To tell of the fire legends from Greek mythology, some myths in which fire is a main focus will also be described. Myths are cultural stories about Greek and other gods and the origins of a culture. Legends are also stories but these are tales of real people, not gods. All tales recounted below involve a god, people, animals or birds and their relationship with fire.

It was Prometheus, according to Greek mythology, who introduced fire to mankind despite having to suffer the wrath of Zeus for having done so!

According to one version of this legend, when the earth was created, Zeus ordered Prometheus and his brother Epimetheus to create animals and people. He also told them that when they had finished this task, they were to give gifts to their creations.

Prometheus took on the role of creating man, which he did in the image of the gods. On completing his task he consulted his brother as to which gifts where left for him to give out, but discovered that Epimetheus, in his enthusiasm, had lavishly bestowed all gifts on the animals he had created.

Some animals had been gifted with the power of being able to run speedily, others had great stamina and many animals were given gifts of excellent eyesight or an acute sense of smell and hearing. On discovering there were no gifts left, Prometheus went to Zeus to ask if man could be given the gift of fire. Zeus emphatically forbade this as fire belonged only to the gods.

Prometheus, annoyed with the unfairness of it all, stole some fire from Zeus’ hearth and gave it to the mortals. With the gift of fire, man was able to keep himself warm and safe from the animals in the night who would not venture too close to the light of the fire.

His offence, the theft of fire to gift to humans, was punished by Zeus having Prometheus chained to a rock where every day an eagle came to eat his liver and every night his liver was renewed so he would suffer a painful repeat of this torture, each and every day.

Among the Olympian Gods, Hestia was goddess of the Hearth and although she plays little part in Greek legends, each city had a public hearth where there would be a fire that was sacred to this goddess. This fire was never allowed to be extinguished.

While Hephaestus was the god of fire and the forge who used a volcano where he lived as his forge. When he was born, this god was crippled and so weak that his mother Hera, finding the sight of her newly born son quite horrific, threw him off Mount Olympus. It took a day before Hephaestus landed in the sea from which he was carried by Nymphs to the island Lemmos where the people cared for him.

Hephaestus wanted revenge for the cruel actions of his mother on his birth and he created a magic throne which was given to her on Mount Olympus. As soon as she sat on the throne, Hera was entrapped within it. The other gods pleaded with Hephaestus to return to Mount Olympus and release his mother but he would not. So the gods tricked him and he was given wine enough to get him intoxicated in which state he was taken by Dionysus back to Mount Olympus slumped across the back of a mule.

Hephaestus was a talented god, having forged most of the other gods’ magnificent equipment. It was Hephaestus, so legend suggests, that created both fire on earth and in the heavens as well as the fire of thunder and the fire within volcanoes.

Another fire legend from Greek mythology tells not of fire related to gods or man but to the mythical bird the Phoenix who is reborn from the fire. According to these legends, the phoenix, a bird the size of an eagle with red and gold feathers lived near a well and each morning it would bathe in the water of the well and sing so beautifully that the sun god Phoebus would stop his chariot to listen. This mythical bird could live for over a thousand years and when it felt itself dying, it would build a nest of wood, settle on it and set the aromatic wood on fire. From this fire a new phoenix would emerge. The phoenix lived a lonely existence as there could only ever be one phoenix living at a time. The ability of the phoenix to be reborn from its own ashes is symbol of immortality and rebirth.

Sources

Ford, M “Heroes, Gods and Monsters of Ancient Greek Mythology” Book House (2009)

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/HephaistosGod.html

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Hephaistos.html

http://www.polarissite.net/LegendPhoenix.htm

http://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_16.html

http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-myth-and-legend/