About the work
"Prometheus Bound" is an ancient Greek tragedy attributed to Aeschylus already in antiquity and traditionally regarded as the first part of a trilogy known as the Prometheia. Its exact date of composition is not recorded; scholars generally place it in the 460s or 450s BC, though since the 19th century Aeschylus's authorship has been questioned on linguistic and staging grounds.
Plot
On Zeus's orders, the Titan Prometheus is chained to a rock in the Caucasus for having given humankind fire and various arts. He is visited by the chorus of Oceanids, the sea god Oceanus, and Io, whom Hera has transformed into a cow; despite their attempts at mediation, Prometheus refuses to reveal to Zeus a secret concerning his eventual downfall. When the messenger god Hermes threatens him with even harsher punishment, Prometheus remains defiant, and Zeus casts him into the underworld amid thunder, storm and earthquake.
Cultural significance
The figure of Prometheus defying divine tyranny became one of the most influential subjects in European literary and intellectual history, inspiring works by Johann Gottfried Herder, André Gide and Franz Liszt, among others; Karl Marx explicitly identified with the title character.