The "Modern" Prometheus in Antiquity: Aristophanes and Luciany

Mary Shelley's is not the first "modern Prometheus": ancient modernities crafted their own "modern Prometheus" figures that likewise exploit this myth's unique mutability. Focusing on Aristophanes (Peace and Birds) and Lucian (The Passing of Peregrinus, Prometheus, You Are a Literary Prometheus, Icaromenippus, Zeus: Tragic Actor, etc.), this article proposes that analyzing their respective periods as (different) "modernities" can shed light on how each uses the figure of Prometheus to grapple speculatively with the contemporary situation of the genos anthrōpōn and, in particular, with its constitutive relationship to technics.