Plato, The Myth of Prometheus (from the Protagoras; tr. by Thomas Taylor)

Recorded in August 2020. Plato flourished in the fourth century B. C.; the translation was published by Thomas Taylor in 1804.

The speaker of this narrative is actually Protagoras, and it is possible that he, and not Plato, is the author of it. But the style, at least, is that of Plato.

To my mind, there are two chief morals which this story imparts:

First, that reason is the highest gift of man. The other animals surpass him in physical qualities; but he, by his intellect, is the master of them all.

Secondly, that, without virtue, technology is worthless. Seneca and the Elder Pliny speak on this theme, as does Orwell in his essay “You and the Atom Bomb.” It is a lesson which modern society should learn. The world would be a paradise if we lived like the Houyhnhnms of Swift; but a cruel technocracy would be hell itself. Hence the need for literature and philosophy, which make man into a better being. Technology is a luxury, virtue is a necessity.

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Notopoulos (1936, p. 515) argues that Percy Bysshe Shelley was friends with Thomas Taylor. Thomas Taylor's first collection of dialogues was also found among Shelley's books (Notopoulos, 1969, p. 32).