Greeks had so entirely
forgotten his origin that they interpreted his name as meaning "the one
who thinks beforehand," and accredited him with a brother, Epimetheus,
or "the one who thinks too late." The Greeks had adopted another name,
trypanon, for their fire-drill, and thus the primitive character of
Prometheus became obscured.

I have said above that it was regarded as absolutely essential that
the divining-rod should be forked. To this rule, however, there was one
exception, and if any further evidence be needed to convince the
most sceptical that the divining-rod is nothing but a symbol of
the lightning, that exception will furnish such evidence. For this
exceptional kind of divining-rod was made of a pointed stick rotating
in a block of wood, and it was the presence of hidden water or treasure
which was supposed to excite the rotatory motion.

In the myths relating to Prometheus, the lightning-god appears as the
originator of civilization, sometimes as the creator of the human race,
and always as its friend, [59] suffering in its behalf the most fearful
tortures at the hands of the jealous Zeus. In one story he creates man
by making a clay image and infusing into it a spark of the fire which he
had brought from heaven; in another story he is himself the first man.
In the Peloponnesian myth Phoroneus, who is Prometheus under another
name, is the first man, and his mother was an ash-tree. In Norse
mythology, also, the gods were said to have made the first man out of
the ash-tree Yggdrasil. The association of the heavenly fire with
the life-giving forces of nature is very common in the myths of both
hemispheres, and in view of the facts already cited it need not surprise
us. Hence the Hindu Agni and the Norse Thor were patrons of marriage,
and in Norway, the most lucky day on which to be married is still
supposed to be Thursday, which in old times was the day of the
fire-god. [60] Hence the lightning-plants have divers virtues in
matters pertaining to marriage. The Romans made their wedding torches
of whitethorn; hazel-nuts are still used all over Europe in divinations
relating to the future lover or sweetheart; [61] and under a mistletoe
bough it is allowable for a gentleman to kiss a lady. A vast number of
kindred superstitions are described by Mr. Kelly, to whom I am indebted
for many of these examples. [62]

Thus we reach at last the completed conception of the divining-rod, or
as it is called in this sense t