protagoras   

could devise his salvation, stole the mechanical arts of Hephaestus

and Athene, and fire with them (they could neither have been

acquired nor used without fire), and gave them to man. Thus man had

the wisdom necessary to the support of life, but political wisdom he

had not; for that was in the keeping of Zeus, and the power of

Prometheus did not extend to entering into the citadel of heaven,

where Zeus dwelt, who moreover had terrible sentinels; but he did

enter by stealth into the common workshop of Athene and Hephaestus, in

which they used to practise their favourite arts, and carried off

Hephaestus' art of working by fire, and also the art of Athene, and

gave them to man. And in this way man was supplied with the means of

life. But Prometheus is said to have been afterwards prosecuted for

theft, owing to the blunder of Epimetheus.

Now man, having a share of the divine attributes, was at first the

only one of the animals who had any gods, because he alone was of

their kindred; and he would raise altars and images of them. He was

not long in inventing articulate speech and names; and he also

constructed houses and clothes and shoes and beds, and drew sustenance

from the earth. Thus provided, mankind at first lived dispersed, and

there were no cities. But the consequence was that they were destroyed

by the wild beasts, for they were utterly weak in comparison of

them, and their art was only sufficient to provide them with the means

of life, and did not enable them to carry on war against the

animals: food they had, but not as yet the art of government, of which

the art of war is a part. After a while the desire of

self-preservation gathered them into cities; but when they were

gathered together, having no art of government, they evil intreated

one another, and were again in process of dispersion and

destruction. Zeus feared that the entire race would be exterminated,

and so he sent Hermes to them, bearing reverence and justice to be the

ordering principles of cities and the bonds of friendship and

conciliation. Hermes asked Zeus how he should impart justice and