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Prometheus Bound ()


This is a second review--somehow 25 years later (5/05/24):

It is the nature of the world's great classics that they speak truth not just to their own time, but to all times.  So that dipping into them ourselves we find them surprisingly contemporaneous.  Of few works is this more true than the Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus (probably).

The first thing we notice is how much of it is a precursor to the Bible.  The titular character not only resembles Satan, in giving Man the gift of fire (knowledge), but Christ, as his punishment by Zeus--famously being bound to rock in chains so an eagle can rip out his innards every day--resembles the Crucifixion.

Secondly, its theme of rebellion against tyranny seems to have been a commentary on the resistance of nascent democracy to the threat of Persia.  But we can see its resonance throughout history to the current clime, not only in Ukraine vs. Russia, Taiwan vs. the ORC, and Palestine vs. Israel, but in the Republic's defense of itself against Trumpism, in India's struggles with Hindu Nationalism, and so on.

But, there's another theme that stands out at the moment of writing this review.  Students are occupying college campuses demanding that their institutions divest from Israel because of the war in Palestine. In their own minds, they are modeling the civil disobedience of Gandhi and MLK.  However, they are also demanding to be fed for free and to be supplied with personal items and, as administrations and police react with suspensions and arrests, are whingeing about being punished unjustly.  Of course, the point of such protests is to force the authorities to act and expose themselves for all to see.  It is by bearing punishment that one provokes fellow citizens to reckon with the question of justice.

Perhaps they should be conducting readings of not just the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, but of Prometheus Bound.  As the former:
You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."
..so the latter: 
PROMETHEUS:
Lo, I am rockfast, and thy words are wave
That weary me in vain. Let not the thought
Enter thy mind, that I in awe of Zeus
Shall change my nature for a girl's, or beg
The Loathed beyond all loathing-with my hands
Spread out in woman's fashion-to cast loose
These bonds; from that I am utterly removed.
...and:
PROMETHEUS:
Therefore, since suffering is the due
A foe must pay his foes,
Let curled lightnings clasp and clash
And close upon my limbs: loud crash
The thunder, and fierce throes
Of savage winds convulse calm air:
The embowelled blast earth's roots uptear
And toss beyond its bars,
The rough surge, till the roaring deep
In one devouring deluge sweep
The pathway of the stars
Finally, let him fling my form
Down whirling gulfs, the central storm
Of being; let me lie
Plunged in the black Tartarean gloom;
Yet-yet-his sentence shall not doom
This deathless self to die!
There's some not quite PC stuff in there, but the politics is somehow eternal 2500 years later.


BrothersJudd.com REVIEW of 1999:

    Of my free will, my own free will, I erred,  And freely do I here acknowledge it.
            -Prometheus

Aeschylus is considered to be the father of Greek Tragedy as we know it, if for no other reason than his introduction of a second actor onto the scene.  Up until his time, plays had consisted of just one actor, changing masks if necessary.  But in addition to being an innovator, Aeschylus wrote one of the really pivotal works in the history of literature and of the human quest to understand our purpose in the universe: Prometheus Bound.

The parallels to the Biblical account of man's fall are obvious.  Prometheus is a Titan, more than human but less than God, like the angels.  He gives fire to mankind in violation of Zeus' orders, making man a threat to the gods.  Zeus punishes him by chaining him to a boulder where vultures peck out his innards every day, only to have them grow back at night, a little harsher than making the serpent crawl and banishing man from Eden, eh?  And so on...

The play opens as Prometheus is being bound by the reluctant Hephaestus, god of fire, who is the first of several characters to beg him to repent and apologize to Zeus.  Not only does Prometheus refuse, he is outwardly defiant of the king of the gods:

                      PROMETHEUS
                         These things are sorrowful for me to speak,
                         Yet silence too is sorrow: all ways woe!
                         When first the Blessed Ones were filled with wrath
                         And there arose division in their midst,
                         These instant to hurl Cronos from his throne
                         That Zeus might be their king, and these, adverse,
                         Contending that he ne'er should rule the Gods,
                         Then I, wise counsel urging to persuade
                         The Titans, sons of Ouranos and Chthon,
                         Prevailed not: but, all indirect essays
                         Despising, they by the strong hand, effortless,
                         Yet by main force-supposed that they might seize
                         Supremacy. But me my mother Themis
                         And Gaia, one form called by many names,
                         Not once alone with voice oracular
                         Had prophesied how power should be disposed-
                         That not by strength neither by violence
                         The mighty should be mastered, but by guile.
                         Which things by me set forth at large, they scorned,
                         Nor graced my motion with the least regard.
                         Then, of all ways that offered, I judged best,
                         Taking my mother with me, to support,
                         No backward friend, the not less cordial Zeus.
                         And by my politic counsel Tartarus,
                         The bottomless and black, old Cronos hides
                         With his confederates. So helped by me,
                         The tyrant of the Gods, such service rendered
                         With ignominious chastisement requites.
                         But 'tis a common malady of power
                         Tyrannical never to trust a friend.
                         And now, what ye inquired, for what arraigned
                         He shamefully entreats me, ye shall know.
                         When first upon his high, paternal throne
                         He took his seat, forthwith to divers Gods
                         Divers good gifts he gave, and parcelled out
                         His empire, but of miserable men
                         Recked not at all; rather it was his wish
                         To wipe out man and rear another race:
                         And these designs none contravened but me.
                         I risked the bord attempt, and saved mankind
                         From stark destruction and the road to hell.
                         Therefore with this sore penance am I bowed,
                         Grievous to suffer, pitiful to see.
                         But, for compassion shown to man, such fate
                         I no wise earned; rather in wrath's despite
                         Am I to be reformed, and made a show
                         Of infamy to Zeus.

Later he explains just what the possession of knowledge will mean to mankind:

                      PROMETHEUS
                         Think not that I for pride and stubbornness
                         Am silent: rather is my heart the prey
                         Of gnawing thoughts, both for the past, and now
                         Seeing myself by vengeance buffeted.
                         For to these younger Gods their precedence
                         Who severally determined if not I?
                         No more of that: I should but weary you
                         With things ye know; but listen to the tale
                         Of human sufferings, and how at first
                         Senseless as beasts I gave men sense, possessed them
                         Of mind. I speak not in contempt of man;
                         I do but tell of good gifts I conferred.
                         In the beginning, seeing they saw amiss,
                         And hearing heard not, but, like phantoms huddled
                         In dreams, the perplexed story of their days
                         Confounded; knowing neither timber-work
                         Nor brick-built dwellings basking in the light,
                         But dug for themselves holes, wherein like ants,
                         That hardly may contend against a breath,
                         They dwelt in burrows of their unsunned caves.
                         Neither of winter's cold had they fixed sign,
                         Nor of the spring when she comes decked with flowers,
                         Nor yet of summer's heat with melting fruits
                         Sure token: but utterly without knowledge
                         Moiled, until I the rising of the stars
                         Showed them, and when they set, though much obscure.
                         Moreover, number, the most excellent
                         Of all inventions, I for them devised,
                         And gave them writing that retaineth all,
                         The serviceable mother of the Muse.
                         I was the first that yoked unmanaged beasts,
                         To serve as slaves with collar and with pack,
                         And take upon themselves, to man's relief,
                         The heaviest labour of his hands: and
                         Tamed to the rein and drove in wheeled cars
                         The horse, of sumptuous pride the ornament.
                         And those sea-wanderers with the wings of cloth,
                         The shipman's waggons, none but I contrived.
                         These manifold inventions for mankind
                         I perfected, who, out upon't, have none-
                         No, not one shift-to rid me of this shame.

                      CHORUS
                         Thy sufferings have been shameful, and thy mind
                         Strays at a loss: like to a bad physician
                         Fallen sick, thou'rt out of heart: nor cans't prescribe
                         For thine own case the draught to make thee sound.

                       PROMETHEUS
                         But hear the sequel and the more admire
                         What arts, what aids I cleverly evolved.
                         The chiefest that, if any man fell s?ick,
                         There was no help for him, comestible,
                         Lotion or potion; but for lack of drugs
                         They dwindled quite away; until I taught them
                         To compound draughts and mixtures sanative,
                         Wherewith they now are armed against disease.
                         I staked the winding path of divination
                         And was the first distinguisher of dreams,
                         The true from false; and voices ominous
                         Of meaning dark interpreted; and tokens
                         Seen when men take the road; and augury
                         By flight of all the greater crook-clawed birds
                         With nice discrimination I defined;
                         These by their nature fair and favourable,
                         Those, flattered with fair name. And of each sort
                         The habits I described; their mutual feuds
                         And friendships and the assemblages they hold.
                         And of the plumpness of the inward parts
                         What colour is acceptable to the Gods,
                         The well-streaked liver-lobe and gall-bladder.
                         Also by roasting limbs well wrapped in fat
                         And the long chine, I led men on the road
                         Of dark and riddling knowledge; and I purged
                         The glancing eye of fire, dim before,
                         And made its meaning plain. These are my works.
                         Then, things beneath the earth, aids hid from man,
                         Brass, iron, silver, gold, who dares to say
                         He was before me in discovering?
                         None, I wot well, unless he loves to babble.
                         And in a single word to sum the whole-
                         All manner of arts men from Prometheus learned.

When Io, a mortal woman who has also been mistreated by Zeus, makes her appearance, Prometheus intimates that her descendants will eventually free him and unseat the king of the gods.  It is this key perception--that man has gained the capacity to achieve godhood himself--and the heroic defiance of Prometheus in giving us the wherewithal to mount this challenge that make the play so thrilling and earn it a central position in the Western Canon.

But there is, of course, one vital step still to be taken in man's self-realization and it occurs, not in Greek drama, but in Genesis.  For in the Promethean myth man is totally passive; it is up to the demigod Prometheus to force the action.  Whereas, while even Adam and Eve require some prodding from the serpent, the essence of their story is that they are liberated from the domesticated beastlike existence of Eden by an act of their own free will.  But we'll not let the best be the enemy of the good. Prometheus Bound represents an important expansion of man's understanding of the purpose of life, which is to use the gift of Prometheus (i.e. the capacity for knowledge) to make ourselves gods, and it is a must read.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A+)


Websites:

See also:

Classics
Plays
Aeschylus Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Aeschylus
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-AUTHOR PAGE: Aeschylus (Liberty Fund)
    -ENTRY: Aeschylus Greek dramatist (Oliver Taplin and Anthony J. Podlecki, Encyclopaedia Britannica)
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-WIKIPEDIA: Prometheus Bound
    -ENTRY: Prometheus Bound play by Aeschylus (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
    -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Aeschylus' Prometheus (Nikos Manousakis, 27 NOVEMBER 2023, Oxford Bibliographies)
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-ETEXT: Prometheus Bound and 7 Against Thebes translated by Theodore Buckley (Gutenberg)
    -ETEXT: Aeschylus’ “PROMETHEUS BOUND” Written circa 460BCE (Translated by George Theodoridis, Poetry in Translation)
    -ETEXT: Prometheus Bound By Aeschylus (Internet Classics Archive)
    -ETEXT: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D., Ed, 1926, Tufts.edu)
    -READING GUIDE: Prometheus Bound (Spark Notes)
    -READING GUIDE: Prometheus Bound (Study.com)
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-VIDEO: Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus: A reading and discussion of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning) (The Center for Hellenic Studies, Jul 1, 2020)
    -VIDEO: A Detailed Summary of PROMETHEUS BOUND by Aeschylus (MoAn, Inc.)
    -VIDEO: Aeschylus - Prometheus Bound (Directed by Francesco Andolfi, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, New York University, March 15, 2013)
    -VIDEO: Ancient Theater performance: Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus (Ancient Greece)
    -VIDEO LECTURE: HC, #63,Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound (McGee of 303 and Learnstrong.net lectures on Harvard Classics, Volume 8, 9 Greek Dramas, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound,)
    -VIDEO: Prometheus - The Rebel of Olympus | The Great Greek Myths, Episode 03 (Fadi Akil)
    -VIDEO: Prometheus Bound Panel Discussion (American Repertory Theater, A panel discussion on human rights and the A.R.T.'s production of Prometheus Bound. Wednesday, March 2, 2011, at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge. Co-presented by the A.R.T. and the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard)
    -VIDEO: Prometheus vs. Satan (Ryan Griffiths)
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-ESSAY: Prometheus Bound: A Timeless Warning to Idealistic Revolutionaries (Aleksandar Todorovski, 5/03/24, Voegelin View)
    -CONFERENCE: Sophocles and Aeschylus: Blood Justice and the Founding of Legal Order (Liberty Fund)
    -ESSAY: Reciprocity in Prometheus Bound (Anthony J. Podlecki, 12/26/1969, Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies)
    -ESSAY: Aeschylus on Suffering (Louis Markos, March 5th, 2019, Imaginative Conservative)
    -ESSAY: The Myth of Prometheus is Not a Cautionary Tale ( Virginia Postrel, November 24, 2023, Print)
    -ESSAY: Aeschylus’ “Prometheus Bound”: Where Is Meaning to be Found? (Chris Augusta, 11/26/2019, Merion West)
    -ESSAY: “Prometheus Bound” (via Hesiod, Aeschylus, Heidegger, McLuhan) (RUFUS F., MARCH 17, 2010, Ordinary Times)
    -ESSAY: A Tale of Two Prometheuses in Many Parts (Anthony Galluzzo, November 16, 2015, Arcade)
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-ESSAY: The Liberalism of Classical Political Philosophy (Leo Strauss, The Review of Metaphysics, Mar., 1959)
    -ESSAY: Prometheus Bound: Justice Versus Tyranny (Religion Think, 2/27/21)
    -ESSAY: Prometheus: Choosing to be Bound (Dr Craig S Wright, 5/27/22)
    -ESSAY: • A LONG HOPE: THE PROMETHEUS COUNTER-PROJECT (Ilha Desterro, May-Aug 2023)
    -REVIEW: of Ian Ruffell, Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound. Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy (Ian C. Storey, Bryn Mawr Classical Review)
    -ESSAY: Aeschylus and the Binding of the Tyrant (Damien K. Picariello and Arlene W. Saxonhouse, 01 Oct 2015, Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought)
    -ESSAY: Prometheus Bound (David Grene, Classical Philology, Jan., 1940)
    -ESSAY: Notes on Aeschylus' "Prometheus Bound" (Herbert S. Long, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Jun. 24, 1958)
    -ESSAY: A Fever of Intellect: Prometheus Bound and its Authenticity (Tom Hendrickson, Dec 15, 2020, Medium)
    -ESSAY: Prometheus in Suspension: Suffering and the Tragic in Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound (Anna Katherine Batson, Liberty University, 12-3-2009)
    -ESSAY: Athena as Founder and Statesman in the “Eumenides” of Aeschylus (John Alvis, 8/12/22, Voegelin View)
    -ESSAY: A Brief Commentary on the Anthropology of Aeschylus’ Oresteia (Colin Cordnerm 2/05/19, Voegelin View)
    -ESSAY: Why “The Oresteia” Still Matters (Paul Krause, 1/10/22, Voegelin View)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Prometheus Bound: Upstart Gods, Politics, and Morality at the Beginning of Time (Shelby Brown, September 11, 2013, PBS SoCal)
    -ESSAY: Prometheus Bound: The Politics of Titans and Gods (Brian Le, September 16, 2013, Winds & Waves)
    -ESSAY: Scene One: Io (Marina Warner, 6 November 2002, OpenDemocracy)
    -ESSAY: Aeschylus and the Binding of the Tyrant (Arlene W. Saxonhouse & Damien K. Picariello, October 2015, Polis The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Though)
    -ESSAY: Prometheus Bound Themes and Critical Summary (Faiq Azam, Jan 6, 2024, Medium)
    -ESSAY: A Damned God In Chains: Author and lyricist Steven Sater (whose credits include Spring Awakening) on why Prometheus Bound resonates today (Stephen Sater, JAN 11, 2011, A.R.T.)
    -ESSAY: Tyranny, Prophecy, and Freedom in Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound (Grimoire Reliquary)
    -ESSAY: What’s Wrong with Democracy? The Peculiar Power of Kratos (John McGuire,Open Research Europe)
    -ESSAY: Athena as Founder & Statesman (John Alvis, January 27th, 2013, Imaginative Conservative)
    -ESSAY: Aspects of Tragedy: Ancient and Modern (George Panichas, July 12th, 2014, Imaginative Conservative)
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-ARCHIVES: prometheus (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)
    -VIDEO ARCHIVES: “prometheus aeschylus” (YouTube)
    -ARCHIVES: Aeschylus (Voegelin View)
    -REVIEW: of Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound by A. J. Podlecki, Aeschylus (Pär Sandin, Bryn Mawr Classical Review)
    -REVIEW: of “Prometheus Bound”, traditionally attributed to Aeschylus (Argumentative Old Git)

Book-related and General Links:
    -Aeschylus Page (Temple U)
    -Aeschylus (c. 523-456 B.C.)
    -ETEXTS: GREAT BOOKS INDEX Aeschylus (524--455 BC):  An Index to Online Great Books in English Translation
    -The Internet Classics Archive | Works by Aeschylus
    -Concordance to Aeschylus - 7 Plays - translated by Robert Potter
    -t h e  c l a s s i c s  p a g e s
    -REVIEW: Bernard M.W. Knox: Aeschylus Pinioned and Grabbed, NY Review of Books
                         Aeschylus: Suppliants translated by Janet Lembke
                         Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes translated by Helen Bacon and Anthony Hecht
                         Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound translated by James Scully and C. John Herington
    -REVIEW: Prometheus at Yale (Francis Fergusson, NY Review of Books)
          Prometheus Bound derived from Aeschylus by Robert Lowell and directed by Jonathan Miller
    -Study Guide: Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
    -Study guide for Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound (Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Temple University)
    -ESSAY: Klytaimestra: A Study of Aeschylus' Agamemnon 1372-1576
    -ONLINE STUDY GUIDE: Agamemnon (Spark Notes)
    -ESSAY: THE HEART OF THE MATTER: Gods, Grief, and Freedom in Aeschylus' Oresteia (Michael R. Deschenes, Classics Technology Center)
    -ESSAY:  The politics of Aeschylus' Eumenides (Keith Sidwell, St Patrick's College Maynooth,  CLASSICS IRELAND1996 Volume 3 University College Dublin, Ireland)
    -ESSAY: Ethics of Greek Theater (Sanderson Beck)
    -ESSAY:  Greek Tragedy  Lecture GREEK TRAGEDY: AESCHYLUS, WEAVING AND BIRTH by  Prof. Ricardo Nirenberg
     -REVIEW: The Oresteia By Aeschylus. A New Translation by Ted Hughes (Garry Wills, NY Times Book Review)
     -REVIEW: of Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography by Roger Shattuck (Andrew Delbanco, NY Review of Books)
     -REVIEW: (Jasper Griffin: The Myth of Myths, NY Review of Books)
            Splitting the Difference: Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India by Wendy Doniger
           The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth by Wendy Doniger
      -REVIEW: of  The Oresteia of Aeschylus translated by Robert Lowell (D.S. Carne-Ross, NY Review of Books)
      -REVIEW: of The Ancient Concept of Progress by E.R. Dodds (W.H. Auden, NY Review of Books)
    -ESSAY : The Second Fall of Rome :  Have the past two centuries of Western culture been one long saga of lionizing Greece while disparaging the cultural prestige and classical values of ancient Rome? (Michael Lind, Wilson Quarterly)