Prometheus Bound in the context of "Aeschylus"

In Greek mythology, Kratos (Ancient Greek: Κράτος, lit. 'power, strength') also known as Cratus or Cratos, is the divine personification of strength. He is the son of Pallas and Styx. Kratos and his siblings Nike ('Victory'), Bia ('Force'), and Zelus ('Glory') are all the personification of a specific trait. Kratos is first mentioned alongside his siblings in Hesiod's Theogony. According to Hesiod, Kratos and his siblings dwell with Zeus because their mother Styx came to him first to request a position in his regime, so he honored her and her children with exalted positions. Kratos and his sister Bia are best known for their appearance in the opening scene of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound. Acting as agents of Zeus, they lead the captive Titan Prometheus on stage. Kratos compels the mild-mannered blacksmith god Hephaestus to chain Prometheus to a rock as punishment for his theft of fire.

Kratos is characterized as brutal and merciless, repeatedly mocking both Hephaestus and Prometheus' advocacy against the use of unnecessary violence. He defends Zeus' oppressive rule and predicts that Prometheus will never escape his bonds. In Aeschylus' Libation Bearers, Electra calls upon Kratos, Dike ("Justice"), and Zeus to aid her brother Orestes in avenging the murder of their father Agamemnon. Kratos and Bia appear in a late fifth-century BC red-figure Attic skyphos of the punishment of Ixion, possibly based on a scene from a lost tragedy by Euripides. They also appear in late eighteenth and nineteenth-century Romantic depictions and adaptations of the binding of Prometheus.

Euphorion (Ancient Greek: Εὐφορίων, Euphoríōn, fl. 431 BC) was the son of the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, and himself an author of tragedies. He is known solely for his victory over Sophocles and Euripides in the Dionysia of 431 BC. According to the 10th century AD Suda, he won four victories by producing Aeschylus' plays, but it is suggested that this may have been a single victory with four plays.

No work bearing his name survives. He is purported by some to have been the author of Prometheus Bound—previously assumed to be the work of his father, to whom it was attributed at the Library of Alexandria,—for several reasons, chiefly that the portrayal of Zeus in Prometheus Bound is far less reverent than in other works attributed to Aeschylus, and that references to the play appear in the plays of the comic Aristophanes. This has led historians to date it as late as 415 BC, long after Aeschylus's death. If Euphorion wrote Prometheus Bound, then there may be as many as five ancient Greek tragedians with one or more fully surviving plays: Aeschylus, Euphorion, Sophocles, Euripides, and possibly the author of the tragedy Rhesus if its attribution to Euripides is incorrect.

The Oceanids (The Naiads of the Sea) (French: Les Océanides (Les Naiades de la mer)) is a painting by Gustave Doré, dated to c. 1860. It depicts the Oceanids from Greek mythology with Prometheus chained to a rock in the background. The subject is from the ancient tragedy Prometheus Bound.

Prometheus Unbound is a four-act lyrical drama by Percy Bysshe Shelley, first published in 1820. It is concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus, who defies the gods and gives fire to humanity, for which he is subjected to eternal punishment and suffering at the hands of Zeus. It is inspired by the classical Prometheia, a trilogy of plays attributed to Aeschylus (although only Prometheus Bound is fully extant). Shelley's play concerns Prometheus' release from captivity, but unlike Aeschylus' version, there is no reconciliation between Prometheus and Jupiter (Zeus). Instead, Jupiter is abandoned by his supportive elements and falls from power, which allows Prometheus to be released.

Shelley's play is a closet drama, meaning it was not intended to be produced on the stage. In the tradition of Romantic poetry, Shelley wrote for the imagination, intending his play's stage to reside in the imaginations of his readers. However, the play is filled with suspense, mystery and other dramatic effects that make it, in theory, performable.

Prometheus Unbound (Ancient Greek: Προμηθεὺς Λυόμενος, Promētheus Lyomenos) is a fragmentary play in the Prometheia trilogy attributed to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus, thought to have followed Prometheus Bound. Prometheus Unbound was probably followed by Prometheus the Fire-Bringer. It is concerned with the torments of the Greek mythological figure Prometheus who defies the gods and proceeds to give fire to humanity (theft of fire), for which he is subjected to eternal punishment and suffering at the hands of Zeus.

The text of the Unbound survives only in eleven fragments preserved by later authors. Nevertheless, these fragments, combined with prophetic statements made in the first play of the trilogy, allow the reconstruction of a broad outline.

The Prometheia (Ancient Greek: Προμήθεια) is a trilogy of plays about the Titan Prometheus. It was attributed in Antiquity to the 5th-century BC Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Though an Alexandrian catalogue of Aeschylean play titles designates the trilogy Hoi Prometheis ("the Prometheuses"), in modern scholarship the trilogy has been designated the Prometheia to mirror the title of Aeschylus' only extant trilogy, the Oresteia. Unlike the Oresteia, only one play from this trilogy—Prometheus Bound—survives. Inasmuch as the authorship of Prometheus Bound continues to be debated, the very existence of a Prometheus trilogy is uncertain. To the extent that modern scholars postulate the existence of such a trilogy by a single author, the consensus holds that it comprised Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer, in that order.

According to the 6th century BC mythographer Acusilaus, Hesione (/hɪˈsaɪ.əniː/; Ancient Greek: Ἡσιονη) was the daughter of Oceanus, the wife of Prometheus and the mother of Deucalion. That she was a daughter of Oceanus and wife of Prometheus, was also repeated in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound.