Prometheus: Choosing to be Bound
Date: 2022-12-05
Source: https://craigwright.net/blog/academics/prometheus-choosing-to-be-bound
Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus
In knowingly choosing rebellion, Prometheus set the stage, defining a choice of opposing tyranny and unjust laws that start the march down the long path towards equality under the law. Aeschylus wrote the tragic play Prometheus bound as part of a trilogy over 2600 years ago. Unfortunately, only the first volume survives. Yet, this remarkable story tells of the refusal to accept tyranny and arbitrary rule. In an early argument against authoritarian rule, we see a message that remains important even today.
Extracted Insights (41 total, showing top 10)
133w · thesis:0
The Promethean position could be argued in the Lutheran idea of rebellion, “these things are not from God, and we shall resist them. What you call God is a devil or an idol of your own imagination” (G...
131w · thesis:3
The question we must ask and answer in reviewing Prometheus is whether he is merely stubborn or if his choice is righteous. In this choice of rebellion, each of us has a role to play. In a democracy, ...
129w · thesis:0
In each of the re-envisioning versions of this myth, from Shelley’s Frankenstein to Blade Runner and Scot’s Prometheus, the underlying wrath associated with the abandonment of creation and the hubris ...
120w · thesis:1
Prometheus is at times seen as stubborn (Podlecki). But, as Podlecki argues, many of the themes within this play represent and are “embodied in recurring terms and images which, when examined closely,...
117w · thesis:0
The question posed by Aeschylus is analogous to the question, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:23, 25). In such question, the answer sought by the Greeks was a question of whe...
110w · thesis:2
The harsh fate of Io moves even the chorus. The message depicted by the chorus is that marriage must only be between equals, and the story represents not only the problems of meetings between gods and...
107w · thesis:0
Oceanus enters and decries the abuse of the brother Titan. He counsels prudence in offering to intercede with Zeus, but Prometheus refuses and maintains steadfast defiance (Aeschylus, 43). Io, the kin...
105w · thesis:1
The limited material that has come down to us is likely a fragment of a trilogy of plays (Ro and Edelman). “In Homer, Zeus alone can demand strict obedience, and even his power of command cannot alter...
105w · thesis:0
As Grene discusses, “[t]he word Forethought is stretched to cover a multitude of aspects of what is mental” in a manner that incorporates aforethought of all possible realities (Grene, 8). In an inter...
104w · thesis:0
To the Athenians, tyranny was considered one of the worst conditions (Arruzza, 31,62). So, the rebellion of Zeus against his father and then the reversion of Zeus into a tyrant himself would have had ...
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