n of Frankenstein, the job of a human being was to achieve dominion over nature--but only to go so far. This work was guided by god's help in providing humanity with the intelligence to develop the necessary technology for survival. This help implies, however, that some things are reserved to god.
In Prometheus Bound the conflict between Zeus and the Titan Prometheus has arisen from Prometheus' theft of fire from Zeus and his donation of this technology to the human race. Fire is, of course, emblematic of the whole range of human intelligence and its products which have been the means by which, as Prometheus notes, human beings have, literally, pulled themselves out of the mud. With these gifts they became capable of achieving so much that, as Prometheus argues, they have achieved the fulfillment of their existence as human beings. Aeschylus does not imagine human technology truly going beyond a point that Prometheus might sanction. But this does not mean that Aeschylus does not see any limits on the exercise of intelligence. The rebelliousness of Prometheus in defying Zeus must, as the resolution of the play shows, be tempered just as Zeus' tyranny needs to be more moderate. Conflict, such as that between Prometheus and Zeus, may be a necessary condition for the creation of human technology--which flourishes when faced with need. But humanity may go too far in its rebelliousness and should not be allowed to disturb the order of things, as Prometheus did.
Yet Prometheus' decision to endow the human race with all its gifts is clearly one of which Aeschylus approved. Though the drama takes place in a time before humanity began to develop these gifts, Prometheus describes their effect. He found them, he says, "without minds / and made them conscious, and able to use their sense" (443-44). They were merely brute animals prior to this; animals who had eyes but could not see clearly, and for whom life was "in the shape of...