Prometheus Unbound

Prometheus is a character from Greco-Roman mythology. He is one of the Titans, deities that preceded the Olympic pantheon. Feeling pity for humans suffering on Earth in the cold, Prometheus steals fire from Olympus and gives it to people. This fire is often symbolically interpreted as a representation of knowledge or technology. When the king of the gods, Zeus in Greek mythology or Jupiter in the Roman adaptation, discovers the theft, he punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a rock for eternity. Every day, an eagle viciously rips out Prometheus’s liver, which regenerates overnight, only to be eaten again the next day. In most versions of the story, Prometheus is eventually freed by Heracles, or Hercules, a demi-god who represents strength.

Sometime in the mid-5th century BCE, a cycle of plays about Prometheus was written and performed in Greece. These plays have traditionally been attributed to Aeschylus, but this attribution is highly disputed by modern historians. The first and most complete play is Prometheus Bound, which covers the mythology up to Prometheus’s punishment by Zeus. Fragments of plays called Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bearer are also extant. It is believed that the plot of these plays concerned Prometheus’s prophecy about Zeus’s downfall: that Zeus’s son with the sea nymph Thetis would overthrow his father.