Prometheus was an intermediary himself, between gods and men, attempting to aid human beings by providing them with fire and treating them with general favoritism. The story of Prometheus acts as simply a means by which certain elaborations and explanations can be made. Just as Prometheus, son of Iapetos provides fire to man, Hesiod’s tale of Prometheus provides a deeper comprehension of the attitudes of Zeus, king of the gods, and an acceptable cause for the evils that plague mankind. Prometheus has no value in himself; even his rescue by Herakles was achieved for the “glory of Theban-born Herakles”. Prometheus’s identity is entirely dependent on Zeus’s punishment delivered to mankind as a result and in turn, the explanation of these two things is entirely dependent on
Prometheus was an intermediary himself, between gods and men, attempting to aid human beings by providing them with fire and treating them with general favoritism. The story of Prometheus acts as simply a means by which certain elaborations and explanations can be made. Just as Prometheus, son of Iapetos provides fire to man, Hesiod’s tale of Prometheus provides a deeper comprehension of the attitudes of Zeus, king of the gods, and an acceptable cause for the evils that plague mankind. Prometheus has no value in himself; even his rescue by Herakles was achieved for the “glory of Theban-born Herakles”. Prometheus’s identity is entirely dependent on Zeus’s punishment delivered to mankind as a result and in turn, the explanation of these two things is entirely dependent on