In those
old, old times,
there lived two brothers who were not like other men, nor yet like
those
Mighty Ones who lived upon the mountain top. They were the sons of one
of those Titans who had fought against Jupiter and been sent in chains
to the strong prison-house of the Lower World.
The name of
the elder of
these brothers was Prometheus, or Forethought; for he was always
thinking
of the future and making things ready for what might happen to-morrow,
or next week, or next year, or it may be in a hundred years to come.
The
younger was called Epimetheus, or Afterthought; for he was always so
busy
thinking of yesterday, or last year, or a hundred years ago, that he
had
no care at all for what might come to pass after a while.
For some
cause Jupiter had
not sent these brothers to prison with the rest of the Titans.
Prometheus
did not care to
live amid the clouds on the mountain top. He was too busy for that.
While
the Mighty Folk were spending their time in idleness, drinking nectar
and
eating ambrosia, he was intent upon plans for making the world wiser
and
better than it had ever been before.
He went out
amongst men to
live with them and help them; for his heart was filled with sadness
when
he found that they were no longer happy as they had been during the
golden
days when Saturn was king. Ah, how very poor and wretched they were! He
found them living in caves and in holes of the earth, shivering with
the
cold because there was no fire, dying of starvation, hunted by wild
beasts
and by one another-the most miserable of all living creatures.
"If they
only had fire,"
said Prometheus to himself, "they could at least warm themselves and
cook
their food; and after a while they could learn to make tools and build
themselves houses. Without fire, they are worse off than the beasts."
Then he
went boldly to Jupiter
and begged him to give fire to men, that so they might have a little
comfort
through the long, dreary months of winter.
"Not a
spark will I give,"
said Jupiter. "No, indeed! Why, if men had fire they might become
strong
and wise like ourselves, and after a while they would drive us out of
our
kingdom. Let them shiver with cold, and let them live like the beasts.
It is best for them to be poor and ignorant, that so we Mighty Ones may
thrive and be happy."
Prometheus
made no answer;
but he had set his heart on helping mankind, and he did not give up. He
turned away, and left Jupiter and his mighty company forever.
As he was
walking by the
shore of the sea he found a reed, or, as some say, a tall stalk of
fennel,
growing; and when he had broken it off he saw that its hollow center
was
filled with a dry, soft pith which would burn slowly and keep on fire a
long time. He took the long stalk in his hands, and started with it
towards
the dwelling of the sun in the far east.
"Mankind
shall have fire
in spite of the tyrant who sits on the mountain top," he said.
He reached
the place of the
sun in the early morning just as the glowing, golden orb was rising
from
the earth and beginning his daily journey through the sky. He touched
the
end of the long reed to the flames, and the dry pith caught on fire and
burned slowly. Then he turned and hastened back to his own land,
carrying
with him the precious spark hidden in the hollow center of the plant.
He called
some of the shivering
men from their caves and built a fire for them, and showed them how to
warm themselves by it and how to build other fires from the coals. Soon
there was a cheerful blaze in every rude home in the land, and men and
women gathered round it and were warm and happy, and thankful to
Prometheus
for the wonderful gift which he had brought to them from the sun.
It was not
long until they
learned to cook their food and so to eat like men instead of like
beasts.
They began at once to leave off their wild and savage habits; and
instead
of lurking in the dark places of the world, they came out into the open
air and the bright sunlight, and were glad because life had been given
to them.
After that,
Prometheus taught
them, little by little, a thousand things. He showed them how to build
houses of wood and stone, and how to tame sheep and cattle and make
them
useful, and how to plow and sow and reap, and how to protect themselves
from the storms of winter and the beasts of the woods. Then he showed
them
how to dig in the earth for copper and iron, and how to melt the ore,
and
how to hammer it into shape and fashion from it the tools and weapons
which
they needed in peace and war; and when he saw how happy the world was
becoming
he cried out:
"A new Golden
Age shall
come, brighter and better by far than the old!"
II. HOW DISEASES AND
CARES CAME AMONG MEN
Things might have gone on very happily
indeed, and the Golden Age might
really have come again, had it not been for Jupiter. But one day, when
he chanced to look down upon the earth, he saw the fires burning, and
the
people living in houses, and the flocks feeding on the hills, and the
grain
ripening in the fields, and this made him very angry.
"Who has done all this?" he asked.
And some one answered, "Prometheus!"
"What! that young Titan!" he cried.
"Well, I will punish him in a way
that will make him wish I had shut him up in the prison-house with his
kinsfolk. But as for those puny men, let them keep their fire. I will
make
them ten times more miserable than they were before they had it."
Of course it would be easy enough to
deal with Prometheus at any time,
and so Jupiter was in no great haste about it. He made up his mind to
distress
mankind first; and he thought of a plan for doing it in a very strange,
roundabout way.
In the first place, he ordered his
blacksmith Vulcan, whose forge was
in the crater of a burning mountain, to take a lump of clay which he
gave
him, and mold it into the form of a woman. Vulcan did as he was bidden;
and when he had finished the image, he carried it up to Jupiter, who
was
sitting among the clouds with all the Mighty Folk around him. It was
nothing
but a mere lifeless body, but the great blacksmith had given it a form
more perfect than that of any statue that has ever been made.
"Come now!" said Jupiter, "let us all
give some goodly gift to this
woman;" and he began by giving her life.
Then the others came in their turn, each
with a gift for the marvelous
creature. One gave her beauty; and another a pleasant voice; and
another
good manners; and another a kind heart; and another skill in many arts;
and, lastly, some one gave her curiosity. Then they called her Pandora,
which means the all-gifted, because she had received gifts from them
all.
Pandora was so beautiful and so
wondrously gifted that no one could
help loving her. When the Mighty Folk had admired her for a time, they
gave her to Mercury, the light-footed; and he led her down the mountain
side to the place where Prometheus and his brother were living and
toiling
for the good of mankind. He met Epimetheus first, and said to him:
"Epimetheus, here is a beautiful woman,
whom Jupiter has sent to you
to be your wife."
"Epimetheus, here is a beautiful woman.'"
Prometheus had often warned his brother
to beware of
any gift that
Jupiter might send, for he knew that the mighty tyrant could not be
trusted;
but when Epimetheus saw Pandora, how lovely and wise she was, he forgot
all warnings, and took her home to live with him and be his wife.
Pandora was very happy in her new home;
and even
Prometheus, when he
saw her, was pleased with her loveliness. She had brought with her a
golden
casket, which Jupiter had given her at parting, and which he had told
her
held many precious things; but wise Athena, the queen of the air, had
warned
her never, never to open it, nor look at the things inside.
"They must be jewels," she said to
herself; and then she
thought of
how they would add to her beauty if only she could wear them. "Why did
Jupiter give them to me if I should never use them, nor so much as look
at them?" she asked.
The more she thought about the golden
casket, the more
curious she was
to see what was in it; and every day she took it down from its shelf
and
felt of the lid, and tried to peer inside of it without opening it.
"Why should I care for what Athena told
me?" she said at
last. "She
is not beautiful, and jewels would be of no use to her. I think that I
will look at them, at any rate. Athena will never know. Nobody else
will
ever know."
She opened the lid a very little, just
to peep inside.
All at once there
was a whirring, rustling sound, and before she could shut it down
again,
out flew ten thousand strange creatures with death-like faces and gaunt
and dreadful forms, such as nobody in all the world had ever seen. They
fluttered for a little while about the room, and then flew away to find
dwelling-places wherever there were homes of men. They were diseases
and
cares; for up to that time mankind had not had any kind of sickness,
nor
felt any troubles of mind, nor worried about what the morrow might
bring
forth.
These creatures flew into every house,
and, without any
one seeing them,
nestled down in the bosoms of men and women and children, and put an
end
to all their joy; and ever since that day they have been flitting and
creeping,
unseen and unheard, over all the land, bringing pain and sorrow and
death
into every household.
If Pandora had not shut down the lid so
quickly, things
would have gone
much worse. But she closed it just in time to keep the last of the evil
creatures from getting out. The name of this creature was Foreboding,
and
although he was almost half out of the casket, Pandora pushed him back
and shut the lid so tight that he could never escape. If he had gone
out
into the world, men would have known from childhood just what troubles
were going to come to them every day of their lives, and they would
never
have had any joy or hope so long as they lived.
And this was the way in which Jupiter
sought to make
mankind more miserable
than they had been before Prometheus had befriended them.
III. HOW
THE FRIEND OF MEN WAS
PUNISHED
The next thing that Jupiter did was to
punish
Prometheus for stealing
fire from the sun. He bade two of his servants, whose names were
Strength
and Force, to seize the bold Titan and carry him to the topmost peak of
the Caucasus Mountains. Then he sent the blacksmith Vulcan to bind him
with iron chains and fetter him to the rocks so that he could not move
hand or foot.
Vulcan did not like to do this, for he
was a friend of
Prometheus, and
yet he did not dare to disobey. And so the great friend of men, who had
given them fire and lifted them out of their wretchedness and shown
them
how to live, was chained to the mountain peak; and there he hung, with
the storm-winds whistling always around him, and the pitiless hail
beating
in his face, and fierce eagles shrieking in his ears and tearing his
body
with their cruel claws. Yet he bore all his sufferings without a groan,
and never would he beg for mercy or say that he was sorry for what he
had
done.
Year after year, and age after age,
Prometheus hung
there. Now and then
old Helios, the driver of the sun car, would look down upon him and
smile;
now and then flocks of birds would bring him messages from far-off
lands;
once the ocean nymphs came and sang wonderful songs in his hearing; and
oftentimes men looked up to him with pitying eyes, and cried out
against
the tyrant who had placed him there.
Then, once upon a time, a white cow
passed that way,-a
strangely beautiful
cow, with large sad eyes and a face that seemed almost human. She
stopped
and looked up at the cold gray peak and the giant body which was
chained
there. Prometheus saw her and spoke to her kindly:
"I know who you are," he said. "You are
Io who was once
a fair and happy
maiden in distant Argos; and now, because of the tyrant Jupiter and his
jealous queen, you are doomed to wander from land to land in that
unhuman
form. But do not lose hope. Go on to the southward and then to the
west;
and after many days you shall come to the great river Nile. There you
shall
again become a maiden, but fairer and more beautiful than before; and
you
shall become the wife of the king of that land, and shall give birth to
a son, from whom shall spring the hero who will break my chains and set
me free. As for me, I bide in patience the day which not even Jupiter
can
hasten or delay. Farewell!"
Poor Io would have spoken, but she could
not. Her
sorrowful eyes looked
once more at the suffering hero on the peak, and then she turned and
began
her long and tiresome journey to the land of the Nile.
Ages passed, and at last a great hero
whose name was
Hercules came to
the land of the Caucasus. In spite of Jupiter's dread thunderbolts and
fearful storms of snow and sleet, he climbed the rugged mountain peak;
he slew the fierce eagles that had so long tormented the helpless
prisoner
on those craggy heights; and with a mighty blow, he broke the fetters
of
Prometheus and set the grand old hero free.
"I knew that you would come," said
Prometheus. "Ten
generations ago
I spoke of you to Io, who was afterwards the queen of the land of the
Nile."
"And Io," said Hercules, "was the mother
of the race
from which I am
sprung."
