Friday, October 2, 2009

A different point of view...

AESCULYES
Aeschylus famously put forward another version of my story in his 5th century BC tragedy, Prometheus Bound. Although there is some debate amongst modern scholars whether Aeschylus was really the author of Prometheus Bound, it was traditionally accepted by Classical scholars to be his work.

Aeschylus’s take on my story differs greatly from Hesiod’s in that I am portrayed as the victim. Firstly the trick at Mecone is omitted as well as my role in the creation of Pandora. I am shown to be the saviour of humankind, unlike my Hesiod counterpart. In Prometheus Bound, fire is shown to symbolise civilisation. And this is shown primarily in the following passage:
At first Mindless, I gave them mind and reason. - What I say
Is not in censure of mankind, but showing you
How all my gifts to them were guided by goodwill.
In those days they had eyes, but sight was meaningless;
Heard sounds, but could not listen; all their length of life
They passed like shapes in dreams, confused and purposeless.
Of brick-built, sun-warmed houses, or of carpentry,
They had no notion; lived in holes, like swarms of ants,
Or deep in sunless caverns; knew no certain way
To mark off winter, or flowery, spring, or fruitful summer;
Their every act was without knowledge, till I came.
I taught them to determine when stars rise or set
A difficult art. Number, the primary science, I
Invented for them, and how to set down words in writing
The all-remembering skill, mother of many arts.
I was the first to harness beasts under a yoke
With trace or saddle as man's slaves, to take man's place
Under the heaviest burdens; put the horse to the chariot,
Made him obey the rein, and be an ornament
To wealth and greatness. No one before me discovered
The sailor's waggon - flax-winged craft that roam the seas.
Such tools and skills I found for men: myself, poor wretch,
Lack even one trick to free me from this agony.

This notion of me giving technology to the human race to benefit them contrasts the idea presented in Hesiod’s Works & Days; that technology harmed humanity and as the ‘ages’ progressed, humanity regressed.

Also, while Hesiod’s account of Prometheus affirms Zeus’s supreme authority, Aeschylus’s challenges it.

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