0930ANCIENTPrometheusBound

0930ANCIENTPrometheusBound_Laconian

Vatican Museums
Hesiod Theogony521-26

Atlas and Prometheus in Laconian (Spartan) black-figure kylix, ca. 560 BC, Vatican Etruscan Museum

Prometheus and Atlas are both sons of Clymene and Iapetus, the Titan who fought in the Titanomachy against the rising Olympians. While Atlas participated in the first revolt and suffered enduring punishment, Prometheus fared better in the new regime until his defiance was manifest in the theft of fire. For their recalcitrance against a stern tyrant, the two suffer endless torment.

Ancient Greek red-figure kylix depicting Heracles slaying the eagle of Prometheus, releasing him from his torment.

Atlas' task is to hold aloft the vault of the heavens; Prometheus is chained down and subjected to the daily consumption of his liver by Zeus' eagle.

Prometheus' anguish stands in stark contrast to, say, Moreau's image of the defiant Prometheus.
Aeschylus Prometheus Bound 26-30: "Evermore the burden of your present ill shall wear you out; for your deliverer is not yet born. Such is the prize you have gained for your championship of man. For, god though you are, you did not fear the wrath of the gods, but [30] you bestowed honors upon mortal creatures beyond their due."

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.