There’s no doubt that when primitive men discovered something as important as the fire, they fell on their knees and adored it like to a God. It was so beautiful and so dangerous! For that reason, ancient cultures almost always gave it a place in their religions, and often fire was its only god. They transformed it into a God, like the Sun still is for many tribes. Sometimes, the traditions of the cult were as horrible as the worst practised in history. In the Bible it is read that the pagan parents used to deposit their children in the burning vents of the sanguinary idol Moloch, so that they could be burned in holocaust to the God of fire. But, more often, the rites were gentle and beautiful. The fire used to be so appreciated that even princesses considered it a sacred honour to take care of it to avoid its extinction. For that reason, during the greatness of the Roman Empire, the sacred fire of the goddess Vesta's temple was guarded by the vestal virgins, the most majestic women in the world. And even today, the priest from Bombay guards and adores the sacred fire that they have maintained alight since they was expelled from their native country, Persia, 1400 years ago, where, it is said, it was lit by the founder of their religion many centuries ago.
 

There are many myths related to the form in which the man obtained the fire, and surprisingly almost all the ancient cultures considered it as a theft from the gods. For example, the Greeks thought that the fire was a gift from the god Prometheus who was entrusted with creating and saving man. Above all, he wanted to give to mankind a greater power than the one possessed by the animals. But it was not easy to find more wonderful gifts that those granted to the animals by his brother Epimetheus. The wild animals had courage, speed, strength and, sometimes, wings or sharp claws. What more a man could want? Then Prometheus thought of something extraordinary that an animal would never know how to use.

Fire! How man would resemble a God if he possessed it! With fire, used as a weapon, he could repel the wild animals. With its heat he could live more comfortably in the coldest time. With its light he could see in the night just as during the day. But Prometheus knew that Zeus had prohibited man to have this dangerous and potent weapon.  Fire! How man would resemble a God if he possessed it! With fire, used as a weapon, he could repel the wild animals. With its heat he could live more comfortably in the coldest time. With its light he could see in the night just as during the day. But Prometheus knew that Zeus had prohibited man to have this dangerous and potent weapon.  The king of the gods ordered Hephaestus to forge a heavy chain, with which was trapped Prometheus on a high rock. Being naked he was exposed to the terrible cold of the winter and the unbearable heat of the summer, Zeus also sent an enormous vulture so that it pecked him. Many years later Hercules freed this great friend and protector of the humans.

Some time would pass before man really knew where fire comes from. But although men in the past only knew about the value that fire represents for them, they didn't imagine all that this would do for mankind. It has only been two centuries since it was used to obtain vapour and to rotate almost all wheels and to execute most of men's work. Then, fire began to carry out the miracle of re-creating the world for man. It is useless to try to mention all the things that the fire does, that would be the same as undertaking a summary of our civilisation. Each train and each ship, each automobile and each aeroplane, almost all the pieces of the vast web of machinery on which man depends would stop if he lost the knowledge of fire. The knowledge that some prehistoric genius discovered in the dark times of a remote past.