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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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