ABSTRACT
A Titan, the son of Iapetus and of Themis (or Clymene, daughter of Oceanus). He was the mythical archrebel and champion of mankind against the hostility of the gods; his name, meaning ‘forethought’, illustrates his character. In the earliest form of the story he was probably nothing more than a clever trickster who outwitted Zeus. But Greek writers, especially Hesiod in his Theogony and Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, developed him into man’s creator and saviour, whereas Zeus (subject to the further developments in the rest of Aeschylus’ Promethean trilogy) appeared as a cruel tyrant.
