4.11: The Inevitable Evolution of Prometheus

Aeschylus’s vision of Prometheus fashions him as humanity’s savior. His views are developed amongst a trilogy of plays: Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, and Prometheus the Fire-Carrier. Tragically, of the three, only the first survives as a complete play while the others exist as fragments and within referential material from other authors. E.D.A. Morshead, translator of the Prometheus Bound, opines:

A stupendous theological drama of which two-thirds has been lost has left an aching void, which now can never be filled, in our minds. No reader of poetry needs to be reminded of the glorious attempt of Shelley to work out a possible and worthy sequel to the Prometheus. Who will not echo the words of Mr. Gilbert Murray, when he says that “no piece of lost literature has been more ardently longed for than the Prometheus Freed”?

Yet, Romantic poets Mary Shelley and her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley both sought to resurrect and fulfill the vision of Aeschylus. Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound offers the Titan as a social reformer and a Christ-like savior, while Zeus is the Old Testament God, a despot worthy of usurping.

While Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound offers no attention to the creation of man, both Percy and Mary Shelley use the tradition of his creative moment as the core of their novel and play. Mary Shelley’s subtitle to Frankenstein, A Modern Prometheus, summons affiliations of the scientist who felt he could attain the power of God by revivifying mortified flesh. Even audiences who haven’t read the novel still hold a basic understanding of the plot and themes: a mad scientist harnesses lightning to spark life into a corpse and in doing so creates a monster he cannot control. Shelley’s work addresses sacred taboos that remind us to avoid the sin of hubris and leave the dead unmolested. The text, however, draws more subtle genetic connections to Prometheus Bound. Frankenstein finds human beings complex and marvelous, as befits a man of science, and also finds them worthy of exceeding natural limitations. Like Prometheus, he strives to improve the state of man, to unleash the secrets of the heavens and grant that benefit to mankind. Yet, throughout the novel the doctor wrestles with his internal guilt for exceeding medical and ethical guidelines and for the deaths that his actions cause. The same thread of guilt permeates Aeschylus’ work as well.

If Prometheus' role as generator of “natural man” and antagonist of Zeus results in his punishment, Shelley thusly aligns her "Modern Prometheus" for his generation of “unnatural man,” a creature who carries his own metaphoric Pandora’s jar of curses as his unwelcome inheritance from his unnatural sire.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): “To the Greeks, notably Aeschylus, he was Prometheus pyrphoros, the fire-bringer; to the Romans, however, he was Prometheus plasticator, the creator of man; by the second or third century the two roles were fused, “so that the fire stolen by Prometheus was also the fire of life with which he animated his man of clay” (Ozolins 109). Christian Griepenkerl's painting shows the weary Titan reaching out for the hand of Heracles, who has just slain the eagle by the fiat of Zeus. (Christian Griepenkerl, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): This page from Mary Shelley’s draft of Frankenstein shows the editorial marks by Percy, evidence of their collaborative marriage. (Percy Bysshe Shelley, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Like his wife, Percy Bysshe Shelley held Aeschylus in high regard, completely immersing himself in the drama while composing his Prometheus Unbound. Aeschylus’s themes of socio-political structures and their intersection with morality weave throughout Shelley’s work. Finding less interest in the easy moral allegory of the oppressed finding transcendence in saving and reconciling with his oppressor, Shelley, in his own words, is taken by the character because, “Prometheus is, as it were, the type of the highest perfection of moral and intellectual nature impelled by the purest and the truest motives to the best and noblest ends.” The Titan, Shelley finds, is similar in his anti-heroic tendencies to Milton’s Satan, yet superior since he doesn’t sink to the low of Satan’s single-minded reptilian vengeance. Prometheus endures his punishment, using the platform of his mountain cave to think and philosophize deeply, a choice that frees his mind as a prelude to the freedom he’ll ultimately earn by his noble refusal to denigrate his oppressor, Jupiter (Zeus). In the third act, Demogorgon (Eternity) appears, rising upon his earthquake-loud chariot and overtakes the despotic Jupiter who is confronted with the shattering realization that Demogorgon is the child prophesied to dethrone him. In a moment of tragic reversal, Jupiter falls from his throne of privilege.

Allowing his Prometheus to free himself is a departure from Greek traditions, which have either Heracles breaking the bonds or Zeus freeing the Titan in exchange for the powerful foresight Prometheus offers. Shelley’s choice removes the power from Zeus and his agent, Heracles, and places the agency of deliverance within Prometheus. The fourth and final act of Prometheus Unbound, Panthea and Earth, long-term witnesses to Prometheus' imprisonment, describe the glorious voices of humankind singing in enduring love and unity as evidence of Prometheus' triumph of will against the intractable and ignoble Jupiter. In a theme that could easily transfer to social political institutions of any time in history, Shelley’s work emphasizes the qualities necessary for moral survival under oppressive regimes: fostering love, autonomy and self-actualization to attain psychological liberation. The Titan’s influence over humankind is underscored by their resilience, rather than resentment against tyranny and the self-efficacy they exhibit which ensures their victorious survival. This is the enduring legacy of Prometheus, channeling the best of humanity and reflecting that at vainglorious Jupiter.

By offering different visions of the Promethean saga, each of the Shelleys opens a window into the cost of creation. Mary Shelley’s invention explores the darker prospect of creation when the act is devoid of ethical and moral intentions. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s drama addresses the price paid when the act is in direct opposition to the institutional leadership. Like Dr. Frankenstein who harnessed Zeus' symbolic lightning to give life to his experimental offspring, so too has Prometheus, whose heroic endurance discharges “its collected lightning” granting humans the illumination to restore equilibrium between institutions and individuals (M. Shelley).