Aeschylus

“ Wretched Prometheus, wherefore are these sufferings?
PROM. Scarce have I ceas'd lamenting my misfortunes.
IO. And wilt thou not allow me that sad office?
PROM. Ask what thou wilt, thou shalt learn all from me.
IO. Say then, who bound thee in that rifted rock?
PROM. The ruthless will of Jove, but Vulcan's hand.
IO. In what offending art thou chasten'd thus?
PROM. Suffice it thee so much has been declar'd.
IO. Say then what time shall end my wretched wand'rings.
PROM. Better repose in ignorance, than know.
IO. Whate'er my woes to come, hide them not from me. ”

“ The war had now continued ten years without intermission, and no prospect of a decision appeared when Jupiter released Briareus, Cottos, and Gyges, the sons whom Saturn had imprisoned, and by feasting them with nectar and ambrosia, secured their fidelity: these were of immense courage, strength, and size, each, had fifty heads and a hundred hands; by their assistance the Titans were totally defeated, and Jupiter acknowledged as the sovereign of the sky. Hesiod describes this battle with wonderful sublimity. ”

“ Jupiter beheld the charm of Thetis, daughter of Oceanus, with the eye of a lover, and intended to advance her as his consort to the imperial throne of Heaven. Now it was in the Fates that this lady should have a son, who was to be greater than his father, Prometheus alone, by his divine foresight, could open the danger of Jupiter ”

“ Hear me, supreme of gods, O hear thy suppliant,
Blast me with lightnings, bury me in th' earth,
Or cast me to the monsters of the sea;
But spare these toils, spare these wide-wand'ring errors,
Which drive me round the world, and know no rest.
CHOR. Hear'st thou the voice of this lamenting virgin?
For such she is, tho' in that form disguis'd.
PROM. I hear her griefs, that whirl her soul to madness,
Daughter of Inachus, whose love inflames
The heart of Jove; hence Juno's jealous rage
Drives the poor wanderer restless o'er the world. ”

“ Than lackey the proud heels of Jove. These words,
If insolent, your insolence extorts.
MERC. I think thou art delighted with thy woes.
PROM. Delighted! Might I see mine enemies
Delighted thus! And thee I hold among them.
MERC. And why blame me for thy calamities?
PROM. To tell thee in a word, I hate them all,
These gods; of them I deserv'd well, and they
Ungrateful and unjust work me these ills.
MERC. Thy malady, I find, is no small madness.
PROM. If to detest my enemies be madness,
It is a malady I wish to have. ”

“ My ears; that miseries, woes, distresses, terrors,
Dreadful to sight, intolerable to sense,
Shou'd shock me thus: woe, woe, unhappy fate!
How my soul shudders at the fate of Iö!
PROM. Already dost thou sigh, already tremble?
Check these emotions till the whole is heard.
CHOR. Speak, show us: to the sick some gleam of comfort
Flows from the knowledge of their pains to come.
PROM. Your first request with ease has been obtain'd;
For from her lips you wish'd to hear the tale
Of her afflictions. Hear the rest; what woes
From Juno's rage await this suff'ring virgin. ”

“ Prometheus therefore, having enumerated more and greater woes which yet awaited her, addresses them thus: Think you that this tyrant of the skies is of a fierce and headlong violence, when be has thus driven a mortal, even whilst he is a suiter for her love, to these wanderings? ”

“ Disgustful to the gods, too prodigal
Of interdicted gifts to mortal man,
Thief of the fire of Heav'n, to thee my message.
My father bids thee say what nuptials these
Thy tongue thus vaunts as threat'ning his high pow'r;
And clearly say, couch'd in no riddling phrase,
Each several circumstance; propound not to me
Ambiguous terms, Prometheus; for thou seest
Jove brooks not such, unfit to win his favour.
PROM. Thou doest thy message proudly, in high terms,
Becoming well the servant of such lords.
Your youthful pow'r is new ”

“ Committed doth the wrath of Jove inflict
This punishment so shameful, so severe:
if the tale shocks not thy soul.
Instruct us, if the tale shocks not thy soul.
PROM. Tis painful to relate it, to be silent
Is pain: each circumstance is full of woe. [8]
When stern debate amongst the gods appear'd,
And discord in the courts of heavn was rous'd;
Whilst against Saturn some conspiring will 'd
To pluck him from the throne, that Jove might reign;
And some, averse, with ardent zeal oppos'd
Jove's rising pow'r and empire o'er the gods ”

“ But having heard a prophecy that he in his turn should be dethroned by one of his sons, to evade the completion of it, he swallowed down all his male offspring as soon as they were born, till at the birth of Jupiter, Rhea deceived him by a strange device, and privately conveyed the child to Crete, where he was educated, and concealed till he was of age to appear in arms against his father. As Saturn was the youngest son of Ouranus, the two eldest, Titanus and Japetus, claimed their hereditary honours, and opposed the sovereignty of Jupiter. ”

“ As the new monarch of the gods requires.
What if thy harsh and pointed speech shou'd reach
The ear of Jove, tho' on his distant throne
High-seated, might they not inflame his rage
T' inflict such tortures, that thy present pains
Might seem a recreation and a sport?
Cease then, unhappy sufferer, cease thy braves,
And meditate the means of thy deliverance.
To thee perchance this seems the cold advice
Of doting age; yet, trust me, woes like these
Are earnings of the lofty-sounding tongue. ”

“ When Jupiter assembled the gods on Olympus, and declared his gracious intention to reward and honour each that should be auxiliary to him in his wars against the Titans, Styx, by the advice of her father, was the first that attended him, leading with her these her two sons; Jupiter received her with great respect, appointed her to be the sacred oath of the gods, and admitted her sons to be constant attendants on his own person. Hesiod. Theog. v, 400.
↑ Themis was one of the most ancient and respectable deities, the daughter of Ouranus and Gaia, that is of heaven and Earth. ”

“ Hesiod had before given precepts of similar nature.
Now the rising of a star, as defined by Chrysippus, is its advancement above the earth, and its setting the occultation of it under the earth. (See Stanley's History of Philosophy, part vii. c. 8.) And astronomers have divided the risings and settings of stars, according to their technical expressions, into Cosmical, Achronical, and Heliacal, which are thus explained by Keil in his nineteenth lecture, p. 222. A star is said to rise or set cosmically, which rises or sets when the sun rises ”

“ PROMETHEUS [1]
STR. AT length then to the wide earth's extreme bounds,
To Scythia are we come, those pathless wilds
Where human footstep never mark’d the ground.
Now, Vulcan, to thy task; at Jove’s command
Fix to these high-projecting rocks this vain
Artificer of man; each massy link
Draw close, and bind his adamantine chains.
The radiant pride, the fiery flame, that lends
Its aid to ev'ry art, he stole, and bore
The gift to mortals; for which bold offence
The gods assign him this just punishment;
That he may learn to reverence the pow'r
Of Jove, and moderate his love to man. ”

“ The image is here so beautifully poetical, that the translator could not give it up for the cool correction of Pauw. ↑ This softly-breathing odour marks the approach of some divinity
When Juno, in the fourteenth Iliad, retires to her apartment to dress with more than ordinary care,
Here first she bathes, and round her body pours,
Soft oil of fragrance, and ambrosial show'rs:
The winds perfum'd the balmy gale convey
Thro' heav'n, thro' earth, and all th' acrial way;
Spirit divine! whose exhalation greets
The sense of gods with more than mortal sweets. ”

“ The words are very remarkable; for want of a better explication of them, we must take up with this. ↑ The Chorus throughout this tragedy find themselves in a very delicate and difficult situation. Consanguinity and affection brought them to the rock to commiserate the afflictions of Prometheus; hence they became interested in the action: as his sufferings were unjust, their office, which led them to favour the good, led them also to express their disapprobation of his punishment; but as it was inflicted by Jupiter, their piety and reverence would not permit them to oppose the king of the gods ”

“ Such the stern-pow'r of heav'n's new-sceptired lord,
And law-controlling Jove's irrevocable word.
PROM. Beneath the earth,
Beneath the gulfs of Tartarus [7] , that spread
Interminable o'er the dead,
Had his stern fury fix'd this rigid chain,
Nor gods, nor men had triumph'd in my pain
But pendent in th' ethereal air,
The pageant gratifies my ruthless foes,
That gaze, insult, and glory in my woes.
CHOR.
Is there a god, whose sullen soul
Feels a stern joy in thy despair? ”

“ As she was the second prophetic power that held her oracular seat at Delphos, she was honoured as the goddess of Trutt and Justice. ↑ No writer knew better how to preserve propriety of character than Æschylus. Prometheus disdained to answer the ferocious insolence of these ministers of Jupiter, nor could even the tender commiseration of Vulcan elicit a word from him, There is a dignity, and even a sublimity in this silence beyond the expression of word's. ”

“ Prometheus, therefore, with great propriety might boast of this signal and important discovery to mankind: of which Virgil, in his first Georgic, when he delivers his poetical precepts nor the husbandman, makes a particular injunction. ”

“ In the simplicity of ancient manners their father's consent must first be obtained; and even thus virgin modesty is something hurt. The Nymphs of the waters wore no sandals; hence Thetis is called the silver-footed, as Juno is the golden-slippered queen. ↑ Japetus had three sons, Menetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus. Menætius, for his insolence and audacious attenmpts, was by Jupiter smitten with thunder, and cast into Tartarus, where the vanquished Titans were imprisoned. HESIOD,—To this Prometheus here alludes. ”

“ Of liquid light, see you what wrongs I suffer!
↑ According to ‘the theogony of Hesiod, Chaos was the ancestor of Nature; next to him was Gaia: her progeny by Ouranus was numerous, amongst these were Oceanus and Japetus: by Clymene, daughter of Oceanus, Jupetus was the farher of Prometheus, with whose history the Athenians were well acquainted from the narrative of Hesiod, which was, we may suppose, the popular creed of the tines in which our poet wrote. ”

“ After that Hercules, by the permission of Jupiter, had killed the tormenting eagle, and unbound his chains, he disclosed the decree of the Fates: Thetis was given in marriage to Peleus, and the prophecy was accomplished in the famous Achilles. ↑ The scholiast explains this passage by saying, that whoever should attempt to succour Prometheus, and deliver him from his pain, should himself be be sent to the shades of Orcus, and the dark abyss of Tartarus. ”

“ Themis therefore, as the goddess of Justice, might well have the appellation of Rhea. This is only to show that we understand the mythology of the ancients much better than they did themselves. ↑ We are not informed for what cause Jupiter was so offended with the unhappy race of mortals; but by way of punishment he withdrew from them πατεΧΧTerTÉxva Tugos réras, the fiery flame, that lends its aid to every art: this Prometheus stole from heaven, and reconveyed to them in an hollew cane: hine illæ lacrynæ. ”

“ Abet the cause of Jove ? Thus by my counsels
In the dark deep Tartarean gulph enclos'd
Old Saturn lies, and his confederate pow'rs.
For these good deeds the tyrant of the skies
Repays me with there dreadful punishments.
For foul mistrust of those that serve them best
Breathes its black poison in each tyrant's heart.
Ask you the cause for which he tortures me ?
I will declare it. On his father's throne
Scarce was he seated, on the chiefs of heav'n
He show'r'd his various honours ”

“ The genius of Hesiod seems to have taken fire from hence, and communicated the flame to Æschylus, Pindar, and Virgil. ↑ The chorus here alludes to the punishment of Menœtius and Atlas mentioned before. ↑ This stanza and the next relate to Prometheus, the last to Atlas. All Asia lamented the sufferings of the former; the earth, the sea, and the gloomy depths of Pluto sympathize with Atlas, for whilst he bore the heavens on his shoulders, all below must be violently pressed beneath his feet.—Pauw. ↑ The translator has followed the emendation of Pauw ”

“ Because the civil year of the ancients did not correspond with the apparent annual motion of the sun, it was impossible by the calendar to ascertain the precise times for the purposes of agriculture, as the same day of the month would not happen in the same season of the year; it was necessary therefore to have recourse to more certain standards and invariable characters to distinguish times, which the risings and the settings of the stars naturally afforded ”

“ Even at the last, when nothing could prevail with him to abate his implacable spirit, and Mercury with much tenderness advised them to retire, and avoid the impending storm, they answer with a becoming firmness, that they could not be guilty of such a deed of baseness; ancient manners, which considered the desertion of a friend as the vilest of actions, required this sacrifice of their own safety. ”