Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments. Aeschylus

Nay, which of all the Gods

      Is so hard-hearted as to joy in this?

      Who, Zeus excepted, doth not pity thee

      In these thine ills? But He,

      Ruthless, with soul unbent,

      Subdues the heavenly host, nor will He cease148

      Until his heart be satiate with power,

      Or some one seize with subtle stratagem

      The sovran might that so resistless seemed.

      Prom. Nay, of a truth, though put to evil shame,

      In massive fetters bound,

      The Ruler of the Gods

      Shall yet have need of me, yes, e'en of me,

      To tell the counsel new

      That seeks to strip from him

      His sceptre and his might of sovereignty.

      In vain will He with words

      Or suasion's honeyed charms

      Soothe me, nor will I tell

      Through fear of his stern threats,

      Ere He shall set me free

      From these my bonds, and make,

      Of his own choice, amends

      For all these outrages.

      Chor. Full rash art thou, and yield'st

      In not a jot to bitterest form of woe;

      Thou art o'er-free and reckless in thy speech:

      But piercing fear hath stirred

      My inmost soul to strife;

      For I fear greatly touching thy distress,

      As to what haven of these woes of thine

      Thou now must steer: the son of Cronos hath

      A stubborn mood and heart inexorable.

      Prom. I know that Zeus is hard,

      And keeps the Right supremely to himself;

      But then, I trow, He'll be

      Full pliant in his will,

      When He is thus crushed down.

      Then, calming down his mood

      Of hard and bitter wrath,

      He'll hasten unto me,

      As I to him shall haste,

      For friendship and for peace.

      Chor. Hide it not from us, tell us all the tale:

      For what offence Zeus, having seized thee thus,

      So wantonly and bitterly insults thee:

      If the tale hurt thee not, inform thou us.

      Prom. Painful are these things to me e'en to speak:

      Painful is silence; everywhere is woe.

      For when the high Gods fell on mood of wrath,

      And hot debate of mutual strife was stirred,

      Some wishing to hurl Cronos from his throne,

      That Zeus, forsooth, might reign; while others strove,

      Eager that Zeus might never rule the Gods:

      Then I, full strongly seeking to persuade

      The Titans, yea, the sons of Heaven and Earth,

      Failed of my purpose. Scorning subtle arts,

      With counsels violent, they thought that they

      By force would gain full easy mastery.

      But then not once or twice my mother Themis

      And Earth, one form though bearing many names,149

      Had prophesied the future, how 'twould run,

      That not by strength nor yet by violence,

      But guile, should those who prospered gain the day.

      And when in my words I this counsel gave,

      They deigned not e'en to glance at it at all.

      And then of all that offered, it seemed best

      To join my mother, and of mine own will,

      Not against his will, take my side with Zeus,

      And by my counsels, mine, the dark deep pit

      Of Tartaros the ancient Cronos holds,

      Himself and his allies. Thus profiting

      By me, the mighty ruler of the Gods

      Repays me with these evil penalties:

      For somehow this disease in sovereignty

      Inheres, of never trusting to one's friends.150

      And since ye ask me under what pretence

      He thus maltreats me, I will show it you:

      For soon as He upon his father's throne

      Had sat secure, forthwith to divers Gods

      He divers gifts distributed, and his realm

      Began to order. But of mortal men

      He took no heed, but purposed utterly

      To crush their race and plant another new;

      And, I excepted, none dared cross his will;

      But I did dare, and mortal men I freed

      From passing on to Hades thunder-stricken;

      And therefore am I bound beneath these woes,

      Dreadful to suffer, pitiable to see:

      And I, who in my pity thought of men

      More than myself, have not been worthy deemed

      To gain like favour, but all ruthlessly

      I thus am chained, foul shame this sight to Zeus.

      Chor. Iron-hearted must he be and made of rock

      Who is not moved, Prometheus, by thy woes:

      Fain could I wish I ne'er had seen such things,

      And, seeing them, am wounded to the heart.

      Prom. Yea, I am piteous for my friends to see.

      Chor. Did'st thou not go to farther lengths than this?

      Prom. I made men cease from contemplating death.151

      Chor. What medicine did'st thou find for that disease?

      Prom. Blind hopes I gave to live and dwell with them.

      Chor. Great service that thou did'st for mortal men!

      Prom. And more than that, I gave them fire, yes I.

      Chor. Do short-lived men the flaming fire possess?

      Prom. Yea, and full many an art they'll learn from it.

      Chor. And is it then on charges such as these

      That Zeus maltreats thee, and no respite gives

      Of many woes? And has thy pain no end?

      Prom. End there is none, except as pleases Him.

      Chor. How shall it please? What hope hast thou? See'st not

      That thou hast sinned? Yet to say how thou sinned'st

      Gives me

148

Here, as throughout the play, the poet puts into the mouth of his dramatis personæ words which must have seemed to the devouter Athenians sacrilegious enough to call for an indictment before the Areiopagos. But the final play of the Trilogy came, we may believe, as the Eumenides did in its turn, as a reconciliation of the conflicting thoughts that rise in men's minds out of the seeming anomalies of the world.

149

The words leave it uncertain whether Themis is identified with Earth, or, as in the Eumenides (v. 2) distinguished from her. The Titans as a class, then, children of Okeanos and Chthôn (another name for Land or Earth), are the kindred rather than the brothers of Prometheus.

150

The generalising words here, as in v. 35, appeal to the Athenian hatred of all that was represented by the words tyrant and tyranny.

151

The state described is that of men who “through fear of death are all their lifetime subject to bondage.” That state, the parent of all superstition, fostered the slavish awe in which Zeus delighted. Prometheus, representing the active intellect of man, bestows new powers, new interests, new hopes, which at last divert them from that fear.