In Greek mythology, Epimetheus is a Titan, son of Iapetus (by the Oceanid Clymene or Asia), and brother of Prometheus, Atlas, and Menoetius. His name means "afterthought" or "hindsight," the complementary opposite of Prometheus ("forethought"). He is remembered for accepting Pandora — against his brother's warning — and, in Plato, for exhausting natural gifts on animals before humankind. This entry is the Titan — not Saturn's moon Epimetheus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Epimetheus" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Family
Hesiod places Epimetheus among the sons of Iapetus and Clymene, with Atlas, Menoetius, and Prometheus; Apollodorus names the Oceanid Asia as their mother instead. Later mythographers marry him to Pandora and make their daughter Pyrrha, wife of Deucalion and ancestress of the Hellenes after the flood. Other traditions give him Prophasis (Pindar) or, in a scholion citing Eumelus, a wife Ephyra daughter of Oceanus.
II.Mythology
In Hesiod's Works and Days, Prometheus warns Epimetheus never to accept a gift from Zeus. Epimetheus nonetheless receives the fashioned maiden Pandora; when her jar is opened, evils spread among humankind while Hope remains inside. Hesiod's Theogony already brands him a mischief to bread-eating men from the first.
Plato's Protagoras retells an origin myth in which the brothers distribute traits to newly made creatures: Epimetheus assigns strengths and defenses until nothing suitable remains for humans, so Prometheus steals technical fire and the crafts from Athena and Hephaestus. Philosophical readers have taken Epimetheus as thought that comes only after production — hindsight rather than planning.
III.Namesakes
A moon of Saturn discovered in 1966 (confirmed and named later) bears the name Epimetheus after this Titan. Carl Jung and others reused the figure as a psychological type. This encyclopedic notice concerns only the mythological brother of Prometheus.