Tortured for 30,000 YEARS - Betrayer of TITANS - Nemesis of ZEUS

Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Prometheus: a Titan who betrayed his own kind and joined the gods, the champion of humanity, the wily trickster who stole fire from Zeus, and the victim of one of the most truly diabolical punishments in all of Greek mythology: to have his ever-regenerating liver ripped out of his belly each day and devoured by an eagle for thousands of years.

First we’re going to explore the role Prometheus played in the creation of humanity, going through various versions from multiple works; following that, we’re going to go through the escalating back and forth between Prometheus and Zeus, an exchange that results in a livid Zeus condemning his plucky, intrepid adversary to one of the worse punishments in all of Greek mythology; and finally, we’re going to wrap up the video by looking at the story of Deucalion, Prometheus’ son - specifically, at how he builds a boat to survive a world-consuming flood unleashed by Zeus to eradicate humanity.

Let’s get into it.

Prometheus was the son of Iapetos, one of the 12 first-generation titans, and of Clymene, one of the Oceanid nymphs. Born to them were four sons: Atlas, strong and unyielding, condemned to an eternity of bearing the heavens on his shoulders, Menoitios, an obscure figure, smote by Zeus’ lightning and thereby sent smoking down to Tartarus, Prometheus, wise and cunning, an ardent champion of humanity, and Epimetheus, dull and naive, whose susceptibility to temptation helped bring unspeakable suffering into the world. (An alternative genealogy claims that Iapetus’ consort, the mother of these four second-generation titans, was Asia, another of the Oceanid nymphs descended from first-generation Titans Oceanus and Tethys.)

Watch the video for the rest!