Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics

Author(s): Hugh Lloyd-Jones

Source: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology , 2003, Vol. 101 (2003), pp. 49-72
Published by: Department of the Classics, Harvard University

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3658524

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3658524?seq=1&cid=pdf-
reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Harvard Studies in
Classical Philology

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ZEUS, PROMETHEUS, AND GREEK ETHICS

HUGH LLOYD-JONES

MUCH have
as been
theadmired,
literature and art of Greece before the time of Plato
the notion that the ethics of that period
might have much to teach us would have seemed bizarre to most people
even as late as the nineteenth century. While the aesthetic appeal of
early Greek religion has been uncontested, it has been looked down on
as a superstition which no thinking person could take seriously, and
early Greek thinking has been esteemed only so far as it could be
regarded as a preparation for the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle,
which helped the fathers of the Church to construct a religious philoso-
phy. Even atheists looked back to Epicurean philosophy rather than to
the ethics of the early Greeks, sharing the general assumption that
progress had been made since that time.
Early Greek ethics were very poorly esteemed in the days when the
theory invented by Hermann Frdinkell and propagated by Bruno Snell2
was fashionable. It was believed that since certain words did not occur
in the Homeric poems, their author or authors lacked various concepts
indispensable to modem ways of thinking. In particular, it was
believed that Homer had no coherent, articulated concept of the self,
and was therefore incapable of showing how a character made a deci-
sion. The doubts about this expressed by some people as early as the
sixties3 were thought highly scandalous; but I do not think we need to
worry about that now, although quite lately an American scholar

I Dichtung und Philosophie des friihen Griechentums (New York 1951; 2nd edn.
Munich 1962). English translation by Moses Hadas and James Willis, Early Greek
Poetry and Philosophy (New York 1973).
2 Die Entdeckung des Geistes (Hamburg 1946; 6th edn. 1986). English translation of
the 2nd edn. by T. G. Rosenmeyer, The Discovery of the Mind (Oxford 1953).
3 Albin Lesky, "G6ttliche und menschliche Motivierung im homerischen Epos," in SB
der Heidelberger Akademie, Phil.-Hist. KI. (1961) 4. Abh.; A. A. Long, JHS 90 (1970)
121-139; H. Lloyd-Jones, The Justice of Zeus (Berkeley 1971; 2nd edn. 1983) ch. 1.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 50 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

referred to Merit and Responsibility (1962),

author who accepts Snell's theory and goes on
a wholly inadequate conception of justice an
work."4
Nietzsche, of course, had shocked the public during the second half
of the nineteenth century by his criticisms of Socrates and Plato and his
advocacy of an outlook clearly indebted to the ethics of pre-Platonic
Greece. But until not so long ago most people thought Nietzsche hope-
lessly eccentric. As late as 1975, when I brought out an article about
him,5 the Canadian philosopher George Grant wrote "one looks with
fear as well as pleasure at the praise of Nietzsche from the Regius Pro-
fessor of Greek."6 I wonder what Professor Grant would think now that
one of the most distinguished moral philosophers of the western world,
Sir Bernard Williams, in his Sather Lectures, entitled Shame and
Necessity,7 has displayed, with much persuasive power, an attitude to
early Greek ethics which has much in common with that of Nietzsche.
"People have missed in Homer," Williams writes, "a will that revolves
around a distinction between moral and non-moral motivations." To
put it very roughly, for a Christian or a Platonist, there is only one
answer to most ethical problems; but in early Greece a man might legit-
imately hesitate between two or more answers. It is not that the early
Greeks were immoralists; Zeus was believed to have given men justice,
and to punish offenders against her. But they had not the Platonic and
the Christian conception of the soul, and of the nature of evil; they had
no word that corresponds to sin. Zeus was not the only god, and he was
remarkable not for goodness, but for power, and though he had given
men justice he regarded them with no special affection. Men did not
have souls as Plato and Christianity have conceived them, and their
after-life was not in heaven or in hell. The god who loved them was
Prometheus, to whom they did not pray; a character in Menander8
4 See the references to this work in The Justice of Zeus (listed in the Index of Modem
Authors on p. 253).
5 TLS, 21 February 1975 = J. C. O'Flaherty, T. E Sellner, and R. M. Helm eds., Stud-
ies in Nietzsche and the Classical Tradition (Chapel Hill 1976) = Blood for the Ghosts
(London 1982) 165-181; cf. H. von Staden, "Nietzsche and Marx on Greek Art and Liter-
ature: Case Studies in Reception," Daedalus, Proceedings of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences 105.1 (1976) 79-96.
6 Technology and Justice (Toronto 1986) 79.
7 Sather Classical Lectures 57 (Berkeley 1993).
8 Fr. 718 Kbrte-Thierfelder and Sandbach.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 51

remarked that all he got out of men was a torch-race. But W

finds that the religion of the early Greeks gave them certain adva
which are denied to believers in a morality closely linked to a bel
a single eternal and omnipotent deity, as the morality of most m
philosophers, including many who are not Platonists or Chri
certainly is.
The myth which helps us most to understand this important differ-
ence between Greek and modern ethics is surely the myth of Prome-
theus, and it may be instructive to look at it in this light. That myth
figures prominently in the Theogony and the Works and Days of Hes-
iod, and in the tragedy Prometheus Bound.
According to Hesiod, men had had an easier time under the rule of
Zeus' father Kronos, when they did not have to work to get a living.
After Zeus had taken over, the special patron of men was not Zeus, but
Prometheus. In the Theogony (507 f.) his father is lapetos, a son of
Ouranos and Gaia and hence brother of Kronos and uncle of Zeus; his
mother is Klymene, an Oceanid. In that poem (536 f.) Hesiod tells how
at Mekone, at the moment when regular social intercourse between
gods and men came to an end, Prometheus tricked Zeus into accepting
the inferior part of the sacrificed beast, and Zeus punished him by
depriving men of fire; then Prometheus stole it and gave it to men, and
was punished by Zeus. In that poem fire was important to men because
without it they could not sacrifice. But Hesiod tells us that Zeus gave
men Dike, who according to the Theogony was his daughter by Themis,
just as Protagoras in the Platonic dialogue that bears his name (322 C)
tells us that Zeus sent Hermes to bring Aidos and Dike to men. Unfor-
tunately Hesiod does not tell us how he came to do so. "Hesiod feels
equally emphatic about Zeus' power and about this justice," writes
Friedrich Solmsen,9 "but he does not feel equally emphatic about them
all the time; to put it somewhat crudely, the former aspect of his reign
dominates in the Theogony, the latter in the Works and Days." Also
Zeus gave to mortal kings the OeiCtot(rEg, according to which they gov-
erned their communities, even as he himself governed the universe; the
word &8~crl could signify the order in the universe, or in the various
human communities. Zeus also supports justice by punishing men's
crimes, even though the punishment often falls not upon the offender
but upon his descendants. In Homer there is nothing about Prome-

9 Hesiod and Aeschylus (Ithaca 1949; reprinted 1995) 133.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
52 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

theus; but both in the Odyssey and also (altho

Iliad, the working of this justice is apparent
patron Prometheus, but to Zeus; he had the po
One has to be a little careful in taking H
nature of men's beliefs and their attitude to
that of a peasant poet writing for peasants, a
semi-comic account of how Zeus punished m
fire by creating woman. His trickster Promet
of the Prometheus Bound, and we do not find
ousness of epic and of tragedy. In Hesiod f
because without it they cannot sacrifice; in th
important to them because without it the sk
civilization would have been impossible. In th
of Prometheus is Klymene; in the play, she i
unusually equated with Themis, the goddess
dar's Isthmian 8.26 f., it is Themis who reveal
danger threatening him, which in the PV is kn
No surviving author credits Prometheus wi
before the fourth century, when he is some
him out of clay, but already in Hesiod he
mankind, and in the pseudo-Hesiodic Cata
of Deukalion, the first man after the flood. H
post-Homeric epic the Titanomachia, which w
source of the account of him given by the m
after Pherecydes (FGH 3 F 17).11 But men di
were cults of him in a few places, but in Ath
torch-race.
However, we possess one tragedy in which
is presented, as it has seemed to most readers
great poet. But in recent times both the Aesc
literary quality of the play have been questio
matter of capital importance to determine wh
tioned rightly.
Is the Prometheus Vinctus really the wor
West, the latest editor of Aeschylus, returns
10 See frr. 2 and 4 Merkelbach-West.
1 See J. N. Bremmer, "Near Eastern and Native Traditio
the Flood," in F. G. Martinez and G. P. Luttikhuizen ed
(Leiden-Boston 1998) 41 f.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 53

'No,' and even if not every doubter has been quite so positi
the last thirty years many people have come to doubt its A
authorship.12 The first to doubt it was Alfred Gercke in 1911
helm Schmid, the learned historian of Greek literature,14 g
attention with the argument against authenticity which he a
1929. He found a limited number of supporters; but Mark Gr
his book The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound (Cambridg
lowed by his commentary of 1983, has found many. In the
O. P. Taplin, in The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford 19
argued for the same view; Sir Denys Page15 had entertai
doubts as early as 1972, and another doubter was R. P. W
Ingram.16 Martin West, whose Teubner edition of Aeschylu
ies in Aeschylus both appeared in 1990,17 has pronounc
(Studies 53) "sincerely puzzled as to why anyone who reads it
ical faculties switched on should persist in ascribing it to Ae
As early as 1938 D. S. Robertson suggested (PCPS 169-
9 f.) that Aeschylus may have left the trilogy incomplete, an
of the odes were supplied by his sons Euphorion and Euaion
nephew Philocles; Walther Kranz (Stasimon [1933] 226-
already suggested that the second and third stasimon
Aeschylean. West (pp. 68 f.) points out that Euphorion is sa
won four victories in the tragic competition with plays of h
that had not been previously exhibited; he believes that the
and the Lyomenos were written by Euphorion and passed
father's. One must agree with West that neither the brief
Aeschylean authorship by the late Giinther Zuntz (Hermes
498 f., reiterated in HSCP 95 [1993] 498 f.) nor the book of
Pattoni (L'autenticitti del Prometeo Incatenato di Eschilo
offer an effective defence of authenticity; neither does the v

12 The history of the discussion down to 1966 is well summarized by Iren

Das Altertum 12 (1966) 210-223 = H. Hommel ed., Wege zu Aischylos
Forschung 465.
13 Apud B. Laudien, "Bericht tiber den zweiten schlesischen wissenschaftlichen Ferien-
kursus," Zeitschriftfiir das Gymnasialwesen 65 (1911) 164-174.
14 Untersuchungen zum gefesselten Prometheus (Stuttgart 1929).
15 On p. 288 of his text of Aeschylus (Oxford 1972) Page wrote etiam de auctore
Aeschylo dubitatur.
16 Studies in Aeschylus (Cambridge 1983) 175 f.
17 Both were reviewed by me in Gnomon 65 (1993) 1-11 and by Malcolm Davies, CR
42 (1992) 255-263.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 54 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

B. Marzullo (I sofismi di Prometeo [Floren

take note of a far more effective defence, star
tory of the controversy, in Suzanne Said's
probleme du Promethide enchaine (Paris 1985),
seems not to know.
There can be no doubt that Griffith has shown that the style and lan-
guage of the play differ a good deal from those of the surviving works
of Aeschylus, and seem closer to those of the tragedies of the thirty
years or so following his death. But if the play is not authentic, it is
remarkable that no ancient author seems to have suspected it; the only
surviving tragedy that is generally considered not to belong to the
author under whose name it was transmitted, the Rhesus, was suspect
even in antiquity. C. J. Herington, whose book arguing for the play's
authenticity had appeared in 1970, in a careful review of Griffith's
Authenticity18 showed how unlikely it is that Aristotle and the Alexan-
drian scholars can have been mistaken.
In any case, how much do we know about Aeschylus? Seventy-
three plays are listed in the four columns of the catalogue in the
Medicean manuscript; Radt, TrGF 5 (1985) 58-59 lists another eight or
nine. There may have been a fifth column; if so, the number of plays
will have been ninety. It would appear that we possess less than ten per
cent of Aeschylus' work. Many great authors, like Shakespeare, have
been capable of writing in very different styles, and we cannot be sure
that Aeschylus was incapable of doing that. Satyr-plays are of course a
different genre, but Aeschylus wrote the Diktyoulkoi and the Isthmias-
tai, the fragments of which came as a rude shock to believers in
Aeschylus' quasi-Christian Zeus-religion when they were discovered.
Certain other fragments seem to be in a style somewhat different from
the usual style of Aeschylus; Karl Reinhardt19 thought this was true of
the papyrus fragment of the Niobe (fr. 154a Radt), and the same might
be said of the fragment of the Xantriai or, as I think likelier,20 Semele
(fr. 168 Radt) in which Hera appears disguised as a begging priestess.
Further, Aeschylus twice visited Sicily, and died there. It has been

18 AJP 100 (1979) 420-426; cf. The Author of the "Prometheus Bound" (Austin 1970);
see the careful review of this work by T. C. W. Stinton, Phoenix 28 (1974) 258-264 =
Collected Papers on Greek Tragedy (Oxford 1990) 91-97.
19 "Zur Niobe des Aischylos," Hermes 69 (1934) 233-261 = Tradition und Geist
(Gittingen 1960) 136-166.
20 See K. Latte, Philologus 97 (1948) 47 f. = Kl. Schr (Munich 1968) 477 f.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 55

argued that the comparative simplicity of the language and met

the play might have been due to its having been produced in that
try, and also that its staging required effects which could not hav
produced in the Theater of Dionysus but which in Sicily might
been possible. Also, it is remarkable that twenty-two lines of a
of Prometheus (351-372) are devoted to a description of Typhos
Mount Etna. Those lines closely resemble a passage in Pi
Pythian 1.13-28; some have argued for a common source, but it
ier to suppose that one of the poets, probably the tragedian, kn
work of the other. Pindar, like Aeschylus, visited Sicily as the gu
Hieron of Syracuse. Indeed a later tragedian could have modeled
sage on Pindar's work, but one is tempted to suspect that Aeschy
so because he had been in Sicily, quite possibly at the same t
Pindar. Certainly we ought to regard the authenticity of the play
caution; but are we obliged to share West's very positive view tha
spurious?
But even if it is not by Aeschylus, which one must agree is possible,
great importance attaches to what we learn about a legend of special
significance for the understanding of Greek religion and of early Greek
ethics from a tragedy which as we see from allusions in the Birds21 was
certainly well known in Athens well before the end of the fifth century.
But West's certainty rests partly on his very low estimate of the play's
quality and his disapproval of its theology, and here I am altogether
unable to follow him. "Its author writes iambics well," he writes, "and
he has considerable powers of imagination and description. But his
construction of scenes and of the play as a whole is inept, differing
from Aeschylus not just in accomplishment but in conception and
approach. His theology is irreligious; the story does not inspire him to
any but the most shallow and trivial moral reflection. He is a gifted but
brainless poet working with the literary techniques, stage resources, and
sophistic outlook of the 440's or 430's." Let us consider some of the
arguments by which West supports this view. One hesitates to differ
with marked emphasis from the author of so many learned works, but
fortunately I can be certain that he agrees with me that in the effort to

21 See N. Dunbar, Aristophanes, Birds (Oxford 1995) Index s.v. Prometheus Bound.
The Prometheus scene (Birds 1494 f.) makes it difficult to doubt that the play was known
to Athenian audiences in 414 B.c. Knights 758-759 may be an echo of PV 59; see
P. Groeneboom's note on that passage in his commentary on the PV (Aeschylus' Prome-
theus [Groningen 1928] 96).

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 56 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

find out the truth one should not shrink from

agreement even with an old associate.
West has constructed a "typology" to which
other than the Prometheus conform. The Pro
"does not fit into this pattern in any way. The
ety-clarification-denouement-adjustment is in
be surprised if all the tragedies that Aeschylus w
tern, and it is not easy to see how a play with
could be made to do so.
"It will not do," West writes (p. 56), "to say that this peculiar struc-
ture is determined by the peculiar nature of the story. It was the
author's own choice to have Prometheus bound at the start of a play; he
could just as easily have had him led away in bondage at the end of one
play and started the next where Lyomenos starts, a short time before his
release by Heracles." True, the author could have started the Prome-
theus in another way; but to me the prologue with the splendid opening
and the binding, accompanied by the exchanges between Kratos and
Hephaestus, seem particularly effective, as it has to many people before
me. Once the poet had Prometheus bound, there he was, and for the
time being had no one to talk to except the chorus of Oceanids and such
gods and humans as might make their way to the remote Caucasus.
There has been much discussion of the difficulty of representing the
binding, and anyone who credits the productions of tragedies with a
high degree of naturalism may find in this an indication of non-
Aeschylean authorship; but is it safe to do this? Suzanne Said (Sophiste
et tyran 47) has done well to remind us of some words of A. M. Dale
(Collected Papers [1969] 119):22 "since these texts were written for
performance, not with the idea of helping a reading public to visualize
the scene, or even of helping a subsequent producer to stage a correct
revival, the most precise indications often concern, somewhat paradoxi-
cally, what was invisible to the audience, or visible in so rudimentary a
form that they needed help in interpreting what they saw."
"The prologue," West complains (p. 54), "does not fit into the typol-
ogy represented by what is known of Aeschylus' work. Its extensive
use of dialogue, with all three actors on stage, is much more like
Sophoclean technique, as is the character-contrast between the 'hard'

22 They come from her inaugural lecture of 1960 at Birkbeck College, entitled "Words,
Music and Dance."

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 57

Kratos and the 'soft' Hephaestus." The dialogue between Krat

Hephaestus is surely most effective, rather like the dialogues be
Pelasgos and the leader of the chorus of Danaids in the Supplices
between Apollo and the leader of the chorus in the trial scene o
Eumenides. Did the poet really have to wait for Sophocles bef
could do it in this way?
In Prometheus' first monologue (88 f.), according to West
Titan vacillates absent-mindedly between despair ... and conf
that he knows exactly what is going to happen. A Medea m
through such dramatic shifts of mood, but Aeschylean characters
pretty steady idea of their standpoint in any given scene." Y
recalls that Pelasgos in the Supplices has some difficulty in mak
his mind as to how to receive the supplication of the Danaids, an
Electra in the scene that follows the parodos of the Choeph
uncertain what to do about her commission, and that later when
sees the footprints she is once more thrown into indecision; on
occasions she consults the Chorus. Prometheus knows that he has a
secret which will one day win him his release; but his present situation
is uncomfortable, and is likely to continue so for a long space of time.
In such a situation, what West calls his vacillation seems to me very
natural and by no means "absent-minded."
Next comes the entry of the Chorus. As to their means of arrival, the
individual winged cars argued for by Eduard Fraenkel23 are surely
preferable to the omnibus. Their entry and that of Oceanus on his grif-
fin have been thought by some people to help the case for Sicilian pro-
duction; Hieron's considerable resources may have made possible
effects that would not have been easy in the Theater of Dionysus; but in
any case what degree of naturalism in stage effects can we assume?
In tragedy in general the Chorus is not the mouth-piece of the poet
or of the gods, but an actor in the drama.24 In two surviving plays of
Aeschylus the individuality of the chorus is particularly marked. In
the Supplices the passionate determination of the Danaids and in the
Eumenides that of the Erinyes are unmistakable, as are the feminine
sympathy and lacrimosity of the Theban women of the Seven and
the Trojan prisoners of the Choephoroi, and the elders of the Persae and
23 ASNP, serie II, 23 (1954) 269-284 = Kleine Beitriige zur Klassischen Philologie I
(Rome 1964) 389-404.
24 See Gerhard Miuller, "Chor und Handlung bei den griechischen Tragikern," in Hans
Diller ed., Sophokles, Wege der Forschung 95 (1967) 212-238.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
58 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

the Agamemnon are likewise very clearly charac

Prometheus, the Oceanids are a suitable choice, c
thy and of the courage we can expect from daug
was surely regular for the nature of the chorus t
and meter of its utterances, and this might explai
the Oceanids is different from that of any othe
known to us. Also, the simpler meters of the lyri
their music, may well have been chosen out of co
rus which was Sicilian and not Athenian. The par
of a dialogue between Prometheus and the choru
unusual in later tragedies but is not found in sur
effective here; the sympathetic nature of the ny
of Zeus and the agony, the resolution and the det
theus are powerfully brought out. Already Prom
possession of a secret that one day will win him h
The first epeisodion begins with Prometheus' a
Titans rejected his advice to use cunning rather
struggle against Zeus, how in consequence togethe
this play Gaia, now significantly identified with
side and enabled him to win, as Themis does in H
planned to exterminate the human race, but was
theus. One would dearly like to know how the p
metheus was able to prevent it; was it by protec
are several stories connecting Prometheus with t
which Deukalion and his wife Pyrrha survived an
ance of the human race.25 In The East Face of H
493, West observes that there may have bee
Deukalion myth in the Titanomachia. According
Prometheus was Deukalion's father, and Stephani
that the figure of Prometheus in the Desmotes w
Ea in the Akkadian epic Atrahasis. Surely we mus
phal pointed out in 1869,27 Prometheus' accou
makes strongly against the notion that the Desm
play of a trilogy.
In the stichomythia that follows this monolog
the Chorus how he gave mortals hope. Before
25 For a bibliography see Bremmer (above, n. 11) 40 n. 9.
26 "Prometheus Orientalized," MH 54 (1994) 129-149; cf. B
27 Prolegomena zu Aeschylus Tragddien (Leipzig 1869) 206

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 59

men knew when they were going to die; Elias Canetti in his play
Numbered gives a vivid picture of the disagreeable effects of this
tion. Then he tells them that he has given men fire, from whic
will learn many priceless arts. After he has told them that he w
released only when Zeus pleases, the leader of the chorus declare
he has made a mistake, and urges him to try to find a means of
West complains that "this last admonition seems thoroughly illo
"How does the good nymph expect Prometheus to seek deliveranc
continues, "when she has just declared that there is no hope of
relenting?" But has she? I suppose he is thinking of 184-185,

the Chorus has declared that Zeus has d'Xitx iiOeE and
&natapdpw0ov; but that hardly justifies West's patronizing tone
finds it surprising that Prometheus urges the Chorus to listen
story in an "extraordinarily impassioned" way, and he does not
stand how their listening will be of advantage to him. I should
thought that the reason for Prometheus' emotion was clear enoug
I do not agree with West that his words were "incapable of gene
any dramatic tension or momentum." At this point Oceanus, as
puts it, "obtrudes himself." Like his daughters he is a relation; h
brother of lapetos, who in the Theogony is Prometheus' father,
Prometheus is a son of Gaia, Oceanus is presumably his brother.
(p. 56) complains that he "brings no news, illumination, or adva
ment." But it is surely understandable that he has come to of
intercede with Zeus, and he urges Prometheus to restrain his ang
to moderate his language. Prometheus' reply to his first speech
as follows:

?T& a' , o016VEIC' 9ito; ai-ri;icX Kupe;

drXvztv etXax~v lxo t CoFgI~J i ZEooi (330-331).

These lines present a textual problem. How can the force of the perxa-

in gertayXov carry over to the second participle teroXgKrlt;g? This is

enough to make the text suspect. J. D. Denniston, CR 47 (1933) 164
proposed to emend this to ndvrov werOxaExv o tefroXgII;C&;g *poi,
giving the sense "I envy you because you are free from blame, not hav-
ing dared to share in everything with me." The corruption could easily
have happened. The general sense is then a good deal better; if
Oceanus had shared in Prometheus' enterprise, he would hardly have
remained undetected, and he would hardly be in a good position to

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 60 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

intercede with Zeus and to claim (338-339) th

likely to succeed, a claim which West finds incom
one may well do if like the last two editors he r
reading in 331. It would also be easier to underst
which Prometheus rejects Oceanus' offer; note in

a'trlV ... novieitq, ei' tt icat novwvy 0JEt.

I have already pointed out that it may be signifi
in this scene devotes twenty-two lines (351-37
Typhos under Etna, a description closely resembl
1.15-28. If one believes that Oceanus was not a
metheus' plot, it is easier to understand the dialog
scene (373-396). Zeus is too angry to be reason
theus does not wish his relative to incur the wrat
finds that the scene ends "on a note of ludicrous
he writes, "Oceanus has changed from a determ
nervous poltroon who cannot wait to get hom
Oceanus' attitude is what Prometheus says at 3
uncertain and the sense not easy to determine. A
told him that Zeus is too angry to be reasoned wi
is the harm in trying, and Prometheus replies th
effort and his kindness is foolish. Oceanus replies
from that disease, since one gains from being tho
is sensible." If with the Medicean and most of
reads gyv 5oic"ioEt &giynkaiKmlg' evat, the mea
will think that I am making that mistake." What i
mistake"? Presumably the point is "I will be thou
point Oceanus sees that it is impossible to persua
metheus then makes it clear that he does not want his well-wisher to
suffer because of him, and Oceanus acknowledges the danger by point-
ing to Prometheus' own fate. Everything is clear, provided one does
not imagine Oceanus to be insincere, or like Taplin (Stagecraft 262)
believe that "he seems a dull, foolish and ineffectual old man," a view
which seems to me totally mistaken. Oceanus has shown courage in
making his offer-if he is insincere, why should he make it at
all?-and he has behaved with perfect dignity. The scene has
admirably achieved its purpose of bringing out the pride, courage, and
obstinacy of Prometheus. I see no "ludicrous bathos" in his allusion to
his mode of transport, which is appropriate to the divine status of

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 61

the person concerned and to the early period of mythical hist

which this play is situated.
The first stasimon (397-435) in Griffith's words "provides a
response to Prometheus' account of his suffering in the previo
and serves to deepen the mood of elemental pain and misery su
ing the Titan." It surely does this most effectively, apart from
strophic pair (if it is a strophic pair) at 425-435, which is certa
rupt and perhaps, as many scholars, including Griffith, have su
interpolated.
At 436 Prometheus, as West puts it, resumes his autobiography. His
distress is all the greater because he can claim the credit for having
placed the younger gods in power. He tells the Chorus how he taught
mortals the building of houses, the interpretation of the stars, numbers,
writing, the control of beasts of burden and of horses, ship-building.
When he follows this with the complaint that he, the author of all these
devices, cannot find a scheme that could release him from his agony,
West protests that he is well aware that he possesses a valuable bargain-
ing counter. But the time for that lies in the future, and Prometheus is
speaking of his "present pain." Prometheus continues, telling how he
introduced medicine, divination, and the discovery of precious metals.
The Chorus warns him not to take more care of mortals than of him-
self, and expresses the hope that one day he will be released and be no
less strong than Zeus. West is severe upon the poet for allowing the
Oceanids this exaggeration. Prometheus replies that it is only after
enduring many pains that he is fated to be released; his skill is far
weaker than Necessity (Anangke). Who controls Anangke? The Fates
and the Erinyes. Is Zeus weaker than they? He could not escape what
is fated. One remembers how in the Iliad 16.431 f. Zeus thinks of sav-
ing his son Sarpedon from death, but Hera reminds him that he cannot
set a precedent by saving a mortal, long since condemned by fate. Is
Zeus fated to rule for ever? Here Prometheus refuses to be questioned
further.

Now comes what West calls "the irruption of the distraught Io."
This person has great importance in another play of Aeschylus, the
Supplices; in that play she who has at first appeared as a miserable vic-
tim of Zeus' lust finally becomes a highly privileged beneficiary of
Zeus. "Similarities of conception, imagery and verbal detail," wrote
R. D. Murray in his valuable study of The Myth of lo in Aeschylus' Sup-
pliants (1958) 49, "conduce to the belief that the two dramas belong to

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
62 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

the same period, or that the poet wrote the s

cence of the earlier." This is true, and anyon
ticity of the PV would do well to reread the S
PV in mind. Io's first utterances are surely w
ing of the gadfly which is the ghost of Argo
dochmiac dimeter,

6 8 iropvezaxt 86Xtov tIR' xov

Ov o'i KcatOav6vTa yaica ccrFiOt (569-57

perhaps the most uncanny lines in all Greek

theus has identified her, it is scarcely surpr
questions him about her plight before he ha
tell her his name; but West complains that "
fails to conceal art." After the end of the lyr
promises to tell lo what she wants to know;
making Prometheus promise to speak frank
"Is it just that he likes all mortals?" he asks; b
this mortal is like himself a victim of Zeus,
ancestress of the man who will release him
(613-642) is in West's opinion "a particular
author's fumbling." Prometheus now tells Io
to tell her why he is being punished. We
promised to tell her everything; but she has a
in store for her, not to tell her about himse
that this will be distressing. West imagines t
thought "At last! What shilly-shallying!"; bu
so unimaginative? At this point the Oceanid
theus tells her of her wanderings in the fut
wanderings in the past. West hears the ghost
"How can anyone think I wrote this stuff?" I
anyone who was accustomed to the techniqu
poetry would feel that the poet has manage
narrative to another in a perfectly acceptab
talk down to them from the viewpoint of an
em realism. In fact they serve a poetic purp
to keep the audience in a state of suspense.
Even West concedes that "once embarked o
642), the poet writes excellently." Indeed

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 63

uncanny visions, the demands of the oracles for lo's expulsion fr

palace, her transformation, the guardianship of Argos and his s
end and her pursuit by the gadfly are surely memorable poetry.
683-704, West tells us with unrelenting realism, the poet "plunge
more into a morass of fussy arrangements." To me, however, the
tional passage, containing as it does the passionate reaction
Oceanids to lo's narrative, seems to have been rather well manage
There follows (707 f.) Prometheus' description of lo's future w
derings. Geographical narrative appears to have been a standard
of early tragedy; it figured in the Lyomenos as well as the Desm
The beacon speech of the Agamemnon is an instance of this, in th
made doubly effective by the device of making Clytemnestra sp
though the fires lit at the successive stations were a single flame
suggesting the notion of the movement of a fire of vengeance. A
instance is the scene in the Supplices in which Pelasgos outlines
Danaids the boundaries of his kingdom (249 f.), and in his next
(277 f.) explains his skepticism about the claim of the Dan
Argive descent by enumerating no less than six dark-skinne
whose members they resemble. In the first stasimon of the sam
(538 f.) the Chorus describe lo's own wanderings at conside
length. Just so Sophocles in his early play Triptolemos made De
describe to Triptolemos in some detail the route he was to take an
peoples to whom he was to explain the nature of agricultur
reminded Strabo28 of the way in which Dionysus in the prologu
Euripides' Bacchae lists the peoples he has visited in order to int
the culture of the vine. Like the catalogues of warriors in the P
and the Seven Against Thebes, not to mention the messenger's s
in Euripides' Phoenissae, this kind of thing would appear t
descendant of the catalogues of countries and of heroes found i
literature.

It must, I think, be granted that this particular speech of Prom

is a fine piece of work, bringing home to the audience the torm
which Io is to endure; not surprisingly she turns to thoughts of
Next West complains that the poet "makes one of his abrupt chan
subject"; but surely he manages the transition skillfully by maki
words remind Prometheus that in his own case suicide is not an o
so that nothing can release him but the fall of Zeus. That causes

28 1.2.20 p. 27 C. (1.29.23 Aly).

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
64 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

Chorus to ask if the fall of Zeus is really p

averted, Prometheus replies, if he himself we
shall release you," Io asks, "if Zeus is unwi
tells her that it is fated to be one of her own
teenth generation after her. Then the poet emp
sitional devices which vex West so much; Prom
between hearing the rest of her ordeal and hea
theus free, and then the Chorus persuade him
and themselves the second. I wonder if you are
a party game?," as West thinks the audience w
this point; he goes on to amplify his objection
Prometheus now describes Io's future wan
Gorgons, Graiai, griffins, and Arimaspians, an
where the Nile will guide her into Egypt. In or
he is no vain prophet, he then describes her w
through Molossia and Dodona and to the sea th
At Canobus Zeus will restore her sanity, and
seems to me significant that he tells at conside
the Danaids, a story to which Aeschylus devot
presents Io's story in some detail and in a way
sion in the Desmotes. About the valiant archer who is to release him he

now says little. Now the gadfly renews its attacks, Io's madness
returns, and she departs.
This leads the Oceanids to sing the third stasimon (887 f.), in which
they meditate on the danger presented by a sexual partner of over-
whelming power, and express the hope that they will never arouse the
desire of Zeus. Griffith, in his commentary of 1983 (p. 243), writes of
this chorus: "It would have been easy enough to use ambiguous lan-
guage, to suggest the possible danger to Zeus of such marriages
(thereby putting us in mind of Thetis); but no such hints are to be heard
in this ode." But would the hints have been necessary? It seems to me
significant that the person who represents a danger to Zeus is in this
play not Metis, as in the Theogony 886 f., but, as in Pindar's Isthmian
8.26 f., Thetis, who happens to be an Oceanid. In the later stages of the
Danaid trilogy, one particular Danaid assumes a special importance;
this is Hypermnestra, who unlike her sisters spares her husband, is
prosecuted by her father and defended by Aphrodite, and will become
the ancestress of very important descendants, including Herakles.
Thetis was certainly mentioned in the Lyomenos (fr. 202b Radt), in a

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 65

tantalizing but very lacunose fragment from Philodemus' De p

quoted by Radt ad loc. It would seem not unlikely that in this
also one member of the group that supplied the chorus of the fi
took on special prominence, and that this explains why the Ch
the third stasimon dwells on the danger of being attractive to Ze
After the scene with lo Prometheus is carried away by prid
resentment, and in a speech of magnificent defiance (907 f.) h
claims that the curse of Kronos will be fulfilled and Zeus will be over-
whelmed by his formidable son. In a stichomythia of which every
word is to the point, the Chorus first suggest that he is describing what
he would like to happen, but Prometheus declares that it is also what
will happen. Will Zeus be mastered by another? Yes, he will endure
torments even worse than these. Is Prometheus not afraid to utter such
words? "Why should I be afraid," he answers, "I who am immortal?"
The Chorus remind him that Zeus could make his ordeal even worse.
"Well, let him do it!" Prometheus replies, "I can expect anything."
"Wise," reply the Chorus, "are they who pay reverence to Nemesis."
"Do reverence, pray, fawn on whoever has the power!" says Prome-
theus, "for Zeus I care less than nothing! Let him act, let him rule as he
pleases for this brief space of time! He shall not rule over the gods for
long."
West (p. 63) finds that Prometheus' altercation with Hermes, partic-
ularly the stichomythia 964-986, is largely an unedifying exchange of
insults, which at times reach a childish level. "The play," he continues,
"is often admired for the grandeur of its theme, the cosmic setting, and
vast time-scale. But the personnel are a petty-minded crew who
scarcely measure up to their environment and status." As I see it, it is
not in the play that the childishness and the petty-mindedness are to be
found. But the main fault which West finds in the scene with Hermes is
in the portrayal of the Chorus; up to now they have been timid crea-
tures, who see no good in any opposition to Zeus, but now they bravely
defy Hermes and volunteer to share the fate of Prometheus. "Dramati-
cally effective it may be," writes West, "but it is still a typical example
of this author's readiness to change his characters' standpoint ad hoc
without giving a thought to consistency. Aeschylus would have
planned things much more carefully." However, sensitivity and anx-
iousness can go together with courage, and these relations of his,
daughters of a Titan, have already given abundant proof of their deep
sympathy with Prometheus. Walther Kranz, Stasimon (1933) 171, 222,

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
66 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

226 has drawn attention to other behavior on t

which may be thought to exhibit psycholo
nearest thing to this in Aeschylus is the be
women in the Seven, at first deeply distressed
later firm in remonstrating with Eteocles on a
tion to fight his brother. A celebrated case of t
in a much later tragedy, the Iphigenia in Aulis
1454a) remarked on the anomalia of the heroin
West (p. 64) finds that the lyrics of this play
ous little songs," surpassed "in depth of thoug
power" by all other odes of Aeschylus; he give
ments expressed in them which is designed to
their banality. It seems to me that the lyrics
Oceanids, just as the lyrics of the Supplices ar
Danaids and those of the Eumenides are chara
Much ink has been spilt over the problem of h
to disappear. "Ne s'agit-il pas," writes Suzanne
53), "d'un faux probleme qui ne se pose qu't pa
pr&tons aux spectateurs antiques une exigence
fait la nrtre?"
The theology of the play, West tells us (p
argues (p. 63) that "it is hard to imagine Aesc
see things so completely from the viewpoint
without giving hints through the chorus or th
there is another side to the story." It would see
belief in an Aeschylean exalted Zeus-religio
something like the Christian god,30 is so deepl
minds that they cannot understand that it is h
behavior when his power was threatened s
tyrannical. The account in the Agamemnon
was worsted by Kronos and Kronos by Zeus is
this. But it is impossible to discuss the theolog

29 Such changes of attitude are dealt with by Albin Lesk

W Kraus (Vienna 1972) 209-226; Bernard Knox, GRBS
Action (Baltimore 1979) 231-249; and in more detail Joh
Greek Tragedy, Hypomnemata 106 (1995) 226 f; for this s
30 On which see Lloyd-Jones, "Zeus in Aeschylus," JH
Papers I (Oxford 1990) 238-261 (German translation
H. Hommel ed., Wege zu Aischylos, Wege der Forschung

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 67

out taking account of the fragments of the Lyomenos, of the ot

vant fragments, and of the problem of the trilogy, if indeed th
trilogy.
We have fragments, including a notable choral lyric passage, of the
Prometheus Pyrkaeus; but that we know to have been the satyr-play
accompanying the trilogy to which the Persae belonged. The catalogue
in the Medicean manuscript mentions a Prometheus Pyrphoros, and
some people, including Griffith in his commentary, have believed that
this was the first play of the trilogy. But since Westphal in 186931
pointed out that Prometheus' narration of past history in the first
epeisodion indicates that the Desmotes was the first play of the trilogy,
most scholars have taken that view. It seems clear that the Lyomenos,
which is surely by the same author, followed the Desmotes. Zeus has
now released the other Titans, who form the chorus, having arrived to
visit Prometheus early in the play (frr. 190 and 193). Every third day
Prometheus' liver is again eaten by the eagle. The scholia on Apollo-
nius 2.1248 agree with Apollodorus 2.5.11 in telling how Herakles
came to the Caucasus on his way to fetch the golden apples of the Hes-
perides; they cite Pherecydes on the parentage of Prometheus' eagle
(FGH 3 F 7), and it seems not unlikely that Apollodorus' account of
Herakles' journey is based on that writer;32 who may well have fol-
lowed the Titanomachia. It is clear that Prometheus gave Herakles
directions; it was on his advice that Herakles did not go himself to fetch
the apples, but sent Atlas to do so while he held up the sphere. We
have several fragments from this scene which come from geographical
catalogues like those in the Desmotes and in Sophocles' Triptolemos.
At what stage Herakles shot the eagle is uncertain. We have only the
one line of his prayer to Apollo to make the arrow go straight; but it has
been suggested that he shot the bird to reward Prometheus for having
given him directions. According to a scholion on Virgil Ecl. 6.42, Her-
akles after killing the eagle was at first afraid to release Prometheus for
fear of offending his father; it looks as if he learned how Prometheus
came to be there only after having killed the eagle. But later Prome-
theus deterred Zeus from intercourse with Thetis, warning him of the
danger, and then Zeus rewarded him by releasing him, accepting Chi-
ron's renunciation of immortality in favor of Prometheus and obliging

31 See above, n. 27.

32 See above, n. 11.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
68 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

him to wear a wreath and a ring in memory

Desmotes (1026 f.) Hermes has told Promet
released unless another immortal renounces
favor. Chiron, of course, was not one of the
from Ixion's intercourse with the cloud, but
nymph Philyra, and therefore half-brother to
theus. It looks very much as if Herakles helpe
ment; as a favorite son of Zeus by a mortal w
Zeus to be said to have fought for the gods aga
person particularly well qualified to do so.
extract from Zeus as part of the settlement s
the Desmotes (187 f.) the Chorus says that Zeu
himself"; Hesiod (Op. 279), like Protagoras in
gave Dike to men, and says much about he
Odyssey and in the Iliad, it is clear that in a g
that Dike prevails among men. Surely in the P
came about as part of the settlement with Pr
not to say that the character of Zeus "developed
circumstances caused him to change his p
Glaube der Hellenen II [1932] 134; cf. Winn
[above, n. 16] 180) helpfully pointed to the an
tude of the Eumenides.
Some people have thought that the Prometheus Pyrphoros men-
tioned in the catalogue in the Medicean manuscript and in two quota-
tions (frr. 208 and 208a) was the third play of the trilogy. But if all this
was part of the Lyomenos, it is hard to see how there can have been a
third play to follow, and Prometheus Pyrphoros may have been another
way of referring to Prometheus Pyrkaeus. Can there have been a dil-
ogy? There is no evidence that such a thing existed. Of course the tril-
ogy might never have been completed. But may there not have been a
third play which did not have Prometheus in its title? Here we are in
the dark; but I cannot help mentioning a guess of my own, cautiously
put forward in my book The Justice of Zeus33 97 f. This was that the
third play of the trilogy was the Aitnaiai (Women of Etna). We possess
a remarkable papyrus fragment of Aeschylus, published in 1952 (fr.
281a Radt; cf. fr. 451n), in which Dike herself is found talking with the
chorus of the play, which seems to consist of citizens of a city to which

33 See above, n. 3.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 69

she has been sent. Since Zeus overthrew Kronos, she says, he ha
her honor; for Kronos had been the aggressor in their quarrel,
she had been on Zeus' side. Zeus sends her, she continues, to
whom he desires to benefit. Eduard Fraenkel in 195434 suggeste
this came from the Women of Etna, which Aeschylus, according
ancient life of him,35 wrote "as an omen of a good life" for the
of the new city of Aitna, founded by Hieron, and produced hims
Sicily. The suggestion that the Prometheus trilogy was produ
Sicily was first made by Droysen in 1832, was revived by Be
1884 and by Koerte in 1920, and was argued with learning and i
ity by Friedrich Focke in 1930.36 It was Focke who pointed out th
difficulties of staging might have been lessened if the play was n
formed in Athens, and that the comparative simplicity of the l
might be explained if they were sung by a Sicilian and not by an
nian chorus. He also observed that the long passage about T
under Etna in the Desmotes, closely resembling a passage in t
that Pindar composed for the celebration of the founding of th
city, called Aitna, would have been most appropriate in a Sicilian
duction. Supposing that in the Lyomenos Zeus promised to send
among men, he might well have sent her first to Sicily, inhabit
such savage races as the Cyclopes and the Laestrygones. The
were located at Leontini, one of the places at which part of the ac
the Aitnaiai took place.37 The Laestrygones who killed som
Odysseus' crew were a mere remnant, most having been kil
Herakles when he came after the cattle of Geryones. Diodoru
came from Agyrion, near Leontini, says that it was in this region
Herakles was first worshipped as a god. Perhaps the Laestrygone
unwelcoming to Dike, so that Herakles was obliged to deal with
It may not be irrelevant that according to Pausanias 9.25 th
Kabeiroi in the Theban cult, to whom Demeter entrusted its mys
were Prometheus and his son Aitnaios. The connection of Prometheus

34"Vermutungen zum Aetna-Festspiel des Aeschylus," Eranos 52 (1954) 61-75 =

Kleine Beitrdge (above, n. 23) 249-262.
35 TGrF III p. 34, 1.32.
36 J. G. Droysen, Aischylos, Die Tragodien und Fragmente (Berlin 1832) 311;
T. Bergk, Griechische Literaturgeschichte III (Berlin 1884) 311-312; A. Koerte, Neue
Jahrbiicher fiir das klassische Altertum 23 [45] (1920) 201-213; F. Focke, Hermes 65
(1930) 259-304.
37 See R Oxy. 2257 (in TGrF III p. 126).

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
70 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

with Hephaestus, a god often linked with th

Samothrace was not far from his base in Lem
apart from the mention of it at the begin
named in the Desmotes (366 f.) as the site of
league of Prometheus, Hephaestus. Against th
15 n. 47 objects that it involves "a perform
Sicily, with a rather abrupt movement away
third play." "Around 470" is certainly a diffic
to minimize its difficulty. As to the other ar
ber that not all the original audience of t
guessed that the trilogy would end in Athens.
Despite the mystery that surrounds the pro
can make out enough about the release of Pr
modation with Zeus to have a general notion
With West's pronouncement that that theolo
"no theology at all," I have no sympathy w
Aeschylus was the author, and though I think
not maintain that this is certain. It is easy t
the play fits in with that of the works of Aesc
religion of the Greeks before the time of Plat
According to West, speaking of the gods in
tionship of these gods to mankind is simply t
weaker." Exactly, and that is what it continue
early Greece. West says that these gods, with
theus, have no concern for men. Certainly t
men in general, and though Prometheus will
men Dike and to become the patron of stran
will never become a champion of mankind in
metheus is. Zeus is called, and is in a certain
did not create the universe, he is not eterna
immortal Prometheus, and if Prometheus had
would have shared the fate of his two prede
and sacrificed to Zeus and not to Prometheus;
at Athens all he had in the way of honors
ensures that men's crimes against each other
it was easy to observe that guilty persons of
people believed that the punishment of Zeus o
dants of the offenders, as, to take a notab
Gyges was visited upon his descendant Croes

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Zeus, Prometheus, and Greek Ethics 71

date we find occasional mention of a judgment of the dead and the pu

ishment of evil-doers in the next world; but this was not the gener
belief.
Zeus was of course not the only god, and he and other gods also ha
a special concern for certain individuals and certain communities, as
well as a special hostility towards others. A special devotion to o
god might lead to a dangerous failure to honor another, as the case
Hippolytus in Euripides' play named after him clearly shows us. Eve
their favorites among mortals are not treated by these gods wit
Christian consideration. Io, in the Supplices as well as in the Prome-
theus, is a case in point. Even Zeus cannot at first protect her again
the enmity of Hera; true, she is finally released, and she becomes t
ancestress of glorious descendants, but not until she has endur
unspeakable torments. Anyone tolerably well acquainted with Greek
legend will remember numerous similar cases; in the Ion and
Antiope of Euripides, a poet whose attitude to religion is still misund
stood by people who have not entirely shaken off the burden of the t
some ingenuities of Verrall, the fate of the heroines is comparable w
that of lo. The stronger tribe deals ruthlessly with the weaker;
the Odyssey Poseidon pursues Odysseus for having blinded his son t
Cyclops, even though he has been forced to do so in order to save t
lives of his sailors and himself, with the result that he gets home on
with great difficulty, having lost all his crew, has to contend with se
ous troubles when he gets there, and would not have survived at
without the active intervention of Athena, a deity whose influence w
Zeus made her even more powerful than Poseidon. Even with the he
of oracles and prophets, men cannot understand the ways in which t
gods act upon human life; they do not live long enough, and they hav
not the necessary intelligence, so that even when they have an oracle
guide them, they will often misunderstand its words. This kind
belief in the possibility of inscrutable action upon human affairs by a
of a number of higher powers has the advantage of keeping people
mind of the ever-present danger of accidents and the need for Tyc
for luck. Before we patronize the gods on the score that they did n
exist, we should remember that they stood more or less for forces t
can be seen working in the world. This religion has the advantage o
making it easier for its believers to understand why this world is as i
than it is for believers in a religion whose god is like the god of Chr
tianity.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 72 Hugh Lloyd-Jones

If one bears these facts in mind, it is easy to s

pre-Platonic Greece are as Williams describes
notions of the will, of duty, and of obligation. A
and certainly since the beginning of the Christia
has been dominated by the assumption that there
ethical problem, that there can be no conflict b
there are true answers to the central problems of
when Vico and later Herder pointed out that the v
tures were often incompatible and drew attention
clash between different values that may complic
different actions, a different kind of ethical think
tence. This need not entail relativism, but rathe
can understand different values, and we can cho
Isaiah Berlin, whose whole work centers upon th
tion, has written (The Crooked Timber of Hu
notion that One is good, Many--diversity-is b
in the Platonic tradition." "Even Aristotle," he c
that human types differ from each other, and that
social arrangements is called for, accepts this as a
but without any sign of approval; and with very
view seems to prevail in the classical and mediev
seriously questioned till, say, the sixteenth centur
thanks to their religion the Greeks before Plato
position of taking a different view, being free from
is only one answer to every ethical question and t
constituted that human reason could penetr
Ronald Syme once remarked to me that the most
the student of antiquity is that of explaining w
mountainous and for the most infertile, should w
short space of time have laid the foundations of
ence. It seems to me that a central element in any
of that problem must be an understanding of the
Greeks derived from the hard realism of their early

CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD

38 1 am grateful to Professors Rudolf Kassel and Mary Le

tance.

This content downloaded from

46.196.73.207 on Sat, 01 Apr 2023 19:48:34 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms