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26-569: The dramatis personae are Prometheus, Cratus (Power), Bia (Violence), Hephaestus , the mortal woman Io , Oceanus , Hermes and a chorus of Oceanids . The play is composed almost entirely of speeches and contains little plot since its protagonist is chained and immobile throughout. At the beginning, Cratus, Bia and Hephaestus the smith-god chain Prometheus to a mountain in the Caucasus and then depart. According to Aeschylus, Prometheus

52-683: A dolphin ( delphis ), propelled Cretans over the seas to make them his priests. While Delphi is actually related to the word delphus ("womb"), many etiological myths are similarly based on folk etymology (the term " Amazon ", for example). In the Aeneid (published c.  17 BC ), Virgil claims the descent of Augustus Caesar 's Julian clan from the hero Aeneas through his son Ascanius , also called Iulus. The story of Prometheus ' sacrifice trick at Mecone in Hesiod 's Theogony relates how Prometheus tricked Zeus into choosing

78-455: A dramatic work written in a list. Such lists are commonly employed in various forms of theatre , and also on screen. Typically, off-stage characters are not considered part of the dramatis personae. It is said to have been recorded in English since 1730, and is also evident in international use. It is customary to give a cast list, which also has next to each character in a second column

104-515: A contemporary Athenian festival dedicated to Prometheus: "Aeschylus clearly states in the Unbound that in honor of Prometheus we place a garland on the head as recompense of his bondage." Some scholars have taken this to mean that in the Unbound , Prometheus prophesies that eventually (in the Fire-Bringer ), Zeus would reconcile with him, and establish some sort of festival in his honor. Given

130-409: A population more or less likely to have an illness, condition, or disease, thus helping determine its etiology. Sometimes determining etiology is an imprecise process. In the past, the etiology of a common sailor's disease, scurvy , was long unknown. When large, ocean-going ships were built, sailors began to put to sea for long periods of time, and often lacked fresh fruit and vegetables. Without knowing

156-551: A reason for" (from αἰτία ( aitía )  'cause' and -λογία ( -logía )  'study of'). More completely, etiology is the study of the causes, origins, or reasons behind the way that things are, or the way they function, or it can refer to the causes themselves. The word is commonly used in medicine (pertaining to causes of disease or illness) and in philosophy , but also in physics , biology , psychology , political science , geography , cosmology , spatial analysis and theology in reference to

182-550: A role, or appear to do so—such as a metaphor, a drama, or a court case. It may also be facetiously applied in a situation where members of a group appear to play predictable roles, often for comic effect. Literary critic Vladimir Propp in his book Morphology of the Folktale uses the term dramatis personae when referring to the character roles of fairy tales, from his analysis of the Russian tales of Alexander Afanasiev . It

208-406: Is also sometimes used in anthropology to denote the roles people assume when performing a social ritual, as used by Clifford Geertz in his study of Balinese ritual. Outside the theatre medium, some novels also have a dramatis personae at the beginning or end. This is most common in books with very large casts of characters, as well as children's books and speculative fiction . For example,

234-605: Is being punished not only for stealing fire ( theft of fire ), but also for thwarting Zeus' plan to obliterate the human race. This punishment is especially galling since Prometheus was instrumental in Zeus' victory in the Titanomachy . The Oceanids appear and attempt to comfort Prometheus by conversing with him. Prometheus cryptically tells them that he knows of a potential marriage that would lead to Zeus' downfall. Oceanus later arrives to commiserate with Prometheus, as well; he urges

260-477: Is never obtained, as this process of establishing dramatis personae creates a postmodern persona which 'wears many hats', each different hat worn for a different group or surroundings. A logic of identity and individuality is replaced by a more 'superficial, tactile logic of identification where individuals become more mask-like personae with mutable selves.' This self can no longer be theorized or based solely on an individual's job or productive function. The term

286-507: The Titanomachy . This perhaps foreshadows Zeus' eventual reconciliation with Prometheus in the trilogy's third installment. Prometheus complains to them about his torment just as he had to the chorus of Oceanids in Prometheus Bound . It is then suggested that Gaea would be the next to visit Prometheus, in a role that echoes Oceanus' sympathetic turn in the first play. Finally, Heracles would visit Prometheus. Again mirroring events in

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312-547: The Titan himself in Prometheus Bound allow scholars to reconstruct a fairly detailed outline of this play. An erroneous list of Prometheus Bound' s dramatis personæ indicates that Gaea and Heracles both appear in this play. A fragment translated into Latin by the Roman statesman Cicero demonstrates that the chorus of this play is constituted by a group of Titans, recently freed from Tartarus by Zeus despite their defeat in

338-550: The Titan to make peace with Zeus, and departs. Prometheus is then visited by Io, a maiden pursued by a lustful Zeus. The Olympian transformed her into a cow, and a gadfly sent by Hera has chased her all the way from Argos; Prometheus forecasts her future travels, telling her that Zeus will eventually end her torment in Egypt, where she will bear a son named Epaphus. He adds that one of her descendants (Heracles), eleven generations hence, will release him from his own torment. Finally, Hermes

364-447: The causes or origins of various phenomena . In the past, when many physical phenomena were not well understood or when histories were not recorded, myths often arose to provide etiologies. Thus, an etiological myth, or origin myth , is a myth that has arisen, been told over time or written to explain the origins of various social or natural phenomena. For example, Virgil 's Aeneid is a national myth written to explain and glorify

390-527: The course of the drama, Prometheus decides to warn Zeus about Thetis. Rather than lie with her, Zeus marries her off to the mortal Peleus , King of Aegina. The product of this union will indeed be a son greater than the father, namely Achilles , Greek hero of the Trojan War . Finally, Athenaeus (a grammarian of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD) wrote in Book 15.16 of his Deipnosophists the following regarding

416-462: The lack of vitamin C in a sailor's diet. The following are examples of intrinsic factors: An etiological myth, or origin myth, is a myth intended to explain the origins of cult practices, natural phenomena, proper names and the like. For example, the name Delphi and its associated deity, Apollon Delphinios , are explained in the Homeric Hymn which tells of how Apollo, in the shape of

442-438: The messenger-god is sent down by an angered Zeus to demand that Prometheus tell him who threatens to overthrow him. Prometheus refuses, and Zeus strikes him with a thunderbolt that plunges Prometheus into the abyss. Only eleven fragments of Prometheus Unbound survive, in the form of quotations preserved by later authors. Nonetheless, our knowledge of the Prometheus myth as told by Hesiod and predictions of future events made by

468-429: The name of the actor or actress playing the part; an alternative version lists the names of the actors who played the parts originally. In order not to give away vital parts of the plot some names may be altered, for example, mixed up with another name. Some minor characters may be listed just as the actors who perform the parts. In a wider sense, the term can be applied to any situation in which people or characters play

494-592: The opening pages of Jon Krakauer 's Into Thin Air contain a dramatis personae. Other examples include Worldwar: In the Balance by Harry Turtledove, and The Horus Heresy by various authors. Tamsyn Muir 's Gideon the Ninth begins with a dramatis personae. The term is used to describe the multiple identifications one may adopt in an attempt to emphasize the expression of one's own individualism. An individuality

520-547: The origins of the Roman Empire . In theology , many religions have creation myths explaining the origins of the world or its relationship to believers. In medicine, the etiology of an illness or condition refers to the frequent studies to determine one or more factors that come together to cause the illness. Relatedly, when disease is widespread, epidemiological studies investigate what associated factors, such as location, sex, exposure to chemicals, and many others, make

546-459: The precise cause, Captain James Cook suspected scurvy was caused by the lack of vegetables in the diet. Based on his suspicion, he forced his crew to eat sauerkraut , a cabbage preparation, every day, and based upon the positive outcomes, he inferred that it prevented scurvy, even though he did not know precisely why. It took about another two hundred years to discover the precise etiology;

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572-455: The previous play, Prometheus would forecast Heracles' remaining travels as he completes his Twelve Labours . Heracles then frees Prometheus from his chains and kills the eagle that tortured him daily. The play thus concludes with Prometheus free from the torments of Zeus, but the Titan and Olympian have yet to reconcile. Only one fragment survives from this play. Despite the paucity of direct evidence, Prometheus' foreshadowing of future events in

598-570: The reconstructing the Bound and Unbound as the first and second play, there simply isn't enough mythic material left for a third-position Fire-Bringer . According to his theory, Prometheus the Fire-Bringer would dramatize the Titan's theft of fire as described in the Theogony . Dramatis personae Dramatis personae ( Latin : 'persons of the drama') are the main characters in

624-598: The title of the play, and taking a cue from the aetiology for the Athenian Areopagus provided by Aeschylus' Eumenides , it has been suggested that the drama concludes with Zeus' foundation of the yearly torch race that took place in Athens to honor Prometheus. A minority of scholars believe that Prometheus the Fire-Bringer is actually the first play in the trilogy. One reason is that Prometheus Bound begins in medias res ; some have observed that after

650-496: The trilogy's first play suggests that the final play concerned itself with Prometheus' knowledge of a secret that could potentially lead to Zeus' downfall, and how the revelation of this secret leads to reconciliation between the Titan and Olympian. The secret is this: the sea nymph Thetis , whom Zeus wants to take as a lover, is fated to bear a child greater than its father. Lying with her, then, would result in Zeus' being overthrown just as he had overthrown his father, Cronus . During

676-450: Was used by Karl Marx throughout Das Kapital , where the capitalist and worker are introduced as dramatis personae in human hinders. Aetiology Etiology ( / ˌ iː t i ˈ ɒ l ə dʒ i / ; alternatively spelled aetiology or ætiology ) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek word αἰτιολογία ( aitiología ), meaning "giving

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