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76-476: British-born author, C.J. Herington, a scholar of classical Greek and Latin, wrote that Aeschylus certainly did not mean Prometheus Bound to be a "self-contained dramatic unity", and suggests that "most modern students of the subject would probably agree" that Prometheus Bound was followed by a work with the title Prometheus Lyomenos ( Prometheus Unbound ) . Herington adds that "some very slight evidence" indicates that Prometheus Unbound "may have been followed by

152-564: A Titan (being the brother of Cronus and Rhea), and the mythographer Apollodorus 's inclusion of Dione , the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus, as a thirteenth Titan, suggests an Orphic tradition in which the Titan offspring of Oceanus and Tethys consisted of Hesiod's twelve Titans, with Phorcys and Dione taking the place of Oceanus and Tethys. According to Epimenides , the first two beings, Night and Aer, produced Tartarus , who in turn produced two Titans (possibly Oceanus and Tethys) from whom came

228-440: A figure thought to be Tethys: a part of a chiton below Oceanus' left arm and a hand clutching a large tree branch visible behind Oceanus' head. In Hellenistic and Roman mosaics, this Titan was often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns (often represented as the claws of a crab) and the lower body of a serpent ( cfr. Typhon ). In Roman mosaics, such as that from Bardo , he might carry

304-458: A later Iliad passage, Hypnos also describes Oceanus as " genesis for all", which, according to Gantz, is hard to understand as meaning other than that, for Homer, Oceanus was the father of the Titans. Plato , in his Timaeus , provides a genealogy (probably Orphic) which perhaps reflected an attempt to reconcile this apparent divergence between Homer and Hesiod, in which Uranus and Gaia are

380-486: A measure of popularity in antiquity. Aeschylus was very popular in Athens decades after his death, as Aristophanes ' The Frogs (405 BC) makes clear. Allusions to the play are evident in his The Birds of 414 BC, and in the tragedian Euripides ' fragmentary Andromeda , dated to 412 BC. If Aeschylean authorship is assumed, then these allusions several decades after the play's first performance speak to

456-422: A miserable sight chained to a rock. Prometheus suggests that Oceanus should not intervene, out of concern for his own safety. Oceanus is annoyed by this, but wants to help, and offers to leave only when Prometheus tells him that if he attempts to intervene it will only increase the punishment Prometheus is suffering. Oceanus notes that his winged beast is eager to get home to his own stable, and he exits. Prometheus

532-481: A person (such as Oceanus visiting Prometheus in Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound , see above) Oceanus is more usually considered to be a place, that is, as the great world-encircling river. Twice Hesiod calls Oceanus "the perfect river" ( τελήεντος ποταμοῖο ), and Homer refers to the "stream of the river Oceanus" ( ποταμοῖο λίπεν ῥόον Ὠκεανοῖο ). Both Hesiod and Homer call Oceanus "backflowing" ( ἀψορρόου ), since, as

608-700: A play, Prometheus Unbound , which used some of the materials of the play as a vehicle for Shelley's own vision. In 1979 George Eugeniou directed and performed in the play at Theatro Technis London setting the drama in the Greece governed by the Junta . George Eugeniou, Koraltan Ahmet and Angelique Rockas played roles. In 2005, Prometheus Bound once again reached a London stage at The Sound Theatre in James Kerr's new translation, also directed by Kerr and starring David Oyelowo as Prometheus. A translation of

684-519: A poem (probably Orphic) which has an angry Oceanus brooding aloud as to whether he should join Cronus and the other Titans in the attack on Uranus. And, according to Proclus, Oceanus did not in fact take part in the attack. Oceanus seemingly also did not join the Titans in the Titanomachy , the great war between the Cronus and his fellow Titans, and Zeus and his fellow Olympians , for control of

760-576: A section of the Iliad called the Deception of Zeus , suggest the possibility that Homer knew a tradition in which Oceanus and Tethys (rather than Uranus and Gaia, as in Hesiod) were the primeval parents of the gods. Twice Homer has Hera describe the pair as "Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung, and mother Tethys". According to M. L. West , these lines suggests a myth in which Oceanus and Tethys are

836-469: A steering-oar and cradle a ship. Oceanus appears in Hellenic cosmography as well as myth . Cartographers continued to represent the encircling equatorial stream much as it had appeared on Achilles ' shield. Herodotus was skeptical about the physical existence of Oceanus and rejected the reasoning—proposed by some of his coevals—according to which the uncommon phenomenon of the summerly Nile flood

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912-554: A third play", Prometheus Pyrphoros ( Prometheus the Fire-Bearer ) ; the latter two survive only in fragments. Some scholars have proposed that these fragments all originated from Prometheus Unbound , and that there were only two Promethean plays rather than three. Since the final two dramas of the trilogy have been lost, the author's intention for the work as a whole is not known. The ascription to Aeschylus had never been challenged since antiquity down to relatively recent times. By

988-499: A unique series of quatrains sung by the chorus. Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony , written circa 700 BC, are early and major sources for stories of Greek mythology, and sources for Aeschylus. Hesiod's Theogony contains the starting point for Aeschylus' play, which was written more than two centuries later. However by the time that Aeschylus read the Theogony , it had accrued significant additions that are now part of

1064-539: A very similar procession of Peleus and Thetis' wedding guests, on another early sixth century BC Attic black-figure pot, the François Vase (Florence 4209). As in Sophilos' dinos, Oceanus appears at the end of the long procession, following after the last chariot, with Hephaestus on his mule bringing up the rear. Although little remains of Oceanus, he was apparently shown here with a bull's head. The similarity in

1140-583: 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

1216-629: Is alone again with the chorus of Oceanus' daughters, who did not speak while their father was visiting. Prometheus speaks to the chorus of Ocean nymphs. He asks pardon for his silence, which is because he was thinking about the ingratitude of the gods. He describes the positive things he had done for humans. In the so-called Catalogue of the Arts (447-506), he reveals that he taught men all the civilizing arts, such as writing, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, architecture, and agriculture. He suggests that he will one day be unchained, but it will be due to

1292-409: Is approaching. He hears the beating of wings, and inhales the scent of the ocean. A chorus enters, made up of the daughters of Oceanus . From within their deep sea-caves, they had heard the sound of the hammering, and were drawn by curiosity and fear. They have arrived without stopping to put on their sandals. Before they come closer, they hover in the air just above Prometheus, who hints to them that he

1368-485: Is evidence that Prometheus Bound was the first play in a trilogy conventionally called the Prometheia , but the other two plays, Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer , survive only in fragments. In Prometheus Unbound , Heracles frees Prometheus from his chains and kills the eagle that had been sent daily to eat the Titan's perpetually regenerating liver . Perhaps foreshadowing his eventual reconciliation with Prometheus, we learn that Zeus has released

1444-412: Is in turn responsible for mortal man's having to provide for himself; before, all of man's needs had been provided by the gods. Prometheus' theft of fire also prompts the arrival of the first woman, Pandora , and her jar of evils. Pandora is entirely absent from Prometheus Bound , where Prometheus becomes a human benefactor and divine kingmaker , rather than an object of blame for human suffering. There

1520-459: Is interrupted by the entrance of Oceanus — the father of the chorus of nymphs. Oceanus arrives in a carriage drawn by a winged beast — a griffin . Oceanus is an older god, a Titan son of Earth, who has made peace with Zeus. He has heard of Prometheus' troubles, and has come to offer some sympathy and advice. Prometheus is proud, and is hurt by this offer. Prometheus responds coldly, and wonders why Oceanus would leave his caves and streams to see such

1596-535: Is keeping a secret that will eventually cause him to have power over Zeus. The chorus thinks that he is speaking out of anger, and may not actually be prophetic. Responding to their questions, Prometheus tells the story of his offense against Zeus admitting that it was deliberate. He complains that the punishment is too harsh. At last, Prometheus invites the chorus to stop hovering and come down to earth, to listen to more of what he has to say. They agree, and arrange themselves downstage in order to listen. Prometheus' story

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1672-555: Is shocked and saddened and asks Prometheus to tell of Io's future wanderings. He hesitates because he knows it will be painful. A brief dialogue reveals that Prometheus and Io are both victims of Zeus and that in the future Prometheus will eventually be freed by the descendants of Io. Prometheus asks Io to choose: Does she want to hear the rest of her own future, or the name of her descendant that will rescue him? The chorus interrupts — they want both: One answer for Io and one for themselves. Prometheus foresees that Io's wanderings will end at

1748-514: 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. A lengthy fragment translated into Latin by the Roman statesman Cicero indicates that

1824-517: The Charites ; Doris , the wife of Nereus and mother of the Nereids ; Callirhoe , the wife of Chrysaor and mother of Geryon ; Clymene , the wife of Iapetus, and mother of Atlas , Menoetius , Prometheus , and Epimetheus ; Perseis , wife of Helios and mother of Circe and Aeetes ; Idyia , wife of Aeetes and mother of Medea ; and Styx , the great river of the underworld river, and

1900-582: The Cimmerians , the Aethiopians , and the Pygmies as living nearby Oceanus. In Homer, Helios the sun, rises from Oceanus in the east, and at the end of the day sinks back into Oceanus in the west, and the stars bathe in the "stream of Ocean". According to later sources, after setting, Helios sails back along Oceanus during the night from west to east. Just as Oceanus the god was the father of

1976-733: The Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean , the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. However, as geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean (also called the " Ocean Sea "), while the newcomer of a later generation, Poseidon , ruled over the Mediterranean Sea. Late attestations for an equation with the Black Sea abound,

2052-662: The Theogony , or near Elysium , in the Iliad , and in the Odyssey , has to be crossed in order to reach the "dank house of Hades ". And for both Hesiod and Homer, Oceanus seems to have marked a boundary beyond which the cosmos became more fantastical. The Theogony has such fabulous creatures as the Hesperides , with their golden apples, the three-headed giant Geryon , and the snake-haired Gorgons , all residing "beyond glorious Ocean". While Homer located such exotic tribes as

2128-662: The Titanomachy . Hephaestus performs his task, shackling Prometheus to the mountain, whereupon all three exit, leaving Prometheus alone on stage. Prometheus now speaks, and appeals to the powers of Nature, which are all around him. He calls on the wind, the mountains' springs of water, the Earth and the Sun — to witness how he suffers unfairly. Somewhat elliptically he intuits what the future might portend in positive terms, and his outrage diminishes. Prometheus becomes aware that something

2204-552: The dramatis personae of Prometheus Bound erroneously lists Gaea , it has been suggested that she is next to visit Prometheus in this play, in a sympathetic role that echoes Oceanus ' turn in the first play. Finally, the faulty dramatis personae mentioned above and several fragments indicate that Heracles visits the Titan just as Io had in Prometheus Bound . Heracles kills the eagle that had been torturing Prometheus by eating his regenerating liver every day and frees

2280-651: The nymph Arethusa and pursued her to Syracuse where she was transformed into a spring by Artemis ; and Scamander who fought on the side of the Trojans during the Trojan War and got offended when Achilles polluted his waters with a large number of Trojan corpses, overflowed his banks nearly drowning Achilles. According to Hesiod, there were also three thousand Oceanids. These included: Metis , Zeus ' first wife, whom Zeus impregnated with Athena and then swallowed; Eurynome , Zeus' third wife, and mother of

2356-468: The world egg . When Cronus, the youngest of the Titans, overthrew his father Uranus , thereby becoming the ruler of the cosmos, according to Hesiod, none of the other Titans participated in the attack on Uranus. However, according to the mythographer Apollodorus , all the Titans—;except Oceanus—attacked Uranus. Proclus , in his commentary on Plato's Timaeus , quotes several lines of

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2432-439: The "first parents of the whole race of gods." However, as Timothy Gantz points out, "mother" could simply refer to the fact that Tethys was Hera's foster mother for a time, as Hera tells us in the lines immediately following, while the reference to Oceanus as the genesis of the gods "might be simply a formulaic epithet indicating the numberless rivers and springs descended from Okeanos" (compare with Iliad 21.195–197 ). But, in

2508-678: The "immense sea" by Pomponius Mela and by Dionysius Periegetes , and which is named Mare majus on medieval geographic maps. Apollonius of Rhodes , similarly, calls the lower Danube the Kéras Okeanoío ("Gulf" or "Horn of Oceanus"). Hecataeus of Abdera also refers to a holy island, sacred to the Pelasgian (and later, Greek) Apollo , situated in the westernmost part of the Okeanós Potamós , and called in different times Leuke or Leukos, Alba, Fidonisi or Isle of Snakes . It

2584-411: The 1970s, both R. P. Winnington-Ingram and Denys Page had become sceptical of its authenticity, but the majority of scholars still affirmed the traditional attribution of authorship. Independently in 1977 both Oliver Taplin and Mark Griffith made forceful cases, on linguistic, technical and stagecraft grounds, for questioning its authenticity, a view supported by M. L. West . To date, no consensus on

2660-442: The Earth. Hera turned Io into a heifer and the herder Argus drove her from land to land. After Argus was killed by Hermes , a new torment was inflicted on Io — a plague of gad-flies . She has now arrived at the desolate place where Prometheus is chained. Prometheus is familiar with her story, and she recognizes him as the great friend to humans. The chorus doesn't know Io's past, and persuades Prometheus to let Io tell them. The chorus

2736-640: The Titan. Again mirroring events in the previous play, Prometheus forecasts the travels of Hercules as he concludes his Twelve Labours . The play thus concludes with Prometheus free from the torments of Zeus, but the Titan and Olympian have yet to reconcile. It inspired the play of the same title by Percy Bysshe Shelley . Oceanus Many Oceanids including: In Greek mythology , Oceanus ( / oʊ ˈ s iː ə n ə s / oh- SEE -ə-nəs ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ὠκεανός [ɔːke.anós] , also Ὠγενός [ɔːɡenós] , Ὤγενος [ɔ̌ːɡenos] , or Ὠγήν [ɔːɡɛ̌ːn] )

2812-592: The author’s. A reference (lines 363-372) to the eruption of Mount Aetna in 479 suggests that Prometheus Bound may date from later than this event. The play cannot date later than 430 BC, because Prometheus Unbound (part of the same trilogy as Prometheus Bound ) was parodied in Cratinus ' Ploutoi (429 BC). Prometheus Bound was then parodied in Cratinus' Seriphioi (c. 423) and Aristophanes ' Acharnians (425 BC). Prometheus Bound enjoyed

2888-661: The barren cliff. In April 2015 MacMillan Films, in the United States, staged Prometheus Bound for camera using Peter Arnott's translation with James Thomas directing, Tanya Rodina as Io, and Casey McIntyre as the Chorus Leader. The production used a real skene building whose roof was the landing and dance platform for the Chorus of Oceanids. Prometheus Unbound (Aeschylus) Prometheus Unbound ( Ancient Greek : Προμηθεὺς Λυόμενος , Promētheus Lyomenos )

2964-426: The bowels of the earth, Prometheus has the last line of the play: "O holy mother mine, O you firmament that revolves the common light of all, you see the wrongs I suffer!" Prometheus vanishes along with the chorus. The play is composed of dialogues between the different characters, including, Io, Ocean, Nature, and with the chorus. The dialogue contains a sustained stichomythia between Prometheus and Oceanus, and also

3040-629: The cause being – as it appears – Odysseus' travel to the Cimmerians whose fatherland, lying beyond the Oceanus, is described as a country divested from sunlight. In the fourth century BC, Hecataeus of Abdera writes that the Oceanus of the Hyperboreans is neither the Arctic nor Western Ocean, but the sea located to the north of the ancient Greek world, namely the Black Sea , called "the most admirable of all seas" by Herodotus , labelled

3116-435: The cosmos; and following the war, although Cronus and the other Titans were imprisoned, Oceanus certainly seems to have remained free. In Hesiod, Oceanus sends his daughter Styx , with her children Zelus (Envy), Nike (Victory), Cratos (Power), and Bia (Force), to fight on Zeus' side against the Titans, And in the Iliad , Hera says that during the war she was sent to Oceanus and Tethys for safekeeping. Sometime after

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3192-448: The end of a long procession of gods and goddesses arriving at the palace of Peleus for the wedding. Oceanus follows a chariot driven by Athena and containing Artemis . Oceanus has bull horns, holds a snake in his left hand and a fish in his right, and has the body of a fish from the waist down. He is closely followed by Tethys and Eileithyia , with Hephaestus following on his mule ending the procession. Oceanus also appears, as part of

3268-456: The enduring popularity of Prometheus Bound . Moreover, a performance of the play itself (rather than a depiction of the generic myth) appears on fragments of a Greek vase dated c. 370–360 BC.). In the early 19th century, the Romantic writers came to identify with the defiant Prometheus. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a poem on the theme, as did Lord Byron . Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote

3344-473: The extant version. Parts of those additions — including the story of Hercules killing the eagle — are essential to Aeschylus' conception of Prometheus Bound . Aeschylus also added his own variations. For example, in Hesiod Prometheus' efforts to outwit Zeus are simply presented, without noting that Zeus' response is overly cruel, or that Prometheus' actions might be justified — that Zeus became angry

3420-408: The fact he stole fire and revealed the secret of how it is produced to humanity, adding that the punitive measure taken will compel Prometheus to take cognizance of the sovereignty of Zeus. For Prometheus, his punishment occurs because he dared to rescue mankind from being annihilated by Zeus. The penalty exacted is particularly galling since he himself had been instrumental in securing Zeus's victory in

3496-421: The great stream encircles the earth, it flows back into itself. Hesiod also calls Oceanus "deep-swirling" ( βαθυδίνης ), while Homer calls him "deep-flowing" ( βαθυρρόου ). Homer says that Oceanus "bounds the Earth", and Oceanus was depicted on the shield of Achilles , encircling its rim, and so also on the shield of Heracles. Both Hesiod and Homer locate Oceanus at the ends of the earth, near Tartarus, in

3572-485: The human spirit into older forms. This play, Prometheus Bound , only contains a part of the story. In the sequel, Aeschylus would have had the chance to give to Zeus' character an arc, and show him learning and developing more admirable and generous aspects. Coming later in the trilogy, a benevolent Zeus would have a deeper impact. In this play Zeus does not appear — we learn of the tyranny of Zeus, only from those who suffer from it. Characters' views need not be identical with

3648-449: The intervention of Necessity, which is something directed by Fate, not Zeus. When asked how that will happen, he keeps it secret. The Chorus sings an Ode that is a prayer that they will never cross Zeus. Io , the daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, arrives. Io had become the object of Zeus's affections and desires, which angered Zeus's wife, Hera . Io's father was advised to banish his daughter from his house, which he does. Io then wanders

3724-440: The marriage that threatens Zeus. Hermes reveals Zeus' own threats — the earthquake, the fall of the mountain that will bury Prometheus, the eagle that will attack Prometheus's vital organs. Prometheus states again that he knows all that is to come and will endure it. Prometheus warns the chorus to stand aside. They don't. The end comes: Earthquake, dust-storm, jagged lightning, whirlwind. As Zeus blasts Prometheus to Tartarus down in

3800-508: The matter has been established, though recent computerized stylometric analysis has thrown the burden of proof on those who uphold the traditional claim. Before the play begins, Kronos , the ruler of the pre- Olympian gods (the Titans ), had been overthrown by an insurgency led by Zeus . In that revolt, Prometheus had sided with Zeus. As the new king, Zeus intended to destroy and replace humankind. Prometheus frustrated this plan, showing humans

3876-760: The mouth of the Nile . There Zeus will restore her. She will give birth to a son, Epaphus , who will father fifty daughters, all of whom will murder their husbands, except for one, who will bear a line of kings, and another one who will rescue Prometheus from his torment. Prometheus' future rescuer is not named, but is known to be Heracles . Io bounds away. Prometheus proclaims that no matter how great Zeus may be, his reign will eventually come to an end. Zeus may do his worst, but it will not be forever. The chorus express caution, which he responds to with even more defiance. Prometheus's words have reached Zeus, whose messenger, Hermes , appears to urge Prometheus to reveal his secret about

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3952-696: The name being a loanword . However, according to West, no "very convincing" foreign models have been found. A Semitic derivation has been suggested by several scholars, while R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a loanword from the Aegean Pre-Greek non- Indo-European substrate . Nevertheless, Michael Janda sees possible Indo-European connections. Oceanus was the eldest of the Titan offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth). Hesiod lists his Titan siblings as Coeus , Crius , Hyperion , Iapetus , Theia , Rhea , Themis , Mnemosyne , Phoebe , Tethys , and Cronus . Oceanus married his sister Tethys, and

4028-564: The new ruler Zeus, and so avoid making his situation any worse. But Prometheus replies: "I envy you because you have escaped blame for having dared to share with me in my troubles." According to Pherecydes , while Heracles was travelling in Helios 's golden cup, on his way to Erytheia to fetch the cattle of Geryon , Oceanus challenged Heracles by sending high waves rocking the cup, but Heracles threatened to shoot Oceanus with his bow, and Oceanus in fear stopped. Although sometimes treated as

4104-420: The notion that a Prometheus trilogy itself existed. Two years later his student F. Niedzballa likewise concluded the text was written by someone else, on the basis of lexical analysis of words in the play not recurrent elsewhere in Aeschylus. Some have raised doubts focused on matters of linguistics, meter, vocabulary, and style, notably by Mark Griffith, though he remained open to idea that uncertainty persists and

4180-537: The order of the wedding guests on these two vases, as well as on the fragments a second Sophilos vase (Athens Akr 587), suggests the possibility of a literary source. Oceanus is depicted (labeled) as one of the gods fighting the Giants in the Gigantomachy frieze of the second century BC Pergamon Altar . Oceanus stands half nude, facing right, battling a giant falling to the right. Nearby Oceanus are fragments of

4256-480: The other Titans whom he imprisoned at the conclusion of the Titanomachy. In Prometheus the Fire-Bringer , the Titan finally warns Zeus not to lie with the sea nymph Thetis , for she is fated to give birth to a son greater than the father. Not wishing to be overthrown, Zeus would later marry Thetis off to the mortal Peleus ; the product of that union will be Achilles , Greek hero of the Trojan War . Grateful for

4332-412: The parents of Oceanus and Tethys, and Oceanus and Tethys are the parents of Cronus and Rhea and the other Titans, as well as Phorcys . In his Cratylus , Plato quotes Orpheus as saying that Oceanus and Tethys were "the first to marry", possibly also reflecting an Orphic theogony in which Oceanus and Tethys, rather than Uranus and Gaia, were the primeval parents. Plato's apparent inclusion of Phorcys as

4408-515: The personification of the sea. However elsewhere the distinction between fresh and salt water seems not to apply. For example, in Hesiod Nereus and Thaumus , both sons of Pontus, marry daughters of Oceanus, and in Homer (who makes no mention of Pontus), Thetis , the daughter of Nereus, and Eurynome the daughter of Oceanus, live together. In any case, Oceanus can also to be identified with

4484-535: The play as the product of the 440s-430s era. Some scholars note that certain themes in the play appear to be foreign to Aeschylus, when compared to the themes in his other plays. The scholar Wilhelm Schmid argues that the playwright who demonstrated such piety toward Zeus in The Suppliants and Agamemnon could not have been the same playwright who in Prometheus Bound inveighs against Zeus for violent tyranny. M. L. West argued that Prometheus Bound may be

4560-528: The play by Joel Agee, commissioned by the J. Paul Getty Museum , the CalArts Center for New Performance , and Trans Arts, was first performed from 29 August to 28 September 2013 at the Getty Villa 's Outdoor Classical Theater. It was directed by Travis Preston, composed by Ellen Reid and Vinny Golia , and choreographed by Mira Kingsley. The production employed a huge, steel wheel in place of

4636-477: The play would have opened with Prometheus visited by a chorus of Titans . Though Zeus had imprisoned them in Tartarus at the conclusion of the Titanomachy , he has at long last granted them clemency. This perhaps foreshadows Zeus's eventual reconciliation with Prometheus in the trilogy's third installment. Prometheus complains about his torment just as he had to the chorus of Oceanids in Prometheus Bound . As

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4712-461: The river gods, Oceanus the river was said to be the source of all other rivers, and in fact all sources of water, both salt and fresh. According to Homer, from Oceanus "all rivers flow and every sea, and all the springs and deep wells". Being the source of rivers and springs would seem logically to require that Oceanus was himself a freshwater river, and so different from the salt sea, and in fact Hesiod seems to distinguish between Oceanus and Pontus ,

4788-643: The sea. The concept of the surrounding Ocean, as expressed by Homer and Hesiod, remained in common use throughout antiquity. The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela said that the inhabited earth ‘is entirely surrounded by the Ocean, from which it receives four seas’. These four seas were the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Arabian Gulf , and the Mediterranean Sea . However increasing knowledge of

4864-613: The seas led to modifications in this view. The Greek geographer Ptolemy identified various different oceans. One of these, the Western Ocean (the Atlantic Ocean ) was often called simply ‘the Ocean’, for instance by Julius Caesar . Oceanus is represented, identified by inscription, as part of an illustration of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on the early sixth century BC Attic black-figure "Erskine" dinos by Sophilos ( British Museum 1971.111–1.1). Oceanus appears near

4940-456: The silent Prometheus to a mountainside in Scythia, and are assisted in the task by the begrudging blacksmith of the gods, Hephaestus . Zeus, an off-stage character in this play, is portrayed as a tyrannical leader. Only one of Zeus's two agents, Kratos, speaks in this scene, and he announces his orders harshly and insolently. Kratos states that the punishment meted out to Prometheus is due to

5016-424: The traditional attribution might turn out to be correct. Griffith's views were challenged in brief by Günther Zuntz and in great detail by Maria Pia Pattoni in 1987. M. L. West found the evidence against the ascription 'overwhelming' and, after editing all seven plays, wrote an extended analysis and review of Griffith, Zuntz and Pattoni's work concluding that ascription to Aeschylus was untenable and contextualizing

5092-475: The two punishments are presented as one story. It was Aeschylus, who instead decided to separate the tortures, and have the eagle begin tearing at Prometheus' liver only after the chained Prometheus had refused to reveal the secrets that Zeus wanted to know. Aeschylus' alterations have been maintained by literature that followed Prometheus Bound . Hesiod portrays Prometheus as a lowly trickster and semi-comic foil to Zeus's authority. Zeus's anger toward Prometheus

5168-512: The use of fire, which Prometheus had stolen. Prometheus also taught humanity the arts. For these acts of defiance, Zeus intends to punish Prometheus by chaining him to a rock in the mountains of Scythia . The play opens with four characters on stage, a feature unique among the surviving corpus of Greek tragedy, in which a given scene rarely involved more than two actors besides the chorus . Kratos and Bia , personifications of brute power and callous violence respectively, are engaged in fettering

5244-498: The war, Aeschylus ' Prometheus Bound , has Oceanus visit his nephew the enchained Prometheus , who is being punished by Zeus for his theft of fire. Oceanus arrives riding a winged steed, saying that he is sympathetic to Prometheus' plight and wishes to help him if he can. But Prometheus mocks Oceanus, asking him: "How did you summon courage to quit the stream that bears your name and the rock-roofed caves you yourself have made ..." Oceanus advises Prometheus to humble himself before

5320-557: The warning, Zeus finally reconciles with Prometheus. Scholars of the Great Library of Alexandria considered Aeschylus to be the author of Prometheus Bound . Since the 19th century, however, doubts began to emerge, after Rudolf Westphal , in 1857 and again in 1869, challenged the idea that the text was the work of a single author. In 1911, A. Gercke became the first scholar to reject the Aeschylean ascription, while dismissing

5396-544: The wife of Pallas and mother of Zelus , Nike , Kratos , and Bia . According to Epimenides ' Theogony , Oceanus was the father, by Gaia , of the Harpies . Oceanus was also said to be the father, by Gaia, of Triptolemus . Nonnus , in his poem Dionysiaca , described "the lakes" as "liquid daughters cut off from Oceanos". He was said to have fathered the Cercopes on one of his daughters, Theia . Passages in

5472-433: The work of Aeschylus' son, Euphorion , who was also a playwright. Responses to some of these questions have included the suggestion that the strongest characteristic of the play is in the humanity of their portrayal. The mythological and religious aspects are treated as secondary compared to the clash of wills that occurs between Zeus and Prometheus. The rebellion of Prometheus was not invented by Aeschylus, who only breathed

5548-532: Was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia , the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys , and the father of the river gods and the Oceanids , as well as being the great river which encircled the entire world. According to M. L. West , the etymology of Oceanus is "obscure" and "cannot be explained from Greek". The use by Pherecydes of Syros of the form Ōgenós ( Ὠγενός ) for the name lends support for

5624-556: Was by her the father of numerous sons, the river gods and numerous daughters, the Oceanids . According to Hesiod, there were three thousand (i.e. innumerable) river gods. These included: Achelous , the god of the Achelous River , the largest river in Greece, who gave his daughter in marriage to Alcmaeon and was defeated by Heracles in a wrestling contest for the right to marry Deianira ; Alpheus , who fell in love with

5700-517: Was caused by the river's connection to the mighty Oceanus. Speaking about the Oceanus myth itself he declared: As for the writer who attributes the phenomenon to the ocean, his account is involved in such obscurity that it is impossible to disprove it by argument. For my part I know of no river called Ocean, and I think that Homer, or one of the earlier poets, invented the name, and introduced it into his poetry. Some scholars believe that Oceanus originally represented all bodies of salt water, including

5776-481: Was enough for Hesiod to report without question. Aeschylus looks at those events in Hesiod, and sees intolerable injustice. Another departure by Aeschylus from Hesiod's Theogony involves the two forms of punishment of Prometheus — the chaining to a rock, and the eagle's daily tearing of his liver. In the version of the Theogony that Aeschylus was familiar with, which is also the extant version known to modern readers,

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