REMOULDING OF THE CLASSICAL MYTH BY P.B. SHELLEY IN HIS ‘PROMETHEUS UNBOUND’

The tradition of revisionism, and more so, of mythic revisionism began with the advent of the myths.  With the myths being told and retold ages after ages, there was an inevitable change in the basic plot depending upon the intention and memory of each individual story-teller.

According to P.B. Shelley, the Greek tragedians, “by no means conceived themselves bound to adhere to the common interpretation or to imitate in story as in title their rivals and predecessors.” A lyrical drama in Four Acts, P.B. Shelley in his ‘PROMETHEUS UNBOUND’ exercises arbitrary discretion in adopting from the Greek myth such subject which he wished to apply. To sustain the moral interest of the fable, Shelley does not allow his Prometheus to obtain freedom by giving in to Jupiter. Instead, he makes the Titan bearing the tortures and the pain, resist and defy Jupiter. What Shelley did is, he altered the Aeschylean myth to fit with his own vision of the world. A close study of the two plays reveals Aeschylus in his 'PROMETHEUS BOUND' giving over the opening lines of his play to the business of chaining and tormenting the Titan, while Shelley begins his play “three thousand years” later, merely referring to the action as having already betid.

P.B. Shelley is interested not in the shackling, but with the unshackling of Prometheus. When Shelley declared himself “averse from… reconciling the Champion with the Oppressor of mankind”, he wanted to make a crucial contrast in character between that of his protagonist and the Greek hero. In his opinion, the upholder of his ideas, his champion, should have no “taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandizement”.

All the disgrace and distress that the Aeschylean Prometheus had to endure was because he tried “stealing what belongs to the Gods”, the “choicest prize” of Zeus. But Shelley does not allow his Prometheus to make a compromise as demanded by tradition for the Greek hero. He attempts to abnegate all and any kind of reconciliation of his “Champion with the Oppressor of mankind.” The English lyric drama in four acts, however requires something that could be interposed between the the fall of Jupiter from the pinnacle and the unshackling of Prometheus. That’s why, Shelley introduces ‘Ocean’ and ‘Apollo’ in his play. The voice of the ‘Ocean’ is Shelley’s own creation and he sings hymn to celebrate the advent of a diviner day, “Henceforth the fields of Heaven-reflecting sea/ Which are my realm, will heave, unstain’d with blood…”

Thus the basic difference is, while the Greek mythic hero trades his secret for his freedom and “unsay(s) his high language”, Shelley’s Prometheus prefers to keep mum and carry on with his rebellion against Jupiter. While in the Aeschylean myth, Zeus reigns in Athens without worrying about being dethroned, in the Shelley-ean saga, Prometheus is highly resolute to end the tyranny of Jupiter. Thus the story which began with the cry of the Titan, “Pain, pain ever, for ever!”, ends with the screams of Jupiter, “I sink / Down, ever, for ever, down.”- drawing a complete circle.

In one of P.B. Shelley’s Bodleian notebooks scribbled are the following lines: “One sung of thee, who left the tale untold, / Like the false dawns which perish on the bursting…”. Here, “One sung of thee” might be referring to Aeschylus , who left the tale ‘untold’ providing Shelley with the starting point of his lyric-drama and letting him re-discover the myth.

Drawing its inspiration from the French Revolution, Shelley's 'PROMETHEUS UNBOUND' calls for rebellion against all forms of oppression and tyranny, enslaving human mind and soul, thereby, limiting one’s imaginative capability.