A few posts ago, we discussed one of the most momentous gifts in modern history, that being the Statue of Liberty. We thought we’d go back thousands of years to a time where titans clashed and Krakens were released, and humans were given the Gift of Fire. You didn’t know? Pay attention, my child…

So the story goes, Zeus (the head honcho of the Gods) decided to give Prometheus (literally meaning foresight) and his brother, Epimetheus (literally meaning hindsight), the task of populating the Earth.

Epimetheus got right down to it and made all sorts of animals, but on account of his sad lack of foresight, he lavished all the coolest gifts on them: they could run fast, they could see, smell, and hear really well, etc.

Along comes Prometheus, who proceeds to create men out of the elements of earth and water (the mud). But when he finishes shaping his creation, he realizes all the good gifts are gone, thanks to some rather poor creation utilization of his brother! Prometheus won’t stand for this, so he asks Zeus if the mortals could have a small portion of his sacred fire.

But Zeus is kind of dick and says no, and that fire belongs to the gods alone. He (Zeus) seemed to think for some strange reason that mortals would become arrogant if they possessed this wonderful blessing of fire.

So now, Prometheus steals some fire from the hearth of Zeus and gives it to his beloved mortals. Yes! Man no longer has to freeze in the cold of the night, and the other animals (who feared the light of fire) no longer attacked them. The crazy thing is, Prometheus knew that he was not going to incur the full wrath of Zeus.

And sure enough, Zeus decides to punish Prometheus for a few centuries by chaining him to a rock, where an eagle comes by everyday to eat on his liver. Each night the liver of Prometheus is renewed and put back to being whole. The bird come again the next day to continue its meal. This went on for a long, long, long, long time.

So remember, without Prometheus, we would never have: Camel Cigarettes, hot dogs on the grill (s’mores for that matter), fireplaces, or the Arcade Fire.