ABSTRACT
Nietzsche's interpretation of Prometheus sheds light on the way the Titan might have been perceived during the later years of the nineteenth century, especially in Germany. His interest in Prometheus was more than admiration for Goethe or Aeschylus. One of the main characteristics of Prometheus in Nietzsche's works is that he appears as the model of what the philosopher calls active sin, as opposed to the Judeo-Christian passivity which he abhorred. Karl Marx's first reference to Prometheus may be found in his first philosophical work, his doctoral dissertation. The novel aspect of Marx's interpretation of Prometheus is that the Titan's claim that he despises the gods, and therefore belongs to mankind, relies on the fact that self-consciousness, understood as the most precious possible attribute, is properly human. For Marx, the acceptance of Prometheus as a model of self-consciousness coincides with the original acceptance of man for what he really is, that is a potentially free being.
