In my on-going attempt to read all of “The Great Books,” I just finished “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus. My previous acquaintance with Prometheus was through a book given to me by my favorite aunt when I was a child. It was a large, but not very thick book of Greek myths. As I remember it, each myth was told on one to three pages and included a color picture portraying the story. The grizzly image of Prometheus chained to rocks with a bird about to tear into his liver became branded in my visual memory where it still resides.
I don’t know if in the attempt to make the story appropriate for young readers, major themes in the myth were simplified to the point of being unrecognizable, or if I, in my immaturity, just didn’t catch them. I knew that Prometheus had angered Zeus by giving fire to humans, but I have now come to realize that I didn’t have the whole picture regarding Prometheus.
What I didn’t know about Prometheus:
1. It is not only fire that he gave to humans. He claims that prior to his involvement, humans lived in caves. He taught them to build homes with timber and bricks, to use animals for their benefit for farm work and transportation, to make ships, to compound drugs to combat disease, and to use writing. Prior to his involvement, he says, men were senseless beasts, and he gave them sense. He sees himself as the savior of man who has mitigated man’s suffering.
2. He rails against Zeus. He does not believe Zeus to be the most powerful god, but the god who currently wields control through self-made laws and intimidation. Other characters in this play, admonish him to hold his tongue lest his punishment become greater. Prometheus persists in his defiance. At one point he says:
Go thou and worship; fold thy hands in prayer,
And be the dog that licks the foot of power!
Nothing care I for Zeus; yea, less than naught!
Let him do what he will, and sway the world
His little hour; he has not long to lord it among the Gods.
3. Prometheus also claims to be a prophet. He foretells the future of Io who appears in the play. He also claims to know when his own suffering will end, and when and how Zeus will fall from power, although this he refuses to reveal.
With whirl of feathery snowflakes and loud crack
Of subterranean thunder; none of these
Shall bend my will or force me to disclose
By whom ‘tis fated he shall fall from power.
Among the intriguing concepts in this play:
*Thou are a better counselor to others than to thyself …..a common problem for most of us. We see problems and recognize corrective actions for others, but we don’t have the insight to see the same in ourselves.
*True marriage is the union that mates equal with equal. I’m all in favor of that! I have seen some unions that appeared to be a mismatch, but that have seemed to work as observed from the outside. I would have stayed single before entering into such a union.
*I would not, if I might, change my misfortunes for thy vassalage…spoken like a patriot.
The question arises while reading “Prometheus Bound,” when is it appropriate to be defiant? Was the original Tea Party appropriate? Is the current Tea Party appropriate? Prometheus shakes his fist in the face of Zeus. That’s OK with me. Some individuals today shake their fist in the face of the One I believe to be the one true God, Creator and Sustainer of the universe. I’m afraid that is not OK. I might be wrong in my beliefs, but I fear for those who are defiant, if I am right.
When is it right and good to defy authority?
When is it just plain foolish?
