Prometheus Bound and Other Plays

Name: Prometheus Bound and Other Plays
Rating: 4.6 (181 reviews)

by Aeschylus Book 14 in the Penguin Classics: Ancient World series.

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4.5(181)

Prometheus Bound and Other Plays brings together Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes and The Persians, four tragedies traditionally associated with Aeschylus. Although their subjects range from myth to recent history, each examines the exercise of power and the consequences of resistance, exile, inherited violence and war.

Prometheus Bound presents the Titan punished for defying Zeus; The Suppliants follows women seeking sanctuary from forced marriage; Seven Against Thebes centres on the fatal conflict between the sons of Oedipus; and The Persians dramatizes the aftermath of the Greek victory at Salamis from the perspective of the defeated Persian court. Together the plays repeatedly question whether authority can remain just when rulers are driven by fear, pride or revenge.

Historical Periods

Classical Greece480–323 BCE Greco-Persian Wars499–449 BCE Athenian Democracy508–322 BCE Achaemenid Persian Empire550–330 BCE Greek Mythology and Heroic LegendMythic and archaic tradition Athenian Tragedy and the City Dionysia5th century BCE

Genres

Classical Literature Mythological Fiction

Historical people

Xerxes I520 BCE–466 BCE Prometheus Zeus Danaus Eteoclesmythological figure Polynicesmythological figure Darius Ic. 550–486 BCE Aeschylus526 BCE–457 BCE Atossa550–475 BCE Oedipusmythological figure