although
Prometheus had warned him against receiving any gift from the gods.
When the casket was opened, every possible human evil flew out of it.
Hope alone remained, and this because Pandora quickly closed the box.
Hope has therefore been left to man, as a doubtful gift of the gods.
By order of Zeus, Prometheus was chained to a rock on the Caucasus, on
account of his relation to man. An eagle perpetually gnaws his liver,
which is as often renewed. He has to pass his life in agonising
loneliness till one of the gods voluntarily sacrifices himself,
_i.e._, devotes himself to death. The tormented Prometheus bears his
sufferings steadfastly. It had been told him that Zeus would be
dethroned by the son of a mortal unless Zeus consented to wed this
mortal woman. It was important for Zeus to know this secret. He sent
the messenger Hermes to Prometheus, in order to learn something about
it. Prometheus refused to say anything. The legend of Heracles is
connected with that of Prometheus. In the course of his wanderings
Heracles comes to the Caucasus. He slays the eagle which was devouring
the liver of Prometheus. The centaur Chiron, who cannot die, although
suffering from an incurable wound, sacrifices himself for Prometheus,
who is thereupon reconciled with the gods.

The Titans are the force of will, proceeding as nature (Kronos) from
the original universal spirit (Uranus). Here we have to think not
merely of will-forces in an abstract form, but of actual will-beings.
Prometheus is one of them, and this describes his nature. But he is
not altogether a Titan. In a certain sense he is on the side of Zeus,
the Spirit, who enters upon the rulership of the world after the
unbridled force of nature (Kronos) has been subdued. Prometheus is
thus the representative of those worlds which have given man the
progressive element, half nature-force, half spiritual force, man's
will. The will points on the one side towards good, on the other,
towards evil. Its fate is decided according as it leans to the
spiritual or the perishable. This fate is that of man himself. He is
chained to the perishable, the eagle gnaws him, he has to suffer. He
can only reach the highest by seeking his destiny in solitude. He has
a secret which is that the divine (Zeus) must marry a mortal (human
consciousness bound up with the physical body), in order to beget a
son, human wisdom (the Logos) which will deliver the deity. By this
means consciousness becomes imm