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Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound

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Revolution tried to debunk the ox trick, but Mubarak and his entourage were clever enough to outmaneuver them and aborted any attempt of political reform. Because they lacked sufficient experience and a clear vision, it was foretold that they would be imprisoned and received punishment as terrible as that of Prometheus, while “Mubarak 's generals and policemen who have the last laugh” (Alexander). Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound Whether the trilogy of Prometheus Pound, Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire Bringer were written by Aeschylus or not (Ruffell 14-5), Prometheus Bound reflects both a rebellious spirit and a belief in human progress. Though Prometheus was against the tyrant, they were eventually reconciled. In Aeschylus’ trilogy, Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is portrayed as the benefactor of mankind since he had greatly contributed to the creation of their culture. In Protagoras, one of Plato’s dialogues, Prometheus “stole the mechanical arts of Hephaestus and Athene, and fire with them . . . and gave them to man . . . Prometheus is said to have been afterwards prosecuted for theft, owing to the blunder of …show more content…

The myth has developed from a “pharmakos” that is finally reconciled with the tyrant-leader to a defiant rebellious spirit that sees the leader as an opposing force, never to be reconciled with. Prometheus points out to Zeus that he fears nothing. “The rebellious titan… belittles the god’s pitiably abstract majesty”, which is “the ultimate affirmation of self, and the ultimate self-image of the Storm ad Stress genius” (Saul 27-28). The poem highlights the defiance of a revolutionary spirit; in fact it represents “Spinoza’s atheism” (Awad. The Theme of Prometheus. 175).For Goethe Prometheus is a “ Firebringer...following the Calderonian tradition”; however, Goethe did not accept “ Calderon’s theory of innocent sinning nor Shaftesbury’s theory of universal harmony and a “just Prometheus”

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