Many years ago, according to the stories told by the people of ancient Greece, there lived two brothers who were not like other men, or like the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. They were the sons of one of the Titans who had fought against Zeus and been sent in chains to the prison of the Lower World. The name of the elder of these brothers was Prometheus which means Forethought. Prometheus was always thinking of the future and making things ready for what might happen tomorrow, or next week, or next year, or even in a hundred years time.
The younger was called Epimetheus which means Afterthought. Epimetheus was always so busy thinking of yesterday, or last year, or a hundred years ago, that he never worried at all about what might come to pass in the future. Prometheus did not want to live amongst the clouds on Mount Olympus. He was too busy for that. While the gods were spending their time in idleness, drinking nectar and eating ambrosia, he was planning how to make the world wiser and better than it had ever been before.
So instead of living on Olympus, Prometheus went out amongst men to live with them and help them and he quickly noticed that they were no longer happy as they had been during the golden days when Kronos, the titan, was king. He found them living in caves and in holes of the earth, shivering with the cold because there was no fire, dying of starvation, hunted by wild beasts and by one another—the most miserable of all living creatures.
Without fire, they are worse off than the beasts. Prometheus went boldly to Zeus and begged him to give fire to the people, so that so they might have a little comfort through the long, dreary months of winter.
For if men had fire they might become strong and wise like us, and after a while they would drive us out of our kingdom. Besides, fire is a dangerous tool and they are too poor and ignorant to be trusted with it. It is better that we on Mount Olympus rule the world without threat so all can be happy. But Prometheus was thinking the other way, and decided to steal one of the powers Zeus was particularly sensitive about — fire.
Thinking about stealing fire was easy, but it finally proved a bit more complicated. It worked as he planned — the goddesses started a fight over the fruit while gods were completely enjoying the scene. Hephaestus was, among other stuff, the Greek god of fire. Oh, how Zeus was mad. After so many times being defied by Prometheus, Zeus decided that it was enough.
Nevertheless, he made Hephaestus himself to chain Prometheus on Mount Caucasus where the eagle would eat his liver forever. But, time passed and Zeus offered at one occasion to free Prometheus in exchange for a revelation of the prophecy that predicted the dethroning of Zeus. Prometheus refused. Zeus was very angry initially but eventually agreed to grant Prometheus his freedom. Well, some sort of freedom since Zeus wanted Prometheus to carry a reminder of his punishment forever — he ordered Prometheus to make a steel ring from the chains he was in, and wear that ring from then on.
Since then, the mankind started creating rings in order to celebrate Prometheus and commemorate his help. I like all the detail in this post about the myth of Prometheus. But aside from that great summery. No, the story of the Trojan war was similar, though. Instead, a mortal was asked to pick the fairest goddess I forget which three were involved, but I know Aphrodite was one.
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