Meta Description: Join Dr. Jeff Winkle and Dr. David Noe in Ad Navseam Episode 132 as they conclude Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound. Discover the tragic wanderings of Io, the true nature of Zeus’s tyranny, the origins of Frankenstein, and resources to master the Latin language.
Introduction: Brisket, Blue Books, and Spoken Latin
Welcome back, classical gourmands, to Episode 132 of the Ad Navseam Podcast! Broadcasting directly from the subterranean depths of the bunker on a cool, pleasant October evening, your hosts, Dr. David Noe and Dr. Jeff Winkle, fire up the microphones for another deep dive into classical antiquity.
The episode kicks off with some seasonal banter. Dave jokes that if the weather outside were just a little less brisk, you could accurately call it a “brisket”. Turning to academic life, Jeff notes he currently wades knee-deep through a massive stack of midterm blue books. When Dave asks about his grading methodology, Jeff jokingly claims he simply tosses the booklets down the stairs or spins a giant carnival wheel to assign grades. In reality, both professors share the common frustrations of evaluating student writing. Dave reminisces about scribbling a giant “AWK” (awkward) next to clunky sentences, or utilizing the perfect Latin adverb inepte (unsuitable) to describe arguments that completely miss the mark.
Dave also shares some exciting travel news. He plans to head down to the great state of Texas to visit Baylor University. There, he will co-host the Biduum Baylorense, a two-day immersion conference dedicated entirely to speaking the Latin language alongside former podcast guest Dr. Patrick Owens.1
Listener Mail: Frankenstein and the Modern Prometheus
Before tackling the main text, Dave and Jeff open the mailbag to deliver a well-deserved shout-out to Michael J. Stell, the Dean of Rhetoric at Redeemer Classical Christian School in Maryland.
Michael writes that teaching modern literature requires a firm grasp of the classical canon. He specifically praises the podcast’s ongoing analysis of Prometheus Bound for helping him prepare his spring curriculum on Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, famously subtitled The Modern Prometheus.
This specific reference prompts a fascinating detour into Mary Shelley’s genius. Dave marvels at the historical reality that Shelley drafted the foundational manuscript for Frankenstein during a single, fevered nine-hour writing marathon when she was only eighteen years old. Dave and Jeff also take a moment to combat a common pop-culture pet peeve: they remind their audience that “Frankenstein” is the name of the arrogant doctor who created the life, not the groaning, square-headed monster with the neck bolts.
Theodicy and Tyranny: Reevaluating Zeus
The core academic focus of Episode 132 officially wraps up the podcast’s three-part series on Aeschylus’s tragedy, Prometheus Bound.
To set the intellectual stage, Jeff pulls an opening quote from Stephen White’s 2001 article, Io’s World, Intimations of Theodicy in Prometheus Bound. White actively challenges the standard, widely accepted interpretation of the play. Most audiences naturally view Zeus as a cruel, arbitrary despot and see Prometheus as a righteous rebel suffering unjustly for aiding humanity. Dave fondly recalls his own undergraduate professor describing the Greek conception of Zeus simply as “a big brute that refuses to die”.
However, White argues that reading the play purely as an anti-tyranny manifesto misses a deeper, structural nuance. White suggests the play actually dramatizes a necessary process of cultural submission and acculturation to the authority of Zeus. In this creative reading, Prometheus represents unrestrained, arrogant male intelligence that lacks civic moderation, while the wandering maiden Io represents untamed, wild female sexuality. White argues that Greek society requires both of these extreme forces to suffer intense ordeals until they finally submit to the established social order.
Dave and Jeff find this thesis highly suggestive but ultimately unpersuasive, particularly regarding Io. They quickly point out that Io never willingly transgressed any boundaries; she serves merely as a pure, innocent victim of Jupiter’s lust and Juno’s wrath, making White’s claim that her creative energies need “harnessing” feel like forcing a square peg into a round hole.
Promethean Irony and the Gifts to Humanity
Returning directly to the text, the hosts examine Prometheus’s famous speech to the chorus of Oceanids, utilizing the excellent translation by Professor Deborah Roberts.
Prometheus proudly lists the magnificent gifts he bestowed upon miserable, cave-dwelling mortals . He actively taught humanity how to read the rising and setting of the stars, invented mathematics, established written language to preserve memory, yoked beasts of burden to carry heavy loads, and crafted sailing ships with linen wings.
Despite possessing the brilliant foresight necessary to elevate the entire human race, Prometheus finds himself hopelessly trapped. He laments, “I found all these contrivances for mortals, but to my sorrow I have no device by which to escape my present misery”. Jeff astutely labels this tragic, narrative contradiction “Promethean irony”—the creator of all problem-solving devices utterly lacks a device to solve his own suffering.
The Sufferings of Io: Cow Transformations and Gadflies
The play shifts dramatically when the maddened maiden Io stumbles onto the stage. Before examining Aeschylus’s text, Dave reads a section from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (translated by A.S. Kline) to provide the necessary mythological backstory regarding her current state.
In Ovid’s telling, Jupiter (Zeus) spots the beautiful Io, casts a heavy blanket of fog over the earth, and brutally assaults her. When his suspicious wife Juno investigates the strange weather patterns, Jupiter hastily transforms Io into a gleaming white cow to hide his infidelity. Juno sees right through the transparent lie, demands the cow as a gift, and places the poor girl under the guard of Argus, a terrifying monster boasting one hundred eyes.
Jupiter eventually sends Hermes to rescue Io. Hermes plays his reed pipes, speaks in a droning nasal monotone, puts all one hundred of Argus’s eyes to sleep, and murders the beast. Enraged by the assassination, Juno sends a bloodthirsty gadfly and the actual ghost of Argus to relentlessly chase the bovine Io across the globe.
When Io finally encounters the chained Prometheus, Aeschylus highlights her profound, undeniable humanity. Despite enduring unending physical and mental torture, her very first question asks what crime Prometheus committed to deserve such a terrible punishment. She demonstrates deep, genuine compassion for another’s pain before even mentioning her own agony.
The Prophecy, the Earthquake, and the Sophoclean Hero
Prometheus reluctantly reveals the horrifying extent of the wanderings Io still faces. However, he provides her with a crucial sliver of hope (elpis).
Prometheus foretells that Zeus plans to make a disastrous marriage. The woman Zeus chooses will bear a son destined to become vastly stronger than his father, eventually stripping the tyrant of his scepter. Only Prometheus knows the identity of this dangerous woman. Furthermore, Prometheus reveals that Io will eventually travel to Egypt and birth a son, Epaphus. Generations later, one of Io’s descendants—the mighty hero Heracles—will finally arrive at this very mountain and shatter Prometheus’s chains.
The play quickly hurdles toward a discordant, violent climax. Hermes arrives on the scene, acting not as the jovial trickster god, but as the arrogant, sneering mouthpiece of Zeus. Hermes demands that Prometheus immediately reveal the secret prophecy regarding the marriage. When Prometheus defiantly refuses, Hermes threatens him with a horrifying new punishment: a bloodthirsty eagle will visit the rock daily to feast upon the Titan’s regenerating liver.
Prometheus completely refuses to bow. In the final lines of the tragedy, the earth violently shakes, thunder roars from the depths, and fiery lightning flashes across the sky. As Zeus casts him down into the abyss, Prometheus cries out to the heavens, demanding the universe bear witness to how unjustly he suffers.
Before closing the academic segment, Dave reads a fascinating quote from Bernard Knox’s The Heroic Temper. Knox suggests that Prometheus’s unyielding, solitary defiance against overwhelming odds essentially forged the prototype for the legendary, stubborn heroes that Sophocles would later write about. There is also an exciting piece of classical news: modern researchers using artificial intelligence and X-ray computed tomography successfully read words off the carbonized Herculaneum scrolls, raising incredible hopes that lost classical tragedies might soon reenter the modern canon.
Sponsors: Fueling the Classical Renaissance
Before sharing the parting shot, the hosts extend their immense gratitude to the generous sponsors who support the podcast.
- Hackett Publishing: Operating for over fifty-two years out of Indianapolis and Cambridge, Hackett produces highly accessible, affordable academic texts . If listeners want to read Prometheus Bound or pick up Professor Deborah Roberts’s upcoming translation of The Persians, Hackett offers the perfect solution . Go to hackettpublishing.com, fill your cart, and use the code AN2023 for a 20% discount and free shipping on the entire order.
- Ratio Coffee: Discard those cheap, plastic coffee makers and invest in a premium morning ritual. Mark Hellweg engineered the stunning Ratio 8 and Ratio 6 machines to deliver a flawless, automated pour-over experience. Listeners can also anticipate the upcoming release of the highly accessible Ratio 4. Visit ratiocoffee.com and use the code ANCOF7 (the ‘F’ stands for Flavonoids) for 15% off your purchase.
- The Moss Method & Latin Per Diem: Take ancient Greek from “neophyte to erudite” by visiting mossmethod.com. Dave reads a striking quote from W. Sidney Allen highlighting how few men in 13th-century Latin Christendom knew any Greek grammar, emphasizing the incredible modern privilege of having access to these languages today. Additionally, to master the Latin language entirely from the ground up, check out latinperdiem.com to learn via Hans Ørberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata .
The Gustatory Parting Shot
To officially close out Episode 132, Dave delivers a short, classic Gustatory Parting Shot courtesy of the famously cranky vaudevillian comedian, W.C. Fields .
Fields, who famously disliked children and possessed a deep love for alcohol, offered this excellent piece of culinary advice:
“I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food.”
A special thanks goes out to Mishka the sound engineer for her record turnaround times, and to Scott Van Zen and Ken Tamplin for providing the blistering guitar riffs. Buy a podcast T-shirt, beware of suspicious cows, and keep taking in the classics. Valete!
