Page "Prometheus" Paragraph 5

The ancients believed that the name Prometheus derived from the Greek pro ( before ) + manthano ( learn ) and the agent suffix-eus, thus meaning " Forethinker ".

Plato contrasts Prometheus with his dull-witted brother Epimetheus, " Afterthinker ".

Writing in late antiquity, the Latin commentator Servius explains that Prometheus was so named because he was a man of great foresight ( vir prudentissimus ), possessing the abstract quality of providentia, the Latin equivalent of Greek promētheia ().