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Demogorgon
The Earth is personified in Prometheus Unbound as a mother grieving for her child, Prometheus, and for her inhabitants, humanity. At the beginning of the poem, the Earth is fearful about what will become of her and the inhabitants of the planet if they further offend Jupiter. She fears being tortured further (describing her route around the sun as a “wheel of pain” which Jupiter has “linked” her to). When Prometheus asks to hear the curse that he’d uttered against Jupiter but that he has now forgotten, the Earth calls up the Phantasm of Jupiter from the shadow realm so that Jupiter’s rage will “sweep through” the realm of phantoms rather than affect those who are alive on the Earth. The Earth’s grief over the treatment of Prometheus is described as the “poisoned breath” of a mother grieving her child and, as a result of the Earth’s pain, humanity too has suffered. “Poisonous weeds” have sprung up alongside nutritious plants and humans have struggled to live in harmony with nature since Jupiter imprisoned Prometheus. As Jupiter’s reign has stripped humanity of their ability to use the knowledge that Prometheus gave them, human beings have damaged the Earth in their attempts to control their environment; the Earth suffers under the violence that man does to each other and that they do to the environment through industry and the building of cities. The personification of the Earth in Shelley’s poem has its roots in Greek mythology, in which the Earth was symbolized by a goddess called Gaia. It also highlights Shelley’s belief in pantheism, or nature worship, as well as the importance of respecting and maintaining a harmonious balance with nature rather than stripping the Earth of resources for the sake of industrialization.
The Earth Quotes in Prometheus Unbound
The Prometheus Unbound quotes below are all either spoken by The Earth or refer to The Earth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1
Quotes
When thou didst from her bosom, like a cloud
Of glory, arise, a spirit of keen joy!
And at thy voice her pining sons uplifted
Their prostrate brows from the polluting dust
And our almighty Tyrant with fierce dread
Grew pale—until his thunder chained thee here.—
Then—see those million worlds which burn and roll
Around us: their inhabitants beheld
My sphered light wane in wide Heaven; the sea
Was lifted by strange tempest, and new fire
From earthquake-rifted mountains of bright snow
Shook its portentous hair beneath Heaven’s frown;
Lightning and Inundation vexed the plains;
Blue thistles bloomed in cities; foodless toads
Within voluptuous chambers panting crawled;
When Plague had fallen on man and beast and worm,
And Famine,—and black blight on herb and tree,
And in the corn and vines and meadow-grass
Teemed ineradicable poisonous weeds
Draining their growth, for my wan breast was dry
With grief,—and the thin air, my breath, was stained
With the contagion of a mother’s hate
Breathed on her child’s destroyer […]
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Explanation and Analysis:
Aye, do thy worst. Thou art Omnipotent.
O’er all things but thyself I gave thee power,
And my own will. Be thy swift mischiefs sent
To blast mankind, from yon etherial tower.
Let thy malignant spirit move
In darkness over those I love:
On me and mine I imprecate
The utmost torture of thy hate
And thus devote to sleepless agony
This undeclining head while thou must reign on high.
[…]
I curse thee! let a sufferer’s curse
Clasp thee, his torturer, like remorse,
Till thine Infinity shall be
A robe of envenomed agony;
And thine Omnipotence a crown of pain
To cling like burning gold round thy dissolving brain.
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Though Ruin now Love’s shadow be,
Following him destroyingly
On Death's white and winged steed,
Which the fleetest cannot flee—
Trampling down both flower and weed,
Man and beast and foul and fair,
Like a tempest through the air;
Thou shalt quell this Horseman grim,
Woundless though in heart or limb.—
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Get the entire Prometheus Unbound LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Earth Quotes in Prometheus Unbound
The Prometheus Unbound quotes below are all either spoken by The Earth or refer to The Earth. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1
Quotes
When thou didst from her bosom, like a cloud
Of glory, arise, a spirit of keen joy!
And at thy voice her pining sons uplifted
Their prostrate brows from the polluting dust
And our almighty Tyrant with fierce dread
Grew pale—until his thunder chained thee here.—
Then—see those million worlds which burn and roll
Around us: their inhabitants beheld
My sphered light wane in wide Heaven; the sea
Was lifted by strange tempest, and new fire
From earthquake-rifted mountains of bright snow
Shook its portentous hair beneath Heaven’s frown;
Lightning and Inundation vexed the plains;
Blue thistles bloomed in cities; foodless toads
Within voluptuous chambers panting crawled;
When Plague had fallen on man and beast and worm,
And Famine,—and black blight on herb and tree,
And in the corn and vines and meadow-grass
Teemed ineradicable poisonous weeds
Draining their growth, for my wan breast was dry
With grief,—and the thin air, my breath, was stained
With the contagion of a mother’s hate
Breathed on her child’s destroyer […]
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Aye, do thy worst. Thou art Omnipotent.
O’er all things but thyself I gave thee power,
And my own will. Be thy swift mischiefs sent
To blast mankind, from yon etherial tower.
Let thy malignant spirit move
In darkness over those I love:
On me and mine I imprecate
The utmost torture of thy hate
And thus devote to sleepless agony
This undeclining head while thou must reign on high.
[…]
I curse thee! let a sufferer’s curse
Clasp thee, his torturer, like remorse,
Till thine Infinity shall be
A robe of envenomed agony;
And thine Omnipotence a crown of pain
To cling like burning gold round thy dissolving brain.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Though Ruin now Love’s shadow be,
Following him destroyingly
On Death's white and winged steed,
Which the fleetest cannot flee—
Trampling down both flower and weed,
Man and beast and foul and fair,
Like a tempest through the air;
Thou shalt quell this Horseman grim,
Woundless though in heart or limb.—
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
