Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads

Secondary Education


Guides
Collections
News
(0)
Wish List (0)
Wish List
Download high-resolution image Look inside

Prometheus Bound

Author Aeschylus
Introduction by Joel Agee
Translated by Joel Agee
Look inside
Paperback
$14.95 US
New York Review Books | NYRB Classics
5.02"W x 8"H x 0.34"D  
On sale Mar 24, 2015 | 100 Pages | 978-1-59017-860-7
| Grades 9-12 + AP/IB
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
Prometheus Bound is the starkest and strangest of the classic Greek tragedies, a play in which god and man are presented as radically, irreconcilably at odds. It begins with the shock of hammer blows as the Titan Prometheus is shackled to a rock in the Caucasus. This is his punishment for giving the gift of fire to humankind and for thwarting Zeus’s decision to exterminate the human race. Prometheus’s pain is unceasing, but he refuses to recant his commitment to humanity, to whom he has also brought the knowledge of writing, mathematics, medicine, and architecture. He hints that he knows how Zeus will be brought low in the future, but when Hermes demands that Prometheus divulge his secret, he refuses and is sent spinning into the abyss by a divine thunderbolt.

To whom does humanity look for guidance: to the supreme deity or to the rebel Titan? What law controls the cosmos? Prometheus Bound, one of the great poetic achievements of the ancient world, appears here in a splendid new translation by Joel Agee that does full justice to the harsh and keening music of the original Greek.
Aeschylus (525 bc–456 bc), the first of ancient Greece’s major dramatists, is considered the father of Greek tragedy. He is said to have been the author of as many as ninety plays, of which seven survive.

Joel Agee is a writer and translator. He has received several prizes, including the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin in 2008 and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize for his translation of Heinrich von Kleist’s verse play Penthesilea. He is the author of two memoirs—Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany and, more recently, In the House of My Fear. His translation of Prometheus Bound was produced at the Getty Villa in 2013. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Aeschylus View titles by Aeschylus
“Prometheus’s rebellion is the rebellion of life against inertia, of mercy and love against tyranny, of humanity against cruelty and arbitrary violence.” —Thomas Merton

“Joel Agee has found exciting ways to vivify the speeches with apparently scrupulous fidelity to sound. In this English, the poetry slashes like modern verse and the direct address boasts a blunt immediacy that exhorts us to consider our own issues with the State, with individualism and obedience, with the larger consequences of war and despoilment. It blows away the dated rhetoric of such predecessors as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Lowell.” —Myron Meisel, The Hollywood Reporter

About

Prometheus Bound is the starkest and strangest of the classic Greek tragedies, a play in which god and man are presented as radically, irreconcilably at odds. It begins with the shock of hammer blows as the Titan Prometheus is shackled to a rock in the Caucasus. This is his punishment for giving the gift of fire to humankind and for thwarting Zeus’s decision to exterminate the human race. Prometheus’s pain is unceasing, but he refuses to recant his commitment to humanity, to whom he has also brought the knowledge of writing, mathematics, medicine, and architecture. He hints that he knows how Zeus will be brought low in the future, but when Hermes demands that Prometheus divulge his secret, he refuses and is sent spinning into the abyss by a divine thunderbolt.

To whom does humanity look for guidance: to the supreme deity or to the rebel Titan? What law controls the cosmos? Prometheus Bound, one of the great poetic achievements of the ancient world, appears here in a splendid new translation by Joel Agee that does full justice to the harsh and keening music of the original Greek.

Author

Aeschylus (525 bc–456 bc), the first of ancient Greece’s major dramatists, is considered the father of Greek tragedy. He is said to have been the author of as many as ninety plays, of which seven survive.

Joel Agee is a writer and translator. He has received several prizes, including the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin in 2008 and the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize for his translation of Heinrich von Kleist’s verse play Penthesilea. He is the author of two memoirs—Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany and, more recently, In the House of My Fear. His translation of Prometheus Bound was produced at the Getty Villa in 2013. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Aeschylus View titles by Aeschylus

Praise

“Prometheus’s rebellion is the rebellion of life against inertia, of mercy and love against tyranny, of humanity against cruelty and arbitrary violence.” —Thomas Merton

“Joel Agee has found exciting ways to vivify the speeches with apparently scrupulous fidelity to sound. In this English, the poetry slashes like modern verse and the direct address boasts a blunt immediacy that exhorts us to consider our own issues with the State, with individualism and obedience, with the larger consequences of war and despoilment. It blows away the dated rhetoric of such predecessors as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Lowell.” —Myron Meisel, The Hollywood Reporter

Additional formats

Related Articles
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month
English Language Arts Social Studies

Books for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Every May we celebrate the rich history and culture of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Browse a curated selection of fiction and nonfiction books by AANHPI creators that we think your students will love. Find our collections of titles here: Middle School High School

Read more

Books for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month

English Language Arts Social Studies
new penguin random house education high school collections sixteen thematic collections and resources for grades 9-12 curated by lorena german cicely lewis morgan taylor julia e torres and ronell whitaker
Graphic Novels General Classroom Libraries English Language Arts Advanced Placement High School

PRH Education High School Collections

All reading communities should contain protected time for the sake of reading. Independent reading practices emphasize the process of making meaning through reading, not an end product. The school culture (teachers, administration, etc.) should affirm this daily practice time as inherently important instructional time for all readers. (NCTE, 2019)   The Penguin Random House High

Read more

PRH Education High School Collections

Graphic Novels General Classroom Libraries English Language Arts Advanced Placement High School
education translanguaging collections affirming bilingual and multilingual learners
References Science Translanguaging Collections Social Studies The Arts History High School Middle School General Graphic Novels Education & Professional Learning English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series Classroom Libraries

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

References Science Translanguaging Collections Social Studies The Arts History High School Middle School General Graphic Novels Education & Professional Learning English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series Classroom Libraries
education classroom libraries the heart and soul of any curriculum
General English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Classroom Libraries Social Studies Environmental Science The Arts History Middle School Graphic Novels

PRH Education Classroom Libraries

“Books are a students’ passport to entering and actively participating in a global society with the empathy, compassion, and knowledge it takes to become the problem solvers the world needs.” –Laura Robb   Research shows that reading and literacy directly impacts students’ academic success and personal growth. To help promote the importance of daily independent

Read more

PRH Education Classroom Libraries

General English Language Arts Favorite Authors & Series References Science Classroom Libraries Social Studies Environmental Science The Arts History Middle School Graphic Novels

About Secondary Education

Penguin Random House Education

Penguin Random House

About Secondary Education

Penguin Random House Education

Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Secondary Education
    Wish List (0)