Everything You Need to Know About The Creation of the Human Race According to Greek Mythology

According to the myths, the Olympian Gods thought it would be interesting to create beings in their image, but as mortals without divine powers, to inhabit the earth. When the mortals were created, Zeus ordered Prometheus and Epitameus, the sons of the Titan Iapetus, to bestow various gifts among the mortals. Zeus ordered these gifts to be given to the mortals as he hoped that the human race would evolve into interesting creatures that would act as a source of amusement for the gods.

Thus, Prometheus and Epitamus began to divide these gifts among themselves and started to give them to the new inhabitants of Earth. It was decided between the two brothers that Prometheus would hand out the first gifts. Prometheus handed out the gifts to the animals first. He handed some animals beauty, some animals were given strength, others were given agility, and the rest were given speed. However, Prometheus left the mortal humans defenseless and did not give them any natural weapons. Prometheus loved mankind and realized the error of his ways, and to make up for his error, he promptly distributed his gifts to mankind in the form of superior intellect and reasoning. He stole the gift of reason from the goddess Athena and bestowed it upon man. Prometheus then stole fire from the gates of Hephaestus to make sure that the humans could keep themselves warm and cook. Due to Prometheus taking a liking to mankind, he shared all the knowledge he had with them and became the protector of the human race.

However, Prometheus did not consult Zeus. Zeus was furious. Until that point, a fire had been reserved for the use of the gods and Zeus did not want the mortals to resemble the gods. Due to Prometheus’s negligence, he was heavily punished. Prometheus was chained up for thirty years on the peak of the Caucasus, hovering over the edge of the world. Every day, an eagle would feast on his liver, only for it to grow back the next day. However, after thirty years the seemingly never-ending nightmare came to an end. Herakles (Hercules) relieved Prometheus from his punishment and he was allowed to return to the land of the gods. 

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2 thoughts on “Everything You Need to Know About The Creation of the Human Race According to Greek Mythology”

  1. Hi, The “Free Book Bundle” comes as a mime file, but can’t get them opened. Th Zip Extractor works, but how to open the files once they have been extracted? Adobe indicates an error – “corrupted files”.

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