original text

Legend has it that there is no fire on the earth, and human life was very difficult at that time. There is no fire to barbecue food, so we have to eat raw food. Without fire for lighting, we have to spend one long night after another in boundless darkness. ...

Zeus, the king of the gods, agreed to offer fire to mankind, but he demanded that mankind must sacrifice with a cow. Prometheus came up with a clever plan.

When offering sacrifices to Zeus, the cow Prometheus gave Zeus was divided into two parts: the first part was raw beef, but there was no cowhide; The second part is skin and bones, but it is poured with delicious butter. Zeus saw through the implication of Prometheus at a glance and said angrily, "I refuse to take the most important thing of mankind, that is fire!" " "

In order to benefit mankind, Prometheus risked his life to steal a fire from Apollo, the sun god. Zeus, the Lord God, stood on the holy mountain of Olympus and found fireworks curling up. He immediately traced back to who stole skyfire. When he learned that Prometheus had violated heaven, he flew into a rage and decided to punish him severely.

But Haphaestus admired Prometheus and whispered to him, "As long as you admit your mistake to Zeus and return the fire, I will definitely ask Zeus to forgive you." Prometheus shook his head and said firmly, "What's wrong with benefiting mankind?" ! I can endure all kinds of pain, but I will never admit my mistake, let alone return the fire! "

Source: Greek Fairy Tales from Europe.

Extended data:

Introduction to the work:

Greek mythology is the spiritual product of primitive clan society and the earliest literary form in Europe. It came into being in the 8th century BC, and it was based on the long-term oral spread of ancient Greek aborigines and referred to the myths spread to Greece and other countries.

Later, it was recorded in Homer's Epic Homer, hesiod's Divine Spectrum, ancient Greek poetry, drama, history, philosophy and other works. Later generations organized it into ancient Greek fairy tales, which were divided into two parts: the story of God and the legend of heroes.

Mythical narration plays an important role in almost all Greek literature. However, The Library written by the pseudo-Apollo is the only collection of Greek myths preserved in ancient Greece.

This book contains a lot of original materials about Greek mythology (such as the genealogy of the gods), mainly heroic mythology, and is an important document for modern scholars to study ancient Greek mythology.

In ancient times, this work was considered to be the work of Apollo dolores who lived in Athens from 180 BC to 120 BC, but now it has been proved that this work is an anonymous work or a work of the same name. Actually, it was written in the 2nd century A.D., so it is customary to call the author of this book "pseudo-Apollo dolores".

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