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This was a tough one to write, because it required me to decide on what exactly Prometheus' relationship with humanity is. Gods don't make 'friends' with mortals, 'subjects' is incorrect, since they're technically Zeus' subjects. I eventually settled on 'work', as if humanity is sort of a grand project for Prometheus. It explains his attachment, but maintains his godly sense of superiority.
Later accounts of the myth take a similar attitude, and actually make Prometheus the creator of mankind. For example, in Ovid's Metamorphoses:
A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was Man design'd:
Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,
For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest:
Whether with particles of heav'nly fire
The God of Nature did his soul inspire,
Or Earth, but new divided from the sky,
And, pliant, still retain'd th' aetherial energy:
Which wise Prometheus temper'd into paste,
And, mixt with living streams, the godlike image cast.
Prometheus' interest in humanity has developed over time. Hesiod's Theogony is the simplest, containing just the deception and stealing of fire. Aeschlyus' Prometheus Bound adds Prometheus' gifts of knowledge, as well as a reference to preventing Zeus from destroying humanity to start over. The most recent versions (Ovid, above, is actually a 1st century Roman poet) credit him with the actual creation of humanity.
The idea of creating man out of clay isn't exactly new though - it turns up in the Judeo-Christian and Babylonian creation myth as well. Whether these are all elements of the same primitive myth, were borrowed later, or were parallel developments isn't clear.