Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Prometheus.
The gallery
Prometheus Bound
Peter Paul Rubens, 1611–1618
Monumental Baroque oil painting by Peter Paul Rubens, with the eagle painted by the animal specialist Frans Snyders; it hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Zeus's eagle tears at the liver of the chained Titan — the eternal punishment Prometheus earned for stealing fire for mankind.
Prometheus
Paul Manship, 1934
Gilded bronze sculpture by Paul Manship overlooking the sunken plaza of Rockefeller Center in New York. Prometheus glides through a ring bearing the signs of the zodiac as he carries the stolen fire down to mankind, making him one of the most recognizable public artworks in America.
Prometheus Brings Fire to Mankind
Heinrich Füger, 1817
Neoclassical oil painting by the Austrian artist Heinrich Füger. Lit by the flame he has stolen from the gods, Prometheus bears the torch of fire down to humankind — a Romantic-era vision of the Titan as the great benefactor and enlightener of the human race.
On screen
In music & on stage
The Creatures of Prometheus
Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven's only full-length ballet stages the fire-bringer as Enlightenment allegory — Prometheus teaching clay-born humans science and art on the Vienna stage.
Prométhée
Gabriel Fauré
Fauré's tragédie lyrique for Béziers stages the fire-theft and the chaining — the Titan as Symbolist benefactor under open-air spectacle.
Prometheus
Franz Liszt
Liszt's symphonic poem sets the chained Titan's defiance in orchestral storm — Romantic heroism scored from Aeschylus' rock.
Prometheus: The Poem of Fire
Alexander Scriabin
Scriabin's color-symphony for orchestra and clavier à lumières — the fire-theft as mystic light, with a part written for a keyboard of projected hues.
In play
Frankenstein
Mary Shelley
Shelley's subtitle names her creator 'The Modern Prometheus' — the fire-bringer rewritten as the scientist who animates a body and cannot control what he makes.
Prometheus Unbound
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Shelley's lyrical drama frees the Titan from Zeus' rock — Romantic liberation written against Aeschylus' chains.
Hades II
Supergiant Games
Supergiant's sequel keeps the fire-bringer among the Titan-age cast — Prometheus as a chained ally whose gifts still cost blood.