The Greek Gods ES

unlike Daphne's attempted rape from Apollo, Zeus raping Io was sadly quick and easy and did not have as many gruesome details telling about how Io fought him off. In Daphne's story she begged her father to turn her into a Laurel tree so that she would not get raped. Io was changed into a cow unwillingly just so Zeus would not get in trouble with Hera. Not only was she treated like an animal when he raped her but now is actually an animal thanks to Zeus again. Hera even had Argus put a collar on her so she would not get loose. 

Hermes acts as Zeus enforcer, following his father blindly and trying to impose his rule. He threatens Prometheus with an even worse curse to try and intimidate him. Here Hermes is even more spineless than Oceanus is in the beginning. When the Oceanids turn on Hermes, saying that abandoning a friend is the worst thing you can do, Hermes still defends Zeus, saying that Prometheus' troubles aren't to be blamed on Zeus, even though they are. That kind of zealot is indicative of a tyrant.

Prometheus' final lines are powerful today, and I think that they would be even more powerful to an ancient Greek audience because of how blatantly he defies Zeus. When he says "So! In truth, not just in threats, the earth begins to quake," he comes across to me as meaning, "Zeus actually decided to go through with this. Let's get it started." He does not flinch at the onset of lifetimes of torture. He is kind of like a Greek Nathan Hale; he doesn't regret what he did and he would take his punishment over and over again, if it meant he got to fight for what he believed in. This tragedy portrays him as the perfect rebel. He is a victim of an unjust tyrannical vendetta and a martyr for liberty. 

In this part of the passage, we learn a lot about the cruelty of Zeus. We learn that he sends a mortal woman to the edges of the Earth because he is in love with her and doesn't want to be tempted by her. We also learn that there could possibly be a civil war between the gods stirring up. Prometheus talks about Zeus' demise from Io's great-grandchild but we also get a sense that Poseidon has something to do with it when we read, "He himself is preparing to beget his own opponent: a dangerous foe to fight, who will discover a fire greater than lightning and mighty clash louder than thunder; he'll splinter, too, the trident, spear of Poseidon, that sickly staff he wields to shake the seas." Poseidon wouldn't give up his trident willingly so it leaves to schools of thought, either this descendant of Io has the power to defeat Poseidon and Zeus, or Poseidon has betrayed Zeus as Prometheus did with the Titans. We can't know which is true. 

I really admire how Prometheus wanted to help humans, despite him receiving nothing in return from them and how he accepts his punishment. It really makes me wonder, instead of Zeus, the tyrant he is, being "in charge" or having all of the power, what would it have been like if Prometheus was "in charge?" Prometheus clearly had a closer relationship with humans and cared about them, so would humans have been seen as equal or closer to equal? Would there still be punishments for the humans if they had relations with a god? What would the balance between gods and humans look like if the gods had a leader who genuinely liked and cared about humans? 

I thought the role of Hephaestus in the beginning of Prometheus Bound was very interesting. He is the one that is supposed to chain Prometheus up, and though he does this, he does so extremely reluctantly, wishing that it was not his job. Even though, as Power points out, Prometheus stole Hephaestus' domain, fire, Hephaestus seems to feel no sense of revenge. When we consider the fact that he is a god and revenge is a big part of divine behavior, as we have seen in most of our other works, this is even more strange. Hephaestus is portrayed in mythology as a crippled god; perhaps among gods he is viewed as weak, and this gives explanation to his lack of interest in revenge against Prometheus. To what extent does revenge signify strength among the gods? We see so many gods getting revenge as a means to teach the lesson that mortals are no match for the power of the gods, that you would almost think Hephaestus would enact his own revenge plan against Prometheus for stealing his source of power. 

Prometheus seems like a hero in this story. He gave fire to mortals and did what he thought was right and didn't care about the consequences that fell upon him for doing so. Zeus in most stories is seen as this great God who is the savior of the world and savior of all other Gods. But in this, Zeus is depicted as somewhat of a 'bad guy' instead of a good one. Yes, Prometheus did go against Zeus' wishes to give mortals fire, but I believe that Prometheus deserves better because he could take credit for causing Zeus to win the war against Kronos. I think there was a better way to do justice.

Overall, he did steal, yes. I do not think he got the punishment he deserved because I thought it was extreme. I actually have a student report on Hephaestus, so I do not want to say I am biased, but he did steal from him. He did show the mortals on what to do and how to do different things with it. Zeus did overreact in my opinion, even though it was stolen from him. It comes back to the theme of how the gods do not care much and are cool until they are messed with. The way that Zeus went about it was over the top, just how I thought it was going to turn out. 

To me Prometheus seems like a 2 year old kid that didn't get the candy he wanted his mom to get at the store. I can sort of feel bad for him even though I do see him similar to a whiny child because Zeus did all of a sudden come into power with no warning at all. I can not blame him for trying to defy Zeus and rebelling because something like that is hard to adjust to. I feel that Prometheus's punishment was way too aggressive since like I mentioned before I see him as acting like a child and a child is allowed to feel a little jealous once in a while. Trying to overthrow Zeus was a step too far.

I thought the idea of Prometheus as the almost "protector" of mortals in Prometheus Bound was cool. I liked how it talked about him giving us fire and arts and showing us how to cure diseases and then was punished for it by Zeus. When I googled Prometheus I found out there was a science fiction movie made about him in 2012 and after reading about it I found that it's called Prometheus because that's the name of the vessel that transports them to this new place. I thought that was a cool allusion to the Greek Prometheus who was able to give humans these tools that they needed to survive on Earth.

From a mortal point of view, Prometheus definitely made life more convenient and progressive. With all the things he taught them, they are more knowledgeable and could get more out of the things they did. From the Gods' point of view, it was a disrespect to Hephaestus and the ultimate disrespect to Zeus. How dare he steal fire from Hephaestus and give it to the mortals? How dare he go against Zeus!? The punishment of being stabbed through the chest and chained to a rocky cliff, with no limit on the length of time it would last, is cruel and possibly undeserving. Having visitors was just sad, because Ocean had good intentions but would only make the situation worse, and the chorus told him he was overly confident in his words, angering Zeus more. 

It is unbelievable to me how much Prometheus goes through for one simple "dishonor" to the gods. I'm not sure he deserved all of this punishment. Zeus must have seen the benefits to his action once he simmered down a little bit more, but he still didn't stop the punishment?! I see both sides of the story here and both reasonings, but Zeus was far too harsh in my opinion. Fire was (and still is) used to honor the gods! (Candles are a thing.) And people would use this to give him offerings and treat him with love, so was it really such a terrible thing for Prometheus to do after all?