Myth Library · Genealogical Cycle

The Sons of Iapetus and Their Fates

2 source witnesses · 2 source-scoped variants · reviewed 2026-08-30

Hesiod and Pseudo-Apollodorus preserve competing maternal genealogies for Iapetus’s four sons and attach different punishments and burdens to each brother.

Canonical narrative

Clymene enters Hesiod’s genealogy beside Iapetus and bears Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus. The poem does not hand the brothers a common office. It immediately separates them through four consequences, while Iapetus remains the father at the root of the branch.

Atlas stands at the earth’s limit before the Hesperides, holding wide heaven with unwearying head and arms under a hard necessity assigned by Zeus. Menoetius, swollen with presumption and violent strength, is struck by the thunderbolt and sent down to Erebus. One son remains beneath a lasting burden; another vanishes into ruin.

Prometheus receives the longest suffering. Zeus binds him, drives a shaft through his body, and sends a long-winged eagle to consume his liver. The organ grows again, renewing the torment until Heracles kills the bird with Zeus’s consent. Epimetheus meets a different consequence. Hesiod calls him a grief to bread-eating humanity because he accepts the woman Zeus has fashioned.

Pseudo-Apollodorus preserves the same four sons but names Asia as their mother. His compact account says Atlas bears the sky on his shoulders and makes Menoetius’s fall part of the battle with the Titans, where Zeus strikes him and casts him into Tartarus. The passage names Prometheus and Epimetheus but does not narrate the eagle, Heracles, or the fashioned woman.

The maternal names and punishments remain side by side rather than melting into one version. Iapetus is common to both genealogies, but the sons’ burdens, errors, and endurance do not become powers possessed by their father.

Episodes in this myth

Episode 1

The four sons are born

Iapetus and Clymene begin Hesiod’s branch with Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus; the later mythographer names Asia instead.

Episode 2

Atlas bears heaven

Zeus assigns Atlas the hard necessity of upholding wide heaven at the world’s limit.

Episode 3

Menoetius is struck down

Zeus’s thunderbolt casts proud Menoetius down, with the later account locating the act in the Titan battle.

Episode 4

Prometheus is bound and released

Prometheus endures bonds and the eagle’s returning hunger until Heracles kills the tormentor with Zeus’s consent.

Episode 5

Epimetheus accepts the fashioned woman

Epimetheus receives Zeus’s beautiful danger despite the defining contrast with Prometheus.

Participants and roles

Iapetus

Father whose four sons begin the sequence

Theogony 507-534 and Library 1.2.3: Iapetus is the father common to both genealogies.

Clymene

Mother named by Hesiod

Theogony 507-514: Clymene bears the four sons in Hesiod’s version.

Asia

Mother named by Pseudo-Apollodorus

Library 1.2.3: Asia replaces Clymene as mother in the later mythography.

Atlas

Son condemned to uphold heaven

Theogony 517-520 and Library 1.2.3: Atlas receives the burden of heaven.

Menoetius

Violent son struck down by Zeus

Theogony 514-516 and Library 1.2.3: Zeus strikes Menoetius, with the later account naming the Titan battle.

Prometheus

Son bound and tormented until Heracles kills the eagle

Theogony 521-534: Prometheus is bound and subjected to the eagle’s recurring torment.

Epimetheus

Son who accepts Zeus’s fashioned woman

Theogony 511-514: Epimetheus accepts the woman fashioned by Zeus.

Zeus

Ruler who assigns or inflicts the sons’ punishments

Theogony 514-534 and Library 1.2.3: Zeus determines the sons’ punishments.

Heracles

Hero who kills the eagle tormenting Prometheus

Theogony 526-531: Heracles kills the eagle with Zeus’s consent and ends the torment.

The eagle

Creature that consumes Prometheus’s liver

Theogony 523-525: the long-winged eagle consumes Prometheus’s liver each day.

Source-scoped variants

Hesiodic Clymene and four fates

Clymene bears four sons, and the poem moves from birth into burden, destruction, torment, and disastrous acceptance.

What differs: Mother Clymene; Prometheus’s eagle and Heracles’s intervention receive sustained narration.

Greek Archaic · Ancient Greece

Pseudo-Apollodoran Asia genealogy

Asia bears the same four sons in a compressed family sequence that names Menoetius’s role in the Titan battle.

What differs: Mother Asia; Menoetius is struck by Zeus in the Titan battle; the passage is shorter and more genealogical.

Greek Roman Imperial · Ancient Greece

Source witnesses

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Theogony

Hesiod; edited and translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White · 1914

Entry Theogony · Line 507-534

Hesiod names Clymene as mother and narrates the four sons’ sharply different fates in one continuous sequence.

Open reviewed source

EXPLICIT PRIMARY · Reviewed

Library

Pseudo-Apollodorus; edited and translated by James G. Frazer · 1921

Entry Library · Book 1 · Chapter 2 · Section 3

The later mythographer names Asia as mother and explicitly places Menoetius’s thunderbolt in the Titan battle.

Open reviewed source