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Aeschylus
Prometheus Bound:
Play introduction by Don Wooten - audio podcast - text (PDF)
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Bound
Read the play online - http://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/prometheus.html

Last performed by the Genesius guild in 2002 ~ Photos

This ancient play, performed in mask, tells of the punishment of the Titan Prometheus (forethought) for giving the secret of fire to humankind. Zeus orders him chained and nailed to a rock by Force and Violence under the supervision of Haephestus, the god who manages the fires of volcanoes. Prometheus knows what will bring an end to Zeus' dominion and he will be tortured until he delivers the secret.

He is visited by by a flock of seabirds and their father Ocean. Io, another victim of the gods also passes by. Hermes, messenger of the gods, then appears and demands that Prometheus tell what he know. He refuses and is buried in an avalanche.

This is the first part of a trilogy, the remainder of which is lost. It preserves a Greek legend which explains how humans acquired self-awareness and intelligence.