Prometheus Unbound

Prometheus Unbound was the sequel to Prometheus Bound, and matches it so well in content, theme and technique as to make it safe to say that ‘if ever two plays were composed together, these two were’ (M. L. West, Journal of Hellenic Studies 99 (1979), p. 130).

Prometheus had been told by Hermes (Prometheus Bound 1020–25) that, after a long period beneath the earth, he would be brought back to its surface but would then be persistently tormented by the eagle of Zeus eating at his liver. At the beginning of Prometheus Unbound this prediction has been fulfilled (fr. 193). Prometheus is visited by the Chorus of his brother Titans (frr. 190–93), who have apparently been released by Zeus from their underground imprisonment, and tells them of his sufferings. Then – again as predicted in the previous play – Heracles arrives, having got lost on his way to attempt the most distant of his Labours: the taking of the apples of the Hesperides (cf. Strabo, Geography 4.1.7). He shoots the eagle (fr. 200) and is given directions for his journey (frr. 195–9). Prometheus and Zeus are still at enmity (fr. 201), but there was subsequently a reconciliation between them, with Prometheus revealing the secret with which he might otherwise have caused the overthrow of Zeus – that Thetis, for whom Zeus has conceived a passion, is destined to bear a son mightier than his father. We learn of honours given to Prometheus in memory of his bondage (fr. 202), and it has often been suggested that there may have been mention of the establishment of his Athenian cult. The reconciliation may have been effected through Prometheus’ mother, Gaea-Themis, whose name is wrongly included, together with that of Heracles, in the list of dramatis personae appended to the ancient headnote (‘Hypothesis’) to Prometheus Bound; she had once before been responsible for effecting an alliance between Prometheus and Zeus (Prometheus Bound 209–18), and it would be appropriate if she were to do so again. The seemingly impossible condition set by Hermes (Prometheus Bound 1026–9) for the ending of Prometheus’ affliction must also have been fulfilled (see note on that passage).

Prometheus Unbound appears to have been imitated or parodied by the comic dramatist Cratinus in his play The Wealth-Gods (Ploutoi), probably produced in 429 BC. The ‘Wealth-Gods’ of the Chorus identify themselves as Titans (Cratinus fr. 171.11); they had at one time been imprisoned (ibid. 20, 21), but ‘now that the rule of tyranny [has been dissolved] and the demos is in power’ they have come in search of their ‘old brother… even if he is now rotting away’ (ibid. 22–6). We do not know whether Prometheus himself appeared on stage in Cratinus’ play.

We cannot tell what other plays were produced together with Prometheus Bound and Unbound. It was long believed that the play listed in the medieval catalogue of Aeschylus’ plays as Prometheus the Fire-Bearer was the first or third play of a Prometheus trilogy; but it is more likely to be an alternative (and more accurate) title for the satyr drama of 472 BC cited elsewhere as Prometheus the Fire-Kindler (see above, pp. 52– 54). If Bound and Unbound were presented to the public, long after Aeschylus’ death, with the claim that they were newly discovered plays by him never produced before (see above, pp. 159–60), it is quite possible that they were accompanied by revivals of two genuine Aeschylean plays, not necessarily on related subjects.



190
CHORUS:
	We <Titans (?)> have come,
	Prometheus, to behold these trials you undergo
	and this bondage that you suffer.
	These chanted anapaests were probably the opening words of the play.
191
CHORUS:
	To (?) the Phasis,¹ the great twin boundary
	of the lands of Europe and Asia.
	Again from the Chorus’ anapaestic entrance chant, following fr. 190 at a short interval (fr. 192 may have come between them).
192
CHORUS:
	And the mighty, crimson-bottomed waters
	of the Red Sea,²
	and the bay beside the Ocean, flashing like bronze (?),
	that gives sustenance to the black (?) Ethiopians,
5	where the all-seeing Sun always
	refreshes his immortal flesh and his fatigued horses
	in its warm flow
	of gentle water.³
	Another extract from the Chorus’ anapaestic entrance chant; logically it should come between frr. 190 and 191 in a description of a journey from the eastern ends of the earth to Prometheus’ rock in furthest Scythia.

193⁴
PROMETHEUS: Seed of the Titans, kin of my own blood, off-spring of Uranus, behold me bound and chained to these rugged rocks, as fearful sailors, terrified of the night, tie up
5	their ship in a roaring strait. It was Zeus, son of Cronus, who thus fixed me here, and the hand of Hephaestus assented to Zeus’ decree. He, with cruel skill, thrust in these wedges, breaking through my body; and, pierced through by his craftsmanship, I dwell in misery in this fortress of the Furies.
10	Now, every other deadly day the agent of Zeus wings its sinister way here, savages me with its curved talons and tears me apart to make its barbarous meal; then, amply stuffed and gorged with the fatness of my liver, it makes a vast racket
15	and, as it flies off into the sky, it licks my blood with its tail feathers. And when the liver on which it has fed has been renewed and reinflated, then it comes back and sets itself greedily again to its cruel feeding. Thus I provide nourishment to this warder of my wretched torture, who defiles my
20	living body with endless misery; for held fast, as you see I am, in Zeus’ chains, I am unable to keep this terrible bird away from my breast. And so, bereaved of my own self, I endure a succession of anguishing torments, ever seeking an end to my suffering, longing for death. But the power of Zeus
25	keeps death far away from me, and this ancient, lamentable atrocity, accumulated through generations of horror, is indelibly imprinted in my body – my body, from which fall drops⁵ melted by the heat of the sun, which continually drip on to the rocks of the Caucasus.⁶

195
PROMETHEUS: Keep straight on this way, and first of all you will come to the blasts of the north wind; here beware of its noisy squalls, lest one suddenly snatch you up and whirl you aloft in its stormy vortex. Giving directions to Heracles.

196
PROMETHEUS: And then you will come to the most righteous and most hospitable people of all <mankind>, the Gabians,⁷ among whom neither the plough nor the earth-cutting mattock
5	cleaves the soil, but self-sown fields yield men an ample livelihood.
	Further instructions to Heracles.

197 [Apollonius of Rhodes] says⁸ that the Ister flows down from the land of the Hyperboreans and the Rhipaean Mountains; in saying this he follows Aeschylus, who said it in Prometheus Unbound. This too will have come from Prometheus’ directions to Heracles.

199
PROMETHEUS: Then you will come to the dauntless host of the Ligurians, where, bold as you are, you will not, I know for sure, be eager for battle; for it is fated that there you will run
4–5	out of arrows, and you will not be able to take any stones from the ground,⁹ because the whole place is soft soil. But your Father will see your distress and take pity on you: he will bring a cloud over the land and cover it completely with a hail of round stones.¹⁰ With these you will then pelt the Ligurian army and easily put them to flight.
	Further instructions to Heracles for his journey to the Hesperides.

200
HERACLES: And may Apollo the Hunter direct my arrow straight!
	Heracles’ prayer as he draws his bow to shoot the eagle.

201
PROMETHEUS: This son, my dearest friend, of a father who is my enemy.
	Speaking of Heracles.¹¹

202 Aeschylus in Prometheus Unbound says clearly that we put garlands on our heads in honour of Prometheus,¹² as recompense for his binding.