p.232

ARGUMENT

In the beginning, Ouranos and Gaia held sway over Heaven and Earth. And manifold children were born unto them, of whom were Cronos, and Okeanos, and the Titans, and the Giants. But Cronos cast down his father Ouranos, and ruled in his stead, until Zeus his son cast him down in his turn, and became King of Gods and men. Then were the Titans divided, for some had good will unto Cronos, and others unto Zeus; until Prometheus, son of the Titan lapetos, by wise counsel, gave the victory to Zeus. But Zeus held the race of mortal men in scorn, and was fain to destroy them from the face of the earth; yet Prometheus loved them, and gave secretly to them the gift of fire, and arts whereby they could prosper upon the earth. Then was Zeus sorely angered with Prometheus, and bound him upon a mountain, and afterward overwhelmed him in an earthquake, and devised other torments against him for many ages; yet could he not slay Prometheus, for he was a God.

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DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Strength and Force.

Hephaestus.

Prometheus.

Chorus of Sea-Nymphs,

Daughters of Oceanus.

Oceanus.

Io.

Hermes.

Scene—A rocky ravine in the mountains of Scythia.

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PROMETHEUS BOUND

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Strength

Lo, the earth’s bound and limitary land,

The Scythian steppe, the waste untrod of men!

Look to it now, Hephaestus—thine it is,

Thy Sire obeying, this arch-thief to clench

Against the steep-down precipice of rock,

With stubborn links of adamantine chain.

Look thou: thy flower, the gleaming plastic fire,

He stole and lent to mortal man—a sin

That gods immortal make him rue to-day,

Lessoned hereby to own th’ omnipotence

Of Zeus, and to repent his love to man!

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Hephaestus

O Strength and Force, for you the best of Zeus

Stands all achieved, and nothing bars your will:

But I—I dare not bind to storm-vext cleft

One of our race, immortal as are we.

Yet, none the less, necessity constrains,

For Zeus, defied, is heavy in revenge!

(To Prometheus)

O deep-devising child of Themis sage,

Small will have I to do, or thou to bear,

What yet we must. Beyond the haunt of man

Unto this rock, with fetters grimly forged,

I must transfix and shackle up thy limbs,

Where thou shalt mark no voice nor human form,

But, parching in the glow and glare of sun,

Thy body’s flower shall suffer a sky-change;

And gladly wilt thou hail the hour when Night

Shall in her starry robe invest the day,

Or when the Sun shall melt the morning rime.

But, day or night, for ever shall the load

Of wasting agony, that may not pass,

Wear thee away; for know, the womb of Time

Hath not conceived a power to set thee free.

Such meed thou hast, for love toward mankind

For thou, a god defying wrath of gods,

Beyond the ordinance didst champion men,

And for reward shalt keep a sleepless watch,

Stiff-kneed, erect, nailed to this dismal rock,

With manifold laments and useless cries

Against the will inexorable of Zeus.

Hard is the heart of fresh-usurpèd power!

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p.238

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Strength

Now, strong and sheer, drive thro’ from breast to back

The adamantine wedge’s stubborn fang.

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Hephaestus

Alas, Prometheus! I lament thy pain.

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Strength

Thou, faltering and weeping sore for those

Whom Zeus abhors! ‘ware, lest thou rue thy tears!

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Hephaestus

Thou gazest on a scene that poisons sight.

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Strength (To Prometheus)

Aha! there play the insolent, and steal,

For creatures of a day, the rights of gods!

O deep delusion of the powers that named thee

Prometheus, the Fore-thinker! thou hast need

Of others’ forethought and device, whereby

Thou may’st elude this handicraft of ours!

[Exeunt Hephaestus, Strength, and Force.—A pause.

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Prometheus

O Sky divine, O Winds of pinions swift,

O fountain-heads of Rivers, and O thou,

Illimitable laughter of the Sea!

O Earth, the Mighty Mother, and thou Sun,

Whose orbed light surveyeth all—attest,

What ills I suffer from the gods, a god!

Behold me, who must here sustain

The marring agonies of pain,

Wrestling with torture, doomed to bear

Eternal ages, year on year!

Such and so shameful is the chain

Which Heaven’s new tyrant doth ordain

To bind me helpless here.

Woe! for the ruthless present doom!

Woe! for the Future’s teeming womb!

On what far dawn, in what dim skies,

Shall star of my deliverance rise?

Truce to this utterance! to its dimmest verge

I do foreknow the future, hour by hour,

Nor can whatever pang may smite me now

Smite with surprise. The destiny ordained

I must endure to the best, for well I wot

That none may challenge with Necessity.

Yet is it past my patience, to reveal,

Or to conceal, these issues of my doom.

Since I to mortals brought prerogatives,

Unto this durance dismal am I bound:

Yea, I am he who in a fennel-stalk,

By stealthy sleight, purveyed the fount of fire,

The teacher, proven thus, and arch-resource

Of every art that aideth mortal men.

Such was my sin: I earn its recompense,

Rock-riveted, and chained in height and cold.

[A pause.

Listen! what breath of sound, what fragrance soft hath risen

Upward to me? is it some godlike essence,

Or being half-divine, or mortal presence?

Who to the world’s end comes, unto my craggy prison?

Craves he the sight of pain, or what would he behold?

Gaze on a god in tortures manifold,

Heinous to Zeus, and scorned by all

Whose footsteps tread the heavenly hall,

Because too deeply, from on high,

I pitied man’s mortality!

Hark, and again! that fluttering sound

Of wings that whirr and circle round,

And their light rustle thrills the air—

How all things that unseen draw near

Are to me Fear!

[Enter the Chorus of Oceanides, in winged cars

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Chorus

Ah, fear us not! as friends, with rivalry

Of swiftly-vying wings, we came together

Unto this rock and thee!

With our sea-sire we pleaded hard, until

We won him to our will,

And swift the wafting breezes bore us hither.

The heavy hammer’s steely blow

Thrilled to our ocean-cavern from afar,

Banished soft shyness from our maiden brow,

And with unsandalled feet we come, in winged car!

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Prometheus

Ah well-a-day! ye come, ye come

From the Sea-Mother’s teeming home—

Children of Tethys and the sire

Who around Earth rolls, gyre on gyre,

His sleepless ocean-tide!

Look on me—shackled with what chain,

Upon this chasm’s beetling side

I must my dismal watch sustain!

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Chorus

Yea, I behold, Prometheus! and my fears

Draw swiftly o’er mine eyes a mist fulfilled of tears,

When I behold thy frame

Bound, wasting on the rock, and put to shame

By adamantine chains!

The rudder and the rule of Heaven

Are to strange pilots given:

Zeus with new laws and strong caprice holds sway,

Unkings the ancient Powers, their might constrains,

And thrusts their pride away!

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Prometheus

Had he but hurled me, far beneath

The vast and ghostly halls of Death,

Down to the limitless profound Of Tartarus, in fetters bound, Fixed by his unrelenting hand!

So had no man, nor God on high,

Exulted o’er mine agony—

But now, a sport to wind and sky,

Mocked by my foes, I stand!

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p.248

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Prometheus

Now, to your question—hear me clearly show

On what imputed fault he tortures me.

Scarce was he seated on his father’s throne,

When he began his doles of privilege

Among the lesser gods, allotting power

In trim division; while of mortal men

Nothing he recked, nor of their misery

Nay, even willed to blast their race entire

To nothingness, and breed another brood;

And none but I was found to cross his will.

I dared it, I alone; I rescued men

From crushing ruin and th’ abyss of hell—

Therefore am I constrained in chastisement

Grievous to bear and piteous to behold,—

Yea, firm to feel compassion for mankind,

Myself was held unworthy of the same—

Ay, beyond pity am I ranged and ruled

To sufferance—a sight that shames his sway!

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Chorus

A heart of steel, a mould of stone were he,

Who could complacently behold thy pains

I came not here as craving for this sight,

And, seeing it, I stand heart-wrung with pain.

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p.250

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Prometheus

Ay, man thro’ me ceased to foreknow his death.

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Chorus

What cure couldst thou discover for this curse?

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Prometheus

Blind hopes I sent to nestle in man’s heart.

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Chorus

This was a goodly gift thou gavest them.

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Prometheus

Yet more I gave them, even the boon of fire.

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Chorus

What? radiant fire, to things ephemeral?

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Prometheus

Yea—many an art too shall they learn thereby!

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p.252

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Prometheus

Easy it is, for one whose foot is set

Outside the slough of pain, to lesson well

With admonitions him who lies therein.

With perfect knowledge did I all I did,

I willed to sin, and sinned, I own it all—

I championed men, unto my proper pain.

Yet scarce I deemed that, in such cruel doom,

Withering upon this skyey precipice,

I should inherit lonely mountain crags,

Here, in a vast tin-neighboured solitude.

Yet list not to lament my present pains,

But, stepping from your cars unto the ground,

Listen, the while I tell the future fates

Now drawing near, until ye know the whole.

Grant ye, O grant my prayer, be pitiful

To one now racked with woe! the doom of pain

Wanders, but settles, soon or late, on all.

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Chorus

To willing hearts, and schooled to feel,

Prometheus, came thy tongue’s appeal;

Therefore we leave, with lightsome tread,

The flying cars in which we sped—

We leave the stainless virgin air

Where winged creatures float and fare,

And by thy side, on rocky land,

Thus gently we alight and stand,

Willing, from end to end, to know

Thine history of woe.

[The Chorus alight from their winged cars.

Enter Oceanus, mounted on a griffin.

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p.254

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 Oceanus

Yea, I behold, Prometheus! and would warn

Thee, spite of all thy wisdom, for thy weal!

Learn now thyself to know, and to renew

A rightful spirit within thee, for, made new

With pride of place, sits Zeus among the gods!

Now, if thou choosest to fling forth on him

Words rough with anger thus and edged with scorn,

Zeus, though he sit aloof, afar, on high,

May hear thine utterance, and make thee deem

His present wrath a mere pretence of pain.

Banish, poor wretch! the passion of thy soul,

And seek, instead, acquittance from thy pangs!

Belike my words seem ancientry to thee—

Such, natheless, O Prometheus, is the meed

That doth await the overweening tongue!

Meek wert thou never, wilt not crouch to pain,

But, set amid misfortunes, cravest more!

Now—if thou let thyself be schooled by me—

Thou must not kick against the goad. Thou knowest,

A despot rules, harsh, resolute, supreme,

Whose law is will. Yet shall I go to him,

With all endeavour to relieve thy plight—

So thou wilt curb the tempest of thy tongue!

Surely thou knowest, in thy wisdom deep,

The saw—Who vaunts amiss, quick pain is his.

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p.260

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Chorus

For the woe and the wreck and the doom, Prometheus I utter my sighs;

O’er my cheek flows the fountain of tears from tender, compassionate eyes.

For stern and abhorred is the sway of Zeus on his self-sought throne,

And ruthless the spear of his scorn, to the gods of the days that are done.

And over the limitless earth goes up a disconsolate cry:

Ye were all so fair, and have fallen; so great and your might has gone by!

So wails with a mighty lament the voice of the mortals, who dwell

In the Eastland, the home of the holy, for thee and the fate that befel;

And they of the Colchian land, the maidens whose arm is for war;

And the Scythian bowmen, who roam by the lake of Maeotis afar;

And the blossom of battling hordes, that flowers upon Caucasus’ height,

With clashing of lances that pierce, and with clamour of swords that smite.

Strange is thy sorrow! one only I know who has suffered thy pain—

Atlas, the Titan, the god, in a ruthless, invincible chain!

He beareth for ever and ever the burden and poise of the sky,

The vault of the rolling heaven, and earth re-echoes his cry.

The depths of the sea are troubled; they mourn from their caverns profound,

And the darkest and innermost hell moans deep with a sorrowful sound;

And the rivers of waters, that flow from the fountains that spring without stain,

Are as one in the great lamentation, and moan for thy piteous pain.

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Prometheus

Deem not that I in pride or wilful scorn

Restrain my speech; ’tis wistful memory

That rends my heart, when I behold myself

Abased to wretchedness. To these new gods

I and none other gave their lots of power

In full attainment; no more words hereof

I speak—the tale ye know. But listen now

Unto the rede of mortals and their woes,

And how their childish and unreasoning state

Was changed by me to consciousness and thought.

Yet not in blame of mortals will I speak,

But as in proof of service wrought to them.

For, in the outset, eyes they had and saw not;

And ears they had but heard not; age on age,

Like unsubstantial shapes in vision seen,

They groped at random in the world of sense,

Nor knew to link their building, brick with brick,

Nor how to turn its aspect to the sun,

Nor how to join the beams by carpentry,

In hollowed caves they dwelt, as emmets dwell,

Weak feathers for each blast, in sunless caves.

Nor had they certain forecast of the cold,

Nor of the advent of the flowery spring,

Nor of the fruitful summer. All they wrought,

Unreasoning they wrought, till I made clear

The laws of rising stars, and inference dim,

More hard to learn, of what their setting showed.

I taught to them withal that art of arts,

The lore of number, and the written word

That giveth sense to sound, the tool wherewith

The gift of memory was wrought in all,

And so came art and song. I too was first

To harness ‘neath the yoke strong animals,

Obedient made to collar and to weight,

That they might bear whate’er of heaviest toil

Mortals endured before. For chariots too

I trained, and docile service of the rein,

Steeds, the delight of wealth and pomp and pride.

I too, none other, for seafarers wrought

Their ocean-roaming canvas-wingèd cars.

Such arts of craft did I, unhappy I,

Contrive for mortals: now, no feint I have

Whereby I may elude my present woe.

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Chorus

A rueful doom is thine! distraught of soul,

And all astray, and like some sorry leech

Art thou, repining at thine own disease,

Unskilled, unknowing of the needful cure.

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 Prometheus

More wilt thou wonder when the rest thou hearest—

What arts for them, what methods I devised.

Foremost was this: if any man fell sick,

No aiding art he knew, no saving food,

No curing oil nor draught, but all in lack

Of remedies they dwindled, till I taught

The medicinal blending of soft drugs,

Whereby they ward each sickness from their side.

I ranged for them the methods manifold

Of the diviner’s art; I first discerned

Which of night’s visions hold a truth for day,

I read for them the lore of mystic sounds,

Inscrutable before; the omens seen

Which bless or ban a journey, and the flight

Of crook-clawed birds, did I make clear to man—

And how they soar upon the right, for weal,

How, on the left, for evil; how they dwell,

Each in its kind, and what their loves and hates,

And which can flock and roost in harmony.

From me, men learned what deep significance

Lay in the smoothness of the entrails set

For sacrifice, and which, of various hues,

Showed them a gift accepted of the gods;

They learned what streaked and varied comeliness

Of gall and liver told; I led them, too,

(By passing thro’ the flame the thigh-bones, wrapt

In rolls of fat, and th’ undivided chine),

Unto the mystic and perplexing lore

Of omens; and I cleared unto their eyes

The forecasts, dim and indistinct before,

Shown in the flickering aspect of a flame.

Of these, enough is said. The other boons,

Stored in the womb of earth, in aid of men—

Copper and iron, silver, gold withal—

Who dares affirm he found them ere I found?

None—well I know—save who would babble lies!

Know thou, in compass of a single phrase—

All arts, for mortals’ use, Prometheus gave.

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Chorus

Nay, aid not mortal men beyond their due,

Holding too light a reckoning of thyself

And of thine own distress: good hope have I

To see thee once again from fetters free

And matched with Zeus in parity of power.

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 Prometheus

Not yet nor thus hath Fate ordained the end—

Not until age-long pains and countless woes

Have bent and bowed me, shall my shackles fall;

Art strives too feebly against destiny.

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Chorus

But what hand rules the helm of destiny?

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Prometheus

The triform Fates, and Furies unforgiving.

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Chorus

Then is the power of Zeus more weak than theirs?

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Prometheus

He may not shun the fate ordained for him.

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Chorus

What is ordained for him, save endless rule?

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Prometheus

Seek not for answer: this thou may’st not learn.

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Chorus

Surely thy silence hides some solemn thing.

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Prometheus

Think on some other theme: ’tis not the hour,

This secret to unveil; in deepest dark

Be it concealed: by guarding it shall I

Escape at last from bonds, and scorn, and pain.

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Chorus

O never may my weak and faint desire

Strive against God most high—

Never be slack in service, never tire

Of sacred loyalty;

Nor fail to wend unto the altar-side,

Where with the blood of kine

Steams up the offering, by the quenchless tide

Of Ocean, Sire divine!

Be this within my heart, indelible—

Offend not with thy tongue!

Sweet, sweet it is, in cheering hopes to dwell,

Immortal, ever young,

In maiden gladness fostering evermore

A soft content of soul!

But ah, I shudder at thine anguish sore—

Thy doom thro’ years that roll!

Thou could’st not cower to Zeus: a love too great

Thou unto man hast given—

Too high of heart thou wert—ah, thankless fate!

What aid, ‘gainst wrath of Heaven,

Could mortal man afford? in vain thy gift

To things so powerless!

Could’st thou not see? they are as dreams that drift;

Their strength is feebleness

A purblind race, in hopeless fetters bound,

They have no craft or skill,

That could o’erreach the ordinance profound

Of the eternal will.

Alas, Prometheus! on thy woe condign

I looked, and learned this lore;

And a new strain floats to these lips of mine—

Not the glad song of yore,

When by the lustral wave I sang to see

My sister made thy bride,

Decked with thy gifts, thy loved Hesione,

And clasped unto thy side.

[Enter IO, horned like a cow.

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p.272

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Prometheus

Lo, clearly will I show forth all thy quest—

Not in dark speech, but with such simple phrase

As doth befit the utterance of a friend.

I am Prometheus, who gave fire to men.

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Io

O daring, proven champion of man’s race,

What sin, Prometheus, dost thou thus atone?

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p.273

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Io

Yet somewhat add; forewarn me in my woe

What time shall bring my wandering to its goal?

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Prometheus

Fore-knowledge is fore-sorrow; ask it not.

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Io

Nay, hide not from me destiny’s decree.

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p.275

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 Io

I know not how I should mistrust your prayer;

Therefore the whole that ye desire of me

Ye now shall learn in one straightforward tale.

Yet, as it leaves my lips, I blush with shame

To tell that tempest of the spite of Heaven,

And all the wreck and ruin of my form,

And whence they swooped upon me, woe is me!

Long, long in visions of the night there came

Voices and forms into my maiden bower,

Alluring me with smoothly glozing words—

O maiden highly favoured of high Heaven,

Why cherish thy virginity so long?

Thine is it to win wedlock’s noblest crown!

Know that Zeus’ heart thro’ thee is all aflame,

Pierced with desire as with a dart, and longs

To join in utmost rite of love with thee.

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p.279

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 Prometheus

Lightly, with help of mine, did ye achieve

That which ye first desired: from Io’s mouth Ye craved to hear, recounted by herself,

The story of her strivings. Listen now

To what shall follow, to what woefulness

The wrath of Hera must compel this maid.

(To Io)

And thou, O child of Inachus, within

Thine inmost heart store up these words of mine,

That thou may’st learn thy wanderings and their goal.

First from this spot toward the sunrise turn,

And cross the steppe that knoweth not the plough:

Thus to the nomad Scythians shalt thou come,

Who dwell in wattled homes, not built on earth

But borne along on wains of sturdy wheel—

Equipped, themselves, with bows of mighty reach.

Pass them avoidingly, and leave their land,

And skirt the beaches where the tides make moan,

Till lo! upon the left hand thou shalt find

The Chalybes, stout craftsmen of the steel—

Beware of them! no gentleness is theirs,

No kindly welcome to a stranger’s foot!

Thence to the Stream of Violence shalt thou come—

Like name, like nature; see thou cross it not,

(‘Tis fatal to the forder!) till thou come

Right to the very Caucasus, the peak

That overtops the world, and from its brows

The river pants in spray its wrathful stream.

Thence, o’er the pinnacles that court the stars,

Onward and southward thou must take thy way,

And reach the warlike horde of Amazons,

Maidens through hate of man; and gladly they

Will guide thy maiden feet. That host, in days

That are not yet, shall fix their home and dwell

At Themiscyra, on Thermodon’s bank,

Nigh whereunto the grim projecting fang

Of Salmydessus’ cape affronts the main,

The seaman’s curse, to ships a stepmother!

Then at the jutting land, Cimmerian styled,”

That screens the narrowing portal of the mere,

Thou shalt arrive; pass o’er it, brave at heart,

And ferry thee across Macotis’ ford.

So shall there be great rumour evermore,

In ears of mortals, of thy passage strange;

And Bosporos shall be that channel’s name,

Because the ox-horned thing did pass thereby.

So, from the wilds of Europe wander’d o’er,

To Asia’s continent thou com’st at last.

(To the Chorus)

And ye, what think ye? Seems he not, that lord

And tyrant of the gods, as tyrannous

Unto all other lives? A high god’s lust

Constrained this mortal maid to roam the world!

(To Io)

Poor maid! a brutal wooer sure was thine!

For know that all which I have told thee now

Is scarce the prelude of thy woes to come.

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Io

Alas for me, alas!

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 Prometheus

Again thou criest, with a heifer’s low.

What wilt thou do, learning thy future woes?

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Chorus

What, hast thou further sorrows for her ear?

ㅤ

Prometheus

Yea, a vext ocean of predestined pain.

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Io

What profit then is life to me? Ah, why

Did I not cast me from this stubborn crag?

So with one spring, one crash upon the ground,

I had attained surcease from all my woes.

Better it is to die one death outright

Than linger out long life in misery.

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 Prometheus

Ill would’st thou bear these agonies of mine—

Mine, with whose fate it standeth not to win

The goal of death, which were release from pain!

Now, there is set no limit to my woe

Till Zeus be hurled from his omnipotence.

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 Io

Zeus hurled from pride of place! Can such things be?

ㅤ

Prometheus

Thou wert full fain, methinks, to see that sight!

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Io

Even so—his overthrow who wrought my pain.

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Prometheus

Then may’st thou know thereof; such fall shall be.

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Io

And who shall wrench the sceptre from his hand?

ㅤ

Prometheus

By his own mindless counsels shall he fall.

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Io

And how? unless the telling harm, say on!

ㅤ

Prometheus

Wooing a bride, his ruin he shall win.

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Io

Goddess, or mortal? tell me, if thou may’st.

ㅤ

Prometheus

No matter which—more must not be revealed.

ㅤ

Io

Doth then a consort thrust him from his throne?

ㅤ

Prometheus

The child she bears him shall o’ercome his sire.

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Io

And hath he no avoidance of this doom?

ㅤ

Prometheus

None, surely—till that I, released from bonds—

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Io

Who can release thee, but by will of Zeus?

ㅤ

Prometheus

Fate gives this duty to a child of thine!

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Io

How? Shall a child of mine undo thy woes?

ㅤ

Prometheus

Yea, of thy lineage, thirteen times removed.

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Io

Dark beyond guessing grows thine oracle.

ㅤ

Prometheus

Yea—seek not therefore to foreknow thy woes.

ㅤ

Io

As thou didst proffer hope, withdraw it not.

ㅤ

Prometheus

Two tales I have—choose! for I grant thee one.

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Io

And which be they? reveal, and leave me choice.

ㅤ

Prometheus

I grant it: shall I in all clearness show

Thy future woes, or my deliverance?

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Chorus

Nay! of the two, vouchsafe her wish to her

And mine to me, deigning a truth to each—

To her, reveal her future wanderings—

To me, thy future saviour, as I crave!

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 Prometheus

I will not set myself to thwart your will

Withholding aught of what ye crave to know.

First to thee, Io, will I tell and trace

Thy scared circuitous wandering mark it well,

Deep in retentive tablets of the soul.

When thou hast overpast the ferry’s flow

That sunders continent from continent,

Straight to the eastward and the flaming face

Of dawn, and highways trodden by the sun,

Pass, till thou come unto the windy land

Of daughters born to Boreas: beware

Lest the strong spirit of the stormy blast

Snatch thee aloft, and sweep thee to the void,

On wings of raving wintry hurricane!

Wend by the noisy tumult of the wave,

Until thou reach the Gorgon-haunted plains

Beside Cisthene. In that solitude

Dwell Phorcys’ daughters, beldames worn with time,

Three, each swan-shapen, single-toothed, and all

Peering thro’ shared endowment of one eye;

Never on them doth the sun shed his rays,

Never falls radiance of the midnight moon.

But, hard by these, their sisters, clad with wings,

Serpentine-curled, dwell, loathed of mortal men,—

The Gorgons!—he of men who looks on them

Shall gasp away his life. Of such fell guard

I bid thee to beware. Now, mark my words

When I another sight of terror tell—

Beware the Gryphon pack, the hounds of Zeus,

As keen of fang as silent of their tongues!

Beware the one-eyed Arimaspian band

That tramp on horse-hoofs, dwelling by the ford

Of Pluto and the stream that flows with gold:

Keep thou aloof from these. To the world’s end

Thou comest at the last, the dark-faced tribe

That dwell beside the sources of the sun,

Where springs the river, Aethiopian named.

Make thou thy way along his bank, until

Thou come unto the mighty downward slope

Where from the overland of Bybline hills

Nile pours his hallowed earth-refreshing wave.

He by his course shall guide thee to the realm

Named from himself, three-angled, water-girt;

There, Io, at the last, hath Fate ordained,

For thee and for thy race, the charge to found,

Far from thy native shore, a new abode.

Lo, I have said: if aught hereof appear

Hard to thy sense and inarticulate,

Question me o’er again, and soothly learn—

God wot, I have too much of leisure here!

ㅤ

 Chorus

If there be aught beyond, or aught pass’d o’er,

Which thou canst utter, of her woe-worn maze,

Speak on! if all is said, then grant to us

That which we asked, as thou rememberest.

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p.292

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 Chorus

O well and sagely was it said—

Yea, wise of heart was he who first

Gave forth in speech the thought he nursed—

In thine own order see thou wed!

Let not the humble heart aspire

To the gross home of wealth and pride;

Nor be it to a hearth allied

That vaunts of many a noble sire.

 O Fates, of awful empery!

Never may I by Zeus be wooed—

Never give o’er my maidenhood

To any god that dwells on high.

A shudder to my soul is sent,

Beholding Io’s doom forlorn—

By Hera’s malice put to scorn,

Roaming in mateless banishment.

From wedlock’s crown of fair desire

I would not shrink—an idle fear!

But may no god to me draw near

With shunless might and glance of fire!

That were a strife wherein no chance

Of conquest lies: from Zeus most high

And his resolve, no subtlety

Could win me my deliverance.

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p.295

ㅤ

 Chorus

What, dare we look for one to conquer Zeus?

ㅤ

Prometheus

Ay—Zeus shall wear more painful bonds than mine

ㅤ

Chorus

Darest thou speak such taunts and tremble not?

ㅤ

Prometheus

Why should I fear, who am immortal too?

ㅤ

Chorus

Yet he might doom thee to worse agony.

ㅤ

Prometheus

Out on his dooming! I foreknow it all.

ㅤ

Chorus

Yet do the wise revere Necessity.

ㅤ

Prometheus

Ay, ay—do reverence, cringe and crouch to power

Whene’er, where’er thou see it! But, for me,

I reck of Zeus as something less than nought.

Let him put forth his power, attest his sway,

Howe’er he will—a momentary show,

A little brief authority in heaven!

Aha, I see out yonder one who comes,

A bidden courier, truckling at Zeus’ nod,

A lacquey in his new lord’s livery,

Surely on some fantastic errand sped!

[Enter Hermes.

Hermes

Thou, double-dyed in gall of bitterness,

Trickster and sinner against gods, by giving

The stolen fire to perishable men!

Attend—the Sire supreme doth bid thee tell

What is the wedlock which thou vauntest now,

Whereby he falleth from supremacy?

Speak forth the whole, make all thine utterance clear,

Have done with words inscrutable, nor cause

To me, Prometheus! any further toil

Or twofold journeying. Go to—thou seest

Zeus doth not soften at such words as thine!

ㅤ

Prometheus

Pompous, in sooth, thy word, and swoln with pride,

As doth befit the lacquey of thy lords!

O ye young gods! how, in your youthful sway,

Ye deem secure your citadels of sky,

Beyond the reach of sorrow or of fall!

Have I not seen two dynasties of gods

Already flung therefrom? and soon shall see

A third, that now in tyranny exults,

Shamed, ruined, in an hour! What sayest thou?

Crouch I and tremble at these stripling powers?

Small homage unto such from me, or none!

Betake thee hence, sweat back along thy road—

Look for no answer from me, get thee gone!

ㅤ

Hermes

Think—it was such audacities of will

That drove thee erst to anchorage in woe!

ㅤ

Prometheus

Ay—but mark this: mine heritage of pain

I would not barter for thy servitude.

ㅤ

Hermes

Better, forsooth, be bond-slave to a crag,

Than true-born herald unto Zeus the Sire!

ㅤ

Prometheus

Take thine own coin—taunts for a taunting slave!

ㅤ

Hermes

Proud art thou in thy circumstance, methinks!

ㅤ

Prometheus

Proud? in such pride then be my foemen set,

And I to see—and of such foes art thou!

ㅤ

Hermes

What, blam’st thou me too for thy sufferings?

ㅤ

 Prometheus

Mark a plain word—I loathe all gods that are,

Who reaped my kindness and repay with wrong.

ㅤ

Hermes

I hear no little madness in thy words.

ㅤ

Prometheus

Madness be mine, if scorn of foes be mad.

ㅤ

Hermes

Past bearing were thy pride, in happiness.

ㅤ

Prometheus

Ah me!

ㅤ

Hermes

Zeus knoweth nought of sorrow’s cry!

ㅤ

Prometheus

He shall! Time’s lapse bringeth all lessons home.

ㅤ

Hermes

To thee it brings not yet discretion’s curb.

ㅤ

Prometheus

No—else I had not wrangled with a slave!

ㅤ

Hermes

Then thou concealest all that Zeus would learn?

ㅤ

Prometheus

As though I owed him aught and should repay!

ㅤ

Hermes

Scornful thy word, as though I were a child—

ㅤ

Prometheus

Child, ay—or whatsoe’er hath less of brain—

Thou, deeming thou canst wring my secret out!

No mangling torture, no, nor sleight of power

There is, by which he shall compel my speech,

Until these shaming bonds be loosed from me.

So, let him fling his blazing levin-bolt!

Let him with white and winged flakes of snow,

And rumbling earthquakes, whelm and shake the world!

For nought of this shall bend me to reveal

The power ordained to hurl him from his throne.

ㅤ

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p.303

ㅤ

Hermes

 The eagle-hound of Zeus, red-ravening, fell

With greed, shall tatter piecemeal all thy flesh

To shreds and ragged vestiges of form—

Yea, an unbidden guest, a day-long bane,

That feeds, and feeds—yea, he shall gorge his fill

On blackened fragments, from thy vitals gnawed.

Look for no respite from that agony

Until some other deity be found,

Ready to bear for thee the brunt of doom,

Choosing to pass into the lampless world

Of Hades and the murky depths of hell.

Hereat, advise thee! ’tis no feigned threat

Whereof I warn thee, but an o’er-true tale.

The lips of Zeus know nought of lying speech,

But wreak in action all their words foretell.

Therefore do thou look warily, and deem

Prudence a better saviour than self-will.

ㅤ

Chorus

Meseems that Hermes speaketh not amiss,

Bidding thee leave thy wilfulness and seek

The wary walking of a counselled mind.

Give heed! to err through anger shames the wise.

Prometheus

All, all I knew, whate’er his tongue

In idle arrogance hath flung.

‘Tis the world’s way, the common lot—

Foe tortures foe and pities not.

Therefore I challenge him to dash

His bolt on me, his zigzag flash

Of piercing, rending flame!

Now be the welkin stirred amain

With thunder-peal and hurricane,

And let the wild winds now displace

From its firm poise and rooted base

The stubborn earthly frame!

The raging sea with stormy surge

Rise up and ravin and submerge

Each high star-trodden way!

Me let him lift and dash to gloom

Of nether hell, in whirls of doom!

Yet—do he what extremes he may—

He cannot crush my life away!

ㅤ

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p.306

ㅤ

 Prometheus

Hark! for no more in empty word,

But in sheer sooth, the world is stirred!

The massy earth doth heave and sway,

And thro’ their dark and secret way

The cavern’d thunders boom!

See, how they gleam athwart the sky,

The lightnings, through the gloom!

And whirlwinds roll the dust on high,

And right and left the storm-clouds leap

To battle in the skyey deep,

In wildest uproar unconfined,

An universe of warring wind!

And falling sky and heaving sea

Are blent in one! on me, on me,

Nearer and ever yet more near,

Flaunting its pageantry of fear,

Drives down in might its destined road

The tempest of the wrath of God!

O holy Earth, O mother mine!

O Sky, that biddest speed along

Thy vault the common Light divine,—

Be witness of my wrong!

[The rocks are rent with fire and earthquake, and fall, burying PROMETHEUS in the ruins.