Editing Prometheus (section)

====Aesthetic tradition in Athenian art====
Prometheus' torment by the eagle and his rescue by Heracles were popular subjects in vase paintings of the 6th to 4th centuries BC. He also sometimes appears in depictions of Athena's birth from Zeus' forehead. There was a relief sculpture of Prometheus with Pandora on the base of Athena's cult statue in the Athenian [[Parthenon]] of the 5th century BC. A similar rendering is also found at the great altar of Zeus at [[Pergamon]] from the second century BC.

The event of the release of Prometheus from captivity was frequently revisited on Attic and [[Etruscan art|Etruscan]] vases between the sixth and fifth centuries BC. In the depiction on display at the Museum of [[Karlsruhe]] and in [[Berlin]], the depiction is that of Prometheus confronted by a menacing large bird (assumed to be the eagle) with Heracles approaching from behind shooting his arrows at it.<ref>O. Jahn, ''Archeologische Beitrage'', Berlin, 1847, pl. VIII (Amphora from Chiusi).</ref> In the fourth century this imagery was modified to depicting Prometheus bound in a cruciform manner, possibly reflecting an Aeschylus-inspired manner of influence, again with an eagle and with Heracles approaching from the side.<ref>Milchhofer, ''Die Befreiung des Prometheus'' in ''Berliner Winckelmanns-Programme'', 1882, p. 1ff.</ref>