Prometheus
Προμηθεύς
The Titan who gave fire to humans and paid with eternal punishment.
His name means "he who thinks ahead." His brother Epimetheus is "he who thinks too late."
He smuggled the fire Zeus had hidden inside a fennel stalk and brought it to humans; for that, he was chained to a rock in the Caucasus.
An eagle ate his liver every day, and every night the liver grew back. In time, Heracles shot the eagle and set him free.
The giver of civilization punished for his gift — that pattern became a frame Western literature has repeated for two thousand years.
SourcesHesiod, Theogony; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound