The play opens on a cliff. Might and Violence, Zeus’s servants, enter, followed by Hephaestus, the god of the forge. Might and Violence are leading the Titan Prometheus. Might delivers Zeus’s instructions to Hephaestus: Prometheus is to be bound and nailed to the cliff as punishment for defying Zeus by stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humanity. Hephaestus expresses reluctance to do so—he doesn’t have the heart to inflict such a cruel punishment on a fellow god, though he also knows that he has no choice. Might mocks Hephaestus for pitying Prometheus and presses him to do what he’s told. Once Hephaestus has finished his task, Might taunts Prometheus in his present plight; then he and Violence depart behind Hephaestus.

Prometheus, left by himself, calls on the natural world to bear witness to what he is being forced to suffer. He is being punished now, he says, for giving humanity fire, even though Zeus forbade him from doing so. But he knows that what he is suffering is what he is fated to suffer, and he resolves to endure it: After all, he is a prophet and knows everything that is going to happen.