Hubris as a Major Element in Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound Essay

Aristotle created the foothold for some(prenominal) a(prenominal) different subjects including drama, politics and philosophy. like a shot, many of his works argon constantly analyse and his modern ideas atomic number 18 facilitate prevailing in society. In Poetics, Aristotle focuses on the outmatch kinds of tragic plot (Aristotle 20). angiotensin-converting enzyme of the almost important aspects of a perfect disaster is tragic flaw, sometimes misinterpreted as tragic flaw. The true(a) rendering of hamartia is a sinister error committed by a division that results in a miscellanea of fortune. When a char masker commits hamartia, the hearing is subjected to emotions such(prenominal) as sympathy, fear and mercy.Although hubris is non explicitly menti angiotensin-converting enzymed in the translations of Poetics, it is one of the major causes of hamartia. When hubris is arrange in the environment, it affects the characters choices and decisions. Since hubris deal be define as extreme pride or self confidence (OED), taking wages of those you train advocator everyplace is an congresswoman of hubris. Fatal errors are committed when hubris is sh ingest to contendds the character. In the case of Prometheus, hubris brings about stubbornness and tumult causation him to give the humans fire.Hubris is a vital element in Aeschyluss Prometheus Bound because it helps us witness wherefore the characters behave the way they do. Since Prometheus is the central character as the wager is titled with his name, it would be logical to base this essay nearly him. notwithstanding, this essay is focus on how genus genus genus genus genus genus genus genus genus genus Zeus displays and suffers hubris.While Zeus is not a character in the play, he is still a central draw because he is constantly mentioned. The play revolves around the feature that Zeus has punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock. Even though he has no lines, the audience learns of his character by dint of separates. It is consequently absolutely valid to refer to him as a character and show how he exemplifies hubris.Throughout the play, Zeus displays hubris towards the majority of the characters. He shows self-confidence not only towards those he is angry with such as Prometheus, scarce also towards his servants such as Hephaestus and Hermes. entirely in all of Zeuss subjects including Io and the brother of Prometheus are subject to the tyranny and wrath of their normal (Aeschylus 8). One of Zeuss hamartia is his leave out of ability to have supporters.During the war between the whales and the Olympians, Prometheus came to the aid of Zeus and helped him fix the successful leader of the present world. Zeus however is so arrogant, that he does not take anyone including Prometheus as a assistant regardless of the help he has standard from him (Aeschylus 10). Therefore when Prometheus commits the fatal flaw of grownup humans fire out of his own whims (Aeschylus 11), Zeus cruelly punishes him. Prometheus recognizes this when he states perceive in chains confined an ill-omened god/The detested of Zeus (Aeschylus 7). Zeus inability to have friends results in Prometheus being tied up. The cruelty Zeus shows towards Prometheus is an act of hubris.Prometheus is not the only subject who faces hubris from Zeus. When Io appears, she enters with horns the like a cow. Upon prodding from the Chorus, she proceeds to identify us her story. Not only is Zeus incap competent of friendship, he is incapable of loving. He wanted to take away Ios virginity. When her father kicked her out of the house, Zeus cancelled her into a cow. A gadfly follows her around as a punishment causing her distress and pain (Aeschylus 29). Zeus abuses his military force towards both Io and her father threatening that if he dis heeded, the bolt of Zeus would visit him (pg 29). Since Zeus is in a position of function, he chooses to invoke fear on those he r ules over for personal gain.Those who serve Zeus are also unfairly treated. Since Zeus is incapable of friendship, he chooses to operate through fear as opposed to friendship. Hephaestus is one of the servants who does what he is told besides clearly shows his fretfulness in carrying out Zeuss commands. Zeus demands him to tie up his friend Prometheus. He tells his fellow servants, I have not the heart by force to bind/A god, my kinsman, in this winter-flowering glen.. He goes on to say that he must brazen himself to do so (Aeschylus 1). This shows us that he is obliged into hobby Zeus. Zeus takes advantage of those who serve him by using his power to force them to obey his command.Brief references are made to other people Zeus has oppressed. Atlas, the brother of Prometheus represents the many people towards whom Zeus abused his power. This Titan is also bound by Zeus and Prometheus weeps for him. This shows that hubris is so closely entwined in the spirit of Zeus that he affl icts everyone in his power with it.Upon examining the play as a whole, it can be argued that Zeus also faces hubris. Since the play is mainly from Prometheuss office stain, there is a bias towards how Zeus is viewed. This does not track the actions of Zeus, but shows that the play is one-sided and Zeus cannot defend himself. This form of hubris is an expansion of Aristotles original belief. It is a form of badinage because only the audience knows Zeus is misrepresented. Prometheus has the power of speech unlike Zeus. Since Zeus is not present to share his view, hubris is shown towards him by represent him so cruely.Reading Aristotles Poetics onwards reading Prometheus Bound helped me understand why Aeschylus wrote the play the way he did. Had I not read Aristotle before, it would have bedevil me as to why Aeschylus would allow for the audience to know Prometheus will eventually be freed. However, now I know that the point of the drama is not to surprise the audience, but to i nvoke emotions such as pity and fear. I fix it untold easier to rivet on one concept of Aristotle and keep it to the play as opposed to applying all of his terms. When I first read Prometheus Bound, Aristotles ideas were still fresh in my head. However upon examining the play further and re-reading it while sounding for a specific concept, I found that I had missed many things. One of the reasons for this is that I was reading the play rather of watching it.Although this allowed me to re-read anything I did not understand, I could not visualize the actions as much as I would have been able to had I been sitting in an audience. some other reason is the language of the text. Since this play has been translated, it took a lot of effort and constant cross-referencing to understand all the finer details in the play. Because of this, most of my energy was being focused onto understanding the play instead of fashioning connections. While concepts such as hubris are universal in pla ys and in authorized life, the way we identify them is constantly changing.Today we may feel the way Zeus treated Prometheus was inequitable. However, the question remains if it was considered unjust in the time Prometheus Bound was written. only when like how we cannot use civilization male superpatriotism when interpreting Japanese plays such as Madame de Sade, we should not use historical chauvinism in interpreting older plays. The views I have presented towards how Zeus displays hubris is valid found on how the world is today and my view of the world. While the definition of hubris remains the same, whether pride, arrogance and tyranny are being shown fit in to its social context remains to be questioned.For example, women never used to have the discipline to vote and in fact were not even considered persons by law. At that time, it was perfectly common in society. Today, to say such a thing would be male chauvinist and discriminatory and we could consider womens lack of suffrage as an example of hubris. The concept of oppression and inequality existed before women had the repair to vote, but at that time, it was socially not considered discrimination or oppression. Similarly, treating servants and subjects unfairly through pride and arrogance will universally be considered as hubris. However, it is possible that at the time of Aeschylus, treating those one has power over unfairly was socially accepted.Works CitedHeath, Malcolm. Poetics . capital of the United Kingdom Penguin Books, 1996. Print. Thomson, George Derwent. Prometheus bound . New York Dover Publications, 1995. Print. definition of hubris from Oxford Dictionaries Online. Oxford Dictionaries Online English Dictionary and Thesaurus. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2010. .