Prometheus Bound (Bevan 1902)/Text
PROMETHEUS BOUND
Hephaistos, Kratos and Bia bring in
Prometheus captive.
KRATOS
On the uttermost of earth at last we stand,
The Scythians' range, inhuman solitude;
And thou, Hephaistos, needs must go about
The Father's high commission, to make fast
This knave to the stupendous precipices
In adamantine everlasting bands.
Thy glorious flower, all-operating fire,
He stole, he utter'd unto men: for such
Misdeed the gods require just recompense,
That he be schooled to brook the mastery 10
Of Zeus, and leave his bent of loving men.
HEPHAISTOS
O Strength and Force, for you the hest of Zeus
Is done, is clench'd, beyond impediment;
But I lack heart to bind perforce a god,
My kin, against some winter-beaten gorge.
Even so necessity must find me heart:
Ill comes of dallying with the Father's word.
O son of right-areading Themis, deep
In counsel, no less unto me than thee
Comes anguish, when with brass not lightly loosed
I pin thee to this hill, remote from men, 20
Where thou no voice, no human lineament
Shalt see, but broiling in the sun's fierce brightness
Shalt change thy favour, hailing still the hour,
When spangle-vestured Night shall veil the light,
And that, when Day dispels the early rime.
Yea, every hour, being present, shall be pain
To wear thee:—the deliverer is not yet.
Such harvest dost thou reap from love of men.
Thou thoughtest not a thing redoubtable
The wrath of thine own kind, but unto man
Increasedst honour inordinate: whereof 30
Behold the guerdon! to stand sentinel
Of this grim scar, where is not any stooping
Or sleep or slacking of the knees, but long
Lament redoubled on lament, and groans
Wind-wasted. Who shall turn the heart of Zeus?
That one is ever harsh, whose rule is new.
KRATOS
Good now! what use to linger and make ruth?
The god, whom gods abhor, dost thou not hate,
Seeing he betray'd thy precious thing to men?
HEPHAISTOS
A thrill in kinship lives and ancient converse.
KRATOS
Aye, aye, but to ignore the Father's word, 40
May that be? doth not that fear thrill thee more?
HEPHAISTOS
Steel-hard thou ever wast and stout of heart.
KRATOS
Why, him our plainings physic not! and thou,
Lose not thy labour on what helps nowise.
HEPHAISTOS
Woe worth the cursèd cunning of these hands!
KRATOS
Why curse thy craft? that, surely, to plain thinking
Is innocent altogether of this coil.
HEPHAISTOS
Well, would some other had gotten it, not I!
KRATOS
Save the supreme arbitrament of heaven,
All things bear trouble: none but Zeus is free. 50
HEPHAISTOS
I grant it: there is no gainsaying here.
KRATOS
To it then, and yarely! set the chains about him,
For fear the Father look, and find thee slack.
HEPHAISTOS
Nay, here are armlets ready, see you not?
KRATOS
Take him by main force round about the hands,
Smite with the hammer, clamp him to the rocks.
HEPHAISTOS
The work goes forward,—done in earnest now.
KRATOS
Strike! strike! make fierce the grapple: no relaxing!
He is shrewd at slipping from impossible straits.
HEPHAISTOS
This arm at least it were a task to free. 60
KRATOS
Now pin thou this as surely. Let him learn,
Wise as he is, there is One of nimbler wit.
HEPHAISTOS
Such binding none could censure,—save the bound.
KRATOS
Right through his bosom now drive lustily
The fierce tooth of an adamantine wedge.
HEPHAISTOS
Alas, Prometheus! for thy pains I groan.
KRATOS
Yes, thou art soft, and for the foes of Zeus
Groanest: thou yet may'st need thy pity at home.
HEPHAISTOS
Thou see'st a sight not good to look upon.
KRATOS
I see a caitiff reaping his deserts. 70
But hasten, get the girths about his sides.
HEPHAISTOS
What I must do, I must: urge me not so.
KRATOS
Nay but I will both urge and tarr thee on.
Come down and strongly ring-about his legs.
HEPHAISTOS
That is soon finish'd. As I speak, 'tis done.
KRATOS
Now through his ankles drive the pins amain:
The One that judgeth of the work is stern.
HEPHAISTOS
Such as thy shape is, such I find thy tongue.
KRATOS
Thou, be thou tender: only blame not me,
=Because I am hard of heart and harsh of mood. 80
HEPHAISTOS
Let us go. The web is woven. He is fast.
KRATOS
There, do thy pleasure there! Ravish and give
To children of a day the things of gods.
Look now, what lightest parcel of thy pain
Can men abate for thee? A name ill-sorting
Thou bear'st in Heaven, Prometheus: for thyself
Thou hast much need, Provider, to provide,—
Some way to get thee from this cunning toil.
leaving Prometheus chained to the rocks, alone.]
PROMETHEUS
O holy sky! and ye, swift-winged winds!
All fountains of all rivers! Thou, that rollest
Laughter innumerable of ripple and wave,
O Sea, behold me! Mother of all things. Earth, 90
Behold me! Thou, great Sun, that seest all,
Bear record what I suffer from my peers.
Look with what rife torment riven,
Saw'd with agony, I am given
A race to run of measureless years.
For the Lord of the Blessed new-arisen
Binds me fast in a bitter prison,
A bond that shames and sears.
Throes that I have, that I apprehend,
Both I groan for, and ask what end,
What end to my pain appears! 100
Nay, my words wander: nothing can befall
But I have known it long ago. No pang
Comes unfamiliar. Wisest is to bear
The allotted burden with what ease may be,
Knowing that Fate is strong and none shall stay.
Ah! but I cannot:—neither to contain
Nor to give tongue I find the way. O wretched,
Entrammell'd in this web of agony,
For that I gave good things to men! I track
Home to its hidden spring the flowing of fire,
By stealth infringe it, drawing what doth charge
A reed: the thing, reveal'd to man, is mighty, 110
Teacher of every art, the main of life,
And lo, I have sinn'd!—and pay the forfeit so,
A gazing-stock beneath untemper'd heaven.
Ah!—
What sound did smite my sense?
Invisible redolence!
Whence came the wafture? whence?
Was it gods, or men, or mingled fellowship,
Come to the hill, that is limit of the world?
Wherefore? to see the pageant of my pain?
Ah! see a god then, manacled, ill-starr'd,
To the Highest hateful, reaping hate 120
From every deity, denizen
Of the heavenly hall, because that men
He loved with a love exceeding great.
Ha, there! there again! What is it I hear
As the whirring of birds? The shrill air sings
To the beat of nimble-driven wings.
All sound of approach is fear.
CHORUS
Fear nought from us, but know
This band is friend, not foe,
We that on swiftest pinions hither sail,—
Nay, but with pain we bent
Our sire to give assent,— 130
Borne to this hill along the streaming gale.
To deepest caverns rang
Of stricken iron clang,
And straight amazement cast out maiden fear:
I flew with speed amain,
Upon a wingèd wain,
I flew, my sandals left, burning to see and hear.
PROMETHEUS
Ah! is it you?
Maidens, daughters of Tethys, whose brood
Is that great and goodly multitude,
And of him that, unholden of sleep, with a girth
Of waters engirdles the body of earth,
Okeanos? ah, behold, regard 140
How here to the rugged gorge's head
In such imprisonment riveted
I keep unenvied ward.
CHORUS
I see, Prometheus, thrill'd
With awe, and sudden-fill'd
Mine eyes are troubled with a mist of tears,
When thus, even thus, rock-hung,
Perishing, parching, wrung
In adamantine chains thy form appears.
For in the heavenly place
New hands of a new race
Are on the helm, and, master uncontroll'd,
Laws lawless maketh Zeus,
Trampling the ancient use, 150
And clean blots out the great and mighty things of old.
PROMETHEUS
Ah, would that under the earth, down deeper
Than the Dungeon of Souls, the dead man's Keeper,
He had flung me to infinite Tartaros!—yes,
And had made me acquaint in his wrath's excess
With insoluble chains, that joy at the sight of me
No god might get nor any beside!—
I am lift to the sky, and the winds make light of me,
And they that hate me deride!
CHORUS
Bears any god so brute a breast,
As here to find him matter of jest?
Who is, but in thy pain hath part, 160
Save only Zeus? and he hath set his heart
Stubborn in uttermost
Despite, and quells the host
Of Heaven to his will,
Nor shall forbear, until
He glut his mood, or till he feel a hand
That even his fenced seat shall not withstand.
PROMETHEUS
Yea, of me shall he yet have need,—of one
On whom strong chains at his will are done,—
The President of the gods most high,
To show him his late intent, whereby 170
He is spoil'd of his honour, is spoil'd of his throne:
And neither with honey of tongue prevailing,
Shall he find him a spell to charm me, nor, quailing
For his rigorous threats, shall I ever vent
The thing that he would, till the punishment
Of my bonds be undone, and he give consent
For the wrong he hath wrought to atone.
CHORUS
Stout-hearted thou, not giving way
For any sharpness of assay;
But too much is thy tongue uncurb'd. 180
My soul is pierced within me, is disturb'd,
Scanning what yet in store
For such Fate hath, what shore
Beyond this wreckful pain
Thy keel at last shall gain.
Heart of the Son of Kronos orison
Finds not, nor hath persuasion power thereon.
PROMETHEUS
I know it, that Zeus is harsh, restrains
To his own self justice;[1] yet this remains
Most sure,—at the last,
In the battering day, he shall be right meek:
His wrath shall sink, as a storm that is past; 190
I open mine arms, and he cometh fast,
To proffer me hand and cheek.
CHORUS
Discover all to us, declare at large
What manner of quarrel Zeus hath fix'd upon thee,
That in such infamous and bitter sort
He handles thee. Resolve us, if no harm.
PROMETHEUS
Of a truth, the speaking of these things is pain,
Silence is pain, all ways are miserable.
When at the first anger arose in Heaven,
And between gods and gods contentious heat, 200
Some seeking to drive Kronos from his throne
With cry that Zeus should reign, some contrary
Resolv'd that Zeus should never rule the gods,
I then, the best way showing, counsell'd well
My brethren, Titans, sons of Heaven and Earth,
But counsell'd bootless. Cozening stratagem
They scorn'd, and thought in overweening mood
To hold by force their easeful mastery.
Now me my Mother, Themis call'd and Earth,—
The names are manifold, the Named is one,— 210
Had in her prescience warn'd, no single time,
But often, how the future should be cast,
Saying that not by might, nor strength of arm
The victors should have prevalence, but by guile.
But they, when I expounded them the matter,
Did not so much as deign to look at me.
So in such pass no better way appear'd,—
What other offer'd?—than with her, my Mother,
To hold by Zeus in free confederacy.
If then the bottomless black of Tartaros
Entombs with all his warriors Kronos old, 220
My counsels wrought it. See what benefit
The usurper of Heaven's empire had of me!
With what bad recompense he pays the debt!
But so it is: this is the very plague
Of tyranny, to poison faith in friends.
But for your question, with what cause alleged
He so mishandles me, learn now the truths
So soon as ever he was sat where erst
His father, straight to all the powers of Heaven
He dealt their several honours, parcelling 230
The shares of empire; but of wretched man
He made no count; nay, purposed to efface
His breed, and so create another new.
Then none stood up men's advocate but I.
I dared it; yea, I saved them, that they should not,
Blasted, go out into the place of dreams.
Wherefore I am broken with these agonies,
Bitter to feel and pitiful to see.
I, that with so great pity tender'd man,
Pity myself found none; but mercilessly
Am straiten'd this way, that way, limb by limb,— 240
A spectacle not glorious to Zeus.
CHORUS
O he were iron-hearted, made of rock,
Who should not bear his part of grief, Prometheus,
In thy distress! for me, would I had never
Beheld it! for, beholding, my heart aches.
PROMETHEUS
Truly my posture well might move my friends.
CHORUS
Didst thou do more beyond what thou hast said?
PROMETHEUS
Of those death-destined I askanced the eyes
From looking on their latter end.
CHORUS
What cure
For such distemper did thy wisdom find?
PROMETHEUS
I caused to inhabit in the hearts of them
Blind hopes. 250
CHORUS
That truly was a mighty boon
Men had of thee!
PROMETHEUS
Also I gave them fire.
CHORUS
Hath mortal flesh even now the flaming thing?
PROMETHEUS
Yea and therefrom in time to come shall learn
A thousand arts.
CHORUS
Zeus then for this, thou sayest———
PROMETHEUS
Torments me ever, grinds and ceases not.
CHORUS
And to thy conflict is no term proposed?
PROMETHEUS
None save his pleasure, as he wills to end it.
CHORUS
His pleasure! O what hope that way? Take knowledge
Thou hast err'd: I am not fain to argue how, 260
To thee 'twere daggers hearing. Of all that
No more: seek now some issue from thy trial.
PROMETHEUS
'Tis a light thing for whoso hath his foot
Clear of the meshes to be large in counsel
To one unfortunate. I am wise as you.
I err'd: I seek not to deny it. But
Even so to err I will'd. I will'd it. Succour
To men, to me travail: the terms were so.
Though sooth I had not thought that he would engine
Such torments on me, shrivelling me to shards
Here on the dizzy crags, or find a hill
So desolate and foot-forsook as this. 270
Now therefore wail not for my present ills,
But come to earth, and hearken the strange matter
That draweth on. How all shall end be perfect.
Consent to me, consent, I pray you: suffer
With him that now hath anguish. Quick of wing
Pain now alights on this one, now on that.
CHORUS
Thou hast utter'd a word
That our ears have heard
No wise unwilling.
And this my wind-precipitate chair
With light foot leaving, I quit the air, 280
The birds' pure path, and draw anear
To Earth's rough places, intent to hear
Thy pains to the last fulfilling.
[While the Chorus descend, Okeanos comes up,
riding upon a winged beast.]
OKEANOS
My long way, lo it is overpast,
And I win to thee thus, Prometheus, at last,
This flying creature, whereon I sit,
Guiding by thought, without bridle or bit,
And in these thy troubles, I do thee to know,
I also am grievèd: blood-fellowship so
Constrains me, I think; and, kinship forgot, 290
None is I had liefer serve, well wot,
Or in larger measure.
Thou shalt know this is verity: not my way
Is it worship to lavish of lips, for say,
How best should I stead thee? truer lover
Than Okeanos hope not at all to discover,
More prompt to attend thy pleasure.
PROMETHEUS.
Ah now! what thing is this? art thou too come
To spy my pains? how foundest heart, forsaking
Thy namesake flood, thy caves of archèd rock, 300
Unhewn of hand, to visit earth, the world
Whose womb is great with iron? Is it to view
My passion? to bear part in my distresses?
Behold a sight indeed!—the friend of Zeus,
Auxiliar in the framing of his power,
Broken with so great agonies at his hand!
OKEANOS
I see, Prometheus, and am fain to teach thee,
Though manifold in wit, the better way.
First, know thyself; get thee another fashion
Of thoughts; another King bears rule in Heaven. 310
But if thou fling such grievous-girding speech,
Edged iron, Zeus, for all he sit so high,
May haply hear and make the measure of wrath,
Wherewith thou art exercised as now, a jest.
Nay, poor my friend, let not these heats possess thee;
Rail not against thy lot but seek to mend it.
A threadbare wisdom mine may chance be rated:
So be it: only see, Prometheus, what are
The wages of a tongue that speaks great things.
But thou not yet art chasten'd, stiff as ever, 320
And goest about to add new woes to old.
Nay, nay, if I may be thy teacher, never
Shalt thou lift heel against the pricks; for, look,
One rules, who spares not, lord without compeer,
And none can say to him, "What doest thou?"
And now I go and use my best endeavour,
If I may compass thy reprieve, and thou
Meantime be still, nor give thy utterance course
To run in flood unpent; for knowest thou not,
So wise above thy fellows, this true rede,—
The loose tongue unto loss is near indeed?
PROMETHEUS
I count thee happy that thou standest clear 330
This day of my offence, though thou hadst part,—
Was it not so?—in all my enterprise.
Nay, good, let be: give not thyself these pains.
Be sure thou wilt not move him: ah, that heart
Not easy is to move! Rather look shrewdly
Lest thou thyself get hurt from such a quest.
OKEANOS
Of a truth more skill thou hast for others' use
Than for thine own: I need no witnesses
Of this, save mine eyes only. Now I bid thee
By no means let me in my going forth.
I dare to vouch, I dare, I say, to vouch
That Zeus will not deny Okeanos
Such grace as this, to loose thee from thy pains.
PROMETHEUS
Of this I ne'er will scant acknowledgement, 340
That in good-will thou art perfect. Hast thou indeed
A care to labour in my behalf? Forego it:
It were lost labour, nor would help at all.
Rather sit still and keep thy safe remove.
For think not that because I suffer, therefore
I would behold all others suffer too.
Far be it! nay it pricks me home, I tell thee,
The doom that he for one, my brother, hath found,
Atlas, who toward the regions of the West
Stands for a pillar between earth and heaven, 349
His shoulders' might full-summ'd,—no load to dandle!
Also it moved my pity, when I saw
That creature, spawn'd of Earth, that housed erewhile
In the Cilician caves, a grisly fiend
With heads five-score, how he was quell'd amain,
Tempestuous Typhon. All the banded gods
He dared to battle, from prodigious jowls
Hissing terrific, while his eyes display'd
Glare of great lightnings, so as he would storm
By force Heaven's high supremacy, but soon
The bolt of Zeus that sleeps not found him out,
The downward-ruining thunder, quick with flame,
And reft him at a clap from all his vaunts 360
And swelling bravery. Full amidst it took him,
And charr'd, and blasted all his strength to nothing.
And now, a useless body unstrung, he lies
Hard by a narrow passage of the seas,
Under the roots of Etna crushed and cramm'd,
While over him, high on the peak, Hephaistos
Sits at his forge-work. Thence one day shall burst
Rivers of fire, with fierce jaws ravening up
The golden- fruited sweet Sicilian sward.
Such overflow of fury Typhon still
Shall cast up boiling, in discharges hot 370
Of fiery ferment unapproachable,
Albeit by the thunder of Zeus calcined.
Thou art not all unschool'd, nor needest me
To learn thee. Save thyself: thou knowest how.
For me,
My fate is come, and I will bear it out,
Until the soul of Zeus be eased of wrath.
OKEANOS
But know'st thou not, Prometheus, this for sure—
Choler distemper'd finds in words a cure?
PROMETHEUS
Yea, if they work upon the soul in season,
On passion in full pulse not forcing reason. 380
OKEANOS
But for the will, for making the adventure
Were one the worse? If thou see'st loss, declare it.
PROMETHEUS
Superfluous pains and fond simplicity.
OKEANOS
Suffer that ill to cleave to me: 'tis gain
To be simple-seeming, being simply good.
PROMETHEUS
The folly will be written down to me.
OKEANOS
Roundly, thy word enjoins me brief return.
PROMETHEUS
I fear thy voice uplift in my complaint
May bring thee into variance.
OKEANOS
Thou would'st speak
Of him late-set on the all-sovereign throne?
PROMETHEUS
Of him. Beware him, lest his wrath be kindled. 390
OKEANOS
Thy fortunes, O Prometheus, lesson me.
PROMETHEUS
Good then, depart: God speed thee, hold thou fast
Thy present mind.
OKEANOS
Or ever that thy word
Was utter'd, I had set my face to go:
For this my four-foot bird begins to winnow
The air, his buxom path: full fain, I wot,
In his own steading will he double knee.
CHORUS
I wail, Prometheus, Woe for thy plague appalling; 400
And mine eyes are fountains of tears, that incessant falling
Make wet my cheek with their springs.
For by laws of his own pleasure
Zeus rules, and bitter measure
In his pride of heart he dealeth
To them that of old were kings.
And heaven with a cry from the utmost land is rended
For the worship that erst was thine and thy brethren's, splendid
In the glory of ancient time.
Yea, for these thy tribulations
All mankind mourns, the nations
That have got their homes in Asia, 410
That are set in a holy clime;—
They that dwell in Kolchis, daughters
Dreadless, when the red spear slaughters,
And the folk, that by the waters
Meotic won[2] extreme of men, the Scythian stock,
Araby's flower in arms unyielded, 420
Whose that eyry is rock-builded,
Hard by Caucasus, a shielded
Vociferous host with spears sharp-fronted for the shock.
Him only had I yet beheld
In adamantine durance quell'd,
Him of the Titan progeny alone,—
Atlas, on whom doth ever weigh
The wheeling sphere of night and day,
Wherewith his shoulders groan. 430
The seas lift up their voice and keep
Plangent accord, deep groans to deep,
The black profound of Hades booms below,
The urns of all pure rivers pour
Their floods with lamentation sore,
With ruth and rumour of woe.
PROMETHEUS
Not in disdain and not in obduracy
Have I kept silence: nay, my thoughts devour me,
To see myself thus made a mockery of.
O these new gods! Who was it, who but I,
That dealt to each his own appurtenance? 440
But peace to that: I speak not unto those
From whom these things are hidden. Now consider
The sore estate of men, how witless once
And weak they were, until I lodged in them
Reason, and gave them hearts to understand.
I speak not to discover man's defect,
But how my gifts consorted with their need.
For first they saw and gat no good of seeing,
They heard and heard not: all their life they seem'd
To move as in a dream, shape mix'd with shape
Confusedly, at hazard; and they knew not 450
Houses that took the sun, brick-woven or wood,
But burrowing huddled, like to wind-borne ants,
Far down in holes beyond all reach of day.
And no sure sign of winter had they found,
Neither of spring, the flowery time, nor summer,
The time of gathering. Foot and hand they plied
Without discernment, till the day I show'd them
The rising of the stars, and how to spell
The vanishing thereof, hard lore. Moreover
Number, the chiefest artifice of all
And subtlest, I devised for them, and joinings 460
Of letters, whereby the remembrance lives
Of all things, and the craft of lovely words.
And my hand first yoked with a yoke great beasts,
That, thong-bound or bestridden, they might do
Vile service, and the seed of men to these
Transfer their travail's worst. To wheelèd frames
I fasten'd horses, patient of the rein,
The glory of affluence that flowers in pride.
And none save I it was contrived those hulls
With wings of linen, wherein sea-farers
Go to and fro in the great field of the waves.
All these devices I devised for men,
But for myself am beggar'd of conceit, 470
To escape the pain that now is come upon me.
CHORUS
A strange thing is befallen thee! where are they,
Thy wits? thou'rt lost, and like a sorry leech
Fall'n sick, thou staggerest, impotent to hit
The medicine that shall meet thine own disease.
PROMETHEUS
Hearken the rest, and thou wilt wonder more,
Such arts and ways my wisdom reach'd unto.
And this in chief: did any man fall sick,
Was no deliverance, either in things eaten,
Plaster or potion, but their sap and substance 480
Dwindled for lack of medicine, till I taught them
The sage commixtures of beneficent balms,
For all disorders sovereign. I defined
Ways many of divination: also dreams
I first did spell, discerning which foreshadow'd
Matter of truth. I made men understand
Inapprehensible voices: ominous
Conjunctions by the way, the curious flight
Of those crook-footed tribes of the air, all this
I bodied forth exactly, which be birds
Of nature favourable, which malign, 490
How each is wont to fare, and mutually
What hates they have, what leagues and fellowship.
Further of slain beasts' inward parts I taught
The perfect feature, and what hue presenting
They gain propitious gods, and how the gall
Must show a lobe diverse for fair aspect.
The shanks, uproll'd in fat, by fire I question'd,
With the long chine, and led the mind of man
To thrid the labyrinthine mysteries
Of a dim art; the oracular face of fire
Look'd with clear eyes, that heretofore were scaled.
Such my lore was: but what the earth contained 500
Of secret things, helpful to man, brass, iron,
Silver and gold,—can any stand and say
He did prevent me, finding them? Nay, none,
I am sure, unless he loose his tongue in folly.
Let one brief word conclude the whole in sum,—
All arts men have by the Provider come.
CHORUS
Yet be not prodigal of care to men,
Cold to thine own distresses. O, my hope
Bears well that thou shalt presently behold
These chains unbolted and thyself in power
No whit inferior to Zeus. 510
PROMETHEUS
Not yet
Lies in the scope of all-dispensing doom
That consummation: first with thousand throes
And aches must I be plied, ere loosing come.
Strong truly is craft, but stronger far is Fate.
CHORUS
And of strong Fate who has the helm, and steers?
PROMETHEUS
The Three Weird Queens, the Avengers who forget not.
CHORUS
And Zeus, thou say'st, is less in might than these?
PROMETHEUS
Whatso stands written Zeus cannot escape.
CHORUS
Stands aught for him, but to reign on and on.
PROMETHEUS
Lo, there thy quest must end. Urge me no farther. 520
CHORUS
Some wonderful burden sure thy heart enfolds!
PROMETHEUS
Find thee another argument: this thing
The time is nowise come to utter: nay,
It must be hid full deep; for, so I hold it,
My bonds and shame and anguish are no more.
CHORUS
O never may my weakness prove
The might of Zeus against it bent,
The will that masters all that move!—
Nor may I weary to frequent
The gods with holiness, 530
High feast and blood of bulls, beside
My father's ford and wells undried,
Nor may my lips transgress!
May this within me sure
Be rooted and endure!
Sweet were 't in hopes that know not fear
To live my length of days, and fill
My heart with mirth and feastful cheer! 540
But thee I look upon and thrill,
By thousand torments marr'd!
I Because not holding Zeus in awe,
But taking thine own will for law,
Thou renderest regard
To children of the dust,
Prometheus, more than just.
Nay look, O friend, and declare, is there grace that thy grace hath found?
Is anywhere power to save? is there help in perishing men?
Thou hast seen man's dark estate, wherein he is tied and bound,
A little strength without sap, the stuff of a dream: for when 550
Shall wit of man prevent
God's well-knit regiment?
Such thought in my heart, Prometheus, doth sight of thy ruin move:
And it leaps to my mind how far is this from the strain I sang
In the day of thy marriage feast, by the lavers and bed of love,
The song of the bringing home of Hesione, that sprang
Of mine own father, bride
Gift-gotten to thy side. 560
Io, in form half-woman, half-cow, comes in, wandering.
Io
What land have I found? what folk? and there,
One bound with rock as a bridle, bare
To the beating of storms! who is it? who?
What sin hath gotten such pains for due?
O speak, declare,
What end of the earth am I come unto?
Ah! ah! there! there!
Again the sting! the sting!———
Nay, but I know thee, ghost
Of Argos, clod-born thing.
Cover him, Earth! I am lost:
He haunts me still, appals,—
A thousand peering balls!
He comes his way, and his guileful eyes peruse me:
He died, but is not held of darkling bands: 570
He wins his path from the pit; as a hound, pursues me,
And drives me far distraught, where still expands
Before my famished face the sea, the infinite sands.
There is sound the while of music, reed on reed
Set with wax, fulfill'd of slumber:—whither lead,
Whither lead me my long wanderings decreed?
Tell me, thou Son
Of Kronos, O Lord,
Why hast thou bound me
With pain as a cord?
What sin didst thou find,—
Ah me! undone!—
That thou settest on thy poison-fly to hound me, 580
That thou wearest me with madness of the mind?
Give me to burning fire,
Sink me quick in the sod,
Make me meat to be
For the dragons of the sea;—
Yea, this my great desire,
Vouchsafe to grant, O God!
For far I have gone, and farther is to go,
Though my flesh cries
For respite: but to rid me of my woe
I find no wise.
The voice that fills thine ears
Hers is, whose forehead wears,
Set for a wonder and sign,
Horns as the horns of kine.
PROMETHEUS
Surely the voice I hear none other is
Than hers, the maiden driven of the fly,
The child of Inachos, that sets afire 590
The heart of Zeus with love, and now, ill-seen
Of Hera, fares perforce her infinite way.
Io
Whence, whence hast thou my father's name? Yea, who,
O who art thou, that art sore-afflicted too,
And to me afflicted givest greeting true,
Naming aright
The sharp god-sent
Torment unsleeping,
That goads me, spent,
To the uttermost land
In wilder'd flight?
Yea, I come made mad with famine and with leaping. 600
As a tempest, unavailing to withstand
Wiles of a goddess wroth,
Even Hera.—There! again!
The sting! O who of all
That men ill-fated call
Do tread such troublous path
As I? But tell me plain,
What burden of coming days is yet to endure,—
Show me some sign!———
Or if thou know'st binding or balm to cure
Such wound as mine.
Unlock thy lips and use
Free speech to her that sues,
The maid of evil star,
The maid that wanders far.
PROMETHEUS
I will resolve thee all thy heart would know,
Not with dark circumstance, but words full plain, 610
As right would, friend should open mouth to friend.
Thou see'st Prometheus, him that gave men fire.
Io
O thou on all men risen a light of help,
Prometheus, what thing hast thou done, unhappy,
To suffer this?
PROMETHEUS
That tale of lamentation
My lips even now brought to an end.
Io
O yet
One grace afford me.
PROMETHEUS
Speak: thou shalt not miss.
Io
Declare, who was it fix'd thee in the gorge?
PROMETHEUS
Zeus, for the willing; for the hand, Hephaistos.
Io
And of what manner of crime is this the forfeit? 620
PROMETHEUS
Let that I have said suffice thee.
Io
Now discourse
Of mine own woes: show me the date shall round
This pilgrimage of pain.
PROMETHEUS
There not to know
Were happier than to know.
Io
O hide not from me
What I must suffer!
PROMETHEUS
Nay, but such a boon
Ill-will would not deny.
Io
Then what withholds thee
From giving all full utterance?
PROMETHEUS
No unkindness.
Woman, I would not urge thy soul to frenzy.
Io
Push not thy care for me beyond my liking.
PROMETHEUS
For thou art instant, I am bound to speak. 630
Hear then.
CHORUS
O stay a little! I too claim
My part of satisfaction. Let us first
Be certified the manner of her affliction.
From her own mouth we fain would have the tale
Of all the adventures, which have marr'd her days.
PROMETHEUS
It falls to thee, Io, to minister
The grace these ask for; and it well behoves thee,
Seeing they are even sisters of thy sire.
Behold, to take thy fill of sighing and tears
In such society as will yield thee, hearing,
Like human drops, is time not given in vain.
Io
To you I see not how I should be stubborn: 640
Nay, ye shall hear it all, as ye desire,
In large relation,—though I am verily shamed
To tell that storm, not earthly, the confounding
Of my corporeal feature, whence it rushed
And brake on me in ruinous wise. Thus then:
The chambers, where I housed, a virgin hidden,
Strange faces aye in the night would visit, wooing
With sooth[3] suggestion: "O most huge in fortune,
Most happiest of all maidens,—wherefore maiden,
O wherefore so long maiden, when there waits thee
Wedlock the highest? He, the Lord of Heaven,
Is waxen hot, pierced with desire of thee,
Yea and with thee would tread the passages 650
Of love's delight. Now therefore foot not from thee,
O child, the bed of the Highest; but do this,
Go forth to where the meadow is deep, the field
Of Lerna,—stations of the household flock,
Home of thy father's herds,—go even thither,
That so the eye of Zeus may ease desire."
With such-like dreams the kindly dark for me
Was ever fraught, me miserable; till, ridden,
I gat me heart to open to my father
The visions and the dreams of night. And he
To Pytho, yea and even to Dodona,
Sent embassage on embassage, inquiring
What thing he had need to do, or what word speak,
To pleasure them that rule us. And they came, 660
Bringing still back burden of wavering lips,
Sentences blind, dark syllables. At last
A word clear-visaged came to Inachos,
Enjoining plainly and saying he should thrust me
Forth of the house, forth of the land, to wander
At large, a separate thing, even to the last
Confines of earth: and if he would not hearken,
Then should a thunder-stroke from Zeus, with flicker
Of flame, consume his house from under heaven.
Such were the prophecies of Loxias,
And such prevailed. He drave me forth, he shut
The doors behind me, groaning in his heart, 670
As I in mine that day: but force was on him,
The bridle of Zeus, to make him do this thing.
Then, in that instant, lo my bodily form
Was changed, and all my mind was gone awry,
And hornèd, as ye see, thrill'd by the sharp
Mouth of the pest, I rush'd, with furious leaping,
To drinking-pools of the Kerchneian stream,
The fount of Lerna. And there clave to me
A bitter herdsman, gall untemper'd, Argos,
Prodigious growth of the ground, fill'd full of eyes,
And dogg'd my goings. But him a sudden hand, 680
He look'd not for, cut off; and me, sting-fretted,
Drives yet from land to land the scourge of God.
Thou hast the tale of things thus far: the travail
Remaining, if thou canst, declare; nor shed,
Being pitiful, about my heart the warmth
Of insubstantial comfort: no affliction
I count so foul as fabricated words.
CHORUS
Out upon 't! forbear!
Tale of wonder and fear,
Full of strangest woe,
I had never thought,
Never said, would so
To mine ears be brought,
Or my living heart
So be stricken chill,
Stricken as with a dart
Sharp to thrust and thrill:—
Grievous things to see! 690
Grievous things to dree!
Pain of pain, and fear of fear, and ill of ill!
O Fate! O Fate! I shudder. Spare!
What means it, Io so should fare?
PROMETHEUS
Lo now, how soon thou breakest out, and showest
As one fulfill'd of fear! hold, till the rest
Be also shown thee.
CHORUS
Speak: be all delivered!
To them afflicted this is joy, to know
Beforehand all the process of their pain.
PROMETHEUS
Thy former suit it cost thee little labour 700
To win from me. First thy will was to hearken,
While she that stands here set forth all the conflict
Wherein she is taken. Now attend the rest,
What things at Hera's hand this damsel yet
Must bear: and thou, O seed of Inachos,
Hide in thy heart my words, that thou may'st learn
The issues of thy way.
From this rock first
Set thou thy face toward the East, and tread
Fields no man ever plough'd, until thou reach
The roving Scythians, them that have their homes
Woven, uplift from earth, on running wheels, 710
Men that bear bows and find far quarry: these
Approach not near, but ever keep thy steps
Hard by the reefs that break the thundering sea,
And so pass that land through. On the left hand
Habit the iron-workers, Chalybes,
Of whom beware, for they are barbarous,
And give their guests ill greeting. And thou shalt come
To a river Violent, named not amiss,
Which pass not over,—hard it is to pass,—
Till to the Mount itself of Caucasus
Thou 'rt come, the hill highest on earth, whereon
The river spuming vents to the air his might 720
Even from the mountain's forehead. There ascend
Those brows that jut against the stars, and follow
A way that goeth South, and thou shalt reach
The woman-people arm'd, the Amazons,
That loathe the face of men,—those that one day
Shall overspread Themiskyra, about
Thermodon, where is Salmydessos, thrust
Seaward, a rugged jaw, to mariners
A wicked host, to ships a stepmother:—
These of good will shall bear thee on thy way.
And journeying thou shalt find the neck men call
Kimmerian, at the entry of the Pool,
The narrow gates: there then make stout thy reins 730
Even to take leave of land and pass clean over
The strait Meotic. Know of that thy passage
Shall be great speech among all peoples of men
For ever; and the place shall get a name
Memorial, Bosporos. So shalt thou tread
Europe no more, but thence the continent
Asia.
Look now, and tell me whether to you
He seems, this tyrant of the gods, a nature
Violent or no? or in a sole respect,
And not in all? Consider: a god is he,
And purposing to enjoy in way of love
This daughter of men, hath laid on her such tale
Of wayfarings. Bitter indeed, O maiden,
Thy suitor is, that woos thee; for be sure 740
The things thou hast heard are scarce the prelude yet.
[Io breaks into lamentable cries.]
Lo there thou criest again; thy breath comes hard
With travail of thy soul. What wilt thou do,
Being taught the further ills?
CHORUS
Nay, hast thou for her
Aught left of anguish, that thou hast not told?
PROMETHEUS
Sore weathering of a sea of wreckful woe.
Io
What gain to live then? Wherefore have I not
Long since leapt headlong from this iron crag,
That hurtling so to earth, I might have done
With all my labours? Better once to die 750
Than always every morrow taste fresh pain!
PROMETHEUS
Good sooth, not easily would'st thou support
Such load as mine, whom fate debars from death;—
That were indeed to find deliverance.
Now, as things are, my travail sees proposed
No end, till Zeus be throned in heaven no more.
Io
What! Zeus unthronèd? can that ever be?
PROMETHEUS
Thine eye, meseems, at such calamity
Would lighten.
Io
Nay, what else? is it not Zeus
That makes me suffer?
PROMETHEUS
Wherefore understand
The law is even so. 760
Io
What hand shall ravish
The sceptre of his kingdom?
PROMETHEUS
He himself.
By his own frivolous counsels shall he fall.
Io
How? with the circumstance, if nothing hinders,
Acquaint me.
PROMETHEUS
He shall wed a wedding, such
As one day he shall grieve for.
Io
Come of gods,
Or taken of men? Say, if it be a thing
Lawful to utter.
PROMETHEUS
Ask me not of that,
Seeing it is secret, and may not be told.
Io
Shall he indeed be pluck'd up from his throne
By his wife's hand?
PROMETHEUS
By her womb rather, bearing
A son surpassing his begetter.
Io
Tell me,
Is there for him no conjuring of such peril?
PROMETHEUS
I only might, if one should loose my hands;
None else. 770
Io
Nay, who is he shall loose thee, maugre
The will of Zeus?
PROMETHEUS
One of thy body sprung
Must be the looser.
Io
Ah! what word is this?
My son, thou say'st, shall lift thy burden from thee?
PROMETHEUS
Let generations ten go by: thereto
Add other three.
Io
The rede oracular
Grows darker, hard to construe.
PROMETHEUS
Also I bid thee
Into thine own woes make not inquisition.
Io
Give me not hope to obtain, and straight e'en so
Defraud me.
PROMETHEUS
Look, of two things I vouchsafe thee
Or one or the other.
Io
What be they? Reveal them,
And give me choice.
PROMETHEUS
Behold! choose either this, 780
That I should tell thee all thy woes to come,
Or tell thee who he is, shall set me free.
CHORUS
Of these twain things make one a grace to her,
To me the other, and put not these my words
To shame, but unto her do thou unfold
The remnant of her pilgrimage, to me
Him that shall loose thee:—this is my desire.
PROMETHEUS
Since ye are instant, I will not contend,
But utter all that ye require. And first,
That labour of much going many ways,
Io, it falls to unfold thee, which do thou
Grave in the mindful tables of thy heart.
So soon as thou shalt pass that stream, the bourne
Of continent and continent, toward 790
The East flame-flooded, trodden of the sun,
****
[Press forthright. First to the winds that way shall bring thee,
The daughters of the North, where shun the black
Precipitous roarer, lest it snatch thee away,
Rapt suddenly in gusty wings of storm.]
****
Crossing the noiseful flood, until thou touch
The plains Gorgonian of Kisthene, where
Do dwell the seed of Phorkys, virgins three
Ancient of days, in swan-similitude,
To whom one eye does common ministry,
One only tooth. Them the sun visits not
With his beams, nor ever finds the lamp of night.
And to these three are neighbour other three,
Their sisters, feather'd horribly, the Gorgons,
With mat of snakes for hair, abhorr'd of men,
Whom none of mortal flesh shall look upon
And still draw breath. Such guard I show thee set. 800
Hear also another sight, they faint who see:—
Beware the warder-dogs of Zeus, whose mouths
Are sharp exceeding, even as eagles' beaks,
The Gryphons, and the host of one-eyed men,
Riders of horses, Arimaspians,
Who dwell beside the stream, the wave whereof
Is affluent of gold, the ford of Pluton.
These then avoid; and thou shalt come to a land
Very far off, a people of dark faces,
Whose seats are by the Well-springs of the Sun,
Where rolls the river Ethiop. Trail thy feet
Along the banks thereof, until thou reach 810
The Stair-way of the Cataract, the hills
Of Byblos: thence is Nile, whereof who drink
Do worship for the virtue of the draught.
And he shall be to thee a way to bring thee
Into the land, that is his own, the isle
Three-corner'd, where that far plantation, Io,
Fate is that thou shalt found, thou and thy sons.
Now if aught here be inarticulate,
Aught hard to hit, turn and retrace it: time
More than I wish, is given me at dispose.
CHORUS
If aught of her disconsolate pilgrimage
Thou hast not yet utter'd or hast left aside, 820
Speak! but if thou hast told her all, to us
Render our asking;—thou art not unmindful.
PROMETHEUS
She hath heard her faring through to the very end.
Howbeit, that she may know her ears have drunk
No words of wind, I will rehearse the labours
Wrought out ere she came hither: this shall be
The warrant of my tale. Well, the most part
(For many words are tedious) I let go,
And touch the ending. After thou hadst come
To the Molossian crofts, the mountain ridges
About Dodona,—where be oracles 830
And siege of Zeus Thesprotian, and a wonder
Outrunning credit, even the oaks that hold
Familiar converse, which with clear proclaim
Hail'd thee, not darkly, spouse of Zeus Most High
To be, if to thine ear such name come kindly,—
Thence thy tormentor prick'd thee on to fly
The way of the sea to that great Gulf of Rhea,
Wherefrom again thou art beaten back, storm-driven
In course ungovern'd. Know in time to come
That salt sea firth shall be Ionian call'd, 840
Eternal record of thy transient feet.
These signs I give thee of my heart's discernment,
That further it pierces than the eye can see.
And for the rest, to you and her alike
Will I take up my rede, even where it left
The footprints of my old discourse.
There is a city, call'd Kanobos, last
On that land's border, by the very mouth
And bankèd silt of Nile: there Zeus disburdens
Thy mind of madness, laying his hand upon thee,
That quencheth fear: he shall no more but touch.
And thou shalt bear a son and call his name,
After the wondrous gendering of Zeus, 850
Epaphos, dusky-favour'd, who shall hold
All land in fee, that with broad-spreading flood
Nile waters. Lo, from him the fifth descent,
A brood of fifty, shall return again,
Not of free will, to Argos, seed of daughters,
Fleeing close-blooded union, lest they wed
Their cousins: these, their hearts being passion-winnow'd,
Kites on the track of doves nor far behind,
Shall come in chase of wedlock, which to chase
Is sin: but God's misliking eye shall reave
Those lusty bodies, and Pelasgic earth
Shall cover them,—bodies of men brought down 860
In war of women's hands, by desperate mood
That in the night keeps watch: for every woman
Shall spoil the life of her particular lord,
In his soft throat drenching a two-edged brand.
Such bridal commerce,—may 't befall my foes!
One only maiden some soft pain shall hold
From slaying him beside her: her resolve
Shall turn back blunted: of two evil names
"Coward" she less will loathe than "murderess."
And she shall be the mother of that house
Which shall be kings in Argos,—one had need
Of much discourse to utter all that matter, 870
But this receive: from seed of her shall spring
One very bold, who of his bow shall get
Great fame; and he it is, that from this durance
Shall set me free.
Such oracle my mother did unfold me,
She that hath been of old time, of the race
Of the Titans, Themis; but the how and where
'Twould need words many to set forth, and thou
By learning all that tale, would'st find no good.
Io
Welaway! welaway!
The old fit mounts in me, rending, the passion
Of madness: a prick no fire did fashion
Stabs me and urges. 880
My heart is tormented of terror to bound
As a wild thing within me; mine eyes wheel round;
I am driven athwart by the hurricane
Of frenzy; my tongue refuseth rein:
Thick issue of words doth battle in vain
With the blinding, shattering surges.
[Io goes out, raving.]
CHORUS
Him wise I call, him wise attest,
Whose bosom first with this was great,
And whose tongue publish'd it: "They best
Do wed, that match their own estate. 890
Let not the toil-engrainèd hands
Lust to embrace in spousal bands
Them that above the general crowd
High breed exalts, or wealth makes delicate and proud."
May never day for me appear,
Never for me, O Queens of Doom,
To come the bed of God anear,
Or get of them on high for groom!
Lo, I have seen it and I dread,—
This maidenhood uncomforted
By love of husband, to and fro
Of Hera driven, and wasted in a maze of woe. 900
For me be equal the marriage plight,
I blench not. Never upon me light
Eye of some Mightier One
With passion hard to shun!—
Bad battle to brunt, with dearth of all
But utter dearth! What end should fall?
I see not any road
To elude the wiles of God.
PROMETHEUS
This holds unshaken: be the heart of Zeus
Never so hard, a day shall bring him low.
Such marriage hath he toward, that from his height
Most high shall hale him down, his throne shall know him
No more for ever, and the curse wherewith 910
His father cursed him in the day he fell,
Kronos, from off his secular seat, shall find
To the utterance then fulfilment. Of such pain
The averting that might be no god in heaven,
Not one, can show him certainly, but I:
I know it, and the manner of it. So now
Let him sit with heart uplift and put his trust
In rummage of the upper air, and shake
An engine in his hands, whose blast is fire:
All this shall help him nothing, nor defend
That fall he should not falls irreparable,
A laughter and hissing. Such antagonist 920
He now makes ready against himself, a fear
Embodied, ill to match, one that shall find
A flame more shrewd than lightning, and a noise
Mightier than mighty thunders; yea the spear
That palsy-shakes the earth with strength of the seas,
The trident of Poseidon, he shall make
As though it were not. In that day shall Zeus,
Whenas his foot hath struck such evil, learn
How different to rule is and to serve.
CHORUS
Arm'd of inveterate desire thy tongue
Makes battery on Zeus.
PROMETHEUS
I speak the thing
That shall be, and no less thereby the thing
That I desire.
CHORUS
And must we look indeed
For Zeus to find his better? 930
PROMETHEUS
That and more,
A yoke more difficult for the neck to bear.
CHORUS
How art thou not afraid, slinging such words?
PROMETHEUS
What should I dread, whom fate forbids to die?
CHORUS
Nay, hath he not the means to lay on thee
Some yet more grievous travail?
PROMETHEUS
Let him do 't:
I am arm'd in soul for all things.
CHORUS
They are wise
That do obeisance to Necessity.
PROMETHEUS
Go to! fall down, fleech, kiss the lord of the hour:
Of me is Zeus accounted less than naught.
Let him work his will this little space, and lord it
Uncheck'd: his rule shall not endure in heaven. 940
But soft:—I see the courier of heaven's King,
The drudge of the young monarchy. He is come,
Of that no doubt, some new thing on his tongue.
[Hermes enters.]
HERMES
This word to thee, the master-wit, to thee
More bitter than all bitter things, the prime
Offender against the gods, purveying honours
To perishable flesh, the thief of fire!—
Thus saith the Father: Thou shalt surely speak
And say what manner of marriage this may be
Thou vauntest of, and who they are, whereby
The One that rules shall fall; and that nowise
With riddling lips, but each particular
After its proper truth: nor make me tread 950
The same path twice, Prometheus: such, thou see'st,
Were not the way to appease the heart of Zeus.
PROMETHEUS
Superb in utterance, blown with lusty pride,
His speech is: hear the servant of the gods!
Ye are young, ye are young, rulers of yesterday,
And verily deem ye dwell in citadels
Untouch'd of tears. Have I not known from these
Two monarchs tumbled? and the third, who now
Is sovereign, I shall see the soonest fall
And shamefullest. Behold me! do I tremble,
Do I quail, for these new gods? O far is that 960
Removed from me, the width of the world! Thou then
Trudge, trace again the way thou camest: nothing
Of all thy inquisition shalt thou learn.
HERMES
Such headstrong motions were those same, that erst
Did bear thy vessel on these shoals.
PROMETHEUS
Wot well
I had rather choose these my calamities
Than dance, where thou, attendance.
HERMES
Excellent!
I'll swear 'tis better to attend this rock,
Than to be such an one as Hermes, trusted
Of Zeus to be his messenger.
PROMETHEUS
The froward
Must look to meet with frowardness. 970
HERMES
It seems
Thou 'rt grown magnificent in thy present case.
PROMETHEUS
Magnificent? would I might see my foes
In such magnificence, and, among them, thee!
HERMES
Am I too held then taxable for aught
In thy misfortunes?
PROMETHEUS
Roundly, all the gods
I hold mine enemies, all that had of me
Good, and repay me evil wrongfully.
HERMES
Thy mind is very sick, mine ears acquaint me.
PROMETHEUS
Sick may I be, if to hate foes be sickness!
HERMES
Ha, in good health thou would'st no more be borne.
PROMETHEUS
Oh! oh!
HERMES
The lips of Zeus have never learnt that sound. 980
PROMETHEUS
Nought is, time shall not teach, that groweth full of days.
HERMES
And yet to this hour thou art void of sense.
PROMETHEUS
I am, in communing with thee, a thrall.
HERMES
Well, I conclude that thou wilt answer nothing
Of what the Father wills.
PROMETHEUS
Nay, but I owe him
Much love, that I should pleasure him in this.
HERMES
Am I a child, that thou should'st flout me so?
PROMETHEUS
Nay, art thou not? or something yet more green,
If thou hast hope to gather aught from me?
There is no torment, no device, whereby
Zeus shall enforce my lips to let this go, 990
Until these chains injurious be undone.
I have said: and now let fly the sooty flame!
Let all the world become one waste of snow,
Whirl of white feathers, and one roar of thunders
Infernal! Nothing of all that shall bend me,
Nothing shall force from me, what hand of fate
Shall dispossess him from his sovereignty.
HERMES
Look if these things are like to bring thee succour.
PROMETHEUS
Nay, long ago I look'd, and well advised me.
HERMES
Take heart, O foolish one, take heart at last
To front thy evil case with soberness. 1000
PROMETHEUS
Thou art tedious to me, as whoso should reason
With a sea-wave. Keep far from thee all thought
That I shall ever so much hold in dread
The will of Zeus, that, being unmann'd in soul,
I should intreat that object of huge hate
With womanish upliftings of my palms
To loose me from my bondage. Never! never!
HERMES
By many words, it seems, I but lose breath.
Thou art not melted nor thy heart made soft
By prayers; but gnashing on the snaffle-steel,
Like to a colt new-broke, thou are violent
In fight against the rein. For all that, know 1010
Thy vehement will stands in a weak conceit:
A stiff neck unto one not well bethought
Adds of itself no strength, nay, less than none.
Behold, if thou refuse to hear my words,
What storm shall break on thee,—a three-fold billow
Of doom, without escape. First, this rough gorge
The Father's thunderbolt and fiery flaw
Shall rend asunder, and thy living body
Earth shall entomb: a rock shall be the arm
To bear thee up. Then, when thou hast outworn 1020
Great length of days, thou shalt be brought again
Into the light by doom reversed; and straight
The wingèd dog of Zeus, the tawny eagle,
Shall make thy flesh but a great rag to tear,
To ravin piecemeal, constant to his hour,
A guest unbidden, steadfast all day long,
Gorging thy liver, banquet black and rich.
Nor hope of that thy torment any end,
Till of the gods there rise up one to take
On him thy punishment, willing to go
To the land where no light is, the house of death,
The dark unfathom'd, where is Tartaros.
Wherefore advise thee, seeing this I utter1030
Is nothing feign'd, but spoken home and surely.
The high God's mouth knows not to speak the thing
That false is, but shall stablish all. Thou then
Look narrowly, take thought, and never deem
Advisedness of lesser praise than pride.
CHORUS
To us the words of Hermes have some show
Of reason, bidding thee remit thy pride,
To explore the sage path of advisedness.
Be ruled: the wise get shame, who go astray.
PROMETHEUS
Or ever his lips had let it go, 1040
I knew his burden: that foe of foe
Should suffer evil is no new law.
Light on me now the writhen hair
Of a flame two-edgèd! let all the air
Be lash'd with levin, with passion grieved
Of winds exasperate, earth up-heaved
From her roots by the inly-prison'd flaw!
Let him mingle a welter of bitter brine,
The froth of the seas, with the paths divine
Of the heavenly stars! down quick let him fling me 1050
Where the face of the day is blotted and blacken'd,
By a might that masters, and twirls unslacken'd!
To Death can he nowise bring me.
HERMES
Nay, here are heats of a mind amiss,
And speeches verily heard sick-brain'd!
Is there any madness more than this?
Or a temper further in frenzy strain'd?
Ye then, do you as many as grieve
In his sorrow's fellowship, rise and leave
This place, with the speed that ye may forth-faring, 1060
Lest ye hear, and your sense it suddenly reave,
The roar of the thunder unsparing.
CHORUS
Find other utterance, such exhorting
As I shall heed: this word ill-sorting,
That hath 'scaped thy lips, to hearken were shame to me:
A thing so base how dost thou name to me?
With my friend I am fixèd to bear the worst:
Traitors of old I abominate.
No evil accurst
Do I spit from me with such hate! 1070
HERMES
Yet warnèd ye are; nowise forget,
Nor, when ye are taken in Mischief's net,
Cry out on fortune, or loose the thought
That into calamity undivined
Zeus cast you: nay, but yourselves have wrought
Your own undoing, for well aware,
Not suddenly, not by a hidden snare,
Into doom without limit or loosing ye fare,
Mesh'd by perverseness of mind!
[Hermes departs. Thunder and lightning.]
PROMETHEUS
Ay sooth in deed, and in word no more,
Earth smitten springs!
Through the nether passages rolls the roar
Of thunder; the lightnings run in curls
Of scrabbled fire, and the dust up-whirls
His eddying pillars: winds break free
And leap to battle together, disclosing
High contention of blasts opposing,
Wind with wind; and the sky and sea
In broils are mingled and blusterings.
For the arm is bared of the God most high
With onrush of tempest and terror to fold me.
O holy name of my Mother, O sky,
Revolving the light of the world, behold me,
How I suffer outrageous things!
[The rocks are rent open: Prometheus, falling into the chasm, disappears.]
- ↑ Line 186. "Dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?"—Job xv. 8.
- ↑ Line 419. 'Won,' to dwell.
'The wild beast, where he wons
In forest wild.'—Milton, Par. L. vii. 457. - ↑ Line 648, "Sooth," sweet, winning.
"The soothest shepherd that e'er piped on plains."
Milton, Comus, 823.
Cf. "Words of sooth."
Shakespeare, Richard II., iii. 3, 136.