Continuing from where we left off last week. Zeus is angry, very angry and decides to punish Prometheus for stealing fire off his thunderbolt. Read on…
An angry Zeus sent Force and Violence, two of his henchmen to seize Prometheus. Prometheus did not resist when they led him to the top of the Caucasus Mountain, where they bound him to a rock with unbreakable admantine chains. (Admantine was a very hard metal, harder than iron even. They obviously didn’t want to take chances with the strong Titan.)
As he lay atop the rock, an eagle swooped down and began eating his liver. In the night, the liver grew back again and the eagle was back the next day to feast on it. This went on every day for a thousand years or more. It was a cruel fate but no one dared to say a word.
It was Zeus himself, perhaps tired of Prometheus’ stoicism, who offered a way out. He sent Hermes, the messenger god with a request. Prometheus had a gift to see into the future (his very name meant Forethought) and Zeus wished to know who would usurp his throne. If Prometheus would reveal that, he would be set free.
But Prometheus chose to remain silent and Hermes had to return without an answer. The Titan is tough one, thought Zeus. Now Zeus was not so bad after all. His anger had cooled down somewhat and he offered another olive branch.
Okay, I will let him free if he can fulfill two of my conditions, he sent word again. One was that Prometheus would be released if he could find another immortal like him who would be willing to give up his life instead of him. Two, a mortal would have to kill the liver-eating eagle to end his torment.
Prometheus again did not say a word. He did not expect or seek help. If this was to be his fate, so be it. He had no regrets for his act. But fortunately for him, there was someone willing to take his place. A centaur (half-man half-horse creature) by the name of Chiron, who happened to be a mentor to many a Greek hero, was accidently wounded by a poisoned arrow of Heracles. The pain of the wound inflicted by the arrow was unbearable as it was coated with the blood of the monster Hydra. Now Chiron was an immortal and knew that the searing pain would never cease. Better the comfort of dying than go through eternally with this unbearable wound, he thought and offered to give up his life for Prometheus.
As for the second condition, Heracles, the half mortal son of Zeus himself took up the challenge. Already he was full of remorse at having wounded his gentle teacher Chiron and besides, he loved to champion the cause of the just and the powerless.
So Chiron gave up his immortality and his form. In turn, he was honoured in the heavens with a constellation Centaurus. Meanwhile, Heracles with his quiver full of poisoned arrows made his way to the Caucasus. On finding the eagle devouring his daily meal of Prometheus’ liver, Heracles shot one of his arrows at the bird and killed it.
Prometheus was free at last and Zeus invited him back to Mount Olympus, the seat of the gods. Of course, he never dared to ask Prometheus again the course of his future but made him a wear a ring made from the rock of the Caucasus, a symbol of his ordeal. Ever since, a grateful humankind began to wear rings in honour of the Titan.