“Hear now the sorry tale
Of mortal man. A thing of no avail
He was, until a living mind I wrought
Within him, and new mastery of thought.
I cast no blame on man; I do but crave
To show what love was in the gifts I gave.
I tell you, sight they had but saw in vain;
Hearing, but heard not; as shapes wax and wane
In dreams, aimless for ever and confused,
They moved; no binding of the clay they used,
No craft of wood, to build in the bright sun
Their dwellings; but like feeble ants wind-blown,
Hid them in crannied caves, far from the day;
No seasons did they know, no signs to say
When winter cold should come, nor flowery spring,
Nor summer with his fruit, but everything
They did was without knowledge, till their eyes
Were oped by me to see the stars that rise,
And them that sink to heaven's obscurer parts.
Then Number, Number, queen of all the arts,
I showed them, and the craft which stroke to stroke
Added, till words came and the letters spoke;
The all-remembering wonder, the unworn
And edged tool, whence every Muse is born…
… Ye have heard a tale that can be summed in one brief word:
All that of art man has, Prometheus gave.” (Aeschylus)
(From Sunrise magazine, November 1979; copyright © 1979 Theosophical University Press)
His sin howls to the other origins of the Cosmos, air, water, the sun’s fire and to the very Mother Earth where by now he is identified to have loved humanity more than the gods, his blood relations.
In the development of the Prometheus trilogy, of which only the intermediary act reached us in its entirety, the episode of “Bound”, Prometheus is the dramatic and heroic counterpoint of liberty and dignity to a despotic and sinister Zeus, a Zeus in stark contrast to that which was depicted in "official" mythology, which represents him as the God of supreme justice.
The general development of the trilogy seeks the resolution of this obvious conflict. In "Prometheus Unbound" we are actually present at the conciliation between the two protagonists. Zeus, still young and frightened by his own power, a power which attempts to degrade man to pure beast, leaves his post to the mature god, just and aware of his power, who understands the need to accept the conciliation and restore balance to the Cosmos. Prometheus is finally freed by the divine archer Eracle, who with the shot of an arrow brings down the eagle that torments him and frees him from his shackles.
All of Aeschylus’ work hinges nevertheless on the destiny of humanity, even the theft of fire through which the liberation of man is achieved appears only secondary, because thanks to Prometheus the world of man is introduced to an item that not even the gods of Olympus possess: the ability to progress civilly and to build - even though with sacrifice and pain - a better tomorrow.
The critical analysis of Aeschylus’ work (based on the work of professor Umberto Albini) directly establishes the critical analysis of Mission Prometheus.
On one hand the mythological role of Prometheus toward human destiny clearly emerges: he is the promoter and the motor of progress, at the beginning of a new era in which man achieves a condition of being a civil builder of houses and cities, and possesses philosophical and scientific knowledge. It is the man that we know and who has changed very little from that day when he received the gift of the fire.
But nowadays we find ourselves facing a new frontier, the science given by the divine Titan, which seems to try and determine even the cycle of life and the very conquest of the moon and space, appears primitive to us when compared to the dawning electronic era that for the first time in human history cancels space and time. We, privileged spectators of a disappearing era, will ride in our journey the trails of a 1000 year old civilization that is reducing itself to dust to make room for the unmanageable new era that faces it.
But Aeschylus’ drama derives another interpretation of Mission Prometheus - the dramatic contrast between Zeus and Prometheus which reaches its conclusion, even though by way of "diplomatic mediation", in the reconciliation of the two adversaries.
It is not by chance that the Prometheus Trilogy has been defined as a work of conciliation and we are strongly convinced that today as never before has humankind felt the necessity for general peacemaking.