Greek mythology - Prometheus

Heaven and earth were created, and the waves of the sea rose and fell, lapping at the shore. Fish frolick in the water and birds sing in the air. There are many animals on the earth, but there is not yet a high-level creature with a soul that can dominate the world around it. Then Prometheus was born, a descendant of the ancient tribe of gods exiled by Zeus, the son of Iapetos, born to the mothers of the earth, Gaia and Uranos. He was wise and wise, knowing that the seeds of the gods were hidden in the soil, so he picked up the soil, wet it with the river water and mixed it, and pinched it into human form according to the appearance of the lord of the world, that is, the god of heaven. In order to give life to this clay man, he took both good and evil personalities from the souls of animals and sealed them into the chest of man. Among the gods, he had a girlfriend, Athena, the goddess of wisdom; she marveled at the creation of the Son of Titan, and so she blew her spirit at the clay man with half the soul, making it spiritual.

In this way, the first people appeared in the world, they multiplied, and soon formed a large group, all over the place. But for a long time, they didn't know how to use their limbs, or how to use god-given souls. They see and hear, like the human form in a dream, walking aimlessly without knowing how to play their part. They did not know about quarrying, burning bricks, cutting down trees to make rafters, and then building houses with these materials. Like ants, they dwell in sunless earthen caves, unaware of the winter to spring and the summer solstice; they do everything without a plan.

So Prometheus came to help his creation. He taught them to observe the rise and fall of the sun, moon, and stars; he invented numbers and writings for them to calculate and exchange ideas with words; he taught them to control the cattle to share their labor, so that they could put reins on their horses and pull carts or mounts. He invented the ship and the sail to keep them at sea. He is concerned with all other activities in human life. In the past, the sick did not know how to treat the sick with medicine, did not know how to apply ointment or take medicine to alleviate the pain, and many patients died tragically due to lack of medical care. Now, Prometheus taught them to concoct potions to prevent diseases. In addition, he taught them divination, fulfilled dreams, and explained the various signs of the birds flying and sacrifices. He guided them through exploration of the underground mines, allowing them to discover ore and mine iron and gold and silver. He taught them farming techniques and made them live more comfortably.

Not long ago, Zeus exiled his father Kronos and overthrew the ancient gods, from whom Prometheus was also born. Now that Zeus and his sons were the new masters of heaven, they began to notice the newly formed human beings. They demand that humanity respect them and use this as a condition for their protection. One day, in Meccone, Greece, the gods gathered to determine the rights and duties of human beings. Prometheus attended the meeting as the defender of humanity. At the meeting, he managed to persuade the gods not to impose harsh sacrificial conditions for promising to protect humanity. The Son of Titan was determined to use his wisdom to deceive the gods. He slaughtered a large bull on behalf of his creation and asked the gods to choose the part they liked. He cut the sacrificial bull into pieces and divided it into two piles. One pile was filled with meat, offal, and fat, covered in cowhide, and on top of which was the belly of the cow; the other was full of cow bones, cleverly wrapped in the oil of the cow. This pile is a little bigger than the other. Zeus, the father of the all-knowing and all-powerful god, saw through his tricks and said, "Son of Iapetos, noble king, my good friend, how unfair you have been to divide the sacrifices!" At this time, Prometheus became more and more convinced that he had deceived Zeus, so he smiled and said to himself, "Noble Zeus, the ancestor of the eternal gods, you can choose a bunch according to your wishes!" Zeus was very angry, but deliberately stretched out his hands to get the snow-white plate oil. When he peeled off the oil and saw that it was all stripped bones, he pretended not to have been deceived until now, and said angrily: "I see, son of Iapetos, you have not forgotten your trick of deception!" ”

Zeus was deceived and decided to take revenge on Prometheus. He refused to provide humanity with the last thing necessary for life: fire. But Iappetos's son was very astute and immediately came up with a clever solution. He took a thick and long fennel stalk, carried it closer to the approaching sun car, stretched the fennel stalk into its flame and lit it, and then returned to the ground with a flickering fire, and soon the first pile of firewood burned, and the fire burned more and more vigorously, and the flames soared into the sky. Zeus was furious when he saw that flames had risen in the world, and seeing that he could no longer take the fire away from mankind, he quickly came up with a new calamity to punish mankind in order to offset the blessings that fire had brought to mankind. He ordered Hephaestus, the god of fire known for his craftsmanship, to build a stone statue of a beautiful woman. Athena, jealous of Prometheus and her kindness to him, personally draped the stone statue in shiny white, veiled it, and put a garland on her head and a blonde headband. This blonde headband was also from Hephaestus. In order to please his father, he carefully made it, and the blonde belt was exquisitely shaped and decorated with animal figures with different looks. Hermes, the messenger of the gods, taught the feminine and enchanting form the skills of language; Aphrodite, the goddess of love, gave her alluring charms. Zeus injected a vicious curse into this beautiful image, and he named her Pandora, meaning "woman with all talents", because the gods gave her a gift that harmed mankind. He sent this young woman to earth, and the gods who were wandering freely on the earth were amazed at the sight of this incomparably beautiful woman. She went straight to Epimetheus, Prometheus's brother, and asked him to accept the gift that Zeus had given him. Epimetheus was kind-hearted and had no doubts.

Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gift from Zeus on Mount Olympus, but to return it immediately. But Epimetheus forgot this warning and gladly accepted the beautiful young woman. It wasn't until later, when he suffered, that he realized that he had brought disaster. Prior to this, mankind obeyed prometheus's warning, so that there was no calamity, no hard labor, and no afflicting disease. Now, the girl was holding the gift in both hands, which was a large closed box. As soon as she reached Epimetheus, she suddenly opened the lid of the box, and the disaster inside flew out like black smoke and spread rapidly to the ground. There was only one beautiful thing hidden in the bottom of the box: hope, but Pandora, following the admonition of the Father of Gods, quickly closed the lid before it flew out, so that hope was locked in the box forever. Since then, disasters of all kinds have filled the earth, the sky and the ocean. Diseases spread day and night among humans, raging, and silently, because Zeus did not let them make sounds. All kinds of fevers are rampant on the earth, and the god of death is running wildly in the human world like an enclave. Zeus then took revenge on Prometheus himself. He placed this enemy in the hands of Hephaestus and two servants, nicknamed Kratos and Pia, i.e. force and violence. They dragged Prometheus to the wilderness of Scutia. Here he was chained to the overhanging rocks of the Caucasus Mountains and descended into a terrible abyss. Hephaestus was reluctant to carry out his father's orders because he liked the titan's son, who was his relative, contemporary, a descendant of his great-grandfather Uranos, and a descendant of the gods. But the two rough servants who carried out the cruel order rebuked him for saying many sympathetic words. Prometheus was forced to lock himself in the cliffs of the overhanging rock, and he hung straight up, unable to sleep, unable to bend his tired knees. "No amount of lamentation or lamentation you may utter is of any use," Hephaestus said to him, "for zeus's will is unshakable, and these gods, who have only recently seized power from others, are very ruthless." "The prisoner's sentence of torture is permanent, at least thirty thousand years. Although he cried out loudly and called to the wind, the rivers, the sea, and the earth, the mother of all things, and the sun that watched all things, to testify to his suffering, his spirit was indestructible. "Whoever learns to recognize the uncontrollable power of the fixed number," he said, "must endure the pain of fate." Zeus repeatedly threatened him to explain his ominous prophecy that "a new marriage would bring destruction to the king of the gods," but he never spoke. Zeus did what he said he would, sending an evil eagle every day to peck at the liver of the bound Prometheus. How much the liver was eaten, it quickly returned to its original state. This torment of pain he had to endure until someone voluntarily gave his life for him in the future.

The day to relieve the misery of the unfortunate Prometheus has finally arrived. After he had been hung on a hanging rock and spent a long and miserable time, Hercules came here one day in search of Hesperides. He saw the evil eagle pecking at the liver of poor Prometheus, and then he took out his bow and arrow and shot the cruel eagle down from the liver of the suffering man. Then he unchained, freed Prometheus, and took him off the cliff. However, in order to satisfy Zeus's conditions, Hercules left the half-man, half-horse Chiron of the Kentaulos tribe as a stand-in on the cliff. Although Chiron could claim eternal life, he was willing to give his life to save Prometheus. In order to carry out Zeus's judgment once and for all, Prometheus must always wear an iron ring with a stone from the Caucasus Mountains. In this way, Zeus could proudly declare that his enemies were still locked to the cliffs of the Caucasus Mountains.