Prometheus Bound. Date Unknown |
Prologus, 1-127. (Kratos (=Power), Bia (=Force) [mute], Hephaestus, Prometheus)
Power, Force, and Hephaestus fasten Prometheus to a crag near the Ocean in Scythia. Soliloquy of Prometheus.Parodos, 128-195. (Chorus, Prometheus)
The daughters of Oceanus lend sympathy.First episode, 196-398. (Chorus, Prometheus, Oceanus)
Prometheus tells the Chorus how his mother (Themis or Earth) counseled him to take sides with Zeus against Kronos, and how he saved the race of mortals from destruction against the will of Zeus.First stasimon, 399-435. (Chorus)Oceanus wishes to help but Prometheus (recalling the fates of Atlas and Typhon) warns him away.
Mourning for Prometheus.Second episode, 436-525. (Prometheus, Chorus)
Prometheus tells of the favors he bestowed on mankind: astronomy, mathematics, literacy, medicine, prophecy, in short every art.Second stasimon, 526-560. (Chorus)
The fear of Zeus.Third episode, 561-886. (Io, Prometheus, Chorus)
Dialogue of Io, 561-588. To what land have I wandered? Io relates how the passion of Zeus has driven her to madness, and tells of Argus and the gadfly of Hera.Third stasimon, 887-906. (Chorus)Prometheus discloses her future wanderings through Europe and Asia, ending near the Nile. Among her descendants will be the Danaids and the deliverer of Prometheus (Heracles).
Never may I marry one of the gods.Exodos, 907-1093. (Prometheus, Chorus, Hermes)
Prometheus knows that Zeus will one day make a marriage of which the son will be mightier than the father. This knowledge will one day free Prometheus.Hermes orders Prometheus to tell the secret and threatens lightning, storms, and an eagle who will feast on his liver as the price of defiance.
The Chorus refuse to leave Prometheus as the storm begins.
PROMHQEUS DESMWTHS. Prometheus vinctus
. Probably either the first or second play in a trilogy including
also Prometheus Pyrphoros and Prometheus Lyomenos. Aeschylean
authorship was first doubted by Westphal in 1857,
but Alexandrian scholars and scholia regarded the play as genuine.
C. J. Herington, The Author of the Prometheus Bound (Austin 1970) argues
for authenticity (ancient testimony, minor features of composition, and
view of the cosmos); M. Griffith, The Authenticity of the Prometheus Bound
(Cambridge 1977) argues against (simpler style, metrical technique, problems
of staging, and other features).