Prometheus

Prometheus was the Titan of forethought, knowledge, crafty counsel, and fire, and in the old myths the creator of mankind. A Titan and son of Iapetus, he was foreseeing and kind, cherishing the mortals he had made. He defected to the Olympians in the Great War, but later defied Zeus by giving fire to mankind, for which he was made mortal and bound to suffer endless torment until Kratos freed him in death. (God of War II; God of War: Chains of Olympus; Bibliotheca)

Creator of mankind#

In the myths the series draws on, Prometheus was a Titan, the son of Iapetus and brother of Atlas and Epimetheus, known for being quick witted and creative. During the Age of the Titans it was he who created the race of mortals. He cherished his creations and desired their betterment and unhindered development in harmony with nature and the deities, and through the Golden Age humanity lived a blissful existence alongside him and his fellow Titans. (Theogony; Bibliotheca; Works and Days)

Defection to the Olympians#

When Zeus freed his swallowed siblings and the Great War broke out between Cronos and his children, Prometheus foresaw that Cronos and those loyal to him could not win. In Aeschylus' telling his mother had warned him that the war would go to cunning rather than strength, and the Titans would not listen. He therefore chose to defect to the Olympians, betraying his father, his brothers, and his king to stand on the side whose victory was already fated. When the Olympians won, the majority of the Titans were banished to Tartarus, but Prometheus, like his cousin Helios, stood with the victors. (Prometheus Bound; God of War II)

The theft of fire#

Zeus proved far less kind toward mortals than the Titan who made them. In Hesiod's telling, after Prometheus tricked him over the division of a sacrifice, Zeus withheld fire from mankind, leaving them without its warmth and protection. (Theogony)

In defiance, Prometheus stole fire and bestowed it upon the mortal world, directly opposing the will of the King of the Gods; a lore marker in the Caves of Olympus, on the approach to the Primordial Fire, tells of the theft. Furious at such insolence, Zeus stripped Prometheus of his immortality and divinity and sentenced him to be chained on the outside of the mountain that imprisoned the storm Titan Typhon, bound to the Titan's hand, where a giant eagle would savagely consume him every day for all eternity. In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound it's Kratos, the god of strength, who oversees the chaining, an irony unpacked in Kratos in Greek mythology. (God of War: Chains of Olympus; God of War II; Prometheus Bound)

Torment and release#

When Kratos journeyed through the frozen mountain that held Typhon on his way to the Sisters of Fate, he came upon Prometheus chained to Typhon's hand with the great white eagle feeding upon his liver. The bird flew off at the Spartan's arrival, and Prometheus told him how Zeus had placed him there for giving the Fires of Olympus to mankind, made him mortal, and set the eagle to devour him each day only for his liver to heal each night. (God of War II)

Prometheus begged Kratos to release him from his torment. The Spartan struck him until he fell from the hand, but his chain held him hanging above the Fires of Olympus below, and Kratos could not yet reach the chain to free him. Only after obtaining Typhon's Bane did Kratos return, shoot the chain, and send Prometheus falling into the Fires. The Titan screamed as he burned and at last died. His flesh tainted the Fires of Olympus and imbued them with the power of the Titans, and Gaia gave his ashes to Kratos, granting him the Rage of the Titans, which he used to free Pegasus and continue his quest. (God of War II)