Human beings were doomed to endless misery,
a fate shared by their Titan champion
Zeus punished clever Prometheus severely for the compassion he had shown man.
He ordered Prometheus be chained to a rock
On a distant mountain top in Caucasus
Hephaistos the divine blacksmith, son of Hera, made chains and heavy shackles,
And iron bracelets for his wrists and ankles
And nailed the links to the rocks
Finally he thrust a spear into Prometheus’s chest and left him riven to the rock like a butterfly on a pin in a collectors box
Hephaistos wasn’t happy about this assignment
He groaned as he worked
A new-born power is pitiless, he observed.
Clever Prometheus, champion of man,
Called out to heaven and earth to witness his pain
“ See me here in this torment and humiliation
My agony is unwarranted, my punishment unjust
Man needs fire to survive.
My theft was like stealing a loaf of bread to feed the starving.”
Zeus was unmoved and ordained a final agony for clever Prometheus.
By his divine command, a great screaming eagle came to clever Prometheus every day and pecked at his liver, inflicting tortuous pain
Every night the liver grew back, fresh food for the bird.
So the anguish was repeated, day after day after day
The future was grim-
Immortal, clever Prometheus could not die
But still he would not bow down, abandon humanity, and join the gods.
