Prometheus Bound is a play passed down among the tragedies of Aeschylus but apparently written by a different author sometime in the second half of the fifth century BCE. This textbook includes a fresh Greek text and an extensive commentary intended for intermediate students of classical Greek, but also appropriate for graduate students and other nonspecialist readers.

Rather than merely glossing phrases, the book provides extensive assistance with the Greek, carefully explaining grammatical constructions and rhetorical tropes. In particular, it teaches basic strategies for reading classical Greek through syntactic analysis and the recognition of basic word-building units (morphemes). The commentary also introduces the reader to basic principles of textual criticism, and to some of the early modern and modern figures who have shaped the texts of Aeschylus. With staging practicalities stressed throughout, the volume should also be valuable for modern directors, translators, and theatrical companies. The substantial introduction features discussions of staging, the politics of the play, and the question of its authorship. Two appendices analyze and explain the meter of the choral songs and provide additional texts, with translation, associated with the Prometheus myth.

S. Douglas Olson is Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Religions and Cultures, University of Minnesota Twin Cities.