“Prometheus” was written in 1816. At this time
Byron had left England for the second (and last) time and settled in
Switzerland, close to lake Geneva, where he started a friendship with Percy
Shelley and his wife, Mary Shelley. This fact is important, as the influence of
the Shelleys over Byron (and vice versa) is specially noticeable in this
particular poem, and, as an evidence, we must mention both Percy Shelley’s poem
“Prometheus unbound” and Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein: The Modern
Prometheus”.“Byron and the Shelleys shared a period of intense creativity
together. The connections between the works of Percy Shelley and Byron have
been widely commented upon but the literary connections and mutual influence
between Mary Shelley and Byron are not as well known.”[1]
Nevertheless,
in this paper we are going to focus in Byron’s poem itself and some aspects of
the entire poetical production of the poet that are inevitably connected to
this particular poem.
Obviously, the
poem is about the figure of Prometheus, the famous mythological character of
the Ancient Greek, the titan who brought fire to men and was condemned by Zeus
to be eternally chained to a rock having his liver eaten daily by an eagle.
First of all,
we are going to analyse the particular way in which Byron tells the story of
Prometheus, although we are not exactly dealing with a narrative poem,
but with a demonstration of praise to the figure of an heroic character
conceived as “a symbol and a sign”.
The poem is structured in three stanzas that
are irregular to each other, not following the same rhyme pattern and having an
extension which varies from one to another.
In the first
stanza we are introduced to Prometheus as an immortal being who, however, is
paradoxically subjected and condemned to suffer, something that is
characteristic of human race (“The sufferings of mortality”, line 2).
Here, we contact for the first time in the poem with two aspects that are going
to be essential for it: the demi-god nature of Prometheus, which fits with the duality
of man (“Like thee, Man is in part divine”, line 47), and the inexorable
existence of suffering, consubstantial to man.
Next, Byron
throws a question, notably tainted with irony (“What was
thy pity's recompense?”, line 5), which gets an immediate answer that shows
and emphasizes the injustice of his punishment and that occupies the next and
last 9 lines of the strophe: His recompense is a strong and extreme imposed suffering
(note that “the chain”, mentioned in line 7 symbolizes very well this
imposition), a suffering that is noiselessly and heroically bore by Prometheus (“A
silent suffering”, line 6), who is represented as a lonely and remarkably
individualized being who, however, must be contented as far as his cry is
listened (“nor will sigh until its voice is echoless”, lines 13 &
14), fact that provides him with a perceptible revolutionary nuance.
-
In
the second stanza, the term power is the essential concept that is
treated. While we are reading this part of the poem we are led through a
process of inversion of what is “power” and to whom really belongs.
Let’s explain that.
At
the beginning, Prometheus is represented as the one who is oppressed and defenceless,
in the same way Zeus (and, extensively, all form of deity or superior being,
ruling class, etc.) incarnates the powerful oppressor (“inexorable
Heaven”, line 18, “tyranny of Fate”, line 19…). But at the end, the
fact is that the power and inner strength of Prometheus as an individual
surpasses and goes beyond any supernatural and apparently superior power of
Zeus. “And in thy Silence was his Sentence / And in his Soul a vain
repentance / and evil dread so ill dissembled / that in his hand the lightings
trembled.”
This
passage symbolizes the victory of the individual and his strong spirit over any
kind of oppressor trying to reduce and silence him. It shows how “the direct comparison between gods and man
illustrates the ability of man to overcome power and display bravery despite
his shortcomings and the gods' advantage for being powerful and possessing
extraordinary skills.”[2]
Finally, in the
third stanza, the paradoxical relation between Prometheus’ punishment and its
cause is ironically remarked again: “Thy Godlike crime was to be kind”
(line 35) and at the same time his labour and greatness (“thine impenetrable
Spirit”, line 42) is thanked and recompensed as it was to the benefit of
man, whose inherent pain and fatal destiny is highly stressed in this
particular strophe from a very pessimistic point of view: “His own funereal
destiny / his wretchedness, and his resistance / And his sad unallied existence”.
Prometheus
serves as a model for man to bear pain and suffering with “a firm will, and
a deep sense”, to overcome the misfortune of mortality with a strong Spirit
characteristic of immortality. But the parallelism between mankind and
Prometheus fails at one point: a man, as a mortal being, will not live forever,
thus, his final aim must be dying as a hero, “And making Death a Victory”.
Byron draws an
admirable and idolatrised character, punished due to a generous and benevolent
“crime”, victim of the tyranny of a God and condemned to suffer an eternal
torture in complete loneliness. However, as it has been said at the beginning,
he was not the only one who made this representation of Prometheus. “Defeated
but unsubmissive, the Titans (and Prometheus in particular) were popular in the
nineteenth century as symbols of revolution or resistance to tyranny”[3]
Such aspects as
this revolutionary and rebel shade, the exalted figure of the individual as
isolated from the rest of man but linked (and in this case, in a literal
way) to Nature and his state of constant pain and suffering lead us to assert
that the main achievement of Byron is to reinterpret the story of Prometheus in
his own way, which is of course inundated with Romanticism .”“Prometheus”
gives a Romantic voice to an ancient Myth”[4]
Now, in order to widen our vision and
comprehension of Byron’s “Prometheus”, we are going to place the poem in
relation with all the poetical production of Byron as a whole, which is the
final aim of that paper.
The presence of
a heroic character in Byron’s work seems to be a constant and characterising
feature. The sum of the almost autobiographical character in “Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage”, the protagonists of his famous Oriental Tales (The Giaour, The
Corsair, etc.) and others like Manfred, Mazeppa, etc., have contributed to configure
what we know as the “Byronic hero”, that has been described as “embodying
the ultimate in individualism, self-sufficiency, ambition, and aspiration, yet
isolated, gloomy, unsatisfied, and dangerous to himself and others”[5].
However,
Prometheus does not seem to perfectly fit this description, because, as we may
have perceived when analysing the poem, Prometheus is much more idealised and
lacks that “carnal” aspect that completes the figure of the Byronic hero, who
combines the grandness and ambition of his spirit with a sinful and “vicious”
corporeal life.
Probably, if
Byron had created Prometheus, he would have been much more different and
“Byronic”, but we can’t ignore the fact that this poem is a reinterpretation of
an already existing character who serves as a model and a symbol, and that fact
may derive in a loss of “realism” not noticed in the majority of Byron’s poems.
Nonetheless,
since Byron’s first successful work, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, we can
observe his melancholic feelings towards the Ancient Greek, from where he is
reclaiming the hero he’s trying to find. “Ancient of days! august Athena!
where / Where are thy men of might? thy grand in soul? (Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage, Canto II)[6]
“In Childe Harold’s
Pilgrimage—and
throughout his entire career—Byron is looking for a hero” [7]
At this moment, attending to the most
salient thematic implications and connotations of “Prometheus” that we’ve
already mentioned and explained in the analysis of the poem, it would be
interesting to put each one of them in comparison to one poem out of the entire
poetic production of Byron, so we can observe how some features reappear,
shaping themselves as characterisers of Lord Byron’s romantic poetry.
The intense and
continuous suffering of a lonely man being unfairly in captivity and his
impossibility to die, even when death becomes something desirable, describes
also the situation of “The Prisoner of Chillon” (1816).
“I only stirred in this black spot
/ I only lived, I only drew”
(212-213), “I know not why / I could not die / I had no earthly hope--but faith / And that
forbade a selfish death.” (227-230).[8]
Prometheus’ revolutionary soul
matches also with that of Napoleon Bonaparte, and in Byron’s “Ode to Napoleon
Bonaparte” (1814), a very symbolic and revealing comparison is made :
"Or, like
the thief of fire from heaven / Wilt thou withstand the shock? / And share with
him- the unforgiven / His vulture and his rock?" [9]
“Prometheus'
suffering can be likened to Napoleon Bonaparte who has to experience suffering
and death first before the society realized his fight for freedom of all
people” [10]
Moreover,
we can find the same pessimistic and apocalyptic view of man’s “funereal”
destiny in Byron’s poem “Darkness” (1816).
“All earth was but one
thought--and that was death / Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
/ Of famine fed upon all entrails—men / Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh” (42-45) [11]
And finally, the symbolic parallelism we established at the
beginning between the demigod nature of Prometheus and the duality of man, who
is “in part divine”, reaches its highest level in “Manfred” (1816-1817), until
the point that the parallelism is no longer symbolic, but real, as the
supernatural powers of Manfred may confirm.
“Like
Prometheus, man is “part divine” (line 47), which echoes the “half deity, half
dust” description from Manfred.”
[12]
In
order to summarize, we can say that we have read and analysed a poem whose
protagonist is a mythological character, conceived by Byron and the romantics
as a symbol of the Revolution and a model for the spirit of man, who, however,
contrary to Prometheus, has an inevitably limited existence and a carnal
debility which is characteristic of a mortal being. That fact leads us to
assert that, although not being, because of his immortal nature, an exact representation
of man, Prometheus acts as a model that should be imitated and idolized. Then,
the task that is given to man is to combine his carnal and mortal existence
with the greatness of a strong spirit similar to that of Prometheus, thus
creating the divine form of humanity, the duality of mankind.
Besides
this, in order to completely prove the non-isolation of the poem in relation
with the rest of Byron’s work we have explained how such features as an exalted
individualism, a revolutionary heroicism, an intense and lonely suffering, the
particular relation of man with death (his inexorable destiny) and the divine
duality of humankind reappear throughout all Byron’s production and lead us to
a better understanding of the poet and of Romanticism as a movement and a way
of thinking and interpreting the world.
But
what significance could this poem have today? And extensively, what is the
relevance of the myth of Prometheus in our contemporary society?
When
willing to relate this poem with modern times we can only think of the
possibility of analysing the role that a mythological character like
Prometheus, who was immensely famous and exemplary in the Romantic Era, plays
in today's view of the world. It appears obvious that our modern society
doesn't seem to be too much enthusiastic about the idolization of ancient
mythical characters, as it was the case in the Romantic era, and the influence
of Greek mythology is not an abundant feature of contemporary literature. But
it also appears obvious that we live in a very individualistic society and then
we are closer to Romanticism than to any other period we can think of.
As
a matter of fact, during the Romantic Era, Prometheus' was used as a prototype
of the natural daemon or genius as a medium of emphasizing the individual. And
in the same way, twentieth century novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, who was a
strong advocate of individualism and laissez-faire capitalism as opposed to
collectivism and socialism , made the main character of her novella "Anthem",
Equality, change his name into Prometheus when he rediscovers the forbidden
word "Ego", and understands the word's sacred value and the
individuality it expresses [13].
But
probably the most significant aspect of Prometheus that has been underlined in
his modern manifestations is his humanism and contribution to the spread of
knowledge among men. That may be the reason why "Prometheus" is used
as the name of various publishing companies and magazines, as their task is
precisely to share and spread knowledge.
In
fact, "Prometeo" is the name of the publishing house founded by
Blasco Ibañez in 1917 [14]. Moreover, "Prometheus books", founded by
Paul Kurtz in 1969, is a publisher in philosophy, popular science, and critical
thinking. In its own official website, we can read: "Prometheus Books took
its name from the courageous Greek god who gave fire to humans, lighting the
way to reason, intelligence, and independence" [15].
Additionally,
“Prometeo” was the name of a Spanish magazine which appeared in 1908 and
contributed to the introduction of the new vanguardist literature in Spain [16].
Also,
"Prometeo" is the name of a Mexican magazine about humanistic psychology
and human development [17]. Its motto, "Fuego para el propio
conocimiento" (Fire for the own knowledge), again, makes significant
reference to the major labour of the Greek god.
These
examples have helped us to realize that the figure and myth of Prometheus are
usually mentioned and represented in our today’s society, but only as an
eventual symbolic resource conveying ideas of humanism and the values of
spreading knowledge.
We’ve
seen how the reference to Prometheus has also served some authors to
fundament their individualistic theories, but it has never constitute a
model in which individuals should base the formation of their own spirit.
The
magnitude of importance of Prometheus’ myth during the Romantic age can be
hardly compared with any other time’s. Prometheus gave the romantics an example
of courage and rebelliousness against Zeus, who they saw as personifying
any form of institutional tyranny. Prometheus was the spirit of the French
Revolution and of the divinely inspired artist, and Byron’s poem is one of the
best examples of this.
[12] “Heroic evidence in Manfred, The Giaour, and “Prometheus””, posted on April 18,
2007 @ http://blogs.elsweb.org/byronolog/category/hero/
January 21
2008
[13] “Anthem” (novella). Wikipedia, the Free
Encyclopaedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthem_%28novella%29 January 21 2008
[14] “Vicente Blasco Ibáñez”. Magazine
El Mundo. http://www.elmundo.es/magazine/num126/textos/blasco1.html
January
21 2008
[15] Prometheus Books. http://www.prometheusbooks.com/co.html
January
21 2008
[16] Valcárcel, Eva. “La introducción de los modelos Vanguardistas en España
hasta 1918. La proyección de las Teorías de Vanguardia en la Poesía”. http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-09341998000100011&script=sci_arttext January 21 2008
[17] Revista Prometeo. http://www.revistaprometeo.com.mx/#quees January 21 2008
Academic
year 2007/2008
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Cristina Vidal Sales
Universitat de València Press