Prometheus Bound VS The Iliad

In Prometheus Bound, Oceanus is trying to persuade Prometheus. Oceanus is a longtime and loyal friend of Prometheus. He is at Prometheus’s punishment site to give advice about how to keep his punishment as small as possible. Prometheus, though, is openly speaking of how Zeus, the king of all the gods, is a terrible ruler, which Oceanus does not believe will help his cause. Oceanus describes his language as, “words that are whetted swords,” in a metaphor displaying Prometheus’s rashness. Oceanus is afraid that the words that Prometheus is speaking are too harsh and that

Besides the knowledge of their futures, another reason that Prometheus and Hector refuse to take advice is their pride. Prometheus becomes defensive after Oceanus gives him advice. He tells Oceanus, “let me be, and have no care for me,” (334). Even though these two have been together as friends for a very long time, Prometheus is too proud to stop criticizing Zeus and admit that he may have been wrong. He places greater importance on his own pride than his friendship with Oceanus. In Hector’s case, his pride not only means more to him than Priam, but more than life itself. Hector has the choice to “swallow” his pride and go back into the city of Troy, but because of his unsuccessful strategic plans for the Trojan army, he feels that he must redeem himself. The fact that his fight with Achilles will almost definitely end in death does not seem to bother him. Only his pride matters. “I feel…that someone who is less of a man than I will say of me: ‘Hektor believed in his own strength and ruined his people,’” said Hector after Priam gave him his advice (22.106-107). To retain his pride, Hector feels that he must stay out and fight Achilles, and makes it obvious that this is more important than anything else, including his father and the city itself.

This pride, along with the knowledge of their futures, is what stops Prometheus and Hector from listening to any advice, which in turn, leads to much suffering. This is where the major difference in the two stories can be seen. In Prometheus Bound, Prometheus is the only character who suffers, or is going to suffer. His actions have consequences that only affect him. Therefore, it may seem that he is justified in refusing advice because he does not have the ability to hurt others by his actions. On the other hand, in The Iliad, Hector is the only one who will not suffer because of his actions. Since he is already fated to die at the hand of Achilles, whether he stays outside the walls of troy or goes in has no effect on his life. His decisions do, however, have tremendous effects on the city of Troy and the people in it. If Hector goes back into the city, thus surrendering, the city of Troy will not be attacked to harshly by the Greeks. Since he stays out though,

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