Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound

Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound: A Study in Failed Humanism? Or the First Example of Totalitarianism in Literature?

Prometheus Bound has often been seen as a metaphor for the attempt on the part of human beings to "overthrow" the beliefs about capricious and unpredictable forces in the universe (i.e. the Olympian gods)�and to replace these with more scientific approaches to those forces: to replace the supernatural with the natural, in other words. However, it is possible to argue that, aside from this fairly obvious interpretation of what Aeschylus was trying to get at, there are others that are equally plausible. Among them: the idea that the play is a study in failed humanism; or that it represents the first example of what totalitarian laws and attitudes can foster.

According to this interpretation of the play, Aeschylus is tryi

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Category: Literature - A