Abstract
Prometheus' unequal division of the great ox opened up a three-stage crisis, each one a step towards defining the human condition. The first relates directly to the division of the animal parts, since the latter explicitly forms the etiology of the sacrifices that humans will have to perform for the gods from whom they will henceforth be separated. The fragrant altars and the burning of the white bones outlined in the etiology are a fitting transition to the reference to the blazing fire that Zeus decides to withhold from humans to compensate for the unequal distribution of the beef. By stealing the fire and giving it to humans, Prometheus reintroduces an imbalance that Zeus compensates for by having Hephaestus make a female prototype. Conceived as "a beautiful evil in return for a good", this "semblance of a respectable marriageable girl" is a model that creates the conditions not only for gendered distinction within humanity, but also for a society based on matrimonial rules and generational renewal. The hymn to Hecate and the story of the Promethean crisis, symmetrically situated around the birth of Zeus and his fight against his father, are then placed opposite each other, revealing multiple resonances between the passages, which are systematically analyzed. An incursion into the Hesiodic poem of the Works closes the lesson, as it also includes the story of the making of the female prototype, this time named Pandora. Recurring formulas from one poem to the next are highlighted as particularly significant highlights of this "fabrication".
