too
mighty, and would not give them fire. Then Prometheus climbed the skies,
and brought fire down for them in a hollow reed.

[Picture: Mount Parnassus]

The gods were jealous, and thought it time to stop this. So Jupiter bade
Vulcan mould a woman out of clay, and Pallas to adorn her with all charms
and gifts, so that she was called Pandora, or All Gifts; and they gave
her a casket, into which they had put all pains, and griefs, and woes,
and ills, and nothing good in it but hope; and they sent her down to
visit the two Titan brothers. Prometheus knew that Jupiter hated them,
and he had warned Epimetheus not to take any gift that came from Olympus;
but he was gone from home when Pandora came; and when Epimetheus saw how
lovely she was, and heard her sweet voice, he was won over to trust her,
and to open the box. Then out flew all the evils and miseries that were
stored in it, and began to torment poor mankind with war, and sickness,
and thirst, and hunger, and nothing good was left but hope at the bottom
of the box. And by-and-by there came spirits, called Prayers, but they
were lame, coming after evil, because people are so apt not to begin to
pray till harm has befallen them.

[Picture: Pandora] The gods undertook also to accept sacrifices, claiming
a share in whatever animal man slew. Prometheus guarded his people here
by putting the flesh of a bullock on one side, and the bones and inward
parts covered with the fat on the other, and bidding Jupiter choose which
should be his. The fat looked as if the heap it covered were the best,
and Jupiter chose that, and was forced to abide by his choice; so that,
whenever a beast was killed for food, the bones and fat were burnt on the
altar, and man had the flesh. All this made Jupiter so angry, that, as
Prometheus was immortal and could not be killed, he chained the great,
good Titan to a rock on Mount Caucasus, and sent an eagle continually to
rend his side and tear out his liver as fast as it grew again; but
Prometheus, in all his agony, kept hope, for he knew that deliverance
would come to him; and, in the meantime, he was still the comforter and
counsellor of all who found their way to him.

Men grew very wicked, owing to the evils in Pandora's box, and Jupiter
resolved to drown them all with a flood; but Prometheus, knowing it
beforehand, told his mortal son Deucalion to build a ship and store it
with all sorts of food. In it Deucali