Prometheus is the Greek mythological figure punished by Zeus with an eagle eating his liver. The punishment follows Prometheus’s theft of fire from the gods and his gift of it to humanity.
Because Prometheus is immortal, his liver regenerates, allowing the torment to repeat. The later tradition of his binding to a mountain and suffering the eagle’s attacks became one of the most famous elements of his myth, although details vary among ancient and later sources.
Prometheus’s punishment is closely linked to Pandora’s story in Hesiod. Zeus responds to the theft of fire by arranging Pandora’s creation, while Prometheus’s brother Epimetheus accepts her. The two myths therefore explain both a divine punishment inflicted on Prometheus and the arrival of suffering in the human world.