Aeschylus -- Prometheus Bound

[Alexey]

I am late to the party, but it is always nice to reread something from school curriculum (especially so short). Strangely I have not got anything new from the play, comparing with my school experience... maybe... does anybody find that Oceanus reminds Mr Collins from Pride and Prejudice?

[Rafael]

I enjoyed this play, although it has not a lot of action, but is was amusing. Anyone who knows the history of Athens knows if this play was intended to attack a specific person (or group of)?

[Thomas]

It isn't aimed at anyone in particular, to my knowledge. Roger mentioned Pisistratus and Donnally mentioned the Athenians themselves in their treatment of the Melians. Those are possibilities, but it seems to me to be directed at the spirit of tyranny rather than an individual.

[Donnally]

It could not have been intended as a comment on the Melian situation. Aeschylus died in 455 and the enslavement of the Melians occurred in 416.

I was just remarking that the dialogues Prometheus has with Power and with Hermes have a lot in common with the dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians recorded by Thucydides.

The play was most likely written in the last two years of Aeschylus' life. This was a period when Athens, following the defeat of the Persians, was starting to amass power over the Ionian cities, and it might be a warning to Athens concerning the risks of empire. However, I think the play primarily represents a development in Aeschylus' ideas regarding a division among the gods involving two different ideas of right. This was an idea he had been developing in his earlier works The Suppliant Maidens and The Oresteia.

[Thomas]

My final thought on it is that it doesn't seem to be a political comment as much as a religious or philosophical one. Prometheus is punished for giving mortals technology and the arts, allowing them some small comfort and shelter from Necessity. This is the "original sin" that Prometheus must suffer for, and eventually be freed from. It's an heroic theme that recurs, strangely enough, in several cultures.

Thanks, everyone, for participating in a fascinating discussion!

[Rafael]

Thank you all for your responses to my question.