PR. Beware lest ever his heart be angered. Oc. Thy fate, Prometheus, is my teacher. PR. Go thou, depart, preserve the present mind. Oc. To me rushing this word you utter. For the smooth path of the air sweeps with his wings In the stalls at home bend a knee. PROMETHEUS and CHORUS. CH. I mourn for thee thy ruinous Fate, Prometheus, And tear-distilling from my tender My cheeks with flowing springs; That were displays his sceptre. Of thee and of thy kindred; As many mortals as the habitable seat Of sacred Asia pasture, With thy lamentable Woes have sympathy. And of the Colchian land, virgin Inhabitants, in fight undaunted, And Scythia's multitude, who the last Place of earth, about Mæotis lake possess, And Arabia's martial flower, And who the high-hung citadels Of Caucasus inhabit near, A hostile army, raging With sharp-prowed spears. Only one other god before, in sufferings Subdued by injuries Of adamantine bonds, I've seen, Titanian Atlas, who always with superior strength The huge and heavenly globe On his back bears; And with a roar the sea waves Dashing, groans the deep, And the dark depth of Hades murmurs underneath Heave a pitying sigh. PR. Think not indeed through weakness or through pride That I am silent; for with the consciousness I gnaw my heart, And yet to these new gods their shares Who else than I wholly distributed? But of these things I am silent; for I should tell you And possessed of sense them ignorant before. Knew they, placed in the sun, nor wood-work; Ants, in sunless nooks of caves. And there was nought to them, neither of winter sign, Nor of flower-giving spring, nor fruitful Summer, that was sure; but without knowledge Did they all, till I taught them the risings Of the stars, and goings down, hard to determine. And numbers, chief of inventions, I found out for them, and the assemblages of letters, And first I joined in pairs wild animals Obedient to the yoke; and that they might be Alternate workers with the bodies of men In the severest toils, has harnessed the rein-loving horses Such inventions I wretched having found out CH. You suffer unseemly ill, deranged in mind PR. Hearing the rest from me more will you wonder, Nor to anoint, nor drink, but for the want Of medicines they were reduced to skeletons, till to them I showed the mingling of mild remedies, By which all ails they drive away. And many modes of prophecy I settled, And distinguished first of dreams what a real Vision is required to be, and omens hard to be determined I made known to them; and tokens by the way, And flight of crooked-taloned birds I accurately And unlucky, and what mode of life Have each, and to one another what I showed the way to mortals; and flammeous signs Such indeed these; and under ground Brass, iron, silver, gold, who Would affirm that he discovered before me? All arts from mortals to Prometheus. CH. Assist not mortals now unseasonably, And neglect yourself unfortunate; for I Released, you will yet have no less power than Zeus. PR. Never thus has Fate the Accomplisher Decreed to fulfil these things, but by a myriad ills For art's far weaker than necessity. CH. Who then is helmsman of necessity? PR. The Fates three-formed, and the remembering Furies. CH. Than these then is Zeus weaker? PR. Aye, he could not escape what has been fated. PR. Remember other words, for this by no means As much as possible; for keeping this do I CH. Never may the all-ruling Zeus put into my mind Force antagonist to him. Nor let me cease drawing near Of slain oxen, by Father Ocean's Ceaseless passage, Nor offend with words, But in me this remian, And ne'er be melted out. 'T is something sweet with bold Hopes the long life to Extend, in bright Cheerfulness the cherishing spirit. In thy private mind thou dost regard Favor, friend, say where is any strength, Dream-like, in which the blind * May transgress the harmony of Zeus. I learned these things looking on Thy destructive fate, Prometheus. For different to me did this strain come, And that which round thy baths And couch I hymned, With the design of marriage, when my father's child With bridal gifts persuading, thou didst lead Hesione the partner of thy bed. PROMETHEUS, CHORUS, and Io. Io What earth, what race, what being shall I say is this I see in bridles of rock Exposed? By what crime's Penalty dost thou perish? Show, to what part Ah ah alas! alas! Again some fly doth sting me wretched, In what sin ever having taken, To these afflictions hast thou yoked me? alas! alas! Phrenzied one dost thus afflict? With fire burn, or with earth cover, or Enough much-wandered wanderings Have exercised me, nor can I learn where I shall escape from sufferings. CH. Hear'st thou the address of the cow-horned virgin? PR. And how not hear the fly-whirled virgin, Daughter of Inachus, who Zeus' heart warmed Io. Whence utterest thou my father's name, That to me, O suffering one, me born to suffer, The god-sent ail thou 'st named, Which wastes me stinging With maddening goads, alas! alas! With foodless and unseemly leaps Rushing headlong, I came, By wrathful plots subdued. Who of the wretched, who, alas! alas! suffers like me? What me awaits to suffer, What not necessary; what remedy of ill, Teach, if indeed thou know'st, speak out, PR. I'll clearly tell thee all you wish to learn. Io. O thou who didst appear a common help to mortals, Wretched Prometheus, to atone for what do you endure this? PR. I have scarce ceased my sufferings lamenting. Io. Would you not grant this favor to me? PR. Say what you ask; for you'd learn all from me.. Io. Say who has bound thee to the cliff. PR. The will indeed of Zeus, Hephaistus' hand. Io. And penalty for what crimes dost thou pay? PR. Thus much only can I show thee. Io. But beside this, declare what time will be PR. Not to learn is better for thee than to learn these things. Io. Conceal not from me what I am to suffer. PR. Indeed, I grudge thee not this favor. Io. Why then dost thou delay to tell the whole ? |