A New Story Part II - On Principles

Long ago, before there were mortals on the earth, Zeus gave Prometheus the task of creating humans.

Prometheus knelt in the mud, dug down and shaped a man with his own hands, just like a sculptor would.

Watching nearby was Zeus's daughter, Athena. Athena had been born from Zeus's head - like an idea - as a fully formed woman clad in armour but vulnerably naked beneath her coverings. She admired Prometheus's work and breathed life into his creation.

Art and ideas; muddy hands and a delicate mind.

Intensely proud of his sculpture, Prometheus decided to distinguish men from beasts by making them stand upright like the gods. That is when everything changed. 

Disgusted, Zeus decreed that men should demonstrate their subservience by sacrificing a portion of their food to the gods. Prometheus tricked him into accepting skin and bones, while humans should enjoy the meat. Forever.

In a rage, Zeus removed fire from men. Defiant, Prometheus lit a torch from the sun and brought the stolen flame to his shivering creations. A little piece of the heavens on earth.

Zeus sent his servants, Violence and Force, to take the sculptor to a mountain and chain him there with unbreakable diamond chains. There he was tormented by an eagle tearing at his liver, which regenerated in the night.

Zeus gave Prometheus two options to escape this fate. Prometheus chose neither.