Characteristics of the work of Aeschylus Prometheus Bound. Analysis of the tragedy “Prometheus Bound”
“Prometheus Bound” is a tragedy included in the circle of works of Aeschylus and, apparently, constituted the second part of the trilogy (which also included the tragedies “Prometheus the Fire-Bearer” and “Prometheus Unbound”). There are still scientific disputes about the dating of the tragedy and even about its very attribution to Aeschylus, caused primarily by its content, where the confrontation of the titan Prometheus with Zeus is shown as a struggle with a certain divine tyrant, lording over other deities and hostile to the entire human race. At first glance, this atheistic pathos does not correspond to the picture of divine justice in other works of Aeschylus and forces researchers to associate the tragedy with the views of the “enlightenment of Greece” - sophistic scientists and attribute it to a later time. Indeed, the main theme of Prometheus’s speeches in the tragedy is suffering, and undeserved suffering. Complaints about these innocent torments frame his monologues, practically from his first words to his last. At the same time, he talks at length about his benefits to people and appears as a kind of intercessor for humanity; the humiliation of Prometheus, chained to a rock by order of Zeus, becomes a symbol of dependence and subordination of the entire human race.
The unconditional emphasis of the main character also determines the unusual structure of the tragedy, the main part of which consists of the mournful and angry speeches of Prometheus. Their background is the chorus of the Oceanids, the daughters of Ocean, who sympathize with the hero, the Ocean admonishing Prometheus, as well as the servants of Zeus opposing the titan - Power, who does not utter a single word, Strength, and finally Hermes. Prometheus’s confrontation with the servants of the supreme god is a stage manifestation of the main conflict of the tragedy, the peculiarity of which is that it manifests itself in the opposition of Prometheus, who is present on the stage, and Zeus, who is formally absent from it. It is characteristic that this conflict is conceptualized as an opposition between old and new deities, which makes us recall a similar dispute in the last tragedy of the Oresteia - “Eumenides”. Zeus appears as a “new” tyrannical ruler, whose arbitrariness is elevated to the rank of law. Prometheus, in turn, represents the ancient divine forces. But at one time, Prometheus himself helped put Zeus on the throne, giving him advice that allowed him to win the battle with the Titans. For the hero, this is a reason to accuse Zeus of ingratitude, however, the very fact that he acted as an ally of Zeus against his closest relatives marks the special character of both this character and his enmity with Zeus. In the tragedy “Prometheus Bound,” Prometheus sympathizes with other overthrown opponents of the king of the gods, and he also introduces into the work the theme of the curse of Zeus by Cronus, according to which Zeus, like his father, should be deprived of power by his own son. Thus, in “Chained Prometheus,” albeit on a different, “divine” level, there is a motif of a family curse, a series of mutual crimes of members of the same family, which constitutes the main conflict of other tragedies of Aeschylus, and Prometheus is a kind of “avenger” on behalf of the overthrown former generation, representatives of which in the tragedy are his passive allies of Prometheus - Ocean and his daughters.
But at the same time, in his confrontation with Zeus, Prometheus in many ways turns out to be closely connected with his opponent. They are connected in the past - by their alliance against the Titans. In the tragedy itself, their connection is emphasized by similar characteristics: both of them are stern, adamant, proud and furious, and the same epithets are applicable to them. Finally, they are connected by the future - a secret known to Prometheus: it depends on it whether the supreme god will retain his power. Prometheus, it would seem, predicts the inevitability of the fall of this power and rejects for himself the opportunity to open the future to Zeus in exchange for liberation. But he also claims the opposite: his enemy will find out the truth if he frees and rewards Prometheus, moderates his anger and again seeks an alliance. Prometheus almost completely reveals the secret, saying that Zeus will die from an unhappy marriage, he does not pronounce only the name of a possible wife, but names his own savior, who will come from the family of Io who came to Prometheus. The episode with Io becomes a kind of compositional center of the tragedy “Prometheus Bound”: the suffering of the girl, turned into a cow for the love with which Zeus kindled for her, and the madness that comes over her are similar to the torment of Prometheus himself. Zeus is to blame for her bitter fate, but at the same time the hero himself predicts that Io will be delivered from suffering by Zeus, just as salvation will come to Prometheus himself from Hercules, a descendant of Io and the son of the supreme god. Then Prometheus will finally reveal to Zeus the name of the woman forbidden to him - Thetis - and thereby retain his power. The next part of the trilogy after “Prometheus Bound”, “Prometheus Unbound,” was dedicated to these events.
Thus, Zeus and Prometheus turn out to be allies in the past and future, enemies in the present. The power of Zeus, against which the hero of the tragedy seems to rebel, rests on the knowledge of Prometheus, and Prometheus’s salvation comes from Zeus. Their connection is determined by “inevitable fate”, the prediction of which becomes the main power of Prometheus, understood as the power of his knowledge (the name Prometheus itself means “knowing in advance, provident”). But this knowledge in many ways turns out to be in vain, because it cannot save Prometheus himself from the suffering.
Thus, the interpretation of the central image and plot of the tragedy “Prometheus Bound” by Aeschylus as a whole turns out to be dual, and the hero’s emphasized opposition to the supreme god is dictated by the place of this tragedy within the reconstructed trilogy. It is no coincidence that in antiquity we encounter a reduced image of Prometheus the deceiver, harming the gods (for example, in Aristophanes and Lucian). The theme of the destructiveness of Prometheus' gifts also arose, in particular, in Horace and Propertius. At the same time, the influence of Aeschylus's plot on subsequent tradition is determined largely by the image of the main character, perceived as a symbol of suffering in the name of humanity and as the personification of knowledge. The church fathers identify Prometheus with God and the prophets (Tertullian, Augustine). Subsequently, the idea of knowledge and creative search, personified by Prometheus, gradually comes to the fore (D. Boccaccio; Calderon - “Statue of Prometheus”, 1669-1674), popular in the Age of Enlightenment (J.J. Rousseau, Voltaire; I.-V. Goethe - “Prometheus”, 1773) and continued by the literature of romanticism (P. Shelley, “Prometheus Unchained”, 1819). The result of a certain godless interpretation of the hero was the phrase of F. Nietzsche, who saw in the protest of the hero Aeschylus a “hymn to godlessness.” “Negative self-determination of a titanic creature” expresses the image of Prometheus in the tragedy of the same name by V.I. Ivanova (1919). The theme of reason and rationality in the interpretation of the image of Prometheus was continued by the philosophical and aesthetic thought of the 20th century (A. Gide, A. Camus).
Composition
PROMETHEUS (Greek - foresight, seer) -
1) the hero of the tragedy of Aeschylus (525-456 BC) “Prometheus Chained” (the year the tragedy was composed and staged is unknown; the authorship of Aeschylus is regarded as hypothetical). In Greek mythology, P. is the son of the titan Nalet and the oceanid Clymene, the cousin of Zeus. Having stolen the fire, P. brings it to the people, for which Zeus orders P. to be chained to the Caucasus mountains so that every day an eagle will devour his liver, which grows during the night. The torture is stopped by Hercules, who kills the eagle. In ancient times, philosophers, poets, and sculptors turned to the myth of P., offering different incarnations of this hero and various interpretations of him. In Athens there were special festivals - “Prometheans”. P. was glorified as a god who brought people crafts, literacy, and culture, and was condemned (for example, by Hesiod), seeing in him the cause of all the troubles and misfortunes that plague the human race. In the tragedy of Aeschylus, P. is a hero who dared to oppose himself to the autocrat Zeus because of his love for man. The greatness of this feat is emphasized by the fact that the seer P. knew about the coming punishment, about the torment destined for him, and therefore his choice was conscious. P. Aeschylus, remaining equal to the gods (“Look at everything that the gods have done to God!”), at the same time experiences everything that is inherent in man - both pain and fear. But he finds the courage to confront the servants of Zeus, Power and Strength. Aeschylus created the image of a titanic personality, for whom moral freedom is higher than physical suffering, and the happiness of humanity is higher than one’s own grief. P. does not repent of what he has done and does not give his enemies a reason for gloating: he even allows himself to moan only when no one is around. Thanks to all these qualities, P. has become a symbol of self-sacrifice for centuries, an example of a fighter for the good of people, for their right to think freely and live with dignity. “They still can’t kill me!” - exclaims P. at the end of the tragedy, having inherited the gift of prophecy from his mother. The phrase turned out to be truly prophetic: the noble image of the god-fighting hero was immortalized not only in literature (Calderoy, Voltaire, Shelley, Byron, Goethe, Kafka, A. Gide, etc.), but also in music (Liszt, Beethoven, Scriabin), in the visual arts art, starting with Greek vase painting and Pompeii frescoes and then in the paintings of Rubens, Titian, Carracci, Piero di Cosimo and others. The ethical philosophy of Aeschylus, coupled with his rich poetics, allowed the great tragedian to create a convincing image of a martyr in the name of an idea who suffered execution for several thousand years. At the same time, Aeschylus developed the myth of P. at a higher level. - the creator of people: in “Prometheus Bound” the hero, through the sciences he gave him (construction, writing, counting, shipping, healing, etc.) improves not only the bodies, but also the souls of people. As Byron put it, P.'s only crime was that he wanted to “ease the suffering of people.” P. not only challenged Zeus, but also proved to Olympus that his name is rightly translated into all languages not only as “seer,” but also as “trustee.”
Lit.: Kerenyi K. Prometheus.Z., 1946; Sechan L. Le mythe de Promethee. P., 1951; Yarkho V. Aeschylus. M., 1958; Trousson R. Le theme de Promethee dans la lit-terature europeenne. Gen., 1964; Lurie S.Ya. Bound Prometheus // Lurie S.Ya. Ancient society. M., 1967.
2) In Russian literature, the image of P. first appears in M.V. Lomonosov’s poetic “Letter on the Benefits of Glass” (1752). Here P. is shown as a titan of science who became a victim of human ignorance. P., according to Lomonosov, did not gift people with fire as such: he gave them a magnifying glass that concentrated the sun's rays and turned them into flame. However, “the ignorant, ferocious regiment misinterpreted noble inventions.” The image of P. often appears in Russian poetry of the 19th century. (Baratynsky, Kuchelbecker, Benediktov, Polonsky, Shevchenko, etc.), where he symbolizes the idea of freedom, personifies a feat that is as sublime as it is reckless. This image is also found in Soviet poetry, serving as a metaphor for socialist transformations and, in particular, electrification. Thus, the Belarusian poet Yakub Kolas interprets P.’s fire as “Ilyich’s light bulb,” and the Georgian writer R. Gvetadze directly identifies the ancient titan with Stalin, who “gave the peoples the flame of Prometheus.” The writer G.I. Serebryakova in the novel “Prometheus” describes the life of K. Marx. (Cf. A. Maurois’s work “Prometheus, or the Life of Balzac.”) All these metaphors and allegories are not related to the literary hero as such. In fact, P. appears as a literary (dramatic) hero, objectified in the narrative (action), in Vyach. I. Ivanov’s tragedy “Prometheus” (first edition entitled “Sons of Prometheus” - 1914, second - 1919). In the tragedy of the symbolist poet, attention is drawn to the absence of the civilizing pathos characteristic of many developments of the myth of P., starting with Aeschylus, whose hero suffered unfairly and, according to Ivanov, paid for his excessive philanthropy. In Vyach. Ivanov himself, P. expresses the “negative self-determination of a titanic being”, destroying the unity of being. The tragedy uses the main plot circumstances of the myth: the theft of fire, which P. gives to the people he created. Unlike traditional interpretations, where fire was a symbol of consciousness, in Ivanov it expresses freedom. Having transferred fire to people, P. makes them free and expects to use their freedom in the war against the Olympian gods, so that later he can “become the one head over everything,” a plan that is quite in tune with the intentions of Tantalus from Ivanov’s tragedy (1904). For the poet and thinker, the author of “The Hellenic Religion of the Suffering God,” whose entire consciousness was immersed in ancient culture, the modernized Prometheans of modern times were alien. This made it possible, despite the liberties of the plot, to give, according to A.F. Losev, a “deeply ancient” interpretation of the myth - by no means indifferent to the spiritual collisions of modernity, but devoid of allegorism and metaphor, through which the “Silver Age” resurrected Hellenism. Therefore, for Ivanov, some aspects of the myth were significant, which seemed too philological to other authors. P. is a titan, a chthonic deity, for whom “the Olympic thrones are fragile and new; // Ancient chaos in a holy dungeon.” In this context, P.'s revolt against Zeus takes on ontological significance. However, the “negative self-determination” of titanism is expressed in that it involves all things in discord and war, and ultimately destroys its own carriers. P.'s fire, which gave people freedom, turns out to be a “seed of discord.” The young man Arhat kills his brother Archemorus, jealous that P. appointed him as a fire-bearer. The blood shed by the “firstborn of destructive freedom” begins a series of deaths, and soon “a war breaks out with everyone: the earth with the gods, and the gods with people.” P. is convinced: “Everything is for the good!”, for “I do not need peace, but the seed of discord.” However, the discord also affects him: people take up arms against P., go over to the side of Zeus, are ready to swear allegiance to the insidious Pandora, and at the end of the tragedy they “remain silent” (a reminiscence of Pushkin’s famous remark from “Boris Godunov”), when the demons Krotos and Biya take P. into custody . The ending of the tragedy, it would seem, repeats the denouement of Tantalus: Zeus crushed the rebel and approximately punished him. However, if Tantalus's rebellion remained without consequences, then P.'s “social experiment” achieved its goal. The earth is populated by the sons of P., filled with “greed for action but powerlessness for creativity” (Ivanov’s commentary). Due to this greed of “Prometheism,” they kill each other, and therefore choose a mortal fate for themselves.
Lit.: Losev A.F. The world image of Prometheus // Losev A.F. The problem of symbol and realistic art. M., 1976; Stakhorsky S.V. Vyacheslav Ivanov and Russian theatrical culture at the beginning of the 20th century. M., 1991.
The servants of Zeus, Strength and Power, brought the titan Prometheus to the deserted country of the Scythians at the edge of the earth and, by order of the supreme god, Hephaestus chained him to a rock as punishment for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to people. Prometheus did not say a word while Hephaestus chained him to the rock, and, left alone, began to call on the forces of nature, the rocks to witness his suffering. Then the Oceanids, the daughters of the Ocean, appear, playing the role of a chorus in the tragedy. They feel sorry for their relative Prometheus, whose wife Hesion is their sister.
Prometheus tells the Oceanids why Zeus punished him: because he gave people fire, taught them various crafts, counting and writing, thereby saving them from the death Zeus prepared for them. The father of the Oceanids, old Ocean, appears, he also sympathizes with Prometheus and tries to persuade him to submit to the power of Zeus, with whom it is useless to fight, he offers to persuade Zeus to change his anger to mercy. Prometheus refuses help and remains adamant.
Chased by a huge gadfly, covered in blood, covered in foam, the unfortunate Io rushes in a frantic, crazy run, turned into a cow by the jealous Hera because Zeus loved her. She tells Prometheus about her suffering and asks him when her torment will end. Prometheus predicts her many more sufferings.
The fleet-footed Hermes appears, he demands on behalf of Zeus from Prometheus the discovery of an important secret on which the power of the supreme god depends, and also threatens him with new punishments. Prometheus proudly replies: “I will never exchange my misfortune for your slavish service.” After this, Zeus fulfills his threat: thunder roars, lightning flashes, and Prometheus, along with the rock, falls underground.
The image of the unbending Prometheus has become a symbolic image of a fighter for the liberation of humanity from the chains of slavery, the embodiment of courage and rebellious spirit. Masters of artistic expression of all times and peoples turned to this image in their works: Calderon, Voltaire, Shelley, Byron, Goethe, Ryleev and others.
Content: We have already met the titan Prometheus, the benefactor of humanity, in Hesiod’s poem “Theogony”. There he is a clever cunning man who arranges the division of sacrificial bull meat between people and gods so that the best part goes to people for food. And then, when the angry Zeus does not want people to be able to boil and fry the meat they have received, and refuses to give them fire, Prometheus steals this fire secretly and brings it to people in a hollow reed. For this, Zeus chains Prometheus to a pillar in the east of the earth and sends an eagle to peck out his liver. Only after many centuries will the hero Hercules kill this eagle and free Prometheus.
Then they began to tell this myth differently. Prometheus became more majestic and sublime: he is not a cunning and thief, but a wise seer. (The very name “Prometheus” means “Provider.”) At the beginning of the world, when the elder gods, the Titans, fought with the younger gods, the Olympians, he knew that the Olympians could not be taken by force, and offered to help the Titans with cunning; but they, arrogantly relying on their strength, refused, and then Prometheus, seeing their doom, went over to the side of the Olympians and helped them win. Therefore, Zeus’s reprisal against his former friend and ally began to seem even more cruel.
Not only that, Prometheus also revealed what will happen at the end of the world. The Olympians are afraid that just as they overthrew their Titan fathers, so they will someday be overthrown by new gods, their descendants. They don't know how to prevent this. Prometheus knows; then Zeus torments Prometheus in order to find out this secret from him. But Prometheus is proudly silent. Only when Zeus' son Hercules - not yet a god, but only a hard-working hero - in gratitude for all the good that Prometheus did to people, kills the tormenting eagle and eases Prometheus's torment, then Prometheus, in gratitude, reveals the secret of how to save the power of Zeus and all the Olympians. There is a sea goddess, the beautiful Thetis, and Zeus seeks her love. Let him not do this: it is destined by fate that Thetis will give birth to a son stronger than his father. If it is the son of Zeus, then he will become stronger than Zeus and overthrow him: the power of the Olympians will come to an end. And Zeus gives up the thought of Thetis, and in gratitude frees Prometheus from execution and accepts him to Olympus. Thetis was married to a mortal man, and from this marriage she gave birth to the hero Achilles, who was truly stronger not only than his father, but also all people in the world.
It was from this story that the poet Aeschylus made his tragedy about Prometheus.
The action takes place on the edge of the earth, in distant Scythia, among the wild mountains - maybe this is the Caucasus. Two demons, Power and Violence, introduce Prometheus onto the stage; the fire god Hephaestus must chain him to a mountain rock. Hephaestus feels sorry for his comrade, but he must obey fate and the will of Zeus: “You were sympathetic to people beyond measure.” Prometheus's arms, shoulders, and legs are shackled, and an iron wedge is driven into his chest. Prometheus is silent. The job is done, the executioners leave, the authorities say contemptuously: “You are a Provider, here are the providences of how to save yourself!”
Only when left alone does Prometheus begin to speak. He turns to the sky and the sun, the earth and the sea: “Look what I, God, suffer from God’s hands!” And all this for the fact that he stole fire for people and opened the way for them to a life worthy of a person.
A chorus of nymphs appears - Oceanids. These are the daughters of Ocean, another titan, they heard the roar and clang of Promethean shackles in their distant seas. “Oh, it would be better for me to languish in Tartarus than to writhe here in front of everyone! - Prometheus exclaims. “But this is not forever: Zeus will not achieve anything from me by force and will come to ask me about his secret humbly and affectionately.” - “Why is he executing you?” - “For mercy towards people, for he himself is merciless.” Behind the Oceanids comes their father Ocean: he once fought against the Olympians along with the rest of the Titans, but he humbled himself, submitted, was forgiven and is peacefully splashing around all corners of the world. Let Prometheus also humble himself, otherwise he will not escape even worse punishment: Zeus is vengeful! Prometheus contemptuously rejects his advice: “Don’t worry about me, take care of yourself:
lest Zeus punish you yourself for sympathizing with the criminal! “The ocean leaves, the Oceanids sing a compassionate song, remembering in it Prometheus’ brother Atlas, who is also tormented at the western end of the world, supporting the copper firmament with his shoulders.
Prometheus tells the chorus how much good he has done for people. They were foolish, like children - he gave them intelligence and speech. They were languishing with worries - he inspired them with hope. They lived in caves, afraid of every night and every winter - he forced them to build houses against the cold, explained the movement of the heavenly bodies in the changing seasons, taught them writing and counting in order to pass on knowledge to their descendants. It was he who pointed out for them the ores underground, harnessed the oxen to the plow for them, made carts for earthly roads and ships for sea routes. They were dying of disease - he discovered healing herbs for them. They did not understand the prophetic signs of the gods and nature - he taught them to guess by bird cries, and by sacrificial fire, and by the entrails of sacrificial animals. “Truly you were a savior for people,” says the chorus, “how come you didn’t save yourself?” “Fate is stronger than me,” Prometheus answers. “And stronger than Zeus?” - “And stronger than Zeus.” - “What fate is destined for Zeus?” - “Don’t ask: this is my great secret.” The choir sings a mournful song.
The future suddenly bursts into these memories of the past. Zeus’s beloved Princess Io, transformed into a cow, runs onto the stage. (At the theater it was an actor in a horned mask.) Zeus turned her into a cow to hide her from the jealousy of his wife, the goddess Hera. Hera guessed about this and demanded a cow as a gift, and then sent a terrible gadfly to her, who drove the unfortunate woman around the world. So she ended up, exhausted by pain to the point of madness, at the Promethean Mountains. Titan, “the protector and intercessor of man,” takes pity on her;
he tells her what further wanderings await her across Europe and Asia, through heat and cold, among savages and monsters, until she reaches Egypt. And in Egypt she will give birth to a son from Zeus, and the descendant of this son in the twelfth generation will be Hercules, an archer who will come here to save Prometheus - even against the will of Zeus. “What if Zeus doesn’t allow it?” - “Then Zeus will die.” - “Who will destroy him?” - “Himself, having conceived an unreasonable marriage.” - "Which?" - “I won’t say a word more.” Here the conversation ends: Io again feels the sting of the gadfly, again falls into madness and rushes away in despair. The Oceanid Choir sings: “Let the lust of the gods blow us away: their love is terrible and dangerous.”
It is said about the past, it is said about the future; Now the terrible present is coming. Here comes the servant and messenger of Zeus - the god Hermes. Prometheus despises him as a hanger-on for the Olympian masters. “What did you say about the fate of Zeus, about the unreasonable marriage, about the impending death? Confess, otherwise you will suffer bitterly!” - “It is better to suffer than to serve as a servant, like you; and I am immortal, I saw the fall of Uranus, the fall of Cronus, I will also see the fall of Zeus.” - “Beware: you will be in underground Tartarus, where the Titans are tormented, and then you will stand here with a wound in your side, and an eagle will peck at your liver.” - “I knew all this in advance; let the gods rage, I hate them! Hermes disappears - and indeed Prometheus exclaims: “The earth really trembled all around, / And lightning curled, and thunder roared... / O Heaven, O holy mother, Earth, / Look: I suffer innocently!” This is the end of the tragedy.
This tragedy was included in the tetralogy along with the tragedies “Prometheus the Liberated”, “Prometheus the Fire-Bearer” and some other satyr drama unknown to us. Among scientists there is an opinion that the tragedy “Prometheus the Fire-Bearer” occupied the first place in the tetralogy. At the end of the trilogy (tetralogy) is the reconciliation of Zeus and Prometheus.
Conflict: The fate of the human race. The main content of this tragedy is, therefore, the clash of the power of the tyrant, the bearer of which is represented by Zeus himself, with the fighter and sufferer for the salvation and good of humanity - Prometheus.
Images of tragedy:
1) Prometheus: Main qualities: courage, perseverance, love of freedom, strong will, humanism, self-sacrifice. Aeschylus gave the image of Prometheus a completely new meaning. He has Prometheus - the son of Themis-Earth, one of the Titans. When Zeus reigned over the gods, the titans rebelled against him, but Prometheus helped him. When the gods decided to destroy the human race, Prometheus saved people by bringing them fire stolen from the heavenly altar. By this he incurred the wrath of Zeus. Aeschylus achieves even greater power in the form of Prometheus. This can best be seen by comparing the image of tragedy with its mythological prototype, for example, in the poems of Hesiod, where he is presented as simply a cunning deceiver. In Aeschylus, this is a titan who saved the human race by stealing fire from the gods for people, although he knew that for this he would suffer cruel punishment; he taught them social life, giving them the opportunity to gather at a common, state hearth; he invented and created various sciences; he is a brave fighter for truth, alien to compromise and protesting against all violence and despotism; he is a God-fighter, hating all gods, an innovator, looking for new ways; in the name of his lofty idea, he is ready to accept the most cruel execution and with full consciousness carries out his great work. Not the thought of primitive man, but the high consciousness of people of the 5th century. could bear such an image. This is how the genius of Aeschylus created him, and we now call people of this type titans. The image of Prometheus is as he will be for centuries: noble, sufferer. Appeared here. metaphor "fire of knowledge".
2) Zeus: The ruler of the gods in Prometheus Bound is given the features of the Greek “tyrant”: he is ungrateful, cruel and vindictive.
3) Oceanids are weak, but empathize with Prometheus
4) Io is weak, pathetic, another victim of Zeus.
5) Hephaestus is one of those humble “slaves of Zeus”, impudent, impudent. Aeschylus depicts the baseness and servility of the gods who humbled themselves before Zeus and the love of freedom of Prometheus, who prefers his torment to servile service with Zeus, despite all persuasion and threats
6) Hermes - shows his feelings for his friend, the author depicts his doubts, bitterness and pain, but he cannot resist the will of Zeus.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC). His work is associated with the era of the formation of the Athenian democratic state. This state was formed during the period of the Greco-Persian wars, which were fought with short interruptions from 500 to 449 BC. and had a liberating character for the Greek city-states. It is known that Aeschylus took part in the battles of Marathon and Salamis. He described the Battle of Salamis as an eyewitness to the tragedy of the Persians. The inscription on his tombstone, composed, according to legend, by himself, says nothing about him as a playwright, but says that he proved himself a courageous warrior in battles with the Persians. Aeschylus wrote about 80 tragedies and satyr dramas. Only seven tragedies have reached us in their entirety; Small excerpts from other works have survived.
Aeschylus's tragedies reflect the main trends of his time, those huge changes in socio-economic and cultural life that were caused by the collapse of the clan system and the emergence of Athenian slave-owning democracy.
Aeschylus' worldview was basically religious and mythological. He believed that there is an eternal world order that is subject to the law of world justice. A person who voluntarily or unwittingly violates a fair order will be punished by the gods, and thereby balance will be restored. The idea of the inevitability of retribution and the triumph of justice runs through all of Aeschylus’ tragedies.
Aeschylus believes in fate-Moira, believes that even the gods obey her. However, this traditional worldview is also mixed with new views generated by the developing Athenian democracy. Thus, the heroes of Aeschylus are not weak-willed creatures who unconditionally carry out the will of the deity: his man is endowed with a free mind , thinks and acts completely independently. Almost every hero of Aeschylus faces the problem of choosing a line of behavior. A person’s moral responsibility for his actions is one of the main themes of the playwright’s tragedies.
Aeschylus introduced a second actor into his tragedies and thereby opened up the possibility of a deeper development of the tragic conflict and strengthened the effective side of theatrical performance. This was a real revolution in the theater: instead of the old tragedy, where the parts of a single actor and chorus filled the entire play, a new tragedy was born in which the characters collided with each other on stage and directly motivated their actions.
The external structure of Aeschylus's tragedy retains traces of proximity to the dithyramb, where the lead singer's parts alternated with the choir's parts.
Of the tragedies of the great playwright that have survived to our time, the following stands out: “Prometheus Chained” is perhaps the most famous tragedy of Aeschylus, telling about the feat of the titan Prometheus, who gave fire to people and was severely punished for it. Nothing is known about the time of writing and production. The historical basis for such a tragedy could only be the evolution of primitive society, the transition to civilization. Aeschylus convinces the viewer of the need to fight all tyranny and despotism. This struggle is only possible through constant progress. The benefits of civilization, according to Aeschylus, are primarily theoretical sciences: arithmetic. Grammar, astronomy, and practice: construction, mining, etc. In the tragedy, he paints the image of a fighter, a moral winner. The human spirit cannot be overcome by anything. This is a story about the struggle against the supreme deity Zeus (Zeus is depicted as a despot, traitor, coward and cunning). In general, the work is striking in its brevity and insignificant content of choral parts (it deprives the tragedy of the oratorical genre traditional for Aeschylus). The dramaturgy is also very weak, the genre of recitation. The characters are also monolithic and static as in other works of Aeschylus. There are no contradictions in the heroes; they each have one trait. Not characters, general schemes. There is no action, the tragedy consists exclusively of monologues and dialogues (artistic, but not dramatic at all). The style is monumental and pathetic (although the characters are only gods, pathetism is weakened - long conversations, philosophical content, rather calm character). The tone is a laudatory-rhetorical declamation addressed to the only hero of the tragedy, Prometheus. Everything elevates Prometheus.
The development of the action is a gradual and steady intensification of the tragedy of Prometheus’s personality and a gradual increase in the monumental-pathetic style of the tragedy.
Aeschylus is known as the best exponent of the social aspirations of his time. In his tragedies, he shows the victory of progressive principles in the development of society, in government, and in morality. The work of Aeschylus had a significant influence on the development of world poetry and drama. Aeschylus is a champion of enlightenment, this tragedy is educational, the attitude towards mythology is critical.