Epimetheus
Brother of Atlas, Menoetius and Prometheus
title: "Epimetheus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["titans-(mythology)", "greek-gods", "deeds-of-zeus", "wikipedia-articles-containing-unlinked-shortened-footnotes", "pandora", "children-of-iapetus"] description: "Brother of Atlas, Menoetius and Prometheus" topic_path: "general/titans-mythology" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epimetheus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Brother of Atlas, Menoetius and Prometheus ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox deity"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| type | Greek |
| name | Epimetheus |
| image | Pandora's gift to Epimetheus.jpg |
| caption | Pandora offers the jar to Epimetheus. |
| god_of | Titan who embodies afterthought |
| consort | Pandora |
| parents | Iapetus and Clymene |
| siblings | Prometheus, Menoetius, Atlas |
| children | Prophasis, Pyrrha |
| :: |
| type = Greek | name = Epimetheus | image = Pandora's gift to Epimetheus.jpg | caption = Pandora offers the jar to Epimetheus. | god_of = Titan who embodies afterthought | abode = | consort = Pandora | parents = Iapetus and Clymene | siblings = Prometheus, Menoetius, Atlas | children = Prophasis, Pyrrha
In Greek mythology, Epimetheus (; ) is the brother of Prometheus, with the complementary pair serving as archetypal representations of mankind. Both are sons of the Titan Iapetus; while Prometheus ("forethought, or foresight") is portrayed as ingeniously clever, Epimetheus ("afterthought, or hindsight") is considered inept and foolish. In some accounts of the myth, Epimetheus unleashes the unforeseen troubles in Pandora's box.
Mythology
According to Plato's use of the old myth in his Protagoras (320d–322a), the two Titan brothers were entrusted with distributing the traits among the newly created animals. Epimetheus was responsible for giving a positive trait to every animal, but when it was time to give man a positive trait, lacking foresight he found that there was nothing left. Prometheus decided that humankind's attributes would be the civilising arts and fire, which he stole from Athena and Hephaestus. Prometheus later stood trial for his crime. In the context of Plato's dialogue, "Epimetheus, the being in whom thought follows production, represents nature in the sense of materialism, according to which thought comes later than thoughtless bodies and their thoughtless motions."
According to Hesiod, who related the tale twice (Theogony, 527ff; Works and Days 57ff), Epimetheus was the one who accepted the gift of Pandora from the gods. Their marriage may be inferred (and was by later authors), but it is not made explicit in either text. In later myths, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora was Pyrrha, who married Deucalion, a descendant of Prometheus. Together they are the only two humans who survived the deluge. In some accounts, Epimetheus had another daughter, Metameleia, whose name means "regret of what has occurred" for those that do not plan ahead will only feel sorrow when calamity strikes. According to a scholion (marginal comment) on Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica, Eumelos states that Epimetheus's wife was called Ephyra, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. In the fifth of Pindar's Pythian Odes, he is called the father of Prophasis.
In modern culture
In his seminal book Psychological Types, in Chapter X, "General description of the types", Carl Jung uses the image of Epimetheus (with direct reference to Carl Spitteler's Epimetheus) to refer to the false application of a mental function, as opposed to its whole, healthy, and creative use.
Genealogy
Notes
References
- Fowler, R. L., Early Greek Mythography: Volume 1: Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2000. . Google Books.
- Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
- Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004. . Google Books.
- Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Internet Archive.
- Kerényi, Karl, The Gods of the Greeks, Thames and Hudson, London, 1951. Internet Archive.
- Pindar, Olympian Odes. Pythian Odes, edited and translated by William H. Race, Loeb Classical Library No. 56, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1997. . Online version at Harvard University Press.
- Wendel, Carl, Scholia in Apollonium Rhodium vetera, Hildesheim, Weidmann, 1999. . Google Books.
- Yasumura, Noriko, Challenges to the Power of Zeus in Early Greek Poetry, Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2011. . Google Books.
References
- Yasumura, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mVoDAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA110 p. 110]
- Kerényi, [https://archive.org/details/godsofgreeks00kerrich/page/206/mode/2up?view=theater p. 207].
- [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0020.tlg001.perseus-eng1:507-544 507–12]; Hard, [https://books.google.com/books?id=r1Y3xZWVlnIC&pg=PA49 p. 49]
- [[Leo Strauss]], ''Natural Right and History'', p. 117.
- Leo Strauss, ''Natural Right and History'', p. 117.
- [[Ovid]], ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', Book I, line 390.
- [[John Tzetzes]]. ''[http://www.theoi.com/Text/TzetzesChiliades6.html#50 Chiliades, 6.50 lines 913-916]''.
- Gantz, p. 157; [[Eumelus of Corinth. (January 2026)
- [[Pindar]], ''Pythian'' [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/pindar-pythian_odes/1997/pb_LCL056.311.xml 5.28–9 (pp. 310, 311)].
- (1921). "Psychological Types".
- [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+132 132–138], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+337 337–411], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+453 453–520], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+901 901–906, 915–920]; Caldwell, pp. 8–11, tables 11–14.
- Although usually the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, as in [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+371 371–374], in the ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn]] to Hermes'' (4), [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+4+99&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138 99–100], Selene is instead made the daughter of Pallas the son of Megamedes.
- According to [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+507 507–511], Clymene, one of the [[Oceanids]], the daughters of [[Oceanus]] and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]], at [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+351 351], was the mother by Iapetus of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus, while according to [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus]], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022%3Atext%3DLibrary%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D2%3Asection%3D3 1.2.3], another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus.
- According to [[Plato]], ''[[Critias (dialogue). Critias]]'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg032.perseus-eng1:113d 113d–114a], Atlas was the son of [[Poseidon]] and the mortal [[Cleito]].
- In [[Aeschylus]], ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' 18, 211, 873 (Sommerstein, pp. [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.445.xml 444–445 n. 2], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.467.xml 446–447 n. 24], [http://www.loebclassics.com/view/aeschylus-prometheus_bound/2009/pb_LCL145.539.xml 538–539 n. 113]) Prometheus was born the son of Themis.
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