How Prometheus Bound drew on Theogony/Works and Days
A documented line of influence: Aeschylus demonstrably engaged Hesiod’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
Theogony/Works and Days
Hesiod · c. 700 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus · c. 460 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
9/10
On Prometheus Bound’s page
- The seedbed of the whole play — Hesiod's Theogony is where the Prometheus myth first takes form
- Aeschylus lifts the fire-theft and Zeus's punishment straight from Hesiod, then reworks it: he separates the tortures, brings on Heracles to kill the eagle, and drops the sacrifice-trick
- Read Hesiod first and the changes become visible — you can watch Aeschylus turn a god's punishment into the defiance of a tragic hero
On Theogony/Works and Days’s page
- Hesiod gave the Prometheus myth its first full shape — the fire-theft, the punishment by Zeus, the cosmic order it disrupts
- Scholars locate the very starting point of Prometheus Bound here in the Theogony
- Read it first and you see the raw material Aeschylus would later rearrange into tragedy