In Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from Mount Olympus for humans.
Prometheus is the Titan most closely associated with bringing fire to humanity. The gift represents practical knowledge, craft, technology, and civilization, since control of fire enabled cooking, metalworking, heating, and other human arts in mythic interpretations.
Zeus opposed the gift and punished Prometheus. Hesiod presents Pandora as part of the retaliation against humanity, making the theft of fire a direct background event for the Pandora story. The myth’s sequence explains why divine generosity and divine punishment are closely connected in ancient Greek accounts of human origins.
The fire theft is told in several classical sources, including Hesiod and Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound. Details differ between texts, but Prometheus’s role as humanity’s fire-bringer is consistent. He is therefore distinct from Hephaestus, the Olympian craftsman god who works with fire.