In the Greek myth of Pandora, Prometheus was punished by Zeus for stealing fire.
Prometheus takes fire from the gods and gives it to humanity, an act that helps mortals develop technology, cooking, crafts, and civilization in later interpretations. Zeus regards the theft as a serious challenge to divine authority and punishes Prometheus separately from his punishment of humanity through Pandora.
In the best-known version of the punishment, Prometheus is chained to a rock while an eagle repeatedly eats his liver, which regenerates. This detail is especially prominent in later literary and artistic traditions, including Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound.
The fire theft and Pandora episode are connected in Hesiod’s Works and Days, but they are not the same punishment. Prometheus suffers directly, while Pandora becomes the means by which hardship enters human life. This distinction helps separate the two strands of the myth.