Prometheus Bound

“ Nor iron threats shall move me e'er
By fear this counsel to declare,
Before he break my cruel chain.
And pay the price of all this pain.
Chorus.
Daring thou art, nor aught to bitter woe
Dost yield, but speakest words too free—
And fear doth vex and pierce my spirit thro'!
I fear the fate attending thee,
Where thou shalt voyage ere thou see
The shore of grief: for none can move
The will, or melt the heart of Jove.
Prometheus.
I know that Jove is cruel; that he hath
For his sole justice, his own will. ”

“ PROMETHEUS
For thou art instant, I am bound to speak. 630
Hear then.
CHORUS
⁠O stay a little! I too claim
My part of satisfaction. Let us first
Be certified the manner of her affliction.
From her own mouth we fain would have the tale
Of all the adventures, which have marr'd her days.
PROMETHEUS
It falls to thee, Io, to minister
The grace these ask for; and it well behoves thee,
Seeing they are even sisters of thy sire.
Behold, to take thy fill of sighing and tears
In such society as will yield thee, hearing,
Like human drops, is time not given in vain. ”

“ Him Prometheus reviles with opprobrious epithets, calling him a lackey of the Gods, and refuses to disclose anything concerning the matter on which he questions him. The winged God, replying, threatens him with dire calamities. A tempest will come upon him and overwhelm him with thunderbolts, and a bloodthirsting eagle shall feed upon his liver. Thus saying, he departs, and immediately the earth commences to heave, the noise of thunder is heard, vivid streaks of lightning blaze throughout the sky and a hurricane—the onslaught of Jove—sweeps Prometheus away in its blast. ”

“ Perhaps, of all the authors of antiquity, no one stands so forward to support this hypothesis, as Æschylus; and of all the works of Æschylus, no one stands more forward to support it, than his work of the Prometheus Bound. He is a fearless and impetuous, not a cautious and accomplished poet. His excellences could not be acquired by art, nor could his defects exist separately from genius. It would be nearly equally impossible for the mere imitator to compass either; for if we would stand in the mist, we must stand also on the mountain. ”

“ Prometheus
Ho, what a sight of marvel! what, thou too
Comest to contemplate my pains, and darest—
(Yet how, I wot not!) leaving far behind
The circling tide, thy namefellow, and those
Rock-arched, self-hollowed caverns—thus to come
Unto this land, whose womb bears iron ore?
Art come to see my lot, resent with me
The ills I bear? Well, gaze thy fill! behold
Me, friend of Zeus, part-author of his power—
Mark, in what ruthlessness he bows me down!
Oceanus
Yea, I behold, Prometheus! and would warn
Thee, spite of all thy wisdom, for thy weal! ”

“ Rock-roof'd and self-create, to visit earth,
The mother of this iron? Didst thou come
To look upon my griefs, and grieve withal?
Behold a spectacle!—me, friend of Jove—
Me, the creator of his royalty—
Beneath what torture from his hand I bow!
Ocea. Prometheus, I behold, and fain would lend
Thine ear my chiefest counselling, albeit
Thou hast a subtle mind. Know thine own self,
And change thy ways, since heav'n hath changed her king ”

“ Look now, what lightest parcel of thy pain
Can men abate for thee? A name ill-sorting
Thou bear'st in Heaven, Prometheus: for thyself
Thou hast much need, Provider, to provide,—
Some way to get thee from this cunning toil.
[Hephaistos, Kratos and Bia depart,
leaving Prometheus chained to the rocks, alone.]
PROMETHEUS
O holy sky! and ye, swift-winged winds!
All fountains of all rivers! Thou, that rollest
Laughter innumerable of ripple and wave,
O Sea, behold me! Mother of all things. Earth, 90
Behold me! Thou, great Sun, that seest all,
Bear record what I suffer from my peers. ”

“ It is like the good work of a lesser man.
Very different is the Prometheus, a work of the same period of transition as the Seven, and implying the use of three actors in the prologue, as the Seven probably does in the 'exodus.' The trilogy seems to have consisted of Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Freed,* and Prometheus the Fire-Carrier.* The subject is Titanic; it needs a big mind to cope with it. But it has produced in the hands of Æschylus and of Shelley two of the greatest of mankind's dramatic poems. Prometheus is the champion of man against the Tyrant Power that sways the world. ”

“ Prometheus
No matter which—more must not be revealed.
Io
Doth then a consort thrust him from his throne?
Prometheus
The child she bears him shall o'ercome his sire.
Io
And hath he no avoidance of this doom?
Prometheus
None, surely—till that I, released from bonds—
Io
Who can release thee, but by will of Zeus?
Prometheus
Fate gives this duty to a child of thine!
Io
How? Shall a child of mine undo thy woes?
Prometheus
Yea, of thy lineage, thirteen times removed.
Io
Dark beyond guessing grows thine oracle. ”

“ Wherewith thou art exercised as now, a jest.
Nay, poor my friend, let not these heats possess thee;
Rail not against thy lot but seek to mend it.
A threadbare wisdom mine may chance be rated:
So be it: only see, Prometheus, what are
The wages of a tongue that speaks great things.
But thou not yet art chasten'd, stiff as ever, 320
And goest about to add new woes to old.
Nay, nay, if I may be thy teacher, never
Shalt thou lift heel against the pricks; for, look,
One rules, who spares not, lord without compeer,
And none can say to him, "What doest thou?" ”

“ Prometheus, Chorus, and Io.
Io.
What land? what habitants? and who
The being that I look unto,
Tempested in rock and chain?
For what crime dost thou sustain
Such chastisement? and, oh, declare
Where have I hapless wander'd—where?
Ah me! ah me! ah me!
Again the gad-fly spurs me, wretched maid!
Oh earth, avert the earth-born Argus' shade!
I fear mine eyes should be
On him, the thousand-eyed
Herdsman, who walketh, looking craftily;
Whom, albeit dead, the grave hath fail'd to hide ”

“ Boyd, who, in addition to many valuable and well-known translations, [1] has furnished the public with an able version of that obscure tragedy, considers the scene in question to be "unapproached and unapproachable by any rival." But I would rest the claims of the Prometheus upon one fulcrum, the conception of character. It is not in the usual manner of Æschylus to produce upon his canvass any very prominent figure, to which every other is made subordinate, and to which the interest of the spectator is very strongly and almost exclusively attached. ”

“ Alas, Prometheus! for thy pains I groan.
KRATOS
Yes, thou art soft, and for the foes of Zeus
Groanest: thou yet may'st need thy pity at home.
HEPHAISTOS
Thou see'st a sight not good to look upon. ”

“ 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 ”

“ What sin, Prometheus, dost thou thus atone?
Prometheus
One moment since, I told my woes and ceased.
Io
Then should I plead my suit to thee in vain?
Prometheus
Nay, speak thy need; nought would I hide from thee.
Io
Pronounce who nailed thee to the rocky cleft.
Prometheus
Zeus, by intent; Hephaestus, by his hand.
Io
For what wrongdoing do these pains atone?
Prometheus
What I have said, is said; suffice it thee!
Io
Yet somewhat add; forewarn me in my woe
What time shall bring my wandering to its goal?
Prometheus
Fore-knowledge is fore-sorrow; ask it not. ”

“ Thou hast seen man's dark estate, wherein he is tied and bound,
A little strength without sap, the stuff of a dream: for when 550
⁠Shall wit of man prevent
⁠God's well-knit regiment?
Such thought in my heart, Prometheus, doth sight of thy ruin move:
And it leaps to my mind how far is this from the strain I sang
In the day of thy marriage feast, by the lavers and bed of love,
The song of the bringing home of Hesione, that sprang
⁠Of mine own father, bride
⁠Gift-gotten to thy side. 560
Io, in form half-woman, half-cow, comes in, wandering. ”

“ The Chorus alight from their winged cars.
Enter Oceanus, mounted on a griffin.⁠
Oceanus
Thus, over leagues and leagues of space
I come, Prometheus, to thy place—
By will alone, not rein, I guide
The wingèd thing on which I ride;
And much, be sure, I mourn thy case—
Kinship is Pity's bond, I trow;
And, wert thou not akin, I vow
None other should have more than thou
⁠Of my compassion's grace!
'Tis said, and shall be proved; no skill
Have I to gloze and feign goodwill! ”

“ Until these shaming bonds be loosed from me.
So, let him fling his blazing levin-bolt!
Let him with white and wingèd 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.
Hermes
Bethink thee if such words can mend thy lot.
Prometheus
All have I long foreseen, and all resolved.
Hermes
Perverse of will! constrain, constrain thy soul
To think more wisely in the grasp of doom! ”

“ The wedded spouse of Jove!
And never may a bridegroom woo me.
Of those who dwell above!
Because I fear, beholding late
Io's spouse-hating virgin state,
Tortured by Juno with a wand'ring fate.
Epode.
I fear no equal unions. Never may
The eyes of mightiest gods, which I can flee not,
Their love upon me fling!
Quenchless the strife, impassable the way!
I know not what I should become; I see not
How I should 'scape Saturnius' counselling.
Pro. And yet, albeit absolute of mind,
Jove shall wax weak. A marriage he prepares,
T' accomplish which, shall hurl him power-extinct ”

“ 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 ”

“ The fate of Prometheus therefore recalls the misfortune of Theseus and Peirithoos, who remain bound to the rock, the chthonic mother. According to Athenaeus, Jupiter commanded Prometheus, after he had freed him, to wear a willow crown and an iron ring, by which his lack of freedom and slavery was symbolically represented. (Phoroneus, who in Argos was worshipped as the bringer of fire, was the son of Melia, the ash, therefore tree-enchained.) Robertson compares the crown of Prometheus to the crown of thorns of Christ. ”

“ Me, in what crime, thou Jove, what crime, detected,
Yok'st thou to suff'ring, so,
And thus to goading terror dost thou doom me
Wretched and madden'd? Oh, with fire consume me,
Hide me with earth, to beasts my body fling:
Spurn not my prayer, oh king!
Too many wand'rings on my strength have press'd,
Nor know I where I shall attain to rest.
Cho. What saith the horned virgin, hearest thou?15
Pro. How can I hear not the fly-goaded maid,
The child of Inachus, who warm'd with love
Saturnius' breast; and now, by Juno's hate,
Is forced to tread the ever-length'ning ways?
Io. ”

“ Their every art had mortals from Prometheus.
Chorus.
Now do thou not serve mortals past the mark
And take no thought for thine own evil case: ⁠525 (517)
For we are of good hope that thou shalt yet,
Freed from these bonds, be no less strong than Zeus.
Prometheus.
Nor yet is it laid on completing Fate
To bring this so to pass, but by much woes
And pangs bowed down thus shall I scape these chains.
For art is very weak before The Must. ⁠531 (522)
Chorus. ”

“ Prometheus. Vulcan. Strength. Force. Oceanus. Hermes. Io. Chorus of sea-nymphs.
PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Scene in European Scythia. Rocks facing the
Euxine Sea.
Prometheus,1 Vulcan, Strength2 and Force.
Strength. We have attain'd the utmost bound of earth,
The Scythian way, th' unpeopled wilderness;
And now it fits thee, Vulcan, to perform
The father's will; and this audacious god
Fix to the lofty-browëd rocks, by links
Infrangible of adamantine chains.
Thy crown, the glory of constructive fire,
Stole he, and gave to men; for which offence
'Tis just he pay to gods exacted vengeance ”

“ Of Jupiter, brought by Hermes, she ensnared
Mankind with her fair looks, to be avenged
On him who had stole Jove's authentic fire."
Prometheus and Epimetheus were sons of Iapetus, which Milton changes to Japhet.
Prometheus, the Titan son of Iapetus and Themis, is a favorite subject with the poets. AEschylus wrote three tragedies on the subjects of his confinement, his release, and his worship at Athens. Of these only the first is preserved, the Prometheus Bound. Prometheus was the only one in the council of the gods who favored man. ”

“ 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 seëst
Zeus doth not soften at such words as thine!
Prometheus
Pompous, in sooth, thy word, and swoln with pride,
As doth befit the lacquey of thy lords!
O ye young gods! ”