Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound portrays a greek god detained by a superior for disobedience against the latter’s rule. On the other hand in Euripides’ Hippolytus portrays lust and vengeance of the gods and the extent that they can go to to avenge it. In Prometheus Bound, all the characters are keenly aware of the power of Zeus: his name is invoked as the one who decided on the punishment for Prometheus and his wrath is sensed by the others. For example, Prometheus describes Zeus as “hard-hearted” and “in constant anger with an unbending mind”. Under Zeus’s rule, Prometheus stole fire and then gave this element to humans, thereby upsetting the existing paradigm Zeus ruled. Zeus is a “tyrant” who trusts not his “family or friends”. Prometheus insightfully recognizes that Zeus’s leadership is tyrannical. While Ocean agrees with Prometheus’s assessment of Zeus as he says “our king’s a harsh one, and his rule unchecked” but at the same time there are other characters who do not hold this same opinion. Hephaestus for one, is unable to support Prometheus’s lamentation about Zeus’s excessive power and so does Hermes, son of Zeus, owing to his family loyalty. Hermes supports Zeus’s actions and affirms the Prometheus “wronged the gods in furnishing honors to mortals” which implies that to hold the element of fire is a right born solely by Zeus, Hephaestus and other worthy gods. On the other hand, Zeus is a strong, albeit authoritarian leader for both the other gods and mortals. Zeus is required to rule, sometimes absolutely, and when someone under his rule commits an act of treason, he is required to address the issue. When Zeus the leader acts forcefully, the rest of those under his reign will get the message. Prometheus’s act of handing o... ... middle of paper ... ... she make an exception for Hippolytus. But by the end of the play she vows revenge against Aphrodite. “Cypris shall find the angry shafts she hurled against you for piety and innocence shall cost her dear. I’ll wait until she loves a mortal next time and with this hand-with these unerring arrows i’ll punish him.” In both the plays the common theme that we can observe is that gods dont consider mortals important enough to either give them an important element that can make their lives easy, nor do they attach importance to a human life. The gods even amongst themselves have a complicated relationship. Their power has bounds amongst themselves but in the case of humans they exercise their power without any considerations or limitations. Works Cited Grene, David., and Richmond Alexander Lattimore. Greek Tragedies. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
185-196. Dillon, Mathew, and Garland, Lynda. Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Socrates. Routledge International Thompson Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 179-215 Lefkowitz, Mary.
Prometheus Bound is quite different from other tragedies in that it is peopled entirely by gods. The play focuses on the story of Prometheus, and we have versions of this myth in Hesiod's famous works. There is reason to think that the author of Prometheus Bound was not only acquainted with Hesiod's version but actually drew on Hesiod directly in this play. This essay therefore aims to establish in what ways the author of Prometheus Bound seems to have drawn from Hesiod's version of myth, in what ways he has diverged from it, and what reasons he might have had for making these changes and innovations. This might therefore highlight any particular emphasis or purpose of Prometheus Bound and what its author might have been trying to get across. Though there is not space in this essay to discuss the problems of attributing this play, it must be recognised that this ambiguity of authorship and dating makes it even more difficult than usual to look at views and purposes behind the play.
There is no doubt in mythology that the king of gods, Zeus, is the most supreme and powerful, ruling the sky. He controls the thunderbolt, a symbol of power feared by both gods and mortals. The Greeks and Romans honored Zeus above all other gods. He is without mistake, the god of all gods. Their stories of Zeus are plenty; his designs have molded mythology from his birth. Zeus' victory in outwitting his intelligent wife, Metis, by swallowing her pregnant, was the gateway used by the Greeks and Romans to show Zeus as the greatest god to come since his father and grandfather. However, as the stories of the gods and goddesses unfold, the Greeks and Roman's interpretation of Zeus' characteristics are different. Zeus is always upheld as the king of gods, but his other personal attributes to his godly rein are conflicting. Zeus' characteristics of fearfulness of female deities, cunningness and use of trickery, and lust in Ovid's Metamorphoses compared to the Theogony are opposed due to Hesiod's true respect of Zeus versus Ovid's lack of respect of Jupiter in Roman mythology.
Prometheus takes the human side in the negotiation because he sympathizes with their ongoing struggle for survival and also intends to make the world a better place. Prometheus realized that it was his duty to aid the humans when he “found them living in caves, and in holes of the Earth, shivering with cold because there was no fire…” (Baldwin et al. 1). Prometheus empathizes with the humans’ struggle for survival as they do not have fire or any of the techniques needed to survive. This follows the theme of someone of a higher status wanting to give the same opportunities that he/she had to someone of a lower
Both the poems of Hesiod’s tell of the curse of Pandora and both have Prometheus as the main character. Prometheus in both is the cause of why Zeus inflicted
Aeschylus, was a master dramatist - he liked to portray conflict between persons, human or divine, or between principles.1 His trilogy of plays, the Oresteia, develops many conflicts that must be resolved during the action of the Eumenides, the concluding play of the trilogy. The central theme of the Oresteia is justice (dike) and in dealing with questions of justice, Aeschylus at every stage involves the gods.2 The Oresteia's climactic conflict in the Eumenides revolves around justice and the gods - opposing conceptions of justice and conflicting classes of gods. This essay will describe and discuss these conflicts and, more importantly, the manner in which they are resolved so that the play, and indeed the entire trilogy, might reach a satisfactory conclusion.
And so for men Zeus plotted grief and trouble. He hid fire. And Prometheus, bold son of Lapetus, stole it back from the side of wise Zeus, in a fennel stalk, and gave it to men and Zeus who delights in the thunder did not notice” (Bauschatz, ). Clearly, disobedience and deceiving the gods leads to chaos because Prometheus who tried to steal the fire from Zeus enraged him and therefore ordered the creation of Pandora as punishment and evil delivered to men.
It is in our human nature to generate new ideas, explore new possibilities and even push the boundaries of science in an attempt to make new discoveries. Prometheus, the creator of humanity is most well known for stealing fire from Zeus in order to help humans develop into a more intellectually advanced society. Prometheus loved humans so much that he was willing to suffer eternally so that they could have a better life on Earth. This shows that Prometheus was morally just in his decision to disobey Zeus because he only wanted to help the human race in their evolution into a more stable and advanced society. In my opinion, the main theme in the Prometheus myth is that scientific progress and discovery are good as long as the intentions behind
When a person is accused of a crime they are either found innocent or guilty. This is the basic idea of justice and it is what many feel needs to happen if someone has done something controversial. In the play The Oresteia by Aeschylus, the story of Clytemnestra guilt or innocents is questioned. She does many things that people are not too happy with and those controversial actions throughout the story, mainly in the first part Agamemnon get her into the trouble. As we explore the case that builds against her innocents by exploring the killings of Agamemnon and Cassandra and the boastful expression about the killings.
Who was the person that was responsible for bringing fire to mankind? Prometheus. Who was chained to the top of a mountain and had his liver ate every day? Prometheus. Prometheus was a part of a group of might Gods known as Titans. Hesiod the poet called Prometheus a trickster and a troublemaker because he was always tricking others. He was a person that was smart that advised that the Titans use a plan before they entered the war because he felt it was smart in order to avoid a massive bloodbath.
The gods in power, like Zeus, exhibit bias, dishonor, betrayal, deception, and many other humanly characteristics. One memorable scene is when Zeus and Poseidon are in conflict with each other over the Achaens versus the Trojans. Zeus controls the battle by “lifting the famous runner Achilles’ glory higher,” (Homer 13: 404). Zeus plays both sides in this scene, acting like a double agent which is dishonorable. Zeus’s bias is prevalent throughout the poem; specifically, he is “bent on wiping out the Argives, down to the last man,” (Homer 12: 81-82). Just like mortals such as Agamemnon and Achilles view each other with suspicion and intolerance, the gods experience identical emotions of wariness, anger, and irritation. This human-like behavior is not restricted to Zeus. Later in the text, Hera lies to Aphrodite to use her powers to manipulate her own husband Zeus. If one looks at Hera as a heavenly entity, her reaction may not make sense, but when it is viewed as a manifestation of human emotion, it become almost reasonable. Her scheming response to Zeus’s meddling with the war is spurred by her support for the Trojans. Hera’s manipulation and Aphrodite’s ego don’t stand alone as examples of this divine humanity. These instances suggest that the deities are being presented in this unique way to help explain behavior of the humans in The
In a society in which social position was vital for having a successful family, the Greek and Roman families internally struggled with one another. This constant conflict stems from the father’s desire for control and the society’s high placement of power. In the Greek myth Demeter and Persephone, Zeus’s interest for his selfish gains prompts him to “ ( give ) Persephone to the Lord of Dead to become his queen “ ( Rosenberg Demeter 96). Zeus does not ask Persephone nor Demeter, his beloved wife, presenting that he does not show any opinions on their feelings. Although Zeus in reality just wanted to have a powerful family with the addition of Hades, his love for power overrode his love for his family and created a tension between the other members and him. In another Greek myth, Jason and the Golden Fleece, shows man’s love for supremacy through ...
Clarke, Fiona, and Mark Bergin. Greece in the time of Pericles. Hemel Hempstead: Simon & Schuster, 1909.
“Gods can be evil sometimes.” In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of Thebes with a dreadful plague. Fundamentally, by utilizing fate, prophecies, the oracle of Apollo, and the plague, the gods played a significant role in the destruction of Oedipus and his family.
In addition to anger at the sacrifice trick and the theft of fire, Zeus knew that Prometheus held the secret of the god who would finally dethrone him.