Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays by Aeschylus - HTML preview

Prometheus Bound

 

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.

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.

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!

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!

STRENGTH

  Enough of useless ruth! why tarriest thou?

  Why pitiest one whom all gods wholly hate,

  One who to man gave o'er thy privilege?

HEPHAESTUS

  Kinship and friendship wring my heart for him.

STRENGTH

  Ay--but how disregard our Sire's command?

  Is not thy pity weaker than thy fear?

HEPHAESTUS

  Ruthless as ever, brutal to the full!

STRENGTH

  Tears can avail him nothing: strive not thou,

  Nor waste thine efforts thus unaidingly.

HEPHAESTUS

  Out on my cursed mastery of steel!

STRENGTH

  Why curse it thus? In sooth that craft of thine

  Standeth assoiled of all that here is wrought.

HEPHAESTUS

  Would that some other were endowed therewith!

STRENGTH

  All hath its burden, save the rule of Heaven,

  And freedom is for Zeus, and Zeus alone.

HEPHAESTUS

  I know it; I gainsay no word hereof.

STRENGTH

  Up, then, and hasten to do on his bonds,

  Lest Zeus behold thee indolent of will!

HEPHAESTUS

  Ah well--behold the armlets ready now!

STRENGTH

  Then cast them round his arms and with sheer strength

  Swing down the hammer, clinch him to the crags.

HEPHAESTUS

  Lo, 'tis toward--no weakness in the work!

STRENGTH

  Smite harder, wedge it home--no faltering here!

  He hath a craft can pass th' impassable!

HEPHAESTUS

  This arm is fast, inextricably bound.

STRENGTH

  Then shackle safe the other, that he know

  His utmost craft is weaker far than Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS

  He, but none other, can accuse mine art!

STRENGTH

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

  The adamantine wedge's stubborn fang.

HEPHAESTUS

  Alas, Prometheus!  I lament thy pain.

STRENGTH

  Thou, faltering and weeping sore for those

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

HEPHAESTUS

  Thou gazest on a scene that poisons sight.

STRENGTH

  I gaze on one who suffers his desert.

  Now between rib and shoulder shackle him--

HEPHAESTUS

  Do it I must--hush thy superfluous charge!

STRENGTH

  Urge thee I will--ay, hound thee to the prey.

  Step downward now, enring his legs amain!

HEPHAESTUS

  Lo, it is done--'twas but a moment's toil.

STRENGTH

  Now, strongly strike, drive in the piercing gyves--

  Stern is the power that oversees thy task!

HEPHAESTUS

  Brutish thy form, thy speech brutality!

STRENGTH

  Be gentle, an thou wilt, but blame not me

   For this my stubbornness and anger fell!

HEPHAESTUS

  Let us go hence; his legs are firmly chained.

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.

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]

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!

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!

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!

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!

CHORUS

  What God can wear such ruthless heart

  As to delight in ill?

  Who in thy sorrow bears not part?

  Zeus, Zeus alone! for he, with wrathful will,

  Clenched and inflexible,

  Bears down Heaven's race--nor end shall be, till hate

  His soul shall satiate,

  Or till, by some device, some other hand

  Shall wrest from him his sternly-clasped command!

PROMETHEUS

  Yet,--though in shackles close and strong

  I lie in wasting torments long,---

  Yet the new tyrant, 'neath whose nod

  Cowers down each blest subservient god,

  One day, far hence, my help shall need,

  The destined stratagem to read,

  Whereby, in some yet distant day,

  Zeus shall be reaved of pride and sway:

  And no persuasion's honied spell

  Shall lure me on, the tale to tell;

  And no stern threat shall make me cower

  And yield the secret to his power,

  Until his purpose be foregone,

  And shackles yield, and he atone

  The deep despite that he hath done!

CHORUS

  O strong in hardihood, thou striv'st amain

  Against the stress of pain!

  But yet too free, too resolute thy tongue

  In challenging thy wrong!

  Ah, shuddering dread doth make my spirit quiver,

  And o'er thy fate sits Fear!

  I see not to what shore of safety ever

  Thy bark can steer--

  In depths unreached the will of Zeus doth dwell,

  Hidden, implacable!

PROMETHEUS

  Ay, stern is Zeus, and Justice stands,

  Wrenched to his purpose, in his hands--

  Yet shall he learn, perforce, to know

  A milder mood, when falls the blow--

  His ruthless wrath he shall lay still,

  And he and I with mutual will

  In concord's bond shall go.

CHORUS

  Unveil, say forth to us the tale entire,

  Under what imputation Zeus laid hands

  On thee, to rack thee thus with shameful pangs?

  Tell us--unless the telling pain thee--all!

PROMETHEUS

  Grievous alike are these things for my tongue,

  Grievous for silence--rueful everyway.

  Know that, when first the gods  began  their strife,

  And heaven was all astir with mutual feud--

  Some willing to fling Cronos from his throne,

  And set, forsooth, their Zeus on high as king,

  And other some in contrariety

  Striving to bar him from heaven's throne for aye--

  Thereon I sought to counsel for the best

  The Titan brood of Ouranos and Earth;

  Yet I prevailed not, for they held in scorn

  My glozing wiles, and, in their hardy pride,

  Deemed that sans effort they could grasp the sway.

  But, for my sake, my mother Themis oft,

  And Earth, one symbol of names manifold,

  Had held me warned, how in futurity

  It stood ordained that not by force or power,

  But by some wile, the victors must prevail.

  In such wise I interpreted; but they

  Deigned not to cast their heed thereon at all.

  Then, of things possible, I deemed it best,

  Joining my mother's wisdom to mine own,

  To range myself with Zeus, two wills in one.

  Thus, by device of mine, the murky depth

  Of Tartarus enfoldeth Cronos old

  And those who strove beside him. Such the aid

  I gave the lord of heaven--my meed for which

  He paid me thus, a penal recompense!

  For 'tis the inward vice of tyranny,

  To deem of friends as being secret foes.

  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!

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.

PROMETHEUS

  Yea truly, kindly eyes must pity me!

CHORUS

  Say, didst thou push transgression further still?

PROMETHEUS

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

CHORUS

  What cure couldst thou discover for this curse?

PROMETHEUS

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

CHORUS

  This was a goodly gift thou gavest them.

PROMETHEUS

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

CHORUS

  What? radiant fire, to things ephemeral?

PROMETHEUS

  Yea--many an art too shall they learn thereby!

CHORUS

  Then, upon imputation of such guilt,

  Doth Zeus without surcease torment thee thus?

  Is there no limit to thy course of pain?

PROMETHEUS

  None, till his own will shall decree an end.

CHORUS

  And how shall he decree it? say, what hope?

  Seëst thou not thy sin? yet of that sin

  It irks me sore to speak, as thee to hear.

  Nay, no more words hereof; bethink thee now,

  From this ordeal how to find release.

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.

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.

OCEANUS

  Thus, over leagues and leagues of space

  I come, Prometheus, to thy place--

  By will alone, not rein, I guide

  The winged 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!

  Name but some mode of helpfulness,

  And thou wilt in a trice confess

  That I, Oceanus, am best

  Of all thy friends, and trustiest.

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!

  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.

PROMETHEUS

  O enviable thou, and unaccused--

  Thou who wast art and part in all I dared!

  And now, let be! make this no care of thine,

  For Zeus is past persuasion--urge him not!

  Look to thyself, lest thine emprise thou rue.

OCEANUS

  Thou hast more skill to school thy neighbour's fault

  Than to amend thine own: 'tis proved and plain,

  By fact, not hearsay, that I read this well.

  Yet am I fixed to go--withhold me not--

  Assured I am, assured, that Zeus will grant

  The boon I crave, the loosening of thy bonds.

PROMETHEUS

  In part I praise thee, to the end will praise;

  Goodwill thou lackest not, but yet forbear

  Thy further trouble! If thy heart be fain,

  Bethink thee that thy toil avails me not.

  Nay, rest thee well, aloof from danger's brink!

  I will not ease my woe by base relief

  In knowing others too involved therein.

  Away the thought! for deeply do I rue

  My brother Atlas' doom. Far off he stands

  In sunset land, and on his shoulder bears

  The pillar'd mountain-mass whose base is earth,

  Whose top is heaven, and its ponderous load

  Too great for any grasp. With pity too

  I saw Earth's child, the monstrous thing of war,

  That in Cilicia's hollow places dwelt--

  Typho; I saw his hundred-headed form

  Crushed and constrained; yet once his stride was fierce,

  His jaws gaped horror and their hiss was death,

  And all heaven's host he challenged to the fray,

  While, as one vowed to storm the power of Zeus,

  Forth from his eyes he shot a demon glare.

  It skilled not: the unsleeping bolt of Zeus,

  The downward levin with its rush of flame,

  Smote on him, and made dumb for evermore

  The clamour of his vaunting: to the heart

  Stricken he lay, and all that mould of strength

  Sank thunder-shattered to a smouldering ash;

  And helpless now and laid in ruin huge

  He lieth by the narrow strait of sea,

  Crushed at the root of Etna's mountain-pile.

  High on the pinnacles whereof there sits

  Hephaestus, sweltering at the forge; and thence

  On some hereafter day shall burst and stream

  The lava-floods, that shall with ravening fangs

  Gnaw thy smooth lowlands, fertile Sicily!

  Such ire shall Typho from his living grave

  Send seething up, such jets of fiery surge,

  Hot and unslaked, altho' himself be laid

  In quaking ashes by Zeus' thunderbolt.

  But thou dost know hereof, nor needest me

  To school thy sense: thou knowest safety's road--

  Walk then thereon! I to the dregs will drain,

  Till Zeus relent from wrath, my present woe.

OCEANUS

  Nay, but, Prometheus, know'st thou not the saw--

  Words can appease the angry soul's disease?

PROMETHEUS

  Ay--if in season one appl