"Resentment stung the Thunderer's inmost soul,
And his heart chafed in anger, when he saw
The fire far-gleaming in the midst of man."
—Hesiod.
Not only did Jupiter punish the Titan by chaining him to a crag in the Caucasus mountains at the eastern end of the earth, but he sent Pandora to the Titan's brother Epimetheus, and Pandora, through her unrestrained curiosity, opened a forbidden box and let out all the woes and sorrows which now roam the world. Since, however, ungrateful mankind had informed on Prometheus, he rewarded them with a remedy for old age—which was slyly stolen by a snake as the gift was being conveyed down the mountain. Thus snakes renew their youth by casting off their skins while men suffer helplessly with all the evils that prey upon the old. But Jupiter now felt such great pity for Chiron in his torture that he somewhat forgot his indignation at Prometheus (and anyway mortals had been using fire for many generations and it had spread to such an extent that it was now past regaining), so the great god granted Chiron's prayer that he might sacrifice his immortality for the release of Prometheus.
The Bow, the Scorpion and the Hydra's Tail.
Hercules then made his way up the precipice where Prometheus was bound, killed the vulture which was torturing him, struck off his chains and set him free. The centaur was then made mortal, released from his sufferings by the gentle balm of death, placed in the heavens and beautified with stars.
This centaur, now called Sagittarius, the Archer, was given a constellation near the southern horizon, indeed, he lies so far to the south that he is partially hidden from view and only the head and bow and arrow may be seen by most of us living in the United States. His constellation may be easily located by first finding the Scorpion, which has a large, well-defined anchor-shaped figure marked in the center by a brilliantly red first magnitude star.
The Greeks imagined that the Arrow of the Archer was drawn and held against the bow. Ovid says that the Archer "Thrusts the Scorpion with his bended bow."
