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Abstract
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The central problem this study addresses, therefore, is the absence of a comprehensive, historically grounded, and comparative account of how Aeschylus, Byron, and Shelley reconfigure the Prometheus myth as a narrative of democracy’s development. By applying a New Historicist methodology, this research will contextualize each text within its historical and cultural milieu while highlighting the intertextual continuities that reveal democracy as a shared, evolving ideal across antiquity and Romanticism. The study of Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound, Byron’s “Prometheus,” and Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound through the lens of democracy is both necessary and timely, as it addresses an underexplored trajectory in the reception and adaptation of the Promethean myth. The study is necessary because it illuminates the intellectual and cultural genealogy of democracy, revealing how classical ideas were reinterpreted to address the sociopolitical challenges of different eras. The objectives collectively aim to provide a comprehensive, comparative, and historically grounded understanding of how the Prometheus myth illuminates the emergence and development of human democracy, offering a fresh perspective on both classical tragedy and Romantic poetry, and demonstrating the enduring relevance of Prometheus as a symbol of freedom and collective empowerment.
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