ST. Wilt thou not then bestir thyself to cast fetters about this wretch,
that the Sire may not espy thee loitering?
VUL. Ay, and in truth you may see the manacles ready.
ST. Take them, and with mighty force clench them with the mallet about
his hands: rivet him close to the crags.
VUL. This work of ours is speeding to its consummation and loiters not.
ST. Smite harder, tighten, slacken at no point, for he hath cunning to
find outlets even from impracticable difficulties.
VUL. This arm at all events is fastened inextricably.
ST. And now clasp this securely, that he may perceive himself to be a
duller contriver than Jupiter.
VUL. Save this [sufferer], no one could with reason find fault with me.
ST. Now by main force rivet the ruthless fang of an adamantine wedge
right through his breast.[13]
VUL. Alas! alas! Prometheus, I sigh over thy sufferings.
ST. Again thou art hanging back, and sighest thou over the enemies of
Jupiter? Look to it, that thou hast not at some time to mourn for
thyself.
VUL. Thou beholdest a spectacle ill-sighted to the eye.
ST. I behold this wretch receiving his deserts. But fling thou these
girths round his sides.
VUL. I must needs do this; urge me not very much.
ST. Ay, but I will urge thee, and set thee on too. Move downward, and
strongly link his legs.
VUL. And in truth the task is done with no long toil.
ST. With main force now smite the galling fetters, since stern indeed is
the inspector of this work.
VUL. Thy tongue sounds in accordance with thy form.
ST. Yield thou to softness, but taunt not me with ruthlessness and
harshness of temper.
VUL. Let us go; since he hath the shackles about his limbs.
ST. There now be insolent; and after pillaging the prerogatives of the
gods, confer them on creatures of a day. In what will mortals be able to
alleviate these agonies of thine? By no true title do the divinities
call thee Prometheus; for thou thyself hast need of a Prometheus, by
means of which you will slip out of this fate.[14]
[_Exeunt_ STRENGTH _and_ FORCE.
PROMETHEUS. O divine aether, and ye swift-winged breezes, and ye
fountains of rivers, and countless dimpling[15] of the waves of the
deep, and thou earth, mother of all--and to the all-seeing orb of the
Sun I appeal; look upon me, what treatment I, a god, am enduring at the
hand of the gods! Behold with what indignities mangled I shall have to
wrestle through time of years innumerable. Such an ignominious bondage
hath the new ruler of the immortals devised against me. Alas! alas! I
sigh over the present suffering, and that which is coming on. How, where
must a termination of these toils arise? And yet what is it I am saying?
I know beforehand all futurity exactly, and no suffering will come upon
me unlooked-for. But I needs must bear my doom as easily as may be,
knowing as I do, that the might of Necessity can not be resisted.
But yet it is not possible for me either to hold my peace, or not to
hold my peace touching these my fortunes. For having bestowed boons upon
mortals, I am enthralled unhappy in these hardships. And I am he that
searched out the source of fire, by stealth borne-off inclosed in a
fennel-rod,[16] which has shown itself a teacher of every art to
mortals, and a great resource. Such then as this is the vengeance that I
endure for my trespasses, being riveted in fetters beneath the naked
sky.
Hah! what sound, what ineffable odor[17] hath been wafted to me,
emanating from a god, or from mortal, or of some intermediate nature?
Has there come anyone to the remote rock as a spectator of my
sufferings, or with what intent![18] Behold me an ill-fated god in
durance, the foe of Jupiter, him that hath incurred the detestation of
all the gods who frequent the court of Jupiter, by reason of my
excessive friendliness to mortals. Alas! alas! what can this hasty
motion of birds be which I again hear hard by me? The air too is
whistling faintly with the whirrings of pinions. Every thing that
approaches is to me an object of dread.
CHORUS. Dread thou nothing; for this is a friendly band that has come
with the fleet rivalry of their pinions to this rock, after prevailing
with difficulty on the mind of our father. And the swiftly-wafting
breezes escorted me; for the echo of the clang of steel pierced to the
recess of our grots, and banished my demure-looking reserve; and I sped
without my sandals in my winged chariot.
PR. Alas! alas! ye offspring of prolific Thetys, and daughters of Ocean
your sire, who rolls around the whole earth in his unslumbering stream;
look upon me, see clasped in what bonds I shall keep an unenviable watch
on the topmost crags of this ravine.
CH. I see, Prometheus: and a fearful mist full of tears darts over mine
eyes, as I looked on thy frame withering on the rocks[19] in these
galling adamantine fetters: for new pilots are the masters of Olympus;
and Jove, contrary to right, lords it with new laws, and things
aforetime had in reverence he is obliterating.
PR. Oh would that he had sent me beneath the earth, and below into the
boundless Tartarus of Hades that receives the dead, after savagely
securing me in indissoluble bonds, so that no god at any time, nor any
other being, had exulted in this my doom. Whereas now, hapless one, I,
the sport of the winds, suffer pangs that gladden my foes.
CH. Who of the gods is so hard-hearted as that these things should be
grateful to him? Who is there that sympathizes not with thy sufferings,
Jove excepted? He, indeed, in his wrath, assuming an inflexible temper,
is evermore oppressing the celestial race! nor will he cease before that
either he shall have sated his heart, or some one by some stratagem
shall have seized upon his sovereignity that will be no easy prize.
PR. In truth hereafter the president of the immortals[20] shall have
need of me, albeit that I am ignominiously suffering in stubborn
shackles, to discover to him the new plot by which he is to be despoiled
of his sceptre and his honors. But neither shall he win me by the
honey-tongued charms of persuasion; nor will I at any time, crouching
beneath his stern threats, divulge this matter, before he shall have
released me from my cruel bonds, and shall be willing to yield me
retribution for this outrage.
CH. Thou indeed both art bold, and yieldest nought to thy bitter
calamities, but art over free in thy language. But piercing terror is
worrying my soul; for I fear for thy fortunes. How, when will it be thy
destiny to make the haven and see the end of these thy sufferings? for
the son of Saturn has manners that supplication cannot reach, and an
inexorable heart.
PR. I know that Jupiter is harsh, and keeps justice to himself; but for
all that he shall hereafter be softened in purpose, when he shall be
crushed in this way; and, after calming his unyielding temper with
eagerness will he hereafter come into league and friendship with me that
will eagerly [welcome him].
CH. Unfold and speak out to us the whole story, from what accusation has
Jupiter seized thee, and is thus disgracefully and bitterly tormenting
thee. Inform us, if thou be in no respect hurt by the recital.
PR. Painful indeed are these things for me to tell, and painful too for
me to hold my peace, and in every way grievous. As soon as the
divinities began discord, and a feud was stirred up among them with one
another--one party[21] wishing to eject Saturn from his throne, in
order forsooth that Jupiter might be king, and others expediting the
reverse, that Jupiter might at no time rule over the gods: then I, when
I gave the best advice, was not able to prevail upon the Titans,
children of Uranus and Terra; but they, contemning in their stout
spirits wily schemes, fancied that without any trouble, and by dint of
main force, they were to win the sovereignty. But it was not once only
that my mother Themis, and Terra, a single person with many titles, had
forewarned me of the way in which the future would be accomplished; how
it was destined, that, not by main force, nor by the strong hand, but by
craft the victors should prevail. When, however, I explained such points
in discourse, they deigned not to pay me any regard at all. Of the plans
which then presented themselves to me, the best appeared that I should
take my mother and promptly side with Jupiter, who was right willing [to
receive us]. And 'tis by means of my counsels that the murky abyss of
Tartarus overwhelms the antique Saturn, allies and all. After thus being
assisted by me, the tyrant of the gods hath recompensed me with this
foul recompense. For somehow this malady attaches to tyranny, not to put
confidence in its friends. But for your inquiries upon what charge is it
that he outrages me, this I will make clear. As soon as he has
established himself on his father's throne, he assigns forthwith to the
different divinities each his honors, and he was marshaling in order his
empire; but of woe-begone mortals he made no account, but wished, after
having annihilated the entire race, to plant another new one. And these
schemes no one opposed except myself: But I dared: I ransomed mortals
from being utterly destroyed, and going down to Hades. 'Tis for this, in
truth, that I am bent by sufferings such as these, agonizing to endure,
and piteous to look upon. I that had compassion for mortals, have myself
been deemed unworthy to obtain this, but mercilessly am thus coerced to
order, a spectacle inglorious to Jupiter.
CH. Iron-hearted and formed of rock too, Prometheus, is he, who condoles
not with thy toils: for I could have wished never to have beheld them,
and now, when I behold them, I am pained in my heart.
PR. Ay, in very deed I am a piteous object for friends to behold.
CH. And didst thou chance to advance even beyond this?
PR. Yes! I prevented mortals from foreseeing their doom.
CH. By finding what remedy for this malady?
PR. I caused blind hopes to dwell within them.
CH. In this thou gavest a mighty benefit to mortals.
PR. Over and above these boons, however, I imparted fire to them.
CH. And do the creatures of a day now possess bright fire?
PR. Yes--from which they will moreover learn thoroughly many arts.
CH. Is it indeed on charges such as these that Jupiter is both visiting
thee with indignities, and in no wise grants thee a respite from thy
pains? And is no period to thy toils set before thee?
PR. None other assuredly, but when it may please him.
CH. And how shall it be his good pleasure? What hope is there? Seest
thou not that thou didst err? but how thou didst err, I can not relate
with pleasure, and it would be a pain to you. But let us leave these
points, and search thou for some escape from thine agony.
PR. 'Tis easy, for any one that hath his foot unentangled by sufferings,
both to exhort and to admonish him that is in evil plight. But I knew
all these things willingly, willingly I erred, I will not gainsay it;
and in doing service to mortals I brought upon myself sufferings. Yet
not at all did I imagine, that, in such a punishment as this, I was to
wither away upon lofty rocks, meeting with this desolate solitary crag.
And yet wail ye not over my present sorrows, but after alighting on the
ground, list ye to the fortune that is coming on, that ye may learn the
whole throughout. Yield to me, yield ye, take ye a share in the woes of
him that is now suffering. Hence in the same way doth calamity, roaming
to and fro, settle down on different individuals.
CH. Upon those who are nothing loth hast thou urged this, Prometheus:
and now having with light step quitted my rapidly-wafted chariot-seat,
and the pure aether, highway of the feathered race, I will draw near to
this rugged ground: and I long to hear the whole tale of thy sufferings.
_Enter_ OCEAN.
I am arrived at the end of a long journey,[22] having passed over [it]
to thee, Prometheus, guiding this winged steed of mine, swift of pinion,
by my will, without a bit; and, rest assured, I sorrow with thy
misfortunes. For both the tie of kindred thus constrains me, and,
relationship apart, there is no one on whom I would bestow a larger
share [of my regard] than to thyself. And thou shalt know that these
words are sincere, and that it is not in me vainly to do lip-service;
for come, signify to me in what it is necessary for me to assist thee;
for at no time shalt thou say that thou hast a stancher friend than
Oceanus.
PR. Hah! what means this? and hast thou too come to be a witness of my
pangs? How hast thou ventured, after quitting both the stream that bears
thy name, and the rock-roofed self-wrought[23] grots, to come into the
iron teeming land? Is it that you may contemplate my misfortunes, and as
sympathizing with my woes that thou hast come? Behold a spectacle, me
here the friend of Jupiter, that helped to establish his sovereignty,
with what pains I am bent by him.
OC. I see, Prometheus, and to thee, subtle as thou art, I wish to give
the best counsel. Know thyself, and assume to thyself new manners; for
among the gods too there is a new monarch. But if thou wilt utter words
thus harsh and whetted, Jupiter mayhap, though seated far aloft, will
hear thee, so that the present bitterness of sufferings will seem to
thee to be child's play. But, O hapless one! dismiss the passion which
thou feelest, and search for a deliverance from these sufferings of
thine. Old-fashioned maxims these, it may be, I appear to thee to utter;
yet such becomes the wages of the tongue that talks too proudly. But not
even yet art thou humble, nor submittest to ills; and in addition to
those that already beset thee, thou art willing to bring others upon
thee. Yet not, if at least thou takest me for thy instructor, wilt thou
stretch out thy leg against the pricks; as thou seest that a harsh
monarch, and one that is not subject to control, is lording it. And now
I for my part will go, and will essay, if I be able, to disinthrall thee
from these thy pangs. But be thou still, nor be over impetuous in thy
language. What! knowest thou not exactly, extremely intelligent as thou
art, that punishment is inflicted on a froward tongue?
PR. I give thee joy, because that thou hast escaped censure, after
taking part in and venturing along with me in all things. And now leave
him alone, and let it not concern thee. For in no wise wilt thou
persuade him; for he is not open to persuasion. And look thou well to it
that thou take not harm thyself by the journey.
OC. Thou art far better calculated by nature to instruct thy neighbors
than thyself: I draw my conclusion from fact, and not from word. But
think not for a moment to divert me from the attempt. For I am
confident, yea, I am confident, that Jupiter will grant me this boon, so
as to release thee from these pangs of thine.
PR. In part I commend thee, and will by no means at any time cease to do
so. For in zeal to serve me thou lackest nothing. But trouble thyself
not; for in vain, without being of any service to me,[24] wilt thou
labor, if in any respect thou art willing to labor. But hold thou thy
peace, and keep thyself out of harm's way; for I, though I be in
misfortune, would not on this account be willing that sufferings should
befall as many as possible. No, indeed, since also the disasters of my
brother Atlas gall my heart, who is stationed in the western regions,
sustaining on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and of earth, a burden
not of easy grasp. I commiserated too when I beheld the earth-born
inmate of the Cilician caverns, a tremendous prodigy, the hundred-headed
impetuous Typhon, overpowered by force, who withstood all the gods,
hissing slaughter from his hungry jaws; and from his eyes there flashed
a hideous glare, as though he would perforce overthrow the sovereignty
of Jove. But the sleepless shaft of Jupiter came upon him, the
descending thunderbolt breathing forth flame, which scared him out of
his presumptuous bravadoes; for having been smitten to his very soul he
was crumbled to a cinder, and thunder-blasted in his prowess. And now, a
helpless and paralyzed form is he lying hard by a narrow frith, pressed
down beneath the roots of AEtna.[25] And, seated on the topmost peaks,
Vulcan forges the molten masses, whence there shall one day burst forth
floods devouring with fell jaws the level fields of fruitful Sicily:
with rage such as this shall Typhon boil over in hot artillery of a
never-glutted fire-breathing storm; albeit he hath been reduced to ashes
by the thunder-bolt of Jupiter. But thou art no novice, nor needest thou
me for thine instructor. Save thyself as best thou knowest how; but I
will exhaust my present fate until such time as the spirit of Jupiter
shall abate its wrath.
OC. Knowest thou not this then, Prometheus, that words are the
physicians of a distempered feeling?[26]
PR. True, if one seasonably soften down the heart, and do not with rude
violence reduce a swelling spirit.
OC. Ay, but in foresight along with boldness[27] what mischief is there
that thou seest to be inherent? inform me.
PR. Superfluous trouble and trifling folly.
OC. Suffer me to sicken in this said sickness, since 'tis of the highest
advantage for one that is wise not to seem to be wise.
PR. (Not so, for) this trespass will seem to be mine.
OC. Thy language is plainly sending me back to my home.
PR. Lest thy lamentation over me bring thee into ill-will.
OC. What with him who hath lately seated himself on the throne that
ruleth over all?
PR. Beware of him lest at any time his heart be moved to wrath.
OC. Thy disaster, Prometheus, is my monitor.
PR. Away! withdraw thee, keep thy present determination.
OC. On me, hastening to start, hast thou urged this injunction; for my
winged quadruped flaps with his pinions the smooth track of aether; and
blithely would he recline his limbs in his stalls at home.
[_Exit_ OC.
CH. I bewail thee for thy lost fate, Prometheus. A flood of trickling
tears from my yielding eyes has bedewed my cheek with its humid
gushings; for Jupiter commanding this thine unenviable doom by laws of
his own, displays his spear appearing superior o'er the gods of old.[28]
And now the whole land echoes with wailing--they wail thy stately and
time-graced honors, and those of thy brethren; and all they of mortal
race that occupy a dwelling neighboring on hallowed Asia[29] mourn with
thy deeply-deplorable sufferings: the virgins that dwell in the land of
Colchis too, fearless of the fight, and the Scythian horde who possess
the most remote regions of earth around lake Maeotis; and the war-like
flower of Arabia,[30] who occupy a fortress on the craggy heights in
the neighborhood of Caucasus, a warrior-host, clamoring amid
sharply-barbed spears.
One other god only, indeed, have I heretofore beheld in miseries, the
Titan Atlas, subdued by the galling of adamantine[31] bonds, who
evermore in his back is groaning beneath[32] the excessive mighty mass
of the pole of heaven. And the billow of the deep roars as it falls in
cadence, the depth moans, and the murky vault of Hades rumbles beneath
the earth, and the fountains of the pure streaming rivers wail for his
piteous pains.
PR. Do not, I pray you, suppose that I am holding my peace from pride or
self-will; but by reflection am I gnawed to the heart, seeing myself
thus ignominiously entreated.[33] And yet who but myself defined
completely the prerogative for these same new gods? But on these matters
I say nothing, for I should speak to you already acquainted with these
things. But for the misfortunes that existed among mortals, hear how I
made them, that aforetime lived as infants, rational and possessed of
intellect.[34] And I will tell you, having no complaint against
mankind, as detailing the kindness of the boons which I bestowed upon
them: they who at first seeing saw in vain, hearing they heard not. But,
like to the forms of dreams, for a long time they used to huddle
together all things at random, and naught knew they about
brick-built[35] and sun-ward houses, nor carpentry; but they dwelt in
the excavated earth like tiny emmets in the sunless depths of caverns.
And they had no sure sign either of winter, or of flowery spring, or of
fruitful summer; but they used to do every thing without judgment, until
indeed I showed to them the risings of the stars and their settings,[36]
hard to be discerned.
And verily I discover for them Numbers, the surpassing all
inventions,[37] the combinations too of letters, and Memory, effective
mother-nurse of all arts. I also first bound with yokes beasts
submissive to the collars; and in order that with their bodies they
might become to mortals substitutes for their severest toils, I brought
steeds under cars obedient to the rein,[38] a glory to pompous luxury.
And none other than I invented the canvas-winged chariots of mariners
that roam over the ocean. After discovering for mortals such inventions,
wretch that I am, I myself have no device whereby I may escape from my
present misery.
CH. Thou hast suffered unseemly ills, baulked in thy discretion thou art
erring; and like a bad physician, having fallen into a distemper thou
art faint-hearted, and, in reference to thyself, thou canst not discover
by what manner of medicines thou mayest be cured.
PR. When thou hearest the rest of my tale, thou wilt wonder still more
what arts and resources I contrived. For the greatest--if that any one
fell into a distemper, there was no remedy, neither in the way of diet,
nor of liniment, nor of potion, but for lack of medicines they used to
pine away to skeletons, before that I pointed out to them the
composition[39] of mild remedies, wherewith they ward off all their
maladies. Many modes too of the divining art did I classify, and was the
first that discriminated among dreams those which are destined to be a
true vision; obscure vocal omens[40] too I made known to them; tokens
also incidental on the road, and the flight of birds of crooked talons I
clearly defined, both those that are in their nature auspicious, and the
ill-omened, and what the kind of life that each leads, and what are
their feuds and endearments[41] and intercourse one with another: the
smoothness too of the entrails, and what hue they must have to be
acceptable to the gods, the various happy formations of the gall and
liver, and the limbs enveloped in fat: and having roasted the long chine
I pointed out to mortals the way into an abstruse art; and I brought to
light the fiery symbols[42] that were aforetime wrapt in darkness. Such
indeed were these boons; and the gains to mankind that were hidden under
ground, brass, iron, silver, and gold--who could assert that he had
discovered before me? No one, I well know, who does not mean to idly
babble. And in one brief sentence learn the whole at once--All arts
among the human race are from Prometheus.
CH. Do not now serve the human race beyond what is profitable, nor
disregard thyself in thy distress: since I have good hopes that thou
shalt yet be liberated from these shackles, and be not one whit less
powerful than Jove.
PR. Not at all in this way is Fate, that brings events to their
consummation ordained to accomplish these things: but after having been
bent by countless sufferings and calamities, thus am I to escape from my
shackles. And art is far less powerful than necessity.
CH. Who then is the pilot of necessity?
PR. The triform Fates and the remembering Furies.
CH. Is Jupiter then less powerful than these?