythology)) to give defining attributes to each. As no physical traits were left when the pair came to humans, Prometheus decided to give them fire and other civilizing arts