Prometheus Unbound

Percy Bysshe Shelley has decided to write his own take on Aeschylus’s Prometheus Unbound, just as ancient authors often rewrote and adapted Greek myths. In the original play, Jupiter pardons Prometheus in exchange for information: Prometheus foretells Jupiter’s downfall at the hands of his son with the sea nymph Thetis, so Jupiter marries Thetis to Peleus instead, and then allows Hercules to liberate Prometheus. However, Shelley feels “averse” to this ending as it reconciles “the Champion with the Oppressor of mankind” (Preface, Lines 27-28).

Shelley compares Prometheus to Satan as portrayed in Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), as both characters courageously rebel against omnipotent deities. He argues that Prometheus is more admirable and interesting than Satan: Because Prometheus does not act out of personal ambition or revenge, he is “the highest perfection of moral and intellectual nature” (Preface, Line 49).

Shelley wrote the poem amidst the ruins of the Roman baths in Rome, and he credits the setting for inspiration. Using Dante and the Greek poets as models, Shelley has included highly imaginary, rather than realistic, imagery in the poem.

He addresses a popular literary critique of the time—that writers imitate their contemporary peers, specifically Milton.