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May 6
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Greek Mythology II: Heroes

Prometheus Bound

Daily history and lit
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Readings
• Lines 1-35 from "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus
• Lines 94-243 from "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus
• Lines 944-1025 from "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus
• Act I lines 1-58, Act IV lines 570-578 from "Prometheus Unbound" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Lines 561-888 from "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus (optional)

Prometheus Bound

Kratos orders Prometheus chained for championing mortals.
After Prometheus gives fire to mankind, Zeus punishes men by having Hephaestus create the first woman, Pandora. Now Zeus turns his ire toward Prometheus.
He commands Hephaestus to chain Prometheus to a remote crag in the Caucasus Mountains, at the edge of the known world.
Here, under the blazing sun and cold dawn, Prometheus will suffer endlessly. Each day, an eagle will eat his liver—and each night, it will grow back.
Kratos
K
We have reached the furthest edge of the world—the barren, trackless wastes of Scythia. Now, Hephaestus, it falls to you to carry out your Father's will.
Clamp this offender, Prometheus, upon the jagged heights with chains of adamant unbreakable. He has stolen your blazing fire, the source of every art, and gifted it to mortal men.
Such is his crime; for this he must repay the gods, that he may learn to bow before Zeus's rule and abandon his excessive love for humankind.
Kratos (Κράτος) is the personification of power and brother to Bia (Force). They are the agents of Zeus, here to ensure that Hephaestus chains Prometheus to the rock.
Hephaestus
H
Kratos—I have no heart to bind, by force, a kindred god upon this cruel and wind-swept cleft. Yet I must summon strength to obey Zeus.
Prometheus, noble son of Themis, wise counselor, against my will and yours, I must rivet you in bronze-bound chains no hand may loose—to this desolate cliff, where no mortal can reach you.
Scorched by the blazing sun, you shall lose the fair bloom of your flesh, and be glad when night in star-spangled robe hides its radiance, and glad again when dawn dispels the morning frost. Evermore the weight of your torment will wear you down.
Such is the price you pay for championing mankind. Though a god, you did not fear the wrath of the gods, but granted honors to mortals beyond their due.
Therefore, on this joyless rock you must stand sentinel—upright, sleepless, your knee unbent. You will cry out in pain and vain protest. For Zeus’s heart is hard, and harsh are all whose power is newly won.
You have just begun the reading of one of the great Greek tragedies, "Prometheus Bound," written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BCE.
Even on this lonely crag—carved by frost and wind, far beyond the reach of any mortal—Prometheus will not remain alone. Visitors are coming…

Prometheus and the Oceanids

The Oceanids hear Prometheus turn suffering into leverage.
We return to "Prometheus Bound," where our titan protagonist is alone, chained to a high peak, condemned to suffer eternally. He is about to receive his first visitors…
Prometheus
P
Look how shamefully I am bound to struggle through countless years of torment. Such is the vile punishment devised for me by the new ruler of the blessed.
Ha! What murmuring sound, what scent draws near—unseen, divine or mortal, or both? Has someone come to this desolate cliff, the edge of the world, to witness my suffering—or with some other intent?
The daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, and sisters to the river gods, arrive in a winged chariot. These are the Oceanids, gentle nymphs of springs and fresh water.
Oceanid
O
Do not fear! We have flown swiftly to your side. The clang of iron echoed through our caverns and shattered our solemn reserve. Barefoot, we raced here in a winged car, drawn by winds.
Prometheus
P
Alas! Children of fruitful Tethys and your father Oceanus, who encircles the earth with sleepless current—see how I am bound, high on this jagged peak, forced to keep a wretched watch.
The day will come when Zeus will need me to reveal the secret that dooms his reign. He shall not seduce me with sweet words, nor force me with threats. Only when he frees me from these brutal bonds and pays for this outrage will I speak.
Oceanid
O
You are bold, and speak with reckless courage despite your pain. But our souls tremble with fear for your fate. What harbor remains for your ship of sorrow? The heart of Zeus is closed to pleas; his will is implacable.
Prometheus
P
Yes, Zeus is harsh and guards justice for himself. But one day, his rule shall break, and he will seek alliance and friendship with me, and I with him.

Why Prometheus Chose Zeus

Prometheus recalls choosing cunning and Zeus over the proud Titans.
Oceanid
Tell us the whole tale—what charge did Zeus bring against you, that he punishes you with such shame? Teach us, unless there is danger in speaking.
Prometheus
When once the gods were stirred to wrath and strife broke out among them, some sought to overthrow Cronus, that Zeus might reign; others, no less fiercely, fought to ensure Zeus would never rule.
I could not persuade the Titans, children of Heaven and Earth. In their pride, they scorned all strategy, believing they could triumph by sheer force.
Time and again my mother, Themis (Earth), foretold how fate would unfold: not through violence, nor the clash of strength, but that power would be won through cunning alone
I pressed this truth upon them, reasoned and implored—but they dismissed my words without a thought.
Seeing no other course, I chose instead to stand with my mother and join Zeus freely, of my own will.
By my counsel, Cronus and his allies now lie imprisoned in the sunless chasm of Tartarus. Such was the reward I brought the ruler of heaven—and this, the thankless return I now endure.
Oceanid
And where did you transgress?
Prometheus
I caused mortals to cease foreseeing their doom. I caused blind hopes to dwell within their breasts. And I gave them fire so that they may learn many arts.
Though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but they did not understand. Like shapes in dreams, through all their days, they acted without purpose and did all things in confusion.
They had no knowledge of houses built of brick, turned to face the sun, nor of working in wood. Instead, they dwelt beneath the earth like swarming ants, in sunless caves.
I was the first to tame brute beasts, making them submit to yoke and harness so they could carry men’s burdens. They knew no signs of winter, or of blooming spring, or fruitful summer—until I taught them to observe the risings and settings of the stars.
Yes, and numbers too—the highest of all sciences—I invented for them, as well as the joining of letters, the creative mother of the Muses’ arts.
For this I now suffer torments, cruel to endure and bitter to behold. Because I showed pity to mortals, I am now denied pity myself, condemned to this pitiless punishment. I am a spectacle that shames the glory of Zeus.

Prometheus and Io

Io meets Prometheus and demands the dangerous truth.
Do you remember the story of Io, daughter of Inachus, that we read from Ovid? Jupiter (Zeus) turns Io into a white heifer (cow) to hide his affair from his wife, Juno (Hera). Juno demands the heifer as a gift and assigns the hundred-eyed Argus to watch her.
In "Prometheus Bound," her story is a little different. Io's been exiled from home because of a prophecy. She's already half-cow, driven across the earth, tormented by Hera's gadfly—the "phantom of earth-born Argus."
Io knows that Zeus desires her and that Hera hates her. She's been having nightmares about it. Feeling lost and dejected, she lumbers past a stranger (Prometheus) chained to a rock.
Io
I
What land is this, what people live here? By what name shall I call the one I see, exposed to the tempest and bound to the rock before me?
Oh, oh—aah, aah! The gadfly, phantom of earth-born Argus, is stinging me again; keep him away, O Earth, for I tremble when I behold that myriad-eyed herdsman pursuing me.
The waxen pipe drones, a slumberous strain. Alas—where is my course taking me? O Zeus, son of Cronus, in what have I offended that you bind me to this yoke of misery?
Burn me with fire, hide me in the earth, or give me to the monsters of the deep; only grant the favor I beg. Do you hear the voice of the horned virgin?
Prometheus
P
How could I fail to hear the maiden frenzied by the gadfly, daughter of Inachus? She fires Zeus's heart with passion and now, through Hera's hate, is driven by force into interminable wandering.
Io
I
How do your know my father's name? Tell me—unfortunate maid that I am—who you are, that address me precisely and name the plague that wastes and stings with maddening goad.
Prometheus
P
Behold, I am Prometheus, the one who gave fire to mankind.
Io
I
Then tell me the end of my wandering, and what time is set for me, wretched as I am, to find release from this divinely-driven exile.
Prometheus
P
I hesitate to speak because full truth may crush your spirit and leave you with even less strength to endure what must be endured.
Io
I
Do not be kinder than I desire; grant me the dangerous gift of knowledge, for I prefer the wound of truth to the fever of doubt.
Prometheus
P
Since you insist, I must speak; listen with steadfast heart, for the words that follow will test your courage more than the path already trodden.
Oceanid
O
Not yet; grant us a portion of the tale. Let her recount with her own lips the affliction that brought calamity, and afterward let her be instructed about the toils still to come.
Prometheus
P
Io, grant the Oceanids this favor, especially since they are your father's sisters; sorrow finds some easing when lament wins the tribute of a listener's tear.
Io
I
You shall hear all you wish to know, though I am ashamed to tell how Heaven's storm marred my form and swept down upon me.

Io’s Dreams and Wanderings

Io recounts her exile and hears the road still ahead.
Io
I
Nightly visions haunted my maiden chamber, seeking to beguile me with seductive words: I was called greatly blessed, told that lingering in maidenhood denied me a union of the highest within my reach.
They said Zeus burned with passion and longed to unite; they urged me not to spurn his bed, but to go to Lerna's pastures and my father's flocks to ease his longing gaze.
Beset night after night by such dreams, I found courage to tell my father. He sent messengers to Pytho and Dodona for guidance, but the oracles returned riddling, obscure, and darkly worded.
At last an unmistakable utterance charged Inachus to thrust me from home and native land to roam to the remotest confines of the earth, or Zeus’s thunderbolt would destroy his whole race.
Yielding to Loxias’s prophecy, my father drove me away and barred me from his house, against his will and mine; the constraint of Zeus compelled him to act under necessity’s hard yoke.
At once my form and mind were distorted; horns rose upon my brow, and stung by a gadfly, I bounded in frenzy to Cerchnea's sweet stream and to the spring of Lerna.
Argus pursued me with his many eyes; a sudden death robbed him of life, yet this gadfly torments me still and drives me from land to land. That is what happened. If you can declare what toils remain, reveal them.
Prometheus
P
I shall tell. From here, you'll leave toward the rising sun across untilled plains until you reach the Scythian nomads in thatched houses on strong-wheeled wagons, armed with far-darting bows.
Do not approach them; keep your feet near the rugged shore where the sea breaks with a roar. On your left dwell iron-workers. Then you reach the river Hybristes; cross when you come to Caucasus.
Caucasus is the loftiest of mountains, from whose brows the river pours in fury; pass over crests that neighbor the stars, then turn southward to the Amazons, those women who loathe men. They will gladly guide you.
At the harbor's narrow portals you reach the Cimmerian isthmus; leave it with stout heart and pass the channel of Maeotis. Thereafter your path is named the Bosporus, from Europe into Asia.
Traverse the sea until you reach the Gorgonean plains. You shall come to a far country of a dark race dwelling by the river Aethiop; follow its banks until you reach the cataract.
A tempestuous sea of calamitous distress remains, surging with storms that have not yet broken over her unquiet path; the horizon is dark, and the winds gather without mercy.
Io
I
Oh! Alas! Why did I not hurl myself from this rugged rock and end it? Better to die once than linger through all my days in misery.
Prometheus
P
You could hardly bear my own punishment. There is no limit to my agony until Zeus is hurled from sovereignty.

The Prophecy That Frees Prometheus

Io’s descendant links Zeus’s danger to Prometheus’s release.
Io
I
You mean that Zeus will one day be hurled from his dominion? Will the thunderer learn the taste of loss he has made others swallow?
By whom shall he be stripped of the sceptre of sovereignty? What hand will wrest the thunderbolt and scatter the counsels of Olympus?
Prometheus
P
By himself and his own empty-headed purposes; hubris makes a snare for rulers who will not listen, and blind desire sets its own trap.
Io
I
Has he no means to avert this doom—no counsel or craft to blunt the edge of fate and secure his throne against the future?
Prometheus
P
None—except through me, if I were released from bondage; only I can show him the path that swerves from the precipice now hidden in the clouds.
Io
I
Who then will release you against Zeus’s will—what hand will dare break these fetters and affront the master of thunder without being struck down?
Prometheus
P
One of your own grandchildren will do it, a descendant who inherits both the wound of wandering and the courage to loosen another's chains.
At Canobus by the Nile's mouth Zeus will restore your senses by the mere touch of an unterrifying hand, and you will bear dark Epaphus, named from the manner of Zeus's engendering.
He shall gather the fruit of all the land watered by the broad-flowing Nile, and his lineage will spread across the fields sustained by that river’s inundations.
[The descendants of Epaphus] shall produce a daring man, renowned with the bow, who will deliver me from these toils and loose these chains that bite into immortal flesh.
Io
I
Oh, alas! Convulsive pain and frenzy strike my brain again; stung by the gadfly’s un-forged barb, my heart knocks in terror, my eyes whirl, and a storm of turbid words overwhelms speech.
Driven mad by her gadfly, Io flees the stage into the dark winds. We've learned that one of her descendants (Heracles) will free Prometheus.
In the final scene of "Prometheus Bound," Hermes arrives...

Prometheus and Hermes

Defiant Prometheus faces Zeus: prophecy, storm, eagle
Prometheus is the titan of foresight. He has foreseen not only his own doom, but the downfall of Zeus.
In this final scene from "Prometheus Bound," Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, has come to pry this prophecy from Prometheus...
Hermes
H
To you, clever and defiant, bitter beyond all bitterness—who sinned against the gods by honoring mere mortals—to you, thief of fire, I speak.
Zeus commands you to reveal the marriage you claim will bring about his downfall. Speak plainly, not in riddles. Do not force me to make a second journey, Prometheus; Zeus is not appeased by evasions.
Prometheus
P
Bold words, indeed—swollen with pride, as befits a servant of the gods. You are young, and so is your power; you imagine yourself beyond the reach of sorrow.
Have I not seen two rulers overthrown from these heights? A third—this present king—I shall yet see cast down in shame and ruin... Go back the way you came. You will learn nothing from me.
Hermes
H
So it was by such proud defiance that you earned your present misery.
Prometheus
P
Rest assured—I would never trade my suffering for your servitude.
Hermes
H
Better, no doubt, to serve this rock than be the trusted messenger of Father Zeus... You would be unbearable if you were prosperous.
Prometheus
P
Alas!
Hermes
H
"Alas"—a word unknown to Zeus.
Prometheus
P
But ever-aging Time teaches all things.
Hermes
H
Yet you have not learned restraint.
Prometheus
P
Or I would not waste words on an underling.
Hermes
H
So you will not answer Zeus's demand for the name of the one who will bring about his fall?
Prometheus
P
No torment, no device shall wring it from me, until these cruel chains are loosed. Let Zeus hurl his lightning, shake the earth with thunder, and drown the world in storms. This course I chose long ago, and I do not waver.
Hermes
H
If my warnings do not sway you, then mark what storm approaches... A ravenous eagle—the winged hound of Zeus—shall feast unbidden, tearing your flesh and devouring your liver by day, until it is black with pain.
The play ends as a raging storm approaches. Prometheus remains defiant and alone.
Aeschylus's "Prometheus Bound" is the first part of a trilogy. The sequels only survive as fragments, but we know the ending: Zeus eventually sends the hero Heracles to unchain Prometheus and slay the eagle.
Percy Shelley did not like this ending. In 1820, he wrote "Prometheus Unbound,” which is almost as famous as “Prometheus Bound.” Let us learn from Shelley what became of our protagonist after three thousand years of suffering…

Prometheus Unbound

Shelley’s Prometheus turns suffering into an empire of defiance.
A study of Prometheus is a study of mankind: how we came to be, what makes us special, and what price was paid for that.
Hesiod cast Prometheus as a Satan-like figure: intelligent, curious, and disobedient. He is a rebel who defies God (Zeus) and gives mankind the forbidden fire of knowledge, for which mankind will suffer eternally.
Aeschylus casts Prometheus as a morally gray figure: more victim than villain. He foresees and accepts his doom, but he's sullen and bitter about it.
There’s yet a third way to see Prometheus—the way the Romantic poets saw him, and the way we still see him today. In this version, Prometheus is a Christ-like figure, divine in nature, yet partaking of human suffering.
We’ll now meet this tragic version of Prometheus in Percy Shelly’s 1820 play, “Prometheus Unbound.” We find our titan on his lonely crag, where he’s been chained for three thousand years. He calls out to Zeus…
Prometheus
P
Monarch of Gods and Daemons, and all Spirits But One, who throng those bright and rolling worlds…
Behold this Earth, Crowded with your slaves, whom you Repay for worship [and toil]— With fear, self-loathing, and barren hope.
Three thousand years Of sleepless, shelterless hours... Torture and solitude, scorn and despair—
these are my empire: Far more glorious than the one you survey From your unenvied throne, O Mighty God!

Misery Made Me Wise

Prometheus transforms torment into pity, hope, and freedom.
Prometheus claims his empire of suffering is more glorious than the empire of Zeus. Hear how he suffers and how the eagle sent by Zeus (“Heaven’s winged hound”) tears at his heart…
Prometheus
P
The crawling glaciers stab me with spears Of their moon-freezing crystals; the bright chains Gnaw with burning cold into my bones.
Heaven's winged hound, fouled from your lips, His beak steeped in poison not his own, Tears at my heart; and shapeless horrors drift by—
Ghastly phantoms from the realm of dreams— Mock me; and earthquake-fiends are charged To wrench the rivets from my throbbing wounds.
Yet I endure. Disdain? Ah no—I pity you. What ruin Shall chase you, helpless, through vast Heaven! How shall your soul, split to its depths by fear, Yawn like a hell within...
I speak with sorrow, Not triumph, for I no longer hate As once I did, before misery made me wise.
After centuries of torment, Prometheus forgives Zeus and renounces hatred, breaking the cycle of vengeance.
The play ends with a vision of a new world, where tyranny has been replaced by harmony, beauty, and freedom. Here is the iconic peroration from “Prometheus Unbound.”
Percy Bysshe Shelley
P
To suffer woes which Hope believes infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;
To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates; Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent—
This, like your glory, Titan, is to be Good, great, and joyous, beautiful and free; This alone is Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory!
Daily history and lit
Nerd out on the subjects you love
Try a free lesson from Prometheus Bound