Prometheus, a crafty trickster of a god is known in ancient Greek history for his theft of fire for humankind and accredited with the creation of womankind as a punishment for his trickery. Despite these core descriptions of Prometheus’ character, representations of the god's nature, behavior, and intentions vary greatly depending on the text he’s being described in. When looking at Aeschylus’ play Prometheus Bound and Hesiod's work Theogony, a righteous, friend of humankind is how Prometheus is generally described, in stark contrast to Hesiod’s representation of Prometheus in the Works and Days, where he is presented as a bringer of suffering. This essay will examine how these strikingly contrasting profiles of Prometheus were crafted in each …show more content…
To begin, Prometheus’ representation in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound is one of a righteous individual, defying Zeus, something no other god would do. The play starts with Hephaestus defining Prometheus’ punishment from Zeus, where a commentary on Prometheus’ character is made. After describing the grueling punishment Prometheus is to receive, Hephaestus states “Such is the reward you reap of your man-loving disposition. For you, a God, feared not the anger of the Gods, but gave honors to mortals beyond what was just.” (Prometheus Bound, lines 28-30) Hephaestus’ statement not only makes a commentary on Prometheus’ loyalty to humankind, but she also notably highlights Prometheus’ steadfast righteousness as he fares against even the most powerful god, Zeus. Additionally, we can see how Aeschylus is highlighting the intentions behind Prometheus’ actions, and his ready acceptance of the consequences. Prometheus is not characterized by the consequences of suffering, but by the intentions behind the actions that he is suffering for, and later on, Aeschylus makes it notable that it is those intentions that give him the willpower to face the consequences. Prometheus states “But I, who give all thing, accept the pain. For humans I will never change …show more content…
Hesiod’s portrayal of Prometheus as a bringer of suffering is made explicitly clear by the very subtitle of his story in Works and Days, adeptly named, Why Life is Hard. The blame for the hardships of life is further placed on Prometheus when Hesiod states “But Zeus got his spleen up, and went and hid how to make a living, all because shifty Prometheus tricked him. That’s why Zeus made life hard for humans.” (Works and Days lines 65-67) We see not only the adjective “shifty” be associated with Prometheus, but also a direct accusation of all of life’s hardships being at the hands of Prometheus and his trickery, a very different portrayal from the works aforementioned. The consequences mankind faces weigh much more in the way Prometheus is viewed than the actions that brought on those consequences. Hesiod ends this section of Works and Days with “The main point to remember is that gods and humans go back a long way together.” (Works and Days lines 127-128) We see here what seems to be a warning about the consequences of human-god interactions where trickery is involved, which may be signaling to Prometheus’ story as more of a cautionary tale. Certainly, we can also look at the varying depictions in the contexts for which they are written. We know myths tend to
He is most famous for the time he tricked Zeus himself to give mankind more beef instead of sacrificing it to the Gods. Zeus got angry at this and stole fire from mankind as punishment. Prometheus stole it to give back to humanity,
In Prometheus’ previous society, he hated it. He was a creative soul with a huge blank canvas, but nothing to draw with.
Second thing about Prometheus is — he betrayed his people (Titans) by helping Zeus during the war ( Olympians VS. Titans). In the first few sentences, I wrote the Prometheus stole fire form Zeus right? Why? It’s because he loves his creations.
This one ties into the first point of self-worth. No one could make anything on their own, or have ideas of their own. Going back to the light, he was not allowed to have his idea praised since it was not made by more than one person. The council asked Equality if he was working on this with more than one person, when he responded no, the council was enraged. At the end of the novel, Prometheus was very happy since he could express his ideas in his own way, and not to please everyone.
This exemplifies the fact that Prometheus has discovered that life does not mean that he should work for the good of others, but that it means that he must live his life to the best of his own potential. This, by definition, makes him an
“I”, which no man may speak nor hear; but sometimes, somewhere, one among men will find the word upon scraps of old manuscripts or cut into the fragments of ancient stones. There is no crime punished by death in this world. Prometheus being in the house of the street sweepers had a lot of knowledge in compared with those in the house of scholars. He began to collect old manuscripts from the house of the scholars secretly and would start experiments in the new tunnel which he and his friend had kept as a secret. His
Prometheus Bound and The Book of Job are two stories that are both similar in many ways, but at the same time very different from one another. Prometheus Bound is a story about a man who kindly assists humans and gives them fire for their own use. However, Zeus does not like the fact that Prometheus helped the humans, or is friends with them, so he decided to punish Prometheus for what he done. Zeus has his his servant Hephaestus chain Prometheus to a rock and leave him there. Prometheus spend days on the rock and talks to the Chorus of Oceanis, lo, and Hermes while he is on the rock and explains to them all why he is chained to the rock.
Gaea and Prometheus have significant characteristics and personalities that are portrayed throughout the novel by the characters Equality and Liberty. In Greek Mythology, Prometheus became an inspiration for the search of scientific knowledge, similarly to Equality in Anthem. Within the novel, Equality’s life seems to reflect Prometheus’ life. According to legend, Prometheus is referred to as “the champion of mankind”, having created man with water and clay (“Prometheus”).
Discovery of such history had a profound impact on Equality such as when he read the word “I”. It is through man’s writing in which Equality came to understand “the blessed thing which (he) had called (his) curse” (98). This writing had such a positive impact on Equality that he decided to “write the first chapter of new history of man” so that it would be eternal (101). It is through his writing, that Prometheus will be remembered not as a number, but as a hero who vanquishes collectivism. His eternal message cautions the reader of the dangers of an irrational society so that someday man will think twice before chaining himself to the word
Hesiod’s Theogony was no longer able to satisfy the higher minds among the nation. Thus, inspiring Aeschylus to write tragic poets such as Prometheus’ Bound in order to express his own ideology and pointing the moral of tragedy. It is no surprise that Hesiod viewed Zeus as a glorified olympian hero and Prometheus as a traitor who stole fire and gave it to mankind. Aeschylus’s idea of Prometheus was conflicting to Hesiod, whereby he viewed Prometheus as a god supporting the civilization of mankind.
Prometheus felt bad for humans that his brother Epimetheus gave all the gifts to all other animals and humans were left with nothing. In the myth it states “For the children of earth were not happy as they had been in the golden days when Saturn ruled. Indeed, they were very poor and wretched and cold, without fire, without food, and with no shelter but miserable caves” (Study syncs2). Life for humans was not so easy without a gift since all the gifts were given to all the animals of the world. As further in the story Prometheus “Then he showed men how to build fires for themselves, and it was not long before they began to do all the wonderful things of which Prometheus had dreamed.
The fire myth shows compassion, however, while the myth about sacrifices shows Prometheus’s more mischievous side. Hesiod’s Theogony outlines the myth. Prometheus is said to have split up a cow and hid the bones under fat, and the meat underneath organs. When Zeus was asked to pick a sacrifice, he chose
If Hesiod’s telling of the creation of the world was fundamentally problematic, it would not have been well received in his culture. However, as Hesiod's views reflect a more radical version of a set of cultural values, his work was able to withstand the test of time and expand past his culture to be told globally. Taking into account Hesiodis radical beliefs, it would be more rational to conclude that his story does not reflect on a cultural value of misogyny, but rather the culture’s true value of masculine traits. This idea is supported as in Theogony gods are commonly punished for taking on feminine traits. When Prometheus tricked Zeus into eating bones instead of “innards rich with fat” (Theogony, 147), Zeus punished humankind by taking away humanity’s fire.
Zeus could not oversee his aggravation on Prometheus and placed consequences on Epimetheus, though he didn’t do anything. Therefore, the theme of self-control is shown because of Zeus’s actions. Because Prometheus had gifted the human world with fire, Zeus plans to doom all of humanity. As the story continues, he gathers many gods and concluded to create a wonderful bride for Epimetheus but the catch is she was sent down with a dowry. Her first meeting with Epimetheus was a warning about the casket as if there may be a puppy or a bomb as explosive as Hiroshima inside.
I hope to leave the reader with a deeper sense of understanding on how literature can inspire the future generations in ways we don 't yet know. It was written in Greek mythology that, the titan Prometheus was a wise craftsman who taught humans many useful skills, including ‘navigation, writing, and architecture’. Prometheus, created humans by shaping clay into figures that looked like the gods. The gods admired these figures and ‘breathed life’ into them. Zeus disliked the ‘creatures’, but ‘he could not destroy them’.