Administering Justice in Fifth-Century Athens
In fifth-century Athens, citizens actively participated in the justice system. That was important context for Athenians’ experiences of tragic drama.
Notes
Stage Positions of Prometheus and the Oceanides
The interactions of Prometheus, the Oceanides, and Oceanus in Prometheus Bound should be staged with sensitivity to communicative standpoints.
Io and Inachos in Prometheus Bound
Io and Inachos, while gods, have quite human characters in Prometheus Bound.
Disparagement of Rhapsodes and Circulatores
In the ancient world, literary elites disparaged popular, pay-to-hear traveling story-tellers known as rhapsodes and circulatores.
Prometheus, Io, and Oceanides: Implicit Parody of Story-Seeking
Prometheus’s encounters with Io and the Oceanides includes parody of sensational story-seeking.
Prometheus and Hephaistos Associated in Cult and in Myth
In the classical Athenian tragedy Prometheus Bound, the ironsmith Hephaistos addresses Prometheus second-personally as kin and friend.
Shelley: Prometheus’s Theft of Fire Brings Plague of Meat-Eating
The young Percy Bysshe Shelley followed John Frank Newton in interpreting Prometheus’s theft of fire as bringing to man the great plague of meat-eating.
Aeschylus Became Fashionable in Early 19th-Century England
Tragedies attributed to Aeschylus were scarcely known in England before Prometheus Bound in 1773 became the first such printed in English translation.
Mary Godwin’s Greek Learning in Response to Shelley’s Letter
A Greek phrase in a letter from Percy Bysshe Shelley prompted Mary Godwin (later Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) to make a few days’ effort to learn Greek.
The Cenci: Step-Mother’s Love, Biological Father’s Hatred
Beatrice’s step-mother Lucretia loves her. Beatrice’s biological father Count Cenci hates her. That relational configuration reverses usual reality.