Prometheus Bound
Aeschylus
Aeschylus, Volume 1. Smyth, Herbert Weir, translator. London; New York: William Heinemann; G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1922.
- Can it be that Zeus has less power than they do?
- Yes, in that even he cannot escape what is foretold.
- Why, what is fated for Zeus except to hold eternal sway?
- This you must not learn yet; do not be over-eager.
- It is some solemn secret, surely, that you enshroud in mystery.
- Think of some other subject, for it is not the proper time to speak of this. No matter what, this must be kept concealed; for it is by safeguarding it that
- I am to escape my dishonorable bonds and outrage.
- May Zeus, who apportions everything, never set his power in conflict with my will,
- nor may I be slow to approach the gods, with holy sacrifices of oxen slain, by the side of the ceaseless stream of Oceanus, my father;
- and may I not offend in speech; but may this rule abide in my heart and never fade away.
- Sweet it is to pass all the length of life amid confident hopes, feeding the heart in glad festivities. But I shudder
- as I look on you, racked by infinite tortures. You have no fear of Zeus, Prometheus, but in self-will you reverence mortals too much.
- Come, my friend, how mutual was your reciprocity? Tell me, what kind of help is there in creatures of a day? What aid? Did you not see the helpless infirmity, no better than a dream, in which the blind
- generation of men is shackled? Never shall the counsels of mortal men transgress the ordering of Zeus.
- I have learned this lesson from observing the luck, Prometheus, that has brought about your ruin. And the difference in the song stole into my thought
- —this song and that, which, about your bridal bed and bath, I raised to grace your marriage, when you wooed with gifts
- and won my sister Hesione to be your wedded wife.
Enter Io[*](In vase-paintings after the time of Aeschylus, and possibly due to his influence, Io was often represented as wearing horns to symbolize her transformation into a heifer. The pure beast-type was the rule in earlier vases.) Io
- What land is this? What people? By what name am I to call the one I see exposed to the tempest in bonds of rock? What offence have you committed that as punishment you are doomed to destruction?
- Tell me to what region of the earth I have wandered in my wretchedness?
- Oh, oh! Aah! Aah! A gad-fly, phantom of earth-born Argus is stinging me again! Keep him away, O Earth! I am fearful when I behold that myriad-eyed herdsman. He travels onward with his crafty gaze upon me;