That fate is war that none can war against,
Source of resourceless ill;
Nor know I what might then become of me:
I see not how to 'scape
The counsel deep of Zeus.
_Prom._ Yea, of a truth shall Zeus, though stiff of will,
Be brought full low. Such bed of wedlock now
Is he preparing, one to cast him forth 930
In darkness from his sovereignty and throne.
And then the curse his father Cronos spake
Shall have its dread completion, even that
He uttered when he left his ancient throne;
And from these troubles no one of the Gods
But me can clearly show the way to 'scape.
I know the time and manner: therefore now
Let him sit fearless, in his peals on high
Putting his trust, and shaking in his hands
His darts fire-breathing. Nought shall they avail
To hinder him from falling shamefully 940
A fall intolerable. Such a combatant
He arms against himself, a marvel dread,
Who shall a fire discover mightier far
Than the red levin, and a sound more dread
Than roaring of the thunder, and shall shiver
That plague sea-born that causeth earth to quake,
The trident, weapon of Poseidon's strength:
And stumbling on this evil, he shall learn
How far apart a king's lot from a slave's.
_Chor._ What thou dost wish thou mutterest against Zeus.
_Prom._ Things that shall be, and things I wish, I speak. 950
_Chor._ And must we look for one to master Zeus?
_Prom._ Yea, troubles harder far than these are his.
_Chor._ Art not afraid to vent such words as these?
_Prom._ What can I fear whose fate is not to die?
_Chor._ But He may send on thee worse pain than this.
_Prom._ So let Him do: nought finds me unprepared.
_Chor._ Wisdom is theirs who Adrasteia worship.[201]
_Prom._ Worship then, praise and flatter him that rules;
My care for Zeus is nought, and less than nought:
Let Him act, let Him rule this little while, 960
E'en as He will; for long He shall not rule
Over the Gods. But lo! I see at hand
The courier of the Gods, the minister
Of our new sovereign. Doubtless he has come
To bring me tidings of some new device.
_Enter_ HERMES
_Herm._ Thee do I speak to,—thee, the teacher wise,
The bitterly o'er-bitter, who 'gainst Gods
Hast sinned in giving gifts to short-lived men—
I speak to thee, the filcher of bright fire.
The Father bids thee say what marriage thou
Dost vaunt, and who shall hurl Him from his might;
And this too not in dark mysterious speech, 970
But tell each point out clearly. Give me not,
Prometheus, task of double journey. Zeus
Thou see'st, is not with such words appeased.
_Prom._ Stately of utterance, full of haughtiness
Thy speech, as fits a messenger of Gods.
Ye yet are young in your new rule, and think
To dwell in painless towers. Have I not
Seen two great rulers driven forth from thence?[202]
And now the third, who reigneth, I shall see
In basest, quickest fall. Seem I to thee 980
To shrink and quail before these new-made Gods?
Far, very far from that am I. But thou,
Track once again the path by which thou camest;
Thou shalt learn nought of what thou askest me.
_Herm._ It was by such self-will as this before
That thou did'st bring these sufferings on thyself.
_Prom._ I for my part, be sure, would never change
My evil state for that thy bondslave's lot.
_Herm._ To be the bondslave of this rock, I trow,
Is better than to be Zeus' trusty herald! 990
_Prom._ So it is meet the insulter to insult.
_Herm._ Thou waxest proud, 'twould seem, of this thy doom.
_Prom._ Wax proud! God grant that I may see my foes
Thus waxing proud, and thee among the rest!
_Herm._ Dost blame me then for thy calamities?
_Prom._ In one short sentence—all the Gods I hate,
Who my good turns with evil turns repay.
_Herm._ Thy words prove thee with no slight madness plagued.
_Prom._ If to hate foes be madness, mad I am.
_Herm._ Not one could bear thee wert thou prosperous. 1000
_Prom._ Ah me!
_Herm._ That word is all unknown to Zeus.
_Prom._ Time waxing old can many a lesson teach.
_Herm._ Yet thou at least hast not true wisdom learnt.
_Prom._ I had not else addressed a slave like thee.
_Herm._ Thou wilt say nought the Father asks, 'twould seem.
_Prom._ Fine debt I owe him, favour to repay.
_Herm._ Me as a boy thou scornest then, forsooth.
_Prom._ And art thou not a boy, and sillier far,
If that thou thinkest to learn aught from me?
There is no torture nor device by which 1010
Zeus can impel me to disclose these things
Before these bonds that outrage me be loosed.
Let then the blazing levin-flash be hurled;
With white-winged snow-storm and with earth-born thunders
Let Him disturb and trouble all that is;
Nought of these things shall force me to declare
Whose hand shall drive him from his sovereignty.
_Herm._ See if thou findest any help in this.
_Prom._ Long since all this I've seen, and formed my plans. 1020
_Herm._ O fool, take heart, take heart at last in time,
To form right thoughts for these thy present woes.
_Prom._ Like one who soothes a wave, thy speech in vain
Vexes my soul. But deem not thou that I,
Fearing the will of Zeus, shall e'er become
As womanised in mind, or shall entreat
Him whom I greatly loathe, with upturned hand,
In woman's fashion, from these bonds of mine
To set me free. Far, far am I from that.
_Herm._ It seems that I, saying much, shall speak in vain;
For thou in nought by prayers art pacified,
Or softened in thy heart, but like a colt 1030
Fresh harnessed, thou dost champ thy bit, and strive,
And fight against the reins. Yet thou art stiff
In weak device; for self-will, by itself,
In one who is not wise, is less than nought.
Look to it, if thou disobey my words,
How great a storm and triple wave of ills,[203]
Not to be 'scaped, shall come on thee; for first,
With thunder and the levin's blazing flash
The Father this ravine of rock shall crush,
And shall thy carcase hide, and stern embrace
Of stony arms shall keep thee in thy place. 1040
And having traversed space of time full long,
Thou shalt come back to light, and then his hound,
The wingèd hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle,
Shall greedily make banquet of thy flesh,
Coming all day an uninvited guest,
And glut himself upon thy liver dark.
And of that anguish look not for the end,
Before some God shall come to bear thy woes,
And will to pass to Hades' sunless realm,
And the dark cloudy depths of Tartaros.[204] 1050
Wherefore take heed. No feigned boast is this,
But spoken all too truly; for the lips
Of Zeus know not to speak a lying speech,
But will perform each single word. And thou,
Search well, be wise, nor think that self-willed pride
Shall ever better prove than counsel good.
_Chor._ To us doth Hermes seem to utter words
Not out of season; for he bids thee quit
Thy self-willed pride and seek for counsel good.
Hearken thou to him. To the wise of soul
It is foul shame to sin persistently. 1060
_Prom._ To me who knew it all
He hath this message borne;
And that a foe from foes
Should suffer is not strange.
Therefore on me be hurled
The sharp-edged wreath of fire;
And let heaven's vault be stirred
With thunder and the blasts
Of fiercest winds; and Earth
From its foundations strong,
E'en to its deepest roots,
Let storm-wind make to rock;
And let the Ocean wave,
With wild and foaming surge,
Be heaped up to the paths 1070
Where move the stars of heaven;
And to dark Tartaros
Let Him my carcase hurl,
With mighty blasts of force:
Yet me He shall not slay.
_Herm._ Such words and thoughts from one
Brain-stricken one may hear.
What space divides his state
From frenzy? What repose
Hath he from maddened rage?
But ye who pitying stand
And share his bitter griefs, 1080
Quickly from hence depart,
Lest the relentless roar
Of thunder stun your soul.
_Chor._ With other words attempt
To counsel and persuade,
And I will hear: for now
Thou hast this word thrust in
That we may never bear.
How dost thou bid me train
My soul to baseness vile?
With him I will endure
Whatever is decreed.
Traitors I've learnt to hate,
Nor is there any plague 1090
That more than this I loathe.
_Herm._ Nay then, remember ye
What now I say, nor blame
Your fortune: never say
That Zeus hath cast you down
To evil not foreseen.
Not so; ye cast yourselves:
For now with open eyes,
Not taken unawares,
In Atè's endless net
Ye shall entangled be
By folly of your own.
[_A pause, and then flashes of lightning and
peals of thunder_[205]
_Prom._ Yea, now in very deed,
No more in word alone,
The earth shakes to and fro,
And the loud thunder's voice
Bellows hard by, and blaze
The flashing levin-fires;
And tempests whirl the dust,
And gusts of all wild winds
On one another leap,
In wild conflicting blasts,
And sky with sea is blent:
Such is the storm from Zeus 1110
That comes as working fear,
In terrors manifest.
O Mother venerable!
O Æther! rolling round
The common light of all,
See'st thou what wrongs I bear?
-----
Footnote 136:
The scene seems at first an exception to the early conventional rule,
which forbade the introduction of a third actor on the Greek stage.
But it has been noticed that (1) Force does not speak, and (2)
Prometheus does not speak till Strength and Force have retired, and
that it is therefore probable that the whole work of nailing is done
on a lay figure or effigy of some kind, and that one of the two who
had before taken part in the dialogue then speaks behind it in the
character of Prometheus. So the same actor must have appeared in
succession as Okeanos, Io, and Hermes.
Footnote 137:
Prometheus (_Forethought_) is the son of Themis (_Right_) the second
occupant of the Pythian Oracle (_Eumen_. v. 2). His sympathy with man
leads him to impart the gift which raised them out of savage animal
life, and for this Zeus, who appears throughout the play as a hard
taskmaster, sentences him to fetters. Hephæstos, from whom this fire
had been stolen, has a touch of pity for him. Strength, who comes as
the servant, not of Hephæstos, but of Zeus himself, acts, as such,
with merciless cruelty.
Footnote 138:
The generalised statement refers to Zeus, as having but recently
expelled Cronos from his throne in Heaven.
Footnote 139:
Hephæstos, as the great fire-worker, had taught Prometheus to use the
fire which he afterwards bestowed on men.
Footnote 140:
Perhaps, “All might is ours except o'er Gods to rule.”
Footnote 141:
The words indicate that the effigy of Prometheus, now nailed to the
rock, was, as being that of a Titan, of colossal size.
Footnote 142:
The touch is characteristic as showing that here, as in the
_Eumenides_, Æschylos relied on the horribleness of the masks, as part
of the machinery of his plays.
Footnote 143:
The silence of Prometheus up to this point was partly, as has been
said, consequent on the conventional laws of the Greek drama, but it
is also a touch of supreme insight into the heroic temper. In the
presence of his torturers, the Titan will not utter even a groan. When
they are gone, he appeals to the sympathy of Nature.
Footnote 144:
The legend is from Hesiod (_Theogon._, v. 567). The fennel, or
_narthex_, seems to have been a large umbelliferous plant, with a
large stem filled with a sort of pith, which was used when dry as
tinder. Stalks were carried as wands (the _thyrsi_) by the men and
women who joined in Bacchanalian processions. In modern botany, the
name is given to the plant which produces Asafœtida, and the stem of
which, from its resinous character, would burn freely, and so connect
itself with the Promethean myth. On the other hand, the Narthex
Asafœtida is found at present only in Persia, Afghanistan, and the
Punjaub.
Footnote 145:
The ocean nymphs, like other divine ones, would be anointed with
ambrosial unguents, and the odour would be wafted before them by the
rustling of their wings. This too we may think of as part of the
“stage effects” of the play.
Footnote 146:
The words are not those of a vague terror only. The sufferer knows
that his tormentor is to come to him before long on wings, and
therefore the sound as of the flight of birds is full of terrors.
Footnote 147:
By the same stage mechanism the Chorus remains in the air till verse
280, when, at the request of Prometheus, they alight.
Footnote 148:
Here, as throughout the play, the poet puts into the mouth of his
_dramatis personæ_ words which must have seemed to the devouter
Athenians sacrilegious enough to call for an indictment before the
Areiopagos. But the final play of the Trilogy came, we may believe, as
the _Eumenides_ did in its turn, as a reconciliation of the
conflicting thoughts that rise in men's minds out of the seeming
anomalies of the world.
Footnote 149:
The words leave it uncertain whether Themis is identified with Earth,
or, as in the _Eumenides_ (v. 2) distinguished from her. The Titans as
a class, then, children of Okeanos and Chthôn (another name for _Land_
or _Earth_), are the kindred rather than the brothers of Prometheus.
Footnote 150:
The generalising words here, as in v. 35, appeal to the Athenian
hatred of all that was represented by the words _tyrant_ and
_tyranny_.
Footnote 151:
The state described is that of men who “through fear of death are all
their lifetime subject to bondage.” That state, the parent of all
superstition, fostered the slavish awe in which Zeus delighted.
Prometheus, representing the active intellect of man, bestows new
powers, new interests, new hopes, which at last divert them from that
fear.
Footnote 152:
The home of Okeanos was in the far west, at the boundary of the great
stream surrounding the whole world, from which he took his name.
Footnote 153:
One of the sayings of the Seven Sages, already recognised and quoted
as a familiar proverb.
Footnote 154:
See note on _Agam._ 1602.
Footnote 155:
In the mythos, Okeanos had given his daughter Hesione in marriage to
Prometheus after the theft of fire, and thus had identified himself
with his transgression.
Footnote 156:
In the _Theogony_ of Hesiod (v. 509), Prometheus and Atlas appear as
the sons of two sisters. As other Titans were thought of as buried
under volcanoes, so this one was identified with the mountain which
had been seen by travellers to Western Africa, or in the seas beyond
it, rising like a column to support the vault of heaven. In Herodotos
(iv. 174) and all later writers, the name is given to the chain of
mountains in Lybia, as being the “pillar of the firmament;” but
Humboldt and others identify it with the lonely peak of Teneriffe, as
seen by Phœnikian or Hellenic voyagers. Teneriffe, too, like most of
the other Titan mountains, was at one time volcanic. Homer (_Odyss._
i. 53) represents him as holding the pillars which separate heaven
from earth; Hesiod (_Theogon._ v. 517) as himself standing near the
Hesperides (this too points to Teneriffe), sustaining the heavens with
his head and shoulders.
Footnote 157:
The volcanic character of the whole of Asia Minor, and the liability
to earthquakes which has marked nearly every period of its history,
led men to connect it also with the traditions of the Titans, some
accordingly placing the home of Typhon in Phrygia, some near Sardis,
some, as here, in Kilikia. Hesiod (_Theogon._ v. 820) describes Typhon
(or Typhoeus) as a serpent-monster hissing out fire; Pindar (_Pyth._
i. 30, viii. 21) as lying with his head and breast crushed beneath the
weight of Ætna, and his feet extending to Cumæ.
Footnote 158:
The words point probably to an eruption, then fresh in men's memories,
which had happened B.C. 476.
Footnote 159:
By some editors this speech from “No, not so,” to “thou know'st how,”
is assigned to Okeanos.
Footnote 160:
These are, of course, the Amazons, who were believed to have come
through Thrakè from the Tauric Chersonesos, and had left traces of
their name and habits in the Attic traditions of Theseus.
Footnote 161:
Beyond the plains of Skythia, and the lake Mæotis (the sea of Azov)
there would be the great river Okeanos, which was believed to flow
round the earth.
Footnote 162:
Sarmatia has been conjectured instead of Arabia. No Greek author
sanctions the extension of the latter name to so remote a region as
that north of the Caspian.
Footnote 163:
The Greek leaves the object of the sympathy undefined, but it seems
better to refer it to that which Atlas receives from the waste of
waters around, and the dark world beneath, than to the pity shown to
Prometheus. This has already been dwelt on in line 421.
Footnote 164:
The passage that follows has for modern palæontologists the interest
of coinciding with their views as to the progress of human society,
and the condition of mankind during what has been called the “Stone”
period. Comp. Lucretius, v. 955-984.
Footnote 165:
Comp. Mr. Blakesley's note on Herod. ii. 4, as showing that here there
was the greater risk of faulty observation.
Footnote 166: