Prometheus And Faust

The comparison made between Prometheus and Faust occurs so frequently in modern scholarship as to seem commonplace. However, while each figure has been investigated separately, no recent full-length study has brought the two characters together and examined the association. The present volume explores the Prometheus myth from its preliterary origins through treatments in Greek by Hesiod, Aeschylus, Plato, and Lucian, as well as in Latin literature and Roman theatricals. The investigation continues into hitherto unexplored connections with the Greek figure and the magus and occult scientist types of late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and Renaissance. The Prometheus and Faust traditions met in literature and art soon after the emergence of the historical Faustus. The traditions continued to exist independently through the 16th and 17th centuries, until Goethe began to write a play about each character. Ultimately Goethe abandoned Prometheus; however, Faust absorbed much of the Promethean persona.

Explores the Prometheus myth from its Classical origins to its connections with Faust legend and Goethe's attempt to write both Prometheus and Faust plays.

Booknews

Wutrich (humanities and rhetoric, Boston U.) burrows under the often perceived similarity between Prometheus and Faust to find the point by point correspondences, any systematic differences, and the confluence of the two traditions, especially in drama where both have found their fullest expression. He moves from the Greek representation of the divine rebel to the Roman, then the surprising Medieval and Renaissance treatments where he finds the beginning of the convergence. He also looks at the 18th-century German revival of interest in both characters, and Goethe's apparent ambivalence regarding them. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

TIMOTHY RICHARD WUTRICH is Associate Professor of Comparative Arts at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.