Caucasus Mountains
The mountain range at the edge of the known world where Prometheus was chained as punishment for stealing fire.
The Story of Caucasus Mountains
After Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity, Zeus had him seized and chained to a crag in the Caucasus Mountains. Each day an eagle — some say it was Zeus's own eagle, others that it was a special creature named Ethon born of Typhon and Echidna — came and ate Prometheus's liver. Each night, as an immortal, his liver regrew, and the torment repeated. He remained there for thousands of years — some say thirty, others three thousand — until Heracles arrived, shot the eagle, and broke his chains.
Children
{Prometheus (imprisoned here)}
Symbols
Fun Fact
The Caucasus was considered by Greeks the far northeast boundary of the world — placing Prometheus' punishment literally at the edge of civilisation.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Ethon
🐉 creaturePunishment, endurance
Giant eagle sent by Zeus to devour the liver of Prometheus daily as punishment for stealing fire
Caucasian Eagle
🐉 creaturepunishment,sky
The eagle — offspring of Typhon and Echidna in some traditions — tasked by Zeus with devouring the liver of Prometheus each day upon his rocky prison.
Aethon
🐉 creaturesky,punishment
A divine eagle, whose name means "blazing" or "burning", sent by Zeus to torment Prometheus by devouring his liver each day.
Aetolia
🏛 placegeography
A region of northwestern Greece associated with the Calydonian Boar Hunt and the hero Meleager.
Colchis
🏛 placeLand of the Golden Fleece
Colchis was a kingdom at the eastern edge of the Greek world, on the shore of the Black Sea in modern Georgia, famous as the destination of Jason and the Argonauts.
Prometheus Bound
💭 conceptpunishment, defiance
The punishment of Prometheus, chained to a rock in the Caucasus where an eagle devoured his regenerating liver daily for giving fire to humanity.
Prometheus
🏔 titanpunishment
Titan who stole fire from the gods for humanity and was chained to a mountain where an eagle ate his liver daily.
Mount Ida
🏛 placeMountain above Troy where gods watched the war
Mount Ida near Troy was the mountain from which the gods observed the Trojan War and where Paris judged the beauty contest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
Tempe
🏛 placeSacred geography
The Vale of Tempe, a gorge in Thessaly sacred to Apollo where laurel for the Pythian Games was gathered
Oeta
🏛 placegeography
The Thessalian mountain where Heracles built his own funeral pyre and was consumed by fire, ascending to Olympus.
Mecone
🏛 placeSacred geography
The site where Prometheus tricked Zeus at a sacrificial feast, establishing the division between gods and mortals
Cyllene
🏛 placegeography
The highest mountain in the Peloponnese, birthplace of Hermes, where the god fashioned the first lyre.