Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound dramatizes the Greek myth of the Titan Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humanity. Aeschylus’s play draws on earlier literary sources, especially the poetry of Hesiod, in producing his retelling of the myth. In his Theogony, Hesiod tells of how Prometheus defied Zeus, the ruler of the gods, on a few occasions. First, Prometheus tried to trick Zeus into accepting the inedible portions of the animal as the gods’ share of animal sacrifices. When Zeus later punished humanity by keeping fire from them, Prometheus stole it back and gave it to humanity. Zeus responded by sentencing Prometheus to eternal torment, binding him to a cliff (or a pillar) and sending an eagle every day to eat his liver (since Prometheus was immortal, his liver would regenerate after the eagle devoured it, only to be devoured again on the following day). In another poem, Works and Days, Hesiod also describes in detail the way Zeus punished humanity for Prometheus’s deception through the creation of Pandora, the first woman.

Prometheus embodies several important mythical tensions between the gods and humanity.