Prometheus

In Greek mythology, a Titan who stole fire from heaven for the human race. In revenge, Zeus chained him to a rock and sent an eagle to gnaw at his liver by day; the organ grew back each night. Heracles rescued him from the torture.

His brothers were Epimethus and Atlas, and his son was Deucalion, the equivalent of Noah in the Old Testament. Prometheus warned Epimethus to refuse any gift from the gods, but his advice was ignored, and his brother accepted Pandora as his wife; the box she carried to Earth contained all human woes.

The life of Prometheus was described by the Greek poet Hesiod in ‘Theogony’ and ‘Works and Days’, and dramatized by the Athenian Aeschylus in his tragedy Prometheus Bound.

Prometheus

Ballet by Beethoven. See Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Die.

Symphonic poem by Liszt, composed in 1850 as an overture to the choruses from Herder's Prometheus. It was first performed at Weimar on 28 August 1850 and was revised in 1855.

Opera by Carl Orff (libretto by composer after Aeschylus) produced at Stuttgart on 24 March 1968.