INTRODUCTION
his brethren, and Okeanos; Atlas, moreover, was not put into Tartaros, but compelled to stand in the utmost West, holding up the sky "with his head and tireless hands." (Hesiod, Theog. 519.) So the new generation of gods were established, and Zeus divided to them their several honours. (Hesiod, Theog. 885: Aesch. Prom. 230.) But thereafter Prometheus was brought into a quarrel with Zeus by his favouring of the race of men, and when at last he stole fire from heaven in a hollow fennel-stalk and gave it to men, Zeus for punishment chained him up, and set an eagle upon him to devour his liver. In this evil case Prometheus continued, till Herakles, the son of Zeus by a mortal woman, killed the eagle and set him free. (Hesiod, Theog. 520–569.)
In these outlines of the story Hesiod and Aeschylus agree. But in other respects they show divergence. For Aeschylus, in taking over the old myth, modified it freely to suit his central thought, omitting here and adding there, till the vague legendary figures acquire a new actuality of being, are raised to transcendent characters, wherein
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