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Part II.
Part II.
Strophe I
Chor. I grieve, Prometheus, for thy dreary fate,
Shedding from tender eyes
The drew of plenteous tears;
With streams, as when the watery south wind blows,
My cheek is wet;
For lo! these things are all unenviable,
And Zeus, by His own laws His sway maintaining,
Shows to the elder Gods
A mood of haughtiness.
Antistrophe I
And all the country echoeth with the moan,
And poureth many a tear
For that magnific power
Of ancient days far - seen that thou didst share
With those of one blood sprung;
And all the mortal men who hold the plain
Of holy Asia as their land of sojourn,
They grieve in sympathy
For thy woes lamentable.
Strophe II
And they, the maiden band who find their home
On distant Colchian coasts,
Fearless of fight,^25
Or Skythian horde is earth`s remotest clime,
By far Maeotic lake;^26
[Footnote 25: These are, of course, the Amazons, who were believed to have
come through Thrake from the Tauric Chersonesos, and had left traces of their
name and habits in the Attic traditions of Theseus.]
[Footnote 26: Beyond the plains of Skythia and the lake Maeotis (the sea of
Azov) there would be the great river Okeanos, which was believed to flow round
the earth.]
Antistrophe II
And warlike glory of Arabia`s tribes,^27
Who nigh to Caucasos
In rock - fort dwell,
An army fearful, with sharp - pointed spear
Raging in war`s array.
[Footnote 27: Sarmatia has been conjectured instead of Arabia. No Greek author
sanctions the extension of the latter name to so remote a region as that north
of the Caspian.]
Strophe III
One other Titan only have I seen,
One other of the Gods,
Thus bound in woes of adamantine strength -
Atlas, who ever groans
Beneath the burden of a crushing might,
The outspread vault of heaven.
Antistrophe III
And lo! the ocean billows murmur loud
In one accord with him;^28
The sea - depths groan, and Hades` swarthy pit
Re - echoeth the sound,
And fountains of clear rivers, as they flow,
Bewail his bitter griefs.
[Footnote 28: The Greek leaves the object of the sympathy undefined, but it
seems better to refer it to that which Atlas receives from the waste of waters
around, and the dark world beneath, than to the pity shown to Prometheus. This
has already been dwelt on in the first stanza, page 181.]
Prom. Think not it is through pride or stiff self - will
That I am silent. But my heart is worn,
Self - contemplating, as I see myself
Thus outraged. Yet what other hand than mine
Gave these young Gods in fulness all their gifts?
But these I speak not of; for I should tell
To you that know them. But those woes of men,^29
List ye to them, - how they, before as babes,
By me were roused to reason, taught to think;
And this I say, not finding fault with men,
But showing my good - will in all I gave.
For first, though seeing, all in vain they saw,
And hearing, heard not rightly. But, like forms
Of phantom - dreams, throughout their life`s whole length
They muddled all at random; did not know
Houses of brick that catch the sunlight`s warmth,
Nor yet the work of carpentry. They dwelt
In hollowed holes, like swarms of tiny ants,
In sunless depths of caverns; and they had
No certain signs of winter, nor of spring
Flower - laden, nor of summer with her fruits;
But without counsel fared their whole life long,
Until I showed the risings of the stars,
And settings hard to recognise.^30 And I
Found Number for them, chief devise of all,
Groupings of letters, Memory`s handmaid that,
And mother of the Muses.^31 And I first
Bound in the yoke wild steeds, submissive made
Or to the collar or men`s limbs, that so
They might in man`s place bear his greatest toils;
And horses trained to love the rein I yoked
To chariots, glory of wealth`s pride of state;^32
Nor was it any one but I that found
Sea - crossing, canvas - winged cars of ships:
Such rare designs inventing (wretched me!)
For mortal men, I yet have no device
By which to free myself from this my woe.^33
[Footnote 29: The passage that follows has for modern paleontologists the
interest of coinciding with their views as to the progress of human society,
and the condition of mankind during what has been called the "Stone" period.
Comp. Lucretius, v. 955 - 984.]
[Footnote 30: Comp. Mr. Blakesley`s note on Herod. ii. 4, as showing that here
there was the greater risk of faulty observation.]
[Footnote 31: Another reading gives perhaps a better sense - "Memory, handmaid
true And mother of the Muses."]
[Footnote 32: In Greece, as throughout the East, the ox was used for all
agricultural labours, the horse by the noble and the rich, either in war
chariots, or stately processions, or in chariot races in the great games.]
[Footnote 33: Compare with this the account of the inventions of Palamedes in
Sophocles, Fragm. 379.]
Chor. Foul shame thou sufferest: of thy sense bereaved,
Thou errest greatly: and, like leech unskilled,
Thou losest heart when smitten with disease,
And know`st not how to find the remedies
Wherewith to heal thine own soul`s sicknesses.
Prom. Hearing what yet remains, thou`lt wonder more,
What arts and what resources I devised:
And this the chief: if any one fell ill,
There was no help for him, nor healing food
Nor unguent, nor yet potion; but for want
Of drugs they wasted, till I showed to them
The blendings of all mild medicaments,^34
Wherewith they ward the attacks of sickness sore.
I gave them many modes of prophecy;^35
And I first taught them what dreams needs must prove
True visions, and made known the ominous sounds
Full hard to know; and tokens by the way,
And flights of taloned birds I clearly marked, -
Those on the right propitious to mankind,
And those sinister, - and what form of life
They each maintain, and what their enmities
Each with the other, and their loves and friendships;
And of the inward parts the plumpness smooth.
And with what colour they the Gods would please,
And the streaked comeliness of gall and liver:
And with burnt limbs enwrapt in fat, and chine,
I led men on to art full difficult:
And I gave eyes to omens drawn from fire,
Till then dim - visioned. So far, then, for this.
And `neath the earth the hidden boons for men,
Bronze, iron, silver, gold, who else could say
That he, ere I did, found them? None, I know,
Unless he fain would babble idle words.
In one short word, then, learn the truth condensed, -
All arts of mortals from Prometheus spring.
[Footnote 34: Here we can recognise the knowledge of one who had studied in
the schools of Pythagoras, or had at any rate picked up their terminology. A
more immediate connexion may perhaps be traced with the influence of
Epimenides, who was said to have spent many years in searching out the healing
virtues of plants, and to have written books about them.]
[Footnote 35: The lines that follow form almost a manual of the art of
divination as then practised. The "ominous sounds" include chance words,
strange cries, any unexpected utterance that connected itself with men`s fears
for the future. The flights of birds were watched by the diviner as he faced
the north, and so the region on the right hand was that of the sunrise, light,
blessedness; on the left there were darkness and gloom and death.]
Chor. Nay, be not thou to men so overkind,
While thou thyself art in sore evil case;
For I am sanguine that thou too, released
From bonds, shalt be as strong as Zeus Himself.
Prom. It is not thus that Fate`s decree is fixed;
But I, long crushed with twice ten thousand woes
And bitter pains, shall then escape my bonds;
Art is far weaker than Necessity.
Chor. Who guides the helm, then, of Necessity?
Prom. Fates triple - formed, Erinyes unforgetting.
Chor. Is Zeus, then, weaker in His might than these?
Prom. Not even He can `scape the thing decreed.
Chor. What is decreed for Zeus but still to reign?
Prom. Thou mayst no further learn, ask thou no more.
Chor. `Tis doubtless some dread secret which thou hidest.
Prom. Of other theme make mention, for the time
Is not yet come to utter this, but still
It must be hidden to the uttermost;
For by thus keeping it it is that I
Escape my bondage foul, and these my pains.
Strophe I
Chor. Ah! ne`er may Zeus the Lord,
Whose sovran sway rules all,
His strength in conflict set
Against my feeble will!
Nor may I fail to serve
The Gods with holy feast
Of whole burnt - offerings,
Where the stream ever flows
That bears my father`s name,
The great Okeanos!
Nor may I sin in speech!
May this grace more and more
Sink deep into my soul
And never fade away!
Antistrophe I
Sweet is it in strong hope
To spend long years of life,
With bright and cheering joy
Our heart`s thoughts nourishing
I shudder, seeing thee
Thus vexed and harassed sore
By twice ten thousand woes;
For thou in pride of heart,
Having no fear of Zeus,
In thine own obstinacy,
Dost show for mortal men,
Prometheus, love o`ermuch.
Strophe II
See how that boon, dear friends,
For thee is bootless found.
Say, where is any help?
What aid from mortals comes?
Hast thou not seen this brief and powerless life,
Fleeting as dreams, with which man`s purblind race
Is fast in fetters bound?
Never shall counsels vain
Of mortal men break through
The harmony of Zeus.
Antistrophe II
This lesson have I learnt
Beholding thy sad fate,
Prometheus! Other strains
Come back upon my mind,
When I sang wedding hymns around thy bath,
And at thy bridal bed, when thou didst take
In wedlock`s holy bands
One of the same sire born,
Our own Hesione,
Persuading her with gifts
As wife to share thy couch.
Enter Io in form like a fair woman with a heifer`s horns,^36 followed by
the Spectre of Argos
[Footnote 36: So Io was represented, we are told, by Greek sculptors (Herod.
ii. 41), as Isis was by those of Egypt. The points of contact between the myth
of Io and that of Prometheus, as adopted, or perhaps developed, by Aeschylos,
are - (1) that from her the destined deliverer of the chained Titan is to
come; (2) that both were suffering from the cruelty of Zeus; (3) that the
wandering of Io gave scope for the wild tales of far countries on which the
imagination of the Athenians fed greedily. But, as the Suppliants may serve to
show, the story itself had a strange fascination for him. In the birth of
Epaphos, and Io`s release from her frenzy, he saw, it may be, a reconciliation
of what had seemed hard to reconcile, a solution of the problems of the world,
like in kind to that which was shadowed forth in the lost Prometheus Unbound.]
Io. What land is this? What people? Whom shall
I Say that I see thus vexed
With bit and curb of rock?
For what offence dost thou
Bear fatal punishment?
Tell me to what far land
I`ve wandered here in woe.
Ah me! ah me!
Again the gadfly stings me miserable.
Spectre of Argos, thou, the earth - born one -
Ah, keep him off, O Earth!
I fear to look upon that herdsman dread,
Him with ten thousand eyes:
Ah lo! he cometh with his crafty look,
Whom Earth refuses even dead to hold;^37
But coming from beneath,
He hunts me miserable,
And drives me famished o`er the sea - beach sand.
[Footnote 37: Argos had been slain by Hermes, and his eyes transferred by Hera
to the tail of the peacock, and that bird was henceforth sacred to her.]
Strophe
And still his waxened reed - pipe soundeth clear
A soft and slumberous strain;
O heavens! O ye Gods!
Whither do these long wanderings lead me on?
For what offence, O son of Cronos, what,
Hast thou thus bound me fast
In these great miseries?
Ah me! ah me!
And why with terror of the gadfly`s sting
Dost thou thus vex me, frenzied in my soul?
Burn me with fire, or bury me in earth,
Or to wild sea - beasts give me as a prey:
Nay, grudge me not, O King,
An answer to my prayers:
Enough my many - wandered wanderings
Have exercised my soul,
Nor have I power to learn
How to avert the woe.
(To Prometheus.) Hear`st thou the voice of maiden
crowned with horns?
Prom. Surely I heard the maid by gadfly driven,
Daughter of Inachos, who warmed the heart
Of Zeus with love, and now through Hera`s hate
Is tried, perforce, with wanderings overlong?
Antistrophe
Io. How is it that thou speak`st my father`s name?
Tell me, the suffering one,
Who art thou, who, poor wretch,
Who thus so truly nam`st me miserable,
And tell`st the plague from Heaven,
Which with its haunting stings
Wears me to death? Ah woe,
And I with famished and unseemly bounds
Rush madly, driven by Hera`s jealous craft.
Ah, who of all that suffer, born to woe,
Have trouble like the pain that I endure?
But thou, make clear to me
What yet for me remains,
What remedy, what healing for my pangs.
Show me, if thou dost know:
Speak out and tell to me,
The maid by wanderings vexed.
Prom. I will say plainly all thou seek`st to know;
Not in dark tangled riddles, but plain speech,
As it is meet that friends to friends should speak;
Thou seest Prometheus who gave fire to men.
Io. O thou to men as benefactor known,
Why, poor Prometheus, sufferest thou this pain?
Prom. I have but now mine own woes ceased to wail.
Io. Wilt thou not then bestow this boon on me?
Prom. Say what thou seek`st, for I will tell thee all.
Io. Tell me, who fettered thee in this ravine?
Prom. The counsel was of Zeus, the hand Hephaestos`.
Io. Of what offence dost thou the forfeit pay?
Prom. Thus much alone am I content to tell.
Io. Tell me, at least, besides, what end shall come
To my drear wanderings; when the time shall be.
Prom. Not to know this is better than to know.
Io. Nay, hide not from me what I have to bear.
Prom. It is not that I grudge the boon to thee.
Io. Why then delayest thou to tell the whole?
Prom. Not from ill will, but loth to vex thy soul.
Io. Nay, care thou not beyond what pleases me.
Prom. If thou desire it I must speak. Hear then.
Chor. Not yet though; grant me share of pleasure too.
Let us first ask the tale of her great woe,
While she unfolds her life`s consuming chances;
Her future sufferings let her learn from thee.
Prom. `Tis thy work, Io, to grant these their wish,
On other grounds and as thy father`s kin;^38
For to bewail and moan one`s evil chance,
Here where one trusts to gain a pitying tear
From those who hear, - this is not labour lost.
[Footnote 38: Inachos, the father of Io (identified with the Argive river of
the same name), was, like all rivers, a son of Okeanos, and therefore brother
to the nymphs who had come to see Prometheus.]
Io. I know not how to disobey your wish;
So ye shall learn the whole that ye desire
In speech full clear. And yet I blush to tell
The storm that came from God, and brought the loss
Of maiden face, what way it seized on me.
For nightly visions coming evermore
Into my virgin bower, sought to woo me
With glozing words. "O virgin greatly blest,
Why art thou still a virgin when thou might`st
Attain to highest wedlock? For with dart
Of passion for thee Zeus doth glow, and fain
Would make thee His. And thou, O child, spurn not
The bed of Zeus, but go to Lerna`s field,
Where feed thy father`s flocks and herds,
That so the eye of Zeus may find repose
From this His craving.: With such visions I
Was haunted every evening, till I dared
To tell my father all these dreams of night,
And he to Pytho and Dodona sent
Full many to consult the Gods, that he
Might learn what deeds and words would please Heaven`s lords.
And they came bringing speech of oracles
Shot with dark sayings, dim and hard to know.
At last a clear word came to Inachos
Charging him plainly, and commanding him
To thrust me from my country and my home,
To stray at large^39 to utmost bounds of earth;
And, should he gainsay, that the fiery bolt
Of Zeus should come and sweep away his race.
And he, by Loxias` oracles induced,
Thrust me, against his will, against mine too,
And drove me from my home; but spite of all,
The curb of Zeus constrained him this to do.
And then forthwith my face and mind were changed;
And horned, as ye see me, stung to the quick
By biting gadfly, I with maddened leap
Rushed to Kerchneia`a fair and limpid stream,
And fount of Lerna.^40 And a giant herdsman,
Argos, full rough of temper, followed me,
With many an eye beholding, on my track:
And him a sudden and unlooked - for doom
Deprived of life. And I, by gadfly stung,
By scourge from Heaven am driven from land to land.
What has been done thou hearest. And if thou
Canst tell what yet remains of woe, declare it;
Nor in thy pity soothe me with false words;
For hollow words, I deem, are worst of ills.
[Footnote 39: The words used have an almost technical meaning as applied to
animals that were consecrated to the service of a God, and set fee to wander
where they liked. The fate of Io, as at once devoted to Zeus and animalised in
form, was thus shadowed forth in the very language of the Oracle.]
[Footnote 40: Lerna was the lake near the mouth of the Inachos, close to the
sea. Kerchneia may perhaps be identified with the Kenchreae, the haven of
Korinth in later geographies.]
Chor. Away, away, let be:
Ne`er thought I that such tales
Would ever, ever come unto mine ears;
Nor that such terrors, woes and outrages,
Hard to look on, hard to bear,
Would chill my soul with sharp goad, double - edged.
Ah fate! Ah fate!
I shudder, seeing Io`s fortune strange.
Prom. Thou art too quick in groaning, full of fear:
Wait thou awhile until thou hear the rest.
Chor. Speak thou and tell. Unto the sick `tis sweet
Clearly to know what yet remains of pain.
Prom. Your former wish ye gained full easily.
Your first desire was to learn of her
The tale she tells of her own sufferings;
Now therefore hear the woes that yet remain
For this poor maid to bear at Hera`s hands.
And thou, O child of Inachos! take heed
To these my words, that thou mayst hear the goal
Of all thy wanderings. First then, turning hence
Towards the sunrise, tread the untilled plains,
And thou shalt reach the Skythian nomads, those^41
Who on smooth - rolling wagons dwell aloft
In wicker houses, with far - darting bows
Duly equipped. Approach thou not to these,
But trending round the coasts on which the surf
Beats with loud murmurs,^42 Traverse thou that clime.
On the left hand there dwell the Chalybes,^43
Who work in iron. Of these do thou beware,
For fierce are they and most inhospitable;
And thou wilt reach the river fierce and strong,
True to its name.^44 This seek not thou to cross,
For it is hard to ford, until thou come
To Caucasos itself, of all high hills
The highest, where a river pours its strength
From the high peaks themselves. And thou must cross
Those summits near the stars, must onward go
Towards the south, where thou shalt find the host
Of the Amazons, hating men, whose home
Shall one day be around Thermodon`s bank,
By Themiskyra,^45 where the ravenous jaws
Of Salmydessos ape upon the sea,
Treacherous to sailors, stepdame stern to ships.^46
And they right good - will shall be thy guides;
And thou, hard by a broad pool`s narrow gates,
Wilt pass to the Kimmerian isthmus. Leaving
This boldly, thou must cross Maeotic channel;^47
And there shall be great fame `mong mortal men
Of this thy journey, and the Bosporos^48
Shall take its name from thee. And Europe`s plain
Then quitting, thou shalt gain the Asian coast.
Doth not the all - ruling monarch of the Gods
Seem all ways cruel? For, although a God,
He, seeking to embrace this mortal maid,
Imposed these wanderings on her. Thou hast found,
O maiden! bitter suitor for thy hand;
For great as are the ills thou now hast heard,
Know that as yet not e`en the prelude`s known.
[Footnote 41: The wicker huts used by Skythian or Thrakian nomads (the
Calmucks of modern geographers) are described by Herodotos (iv. 46) and are
still in use.]
[Footnote 42: Sc., the N.E. boundary of the Euxine, where spurs of the
Caucasos ridge approach the sea.]
[Footnote 43: The Chalybes are placed by geographers to the south of Colchis.
The description of the text indicates a locality farther to the north.]
[Footnote 44: Probably the Araxes, which the Greeks would connect with a word
conveying the idea of a torrent dashing on the rocks. The description seems to
imply a river flowing into the Euxine from the Caucasos, and the condition is
fulfilled by the Hypanis or Kouban.]
[Footnote 45: When the Amazons appear in contact with Greek history, they are
found in Thrace. But they had come from the coast of Pontos, and near the
mouth of the Thermodon (Thermeh). The words of Prometheus point to yet earlier
migrations from the East.]
[Footnote 46: Here, as in Soph. Antig. (970), the name Salmydessos represents
the rock - bound, havenless coast from the promontory of Thynias to the
entrance of the Bosporos, which had given to the Black Sea its earlier name of
Axenos, the "inhospitable."]
[Footnote 47: The track is here in some confusion. From the Amazons south of
the Caucasos, Io is to find her way to the Tauric Chersonese (the Crimea) and
the Kimmerian Bosporos, which flows into the sea of Azov, and so to return to
Asia.]
[Footnote 48: Here, as in a hundred other instances, a false etymology has
become the parent of a myth. The name Bosporos is probably Asiatic, not Greek,
and has an entirely different signification.]
Io. Ah woe! woe! woe!
Prom. Again thou groan`st and criest. What wilt do
When thou shalt learn the evils yet to come?
Chor. What! are there troubles still to come for her?
Prom. Yea, stormy sea of woe most lamentable.
Io. What gain is it to live? Why cast I not
Myself at once from this high precipice,
And, dashed to earth, be free from all my woes?
Far better were it once for all to die
Than all one`s day to suffer pain and grief.
Prom. My struggles then full hardly thou wouldst bear,
For whom there is no destiny of death;
For that might bring a respite from my woes:
But now there is no limit to my pangs
Till Zeus be hurled out from His sovereignty.
Io. What! shall Zeus e`er be hurled from His high state?
Prom. Thou wouldst rejoice, I trow, to see that fall.
Io. How should I not, when Zeus so foully wrongs me?
Prom. That this is so thou now mayst hear from me.
Io. Who then shall rob Him of His sceptred sway?
Prom. Himself shall do it by His own rash plans.
Io. But how? Tell this, unless it bringeth harm.
Prom. He shall wed one for whom one day He`ll grieve.
Io. Heaven - born or mortal? Tell, if tell thou mayst.
Prom. Why ask`st thou who? I may not tell thee that
Io. Shall His bride hurl Him from His throne of might?
Prom. Yea; she shall bear child mightier than his sire.
Io. Has He no way to turn aside that doom?
Prom. No, none; unless I from my bonds be loosed.^49
[Footnote 49: The lines refer to the story that Zeus loved Thetis, the
daughter of Nereus, and followed her to Caucasos, but abstained from marriage
with her because Prometheus warned him that the child born of that union
should overthrow his father. Here the future is used of what was still
contingent only. In the lost play of the Trilogy the myth was possibly brought
to its conclusion and connected with the release of Prometheus.]
Io. Who then shall loose thee `gainst the will of Zeus?
Prom. It must be one of thy posterity.
Io. What, shall a child of mine free thee from ills?
Prom. Yea, the third generation after ten.^50
[Footnote 50: Heracles, whose genealogy was traced through Alcmena, Perseus,
Danae, Danaos, and seven other names, to Epaphos and Io.]
Io. No more thine oracles are clear to me.
Prom. Nay, seek not thou thine own drear fate to know.
Io. Do not, a boon presenting, then withdraw it.
Prom. Of two alternatives, I`ll give thee choice.
Io. Tell me of what, then give me leave to choose.
Prom. I give it then. Choose, or that I should tell
Thy woes to come, or who shall set me free.
Chor. Of these be willing one request to grant
To her, and one to me; nor scorn my words:
Tell her what yet of wandering she must bear,
And me who shall release thee. This I crave.
Prom. Since ye are eager, I will not refuse
To utter fully all that ye desire.
Thee, Io, first I`ll tell thy wanderings wild,
Thou, write it in the tablets of thy mind.
When thou shalt cross the straits, of continents
The boundary,^51 take thou the onward path
On to the fiery - hued and sun - tracked East.
[And first of all, to frozen Northern blasts
Thou`lt come, and there beware the rushing whirl,
Lest it should come upon thee suddenly,
And sweep thee onward with the cloud - rack wild;]^52
Crossing the sea - surf till thou come at last
Unto Kisthene`s Gorgoneian plains,
Where dwell the grey - haired virgin Phorkides,^53
Three, swan - shaped, with one eye between them all
And but one tooth; whom nor the sun beholds
With radiant beams, nor yet the moon by night:
And near them are their winged sisters three,
The Gorgons, serpent - tressed, and hating men,
Whom mortal wight may not behold and live.
Such is one ill I bid thee guard against;
Now hear another monstrous sight: Beware
The sharp - beaked hounds of Zeus that never bark,^54
The Gryphons, and the one - eyed mounted host
Of Arimaspians, who around the stream
That flows o`er gold, the ford of Pluto, dwell:^55
Draw not thou night to them. But distant land
Thou shalt approach, the swarthy tribes who dwell
By the sun`s fountain,^56 Aethiopia`s stream:
By its banks wend thy way until thou come To
that great fall where from the Bybline hills
The Neilos pours its pure and holy flood;
And it shall guide thee to Neilotic land,
Three - angled, where, O Io, `tis decreed
For thee and for thy progeny to found
A far - off colony. And if of this
Aught seem to thee as stammering speech obscure,
Ask yet again and learn it thoroughly:
Far more of leisure have I than I like.
[Footnote 51: Probably the Kimmerian Bosporos. The Tanais or Phasis has,
however, been conjectured.]
[Footnote 52: The history of the passage in brackets is curious enough to call
for a note. It is not in any extant MS., but it is found in a passage quoted
by Galen as from the Prometheus Bound, and is inserted here by Mr. Paley.]
[Footnote 53: Kisthene belongs to the geography of legend, lying somewhere on
the shore of the great ocean - river in Lybia or Aethiopia, at the end of the
world, a great mountain in the far West, beyond the Hesperides, the dwelling -
place, as here, of the Gorgons, the daughters of Phorkys. Those first named
are the Graiae.]
[Footnote 54: Here, like the "winged hound" of verse 1043, page 203, for the
eagles that are the messengers of Zeus.]
[Footnote 55: We are carried back again from the fabled West to the fabled
East. The Arimaspians, with one eye, and the Grypes or Gryphons (the griffins
of mediaeval heraldry), quadrupeds with the wings and beaks of eagles, were
placed by most writers (Herod, iv. 13, 27) in the north of Europe, in or
beyond the terra incognita of Skythia. The mention of the "ford of Pluto" and
Aethiopia, however, may possibly imply (if we identify it, as Mr. Paley does,
with the Tartessos of Spain, or Boetis - Guadalquivir) that Aeschylos followed
another legend which placed them in the West. There is possibly a paronomasia
between Pluto, the God of Hades, and Plutos, the ideal God of riches.]
[Footnote 56: The name was applied by later writers (Quintus Curtius, iv. 7,
22; Lucretius, vi. 848) to the fountain in the temple of Jupiter Ammon in the
great Oasis. The "river Aethiops" may be purely imaginary, but it may also
suggest the possibility of some vague knowledge of the Niger, or more probably
of the Nile itself in the upper regions of its course. The "Bybline hills"
carry the name Byblos, which we only read of as belonging to a town in the
Delta, to the Second Cataract.]
Chor. If thou hast aught to add, aught left untold
Of her sore - wasting wanderings, speak it out;
But if thou hast said all, then grant to us
The boon we asked. Thou dost not, sure, forget it.
Prom. The whole course of her journeying she hath heard,
And that she show she hath not heard in vain
I will tell out what troubles she hath borne
Before she came here, giving her sure proof
Of these my words. The greater bulk of things
I will pass o`er, and to the very goal
Of all thy wanderings go. For when thou cam`st
To the Molossian plains, and by the grove^57
Of lofty - ridged Dodona, and the shrine
Oracular of Zeus Thesprotian,
And the strange portent of the talking oaks,
By which full clearly, not in riddle dark,
Thou wast addressed as noble spouse of Zeus, -
If aught of pleasure such things give to thee, -
Thence strung to frenzy, thou didst rush along
The sea - coast`s path to Rhea`s mighty gulf,^58
In backward way from whence thou now art vexed,
And for all time to come that reach of sea,
Know well, from thee Ionian shall be called,
To all men record of thy journeyings.
These then are tokens to thee that my mind
Sees somewhat more than that is manifest.
What follows (to the Chorus) I will speak to you and her
In common, on the track of former words
Returning once again. A city stands,
Canobos, at its country`s furthest bound,
Hard by the mouth and silt - bank of the Nile;
There Zeus shall give thee back thy mind again,^59
With hand that works no terror touching thee, -
Touch only - and thou then shalt bear a child
Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, "Touch - born,"
Swarthy of hue, whose lot shall be to reap
The whole plain watered by the broad - streamed Neilos:
And in the generation fifth from him
A household numbering fifty shall return
Against their will to Argos, in their flight
From wedlock with their cousins.^60 And they too
(Kites but a little space behind the doves),
With eager hopes pursuing marriage rites,
Beyond pursuit shall come; and God shall grudge
To give up their sweet bodies. And the land
Pelasgian^61 shall receive them, when by stroke
Of woman`s murderous hand these men shall lie
Smitten to death by daring deed of night:
For every bride shall take her husband`s life,
And dip in blood the sharp two - edged sword
[Footnote 57: Comp. Sophocles, Trachin, v. II68.]
[Footnote 58: The Adriatic or Ionian Gulf.]
[Footnote 59: In the Suppliants, Zeus is said to have soothed her, and
restored her to her human consciousness by his "divine breathings." The
thought underlying the legend may be taken either as a distortion of some
primitive tradition, or as one of the "unconscious prophecies" of heathenism.
The deliverer is not to be born after the common manner of men, and is to have
a divine as well as a human parentage.]
[Footnote 60: See the argument of the Suppliants, who, as the daughters of
Danaos, descended from Epaphos, are here referred to. The passage is
noticeable as showing that the theme of that tragedy was already present to
the poet`s thoughts.]
[Footnote 61: Argos. So, in the Suppliants, Pelasgos is the mythical king of
the Apian land who receives them.]
(So to my foes may Kypris show herself!).^62
Yet one of that fair band shall love persuade
Her husband not to slaughter, and her will
Shall lose its edge; and she shall make her choice
Rather as weak than murderous to be known.
And she at Argos shall a royal seed
Bring forth (long speech `twould take to tell this clear)
Famed for his arrows, who shall set me free^63
From these my woes. Such was the oracle
Mine ancient mother Themis, Titan - born,
Gave to me; but the manner and the means, -
That needs a lengthy tale to tell the whole,
And thou canst nothing gain by learning it.
[Footnote 62: Hypermnaestra, who spared Lynceus, and by him became the mother
of Abas and a line of Argive kings.]
[Footnote 63: Heracles, who came to Caucasos, and with his arrows slew the
eagle that devoured Prometheus.]
Io. Eleleu! Oh, Eleleu!^64
The throbbing pain inflames me, and the mood
Of frenzy - smitten rage;
The gadfly`s pointed stings,
Not forged with fire, attacks,
And my heart beats against my breast with fear.
Mine eyes whirl round and round:
Out of my course I`m borne
By the wild spirit of fierce agony,
And cannot curb my lips,
And turbid speech at random dashes on
Upon the waves of dread calamity.
[Footnote 64: The word is simply an interjection of pain, but one so
characteristic that I have thought it better to reproduce it than to give any
English equivalent.]
Strophe I
Chor. Wise, very wise was he
Who first in thought conceived this maxim sage,
And spread it with his speech,^65 -
That the best wedlock is with equals found,
And that a craftsman, born to work with hands,
Should not desire to wed
Or with the soft luxurious heirs of wealth,
Or with the race that boast their lineage high.
[Footnote 65: The maxim, "Marry which with a woman thine equal," was ascribed
to Pittacos.]
Antistrophe I
Oh ne`er, oh ne`er, dread Fates,
May ye behold me as the bride of Zeus,
The partner of His couch,
Nor may I wed with any heaven - born spouse!
For I shrink back, beholding Io`s lot
Of loveless maindenhood,
Consumed and smitten low exceedingly
By the wild wanderings from great Hera sent!
Strophe II
To me, when wedlock is on equal terms,
It gives no cause to fear:
Ne`er may the love of any of the Gods,
The strong Gods, look on me
With glance I cannot `scape!
Antistrophe II
That fate is was that none can war against,
Source of resourceless ill;
Nor know I what might then become of me:
I see not how to `scape
The counsel deep of Zeus.
Prom. Yea, of a truth shall Zeus, though stiff of will,
Be brought full low. Such bed of wedlock now
Is He preparing, one to cast Him forth
In darkness from His sovereignty and throne.
And then the curse His father Cronos spake
Shall have its dread completion, even that
He uttered when he left his ancient throne;
And from these troubles no one of the Gods
But me can clearly show the way to `scape.
I know the time and manner: therefore now
Let Him sit fearless, in His peals on high
Putting His trust, and shaking in His hands
His darts fire - breathing. Nought shall they avail
To hinder Him from falling shamefully
A fall intolerable. Such a combatant
He arms against Himself, a marvel dread,
Who shall a fire discover mightier far
Than the red levin, and a sound more dread
Than roaring of the thunder, and shall shiver
That plague sea - born that causeth earth to quake,
The trident, weapon of Poseidon`s strength:
And stumbling on this evil, He shall learn
How far apart a king`s lot from a slave`s.
Chor. What thou dost with thou mutterest against Zeus.
Prom. Things that shall be, and things I wish, I speak.
Chor. And must we look for one to master Zeus?
Prom. Yea, troubles harder far than these are His.
Chor. Art not afraid to vent such words as these?
Prom. What can I fear whose fate is not to die?
Chor. But He may send on thee worse pain than this.
Prom. So let Him do: nought finds me prepared.
Chor. Wisdom is theirs who Adrasteia worship.^66
[Footnote 66: The Euhemerism of later scholiasts derived the name from a king
Adrastos, who was said to have been the first to build a temple to Nemesis,
and so the power thus worshipped was called after his name. A better etymology
leads us to see in it the idea of the "inevitable" law of retribution working
unseen by men, and independently even of the arbitrary will of the Gods, and
bringing destruction upon the proud and haughty.]
Prom. Worship then, praise and flatter Him that rules;
My care for Zeus is nought, and less than nought:
Let Him act, let Him rule this little while,
E`en as He will; for long He shall not rule
Over the Gods. But lo! I seed at hand
The courier of the Gods, the minister
Of our new sovereign. Doubtless he has come
To bring me tidings of some new device.
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