Ed Friedlander MD
scalpel_blade@yahoo.com

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The beautiful fables of the Greeks, being proper creations of the imagination and not of the fancy, are universal verities. What a range of meanings and what perpetual pertinence has the story of Prometheus!

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Essays"

This basic Greek myth was retold through the classic era and provided the plot for Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound".

This site will help you as you search the background and meaning of this play, and ideas about the story of Prometheus generally.

The titans are listed by Hesiod in his Theogony as a group of twelve major gods, including allegorically-named Kronos ("time"), Mnemosyne ("memory / remembrance"), Themis ("justice"), Phoebe ("brightness"), Oceanus ("the ocean"), Hyperion ("the high one"), Tethys and Theia (both mean "the goddess / the revered lady").

Prometheus is usually listed as the son of the titan Iapetus. This could be the same name as "Japeth", ancestor of the Europeans in the Old Testament, and/or as "Giapetto", creator of Pinocchio. Herodotus (Histories) tells us that Prometheus's wife was named Asia, and that the continent of Asia was named for her. Aeschylus has Themis as mother of Prometheus.

You'll hear different accounts of the origin of the names of Europe and Asia. Easiest for me to believe is that "Asia" is Assyrian for "sunrise", and "Europe" is Assyrian for "sunset."

Apollodorus tells us that Prometheus was the son of Iapetus and Asia; elsewhere he is listed as the son of Iapetus and the ocean nymph Clymene.

"Prometheus" probably means "forethought", as his brother Epimetheus's name means "afterthought". (Sanskrit expert Max Muller derived Prometheus's name instead from the source for "pramantha", Sanskrit for fire-drill. Whichever you think.)

Apollodorus and Pausanias confirm that Prometheus molded the human race out of clay. Pausanius (Description of Greece 10.4.4) describes a shrine at Panopeus, where there was an image that some say was Prometheus. Nearby were two huge clay-colored stones that supposedly smelled like human skin. The locals said these are bits of the original clay out of which Prometheus fashioned the human race.

Ovid describes the creation. At the beginning of time, the gods and the animals were created by natural forces, but there was no creature fit to rule the others. Ovid names Prometheus as the god who made humankind in godlike form from clay, and says that maybe the creative power of the era gave us intelligence ("Metamorphosis" 1).

Apollodorus tells us this (Library 1.25). He explains that there was once a lady named Metis ("Wisdom"), who Zeus loved, but who was predestined to bear a son who was greater than his father. Fearful of being overthrown, Zeus swallowed Metis. As a result, Athena sprang fully-armed from Zeus's head, assisted by Prometheus.

Euripides (Ion 454) confirms that it was Prometheus who released Athena.

In Protagoras Plato tells how Epimetheus distributed abilities among the animals, balancing abilities so that each species could survive. Epimetheus used up all his resources. Prometheus saw that there was nothing left to enable people to survive, so he took technology from Athena, and fire from Hephaestus.

In Plato's Statesman, Prometheus's gift of fire is just one of several gifts from various gods to enable people to survive.

In Philebus, Prometheus gives both fire and knowledge of "the one and the many" (i.e., philosophy).

In Plato's Gorgias, echoing Aeschylus's play, Prometheus takes from human beings the foreknowledge of their times of death.

Prometheus offered Zeus a choice as to which parts of an animal sacrifice would be for "the gods", and which parts the humans kept. Prometheus tricked Zeus into choosing the fat and guts, while the humans got to keep the meat for themselves.

Hesiod tells this story, and piously adds that Zeus cannot really be so easily deceived, and must have been working for his mysterious purposes.

According to Hesiod, Zeus took fire away from people after this incident. (The exact meaning is difficult; it sounds as if Zeus prevented ash sticks from igniting). But Prometheus brought the fire back, hidden in a fennel stalk. (Dried fennel is good kindling.)

Then Prometheus stole fire for the human race. For this, Zeus bound and punished him.

Hesiod tells the story...

For the gods kept hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire, but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counselor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger:

"Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire -- a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as as price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction."

-- Works and Days, 50.

For revenge against human beings, the other gods created Pandora ("all gifts"), the first woman. There's no box in Hesiod's version. Hesiod was simply pessimistic about relations between the sexes. He says that a man who marries a bad wife will be miserable, a man who marries a good wife will get a mix of good and bad, and a man who is unmarried will be lonely, uncared-for, and without direct heirs.

Hesiod was a product of the times and doesn't give the woman's point of view.

Zeus got angry and bound Prometheus.

And ready-witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew as much again every day as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird Herakles, the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction -- not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of Herakles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honored his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of Cronos.

-- Theogony

Apollonius and Pausanius both retell the story of the theft of fire and Prometheus's being nailed to Mount Caucasus. As Apollonius puts it:

Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth, and gave them also fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. But when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount Caucasus. which is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Hercules afterwards released him, as we shall show in dealing with Hercules.

-- Library 1.7.1

Diodorus of Sicily records that Alexander the Great was shown "Prometheus's cave", and the supposed lair of the eagle, when he visited the Caucasus mountains ( Historical Library 17.83.1). Very much the rationalist, Diodorus thought that the real Prometheus was probably just a human being who figured out how to start a fire by rubbing sticks together.

Virgil's Eclogue 6:42 suggests that Prometheus lit his torch at the sun's chariot.

The Catholic Encyclopedia mentions that a single ancient vase shows Prometheus "bound to a beam which serves the purposes of a cross." Otherwise, Prometheus is described as nailed and/or chained to the Caucasus mountains, which the Greeks thought might as well be at the ends of the earth.

During his time of punishment, Prometheus let it be known that he foresaw disaster for Zeus, because Zeus wanted a woman whose son was predestined to be greater than the father.

This obviously echoes the story of Metis, cited above.

However, later versions of the story identify the mother as Thetis. After Prometheus was released (or maybe before), he (or maybe somebody else) shared his secret with Zeus, who arranged for Thetis to marry the hero Peleus. Their son was Achilles.

It was Herakles who eventually killed the eagle and released Prometheus from his bonds. Prometheus and Zeus were reconciled.

Apollodorus and Pausanius agree that Herakles freed Prometheus. Because of this, Apollodorus (Library 2.5.11) says that Herakles wrapped olive leaves around his own head, symbolically binding himself in place of Prometheus. Apollodorus says that when he was released, Prometheus advised Herakles on how to get the apples of the Hesperides.

Some old writers say that Prometheus had to wear a ring made of the iron with which he was bound, and bearing a piece of the stone to which he was bound, so Zeus could say his decree still held. This was supposed to be the origin of rings that bear stones. Pliny (Natural History 37:i.2) wrote that garlands on the head were something people wore after being released from bondage, and so were finger rings. Hence Herakles had to bind himself vicariously upon releasing Prometheus. There are other old references to garlands being symbols of Prometheus's chains, and there's an old vase showing Prometheus, Herakles, the eagle, and Athena with her usual attributes plus a garland.

According to some, Prometheus was the father (in the ordinary way) of Deucalion, the Greek Noah, who with his wife Pyrrha survived the flood in an ark / box.

An ancient writer cites a lost work of Hesiod as saying that Deucalion was the son of Prometheus and Pronoea. His wife, Pyrrha, was daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. Prometheus advised them to on how to escape the flood.

Pindar, Plato, and Ovid also tell the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha escaping the flood in a box, but don't mention Prometheus being father or advisor.

Lactantius, the Christian writer, argued that this story must be a corruption of the true story of Noah, because the Greek story does not allow time for the earth to be repopulated. My link is now down.

Prometheus figures in a few other stories. He was honored, but not much worshiped or asked for help.

According to Apollodorus (Library 2.5.11 and Library 2.5.4), Prometheus was once mortal, but accepted the immortality of the injured centaur Chiron in order that Chiron could find relief from pain. In this way, Chiron also took upon himself the death that had been meted out to Prometheus. This also was arranged by Herakles. Aristophanes lampoons the gods in The Birds, with Prometheus coming in disguised to announce that the birds's city is intercepting the smoke from the sacrifices and the gods are getting hungry. Prometheus reminds a human character that he's always been the friend of humankind. The human replies, "It's thanks to you we roast our meat." His line, "Zeus is done for", must be a parody of Aeschylus.

Elsie Russell's Prometheus

At Plato's academy, there was an altar to Prometheus. Foot-racers would carry torches lit from this altar, and the winner was the first to finish without the torch going out (Pausanius, "Description of Greece" 1.30,2).

Lucian tells us that in the later Roman era, the Greeks did not worship Prometheus, and that he had no temples.

Some anti-Christian sites claim that the story of Christ's passion and resurrection is a retelling of the story of Prometheus.

www.christianforums.com (now down) claims that "in the oldest accounts of Prometheus", it is stated that this savior was nailed to an upright beam of timber to which was affixed arms of wood." Since Hesiod is our oldest source, and I've told you about the others, this simply isn't true.

Kersey Graves states that "Caucasians chanted praises to their slain Divine Intercessor, Prometheus, for voluntarily offering himself upon the cross for the sins of a fallen race", and that at his death, the whole world was engulfed in darkness. The writer claims, obviously falsely, that Hesiod and Seneca describe Prometheus as being crucified, and dying for the sins of his people. The writer quotes some unreferenced doggerel from "the poet" about Prometheus as a Christ-like savior.

Today's outspoken atheists usually pride themselves on being scholarly, scientific, and having their facts straight. But as far as I can tell, these are just fabrications.

"Prometheus -- the The Theft of Fire", by Christian Griepenkerl, whose paintings of the Prometheus legend seem to have a subtext. Can you spot it? Zeus is with Ganymede, recognizable by the Phrygian cap.

Gustave Moreau painting
John Delville painting
Prometheus and Herakles in classical-style relief
Drypoint etching

Myths might be told to explain facts of nature, or to explain human customs.

Prometheus the Titan

Readers will need to decide for themselves who the Titans were, and why Prometheus, the great benefactor of humankind, was one of the outsider-gods.

There were twelve principal Olympian gods, and twelve major Titans. It's inviting to think that the Titans were the principal gods of a nation that was conquered and assimilated by the worshipers of Zeus, but which continued to consider the number twelve important. The old gods of the land became minor gods under the new administration, and were considered their forebears. We do know that Crius was remembered locally during Classical times.

But since many of the Titans have allegorical names, and since Hesiod cites other characters ("Love", "Chaos", "Sky", and so forth) that probably nobody worshiped, perhaps the Titans were allegorical figures instead. (We've all seen Lady Justice in courtrooms, and Father Time in the comics.) So Prometheus might just be the personification of "forethought", or human intelligence.

Barbecues: Who Gets What?

When you sacrificed an animal to "the gods", you would butcher it, skin it, roast it, eat the meat yourself, and let the smoke from the dripping fat and the burned guts ascend heavenward.

The myth about Prometheus's and Zeus's choice seems to have been composed to explain why people don't have to burn the stuff that's good to eat. (An "etiologic myth"!)

Stealing Fire

Creation stories seldom showcase human beings as the center of a glorious, good creation. Both the ancient Egyptians and Hesiod told of original generations of allegorical beings, seemingly personifications of natural forces.

In the "Enuma Elish", the gods make the human race as drudges so that the gods can relax. In "Gilgamesh", the gods decide to drown the human race simply because they are making too much noise.

In the Prose Edda, the Norse gods make the first man and woman out of two helpless pieces of driftwood, giving them life, senses, and the ability to move and think. Perhaps nicer -- but people are still not the centerpiece.

In particular, ancient stories of creation often teach that the things that make human beings special were not originally ours. Our intelligence and our technology were acquired somehow, perhaps even against "the wishes of the gods."

You'll need to decide for yourself what to make of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. They broke the rules, gained the knowledge of good and evil, and were expelled so that they did not then become immortal. Some heterodox Gnostic sects spoke at great length of Eden's serpent (νους, "intelligence") as bringer of secret, forbidden wisdom and power.

Fire makes humankind special. According to James Frazer, stories about the original theft of fire occur in many cultures, and he wrote an entire book of "Myths of the Origin of Fire." Fire is often stolen from the supernatural realms by a "culture hero", a legendary founder of a tribe or of the human race.

Religionists tend to be conservative about new technologies. There's a divine debate in the very ancient Ugaritic texts about whether Baal's house should have a window. This new technology proved to be a bad idea, because Death came in through the window and carried off Baal. We can wonder whether the writer was from a "conservative" anti-window faction.

Modernists have seen Prometheus as the hero of human intelligence making a better world through scientific understanding and against ancient dogmas. Perhaps the same was true in very ancient times. You can decide for yourself.

• Primitive people recognized that fire and technology gave us the ability to change our environment, and to make it something other than what "the gods" (i.e., nature) had originally made it. People had to explain how this could be, and came up with the idea that one rebel god had made a gift to us.
• And people may have believed that "the gods" did not want us to have technology -- even making and maintaining fire. But it is okay to posses and use it to live, because a price or penalty has already been paid for it.
• As you're thinking about this question (and reading the Greek myths in general), remember that for most of the ancient world, "the gods" personified natural forces to which people who were very dependent on nature's seeming accidents for survival would pray. There's a contr ast with the Judeo-Christian-Islamic idea of a purely spiritual, wholly "other" Creator making the world from nothing, and raising human beings from the dust to be His beloved children and stewards of creation.

He pronounced his own name ice-KHUUH-lawss.

"Prometheus Bound" was the first of three plays in a trilogy. The second was "Prometheus Unbound". The third was "Prometheus the Fire Bringer" (Pyrphoros).

The play opens with Hephaestus (the blacksmith of the gods) entering with the personifications of Power (Dominion, Κράτος, compare "-cracy") and Force (Βιά, compare "adiabatic"). Power announces that we're in Scythia, i.e., around the Caucasus mountains, which the Greeks considered to be the ends of the earth. Power reminds Hephaestus (for the audience's sake) that Prometheus is condemned by Zeus for stealing fire. Power and Strength are merely escorts. Hephaestus says to Prometheus that he's sorry, but that Prometheus has to be nailed to a rock for having bestowed too much on mortals -- more than even Hephaestus thought was right. Hephaestus adds that Zeus isn't going to change his mind, "because those who are newly in power are inflexible."

Power isn't sympathetic, and thinks that Hephaestus, of all the gods, should be angry since Prometheus gave away fire. Hephaestus agrees that it's rough, being betrayed by a friend and family member, but this punishment is too severe. Power says that only Zeus is free, and the universe's purpose is to do whatever Zeus wants. Hephaestus binds shackles around Prometheus's hands and attaches them to the rocks. Expressing regret, Hephaestus then nails Prometheus's chest to the rock. It's not clear whether this is a chest band, or whether the nail goes directly through flesh. Hephaestus expresses regret, and Power warns Hephaestus that he'd better keep his regrets to himself, or he may be the next victim of Zeus.

Hephaestus then binds Prometheus's sides and thighs, and says the net is finished; it sounds as if the flesh is surrounded but not actually pierced. When Hephaestus is finished, Power tells Prometheus that Prometheus isn't much of a prophet, not to have foreseen what would happen to him for giving fire to creatures whose lives are transitory. They exit.

Prometheus speaks to the four elements in order of heaviness. Aethyr was fire, the winds are air, the rivers are water, and the earth is the universal mother. Prometheus says he knows the future, but still needs to express his torment in words. He's being punished for stealing fire inside a hollow reed and giving to to humans. Notice that he's chained, but does not describe being pierced, and there is no eagle. Prometheus then hears the fluttering of wings. Don't ask what ocean nymphs are doing in a flying chariot, or why Prometheus (who foreknows everything) doesn't know who they are.

The chorus of ocean nymphs comes in. They flew in because they heard the hammering. The nymphs are the children of Oceanus, the sea god, and his wife Tethys. The nymphs start to cry at the sight, but Prometheus says Zeus will soon need him to prevent his own overthrow. (He's talking about the woman whose child must be greater than his father.) The Chorus says Zeus isn't the kind of person to change his mind. Prometheus says Zeus won't have a choice.

The chorus asks Prometheus what he did wrong. Prometheus explains that during the war with the Titans, Prometheus enabled Zeus to win by strategy. (Prometheus was following the advice of Themis and Gaia; the latter was Mother Earth).

When the war with the Titans was won, Zeus distributed abilities and authority to the other gods, but planned to wipe out the original race of human beings and replace them with something else. (Prometheus isn't described as creator of humankind here.) Prometheus saved the lives of the original people.

"How did you do it?" asks the chorus. As the cryptic words are often translated, Prometheus says he "took away from human beings the foreknowledge of their dooms". Then he gave them "blind hopes". Then he gave them fire, which will be the basis for "many arts", i.e., technology.

There's more talk about how unfortunate and unfair all of this is. Then Oceanus comes in, riding on a "feathered, four-legged big bird" (probably a pegasus, because later we learn it wants to get back to its stall -- we hear about this creature in lines 395-8). He's one of the original Titans; don't ask what he's doing free and still living in the ocean. In fact, it sounds as if Oceanus is actually sent by Zeus. Without delay, Oceanus tells Prometheus to stop saying he's being treated unfairly, or Zeus will do something worse to him. And yes, Zeus is stern and maybe in the wrong. But if Prometheus will simply say he's sorry, "Oceanus will go have a talk with Zeus", and maybe Zeus will let him go.

Prometheus tells Oceanus, "You be careful yourself." Oceanus says he thinks Zeus will do what he asks. (Yup, it sounds like Oceanus was sent by Zeus.) Prometheus says, "Thanks anyway. And if you're going to associate with Zeus, remember what happened to Atlas, who's stuck holding up the world, and Typhon, who got thunderbolted." This is not bad advice to those who are the lackeys of tyrants. Oceanus remarks, "A kind word often quiets down an angry person." "Sure, if he's reasonable", says Prometheus. "But Zeus isn't. Be careful yourself." Oceanus says that his flying steed is tired and wants to go home. He leaves.

The chorus and Prometheus continue visiting. Prometheus tells about how people once lived in sort of a dream, not understanding much of anything. They dind't even know how to make any homes except for holes in the ground. Prometheus taught them astronomy, numbers ("the foremost invention"), taming animals, animal-drawn vehicles, ships, medicine, divination, and metallurgy.

Then Prometheus talks about predestination. "The Fates and the Furies" have power even over Zeus, and the business about the woman who is predestined to have a son greater than his father gets hinted at again. The nymphs mention that Prometheus is married to their sister, one Hesione. This makes Oceanus his father-in-law.

Io comes in. She's one of Zeus's girlfriends. Jealous Hera, Zeus's wife, has turned her into a cow and tormented her with a magic stinging insect whose injuries have given her gangrene. She's delirious with pain, and thinks her guardian Argus, who is dead, is still watching. (He had 100 eyes and is the subject of another myth.) She wants to know her future. Prometheus says it'd better if she didn't know. Io says, "Tell the truth; the worst thing a person can do is give fake comfort." A travelogue follows, with myths, monsters, and strange countries.

Io leaves, delirious again from her pain. Prometheus talks about the danger to Zeus from the predestined woman. The chorus warns him that this kind of talk will get him in trouble. "Those reverencing Adrastia are wise." Adrastia means "inescapable"; this means "You have to bow to the inevitable". ("Adrastia" is sometimes described as a nymph who supposedly cared for Baby Zeus, but is now just an allegorical figure.)

Hermes comes in. Prometheus calls Hermes names for cooperating with a tyrant. Hermes calls Prometheus stupid for not cooperating, and a traitor for stealing fire, and promises more severe punishment if Prometheus continues to resist. Prometheus tells him to get lost. Then there's an earthquake, thunder, and lightning, and the play ends.

We can suppose that as the trilogy unfolds, the eagle arrives soon. Herakles, who will free Prometheus, will be descended from Io.

Aeschylus's favorite topic is the things that made Athens great. In the Agamemnon trilogy, he focuses on the institution of law, which replaced awful blood feuds. In "The Persians", he celebrates free Athens's victory over Persian despotism.

"Prometheus Bound" is not really much about human beings or the dignity that Prometheus's gifts bring us. (Sophocles celebrates humankind's intellectual and cultural achievements, especially in "Antigone" -- as if we did it by ourselves without being taught by "the gods"). Instead, "Prometheus Bound" is about resisting tyranny (both Zeus's and Hera's). It seems reasonable to think that the trilogy ended, as did the Oresteia, with a triumph of civilization over tyranny, and a celebration of the rule of justice and real law.

Notice how the various characters deal with tyranny, the wrongful use of force.

• Prometheus disobeys the tyrant in order to do good, even though he knows what will happen to him.
• Hephaestus's response to wrongful tyranny is to complain privately but not disobey. (It'll be a long time until Nuremberg.)
• Oceanus's response is to urge surrender and possible reconciliation.
• The chorus of sea nymphs talk about the wrong that's done, but are not able to do anything.
• Io is helpless, another victim, this time of Zeus's wife.
• Hermes probably knows he is in the wrong, but doesn't care.

Θνητούς γ'΄έπαυσα μή προδέρκεςθαι μόρον. -- 250
I made them stop focusing on their own mortal limitations.

τυφλάς ΄εν αύτοίς ΄ελπίδας καταώικισα --252
I made a home, within [human beings], for hopes about things that they could not see.

(Ed's translations. Sorry if I'm off. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I think I have a sense of what the lines must mean.)

To understand all the business about "tragic flaws", see my section on Oedipus

Prometheus Bound -- English translation
Prometheus Bound -- Harvard classics
Prometheus Bound -- diacenter
Prometheus Bound -- translated by Henry David Thoreau (wouldn't you know?)
Prometheus Bound -- modern colloquial translation by Prof. Rollins
Prometheus Bound -- commentary
Aeschylus
SparkNotes
Prometheus -- classical quotations

"Fragments" are bits of lost works preserved as quotations in the writings of others. These do not appear to be collected online yet anyplace else. You can find a complete list (like I did) in the Oxford edition of "Prometheus Bound", e`ited by Scully and Harington.

Some old sources list "Earth" and "Herakles" among the characters in "Prometheus Bound." These must have been characters in the sequel, which would have been included in the cycle of plays.

An old commentary on "Prometheus Bound" 743-45 says, "That is: It is not yet my destiny to be released. For in the following play he is released, as Aeschylus indicates here." The same commentary on line 759: "He reserves his words for the following play."

The chorus must have been composed of Titans. Arrian wrote a book on "The Navigation of the Black Sea" (ch. 19), and quotes: "Aeschylus in the 'Prometheus Unbound' makes the River Phasis the borderline between Europe and Asia: in him the Titans say to Prometheus:

We come to see these your sorrows, Prometheus, and this agony of your chains...

Then they tell how much country they have traversed:

... where the Phasis, the great twofold boundary of Europe and Asia..."

Procopius mentions that Aeschylus placed such a passage at the beginning of the play (History of the Gothic Wars 4.6.15).

Strabo (Geography 1.2.27) quotes the following passage from "Prometheus Unbound":

And the Red Sea's holy flood with crimson bed and the Aithiopians' Lake tendering food to all -- a coppery glitter there, by Ocean's side -- where Sun, that sees all, under the stroking of the warm river revives his tired horses, and his own deathless body.

It sounds as if Aeschylus had heard of the source of the Nile river.

Cicero, in his Tusculan Disputations 2.23-25, quotes Aeschylus in his Latin translation.

Titans, blood-brothers, children of Sky, look at me! moored, chained fast to the choppy rock -- the way, towards nightfall, sailors in the howling narrow panicked secure their ship. In this way, Zeus, son of Kronos, had me moored in iron. Through Hephaestus's hands, his will became fact. With cruel, painstaking craft, he slogged wedge on wedge into me: splitting, sticking. Thanks to that, I stand watch mourning, at this castle of the Furies. And always on the third day, for me, the light of day is black, when Zeus's horrible pet glides in at me -- the eagle that digs in with cooked claws gouging out her feast, until her crop's bloated, rich with liver. Then screaming wheeling skywards, her tail feathers drag through blood, my blood. And once again, my rag of a liver swells up like new, and again the bloodthirsty banqueter comes back for more. In his way I feast my prison warden: who in turn, by deathless outrage, tortures my live body -- look! Zeus's chains clench me, I can't protect my chest from that filthy thing. Only, myself gutted, take what agony comes, grope for an end to pain and burn, like sex, for death. But by the will of Zeus I'm exiled far away from death. Century has swarmed on shuddering century around this old anguish, this wedge through my body whose drops of blood melted in the flaming sun over Kaukasos, rain endlessly on rock.

Plutarch quotes Aeschylus as saying "Prometheus -- that is, Reason -- is responsible [for humankind's dominance], for he...

gave horse and donkey and the breed of bulls to be as slaves to us and bear our burdens.

"Prometheus Unbound" contained travelogues like "Prometheus Bound" does. These evidently told where Herakles would wander. Several authors quote its geographical passages. Galen cites:

Follow straight along this pathway. You'll come, first, to the high winds of Boreas. Take care: for fear the hurricane with its wintry blasts will howl down whirling you into the sky.

Staphanos of Byzantium quotes,

You'll arrive, then, at a just community, more just than any other and friendlier. These are the Gabioi. Here, no plow, nor any hoe hacks at the land but the plains plant themselves, the harvest is endless.

But Scythians, well-governed, who feast on maresmilk cheese..."

You'll come upon the Ligyes, a horde that doesn't know what fear is. Fierce a fighter as you are, you won't fault their fighting. As fate has it: you'll run out of weapons, you can't grab even one stone off the ground because the plain is soft, it's dust. But Zeus will see you bewildered there ane pity you, and cast a storm-cloud to shadow the earth in a flurry of rounded rocks. You'll heave them, and with each batter the Ligyan horde back.

Hyginus, in his "Astronomy in the Poets" (2.6), talks about the myth of the constellation we call Hercules.

But Aeschylus in the play entitled Prometheus Unbound says that Herakles is not fighting with the Dragon, but with the Ligyes. His story is that at the time when Herakles led away Geryon's cattle he journeyed through the Ligyan territory. In trying to remove the cattle from him they came to blows, and he pierced a number of them with his arrows. But then his missiles gave out, and after receiving many wounds he sank to his knees, overpowered by the barbarian numbers and by the failure of his ammunition. Zeus, however, took pity on his son, and caused a great quantity of rocks to appear around him. With these Herakles defended himself and routed the enemy. Hence Zeus set the likeness of him, fighting, among the stars.

Plutarch (Amatorius 757E) talks about how various gods are invoked for various purposes. "But Herakles invokes a different god when he is going to raise his bow against the bird, as Aeschylus says,

Let Hunter-Apollo level straight this shaft!

Plutarch (Life of Pompey the Great) quotes Aeschylus as having Prometheus say to Herakles (who was one of Zeus's sons):

This dearest child of the father I hate!

One old writer quotes Aeschylus as saying that Prometheus in the "Pyrphoros" says he was bound for 30,000 years.

Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 13:19-4) quotes the "Prometheus Pyrphoros"

Quiet, where need is; and talking to the point.

Shakespeare's Berowne says, "Women's eyes are the ground, the books, the academes, From which doth spring the true Promethean fire." Shakespeare's Othello asks where is "that Promethean heat" that can re-ignite the fire of Desdemona's life.

Percy Bysshe Shelley saw Prometheus as a type of (left-wing) Christ. He wrote an allegory of the triumph of the liberal social and intellectual agenda entitled Prometheus Unbound. Lord Byron saw Prometheus as a prototype human -- able to foresee the future and triumph over evil.

Mary Shelley, his wife, subtitled her novel Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus.

Geothe wrote a poem about Prometheus in which he ridicules traditional religion. I cannot find it online.

Various composers of the Romantic era, including Beethoven, composed music on the theme. Click here to hear the "Creatures of Prometheus" overture. Compare Hayden's "Creation", based on the Old Testament, and Beethoven's "Creatures of Prometheus". The older work focuses on traditional Judeo-Christian theology. The new work has the human race and its special gifts as the center of attention. Especially, it celebrates the changed world, liberated (as Beethoven and many of contemporaries saw it) from traditional religion. Beethoven composed Prometheus music, Liszt wrote a symphonic poem on Prometheus, and Scriabin wrote "Prometheus - The Poem of Fire".

... Did you, by chance, suppose
that I shoul dhate life,
flee into deserts,
just because
not all my fancy dreams
had come to pass?

I sit here, shaping men and women
in my image,
a race destined, like I,
to suffer and to cry,
to savor joy, to laugh,
and disregard you
as I did.

"Prometheus" by Goethe

Prometheus Music -- science-fiction theme CD producers
Prometheus Books -- skeptical writers
Prometheus! -- pessimistic comic strip

Rockefeller Center, in New York City, honors technology with the triumphant Prometheus bearing fire in his hand.

Political Cartoon -- Andrew Johnson as Prometheus
Promethium is one of the rare-earth metals and is one of the few elements that apparently does not occur naturally on earth. Prometheus is one of the moons of Saturn, and the name of a large volcano on Jupiter's moon Io. And Jupiter has moons named for Metis and Io.

My cyberfriend Marty Sulek wrote to tell me that the authorship and sequence of the trilogy are questioned by classical scholars. If you can get J. Hellenic Studies 99 (1979) pgs. 130-148, or The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound by Mark Griffith, you can decide for yourself.

Prometheus is the Jesus of the old mythology. He is the friend of man; stands between the unjust "justice" of the Eternal Father and the race of mortals, and readily suffers all things on their account. But where it departs from the Calvinistic Christianity, and exhibits him as the defier of Jove, it represents a state of mind which readily appears wherever the doctrine of Theism is taught in a crude, objective form, and which seems the self-defence of man against this untruth, namely, a discontent with the believed fact that a God exists, and a feeling that the obligation of reverence is onerous. It would steal, if it could, the fire of the Creator, and live apart from him, and independent of him.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Essays"

You're free to decide for yourself whether Aeschylus and the other good people who told and retold the story of Prometheus, the divine benefactor of humankind who was crucified and yet triumphed, were granted some dim mystical foreknowledge of another event.

As a mainstream Christian, I've often wondered about this.

In any case, I'm glad that many of my neighbors who are no longer able to believe in the supernatural look to the timeless figure of Prometheus -- kindness, self-sacrifice, clear thinking, useful technology, and the power to hope for good things that we do not yet see.

To include this page in a bibliography, you may use this format: Friedlander ER (1999) Enjoying "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus Retrieved Dec. 25, 2003 from http://www.pathguy.com/promethe.htm

For Modern Language Association sticklers, the name of the site itself is "The Pathlogy Guy" and the Sponsoring Institution or Organization is Ed Friedlander MD.

Antony & Cleopatra -- just getting started Hamlet King Lear La Belle Dame Sans Merci The Lady of Shalott Macbeth A Midsummer Night's Dream Moby Dick Oedipus the King Romeo and Juliet -- just a short note The Book of Thel The Knight's Tale The Seven Against Thebes The Tyger Timbuctoo Twelfth Night

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I'm Ed. You can visit me at my own page and follow the links from there to my autopsy page, my notes on disease (the largest one-man online medical show, helping individuals around the world), my Adventure Gaming sites, or any of the other sites.

You can E-mail me at scalpel_blade@yahoo.com. No texting or chat messages, please. Ordinary e-mails are welcome.

Brown University, Department of English -- my home base, 1969-1973.

Teens: Stay away from drugs, work yourself extremely hard in class or at your trade, play sports if and only if you like it, tell the grownups who support you that you love them (no matter what the circumstances), and get out of abusive relationships by any means. The best thing anybody can say about you is, "That kid likes to work too hard and isn't taking it easy like other young people."

Greek tragedies include some characters who commit suicide. If you are physically healthy, it is a bad idea. Among young people who made serious attempts and failed, 99% said a year later that they are glad they failed.

Thanks for visiting. Health and friendship.

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