Then you know Prometheus was rescued in the end. His chains were broken, and he was finally set free.” The old man squinted one of his eyes and added, “How about that?

Any technological advance can be dangerous. Fire was dangerous from the start, and so (even more so) was speech – and both are still dangerous to this day – but human beings would not be...

Is that not the Promethean fable, that the fire stolen from the gods will light men their way even while it burns their hands?

This belonged to my sister-in-law,” Prometheus explained. “Pandora.”A lump formed in my throat. “As in Pandora’s box?”Prometheus shook his head. “I don’t know how this box business got started. It was never a box. It...