There are two plays named Prometheus Unbound. Both are concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus and his suffering at the hands of Zeus. Prometheus, by Gustave Moreau In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek, Προμηθεύς, forethought) is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from the gods in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving In Greek mythology, Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Ζεύς Zeús, genitive...

Aeschylus

The first Prometheus Unbound was a sequel to Prometheus Bound, traditionally attributed to Aeschylus. It depicted the release of Prometheus from his torments by Heracles. Unfortunately, it, and a third play, Prometheus Pyrphoros, are lost. Certain fragments have survived, however, and from these we can glean a general cast: Prometheus, a chorus of Titans and Hercules. In the appendix of James Scully and C. John Herington's translation of Prometheus Bound it is hypothesized that the cast also included Earth and/or Sky, as part of an elemental cycle across the entire trilogy.^[1] Prometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek play. ... Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome Aeschylus (525 BC—456 BC; Greek: Ασχύλος) was a playwright of Ancient Greece. ... Hercules, a Roman bronze (Louvre Museum) In roman mythology, Heracles or Herakles (glory of Hera, or Alcides, original name) + , ) was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, stepson of Amphitryon[1] and great-grandson of Perseus. ... Prometheus Pyrphoros was the third play in the Prometheia, a series of plays written by the ancient Greek playwright, Aeschylus, chronicaling the trials of Prometheus, the creator and protector of man, who was imprisoned for giving man fire. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: it is patent nonsense. ... Hercules and the Nemean Lion (detail), silver plate, 6th century BC (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris) Hercules is the Latin name used in Rome for the divinity corresponding to the Greek mythological hero Heracles (or Herakles). ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... A typical daytime sky. ...

Shelley

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The second Prometheus Unbound is a four-act play by Percy Bysshe Shelley first published in 1820. It is inspired by Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound and concerns the final release from captivity of Prometheus. However, unlike Aeschylus's version, there is no reconciliation between Prometheus and Zeus in Shelley's narrative. Instead, Zeus is overthrown, which allows Prometheus to be released. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley (August 4, 1792 – July 8, 1822; pronounced ) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is widely considered to be among the finest lyric poets of the English language. ... 1820 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Prometheus, by Gustave Moreau In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek, Προμηθεύς, forethought) is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from the gods in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. ...

Shelley's own introduction to the play explains his intentions behind the work. He defends his choice to adapt Aeschylus' myth - his choice to have Jupiter overthrown rather than Prometheus reconciled - with:

In truth, I was averse from a catastrophe so feeble as that of reconciling the Champion with the Oppressor of mankind. The moral interest of the fable, which is so powerfully sustained by the sufferings and endurance of Prometheus, would be annihilated if we could conceive of him as unsaying his high language and quailing before his successful and perfidious adversary.

Shelley compares his Romantic hero Prometheus to Milton's proto-Romantic hero Satan from Paradise Lost.

The only imaginary being, resembling in any degree Prometheus, is Satan; and Prometheus is, in my judgement, a more poetical character than Satan, because, in addition to courage, and majesty, and firm and patient opposition to omnipotent force, he is susceptible of being described as exempt from the taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandizement, which, in the hero of Paradise Lost, interfere with the interest.

Shelley finishes with an evocation of his intentions as a poet:

My purpose has hitherto been simply to familiarize the highly refined imagination of the more select classes of poetical readers with beautiful idealisms of moral excellence; aware that, until the mind can love, and admire, and trust, and hope, and endure, reasoned principles of moral conduct are seeds cast upon the highway of life which the unconscious passenger tramples into dust, although they would bear the harvest of his happiness.

Essentially, Prometheus Unbound, as re-wrought in Shelley's hands, is a fiercely revolutionary text championing free will, goodness, hope and idealism in the face of oppression. The Epilogue, spoken by Demogorgon, expresses Shelley's tenets as a poet and as a revolutionary:

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite; To forgive wrongs darker than death or night; To defy Power, which seems omnipotent; To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates; Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent; This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free; This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory.

References

1. ^ Aeschylus, Scully, J., (Trans.) Herington, C.J. (Trans.) (1975) Prometheus Bound. Oxford: Oxford University Press