Editing Prometheus (section)

=== Other authors ===
[[File:Creation Prometheus Louvre Ma445.jpg|thumb|Creation of humanity by Prometheus as Athena looks on ([[Roman Empire|Roman-era]] relief, 3rd century AD)]]
[[File:Griepenkerl, Beseelung der menschlichen Tonfigur durch Athena.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Prometheus watches Athena endow his creation with reason (painting by [[Christian Griepenkerl]], 1877).]]

Some two dozen other Greek and Roman authors retold and further embellished the Prometheus myth from as early as the 5th century BC ([[Diodorus]], [[Herodorus]]) into the 4th century AD. The most significant detail added to the myth found in, e.g., [[Sappho]], [[Aesop]] and [[Ovid]]<ref>Cf. Ovid, ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', I, 78ff.</ref> was the central role of Prometheus in the creation of the human race. According to these sources, Prometheus fashioned humans out of clay.

Although perhaps made explicit in the ''Prometheia'', later authors such as [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'', and [[Quintus of Smyrna]] would confirm that Prometheus warned Zeus not to marry the sea nymph [[Thetis]]. She is consequently married off to the mortal [[Peleus]], and bears him a son greater than the father – [[Achilles]], Greek hero of the [[Trojan War]]. Pseudo-Apollodorus moreover clarifies a cryptic statement (1026–29) made by Hermes in ''Prometheus Bound'', identifying the centaur [[Chiron]] as the one who would take on Prometheus' suffering and die in his place.<ref name="titan" /> Reflecting a myth attested in Greek vase paintings from the Classical period, Pseudo-Apollodorus places the Titan (armed with an axe) at the birth of [[Athena]], thus explaining how the goddess sprang forth from the forehead of Zeus.<ref name="titan" />

Other minor details attached to the myth include: the duration of Prometheus' torment;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Prometheus.html |title=30 Years |publisher=Mlahanas.de |date=1997-11-10 |access-date=2012-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120530002156/http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Prometheus.html |archive-date=2012-05-30 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theoi.com/Ther/AetosKaukasios.html |title=30,000 Years |publisher=Theoi.com |access-date=2012-05-18 |archive-date=2012-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120511130258/http://www.theoi.com/Ther/AetosKaukasios.html |url-status=live }}</ref> the origin of the eagle that ate the Titan's liver (found in Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus); Pandora's marriage to Epimetheus (found in Pseudo-Apollodorus); myths surrounding the life of Prometheus' son, [[Deucalion]] (found in Ovid and [[Apollonius of Rhodes]]); and Prometheus' marginal role in the myth of [[Jason]] and the [[Argonauts]] (found in Apollonius of Rhodes and [[Gaius Valerius Flaccus|Valerius Flaccus]]).<ref name="titan"/>

"Variants of legends containing the Prometheus motif are widespread in the [[Caucasus]]" region, reports Hunt,<ref>p. 14. Hunt, David. 2012. ''Legends of the Caucasus''. London: Saqi Books.</ref> who gave ten stories related to Prometheus from ethno-linguistic groups in the region.

Prometheus finally makes an appearance in Athenian playwright [[Aristophanes]]'s comedy ''[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]]'', where he is seen living on [[Mount Olympus]] after the end of his long torture, apparently having reconciled with the other gods. He is presented not as the dauntless rebel who questioned Zeus, but rather as a timid god who goes to negotiate with the titular Birds disguised, so that Zeus will not notice him talking to the enemy.<ref>{{cite book | page = [https://books.google.com/books?id=AGq2BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA176 176] | first = Angus | last = Nicholls | title = Myth and the Human Sciences: Hans Blumenberg's Theory of Myth | date =  2014 | isbn = 978-0-415-88549-2 | publisher = [[Routledge]] | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AGq2BQAAQBAJ}}</ref>

[[Zahhak]], an evil figure in [[Persian mythology|Iranian mythology]], also ends up eternally chained on a mountainside – though the rest of his career is dissimilar to that of Prometheus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ferdowsi |first1=Abolqasem |title=Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings |date=2016 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=New York |translator-last=Davis |translator-first=Dick |contribution=Introduction |contributor-last=Davis |contributor-first=Dick |page=xxi}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Stoneman |first1=Richard |title=Xerxes: A Persian Life |date=2015 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |pages=104–105 |chapter=The Religion of Xerxes}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Davis |first1=Dick |title=In the Enemy's Camp: Homer's Helen and Ferdowsi's Hojir |journal=Iranian Studies |date=1992 |volume=25 |issue=3/4 |pages=17–26 |doi=10.1080/00210869208701777 |jstor=4310801|s2cid=163137676 }}</ref>