Afterthought, and the Acceptance of Pandora

Epimetheus is a second-generation Titan, son of Iapetus and brother of Prometheus, Atlas and Menoetius. His name means afterthought or hindsight, in deliberate contrast to his brother Prometheus, whose name means forethought, and the two act throughout as a matched pair of foresight and its lack. In one strand of the myth the brothers are given the task of equipping all living creatures with their means of survival; Epimetheus takes the job and hands out the gifts, speed, claws, fur, wings, so lavishly to the animals that when he reaches humankind nothing is left, and it falls to Prometheus to make good the shortfall by stealing fire. His defining act, told in Hesiod, is his acceptance of Pandora: warned by Prometheus never to take a gift from Zeus, Epimetheus forgets the warning and receives the first woman, who opens the jar that looses toil, sickness and death upon the human race. He is, in short, the god of learning too late.