t Prometheus had stolen this fire even from his own
altar and had given it to men. And he thought on how he might punish
the great Titan god for his impiety.

He brought back from the Underworld the giants that he had put there to
guard the Titans that had been hurled down to Tartarus. He brought back
Gyes, Cottus, and Briareus, and he commanded them to lay hands upon
Prometheus and to fasten him with fetters to the highest, blackest crag
upon Caucasus. And Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes seized upon the Titan
god, and carried him to Caucasus, and fettered him with fetters of
bronze to the highest, blackest crag--with fetters of bronze that may
not be broken. There they have left the Titan stretched, under the sky,
with the cold winds blowing upon him, and with the sun streaming down
on him. And that his punishment might exceed all other punishments Zeus
had sent a vulture to prey upon him--a vulture that tears at his liver
each day.

And yet Prometheus does not cry out that he has repented of his gift to
man; although the winds blow upon him, and the sun streams upon him,
and the vulture tears at his liver, Prometheus will not cry out his
repentance to heaven. And Zeus may not utterly destroy him. For
Prometheus the Foreseer knows a secret that Zeus would fain have him
disclose. He knows that even as Zeus overthrew his father and made
himself the ruler in his stead, so, too, another will overthrow Zeus.
And one day Zeus will have to have the fetters broken from around the
limbs of Prometheus, and will have to bring from the rock and the
vulture, and into the Council of the Olympians, the unyielding Titan
god.

When the light of the morning came the Argo was very near to the
Mountain Caucasus. The voyagers looked in awe upon its black crags.
They saw the great vulture circling over a high rock, and from beneath
where the vulture circled they heard a weary cry. Then Heracles, who
all night had stood by the mast, cried out to the Argonauts to bring
the ship near to a landing place.

But Jason would not have them go near; fear of the wrath of Zeus was
strong upon him; rather, he bade the Argonauts put all their strength
into their rowing, and draw far off from that forbidden mountain.
Heracles, not heeding what Jason ordered, declared that it was his
purpose to make his way up to the black crag, and, with his shield and
his sword in his hands, slay the vulture that preyed upon the liver of
Prometheus.

Then Orpheus in a