KR. Now with an adamantine wedge's stubborn fang HEPH. Alas! alas! Prometheus, I groan for thy afflictions. KR. And do you hesitate, for Zeus' enemies Do you groan? Beware lest one day you yourself will pity. HEPH. You see a spectacle hard for eyes to behold. KR. I see him meeting his deserts; But round his sides put straps. HEPH. To do this is necessity, insist not much. KR. Surely I will insist and urge beside, Go downward, and the thighs surround with force. HEPH. Already it is done, the work, with no long labor. HEPH. Like your form your tongue speaks. KR. Be thou softened, but for my stubbornness HEPH. Let us withdraw, for he has a net about his limbs. KR. There now insult, and the shares of gods Falsely thee the divinities Prometheus PROMETHEUS, alone. O divine ether, and ye swift-winged winds, And thou all-seeing orb of the sun I call. Behold me what a god I suffer at the hands of gods. Tormented the myriad-yeared Time I shall endure; such the new Ruler of the blessed has contrived for me, Unseemly bonds. Alas! alas! the present and the coming Woe I groan; where ever of these sufferings Must an end appear. But what say I? I know beforehand all, As easily as possible it behoves to bear, knowing But neither to be silent, nor unsilent about this Lot is possible for me; for a gift to mortals Giving, I wretched have been yoked to these necessities; Stolen source, which seemed the teacher Of all art to mortals, and a great resource. Under the sky, riveted in chains. Ah! ah! alas! alas! What echo, what odor has flown to me obscure, A witness of my sufferings, or wishing what? The enemy of Zeus, fallen under The ill will of all the gods, as many as Through too great love of mortals. Alas! alas! what fluttering do I hear Of birds near? for the air rustles With the soft rippling of wings. Everything to me is fearful which creeps this way. PROMETHEUS and CHORUS CH. Fear nothing; for friendly this band Of wings with swift contention Drew to this hill, hardly Persuading the paternal mind. The swift-carrying breezes sent me ; For the echo of beaten steel pierced the recesses Of the caves, and struck out from me reserved modesty ; And I rushed unsandalled in a winged chariot. PR. Alas! alas! alas! alas! Offspring of the fruitful Tethys, And of him rolling around all The earth with sleepless stream children, On this cliff's topmost rocks I shall maintain unenvied watch. CH. I see, Prometheus; but to my eyes a fearful Mist has come surcharged With tears, looking upon thy body Shrunk to the rocks By these mischiefs of adamantine bonds; Indeed new helmsmen rule Olympus; And with new laws Zeus strengthens himself, annulling the old, And the before great now makes unknown. PR. Would that under earth, and below Hades Tartarus, he had sent me, to bonds indissoluble Cruelly conducting, that neither god, But now the sport of winds, unhappy one, CH. Who so hard-hearted Of the gods, to whom these things are pleasant? Misfortunes, excepting Zeus? for he in wrath always Afflicts the heavenly race; Nor will he cease, until his heart is sated; Or with some palm some one may take the power hard to be taken. PR. Surely yet, though in strong Fetters I am now maltreated, The ruler of the blessed will have need of me, To show the new conspiracy, by which He's robbed of sceptre and of honors, And not at all me with persuasion's honey-tongued Charms will he appease, nor ever Shrinking from his firm threats, will I Bonds he may release, and to do justice CH. You are bold; and to bitter But too freely speak. But my mind piercing fear disturbs; Where at length arriving you may see An end of these afflictions. For manners Inaccessible, and a heart hard to be dissuaded has the son of PR. I know, that- Zeus is stern and having Gentle-minded He will one day be, when thus he's crushed, Into agreement with me and friendliness CH. The whole account disclose and tell us plainly, Thus disgracefully and bitterly insults; Inform us, if you are nowise hurt by the recital. PR. Painful indeed it is to me to tell these things, That Zeus might reign, forsooth, others the contrary The Titans, sons of Uranus and Chthon, Despising with rude minds, They thought without trouble to rule by force; But to me my mother not once only, Themis, And Gaea, of many names one form, How the future should be accomplished had foretold, That not by power, nor by strength Would it be necessary, but by craft the victors should prevail. They deigned not to regard at all. The best course therefore of those occurring then Appeared to be, taking my mother to me, Of my own accord to side with Zeus glad to receive me ; And by my counsels Tartarus' black-pitted Depth conceals the ancient Kronos, He sat, he straightway to the gods distributes honors, Entire, wished to create another new. Therefore indeed with such afflictions am I bent, Am I thus corrected, a spectacle inglorious to Zeus. CH. Of iron heart and made of stone, Whoe'er, Prometheus, with thy sufferings Does not grieve; for I should not have wished to see PR. Indeed to friends I'm piteous to behold. CH. Did you in no respect go beyond this? PR. True, mortals I made cease foreseeing fate. CH. A great advantage this you gave to men. PR. Beside these, too, I bestowed on them fire. PR. From which indeed they will learn many arts. CH. Upon such charges then does Zeus Maltreat you, and nowhere relax from ills? Is there no term of suffering lying before thee? PR. Nay, none at all, but when to him it may seem good. CH. And how will it seem good? What hope? See you not that Not pleasant, and to you a pain. But these things PR. Easy, whoever out of trouble holds his Foot, to admonish and remind those faring Willing, willing I erred, I'll not deny ; Not indeed with penalties like these thought I Gaining this drear unneighbored hill. But bewail not my present woes, But alighting, the fortunes creeping on Hear ye, that ye may learn all to the end. Obey me, obey, sympathize With him now suffering. Thus indeed affliction Wandering round, sits now by one, then by another. CH. Not to unwilling ears do you urge This, Prometheus. And now with light foot the swift-rushing Seat leaving, and the pure ether, Path of birds, to this peaked Ground I come; for thy misfortunes I wish fully to hear. PROMETHEUS, CHORUS, and Oceanus. Oc. I come to the end of a long way For at thy fortunes know I grieve. Impels me, but apart from birth, There's not to whom a higher rank I would assign than thee. And you will know these things as true, and not in vain |