The great flood that ended the Silver Age not only destroyed the men of that time, it also shook loose all the ice and snow which had been struck up in the norther part of the world. The climate of the earth was no longer mild, and the new men Prometheus had made suffered greatly from the cold. They spent a lot of time complaining about the bad weather and said that it was a cruel joke for someone to create them just to lead such miserable lives.
"These men are more disagreeable than the others," said Zeus.
When Prometheus heard this, he knew that Zeus would soon decide to drown these men, too, unless something was done. The best thing Prometheus could think of to make men's lives better was the gift of fire. With fire, man could warm himself, cook his food, and forge metal for tools and weapons. He could make lights at night, so that the world would not seem such a dark, dreary place. Prometheus also knew that Zeus would never agree to this, so he made his plans secretly.
He gave a last look at Olympus, for he knew he could never return, and he told to Athens good-bye. She had been his best friend there. Without another backward glance, Prometheus set out for the fiery home of the sun. He broke from the sun a fragment of glowing coal and, hiding it in the hollow of a giant fennel-stalk, he carried it down to earth. There he lit a central fire and showed men how to make it for themselves by rubbing sticks together.
Sitting around their evening fires, eating roast ox or lamb, men said to each other that they didn't know how they had survived before, without this fine thing, fire.
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The Story of the Greek Mythology: Short
Historical FictionGreek mythology, body of stories concerning the gods, heroes, and rituals of the ancient Greeks. That the myths contained a considerable element of fiction was recognized by the more critical Greeks, such as the philosopher Plato in the 5th-4th cent...
