The poem has appeared in Volume 6 of Goethe's poems (in his Collected Works) in a section of "" (assorted poems), shortly following the "Harzreise im Winter". It is immediately followed by "Ganymed", and the two poems are written as informing each other according to Goethe's plan in their actual writing. "Prometheus" (1774) was originally planned as a drama but never completed by Goethe, though the poem is inspired by it. Prometheus is the creative and rebellious spirit rejected by God and who angrily defies him and asserts himself. Ganymede, by direct contrast, is the boyish self who is both adored and seduced by God. As a high Romantic poet and a humanist poet, Goethe presents both identities as contrasting aspects of the Romantic human condition.