The Ancient and Modern Challenges of Technology--”Prometheus Bound” by Dr. Virginia Arbery

Now have we journeyed to a spot of earth Remote-the Scythian wild, a waste untrod. And now, Hephaestus, thou must execute The task our father laid on thee, and fetter This malefactor to the jagged rocks In adamantine bonds infrangible; For thine own blossom of all forging fire He stole and gave to mortals; trespass grave For which the Gods have called him to account, That he may learn to bear Zeus' tyranny And cease to play the lover of mankind.

Those words set the scene at the beginning of Aeschylus’ play “Prometheus Bound.” It’s the god Prometheus who stole fire from Hephaestus and gave it along with the technology to use fire to mortals, a race Zeus, newly crowned as chief god, intended to destroy.

Dr. Virginia Arbery gave the 2023 Wyoming School of Catholic Thought this introduction to our seminar conversations about “Prometheus Bound.” You can find the text of the play here.