How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
PROMETHEUS. Such is the prophecy that was narrated to me by my mother of ancient birth, Themeis the Titaness; but how and in what way it is to happen would take a lengthy narrative to explain, and you would profit nothing by learning it. (853-876)
We finally get to the end of this long story and find out that Prometheus is cutting things short for us? Yikes. That's pretty intense. Given that Prometheus already knows the many, many generations he's going to have to spend chained to this rock, we think he deserves seriously respect for going head-to-head with Zeus for the benefit of mankind. That shows a major spirit of sacrifice.
Quote #5
PROMETHEUS. You are making yourself a nuisance to no purpose, as if you were giving advice to the waves. Let it never enter your thoughts that I might fear the intentions of Zeus, become womanish in mentality, and implore the one I hate so greatly, stretching out my upturned palms as women do, to free me from these bonds. One hundred per cent, no!
Hermes wants Prometheus to reveal the identity of the woman who is destined to bear a son more powerful than his father—a woman that Zeus definitely doesn't want to sleep with by accident. (Hint: keep your hooves off of Io.) But Prometheus is having none of it. He insists that this was all "planned out long ago." In other words, his actions are a deliberate sacrifice, not mere stubbornness on the spur of the moment.
Quote #6
HERMES. It looks as though, however much I say, I will say it in vain. My entreaties have made you no softer or more pliable; like a newly-harnessed colt, you have taken the bit between your teeth, and you are struggling and fighting against the reins. But it is an unsound strategy that makes you so vehement: for someone who is not thinking sensibly, pure unadulterated obstinacy has no power at all. If you do not do as I have said, consider what a tempest, what a triple wave of evil, will assail you, from which no escape will be possible. (1007-1016)
Here, Hermes continues to outline the suffering that is in store for Prometheus. With his references to Prometheus's "unsound strategy," he's basically calling him crazy, and unable to make informed decisions. Could this be his way of undercutting Prometheus's argument that he's making a sacrifice? After all, part of what makes a sacrifice a sacrifice is the fact that it's deliberate.