Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments. Aeschylus

pleasure, and is pain to thee.

      Well! let us leave these things, and, if we may,

      Seek out some means to 'scape from this thy woe.

      Prom. 'Tis a light thing for one who has his foot

      Beyond the reach of evil to exhort

      And counsel him who suffers. This to me

      Was all well known. Yea, willing, willingly

      I sinned, nor will deny it. Helping men,

      I for myself found trouble: yet I thought not

      That I with such dread penalties as these

      Should wither here on these high-towering crags,

      Lighting on this lone hill and neighbourless.

      Wherefore wail not for these my present woes,

      But, drawing nigh, my coming fortunes hear,

      That ye may learn the whole tale to the end.

      Nay, hearken, hearken; show your sympathy

      With him who suffers now. 'Tis thus that woe,

      Wandering, now falls on this one, now on that.

      Chor. Not to unwilling hearers hast thou uttered,

      Prometheus, thy request,

      And now with nimble foot abounding

      My swiftly rushing car,

      And the pure æther, path of birds of heaven,

      I will draw near this rough and rocky land,

      For much do I desire

      To hear this tale, full measure, of thy woes.

Enter Okeanos, on a car drawn by a winged gryphon

      Okean. Lo, I come to thee, Prometheus,

      Reaching goal of distant journey,152

      Guiding this my winged courser

      By my will, without a bridle;

      And thy sorrows move my pity.

      Force, in part, I deem, of kindred

      Leads me on, nor know I any,

      Whom, apart from kin, I honour

      More than thee, in fuller measure.

      This thou shall own true and earnest:

      I deal not in glozing speeches.

      Come then, tell me how to help thee;

      Ne'er shalt thou say that one more friendly

      Is found than unto thee is Okean.

      Prom. Let be. What boots it? Thou then too art come

      To gaze upon my sufferings. How did'st dare

      Leaving the stream that bears thy name, and caves

      Hewn in the living rock, this land to visit,

      Mother of iron? What then, art thou come

      To gaze upon my fall and offer pity?

      Behold this sight: see here the friend of Zeus,

      Who helped to seat him in his sovereignty,

      With what foul outrage I am crushed by him!

      Okean. I see, Prometheus, and I wish to give thee

      My best advice, all subtle though thou be.

      Know thou thyself,153 and fit thy soul to moods

      To thee full new. New king the Gods have now;

      But if thou utter words thus rough and sharp,

      Perchance, though sitting far away on high,

      Zeus yet may hear thee, and his present wrath

      Seem to thee but as child's play of distress.

      Nay, thou poor sufferer, quit the rage thou hast,

      And seek a remedy for these thine ills.

      A tale thrice-told, perchance I seem to speak:

      Lo! this, Prometheus, is the punishment

      Of thine o'er lofty speech, nor art thou yet

      Humbled, nor yieldest to thy miseries,

      And fain would'st add fresh evils unto these.

      But thou, if thou wilt take me as thy teacher,

      Wilt not kick out against the pricks;154 seeing well

      A monarch reigns who gives account to none.

      And now I go, and will an effort make,

      If I, perchance, may free thee from thy woes;

      Be still then, hush thy petulance of speech,

      Or knowest thou not, o'er-clever as thou art,

      That idle tongues must still their forfeit pay?

      Prom. I envy thee, seeing thou art free from blame

      Though thou shared'st all, and in my cause wast bold;155

      Nay, let me be, nor trouble thou thyself;

      Thou wilt not, canst not soothe Him; very hard

      Is He of soothing. Look to it thyself,

      Lest thou some mischief meet with in the way.

      Okean. It is thy wont thy neighbours' minds to school

      Far better than thine own. From deeds, not words,

      I draw my proof. But do not draw me back

      When I am hasting on, for lo, I deem,

      I deem that Zeus will grant this boon to me,

      That I should free thee from these woes of thine.

      Prom. I thank thee much, yea, ne'er will cease to thank;

      For thou no whit of zeal dost lack; yet take,

      I pray, no trouble for me; all in vain

      Thy trouble, nothing helping, e'en if thou

      Should'st care to take the trouble. Nay, be still;

      Keep out of harm's way; sufferer though I be,

      I would not therefore wish to give my woes

      A wider range o'er others. No, not so:

      For lo! my mind is wearied with the grief

      Of that my kinsman Atlas,156 who doth stand

      In the far West, supporting on his shoulders

      The pillars of the earth and heaven, a burden

      His arms can ill but hold: I pity too

      The giant dweller of Kilikian caves,

      Dread portent, with his hundred hands, subdued

      By force, the mighty Typhon,157 who arose

      'Gainst all the Gods, with sharp and dreadful jaws

      Hissing out slaughter, and from out his eyes

      There flashed the terrible brightness as of one

      Who would lay low the sovereignty of Zeus.

      But the unsleeping dart of Zeus came on him,

      Down-swooping thunderbolt that breathes out flame,

      Which from his lofty boastings startled him,

      For he i' the heart was struck, to ashes burnt,

      His strength all thunder-shattered; and he lies

      A helpless, powerless carcase, near the strait

      Of

152

The home of Okeanos was in the far west, at the boundary of the great stream surrounding the whole world, from which he took his name.

153

One of the sayings of the Seven Sages, already recognised and quoted as a familiar proverb.

154

See note on Agam. 1602.

155

In the mythos, Okeanos had given his daughter Hesione in marriage to Prometheus after the theft of fire, and thus had identified himself with his transgression.

156

In the Theogony of Hesiod (v. 509), Prometheus and Atlas appear as the sons of two sisters. As other Titans were thought of as buried under volcanoes, so this one was identified with the mountain which had been seen by travellers to Western Africa, or in the seas beyond it, rising like a column to support the vault of heaven. In Herodotos (iv. 174) and all later writers, the name is given to the chain of mountains in Lybia, as being the “pillar of the firmament;” but Humboldt and others identify it with the lonely peak of Teneriffe, as seen by Phœnikian or Hellenic voyagers. Teneriffe, too, like most of the other Titan mountains, was at one time volcanic. Homer (Odyss. i. 53) represents him as holding the pillars which separate heaven from earth; Hesiod (Theogon. v. 517) as himself standing near the Hesperides (this too points to Teneriffe), sustaining the heavens with his head and shoulders.

157

The volcanic character of the whole of Asia Minor, and the liability to earthquakes which has marked nearly every period of its history, led men to connect it also with the traditions of the Titans, some accordingly placing the home of Typhon in Phrygia, some near Sardis, some, as here, in Kilikia. Hesiod (Theogon. v. 820) describes Typhon (or Typhoeus) as a serpent-monster hissing out fire; Pindar (Pyth. i. 30, viii. 21) as lying with his head and breast crushed beneath the weight of Ætna, and his feet extending to Cumæ.