Kratos

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Kratos (Might)Character Analysis

Zeus’s servant and the personification of Zeus’s will.


Along with Bia, Kratos
takes Prometheus and Hephaistos to the top of the
Scythian mountains so that Hephaistos
can chain Prometheus to the mountain as punishment for
giving fire to humankind. Kratos exists within the play
to exact Zeus’s punishment against Prometheus and
threaten the wrath of Zeus’s power and anger. He lives
to induce fear and misery, and everything he does is in
service of Zeus. In this way, Kratos is merely an
extension of Zeus and has no will of his own to act on.
Like every other character in the play, Kratos is not
free but is imprisoned by Zeus. Unlike many of the
other characters, however, it is implied that Kratos is
happy to do Zeus’s bidding, and if he had a will of his
own, it would entail similar actions.

Kratos (Might) Quotes in Prometheus Boun:

We have arrived at the far limit of the world.


These are the Scythian mountains, desolate and vast.
Hephaistos, you must carry out the Father’s will
and bind the criminal to this steep looming rock
with chains of adamant, unbreakable.
It was your flower he stole, the bright and dancing
fire,
and gave its wonderworking power to mortals.
This is the crime for which he now must pay
the price to all the gods, that he may learn
to love the tyranny of Zeus
and quit his friendship with the human race.

Bia (Force)Character Analysis

Zeus’s servant and the personification of Zeus’s


violent will. Bia doesn’t speak during the play, and
like Zeus’s violence, he offers no excuse or
explanation. He is ordered to take an
imprisoned Prometheus to the top of the Scythian
mountains and ensure that he is tightly bound to the
rock face. While Bia doesn’t participate in the
dialogue of the play, his violence is a constant
presence and threat. Bia also serves to illustrate
Zeus’s ability to psychologically confine others. Bia
is technically free, but he exists to carry out Zeus’s
will and does not appear to possess a will of his own.

Bia (Force) Quotes in Prometheus Bound


We have arrived at the far limit of the world.
These are the Scythian mountains, desolate and vast.
Hephaistos, you must carry out the Father’s will
and bind the criminal to this steep looming rock
with chains of adamant, unbreakable.
It was your flower he stole, the bright and dancing
fire,
and gave its wonderworking power to mortals.
This is the crime for which he now must pay
the price to all the gods, that he may learn
to love the tyranny of Zeus
and quit his friendship with the human race.

HeraCharacter Analysis

Zeus’s wife and sister. Hera is the goddess of family


and childbirth, and she is exceedingly jealous of
Zeus’s love for Io. According to myth, Zeus tried to
hide Io from Hera by turning Io into a cow, but Hera
knew immediately what was going on and insisted that
Zeus give her the cow as a gift. Hera left Io with her
servant, Argos, and ordered him to keep Zeus away and
ensure Io’s suffering until she died.

Hera Quotes in Prometheus Bound


First, from this spot, turn toward the rising sun,
and cross the untilled plains until you reach
the Scythian nomads, whose wicker houses
are built on top of wagons with well-wrought wheels,
a warlike tribe armed with far-reaching bows.
Do not go near them, rather keep to the surf line
of the groaning sea, and travel on.
Off to your left there live the ironworking
Chalybes, of whom you must be wary,
for they are savage and do not
bid strangers welcome.

KronosCharacter Analysis

King of the Titans and Zeus’s father. Kronos


refuses Prometheus’s help during the Battle of the
Titans and instead relies on his strength to win the
war. Zeus, of course, is victorious thanks to the help
of Prometheus, and Kronos and the other Titans are
banished to Tartaros, which underscores Aeschylus’s
argument of the power of reason over force. Before
Kronos is banished, however, he curses Zeus, and
Prometheus claims that Kronos’s curse will be Zeus’s
ruin.

Kronos Quotes in Prometheus Bound


What did I do, son of Kronos, what fault did you find
in me
that you would yoke me to such pain, driving me mad
with fear
of a gadfly’s sting?
Destroy me with fire,
bury me under the earth,
throw me as food to the monsters of the sea,
but Lord, hear my prayers, do not grudge me the favor I
ask.
Surely my endless wandering has taught me enough.
I can’t find a way to escape my troubles.
Do you hear the lament of the cow-horned maiden?

AtlasCharacter Analysis

A Titan god and Prometheus’s brother. According to


Greek mythology, Zeus ordered Atlas punished after
the Battle of the Titans, and he was forced to stand
holding “the weight of heaven and earth” upon his
shoulders for all of eternity. Prometheus
reminds Okeanos of Atlas’s suffering when Okeanos wants
to appeal to Zeus on Prometheus’s behalf. Atlas serves
as an example of Zeus’s power in Prometheus Bound and
his ability to physically punish and imprison those who
stand against him.

TyphonCharacter Analysis

A monster serpent within Greek mythology. Typhon’s


origins are disputed; some sources claim Typhon is the
offspring of Hera while others claim he is the son
of Kronos. According to Greek mythology, Typhon
challenged Zeus for control of the universe, but Zeus
struck him down with his thunderbolt. Zeus buried
Typhon deep beneath Mount Etna (“Aetna” in the play),
an active volcano in Sicily. Aeschylus references the
myth of Typhon as an example of Zeus’s power and his
ability to imprison others, both literally and
metaphorically.

Atlas & Typhon Quotes in Prometheus Bound


To know my brother Atlas stands,
at the gates of evening, bearing upon his shoulders
the weight of heaven and earth, too vast
for his encircling arms, gives me no comfort.
With grief as well I saw the earthborn dweller
in Cilicia’s cave, the hundred-headed monster
Typhon, conquered, his fury violently subdued,
who once braved all the gods with gruesome jaws,
hissing out terror, eyes ablaze, aiming to crush
the sovereign tyranny of Zeus. But flying
down against him came Zeus’ weapon, the sleepless,
fire-breathing thunderbolt, which cast him
out of his triumphant boast, for he was struck
in the very middle of his power, and all his strength
turned into ash. And now, a sprawling, helpless form,
he lies pressed down, close by the narrows of the sea,
beneath the roots of Aetna.

Argos Character Analysis


Hera’s servant. After Zeus turned Io into a cow, Hera
ordered Argos to guard Io and keep her away from Zeus.
According to Greek mythology, Argos is covered with a
hundred eyes, and he is represented in the gadfly that
relentlessly pursues Io in Prometheus Bound. Zeus
couldn’t get close to Io with Argos guarding her, so he
ordered Hermes to kill Argos. Io claims that she is
bitten by “the ghost of earthbound Argos,” as the
gadfly harasses her and prods her to continue
wandering.

Argos Quotes in Prometheus Bound


Immediately my shape and mind
became distorted, my head grew horns, and I,
chased by the gadfly, fled with frantic leaps
to that sweet stream, Cerchnea, good to drink from,
and Lerna’s spring. But my appointed cowherd
was earthborn Argos, terrible in his wrath.
He followed me, he watched my steps,
peering with his countless eyes.
Then an unhoped-for sudden death destroyed him.
But I continued, driven by the god-sent scourge,
the gadfly, from land to land

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