Prometheus

Byron’s goal in “Prometheus” is to relate the ancient Greek titan to the modern human. He wishes to express the idea that suffering and sacrifice can represent victory over death and the oppressors who wish to hold us down. While the Romantics (and other artists) looked to the Prometheus myth for different reasons, including its connection to innovative and scientific thought and its notion of individuality, Byron is chiefly concerned with Prometheus’s rebellion, suffering, and response to suffering.

The speaker illustrates this early in the poem when he introduces the concept of suffering not in Promethean terms, but in human terms. What initially brings about Prometheus’s suffering is his compassion for “[t]he sufferings of mortality” (Line 2). For the titan’s empathy, Byron asks, “What was thy pity’s recompense?” (Line 5). This question is answered right away: “A silent suffering, and intense; / The rock, the vulture, and the chain / All that the proud can feel of pain / The agony they do not show; / The suffocating sense of woe” (Lines 6-10). In essence, Prometheus receives suffering as punishment for his empathy for human suffering.

This moment in the poem introduces an important aspect that the speaker focuses on, which is Prometheus’s response to suffering.