How is "quod" operating in this sentence of Hyginus?

Question

The first sentence of Hyginus' Prometheus is:

Hominés anteá ab immortálibus ignem petébant neque in perpetuum serváre sciébant; quod posteá Prometheus in ferulá détulit in terrás, hominibusque mónstrávit quómodó cinere obrutum servárent.

Before, people sought fire from the immortals and didn't know how to keep it continuously [lit]; quod afterward, Prometheus brought it down to earth on [the end of] a fennel stalk and showed people how to keep it buried in ashes.

What is quod doing here? It doesn't seem to be a relative, it doesn't seem to be "since," it doesn't seem to be functioning adverbially. I realize Hyginus is hardly the stylist's stylist, but it's still bugging me.

Answer 1

I'd take this as quod "but, though", sense VII in Lewis and Short.

Answer 2

The word quod probably means 'therefore' (or 'in respect of which'). (My dictionary mentions this meaning but gives no examples.) This would imply that Prometheus was dissatisfied with the situation described before the semicolon and therefore took action.

Another possibility is that quod is a relative pronoun referring to ignis. That would make quod the object of detulit. The problem is that ignis is masculine, so it should be quem instead. I can offer three explanations:

• It is a later copy error. It was originally quem but it was "corrected" to quod which more often begins a sentence.
• Neuter was chosen because ignis is inanimate.

It would explain the form if quod refers to the whole preceding sentence or something other than ignis, but that doesn't make much sense as the object.