In order to investigate the role of pity in causing Prometheus’s punishment, we must investigate the role of pity in his crime. The crime itself appears first early in the drama as Kratos explains it to Hephaistos in the opening speech:
Your flower, the light of art-giving fire,
He stole and gave to mortals. For such sins
He must pay the penalty to the gods,
So that he might be taught to bear the tyranny of Zeus,
And to cease his man-loving way. (7-11)
Here, Kratos marks the theft of fire from the gods, and from Hephaistos, in particular, and the gift of it to man as Prometheus’s crime. Left slightly more implicit is the claim that Prometheus was motivated by his love of man and that the action is a crime because it defies the boundary between …show more content…
In the case of the chorus of Oceanids, however, a similar danger presents itself but is not avoided. Yet, before we delve into the fate of the Oceanids, we must step back and observe the marked parallels between the opening and final scenes. As the play opens, henchmen of Zeus, Kratos and Bia, and an ambivalent character, Hephaistos, are present along with Prometheus. As the play closes, a henchman of Zeus, Hermes, and an ambivalent group, the Oceanids, are present along with Prometheus. Prometheus is bound in the opening of the play, and in its closing he is bound further beneath the earth. Once Prometheus is first bound, he cries out to the “divine sky,” “great-mother earth,” and several other nature-beings, asking them to “look at what things I suffer from gods, a god” (88-92). Once he sees at the close of the drama that he truly will be swallowed into the earth as Hermes predicted, he cries out “O awe of my mother, O sky revolving the common light of all, you see the wrongs I suffer” (1090-1092). In all of these ways, the closing scene mirrors the opening scene, but there is one difference: where Hephaistos ultimately overcomes his pity and follows the orders of Kratos and Bia, the Oceanids succumb to it and consequently fall with Prometheus by the wrath of Zeus. Hermes warns the Oceanids similarly to how Kratos warns Hephaistos. Kratos, as we have seen, warns Hephaistos with little subtlety that if he continues to pity Prometheus he will share a similar fate. Hermes tells the Oceanids, “but you all who sympathize with his miseries, leave this place with speed lest your senses are stunned by the hard roar of thunder” (1058-1062). But here, unlike in the first scene, the ambivalent group makes a stand and vows “I am willing to bear what he must at his side” (1067). The result of this, of
Your flower, the light of art-giving fire,
He stole and gave to mortals. For such sins
He must pay the penalty to the gods,
So that he might be taught to bear the tyranny of Zeus,
And to cease his man-loving way. (7-11)
Here, Kratos marks the theft of fire from the gods, and from Hephaistos, in particular, and the gift of it to man as Prometheus’s crime. Left slightly more implicit is the claim that Prometheus was motivated by his love of man and that the action is a crime because it defies the boundary between …show more content…
In the case of the chorus of Oceanids, however, a similar danger presents itself but is not avoided. Yet, before we delve into the fate of the Oceanids, we must step back and observe the marked parallels between the opening and final scenes. As the play opens, henchmen of Zeus, Kratos and Bia, and an ambivalent character, Hephaistos, are present along with Prometheus. As the play closes, a henchman of Zeus, Hermes, and an ambivalent group, the Oceanids, are present along with Prometheus. Prometheus is bound in the opening of the play, and in its closing he is bound further beneath the earth. Once Prometheus is first bound, he cries out to the “divine sky,” “great-mother earth,” and several other nature-beings, asking them to “look at what things I suffer from gods, a god” (88-92). Once he sees at the close of the drama that he truly will be swallowed into the earth as Hermes predicted, he cries out “O awe of my mother, O sky revolving the common light of all, you see the wrongs I suffer” (1090-1092). In all of these ways, the closing scene mirrors the opening scene, but there is one difference: where Hephaistos ultimately overcomes his pity and follows the orders of Kratos and Bia, the Oceanids succumb to it and consequently fall with Prometheus by the wrath of Zeus. Hermes warns the Oceanids similarly to how Kratos warns Hephaistos. Kratos, as we have seen, warns Hephaistos with little subtlety that if he continues to pity Prometheus he will share a similar fate. Hermes tells the Oceanids, “but you all who sympathize with his miseries, leave this place with speed lest your senses are stunned by the hard roar of thunder” (1058-1062). But here, unlike in the first scene, the ambivalent group makes a stand and vows “I am willing to bear what he must at his side” (1067). The result of this, of