PROME′THEUS was son of Japetes and father of Deucalion. He presumed
to make clay men, and animate them with fire which he had stolen from
heaven. This so displeased Jupiter that he sent him a box full of
evils, which Prometheus refused; but his brother Epimetheus, not so
cautious, opened it, and the evils spread over all the earth. Jupiter
then punished Prometheus by commanding Mercury to bind him to Mount
Caucasus, where a vulture daily preyed upon his liver, which grew
in the night as much as it had been reduced in the day, so that the
punishment was a prolonged torture. Hercules at last killed the vulture
and set Prometheus free.
PROPHECY, see Nereus.
PROSER′PINE. A daughter of Jupiter and Ceres. Pluto carried her off to
the infernal regions and made her his wife. She was known by the names
of “the Queen of Hell,” Hecate, Juno Inferna, and Libitina.
“He sung, and hell consented
To hear the poet’s prayer,
Stern Proserpine relented,
And gave him back the fair.”