Prometheus Bound Play Quotes

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Author Bryan Doerries work “Prometheus in Solitary” draws parallels with the life of Prometheus and the life of a modern day prisoners in isolation through Aeschylus’s ancient Greek play “Prometheus Bound”. Dorries states the following about Prometheus’s imprisonment, “not a one-sided condemnation of authoritarian rule” but rather a “discipline and power within a complex hierarchy.” (Doerries, 177-178). Dorries places the power of imprisonment not only in the hands of an all powerful leader but in a pecking order of the hierarchy’s peers. Throughout the play Prometheus is visited by his peers, gods, and is treated differently based on the individual. With the first visit by his kin Oceanus, Prometheus displays reserver for his family member that wish to defend him …show more content…
This is the his response when Oceanus try to win Prometheus’s support to defend him, “Even so Spare thy self the trouble, for labour spent on me Will yield no profit, despite thy will to spend it.”(Aeschylus, 15). Here Prometheus is claiming that not matter what Oceanus says to defend Prometheus, it will only harm Oceanus without any benefit to Prometheus. Oceanus has a place in the hierarchy as he can choose to follow Zeus or not, and in not following Zeus it will only cause Oceanus to end up in the same situation as Prometheus. Zeus’s power in society is derived by the people who follow him. Oceanus is like an compassionate prison guard who wishes to help his favorite prisoners, but he cannot as playing favorites as it is a betrayal to his fellow guard and his warden. Zeus’s hierarchy ran by strenuous and punishment in order to keep his power in order having the other gods follow and punish those who betray him, similar to a modern day rule stickling warden. At the end of the play Prometheus receives his judgment form Zeus through Hermes and responds with the following, “In whose region revolveth the Light of the World , Thou
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