er." So Zeus stretched forth his hand in haste, and
placed it upon the fat, and fierce was his wrath when he found only
the bare bones underneath it. Wherefore men offer up to the undying
gods only the bones and fat of the victims that are slain.

Then in his anger Zeus sought how he might avenge himself on the race
of men, and he took away from them the gift of fire, so that they were
vexed by cold and darkness and hunger, until Prometheus brought them
down fire which he had stolen from heaven. Then was the rage of Zeus
still more cruel, and he smote Prometheus with his thunderbolts, and
at his bidding Hermes bare him to the crags of Caucasus, and bound him
with iron chains to the hard rock, where the vulture gnawed his heart
with its beak.

But the wrath of Zeus was not appeased, and he sought how he might yet
more vex the race of men; and he remembered how the Titan Prometheus
had warned them to accept no gift from the gods, and how he left his
brother Epimetheus to guard them against the wiles of the son of
Kronos. And he said within himself, "The race of men knows neither
sickness nor pain, strife or war, theft or falsehood; for all these
evil things are sealed up in the great cask which is guarded by
Epimetheus. I will let loose the evils, and the whole earth shall be
filled with woe and misery."

So he called Hephaistos, the lord of fire, and he said, "Make ready a
gift which all the undying gods shall give to the race of men. Take
the earth, and fashion it into the shape of woman. Very fair let it be
to look upon, but give her an evil nature, that the race of men may
suffer for all the deeds that they have done to me." Then Hephaistos
took the clay and moulded from it the image of a fair woman, and
Athene clothed her in a beautiful robe, and placed a crown upon her
head, from which a veil fell over her snowy shoulders. And Hermes, the
messenger of Zeus, gave her the power of words, and a greedy mind, to
cheat and deceive the race of men. Then Hephaistos brought her before
the assembly of the gods, and they marveled at the greatness of her
beauty; and Zeus took her by the hand and gave her to Epimetheus, and
said, "Ye toil hard, ye children of men; behold one who shall soothe
and cheer you when the hours of toil are ended. The undying gods have
taken pity on you, because ye have none to comfort you; and woman is
their gift to men, therefore is her name called Pandora."

Then Epimetheus forgot the warning of h