Philosophical Analysis On The Evolvement Of Prometheus’ Image

The image of Prometheus is the classical image in the ancient Greek mythology and ancient Greek Philosophy. In classical works in different times philosophers elaborated the image, but they focused on different aspects, so in different works they added some contents. In this thesis, the author will select the representative works to analyze and compare the image of Prometheus, and try to understand philosophically the evolvement of Prometheus’ image.This thesis will select Hesiod’s theogony and works and day, Aeschylus’ Prometheus bound, Plato’s Protagoras, Shelley’s liberated Prometheus and Marx’s Doctoral Dissertation, in which different images of Prometheus were exhibited and those images are representative. In the present age the French writer Abel Camus mentioned the image in his Myth of Sisyphus. The author will sum up the change of Prometheus’ image and its meaning.This thesis is divided into seven parts that includes five chapters, introduction and conclusion. In the "Introduction", the reason of selecting subject and the related research literature are introduced. In the Chapter 1, the author mainly introduces the main contents in the works and days and theogony, analyses the similarities and differences between the image of Prometheus in two works, and especially from the perspective of the relationship between God and man analyses the differences. In the second chapter, the author mainly discusses the overview of Aeschylus’ trilogy, and focuses on Prometheus bound and from the relationship between the fate and the skill analyses the similarities and differences of the image of Prometheus between the works and the former works. In the third chapter, the author narrates firstly the background in which Plato wrote Protagoras; secondly treats the differences of Prometheus’ image between the works and the former works; thirdly through introducing the story that Protagoras tells, analyses the similarities and differences of Prometheus’ image between the works and the former works from the angle of “the art of politics”. In the fourth chapter, the author analyses Shelley’s liberated Prometheus, and expounds “freedom” through Prometheus’ image. In the fifth chapter, the author discusses Prometheus’ image in Marx’s Doctoral Dissertation, and treats Prometheus from the angle of philosophical opposition to religion. The last part is the conclusion of the thesis.