-Shelley's modern Prometheus intended to steal not the flames of a distant Olympus, but those of Woman.

Remarkably sophisticated despite its author's tender age (she wrote it at 19), the book envisioned Dr. Frankenstein as "the modern Prometheus" as he harnessed technology to create life.

Maybe, generations back, this unhallowed tale of a modern Prometheus flickered through Mary Shelley's mind in the 1800s.

The modern Prometheus," isn't that what he's called in some quarters?"

The charcoal became more and more thoroughly ignited until the whole mass glowed in the uncertain gloom, like some gigantic and demoniacal eye of a modern Prometheus.

Frankenstein: or the modern Prometheus.

All this is forgotten now, and the pathetic picture of the modern Prometheus chained to his rock and devoured by the vultures of his own bitter thoughts, is the one impression which the world has retained.

No one knows to this day what inward prompting Napoleon obeyed when, rejecting the counsels of General Lallemande and the devotion of Captain Bodin, he preferred England to America, and went like a modern Prometheus to be chained to the rock of St. Helena.