Prometheus Bound

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Part 1 of Prometheus Bound This is a LibriVox recording.

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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine.

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus Translated by Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 Part 1 Persons of the drama.

Kratos and Bia, or strength and force.

Hephaestus, or Vulcan.

But be thou quiet, nor too rudely speak.

Part 1 of Prometheus Bound.

scene strength and force hephstus and prometheus at the rocks strength we reach the utmost limit of the earth the scythian tract the desert without man and now hephstus thou must needs fulfil the mandate of our father and with links indissoluble of adamantine chains fasten against this beetling precipice this guilty god because he filched away thine own bright flower the glory of plastic fire and gifted mortals with it such a sin it doth behove he expiate to the gods learning to accept the empery of zeus and leave off his old trick of loving man hephstus o strength and force for you our zeus's will presents the deed for doing no more but i i lack your daring up this storm rent chasm to fix with violent hands a kindred god howbeit necessity compels me so that i must dare it and our zeus commands with the most inevitable word ho thou high-thoughted son of themis who is sage thee loath i loath must rivet fast in chains against this rocky height unclomb by man where never human voice nor face shall find out thee who loves them and thy beauty's flower scorched in the sun's clear heat shall fade away night shall come up with garniture of stars to comfort thee with shadow and the sun disperse with retricked beams the morning frost but through all changes sense of present woe shall vex thee sore because with none of them there comes a hand to free such fruit is plucked from love of man and in that thou a god didst brave the wrath of gods and give away undue respect to mortals for that crime thou art adjudged to guard this joyless rock erect unslumbering bending not the knee and many a cry and unavailing moan to utter on the air for zeus is stern and new-made kings are cruel strength be it so why loiter in vain pity why not hate a god the gods hate one too who betrayed thy glory unto men heph an awful thing is kinship joined to friendship grant it be is disobedience to the father's word a possible thing dost quail not more for that hephstus thou at least art a stern one ever bold strength why if i wept it were no remedy and do not thou spend labour on the air to bootless uses hephstus cursed handicraft i curse and hate thee o my craft strength why hate thy craft most plainly innocent of all these pending ills hephstus i would some other hand were here to work it strength all work hath its pain except to rule the gods there is none free except king zeus hephstus i know it very well i argue not against it strength why not then make haste and lock the fetters over him lest zeus behold thee lagging hephstus here be chains zeus may behold these strength seize him strike amain strike with the hammer on each side his hands rivet him to the rock hephstus the work is done and thoroughly done strength still faster grapple him wedge him in deeper leave no inch to stir he's terrible for finding a way out from the irremediable heph here's an arm at least grappled past freeing strength now then buckle me the other securely let this wise one learn he's duller than our zeus hephstus o none but he accused me justly strength now straight through the chest take him and bite him with the clenching tooth of the adamantine wedge and rivet him hephstus alas prometheus what thou sufferest here i sorrow over Strength.

Dost thou flinch again, and breathe groans for the enemies of Zeus? Beware lest thine own pity find thee out.

Strength, here now, taunt on, and having spoiled the gods of honours, crown with all thy mortal men who live a whole day out.

Why, how could they draw off from thee one single of thy griefs? methinks the demons gave thee a wrong name prometheus which means providence because thou dost thyself need providence to see thy roll and ruin from the top of doom prometheus alone o holy ether and swift winged winds and river wells and laughter innumerous of yon sea-waves earth mother of us all and all-viewing cyclic sun i cry on you behold me a god what i endure from gods behold with throe on throe how wasted by this woe i wrestle down the myriad years of time behold how fast around me the new king of the happy ones sublime has flung the chain he forged has shamed and bound me woe woe to-day's woe and the coming morrows i cover with one groan and where is found me a limit to these sorrows and yet what word do i say i have foreknown clearly all things that should be nothing done comes sudden to my soul and i must bear what is ordained with patience being aware necessity doth front the universe with an invincible gesture yet this curse which strikes me now i find it hard to brave in silence or in speech because i gave honour to mortals i have yoked my soul to this compelling fate because i stole the secret fount of fire whose bubbles went over the ferule's brim and manward sent art's mighty means in perfect rudiment that sin i expiate in this agony hung here in fetters neath the blanching sky ah ah me what a sound what a fragrance sweeps up from opinion unseen of a god or a mortal or nature between sweeping up to this rock where the earth has her bound to have sight of my pangs or some guerdon obtain lo a god in the anguish a god in the chain the god zeus hateth sore and his gods hate again as many as tread on his glorified floor because i loved mortals too much evermore alas me what a murmur and motion i hear as of birds flying near and the air under sings the light stroke of their wings and all life that approaches i wait for in fear having softened the soul of our father below for the gales of swift bearing have sent me a sound and the clank of the iron the malleted blow smote down the profound of my caverns of old and struck the red light in a blush from my brow till i sprang up unsandled in haste to behold and rushed forth on my chariot of wings manifold prometheus alas me alas me ye offspring of tethys who bore at her breast many children and eke of oceanus he coiling still around earth with perpetual unrest behold me and see how transfixed with the fang of a fetter i hang on the high jutting rocks of this fissure and keep an uncoveted watch o'er the world in the deep chorus first anti strophe i behold thee prometheus yet now yet now a terrible cloud whose rain is tears sweeps over mine eyes that witness how thy body appears hung a waste on the rocks by infrangible chains for new is the hand new the rudder that steers the ship of olympus through surge and wind and of old things past no track is behind prometheus under earth under hades where the home of the shade is all into the deep deep tartarus i would he had hurled me adown i would he had plunged me fastened thus in the knotted chain with a savage clang all into the dark where there should be none neither god nor another to laugh and see but now the winds sing through and shake the hurtling chains wherein i hang and i in my naked sorrows make much mirth for my enemy chorus second strophe nay who of the gods hath a heart so stern as to use thy woe for a mock and mirth who would not turn more mild to learn thy sorrows who of the heaven and earth saves zeus but he right wrathfully bears on his sceptral soul unbent and rules thereby the heavenly seed nor will he pause till he content his thirsty heart in a finished deed or till another shall appear to win by fraud to seize by fear the hard-to-be-captured government prometheus yet even of me he shall have need that monarch of the blessed seed of me of me who now am cursed by his fetters dire to wring my secret out withal and learn by whom his sceptre shall be filched from him as was at first his heavenly fire but he never shall enchant me with his honey-lipped persuasion never never shall he daunt me with the oath and thread of passion into speaking as they want me till he loose this savage chain and accept the expiation of my sorrow in his pain chorus second antistrophe thou art sooth a brave god and for all thou hast borne from the stroke of the rod nought relaxest from scorn but thou speakest unto me too free and unworn and a terror strikes through me and festers my soul and i fear in the roll of the storm for thy fate in the ship far from shore since the son of saturnus is hard in his hate and unmoved in his heart evermore prometheus i know that zeus is stern i know he meets his justice by his will and yet his soul shall learn more softness when once broken by this ill and curbing his unconquerable vaunt he shall rush on in fear to meet with me who rush to meet with him in agony to issues of harmonious covenant chorus remove the veil from all things and relate the story to us of what crime accused zeus smites thee with dishonourable pangs speak if to teach us do not grieve thyself prometheus the utterance of these things is torture to me but so too is their silence each way lies woe strong as fate when gods began with wrath and war rose up between their starry brows some choosing to cast kronos from his throne that zeus might king it there and some in haste with opposite oaths that they would have no zeus to rule the gods for ever i who brought the council i thought meetest could not move the titans children of the heaven and earth what time disdaining in their rugged souls my subtle machinations they assumed it was an easy thing for force to take the mastery of fate my mother then who is called not only themis but earth too her single beauty joys in many names did teach me with reiterant prophecy what future should be and how conquering gods should not prevail by strength and violence but by guile only when i told them so they would not deign to contemplate the truth on all sides round whereat i deemed it best to lead my willing mother upwardly and set my themis face to face with zeus as willing to receive her tartarus with its abysmal cloister of the dark because i gave that counsel covers up the antique kronos and his siding hosts and by that counsel help the king of gods hath recompensed me with these bitter pangs for kingship wears a cancer at the heart distrust in friendship do ye also ask what crime it is for which he tortures me that shall be clear before you when at first he filled his father's throne he instantly made various gifts of glory to the gods and dealt the empire out alone of men of miserable men he took no count but yearned to sweep their track off from the world and plant a newer race there not a god resisted such desire except myself i dared it i drew mortals back to life from meditated ruin deep as hell for which wrong i am bent down in these pangs dreadful to suffer mournful to behold and i who pitied man am thought myself unworthy of pity while i render out deep rhythms of anguish neath the harping hand that strikes me thus a sight to shame your zeus chorus hard as thy chains and cold as all these rocks is he prometheus who withholds his heart from joining in thy woe i yearned before to fly this sight and now i gaze on it i sicken inwards prometheus to my friends indeed i must be a sad sight chorus and didst thou sin no more than so prometheus i did restrain besides my mortals from premeditating death chorus how didst thou medicine the plague fear of death prometheus i set blind hopes to inhabit in their house chorus by that gift thou didst help thy mortals well prometheus i gave them also fire chorus and have they now those creatures of a day the red-eyed fire prometheus they have and shall learn by it many arts ch and truly for such sins zeus tortures thee and will remit no anguish is there set no limit before thee to thine agony pr no other only what seems good to him chorus and how will it seem good what hope remains seest thou not that thou hast sinned but that thou hast sinned it glads me not to speak of and grieves thee then let it pass from both and seek thyself some outlet from distress prometheus it is in truth an easy thing to stand aloof from pain in lavish exhortation and advice on one vexed sorely by it i have known all in prevision by my choice my choice i freely sinned i will confess my sin and helping mortals found my own despair i did not think indeed that i should pine beneath such pangs against such skyey rocks doomed to this drear hill and no neighbouring of any life but mourn not ye for griefs i bear to-day hear rather dropping down to the plain how other woes creep on to me and learn the consummation of my doom beseech you nymphs beseech you grieve for me who now am grieving for grief walks the earth and sits down at the foot of each by turns chorus we hear the deep clash of thy words prometheus and obey and i spring with a rapid foot away from the rushing car and the holy air the track of birds and i drop to the rugged ground and there await the tale of thy despair oceanus enters oceanus i reach the bourne of my weary road where i may see and answer thee prometheus in thine agony on the back of the quick-winged bird i glowed and i bridled him in with the will of a god behold thy sorrow aches in me constrained by the force of kin nay though that tie were all undone for the life of none beneath the sun would i seek a larger benison than i seek for thine and thou shalt learn my words are truth that no fair parlance of the mouth grows falsely out of mine now give me a deed to prove my faith for no faster friend is named in breath than i oceanus am thine prometheus ha what has brought thee hast thou also come to look upon my woe how hast thou dared to leave the depths called after thee the caves self hewn and self roofed with spontaneous rock to visit earth the mother of my chain hast come indeed to view my doom and mourn that i should sorrow thus gaze on and see how i the fast friend of your zeus how i the erector of the empire in his hand am bent beneath that hand in this despair oceanus prometheus i behold and i would fain exhort thee though already subtle enough to a better wisdom titan know thyself and take new softness to thy manners since a new king rules the gods if words like these harsh words and trenchant thou wilt fling abroad zeus haply though he sit so far and high may hear thee do it and so this wrath of his which now affects thee fiercely shall appear a mere child's sport at vengeance wretched god rather dismiss the passion which thou hast and seek a change from grief perhaps i seem to address thee with old saws and outworn sense yet such a curse prometheus surely waits on lips that speak too proudly thou meantime art none the meeker nor dost yield a jot to evil circumstance preparing still to swell the account of grief with other griefs than what are born beseech thee use me then for counsel do not spurn against the pricks seeing that who reigns reigns by cruelty instead of right and now i go from hence and well endeavour if a power of mine can break thy fetters through for thee be calm and smooth thy words from passion knowest thou not of perfect knowledge thou who knowest too much that where the tongue wags ruin never lags prometheus i gratulate thee who hast shared and dared all things with me except their penalty enough so leave these thoughts it cannot be that thou shouldst move him he may not be moved and thou beware of sorrow on this road oceanus i ever wiser for another's use than thine the event and not the prophecy attests it to me yet where now i rush thy wisdom hath no power to drag me back because i glory glory to go hence and win for thee deliverance from thy pangs as a free gift from zeus prometheus why there again i give thee gratulation and applause thou lackest no good will but as for deeds do not twere all done vainly helping not whatever thou wouldst do rather take rest and keep thyself from evil if i grieve i do not therefore wish to multiply the griefs of others verily not so for still my brother's doom doth vex my soul my brother atlas standing in the west shouldering the column of the heaven and earth a difficult burden i have also seen and pitied as i saw the earth-born one the inhabitant of old cilician caves the great war monster of the hundred heads all taken and bowed beneath the violent hand typhon the fierce who did resist the gods and hissing slaughter from his dreadful jaws flash out ferocious glory from his eyes as if to storm the throne of zeus whereat the sleepless arrow of zeus flew straight at him the headlong bolt of thunder breathing flame and struck him downward from his eminence of exultation through the very soul it struck him and his strength was withered up to ashes thunder blasted now he lies a helpless trunk supinely at full length beside the strait of ocean spurred into by roots of etna high upon whose tops hephaestus sits and strikes the flashing oar from thence the rivers of fire shall burst away hereafter and devour with savage jaws the equal plains of fruitful sicily such passion he shall boil back in hot darts of an insatiate fury and suff of flame fallen typhon howsoever struck and charred by zeus bolted thunder but for thee thou art not so unlearned as to need my teaching let thy knowledge save thyself i quaff the full cup of a present doom and wait till zeus hath quenched his will in wrath oceanus prometheus art thou ignorant of this that words do medicine anger prometheus if the word with seasonable softness touch the soul and where the parts are ulcerous sear them not by any rudeness oceanus with a noble aim to dare as nobly is there harm in that dost thou discern it teach me pr i discern vain aspiration unresultive work oceanus then suffer me to bear the brunt of this since it is profitable that one who is wise should seem not wise at all prometheus and such would seem my very crime oceanus in truth thine argument sends me back home prometheus lest any lament for me should cast thee down to hate oceanus the hate of him who sits a new king on the absolute throne prometheus beware of him lest thine heart grieve by him oceanus thy doom prometheus be my teacher prometheus go depart beware and keep the mind thou hast oceanus thy words drive after as i rush before lo my four-footed bird sweeps smooth and wide the flats of air with balanced pinions glad to bend his knee at home in the ocean stall oceanus departs chorus first strophe i moan thy fate i moan for thee prometheus from my eyes to tender drop after drop incessantly the tears of my heart's pity render my cheeks wet from their fountains free because that zeus the stern and cold whose law is taken from his breast uplifts his sceptre manifest over the gods of old first all the land is moaning with a murmured plaint to-day all the mortal nations having habitations in the holy asia are a dirge intoning for thine honour and thy brother's once majestic beyond others in the old belief now are groaning in the groaning of thy deep-voiced grief second strophe mourn the maids inhabitant of the colchian land who with white calm bosoms stand in the battle's roar mourn the scythian tribes that haunt the verge of earth meiotis shore second antistrophe yea arabia's battle-crown and dwellers in the beetling town mount caucasus sublimely nears an iron squadron thundering down with the sharp proud spears but one other before have i seen to remain by invincible pain bound and vanquished one titan twas atlas who bears in a curse from the gods by that strength of his own which he evermore wears the weight of the heaven on his shoulder alone while he sighs up the stars and the tides of the ocean wail bursting their bars murmurs still the profound and black hades roars up through the chasm of the ground and the fountains of pure running rivers moan low in a pathos of woe prometheus beseech you think not i am silent thus through pride or scorn i only gnaw my heart with meditation seeing myself so wronged for see their honours to these new-made gods what other gave but i and dealt them out with distribution ay but here i am dumb for here i should repeat your knowledge to you if i spake aught list rather to the deeds i did for mortals how being fools before i made them wise and true in aim of soul and let me tell you not as taunting men but teaching you the intention of my gifts how first beholding they beheld in vain and hearing heard not but like shapes in dreams mixed all things wildly down the tedious time nor knew to build a house against the sun with wickered sides nor any woodcraft knew but lived like silly ants beneath the ground in hollow caves unsunned there came to them no steadfast sign of winter nor of spring flower perfumed nor of summer full of fruit but blindly and lawlessly they did all things until i taught them how the stars do rise and set in mystery and devised for them number the inducer of philosophies the synthesis of letters and beside the artificer of all things memory that sweet muse mother i was first to yoke the servile beasts in couples carrying an airdom of man's burdens on their backs i joined to chariots steeds that love the bit they champ at the chief pomp of golden ease and none but i originated ships the seaman's chariots wandering on the brine with linen wings and i o miserable who did devise for mortals all these arts have no device left now to save myself from the woe i suffer chorus most unseemly woe thou sufferest and dost stagger from the sense bewildered like a bad leech falling sick thou art faint at soul and canst not find the drugs required to save thyself prometheus hearken the rest and marvel further what more arts and means i did invent this greatest if a man fell sick there was no cure nor esculent nor chrism nor liquid but for lack of drugs men pined and wasted till i showed them all those mixtures of emollient remedies whereby they might be rescued from disease i fixed the various rules of mantic art discerned the vision from the common dream instructed them in vocal auguries hard to interpret and defined as plain the wayside omens flights of crook clawed birds showed which are by their nature fortunate and which not so and what the food of each and what the hates affections social needs of all to one another taught what sign of visceral lightness coloured to a shade may charm the genial gods and what fair spots commend the lung and liver burning so the limbs encased in fat and the long chine i led my mortals on to an art abstruse and cleared their eyes to the image in the fire erst filmed in dark enough said now of this for the other helps of man hid underground the iron and the brass silver and gold can any dare affirm he found them out before me none i know unless he choose to lie in his vaunt in one word learn the whole that all art came to mortals from prometheus chorus give mortals now no inexpedient help neglecting thine own sorrow i have hope still to see thee breaking from the fetter here stand up as strong as zeus prometheus this ends not thus the oracular fate ordains i must be bowed by infinite woes and pangs to escape this chain necessity is stronger than mine art chorus who holds the helm of that necessity prometheus the threefold fates and the unforgetting furies chorus is zeus less absolute than these are prometheus yea and therefore cannot fly what is ordained chorus what is ordained for zeus except to be a king for ever prometheus tis too early yet for thee to learn it ask no more chorus perhaps thy secret may be something holy prometheus turn to another matter this it is not time to speak abroad but utterly to veil in silence for by that same secret kept i scape this chain's dishonour and its woe chorus first never oh never may zeus the all giver wrestle down from his throne in that might of his own to antagonize mine nor let me delay as i bend on my way toward the gods of the shrine where the altar is full of the blood of the bull near the tossing brine of ocean my father may no sin be sped in the word that is said but my vow be rather consummated nor evermore fail nor evermore pine first antistrophe tis sweet to have life lengthened out with hopes proved brave by the very doubt till the spirit enfold those manifest joys which were foretold but i thrill to behold thee victim doomed by the countless cares and the drear despairs for ever consumed and all because thou who art fearless now of zeus above didst overflow for mankind below with a free-souled reverent love ah friend behold and see what's all the beauty of humanity can it be fair what's all the strength is it strong and what hope can they bear these dying livers living one day long ah seest thou not my friend how feeble and slow and like a dream doth go this poor blind manhood drifted from its end and how no mortal wranglings can confuse the harmony of zeus prometheus i have learnt these things from the sorrow in thy face another song did fold its wings upon my lips in other days when round the bath and round the bed the hymeneal chant instead i sang for thee and smiled and thou didst lead with gifts and vows hyzione my father's child to be thy wedded spouse io enters End of part one, recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine.

Part two of Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

recording by expatriate in bangor maine part two io what land is this what people is here and who is he that writhes i see in the rock-hung chain now what is the crime that hath brought thee to pain and what is the land make answer free which i wander through in my wrong and fear ah ah ah me the gadfly's strength to agony o earth keep off that phantasm pale of earth-born argus ah i quail when my soul descries that herdsman with the myriad eyes which seem as he comes one crafty eye graves hide him not though he should die but he doggeth me in my misery from the roots of death on high on high and along the sands of the siding deep all famine-worn he follows me and his waxen reed doth undersound the waters round and giveth a measure that giveth sleep wo wo wo where shall my weary course be done what wouldst thou with me saturn's son and in what have i sinned that i should go thus yoked to grief by thine hand for ever ah ah dost vex me so that i madden and shiver stung through with dread flash the fire down to burn me heave the earth up to cover me plunge me in the deep with assault waves over me that the sea-beast may be fed o king do not spurn me in my prayer for this wandering ever longer evermore hath overworn me and i know not on what shore i may rest from my despair chorus hearest thou what the ox-horn maiden saith prometheus how could i choose but hearken what she saith the frenzied maiden inachus's child who love warms zeus's heart and now is lashed by heres hate along the unending ways who taught thee to articulate that name my father's speak to his child by grief and shame defiled who art thou victim thou who dost acclaim mine anguish in true words on the wide air and callest too by name the curse that came from here unaware to waste and pierce me with its maddening goad ah ah i leap with the pang of the hungry i bound on the road i am driven by my doom i am overcome by the wrath of an enemy strong and deep are any of those who have tasted pain alas as wretched as i now tell me plain doth aught remain for my soul to endure beneath the sky is there any help to be holpened by if knowledge be in thee let it be said cry aloud cry to the wandering woeful maid prometheus whatever thou wouldst learn i will declare no riddle upon my lips but such straight words as friends should use to each other when they talk thou seest prometheus who gave mortals fire io o common help of all men known of all o miserable prometheus for what cause dost thou endure thus prometheus i have done with wail for my own griefs but lately wilt thou not vouchsafe the boon to me prometheus say what thou wilt for i vouchsafe all io speak then and reveal who shut thee in this chasm prometheus the will of zeus the hand of his hephstus io and what crime dost expiate so prometheus enough for thee i have told insomuch only io nay but show besides the limit of my wandering and the time which yet is lacking to fulfil my grief prometheus why not to know were better than to know for such as thou io beseech thee blind me not to that which i must suffer prometheus if i do the reason is not that i grudge a boon io what reason then prevents thy speaking out prometheus no grudging but a fear to break thine heart io less care for me i pray thee certainty i count for advantage prometheus thou wilt have it so and therefore i must speak now hear chorus not yet give half the guerdon my way let us learn first what the curse is that befell the maid her own voice telling her own wasting woes the sequence of that anguish shall await the teaching of thy lips prometheus it doth behove that thou maid io shouldst vouchsafe to these the grace they pray the more because they are called thy father's sisters since to open out and mourn out grief where it is possible to draw a tear from the audience is a work that pays its own price well io i cannot choose but trust you nymphs and tell you all ye ask in clear words though i sob amid my speech in speaking of the storm curse sent from zeus and of my beauty from what height it took its swoop on me poor wretch left thus deformed and monstrous to your eyes for evermore around my virgin chamber wandering went the nightly visions which entreated me with syllabled smooth sweetness blessed maid why lengthen out thy maiden hours when fate permits the noblest spousal in the world when zeus burns with the arrow of thy love and fain would touch thy beauty maiden thou despise not zeus depart to learn his meed that's green around thy father's flocks and stalls until the passion of the heavenly eye be quenched in sight such dreams did all night long constrain me me unhappy till i dared to tell my father how they trod the dark with visionary steps whereat he sent his frequent heralds to the pythian fane and also to dodona and inquired how best by act or speech to please the gods the same returning brought back oracles of doubtful sense indefinite response dark to interpret but at last there came to inachus an answer that was clear thrown straight as any bolt and spoken out this he should drive me from my home and land and bid me wander to the extreme verge of all the earth or if he willed it not should have a thunder with a fiery eye leap straight from zeus to burn up all his race to the last root of it by which loxian words subdued he drove me forth and shut me out he loath me loath but zeus violent bit compelled him to the deed when instantly my body and soul were changed and distraught and horned as ye see and spurred along by the fanged insect with a maniac leap i rushed on to sancria's limpid stream and lerney's fountain-water there the earth-born the herdsman argus most immitigable of wrath did find me out and track me out with countless eyes set staring at my steps and though an unexpected sudden doom drew him from life i cursed tormented still am driven from land to land before the scourge the gods hold o'er me so thou hast heard the past and if a bitter future thou canst tell speak on i charge thee do not flatter me through pity with false words for in my mind deceiving works more shame than torturing doth chorus ah silence here nevermore nevermore would i languish for the stranger's word to thrill in mine ear never more for the wrong and the woe and the fear so hard to behold so cruel to bear piercing my soul with a double-edged sword of a sliding cold ah fate ah me i shudder to see this wandering maid in her agony prometheus grief is too quick in thee and fear too full be patient till thou hast learnt the rest chorus speak teach to those who are sad already it seems sweet by clear foreknowledge to make perfect pain prometheus the boon ye asked me first was lightly won for first ye asked the story of this maid's grief as her own lips might tell it now remains to list what other sorrows she so young must bear from harry inachus's child o thou drop down thy soul my weighty words and measure out the landmarks which are set to end thy wandering toward the orient sun first turn thy face from mine and journey on along the desert flats till thou shalt come where scythia's shepherd peoples dwell aloft perched in wheeled wagons under woven roofs and twang the rapid arrow past the bow approach them not but sighting in thy course the rugged shore rocks resonant to the sea depart that country on the left hand dwell the iron-workers called the calabes of whom beware for certes they are uncouth and nowise bland to strangers reaching so the stream hybristes well the scorner called attempt no passage it is hard to pass or e'er thou come to caucasus itself that highest of mountains where the river leaps the precipice in his strength thou must toil up those mountain-tops that neighbour with the stars and tread the south way and draw near at last the amazonian host that hateth man inhabitants of themisira close upon thermodon where the sea's rough jaw doth gnash at salmadesa and provide a cruel host to seamen and to ships a step-dame they with unreluctant hand shall lead thee on and on till thou arrive just where the ocean gates show narrowest on the cimmerian isthmus leaving which behoves thee swim with fortitude of soul the strait myotis aye and evermore that traverse shall be famous on men's lips that strait called bosphorus the horned one's road so named because of thee whoso wilt pass from europe's plain to asia's continent how think ye nymphs the king of gods appears impartial in ferocious deeds behold the god desirous of this mortal's love hath cursed her with these wanderings ah fair child thou hast met a bitter groom for bridal for all thou yet hast heard can only prove the incompleted prelude of thy doom io ah ah prometheus is it thy turn now to shriek and moan how wilt thou when thou hast hearkened what remains chorus besides the grief thou hast told can aught remain prometheus a sea of foredoomed evil work to storm io what boots my life then why not cast myself down headlong from this miserable rock that dashed against the flats i may redeem my soul from sorrow better once to die than day by day to suffer prometheus verily it would be hard for thee to bear my woe for whom it is appointed not to die death frees from woe but i before me see in all my far prevision not abound to all i suffer ere that zeus shall fall from being a king io and can it ever be that zeus shall fall from empire prometheus thou methinks wouldst take some joy to see it io could i choose i who endure such pangs now by that god prometheus learn from me therefore that the event shall be io by whom shall his imperial sceptred hand be emptied so prometheus himself shall spoil himself through his idiotic counsels io how declare unless the word bring evil prometheus he shall wed and in the marriage bond be joined to grief io a heavenly bride or human speak it out if it be utterable prometheus why should i say which it ought not to be uttered verily io then it is his wife shall tear him from his throne prometheus it is his wife shall bear a son to him more mighty than the father io from this doom hath he no refuge prometheus none or e'er that i loose from these fetters io yea but who shall loose while zeus is adverse prometheus one who is born of thee it is ordained so io what is this thou sayest a son of mine shall liberate thee from woe prometheus after ten generations count three more and find him in the third io the oracle remains obscure prometheus and search it not to learn thine own griefs from it io point me not to a good to leave me straight bereaved prometheus i am prepared to grant thee one of two things io but which two set them before me grant me power to choose prometheus i grant it choose now shall i name aloud what griefs remain to wound thee or what hand shall save me out of mine vouchsafe o god the one grace of the twain to her who prays the next to me and turn back neither prayer dishonoured by denial to herself recount the future wandering of her feet then point me to the looser of thy chain because i yearn to know him prometheus since ye will of absolute will this knowledge i will set no contrary against it nor keep back a word of all ye ask for io first to thee i must relate thy wandering course far-winding as i tell it write it down in thy soul's book of memories when thou hast passed the refluent bound that parts two continents track on the footsteps of the orient sun in his own fire across the roar of seas fly till thou hast reached the gorgonian flats beside cisthony there the phorcides three ancient maidens live with shape of swan one tooth between them and one common eye on whom the sun doth never look at all with all his rays nor evermore the moon when she looks through the night anear to whom are the gorgon sisters three and clothed with wings with twisted snakes for ringlets man abhorred there is no mortal gazes on their face and gazing can breathe on i speak of such to guard thee from their horror ay and list another tale of a dreadful sight beware the griffins those unbarking dogs of zeus those sharp-mouthed dogs and the arimaspian host of one-eyed horsemen habiting beside the river of pluto that runs bright with gold approach them not beseech thee presently thou'lt come to a distant land a dusky tribe of dwellers at the fountain of the sun whence flows the river ethiops wind along its banks and turn off at the cataracts just as the nile pours from the bibline hills his holy and sweet wave his course shall guide thine own to that triangular nile ground where io is ordained for thee and thine a lengthened exile have i said in this aught darkly or incompletely now repeat the question make the knowledge fuller lo i have more leisure than i covet here chorus if thou canst tell us aught that's left untold or loosely told of her most dreary flight declare it straight but if thou hast uttered all grant us that latter grace for which we prayed remembering how we prayed it prometheus she has heard the uttermost of her wandering there it ends but that she may be certain not to have heard all vainly i will speak what she endured ere coming hither and invoke the past to prove my prescience true and so to leave a multitude of words and pass at once to the subject of thy course when thou hast gone to those molossian plains which sweep around dodona shouldering heaven whereby the fane of zeus thesprostion keepeth oracle and wonder past belief where oaks do wave articulate adjurations i the same saluted thee in no perplexed phrase but clear with glory noble wife of zeus that shouldst be there some sweetness took thy sense thou didst rush further onward stung along the ocean shore toward rhea's mighty bay and tossed back from it wast tossed to it again in stormy evolution and know well in coming time that hollow of the sea shall bear the name ionian and present a monument of io's passage through unto all mortals be these words the signs of my soul's power to look beyond the veil of visible things the rest to you and her i will declare in common audience nymphs returning thither where my speech break off there is a town canobus built upon the earth's fair margin at the mouth of nile and on the mound washed up by it io there shall zeus give back to thee thy perfect mind and only by the pressure and the touch of a hand not terrible and thou to zeus shall bear a dusky sun who shall be called thence epaphis touched that sun shall pluck the fruit of all that land wide watered by the flow of nile but after him when counting out as far as the fifth full generation then full fifty maidens a fair woman race shall back to argos turn reluctantly to fly the proffered nuptials of their kin their fathers brothers these being passion-struck like falcons bearing hard on flying doves shall follow hunting at a quarry of love they should not hunt till envious heaven maintain a curse betwixt that beauty and their desire and greece receive them to be overcome in murderous woman war by fierce red hands kept savage by the night for every wife shall slay a husband dying deep in blood the sword of a double edge i wish indeed as fair a marriage joy to all my foes one bride alone shall fail to smite to death the head upon her pillow touched with love made impotent of purpose and impelled to choose the lesser evil shame on her cheeks then blood-guilt on her hands which bride shall bear a royal race in argos tedious speech were needed to relate particulars of these things tis enough that from her seed shall spring the strong he famous with the bow whose arm shall break my fetters off behold my mother themis that old titaness delivered to me such an oracle but how and when i should be long to speak and thou in hearing wouldst not gain at all how the spasm and the pain and the fire on the brain strike burning me through how the sting of the curse all aflame as it flew pricks me onward again how my heart in its terror is spurning my breast and my eyes like the wheels of a chariot roll round i am whirled from my course to the east to the west in the whirlwind of frenzy all madly inwound and my mouth is unbridled for anguish and hate and my words be in vain in wild storms of unrest on the sea of my desolate fate io rushes out chorus strophe o wise was he o wise was he who first within his spirit knew and with his tongue declared it true that love comes best that comes unto the equal of degree and that the poor and that the low should seek no love from those above whose souls are fluttered with the flow of airs about their golden height or proud because they see a row ancestral crowns of light oh never never may ye fates behold me with your awful eyes lift mine too fondly up the skies where zeus upon the purple waits nor let me step too near too near to any suitor bright from heaven because i see because i fear this loveless maiden vexed and laden by this fell curse of harry driven on wanderings dread and drear nay grant an equal troth instead of nuptial love to bind me by it will not hurt i shall not dread to meet it in reply but let not love from those above revert and fix me as i said with that inevitable eye i have no sword to fight that fight i have no strength to tread that path i know not if my nature hath the power to bear i cannot see whither from zeus infinite i have the power to flee prometheus yet zeus albeit most absolute of will shall turn to meekness such a marriage rite he holds in preparation which anon shall thrust him headlong from his gerent seat adown the abysmal void and so the curse his father kronos muttered in his fall as he fell from his ancient throne and cursed shall be accomplished wholly no escape from all that ruin shall the filial zeus find granted to him from any of his gods unless i teach him i the refuge know and i the means now therefore let him sit and brave the imminent doom and fix his faith on his supernal noises hurtling on with restless hand the bolt that breathes out fire for these things shall not help him none of them nor hinder his perdition when he falls to shame and lower than patience such a foe he doth himself prepare against himself a wonder of unconquerable hate an organiser of sublimer fire than glares and lightnings and of grander sound than aught the thunder rolls out thundering it with power to shatter in poseidon's fist the trident spear which while it plagues the sea doth shake the shores around it i and zeus precipitated thus shall learn at length the difference betwixt rule and servitude chorus thou makest threats for zeus of thy desires pr i tell you all these things shall be fulfilled even so as i desire them chorus must we then look out for one shall come to master zeus pr these chains weigh lighter than his sorrow shall chorus how art thou not afraid to utter such words prometheus what should i fear who cannot die chorus but he can visit thee with dreader woe than deaths prometheus why let him do it i am here prepared for all things and their pangs chorus the wise are they who reverence prometheus reverence thou adore thou flatter thou whomever reigns whenever reigning but for me your zeus is less than nothing let him act and reign his brief hour out according to his will he will not therefore rule the gods too long below i see that courier god of zeus that new-made menial of the new-crowned king he doubtless comes to announce to us something new hermes enters hermes i speak to thee the sophist the talker down of scorn by scorn the sinner against gods the reverencer of men the thief of fire i speak to thee and adjure thee zeus requires thy declaration of what marriage rite thus moves thy vaunt and shall hereafter cause his fall from empire do not wrap thy speech in riddles but speak clearly never cast ambiguous paths prometheus for my feat since zeus thou mayest perceive is scarcely won to mercy by such means prometheus a speech well-mouthed in the utterance and full-minded in the sense as doth befit a servant of the gods new gods ye newly reign and think forsooth ye dwell in towers too high for any dart to carry a wound there have i not stood by while two kings fell from thence and shall i not behold the third the same who rules you now fall shame to sudden ruin do i seem to tremble and quail before your modern gods far be it from me for thyself depart retread thy steps in haste to all thou hast asked i answer nothing hermes such a wind of pride impelled thee of yore full sail upon these rocks prometheus i would not barter learn thou soothly that my suffering for thy service i maintain it is a nobler thing to serve these rocks than live a faithful slave to father zeus thus upon scorners i retort their scorn hermes it seems that thou dost glory in thy despair prometheus i glory would my foes did glory so and i stood by to see them naming whom thou art not unremembered hermes dost thou charge me also with the blame of thy mischance prometheus i tell thee i loathe the universal gods who for the good i gave them rendered back the ill of their injustice hermes thou art mad thou art raving titan at the fever height prometheus if it be madness to abhor my foes may i be mad hermes if thou wert prosperous thou wouldst be unendurable prometheus alas hermes zeus knows not that word prometheus but maturing time teaches all things hermes howbeit thou hast not learnt the wisdom yet thou needest pr if i had i should not talk thus with a slave like thee her no answer thou vouchsafest i believe to the great sire's requirement pr verily i owe him grateful service and should pay it her why thou dost mock me titan as i stood a child before thy face prometheus no child forsooth but yet more foolish than a foolish child if thou expect that i should answer aught thy zeus can ask no torture from his hand nor any machination in the world shall force mine utterance ere he loose himself these cankerous fetters from me for the rest let him now hurl his blanching lightnings down and with his white-winged snows and mutterings deep of subterranean thunders mix all things confound them in disorder none of this shall bend my sturdy will and make me speak the name of his dethroner who shall come hermes can this avail thee look to it prometheus long ago it was looked forward to precounselled of her vain god take righteous courage dare for once to apprehend and front thine agonies with a just prudence prometheus vainly dost thou chafe my soul with exhortation as yonder sea goes beating on the rock oh think no more that i fear struck by zeus to a woman's mind will supplicate him loathed as he is with feminine upliftings of my hands to break these chains far from me be the thought hermes i have indeed methinks said much in vain for still thy heart beneath my showers of prayers lies dry and hard nay leaps like a young horse who bites against the new bit in his teeth and tugs and struggles against the new-tried rein still fiercest in the feeblest thing of all which sophism is since absolute will disjoined from perfect mind is worse than weak behold unless my words persuade thee what a blast and whirlwind of inevitable woe must sweep persuasion through thee for at first the father will split up this jut of rock with the great thunder and the bolted flame and hide thy body where a hinge of stone shall catch it like an arm and when thou hast passed a long black time within thou shalt come out to front the sun while zeus winged hound the strong carnivorous eagle shall wheel down to meet thee self-cold to a daily feast and set his fierce beak in thee and tear off the long rags of thy flesh and batten deep upon thy dusky liver do not look for any end moreover to this curse or ere some god appear to accept thy pangs on his own head vicarious and descend with unreluctant step the darks of hell and gloomy abysses around tartarus then ponder this this threat is not a growth of vain invention it is spoken and meant king zeus's mouth is impotent to lie consummating the utterance by the act so look to it thou take heed and nevermore forget good counsel to indulge self-will chorus our hermes suits his reasons to the times at least i think so since he bids thee drop self-will for prudent counsel yield to him when the wise err their wisdom makes their shame prometheus unto me the fore-knower this mandate of power he cries to reveal it what's strange in my fate if i suffer from hate at the hour that i feel it let the locks of the lightning all bristling and whitening flash coiling me round while the ether goes surging neath thunder and scourging of wild winds unbound let the blast of the firmament whirl from its place the earth rooted below and the brine of the ocean in rapid emotion be driven in the face of the stars up in heaven as they walk to and fro let him hurl me anon into tartarus on to the blackest degree with necessity's vortices strangling me down but he cannot join death to a fate meant for me hermes why the words that he speaks and the thoughts that he thinks are maniacal add if the fate who have bound him should loose not the links he were utterly mad then depart ye who groan with him leaving to moan with him go in haste lest the roar of the thunder a-nearing should blast you to idiocy living and hearing chorus change thy speech for another thy thought for a new if to move me and teach me indeed be thy care for thy words swerve so far from the loyal and true that the thunder of zeus seems more easy to bear how could'st teach me to venture such vileness behold i choose with this victim this anguish foretold i recoil from the traitor in hate and disdain and i know that the curse of the treason is worse than the pang of the chain hermes then remember o nymphs what i tell you before nor when pierced by the arrows that ath will throw you cast blame on your fate and declare evermore that zeus thrust you on anguish he did not foreshow you nay verily nay for ye perish anon for your deed by your choice by no blindness of doubt no abruptness of doom but by madness alone in the great net of ate whence none cometh out ye are wound and undone pr i and act now and word now no more earth is rocking in space and the thunders crash up with a roar upon roar and the eddying lightnings flash fire in my face and the whirlwinds are whirling the dust round and round and the blasts of the winds universal leap free and blow each upon each with a passion of sound and ether goes mingling in storm with the sea such a curse on my head in a manifest dread from the hand of your zeus has been hurtled along o my mother's fair glory o ether in ringing all eyes with the sweet common light of thy bringing dost see how i suffer this wrong part two Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine.

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Part 1 of Prometheus Bound.

This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus Translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861 Part 1 Scene Strength and Force Hephaestus and Prometheus at the Rocks Strength We reach the utmost limit of the earth.

the scythian tract the desert without man and now hephstus thou must needs fulfil the mandate of our father and with links indissoluble of adamantine chains fasten against this beetling precipice this guilty god because he filched away thine own bright flower the glory of plastic fire and gifted mortals with it such a sin it doth behove he expiate to the gods learning to accept the empery of zeus and leave off his old trick of loving man hephstus o strength and force for you our zeus's will presents the deed for doing no more but i i lack your daring up this storm rent chasm to fix with violent hands a kindred god howbeit necessity compels me so that i must dare it and our zeus commands with the most inevitable word ho thou high-thoughted son of themis who is sage thee loath i loath must rivet fast in chains against this rocky height unclomb by man where never human voice nor face shall find out thee who loves them and thy beauty's flower scorched in the sun's clear heat shall fade away night shall come up with garniture of stars to comfort thee with shadow and the sun disperse with retricked beams the morning frost but through all changes sense of present woe shall vex thee sore because with none of them there comes a hand to free such fruit is plucked from love of man and in that thou a god didst brave the wrath of gods and give away undue respect to mortals for that crime thou art adjudged to guard this joyless rock erect unslumbering bending not the knee and many a cry and unavailing moan to utter on the air for zeus is stern and new-made kings are cruel strength be it so why loiter in vain pity why not hate a god the gods hate one too who betrayed thy glory unto men hephstus an awful thing is kinship joined to friendship grant it be is disobedience to the father's word a possible thing dost quail not more for that hephstus thou at least art a stern one ever bold strength why if i wept it were no remedy and do not thou spend labour on the air to bootless uses hephstus cursed handicraft i curse and hate thee o my craft strength why hate thy craft most plainly innocent of all these pending ills hephstus i would some other hand were here to work it strength all work hath its pain except to rule the gods there is none free except king zeus hephstus i know it very well i argue not against it strength why not then make haste and lock the fetters over him lest zeus behold thee lagging hephstus here be chains zeus may behold these strength seize him strike amain strike with the hammer on each side his hands rivet him to the rock hephstus the work is done and thoroughly done strength still faster grapple him wedge him in deeper leave no inch to stir he's terrible for finding a way out from the irremediable heph here's an arm at least grappled past freeing strength now then buckle me the other securely let this wise one learn he's duller than our zeus hephstus o none but he accused me justly strength now straight through the chest take him and bite him with the clenching tooth of the adamantine wedge and rivet him hephstus alas prometheus what thou sufferest here i sorrow over Strength.

Dost thou flinch again, and breathe groans for the enemies of Zeus? Beware lest thine own pity find thee out.

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Part 1 of Prometheus Bound.

This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus Translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806-1861 Part 1 Scene Strength and Force Hephaestus and Prometheus at the Rocks Strength We reach the utmost limit of the earth.

the scythian tract the desert without man and now hephstus thou must needs fulfil the mandate of our father and with links indissoluble of adamantine chains fasten against this beetling precipice this guilty god because he filched away thine own bright flower the glory of plastic fire and gifted mortals with it such a sin it doth behove he expiate to the gods learning to accept the empery of zeus and leave off his old trick of loving man hephstus o strength and force for you our zeus's will presents the deed for doing no more but i i lack your daring up this storm rent chasm to fix with violent hands a kindred god howbeit necessity compels me so that i must dare it and our zeus commands with the most inevitable word ho thou high-thoughted son of themis who is sage thee loath i loath must rivet fast in chains against this rocky height unclomb by man where never human voice nor face shall find out thee who loves them and thy beauty's flower scorched in the sun's clear heat shall fade away night shall come up with garniture of stars to comfort thee with shadow and the sun disperse with retricked beams the morning frost but through all changes sense of present woe shall vex thee sore because with none of them there comes a hand to free such fruit is plucked from love of man and in that thou a god didst brave the wrath of gods and give away undue respect to mortals for that crime thou art adjudged to guard this joyless rock erect unslumbering bending not the knee and many a cry and unavailing moan to utter on the air for zeus is stern and new-made kings are cruel strength be it so why loiter in vain pity why not hate a god the gods hate one too who betrayed thy glory unto men heph an awful thing is kinship joined to friendship grant it be is disobedience to the father's word a possible thing dost quail not more for that hephstus thou at least art a stern one ever bold strength why if i wept it were no remedy and do not thou spend labour on the air to bootless uses hephstus cursed handicraft i curse and hate thee o my craft strength why hate thy craft most plainly innocent of all these pending ills hephstus i would some other hand were here to work it strength all work hath its pain except to rule the gods there is none free except king zeus hephstus i know it very well i argue not against it strength why not then make haste and lock the fetters over him lest zeus behold thee lagging hephstus here be chains zeus may behold these strength seize him strike amain strike with the hammer on each side his hands rivet him to the rock hephstus the work is done and thoroughly done strength still faster grapple him wedge him in deeper leave no inch to stir he's terrible for finding a way out from the irremediable hephstus here's an arm at least grappled past freeing strength now then buckle me the other securely let this wise one learn he's duller than our zeus hephstus o none but he accused me justly strength now straight through the chest take him and bite him with the clenching tooth of the adamantine wedge and rivet him hephstus alas prometheus what thou sufferest here i sorrow over strength dost thou flinch again and breathe groans for the enemies of zeus beware lest thine own pity find thee out hephstus thou dost behold a spectacle that turns the sight of the eyes to pity strength i behold a sinner suffer his sin's penalty but lash the thongs about his sides hephstus so much i must do urge no farther than i must Ay, but I will urge, and with shout on shout will hound thee at this quarry, get thee down, and wring amain the iron round his legs.

Hephaestus, that work was not long doing.

The right support.

See terms.

Part One of Prometheus Bound.

This is a LibriVox recording.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Expatriate in Bangor, Maine.

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, translated by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806 to 1861.

Part One.

Scene, Strength and Force, Hephaestus and Prometheus at the Rocks.