In Greek mythology, Prometheus is punished for stealing fire for humanity before Pandora’s creation. He is a Titan associated with foresight, craft, and the protection of humans, and his theft defies Zeus’s wishes.
Hesiod connects the fire episode with the creation of Pandora. Zeus responds by ordering a beautiful woman to be made and sending her to humanity with the sealed vessel. The myths therefore frame Pandora’s arrival as a consequence of conflict between Zeus and Prometheus.
Later writers expand Prometheus’s punishment in vivid ways. In the best-known version, Zeus chains him to a mountain, where an eagle repeatedly eats his liver, which regenerates. Heracles eventually frees him in many accounts. Prometheus’s story is separate from Pandora’s jar, but the two episodes are closely linked in Hesiod’s explanation of why humans experience suffering.