At the beginning of time, the earth was ruled by the titans, powerful beings who were the offspring of the primordial gods. Prometheus was one of them, a deity as old as time itself who could foresee the future. Prometheus predicted the victory of the Olympic gods over the titans during the titanomachy-the great war between gods and titans for the rulership of the universe, supreme power. Prometheus did not oppose Zeus during the conflict and so he escaped from being imprisoned in Tartarus together with the other titans.
When the War had ended Zeus ordered Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to create and also populate the land with the most diverse animals. The titans had plenty of raw material and while Epimetheus was molding every kind of creature, Prometheus coordinated the production process, and each animal was given a talent. The birds were given the ability to fly, the elephants were granted enormous strength and so different talents were evenly distributed. Man was saved for the end, they wanted to do something special, However, after shaping man from clay they realized that all talents had already been distributed to all the other animals.
Prometheus presented his work to the goddess Athena, she felt marveled by the titan's work and decided to bless it with the divine breath, and this, is how humanity came to be. However, Prometheus was not happy with the result, He wanted man to stand out above all the other animals for man was just a smarter monkey. Man lived in caves dodging every kind animal and subsisting on fruits that dropped on the ground, fearing and dreading the darkness. And so, Athena advised Prometheus to introduce Fire to man and so with the sunset, the Titan Prometheus headed to Helios's - (the ancient god of the sun before Apollo, rides his carriage across the sky daily which causes day and night)- carriage which was waiting for a new dawn and Prometheus lit the torch that would be given to humanity.
With Fire now present, man started to develop rapidly. Weapons and tools were created, and man began to dominate nature. Prometheus was finally happy as he was humanity's good maker. Watching the blooming of this new creature, Zeus decreed that they would worship the gods by offering sacrifices, but Prometheus interceded on the behalf of humanity in order to prevent his creation from being exploited. Prometheus being a clever being, attempted to deceive the god, on the behalf of man.
Prometheus asked for a bull to be sacrificed to the gods and the product of the sacrifice would be split to 2 piles. One was smaller but contained the best meats covered by the animal's skin. while the other pile was bigger, but it only contained bones and entrails and they were wrapped in fat which made the offering look more attractive. The cunning Prometheus knew that Zeus's ambition would make him pick the bigger of the 2 options meanwhile man would have the best part. When Zeus realized that he had been tricked, He was furious with those who had deceived him and decided to take the fire out of the hands of humanity, and without the fire, mankind started to regress. They were tormented by darkness and cold and could also no longer cook their food.
Outraged, Prometheus decided to steal the sacred fire and give it back to man. So, during the night, he went to Mount Olympus and stole the flame in Hephaestus's forge, and with the reestablishment of the dominance of fire, mankind was thriving once more, but the glowing flames attracted Zeus's attention during the night, and he was furious and decided that Prometheus could not go Unpunished due to his insolence, and so he imprisoned him on a rock using unbreakable chains made by Hephaestus himself as he was the only one capable of making such chains that could even restrict a mighty titan and so he was bound and made to endure eternal punishment for defying Zeus's decisions.
However, Prometheus's punishment wasn't simply life imprisonment, his torment was much worse. Zeus decided that a dreadful bird would be made to devour his liver in order to make him feel immeasurable pain. Prometheus was however an immortal titan and with that said, after being torn apart by the bird called the Odius bird, Prometheus's liver would regenerate, just to be attacked all over again by the animal the very next day but the Titan had to endure this punishment and he did for many years until Zeus came down to earth and offered him freedom only if he would hide the knowledge of fore from man. But as humanities benefactor, the Titan rejected the god's offer and decided that he would rather sacrifice himself for his precious creations and with that humanity could prosper, all thanks to Prometheus's martyrdom