Herakles' story continues: Fire from Olympus

Herakles frees Prometheus. Side A of a Boeotian (?) black-figure kylix, c. 500 BCE. Photo Bibi Saint-Pol, released through Wikimedia Commons.

Composer Tim Benjamin's new opera Fire From Olympus turns from the mythological figure of Herakles to that of Prometheus. While the story of Prometheus' theft of fire from the gods and his punishment is well-known, his rescue from that punishment by Herakles (right) is less so.

Emma Stafford has just completed a summary of the Prometheus myth, from his making of mankind to his rescue by Herakles, as part of the supporting materials from the cast and chorus of Fire From Olympus. Tonight sees the first of a series of workshops developing a vast 'digital chorus', with a cast of (literally) thousands.  Rehearsals for the live performers start in the summer, and the show opens on 14th September in Burnley and then tours until the 9th November, ending with Todmorden Hippodrome. For further details and tickets, see Radius Opera.

'Prometheus Unbound' (1878) by Christian Griepenkerl, part of a series for the stairway hall of the Augusteum in Oldenburg.

The opera is subtitled On Sticking it to the Man and develops the ancient characters of Prometheus and his brother, Epimetheus, into full-blown activists who rebel against the power of Zeus (President of Olympus) and the Olympians, including Pandora.

For a telling of Prometheus' full story, which includes the seeds of this character development and Pandora's role in the punishment for the theft of fire, see also My Story, where the illustrated storybook produced for Leeds Light Night 2015 can be downloaded.

'The Theft of Fire' (1878) by Christian Griepenkerl, part of a series for the stairway hall of the Augusteum in Oldenburg.