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KR. Now with an adamantine wedge's stubborn fang
Through the breasts nail strongly.

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.
KR. Strongly now drive the fetters, through and through,
For the critic of the works is difficult.

HEPH. Like your form your tongue speaks.

KR. Be thou softened, but for my stubbornness
Of temper and harshness reproach me not.

HEPH. Let us withdraw, for he has a net about his limbs.

KR. There now insult, and the shares of gods
Plundering on ephemerals bestow; what thee
Can mortals in these ills relieve?

Falsely thee the divinities Prometheus
Call; for you yourself need one foreseeing
In what manner you will escape this fortune.

PROMETHEUS, alone.

O divine ether, and ye swift-winged winds,
Fountains of rivers, and countless smilings
Of the ocean waves, and earth, mother of all,

And thou all-seeing orb of the sun I call.

Behold me what a god I suffer at the hands of gods.
See by what outrages

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,
Exactly what will be, nor to me strange
Will any evil come. The destined fate

As easily as possible it behoves to bear, knowing
Necessity's is a resistless strength.

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;
Within a hollow reed by stealth I carry off fire's

Stolen source, which seemed the teacher

Of all art to mortals, and a great resource.
For such crimes penalty I pay,

Under the sky, riveted in chains.

Ah! ah! alas! alas!

What echo, what odor has flown to me obscure,
Of god, or mortal, or else mingled, —
Came it to this terminal hill

A witness of my sufferings, or wishing what?
Behold bound me an unhappy god,

The enemy of Zeus, fallen under

The ill will of all the gods, as many as
Enter into the hall of Zeus,

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,
Of father Ocean; behold, look on me,
By what bonds embraced,

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
Receptacle of dead, to impassible

Tartarus, he had sent me, to bonds indissoluble

Cruelly conducting, that neither god,
Nor any other had rejoiced at this.

But now the sport of winds, unhappy one,
A source of pleasure to my foes I suffer.

CH. Who so hard-hearted

Of the gods, to whom these things are pleasant?
Who does not sympathize with thy

Misfortunes, excepting Zeus? for he in wrath always
Fixing his stubborn mind,

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
Declare this, till from cruel

Bonds he may release, and to do justice
For this outrage be willing.

CH. You are bold; and to bitter
Woes do nothing yield,

But too freely speak.

But my mind piercing fear disturbs;
For I'm concerned about thy fortunes,

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
Kronos.

PR. I know, that- Zeus is stern and having
Justice to himself. But after all

Gentle-minded

He will one day be, when thus he's crushed,
And his stubborn wrath allaying,

Into agreement with me and friendliness
Earnest to me earnest he at length will come.

CH. The whole account disclose and tell us plainly,
In what crime taking you Zeus

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,
And a pain to be silent, and every way unfortunate.
When first the divinities began their strife,
And discord 'mong themselves arose,
Some wishing to cast out Kronos from his seat,

That Zeus might reign, forsooth, others the contrary
Striving, that Zeus might never rule the gods;
Then I the best advising, to persuade

The Titans, sons of Uranus and Chthon,
Unable was; but crafty stratagems

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.
Such I in words expounding,

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,
With his allies. In such things by me
The tyrant of the gods having been helped,
With base rewards like these repays me,
For there is somehow in kingship
This disease, not to trust its friends.
What then you ask, for what cause
He afflicts me, this will I now explain.
As soon as on his father's throne

He sat, he straightway to the gods distributes honors,
Some to one and to another some, and arranged
The government; but of unhappy mortals account
Had none; but blotting out the race

Entire, wished to create another new.
And these things none opposed but I,
But I adventured; I rescued mortals
From going destroyed to Hades.

Therefore indeed with such afflictions am I bent,
To suffer grievous, and piteous to behold,
And holding mortals up to pity, myself am not
Thought worthy to obtain it; but without pity

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
These things, and having seen them I am grieved at heart.

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. Having found what remedy for this ail?
PR. Blind hopes in them I made to dwell.

CH. A great advantage this you gave to men.

PR. Beside these, too, I bestowed on them fire.
CH. And have mortals flamy 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
You have erred? But how you 've erred, for me to tell

Not pleasant, and to you a pain. But these things
Let us omit, and seek you some release from sufferings.

PR. Easy, whoever out of trouble holds his

Foot, to admonish and remind those faring
Ill. But all these things I knew,

Willing, willing I erred, I'll not deny ;
Mortals assisting I myself found trouble.

Not indeed with penalties like these thought I
That I should pine on lofty rocks,

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
Travelling to thee, Prometheus,
By my will without bits directing
This wing-swift bird;

For at thy fortunes know I grieve.
And, I think, affinity thus.

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
To flatter with the tongue is in me. Come, therefore,
Show how it is necessary to assist you;

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