Although the defiant hymn "Prometheus" germinated earlier within Goethe's Sturm und Drang period, its powerful verses, giving voice to the Titan's rebellion against Zeus's dominion, were first published in 1785 within Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi's treatise Über die Lehre des Spinoza, igniting a fierce literary-philosophical debate by appearing without Goethe's consent. The poem's raw, accusatory tone—"Bedecke deinen Himmel, Zeus, / Mit Wolkendunst!" (Cover your heaven, Zeus, / With misty vapors!)—articulates a radical humanism, positioning the creative, suffering individual defiantly against indifferent or tyrannical divine authority, drawing implicitly on Hesiodic and Aeschylean myth while channeling contemporary challenges to theological and political orthodoxy.
Written in the mid-1770s and first published in 1785 in Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi’s Uber die Lehre des Spinoza, Goethe’s Prometheus is one of the most striking poetic expressions of Sturm und Drang defiance. Though brief, this free-verse monologue casts the mythic figure of Prometheus not as a tragic sufferer, but as a rebellious creator standing in direct opposition to divine authority. Addressed to Zeus with disdain, the poem celebrates human independence, self-assertion, and the creative will, embodying the youthful Goethe’s resistance to metaphysical submission and his fascination with myth as a vehicle for psychological and cultural revolt.

The speaker, Prometheus, rejects the authority of the gods, claiming that they are projections of human fear and desire, powerless without the worship of those they rule. He boasts of forming men “in his own image,” drawing strength not from heaven but from human suffering, labor, and defiance. The tone is confrontational, stripped of ornament, and charged with a furious pride that places the human creator above the divine tyrant. Though labeled a fragment, the poem requires no further elaboration: its force lies in its refusal of reconciliation and its assertion of moral autonomy. Prometheus stands as a landmark of German literary radicalism, aligning Goethe with the larger Sturm und Drang movement and its challenge to classical order, divine hierarchy, and passive virtue.
This critical reader's edition offers a fresh, modern translation of the original manuscript in Fraktur (the old German script), designed to help any curious reader delve into Goethe's works, using clear, contemporary language and straightforward sentences to illuminate his complex ideas. It includes supplementary material providing autobiographical, historical, and linguistic context to this 18th century work- including an afterword by the translator discussing Goethe’s history, impact, and intellectual legacy, alongside an index of the philosophical concepts he explored—with a focus on Romanticism and Classicism. Included is a comprehensive chronological list of his published writings and a detailed timeline of his life, highlighting the personal relationships that profoundly influenced his philosophy.