正文

Prometheus was a Titan（巨人）. In the war between Zeus and the giants he had stood on the side of the new Olympian gods. Out of the clay he made the first man, to whom Athena（雅典娜） gave soul and holy breath.

普罗米修斯是一位巨人。在宙斯与巨人的战争中，他站在新奥林匹斯山众神一边。他用泥土创造出人类，随即雅典娜赋予了人类灵魂和神圣的呼吸。

Prometheus spent a lot of time and energy in creating the gift of fire. And fire raised man above all animals.

普罗米修斯花费大量时间和精力发明了火，将火赠予人类，使人类成为万物之灵长。

Later ， there held a joint meeting of gods and men. The meeting was to decide what part of burnt animals should be given to gods and what to men. Prometheus cut up an ox（牛） and divided it into two parts: under the skin he placed the fresh, and under the fat he put the bones, for he knew the selfish Zeus loved fat.

后来众神与人类联合召开了一次会议，讨论如何分配烤熟的动物——哪些部分供奉给神，哪些部分留给人类。普罗米修斯切开一头牛，将它分成两部分：把肉放在皮下，把骨头放在肥肉下，因为他知道自私的宙斯喜欢肥肉。

Zeus saw through the trick and felt displeased at the Prometheus' favor towards men. So in a masterful way he took away the gift of fire from mankind. However ， Prometheus managed to steal fire from heaven and secretly brought it down to men.

宙斯看穿了普罗米修斯的“诡计”，对于他偏爱人类深感不满。宙斯专横地把火种从人类身边抢走。然而，普罗米修斯又设法从天堂盗取了火种，偷偷还给人类。

Flying into an anger at this unjustified act of rebellion（叛变） , Zeus let the other gods chain Prometheus to a rock on Mountain Caucasus ， where a hungry eagle ever tore at his liver which ever grew again.His period of pain was to be thirty-thousand years.

宙斯大发雷霆，无法容忍这种“叛变”，他令众神用锁链将普罗米修斯绑在高加索山脉的岩石上，又派一只饥饿的老鹰天天啄食他的肝脏，而他的肝脏每次都会重新长出来，使他承受无休止的痛苦长达三万年。

Prometheus faced his bitter fate firmly and never lost courage before Zeus. At last Heracles made Prometheus and Zeus restore to friendship, when Heracles came over in search of the golden apple and killed the eagle and set the friend of mankind free.

普罗米修斯始终坚毅不屈，不肯向宙斯低头。后来，赫拉克剌斯为寻找金苹果来到悬崖边，将恶鹰射死，解救了普罗米修斯，也使他与宙斯重归于好。

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