I took from man expectancy of death.
CHORUS
What medicine found'st thou for this malady?
PROMETHEUS
I planted blind hope in the heart of him.
CHORUS
A mighty boon thou gavest there to man.
PROMETHEUS
Moreover, I conferred the gift of fire.
CHORUS
And have frail mortals now the flame-bright fire?
PROMETHEUS
Yea, and shall master many arts thereby.
CHORUS
And Zeus with such misfeasance charging thee-PROMETHEUS
Torments me with extremity of woe.
CHORUS
And is no end in prospect of thy pains?
PROMETHEUS
None; save when he shall choose to make an end.
CHORUS
How should he choose? What hope is thine? Dost thou Not see that thou hast erred? But how thou erredst Small pleasure were to me to tell; to the Exceeding sorrow. Let it go then: rather Seek thou for some deliverance from thy woes.
PROMETHEUS
He who stands free with an untrammelled foot Is quick to counsel and exhort a friend In trouble. But all these things I know well.
Of my free will, my own free will, I erred, And freely do I here acknowledge it.
Freeing mankind myself have durance found.
Natheless, I looked not for sentence so dread, High on this precipice to droop and pine, Having no neighbour but the desolate crags.
And now lament no more the ills I suffer, But come to earth and an attentive ear Lend to the things that shall befall hereafter.
Harken, oh harken, suffer as I suffer!
Who knows, who knows, but on some scatheless head, Another's yet for the like woes reserved, The wandering doom will presently alight?
CHORUS
Prometheus, we have heard thy call:
Not on deaf cars these awful accents fall.
Lo! lightly leaving at thy words My flying car And holy air, the pathway of great birds, I long to tread this land of peak and scar, And certify myself by tidings sure Of all thou hast endured and must endure.
While the winged chariot of the OCEANIDES comes to ground their father OCEANUS enters, riding on a monster.
OCEANUS
Now have I traversed the unending plain And unto thee, Prometheus, am I come, Guiding this winghd monster with no rein, Nor any bit, but mind's firm masterdom.
And know that for thy grief my heart is sore;The bond of kind, methinks, constraineth me;Nor is there any I would honour more, Apart from kinship, than I reverence thee.
And thou shalt learn that I speak verity:
Mine is no smooth, false tongue; for do but show How I can serve thee, grieved and outraged thus, Thou ne'er shalt say thou hast, come weal, come woe, A friend more faithful than Oceanus.
PROMETHEUS
How now? Who greets me? What! Art thou too come To gaze upon my woes? How could'st thou leave The stream that bears thy name, thine antres arched With native rock, to visit earth that breeds The massy iron in her womb? Com'st thou To be spectator of my evil lot And fellow sympathizer with my woes?
Behold, a thing indeed to gaze upon The friend of Zeus, co-stablisher of his rule, See, by this sentence with what pains I am bowed IOCEANUS
Prometheus, all too plainly I behold:
And for the best would counsel thee: albeit Thy brain is subtle. Learn to know thy heart, And, as the times, so let thy manners change, For by the law of change a new God rules.
But, if these bitter, savage, sharp-set words Thou ventest, it may be, though he sit throned Far off and high above thee, Zeus will hear;And then thy present multitude of ills Will seem the mild correction of a babe.
Rather, O thou much chastened one, refrain Thine anger, and from suffering seek release.
Stale, peradventure, seem these words of mine:
Nevertheless, of a too haughty tongue Such punishment, Prometheus, is the wage.
But thou, not yet brought low by suffering, To what thou hast of ill would'st add far worse.
Therefore, while thou hast me for schoolmaster, Thou shalt not kick against the pricks; the more That an arch-despot who no audit dreads Rules by his own rough will. And now I leave thee, To strive with what success I may command For thy deliv'rance. Keep a quiet mind And use not over-vehemence of speech-Knowest thou not, being exceeding wise, A wanton, idle tongue brings chastisement?
PROMETHEUS
I marvel that thou art not in my case, Seeing with me thou did'st adventure all.
And now, I do entreat thee, spare thyself.
Thou wilt not move him: he's not easy moved Take heed lest thou find trouble by the way.
OCEANUS
Thou are a better counsellor to others Than to thyself: I judge by deeds not words.
Pluck me not back when I would fain set forth.
My oath upon it, Zeus will grant my prayer And free thee from these pangs.
PROMETHEUS
I tender the For this my thanks and ever-during praise.
Certes, no backward friend art thou; and yet Trouble not thyself; for at the best thy labour Will nothing serve me, if thou mean'st to serve.
Being thyself untrammelled stand fast.
For, not to mitigate my own mischance, Would I see others hap on evil days.
The thought be far from me. I feel the weight Of Atlas' woes, my brother in the west Shouldering the pillar that props heaven and earth, No wieldy fardel for his arms to fold.
The giant dweller in Cilician dens I saw and pitied-a terrific shape, A hundred-headed monster-when he fell, Resistless Typhon who withstood the Gods, With fearsome hiss of beak-mouth horrible, While lightning from his eyes with Gorgon-glare Flashed for the ravage of the realm of Zeus.
But on him came the bolt that never sleeps, Down-crashing thunder, with emitted fire, Which shattered him and all his towering hopes Dashed into ruin; smitten through the breast, His strength as smoking cinder, lightning-charred.
And now a heap, a helpless, sprawling hulk, He lies stretched out beside the narrow seas, Pounded and crushed deep under Etna's roots.
But on the mountain-top Hephaestus sits Forging the molten iron, whence shall burst Rivers of fire, with red and ravening jaws To waste fair-fruited, smooth, Sicilian fields.
Such bilious up-boiling of his ire Shall Typho vent, with slingstone-showers red-hot, And unapproachable surge of fiery spray, Although combusted by the bolt of Zeus.
