Trick at Mecone

The trick at Mecone was an event in Greek mythology in which Prometheus tricked Zeus for mankind's benefit, and thus incurred his wrath.

The Story

The gods and mortal man had arranged a meeting at Mecone where the matter of division of sacrifice was to be settled. Prometheus slew a large ox, and divided it into two piles. In one pile he put all the meat and most of the fat, skillfully covering it with the ox's grotesque stomach, while in the other pile, he dressed up the bones artfully with shining fat. Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose. Zeus, seeing through the trick, realised that in purposefully getting tricked he would have an excuse to vent his anger on mortal man, and thus chose the pile of bones. This also gives a mythological explanation of the practice of sacrificing only the bones to the gods, while man gets to keep the meat and fat.

As a result of this, Zeus hid fire from mankind, leaving them cold and shivering at night. Prometheus, however, out of pity stole it for them shortly after, incurring the wrath of Zeus. Prometheus's punishment was to be chained to a rock and have an eagle (or a vulture by some variants) pick out his liver every day for eons, until he was freed by Heracles.

References

*Hesiod, "" 510-616