Zeus punished Prometheus, not because he envied men any good, but because the discovery of fire was the source (ἀφορμή) of all effeminacy and luxury for men.919
Material wealth was, to him, if not an absolute evil, something about which men should be entirely indifferent, for in essence, good and evil could have only a moral reference.920
The craving for wealth or power was a vain illusion. Nothing was good for a man except what was actually his own,921 and this was to be found only in the soul.922
Wealth without virtue was not only worthless, but a fruitful source of evil,923 and no lover of money could be either virtuous or free.924
He thus advanced beyond the Socratic doctrine of ability to use as the criterion of value.