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Io
The Titan god of oceans and streams. Okeanos goes to Prometheus’s aid when Prometheus is chained to the mountain, and intends to go to Zeus and appeal to him on Prometheus’s behalf. Like his daughters, the chorus, Okeanos is compassionate and sympathetic of Prometheus’s predicament, but Prometheus implies that Okeanos shouldn’t be so kind to him. “Witness the friend of Zeus,” Prometheus says to Okeanos, “who helped create the tyrant’s rule.” Zeus came to power over the Titans, of which Okeanos is a god, only with Prometheus’s help. Now, Prometheus suffers at the hand of Zeus, and it is a Titan god who comes to save him. Prometheus warns Okeanos, the one who “escaped all blame”—Okeanos was not sent to Tartaros with the rest of the Titans after the Battle of the Titans—that he has “risked everything to lend” Prometheus his “support.” Okeanos’s compassion and sympathy could summon the wrath of Zeus, and Prometheus doesn’t want Okeanos to suffer after having miraculously escaped Zeus’s anger once already. Okeanos ultimately leaves Prometheus and agrees not to go to Zeus, but his kindness and support remain until he goes. Also like his daughters, Okeanos represents the comfort of compassion in the face of suffering, which Aeschylus implies is widespread among gods and humans alike.
Okeanos Quotes in Prometheus Bound
The Prometheus Bound quotes below are all either spoken by Okeanos or refer to Okeanos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prometheus Bound
Quotes
To know my brother Atlas stands,
at the gates of evening, bearing upon his shoulders
the weight of heaven and earth, too vast
for his encircling arms, gives me no comfort.
With grief as well I saw the earthborn dweller
in Cilicia’s cave, the hundred-headed monster
Typhon, conquered, his fury violently subdued,
who once braved all the gods with gruesome jaws,
hissing out terror, eyes ablaze, aiming to crush
the sovereign tyranny of Zeus. But flying
down against him came Zeus’ weapon, the sleepless,
fire-breathing thunderbolt, which cast him
out of his triumphant boast, for he was struck
in the very middle of his power, and all his strength
turned into ash. And now, a sprawling, helpless form,
he lies pressed down, close by the narrows of the sea,
beneath the roots of Aetna.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Okeanos Quotes in Prometheus Bound
The Prometheus Bound quotes below are all either spoken by Okeanos or refer to Okeanos. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prometheus Bound
Quotes
To know my brother Atlas stands,
at the gates of evening, bearing upon his shoulders
the weight of heaven and earth, too vast
for his encircling arms, gives me no comfort.
With grief as well I saw the earthborn dweller
in Cilicia’s cave, the hundred-headed monster
Typhon, conquered, his fury violently subdued,
who once braved all the gods with gruesome jaws,
hissing out terror, eyes ablaze, aiming to crush
the sovereign tyranny of Zeus. But flying
down against him came Zeus’ weapon, the sleepless,
fire-breathing thunderbolt, which cast him
out of his triumphant boast, for he was struck
in the very middle of his power, and all his strength
turned into ash. And now, a sprawling, helpless form,
he lies pressed down, close by the narrows of the sea,
beneath the roots of Aetna.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
