Progenies of Prometheus: The Fathers of Salomon’s House, Dr Frankenstein and Beyond

Both New Atlantis and Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus draw upon classical mythology and provide an aetiological narrative that clarifies reasons for facts, binds the present to the past, connects the origins to the current state of scientific knowledge and technology. Developing the potentialities of the mythical first inventors, Bacon glorifies scientific endeavours achieved within a collaborative scientific community, Shelley demonizes extreme scientific endeavours pursued in male isolation. His utopian and her dystopian view complement each other, both raising questions as to how science could be pursued, individually and collectively, and from a gendered-inclusive perspective. To what extent scientific research and knowledge need to be guarded by confidentiality or ought to be publicly debated and integrated in a collective ethos remain overarching questions which New Atlantis and Frankenstein have passed on to the contemporary age.