The Unbinding of Prometheus

THE UNBil;IDING _OF PROMETHEUS* ]AMES S. THOM SON PROMETHEUS BOUND is the tragedy of civilization. In Greek mythology, Prometheus brought the gift offire to earth and so gave to man the arts of civilized life: but, as a penalty for his presumption and to expiate his folly, the fire-bringer was impaled by Zeus. T he coll)passionate liberator of men brought captivity to himself. The Titan Promethe1.1s, as his name suggests/ e!Jdowed mankind with the capacity to rise above th~ constraints of immediacy by the power of thought, and thus men began to acquire skilled..mastery over their environment. But rna~ is creature as we)1 as creator. There are limits to his freedom which: are not of his own .imposition: Within human life there is an unremitting tension, from which, with advance in technical ability, we are never set free. The Promethean gifts tarry their own problems with them, from which, as yet, no way of escape has been found. The Promethean theme presents a tr~ic question that in varying form has cont. inued to torment the mind of man, and never more so than at the present time. Is civilization a blessing or a curse? Do we increase happiness by th~ ;1qvance of knowledge? Or, is ·the life of .man beset by a persistent antinomy whereby every .new invention carries with it fresh evils and every ~nticipated boon j. but the allurements of knowledge . have brought the curse of toil. And in both, banishm.ent (rom the pristine paradise is also· connected with· man's relation to woman. The adolescent stage has been reached with irs simultaneous ripening of sexuai and intellectual powers-the child his become a man. The anc1ent myth provid~s Aeschylus with the theme,for his sombre, but magnific~nt drama of Prometheus Bound. The rasc·al of the heavenly. circle becom~s rhe ~mbodimenc of. human tragedy. The play opens with th.e bindi~g· of the Titan,. who is led to the Rock of E)(piati.on by Power and Force (KPATO~ and BIA). Violence. has overwhelmed the cornpassionate friend of mortal men} arid a. triumphant Zeus leaves the hero to his long exile. · The drama is a tragedy of pa5;sion rather than action and- depends for . ics dfect entirely on its intellectual appeal. The central figure is reduced· to inaction by the crushing fiat of the Divin~ Sovere.ign; but, neverthd~ssJ he can still speak. At first he is majestically silent, but in his successive conversations with the Chorus of the Daughters of Ocean, Oceanus -their father, lo, and finally H.:rmesJ ·the messenger and servant ·of Zeus, the conflict of the play unfolds itself. Prometheus "is· bloody but unbowed." For 'he has been man's fri.end, taking his side against a-n upstart a~d un- · nasonable tyrant among the gods (h vfos 1"a.'Yas- 14a.Kapwv).s Zeus had- sought to destroy ,the race of 'men, but Prometheus h.ad championed their cause against th~ designs of heave.n.!l In a swift-movi.n·e; p assage1 ~ Aeschylus describes the coming of civ!lizatl'on thmugh the e:ndowmen CS of re(lSOt'l a.nd understanding. First he depicts the life of man when his only kinship w'as with r.he soiL Then man awakened to recognize .th~ order lat~nt in natural phenomena. · Next, 11e devised the arcs of m athematics and w ri tin g, the making of the calenda..r1 and the construction o( ships. Aft~r that the poet , speaks of the healing arts and. skill in divina'tion, fiJ'lally, 'c.he hidden power of ·metals, iron ar1d bronze, silver aJtd gold. All the arrs are· from Pro~ m etheus (rraoa.t rJ:xvat BpoTo'ialJ) ~x llflOJ.L'Jo~,). 1 ' 11 Such, then, are the Promethean gifts. Man has become homo faber. But the giver himself is ban1shed exul, inops, to ddc his straJ1ge ·wierd. Man has lost his Eden, but his champion can still mak~ an app~al beyond Zeus himself to strange impersonal Necessity (Ava"fK~), within whose sweep even the Monarch of Heaven is embraced. Th.e helmsmen...