Atlas vs Prometheus

The Titan son of Iapetus whom Zeus set to hold up the sky at the western edge of the world, near the garden of the Hesperides. Brother of Prometheus and father of Maia and Calypso, he appears in Heracles' quest for the golden apples, and in Ovid is turned to stone as the Atlas mountains.

Atlas is the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, and the brother of Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus (Hesiod, Theogony 507-514). His task of holding up the sky is the lot Zeus assigned him.

Hesiod makes Atlas one of the four sons of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene, with Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus. Zeus deals with each of them, and Atlas's lot is to stand at the ends of the earth, before the clear-voiced Hesperides, holding up the wide sky with his head and arms. The *Theogony* presents this as an assignment by Zeus, not as the aftermath of any single battle.

Titan who defied Zeus by stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humanity. For this transgression, Zeus chained him to a rock where an eagle devoured his liver daily.

Prometheus was a Titan, son of **Iapetus** and the Oceanid **Clymene**. Unlike most Titans, he sided with Zeus during the Titanomachy. He later created humanity from clay, and when Zeus denied them fire, Prometheus stole it from Hephaestus's forge, hiding it in a fennel stalk. Zeus punished him with eternal torment on Mount Caucasus.

**Prometheus** stands apart among the Titans as the great benefactor of humankind. His name means "forethought," contrasting with his brother **Epimetheus** ("afterthought"), and his actions shaped the relationship between gods and mortals.