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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
literally only read bound and i think this edition has more but i read mine in a big book of plays therefore i’m using what i can to log it lol
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thanks Prometheus ♥️
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Was expecting more hephaestus (he’s the whole reason I read this play) but was still a good read no matter how disappointed i was that he only appeared for like 3 pages (my eye is twitching in annoyance as I write this)
I LOVED this one. I read it in one sitting (super easy to get through) and I loved analyzing it . It's poetic and deep and achingly human in nature
challenging
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
gotta love aeschylus for giving zeus his rightful description: an arrogant tyrannus and a evil rapist. ió had her revenge.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was beautifully written, a true Greek tragedy showing just how cruel the gods are. All Prometheus did was help humankind and in turn he was punished again and again. Io's story being told as well further shows how terrible Zeus in particular is, and how kind Prometheus tries to be. Honestly he deserved better.
Of the Aeschylus plays thus far, this was my favorite. It calls to the deep ache we all feel in standing up to tyrants and their sycophants and of the need for arbiters between God and man (even if in this case it’s merely a demiurge with more in common with Lucifer than God). The G.M. version is the one I read (i’ll reorganise these eventually if I return to another version), and it’s romantic poetry sings. Literally. I went to Nashville with some songwriters and repurposed some of the lyrics — by way of proper systematics and theology — into modern hymns. It’s a gorgeous story about the saviour of men withholding the info that might save the man who refuses to save others. Very stone table-y. Deep magic and whatnot.
HOWEVER:
I find it curious that voices like Campbell and Frazier have pointed to this play as proof that the gospel was made up and even hilarious that modern thinkers accept this as canon. It’s as silly as believing predictions not only cannot come true, but are not made in the first place or that history never echos or that imagination is never derived from reality. I find it much more compelling how Chesterton i the Everlasting Man said that myth is how pagans and artists prophecy when unconcerned with history: that once the imagination was made real. And nothing in his work sums it up more thoroughly than:
“In that sense we do not admit that there is any such parallel with the legends of the ancient pagans as is implied in the books of the modern pagans. And indeed we are surely entitled to call it mere common sense to say that there can be no complete parallel between what was admittedly a myth or mystery and what was admittedly a man. But the point here is that the truth hidden even in myths and mysteries is altogether lost if we are confined to the consideration of a man. In this sense there is an ironic and unconscious truth in the words of the modern pagan, who sang that “the heathen outface and outlive us,” and that “our lives and our longings are twain.” It is true of the Modernists, but it is not true of us, who find simultaneously the realisation of a longing and the record of a life. It is perfectly true that there were in many pagan myths the faint foreshadowing of the Christian mysteries; though even in saying so we admit that the foreshadowings were shadows. But when all imaginative kinship has been explored or allowed for, it is not true that mythology ever rose to the heights of theology. It is not true that a thought so bold or so subtle as this one ever crossed the mind that created the centaurs and the fauns. In the wildest and most gigantic of the primitive epic fancies, there is no conception so colossal as the being who is both Zeus and Prometheus.”
That sums it up perfectly, but I would add that this myth doesn’t even properly parallel the parallels in so simple a gnostic construction of that of Dr. Strange. At least the withholding of Strange against the big bad demiurge yielding a relenting. Zeus merely kills
Prometheus and the secret to both his and man’s salvation is hidden forever. And there is no resurrection because Greeks find that sort of thing icky. As did basically everyone but first century Pharisees (not even Sadducees, Essenes, or Zealots believed) and modern post-Christian folk understood resurrection — as opposed to resuscitation — let alone endorsed it as desirable. These sorts of black swan events in history drastically taint our reading of things that happened prior.
So...? What?
So this is a wonderful play and a wonderful myth that speaks to the true nature of several things without being historically anything close to the reality or study of those things of which it speaks.
Like any good work of art, it transcends itself.
And that’s sufficient for any master.
HOWEVER:
I find it curious that voices like Campbell and Frazier have pointed to this play as proof that the gospel was made up and even hilarious that modern thinkers accept this as canon. It’s as silly as believing predictions not only cannot come true, but are not made in the first place or that history never echos or that imagination is never derived from reality. I find it much more compelling how Chesterton i the Everlasting Man said that myth is how pagans and artists prophecy when unconcerned with history: that once the imagination was made real. And nothing in his work sums it up more thoroughly than:
“In that sense we do not admit that there is any such parallel with the legends of the ancient pagans as is implied in the books of the modern pagans. And indeed we are surely entitled to call it mere common sense to say that there can be no complete parallel between what was admittedly a myth or mystery and what was admittedly a man. But the point here is that the truth hidden even in myths and mysteries is altogether lost if we are confined to the consideration of a man. In this sense there is an ironic and unconscious truth in the words of the modern pagan, who sang that “the heathen outface and outlive us,” and that “our lives and our longings are twain.” It is true of the Modernists, but it is not true of us, who find simultaneously the realisation of a longing and the record of a life. It is perfectly true that there were in many pagan myths the faint foreshadowing of the Christian mysteries; though even in saying so we admit that the foreshadowings were shadows. But when all imaginative kinship has been explored or allowed for, it is not true that mythology ever rose to the heights of theology. It is not true that a thought so bold or so subtle as this one ever crossed the mind that created the centaurs and the fauns. In the wildest and most gigantic of the primitive epic fancies, there is no conception so colossal as the being who is both Zeus and Prometheus.”
That sums it up perfectly, but I would add that this myth doesn’t even properly parallel the parallels in so simple a gnostic construction of that of Dr. Strange. At least the withholding of Strange against the big bad demiurge yielding a relenting. Zeus merely kills
Prometheus and the secret to both his and man’s salvation is hidden forever. And there is no resurrection because Greeks find that sort of thing icky. As did basically everyone but first century Pharisees (not even Sadducees, Essenes, or Zealots believed) and modern post-Christian folk understood resurrection — as opposed to resuscitation — let alone endorsed it as desirable. These sorts of black swan events in history drastically taint our reading of things that happened prior.
So...? What?
So this is a wonderful play and a wonderful myth that speaks to the true nature of several things without being historically anything close to the reality or study of those things of which it speaks.
Like any good work of art, it transcends itself.
And that’s sufficient for any master.