rd rocks by fetters of bronze. Even as the Argonauts looked toward
the mountain a great shadow fell upon their ship, and looking up they
saw a monstrous bird flying. The beat of the bird's wings filled out
the sail and drove the Argo swiftly onward. "It is the bird sent by
Zeus," Orpheus said. "It is the vulture that every day devours the
liver of the Titan god." They cowered down on the ship as they heard
that word--all the Argonauts save Heracles; he stood upright and looked
out toward where the bird was flying. Then, as the bird came near to
the mountain, the Argonauts heard a great cry of anguish go up from the
rocks.

"It is Prometheus crying out as the bird of Zeus flies down upon him,"
they said to one another. Again they cowered down on the ship, all save
Heracles, who stayed looking toward where the great vulture had flown.

The night came and the Argonauts sailed on in silence, thinking in awe
of the Titan god and of the doom that Zeus had inflicted upon him.
Then, as they sailed on under the stars, Orpheus told them of
Prometheus, of his gift to men, and of the fearful punishment that had
been meted out to him by Zeus.

Prometheus

The gods more than once made a race of men: the first was a Golden
Race. Very close to the gods who dwell on Olympus was this Golden Race;
they lived justly although there were no laws to compel them. In the
time of the Golden Race the earth knew only one season, and that season
was everlasting Spring. The men and women of the Golden Race lived
through a span of life that was far beyond that of the men and women of
our day, and when they died it was as though sleep had become
everlasting with them. They had all good things, and that without
labor, for the earth without any forcing bestowed fruits and crops upon
them. They had peace all through their lives, this Golden Race, and
after they had passed away their spirits remained above the earth,
inspiring the men of the race that came after them to do great and
gracious things and to act justly and kindly to one another.

After the Golden Race had passed away, the gods made for the earth a
second race--a Silver Race. Less noble in spirit and in body was this
Silver Race, and the seasons that visited them were less gracious. In
the time of the Silver Race the gods made the seasons--Summer and
Spring, and Autumn and Winter. They knew parching heat, and the bitter
winds of winter, and snow and rain and hail. It was the men of t