Geotraveltours: Legend Beyond Georgian History

Legends play a big role in every country’s history. True or not, they are interesting and always leave some kind of mystery about a place in our mind and they create a certain picture that memorizes in our head.

History of Georgia takes a root from ancient times and has thousands of legends about people, places, food, treasures etc. Some of them may be unbelievable, while others play a big role in our country’s history. I want to tell you about legend of Prometheus.

Legend of Prometheus

The legend goes that Prometheus was a son of titan Lapetus and Clymene. After gods defeated titans, Prometheus took a part of humans and in every legend, he is a benefactor and great supporter of mankind. This action of course infuriated Zeus. But confrontation between these two went beyond that.

According to the one version of legend, once In Mecone a question of sacrifice ceremonies came up – which part of animal should be accrued to the Gods and which should be left for humans. Prometheus tricked Zeus by cutting a bull into two pieces – one was inedible part (bones covered with fat) and the other one was meat covered with animal skin and malodorous stomach. Zeus was deceived by mistakenly choosing bones. Furious Zeus punished humankind by taking fire from people.

After that Prometheus stole fire from Hephaestus, took away from Olympus and gave it to people, showing them how to save it.

For disobedience to Zeus and stealing fire from Olympus, he ordered Hephaestus to nail Prometheus to the Rocks of Caucasus Mountains where he would suffer eternally. Chained Prometheus was doomed to incessant torment - permanently the eagle flied over eating his liver. This lasted throughout several hundred to 30 thousand years while Heracles did not kill the eagle and freed Prometheus.

Khvamli Mountain

According to the legend the exact location of this place was Khvamli Mountain- limestone massif in western Georgia. The territory of Khvamli is a protected area in Georgia and borders with the Tvishi DAM, which is projected to serve the proposed Namakhvani Hydro Power Plant cascade.

Khvamli Mountain

Khvamli Mountain

Here in Georgia there are caves named after Prometheus. Discovered in Imereti region in 1984, Prometheus Cave is one of Georgia’s natural wonders providing visitors with breathtaking examples of stalactites, stalagmites, curtains, petrified waterfalls, cave pearls, underground rivers, and lakes.