Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus

The myth of Prometheus has influenced many thinkers and artists, including Mary Shelley, whose famous novel Frankenstein was more fully titled Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. Her husband, the poet Shelly, wrote his own epic Prometheus Unbound. If you ever get a chance to see the UK National Theatre performance of Frankenstein, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, I highly recommend it. The sensibility is very close to the original Shelley novel. The London performance was broadcast live, and occasionally there are encore telecasts. There will be an encore this October 27 in Richmond at the Modlin Center for the Arts.

The original Prometheus Bound is one of only seven plays — out of ninety — by Aeschylus (B. 525 BCE) to survive. In Greek myth, Prometheus — a Titan — made men by breathing life into them after molding them from clay and water. He was punished for bringing fire to humans after it was forbidden to do so by Zeus. This was the last straw, after a variety of other tricks he played on the despotic Zeus. The punishment Zeus ordered was for Prometheus to be chained to a mountain in the Caucasus, exposed, where his liver would be torn out by eagles every day for eternity.

Translation of the passage of the play given below is by Aeschylus by Herbert Weir Smyth. The entire play is available online here.

[When this passage opens, Prometheus is already bound, and is visited by a chorus. In Greek tragedy, the chorus often plays the role of a ‘narrator’ providing backstory, and has it’s own point of view. The Encyclopedia Brittanica says: “The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation. Greek tragedy had its beginnings in choral performances, in which a group of 50 men danced and sang dithyrambs—lyric hymns in praise of the god Dionysus.”]

Here is a video of a production in the original Greek, with English subtitles, compressed to 12 minutes in length, so there is a lot that has been taken out. The passage of interest for us (below) begins at the 4:25 minute mark. I add this short film primarily so you can see a production in the original language, including a full chorus, chant, and song.

CHORUS

[399] I mourn your unfortunate fate, Prometheus. Shedding from my eyes a coursing flood of tears I wet my tender cheeks with their moist streams. For Zeus, holding this unenviable power by self-appointed laws, displays towards the gods of old an overweening spirit.

[407] Now the whole earth cries aloud in lamentation; . . . lament the greatness of the glory of your time-hallowed honor, the honor that was yours and your brother’s; and all mortals who make their dwelling place in holy Asia share the anguish of your most lamentable suffering; and those who dwell in the land of Colchis, the maidens fearless in fight; and the Scythian multitude that inhabits the most remote region of the earth bordering the Maeotic lake; and the warlike flower of Arabia, which hold the high-cragged citadel near the Caucasus, a hostile host that roars among the sharp-pointed spears.

[425] One other Titan god before this I have seen in distress, enthralled in torment by adamantine bonds —Atlas, pre-eminent in mighty strength, who moans as he supports the vault of heaven on his back. The waves of the sea utter a cry as they fall, the deep laments, the black abyss of Hades rumbles in response, and the streams of pure-flowing rivers lament your piteous pain.

PROMETHEUS
[436] No, do not think it is from pride or even from wilfulness that I am silent. Painful thoughts devour my heart as I behold myself maltreated in this way. And yet who else but I definitely assigned their prerogatives to these upstart gods? But I do not speak of this; for my tale would tell you nothing except what you know. Still, listen to the miseries that beset mankind—how they were witless before and I made them have sense and endowed them with reason. I will not speak to upbraid mankind but to set forth the friendly purpose that inspired my blessing.

[447] First of all, though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but they did not understand ; but, just as shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. They had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but dwelt beneath the ground like swarming ants, in sunless caves. They had no sign either of winter or of flowery spring or of fruitful summer, on which they could depend but managed everything without judgment, until I taught them to discern the risings of the stars and their settings, which are difficult to distinguish.

[459] Yes, and numbers, too, chiefest of sciences, I invented for them, and the combining of letters, creative mother of the Muses’ arts, with which to hold all things in memory. I, too, first brought brute beasts beneath the yoke to be subject to the collar and the pack-saddle, so that they might bear in men’s stead their heaviest burdens; and to the chariot I harnessed horses and made them obedient to the rein, to be an image of wealth and luxury. It was I and no one else who invented the mariner’s flaxen-winged car that roams the sea. Wretched that I am—such are the arts I devised for mankind, yet have myself no cunning means to rid me of my present suffering.

CHORUS
[472] You have suffered sorrow and humiliation. You have lost your wits and have gone astray; and, like an unskilled doctor, fallen ill, you lose heart and cannot discover by which remedies to cure your own disease.

PROMETHEUS
[477] Hear the rest and you shall wonder the more at the arts and resources I devised. This first and foremost: if ever man fell ill, there was no defence—no healing food, no ointment, nor any drink—but for lack of medicine they wasted away, until I showed them how to mix soothing remedies with which they now ward off all their disorders. And I marked out many ways by which they might read the future, and among dreams I first discerned which are destined to come true; and voices baffling interpretation I explained to them, and signs from chance meetings. The flight of crook-taloned birds I distinguished clearly—which by nature are auspicious, which sinister—their various modes of life, their mutual feuds and loves, and their consortings; and the smoothness of their entrails, and what color the gall must have to please the gods, also the speckled symmetry of the liver-lobe; and the thigh-bones, wrapped in fat, and the long chine I burned and initiated mankind into an occult art. Also I cleared their vision to discern signs from flames,which were obscure before this. Enough about these arts. Now as to the benefits to men that lay concealed beneath the earth—bronze, iron, silver, and gold—who would claim to have discovered them before me? No one, I know full well, unless he likes to babble idly. Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word—every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.

CHORUS
[507] Do not benefit mortals beyond reason and disregard your own distress; although, I am confident that you will be freed from these bonds and will have power in no way inferior to Zeus.

PROMETHEUS
[511] Not in this way is Fate, who brings all to fulfillment, destined to complete this course. Only when I have been bent by pangs and tortures infinite am I to escape my bondage. Skill is weaker by far than Necessity.

***

Here is a short animated film, based on the play. (13 mins. long)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlSVhlR_0O4

A full length production (in English) at NYU is here. The passage above begins at the 17 minute mark.