Prometheus

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1816

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Background

Literary Context: Prometheus in Mythology

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a trickster character whose myth has inspired many artists and thinkers throughout history. In the original myth, Prometheus, a titan—the original group of gods in Greek mythology, later overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians—slights Zeus two times. First, Prometheus tricks Zeus into eating animal bones and fat and giving humans animal meat. This sets the precedent for animal sacrifice, where the humans would eat the meat and offer the bones and fat to the gods. Second, when Zeus takes fire away from humans, Prometheus steals the fire and returns it to the humans, bringing to them all the benefits and life that come with fire.

In retaliation for this, Zeus punishes Prometheus by chaining him to a mountain where an eagle comes every day to eat Prometheus’s liver. At night, the liver regrows, and the next day, the eagle returns. This gruesome punishment is in line with other Greek mythical punishments, such as that of Sisyphus and Tantalus. Later, the hero Heracles comes and frees Prometheus, but the titan’s legacy and importance to the Romantics was in his defiance of Zeus and in the punishment he received because of it.

The myth of Prometheus comes from two main sources. The first source is Hesiod’s Theogony, and the second is the tragedy Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus. This is the source material that Byron drew from when writing his poem. It is important to note that in this source, Prometheus is also responsible for bringing civilization and culture—including writing—to mankind, further cementing his role as benefactor to the human race.

Cultural Context: Romanticism

Romanticism was a 19th-century artistic movement throughout Europe that included writing, art, music, philosophy, and the sciences. Romanticism was a response to the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, and it has had a profound impact on modern Western culture.

In general, Romanticism celebrated nature, the individual, and rebellion against conventional norms, and it privileged emotion over rationality. The Romantics were heavily inspired by the French Revolution’s overthrow of nobility and power, and they looked back at ancient and medieval history fondly in their rejection of many aspects of modernity, including urbanization.

The Romantics, above all, admired the individual human spirit and will, as exemplified by many of the characters in Romantic writers’ works, especially in Byron’s poetry. For the Romantics, the perfect hero was someone who rejected authority, was full of passion, was in tune with nature, and lived authentically. This is one of the reasons why the Romantics looked to the Prometheus myth, but he wasn’t the only classical character that inspired them. Another important character was Lucifer from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, as he represented the pain and suffering of a complex and compelling rebel who rejects supreme authority and power (God).

In poetry, the English Romantic movement began with William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Blake. Wordsworth and Coleridge's collection Lyrical Ballads (1798) set out some of the main tenets for Romantic poetry, including simplicity and directness in language, a sensitivity to nature's beauties, and a feeling of kinship with the struggles of the common man. However, it was the next generation of writers who expanded English Romanticism. These writers included Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley, John Keats, and later the Bronte sisters and, to a degree, Jane Austen.

The legacy of the Romantics continues to influence Western culture, especially with its celebration of individualism, rebellion, its glorification of sacrifice, and its belief in the importance of authentic emotional experiences.