Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments. Aeschylus

fast, that he

      May learn, though sharp, that he than Zeus is duller.

      Heph. No one but he could justly blame my work.

      Strength. Now drive the stern jaw of the adamant wedge

      Right through his chest with all the strength thou hast.

      Heph. Ah me! Prometheus, for thy woes I groan.

      Strength. Again, thou'rt loth, and for the foes of Zeus

      Thou groanest: take good heed to it lest thou

      Ere long with cause thyself commiserate.

      Heph. Thou see'st a sight unsightly to our eyes.

      Strength. I see this man obtaining his deserts:

      Nay, cast thy breast-chains round about his ribs.

      Heph. I must needs do it. Spare thine o'er much bidding;

      Go thou below and rivet both his legs.141

      Strength. Nay, I will bid thee, urge thee to thy work.

      Heph. There, it is done, and that with no long toil.

      Strength. Now with thy full power fix the galling fetters:

      Thou hast a stern o'erlooker of thy work.

      Heph. Thy tongue but utters words that match thy form.142

      Strength. Choose thou the melting mood; but chide not me

      For my self-will and wrath and ruthlessness.

      Heph. Now let us go, his limbs are bound in chains.

      Strength. Here then wax proud, and stealing what belongs

      To the Gods, to mortals give it. What can they

      Avail to rescue thee from these thy woes?

      Falsely the Gods have given thee thy name,

      Prometheus, Forethought; forethought thou dost need

      To free thyself from this rare handiwork.

[Exeunt Hephæstos, Strength, and Force, leaving Prometheus on the rock

      Prom. 143 Thou firmament of God, and swift-winged winds,

      Ye springs of rivers, and of ocean waves

      That smile innumerous! Mother of us all,

      O Earth, and Sun's all-seeing eye, behold,

      I pray, what I a God from Gods endure.

      Behold in what foul case

      I for ten thousand years

      Shall struggle in my woe,

      In these unseemly chains.

      Such doom the new-made Monarch of the Blest

      Hath now devised for me.

      Woe, woe! The present and the oncoming pang

      I wail, as I search out

      The place and hour when end of all these ills

      Shall dawn on me at last.

      What say I? All too clearly I foresee

      The things that come, and nought of pain shall be

      By me unlooked-for; but I needs must bear

      My destiny as best I may, knowing well

      The might resistless of Necessity.

      And neither may I speak of this my fate,

      Nor hold my peace. For I, poor I, through giving

      Great gifts to mortal men, am prisoner made

      In these fast fetters; yea, in fennel stalk144

      I snatched the hidden spring of stolen fire,

      Which is to men a teacher of all arts,

      Their chief resource. And now this penalty

      Of that offence I pay, fast riveted

      In chains beneath the open firmament.

      Ha! ha! What now?

      What sound, what odour floats invisibly?145

      Is it of God or man, or blending both?

      And has one come to the remotest rock

      To look upon my woes? Or what wills he?

      Behold me bound, a God to evil doomed,

      The foe of Zeus, and held

      In hatred by all Gods

      Who tread the courts of Zeus:

      And this for my great love,

      Too great, for mortal men.

      Ah me! what rustling sounds

      Hear I of birds not far?

      With the light whirr of wings

      The air re-echoeth:

      All that draws nigh to me is cause of fear.146

Enter Chorus of Ocean Nymphs, with wings, floating in the air 147

      Chor. Nay, fear thou nought: in love

      All our array of wings

      In eager race hath come

      To this high peak, full hardly gaining o'er

      Our Father's mind and will;

      And the swift-rushing breezes bore me on:

      For lo! the echoing sound of blows on iron

      Pierced to our cave's recess, and put to flight

      My shamefast modesty,

      And I in unshod haste, on winged car,

      To thee rushed hitherward.

      Prom. Ah me! ah me!

      Offspring of Tethys blest with many a child,

      Daughters of Old Okeanos that rolls

      Round all the earth with never-sleeping stream,

      Behold ye me, and see

      With what chains fettered fast,

      I on the topmost crags of this ravine

      Shall keep my sentry-post unenviable.

      Chor. I see it, O Prometheus, and a mist

      Of fear and full of tears comes o'er mine eyes,

      Thy frame beholding thus,

      Writhing on these high rocks

      In adamantine ills.

      New pilots now o'er high Olympos rule,

      And with new-fashioned laws

      Zeus reigns, down-trampling right,

      And all the ancient powers He sweeps away.

      Prom. Ah! would that 'neath the Earth, 'neath Hades too,

      Home of the dead, far down to Tartaros

      Unfathomable He in fetters fast

      In wrath had hurled me down:

      So neither had a God

      Nor any other mocked at these my woes;

      But now, the wretched plaything of the winds,

      I suffer ills at which my foes rejoice.

      Chor.

141

The words indicate that the effigy of Prometheus, now nailed to the rock, was, as being that of a Titan, of colossal size.

142

The touch is characteristic as showing that here, as in the Eumenides, Æschylos relied on the horribleness of the masks, as part of the machinery of his plays.

143

The silence of Prometheus up to this point was partly, as has been said, consequent on the conventional laws of the Greek drama, but it is also a touch of supreme insight into the heroic temper. In the presence of his torturers, the Titan will not utter even a groan. When they are gone, he appeals to the sympathy of Nature.

144

The legend is from Hesiod (Theogon., v. 567). The fennel, or narthex, seems to have been a large umbelliferous plant, with a large stem filled with a sort of pith, which was used when dry as tinder. Stalks were carried as wands (the thyrsi) by the men and women who joined in Bacchanalian processions. In modern botany, the name is given to the plant which produces Asafœtida, and the stem of which, from its resinous character, would burn freely, and so connect itself with the Promethean myth. On the other hand, the Narthex Asafœtida is found at present only in Persia, Afghanistan, and the Punjaub.

145

The ocean nymphs, like other divine ones, would be anointed with ambrosial unguents, and the odour would be wafted before them by the rustling of their wings. This too we may think of as part of the “stage effects” of the play.

146

The words are not those of a vague terror only. The sufferer knows that his tormentor is to come to him before long on wings, and therefore the sound as of the flight of birds is full of terrors.

147

By the same stage mechanism the Chorus remains in the air till verse 280, when, at the request of Prometheus, they alight.