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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
PROMETHEUS BOUND
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Prometheus Bound is the first and only surviving play of a
Prometheus trilogy by Aeschylus. (The second play would have seen him
released from his chains.)
It begins with the lackeys Might and Violence escorting Prometheus to the
edge of wasteland desolation where Hephaestos will shackle him to a rock.
Might's interpretation of the event is that Prometheus will "be taught to
accept the tyranny / Of Zeus, and check his charity to man" (1). When
Hephaestos hesitates about the whole nasty affair, Might chastises him;
after all, all the new Olympian gods despise this Titan, and shouldn't
obeying the word of Zeus, "The Father's word" (2), be more revered than
any kinship with this prisoner? Eventually Hephaestos acknowledges that
he must carry out his chore and that Might's shouting is superfluous.
Might sneers at Prometheus:
Io, Zeus' recent dalliance he turned into a cow to hide her from Hera,
stops for a visit. Prometheus knows that it is destined that a descendant
of hers will release him from the chains (thirteen generations from now),
but he also knows how long her suffering and wanderings will last, so she
gets a choice which she wants to hear about. The Chorus instructs him to
tell Io the more relevant information for her, and to report afterwards
the other matter. Prometheus also knows a prophecy about Zeus and feels
sure that Zeus will go down just as the generations before him have. Zeus
will hook up with a woman, and "A son shall she bear stronger than his
sire" (33).
Io goes off in a tizzy and Hermes arrives from Zeus demanding that
Prometheus report what he knows about Zues' fate. Prometheus is
delightfully critical: "How solemn-mouthed and puffed with arrogance /
The announcement, as befits a gods' attendant!" (41). Prometheus says
that this new regime stupidly thinks itself sturdy. He would not exchange
his misfortune for Hermes' obsequious subservience (42). Hermes tries to
paint Prometheus' adamance as mental illness, then tells Prometheus the
worse torments Zeus is ready to inflict: after a bolt, "the blood-red
eagle, ravenously / Shall tear thy tattered body limb from limb, / An
uninvited, day-long banqueter / Feasting upon thy liver's blackened
flesh" (45).
But Prometheus knows "for none is it shameful to bear / At the hands of
his enemies evil and wrong" (45). Hermes storms off and Prometheus
remains steadfast.
... How can
Prometheus renders his lament, but unrepentantly, until a chorus of
Oceanids (daughters of Oceanus) hang out with him. "But here I am hung as
a plaything of storms / And a mark for my enemies' laughter!" (8), claims
Prometheus. He relates his take on the war between the Titans and
Olympians, and then begins to explain his role in the lot of humankind.
"I stayed man from foreknowledge of his fate" (11). Oceanus himself
advises against Prometheus' adamant resentment against Zeus: "Hast thou,
Prometheus, never learnt that words / Are the physicians of distempered
rage?" (17). Prometheus tells of all the results of his bringing fire to
humankind; he is ultimately responsible for their having astronomy, math,
language, agriculture, medicine, dream theory and divination, etc.
Mortals relieve thee in thy present state?
Falsely we named thee the Foresighted One,
Prometheus -- thine the need of foresight now,
How from this art to extricate thyself! (5)
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound. Trans. George Thomson. NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995.