prometheus

PROMETHEUS

Zeus thought the creation of humans was a mistake ,only Prometheus stood up for them ,thats why he's punished ,that and for nicking fire off the gods and many other things he did for mortals.Prometheus was looking forward to seeing Zeus and his retinue fall from power.

La supplice de Prométhée. Après Jean-Louis-Cesar Lair.(b 1776 Janville d 1829) Lair showed this work in the Paris Salon of 1819 . The Bourbon Restoration and the return of Louis XVIII from England brought a flourishing of the arts; Lair painted this his masterpiece. Otherwise he did pieces for churches . Mythology made up only about 10% of his work ,but in his Prometheus we see both influences. Zeus’s punishment of Prometheus and crucifixion of Christ .

Aeschylus's Prometheus Bound

Augusta Webster (1837-1894) s translation of Aeschylus. The moment when Io sees Prometheus.

Aeschylus birthplace twenty kilometres north west of Athens Io was a daughter of Inachus the king of Argos .

Poor Io ,her dad had more money than sense . No wonder Prometheus was waiting for all this traipsing off to oracles to find what tyrannical Zeus wanted you to do .By the time Lair painted ,not only had Zeus fallen ,Athens ,Rome too ; and Roman Christianity that had repressed the science of Galileo and Kepler was giving way to The Enlightenment

Io who s been turned into an heifer explains how this came about. Prometheus takes over and tells of her future wanderings and how Zeus returns her to human form and will bear a son ………….