¹ The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound (Cambridge 1977). See also Taplin, O., The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford 1977) 460–9Google Scholar.

² The suggestion that this could mean ‘the next play’ in some collected edition is absurd, particularly in view of the second passage. Ancient critics never refer to other plays in such a way.

³ Initial anapaest in the trimeter (Griffith 77 f.); irregular caesura in anapaests (Griffith 70 f.); address with the bare proper name (Griffith 120 f.).

⁴ The hypothesis of a dilogy (Bernhardy, Dindorf, Bergk, Focke) cannot be supported by any solid parallel, so far as the Dionysia are concerned. It would be possible at the Lenaia, when it was the custom for tragic poets to exhibit two plays, though we do not know that these were ever connected in subject. This option is not available to those who maintain that Desm. is by Aeschylus, as tragic performances at the Lenaia only began c 440.

⁵ Against Lloyd-Jones, 's theory that it was the Aitnaiai see the just criticisms of Taplin 464 fGoogle Scholar.

⁶ There is no contradiction, since these are not meant as precise numbers. Cf. 257 f., 512.

⁷ JHS xcv (1975) 184–6.

⁸ See in general Nachmanson, E., Der griechische Buchtitel (Darmstadt 1969)Google Scholar.

⁹ Die griechische Tragödie ¹ 70 ff. = 2nd edn 77 f. Cf. Fitton-Brown, A. D., JHS lxxix (1959) 53Google Scholar; Griffith 15 f.

¹⁰ PV 109, after Hes. Th. 567, Op. 52; also on vases, perhaps after Aesch. Prom. Pyrkaeus.

¹¹ Griffith 11 f.; add Ach. 704 ~ PV 2.

¹² See below on Ly. Was any play of Aeschylus made so much use of by comedians?

¹³ Certain of the things Prometheus says in it might be echoes of the trilogy: 1500 and three times in Desm., not otherwise in Aeschylus); 1514 (Prometheus might have said this to the Titans in Ly., alluding to the disaster that awaited Zeus if he did not buy Prometheus' secret); 1538 Zeus' thunderbolt may have been important in the trilogy as the foundation of his power, cf. PV 922. In Eum. 827 f. it is Athena who alone has access to the building where it is kept. In Pl Prol. 321d it is from the house that she shares with Hephaestus that Prometheus steals fire, though in Desm. we only hear of Hephaestus as its owner. Plato, at least, was thinking of the Periclean Hephaesteum overlooking the agora, shared by Hephaestus and Athena.

¹⁴ The passage goes on to relate the nailing of Prometheus to the Caucasian rock for 30,000 years, the eagle, and its dispatch by Heracles. Another account, ‘Probus’ on Virg. Ec. vi 42, says ‘fúrem Iuppiter ínsequebatur, sed ille, qui non posset subterfugere, in silicem ferulam adlisit eique ignem commendauit’.

¹⁵ The injunction to pray does not exclude the addres sees' being divine themselves. Hera prays to Earth, Heaven and the Titans in h. Hom. Ap. 332 ff.; the Erinyes pray to their mother Night in Eum. 321 and 844 and to the Moirai in 961.

¹⁶ Fraenkel, E., Proc. Brit. Acad. xxviii (1942) 245Google Scholar ff.; Snell, , Gnomon xxv (1953) 435Google Scholar f.; Lloyd-Jones, , appendix to the Loeb Fragments of Aeschylus, p. 562Google Scholar.

¹⁷ In the genuine Aeschylus, , Eum. 3Google Scholar, Themis is the daughter of Ge and her successor as incumbent of the Delphic oracle.

¹⁸ Cf. 110. Later, in 442 ff., Prometheus speaks as if mankind has already acquired all its arts, directly taught by him. The poet's conception has clearly evolved between the first passage and the second, and nothing of what is new in the second must be projected back into Pyrph. By 714 there are iron-working Chalybes. It is doubtful what, if any, sense can be given to the statement in 331 that Oceanus shared and dared everything with Prometheus. He cannot have played any part in the theft of fire.

¹⁹ Hesiod may have considered them so. See my notes on Th. 187 and Op. 145–6.

²⁰ I suspect that the gnomological tradition has substituted for (cf. PV 103, 512, 518–19, 753, 815, Ly. fr. 326. 3) and for

²¹ Trag, adesp. 161 N, cf. PV 22 f. The fragment can only be addressed to someone who is going to be kept immobile in the open for a long period.

²² Tradition und Geist 210 n.

²³ Unterberger, R., Der gefesselte Prometheus des Aischylos (1968) 134Google Scholar. She believes that Pyrph. was the third play.

²⁴ As have Strabo iv 1.7 (fr. 326a M) and the writer of the Desm. Hypothesis, It is clear from 422 and 719 that the scene is not the Caucasus. To suppose that Prometheus emerged from the rock's embrace (1019) in a completely different place, for the sake of absolving Cicero from his error, is the height of absurdity.

²⁵ Lightning struck a tree: Tz. Lye. 227, cf. Hellan. 4 F 71, Diod. i 13.

²⁶ CRBS xiii (1972) 409 ff.

²⁷ Op. cit. 423, 428. Cf. especially Pers. 659

²⁸ 4 τύμβου δ' ἐπ' ὂχθω τᾠδε Hammond 436 f.

²⁹ The main exception is Andromeda's rock. Pirithous was also bound to a rock, but the Pirithous may have been composed before 430; at least if it is by Euripides, it belongs to his early work. The rocky peak from which Euadne leaps in Suppl. 980–1071 rose up behind the skene; it is fully discussed by Hourmouziades, N. C., Production and Imagination in Euripides 32Google Scholar f. Rocky caves in which people live (Ichneutae, Cyclops, Philoctetes, etc.) are essentially different; they were certainly represented by adapting the skene. On them see Jobst, W., Die Höhle imgriech. Theater 24Google Scholar ff.

³⁰ Amott, P. D., Greek Scenic Conventions 61–3Google Scholar, 137. In Sophocles' Polyxena (fr. 523 + Long. 15. 7) Achilles' ghost apparently rose from his tomb; this may have been an early play.

³¹ Dörpfeld, , Ath. Mitt. xlix (1924) 89Google Scholar; Pickard-Cambridge, , Theatre of Dionysus 15Google Scholar ff.; Hammond 410 f. It is now known that the newer temple of Dionysus behind the Skene area does not date from this period but from the fourth century: Deltion xviii (1963) χρον 14 f.

³² Cf. Taplin, , Stagecraft 240Google Scholar f.

³³ Hammond 421.

³⁴ Thomson, G., CQ xxiii (1929) 160Google Scholar f., and Aeschylus: The Prometheus Bound 142–4.

³⁵ Cf. Griffith 144, Taplin 259 f.

³⁶ E.g. Sikes and Willson, Prometheus Vinctus of Aeschylus xlvi; Focke, , Hermes lxv (1930) 282Google Scholar f.; Pickard-Cambridge 39; Unterberger 10; Webster, , Creek Theatre Production 12Google Scholar; Arnott 76 f.; Hammond 424.

³⁷ Arnott 43.

³⁸ A surprisingly popular option: Wilamowitz, , Hermes xxi (1886) 610Google Scholar= Kl. Sehr, i 161, Aisch. Int. 116, Headlam, Smyth, Mazon, Groeneboom, and others.

³⁹ Fraenkel, E., Kl. Beitr. i 389Google Scholar ff.

⁴⁰ Sikes-Willson xlvi, Pickard-Cambridge 39, Arnott 76, Taplin 254, Hammond 424, etc.

⁴¹ See Coulton, J. J., JHS xciv (1974) 1–19Google Scholar, and Greek Architects at Work 84, 144.

⁴² Ar. Pax 174, fr. 188; Ar. and Strattis in P. Oxy. 2742 fr. 1.

⁴³ See P.Oxy. loc. cit., Poll, iv 128, 131; Pickard-Cam-bridge 127 f.; Arnott 72–5. I am not sure whether the τροχός which the operator may ἐλᾶνεκάς in Ar. fr. 188 is a winch enabling the actor to be lowered from the boom, or simply the counterweight with which the operator guides the machine.

⁴⁴ The argument is not greatly affected if the chorus was of fifteen. Taplin 323 n. 3 suspects that the tragic chorus always numbered fifteen. As he observes, the ancient statements that Sophocles increased it from twelve to fifteen may be based solely on the belief that Ag. 1348–71 implies a chorus of twelve. But to me that belief seems justified (cf. Fraenkel's edn, iii 633–5; Pickard-Cambridge, , Dramatic Festivals of Athens ²235Google Scholar). What we lack is any equally good evidence from the plays that the chorus ever numbered fifteen. Presumably it did attain that size before the end of the fifth century, for it is not likely to have been increased at any later date in view of the chorus's declining significance. But a later writer may have ascribed the change to Sophocles simply because he came next after Aeschylus, for whom twelve was attested.

⁴⁵ Not even Clouds or Birds.

⁴⁶ On the left, if Poll, iv 128 may be taken as evidence for this period.

⁴⁷ Hammond 414.

⁴⁸ I infer this from the post-holes in the breccia base, originally ten in number, which held the support posts of the skene façade: they extend over a distance of 28·5 m.

⁴⁹ The crane operators perhaps lift the counterweights up onto supports, so as not to be suddenly supporting them themselves, and then unhook them and swing the booms back.

⁵⁰ Schmid, Wilhelm, Untersuchungen zum gefesselten Prometheus 5–15Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Against this theory of Wilamowitz and others see Taplin 256 f. In 281 χθονί τῇδε πελῶ they tell us as clearly as could be wished that they are alighting on the ground in full view of everyone.

⁵² He does not in fact give the chorus much to say in the later scenes with Io and Hermes.

⁵³ The manoeuvre could perhaps have been speeded up a little by using Oceanus as the counterweight to a pair of his daughters. A couple of stage-hands would have to hoist him up on their shoulders when the Oceanids dismounted and then bear him round towards the fence; two others would seize the free end of the boom as soon as it came within reach and haul it down, and Oceanus would be up and away. All this may of course be far from the truth, but it is important to discuss these questions in the most concrete practical terms.

⁵⁴ [Hes.] fr. 30. 4–10, cf. Apollod, i 9. 7; Soph. fr. 10c. 6, and probably his Salmoneus.

⁵⁵ Σ Ar. Nub. 294, Poll, iv 130, Tz.prol. de com. 33 p. 22 Kaibel; Haigh, , The Attic Theatre ³218Google Scholar; Pickard-Cambridge, , Theatre of Dionysus 133Google Scholar; Amott 89 f.

⁵⁶ Scholars are perhaps at present too taken with the idea of effects being left to the imagination in ancient drama. One has only to read the plays of Kālidāsa to appreciate the difference between drama which limits itself to what it is possible to represent visually, as the Greek does, and drama which does not, as the prop-less, scenery-less Sanskrit does not. And we know, for example, that when someone was supposed to be flying in a Greek play, he was really hoisted through the air.

⁵⁷ Cf. Hammond 423.

⁵⁸ I am indebted to Dr David Bell of the Oxford Department of Geology and Mineralogy for instruction in these matters.

⁵⁹ Convention allowed characters to walk in at the start of a play and take up a position which for the purposes of the drama they were supposed to have been in for a considerable time. See Taplin 134–6.

⁶⁰ Merely a dramatic device to underline the lapse of time, or did his complexion have to be brought into accord with a statue familiar to the Athenians? A potters' god might have a scorched and sooty face; cf. Hom. Kantinos 22 f. with Richter, G. M., The Craft of Athenian Pottery 76Google Scholar f.

⁶¹ Fr. 322. Cf. PV 1 284 f. 298 f.

⁶² Cf. PV 730–5 and 790; Bolton, J. D. P., Aristea; of Proconnesus 56Google Scholar f. is suspect in fr. 322 ( have been conjectured); perhaps Arrian took from an earlier metron. The Titans must have crossed the river to reach Prometheus on the European side.

⁶³ H. Weil, p. xi of his edition of the play; Wilamowitz, , Aisch. Int. 151Google Scholar. See Hes. Op. 173a–c, Pind. Ol. ii 70 ff. For the genuine Aeschylus (Eum. 650–5) Kronos is still in bondage.

⁶⁴ Str. i 1.5, iii 2.13, Mela iii. 10. Juba 275 F 44, Ptol. iv 6.34.

⁶⁵ There seems a clear allusion here to Pericles' deposition from the strategia. Lenaia 429 follows as the probable date for the Ploutoi. So Luppe, W., Wiss. Zeits. d. MartinLuther-Univ. Halle-Wittenberg xvi (1967)Google Scholar Gesellsch. u. Sprachw. Reihe, 1.68,83. A series of fragments of Varro's Prometheus Liber come from a passage in which the bound Titan described his sufferings in terms no doubt largely inspired by Aeschylus (423–7 Buecheler); they include (424) turn ut si subernus cortex aut cacumina / morientum in querqueto arborum áritudine, (425) atque ex artubus / exsan-guibus dolore emírescat colós, (427) leuis méns umquam som-nurnas imagines / affatur, non umbrantur somno púpulae.

⁶⁶ Reinhardt, , Hermes lxxxv (1957) 12Google Scholar ff. and Eranos-Jb xxv (1957), both in his Tradition und Geist (182 ff., 221). Reinhardt assigns the fragment to Pyrph., but his reconstruction of it is altogether too hypothetical.

⁶⁷ See W. Schmid, op. cit. 9–11 and 69.

⁶⁸ This hypothesis apparently inspired the similar epiphany of Erda in Das Rheingold (Maas, P., Kl. Schr. 650Google Scholar). An Apulian calyx-crater of about the third quarter of the fourth century, decorated with a painting based on Ly. (the play as a whole, not any particular scene), shows a featureless female to the right of the bound Prometheus, but her identification as Ge seems to be arbitrary. (Berlin 1969. 9; Webster-Trendall, , Illustrations of Creek Drama iii 1Google Scholar. 27.)

⁶⁹ Wilamowitz, , Aisch. Int. 128Google Scholar, is evidently none too happy with it, but finds no better one.

⁷⁰ This is certain in view of fr. 332, where Heracles, prays that Apollo may guide the arrow straight. Rightly Reinhardt, , Trad. u. Geist 219Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Apollod, ii 5.4.4–5, 5. 11. 10, from Pherecydes, cf. 3 F 83 with jacoby.

⁷² ii 5.11.10. The Vatican epitome omits In ii 5.4.5 we should read (instead of ) (sc. ) Prometheus intruded from a gloss on

⁷³ PMG 181 = S 19; surely not on his way back, when he had a herd of cattle to manage.

⁷⁴ Weil, , Études sur le drame antique 78Google Scholar, 80, followed by Zieliński, , Tragodumenon libri tres 34Google Scholar ff., pointed out that the Chiron story properly belongs to a version where Prometheus is punished in Hades-Tartarus (Hor. C. ii 13.37, 18.35) and does not make much sense in one where he is punished in the upper world. One can envisage Heracles' mediation in the context of the Cerberus Labour: he could as well converse with the bound Prometheus in Hades as with the bound Pirithous in the play of that name. Our tragedian knows something about Prometheus being consigned to Hades, but makes this a dramatic interlude (in more senses than one); above p. 140. Chiron's desire to die might have prompted the remark (fr. 706, fab. inc.)

⁷⁵ Heracles releases him also in ApollOd, ii 5. 11. 10 (Pherecydes? but Σ A.R. iv 1396 = 3 F 17 mentions only shooting the eagle), Hyg. Fab. 144, Pediasimus 11.

⁷⁶ 771 ( Pauw) is not to be taken as counter-evidence. As Weil explained (op cit. 91), it means ‘if’ (or ‘seeing that’) Zeus is unwilling.

⁷⁷ They must be broken either by strength or by art; if not by Heracles, then by Hephaestus who made them. So Schmid 100.

⁷⁸ In this context one might put fr. 625 and adesp. 410 (the two verses are not to be separated, for the first would not have been quoted for its own sake; the addressee is surely Heracles, and the speaker another philanthropic god).

⁷⁹ Hes. Th. 215 f., 274–94, 333–6. 517–9; Stes. S 7–8 with Robertson, C. M., CQ xix (1969) 215Google Scholar f. Hesiod evidently knew an eighth-century epic on the subject. He represents the serpent who guards the apples as alive and well (336), whereas later authors say Heracles slew it.

⁸⁰ It is hard to see why the poet should have changed the Abioi, Homeric (Il. xiii 6)Google Scholar into Γάβιοι (329. 3), as Σ Hom. l.c. and Stephanus of Byzantium assert. Possibly the originator of this statement mistakenly combined the word which begins a trimeter, with a stichometric symbol; Γ¯ (300) would be a surprisingly low figure, but one could also think of Ī (900).

⁸¹ Conceived to flow down from the Rhipaean mountains and divide into the Danube and Po. In Σ A.R. iv 282–91 b (p 28. 8–10 W) read Cf. p. 281. 9–12.

⁸² Hyginus says that the Ligyans were encountered on the return journey, and that they tried to rob Heracles of Geryones' cattle. But at least the second part of this is an invention; Strabo quotes the original verses, and they say not a word about the cattle. Heracles may have returned through Africa, or the poet may have said nothing about his return route, having already dealt with all other sectors of the earth in connexion with 10 and the Titans.

⁸³ Cf. Hyg. astr. ii 15 p. 53. 10–16 Bunte. On the Attic Promethia see Farnell, , Cults of the Creek States v 378Google Scholar ff.; Wilamowitz, , Aisch. Int. 142–4Google Scholar; Deubner, , Attische Feste 211Google Scholar f.; Kraus, , RE xxiii 654Google Scholar f.

⁸⁴ Ath. 674d= fr. 334. Cf. ‘Prob.’ on Virg. Ec. vi 42, Hyg. Astr. ii 15 p. 54. 15–18. Athenaeus and Hyginus treat this as the aition for festive wreaths in general. Athenaeus has earlier quoted a passage of Menodotus (541 F 1) according to which Prometheus' wreath was of withy, and so perhaps in Aeschylus' Sphinx fr. 181. Artistic representations show him with a diadem or a wreath of bay or willow even before his release: Eckhard, , RE xxiii 707Google Scholar f., 712, 719 f. Apollod, ii 5.11.10 says (Heracles) which seems to be confused. Several authors say also that Prometheus put on an iron finger-ring with a piece of the rock set in it (‘Prob.’, Hyg.; Plin. HN xxxiii 8, xxxvii 2), but this is not ascribed to ‘Aeschylus’, and Hyginus implies that his authority for the ring did not mention the crown.

⁸⁵ It seems to be Herodotus who attaches the conventional location by Cadiz.

⁸⁶ Vürtheim, , Stesichoros' Fragmente u. Biographie 20Google Scholar, goes much too far in inferring that the poem was ‘eine ganze Heraklea’ in which ‘sämtliche Taten des Herakles werden vor Augen geführt’.

⁸⁷ 3 F 16–17, 75–6, 7~ Apollod, ii 5. 11.

⁸⁸ Zeus and Themis are the parents of the Horai and Moirai in Hes. Th. 901–6.

⁸⁹ For Nereus see Paradox. Vat. 33 P. 110 Keller (omitted by Page) The episode is shown on vases from the early sixth century.

⁹⁰ Avien, ii 179, ‘where the unknown South retreats’, never allowing the traveller to find its limits. Not understood by Matthews, V., Panyassis of Halikarnassos 70Google Scholar.

⁹¹ Cf. Pirith. TrGF 43 F 3. 5 (the two Bears Eur. HF 403

⁹² Illustrated e.g. in H.-V. Herrmann, Olympia pl. 57; Boardman, , Greek Art 120Google Scholar.

⁹³ Similarly on a white-ground lekythos by the Athena Painter, Athens 1132: E. Haspels, Attic Black-Figure Lekythoi pl. 47.3; Boardman, Athenian Black Figure Vases fig. 252.

⁹⁴ See Matthews, op. cit. 12–19, with my qualifications in CPh lxxi (1976) 172–4.

⁹⁵ For this visit see jacoby, RE Suppl. ii 226–9, 233—42, 247. Lygdamis' tyranny belongs to the 450s (Matthews 16 f.), and Herodotus was in Halicarnassus for a time after its fall (Suda; Jacoby 225).

⁹⁶ AJA xliii (1939) 618 f.; xliv (1940) 212. Cf. Brommer, F., Satyrspiele ²45–9Google Scholar.

⁹⁷ Weil, op. cit. 75; Wilamowitz, , Aisch. Int. 133Google Scholar.

⁹⁸ See Guthrie, , History of Creek Philosophy iii 63Google Scholar ff.

⁹⁹ Soph. Ant. 332 ff., Eur. Supp. 201–13, Crit. F 19, etc.; Guthrie iii 79 ff.; Dodds, , The Ancient Concept of Progress 7Google Scholar ff. The twentieth Homeric Hymn is undated, but probably of the same period.

¹⁰⁰ 310e: Hippocrates was a child the first time, and is still νεώτερος, whereas Socrates was old enough to have become acquainted with him the first time.

¹⁰¹ Aly, , RhM lxviii (1913) 539Google Scholar n. 1; Schmid 17 f.; Groeneboom, on PV 644Google Scholar; Griffith 296 n. 13.

¹⁰² The Hephaesteum is believed to have been begun c 449 and to have been completed in the late 440s, but an exact date cannot be given.

¹⁰³ See Frazer on Paus. i 30. 2; Deubner, Attische Feste

¹⁰⁴ Some kind of reorganization of torch-races at the Hephaestia and Great Panathenaea in 421/0 is attested by IG i² 84, but the inscription is not well preserved.