Prometheus Bound
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/aeschylus" aria-label="More works by Aeschylus">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
1
1
Power
1
To earth’s remotest limit we come, to the Scythian land, an untrodden solitude. And now, Hephaestus, yours is the charge to observe the mandates laid upon you by the Father—to clamp this miscreant
2
upon the high craggy rocks in shackles of binding adamant that cannot be broken. For your own flower, flashing fire, source of all arts, he has purloined and bestowed upon mortal creatures. Such is his offence; for this he is bound to make requital to the gods,
3
so that he may learn to bear with the sovereignty of Zeus and cease his man-loving ways.
4
4
Hephaestus
4
Power and Force, for you indeed the behest of Zeus is now fulfilled, and nothing remains to stop you. But for me—I do not have the nerve myself
5
5
to bind with force a kindred god upon this rocky cleft assailed by cruel winter. Yet, come what may, I am constrained to summon courage to this deed; for it is perilous to disregard the commandments of the Father. Lofty-minded son of Themis who counsels straight, against my will, no less than yours, I must rivet you with brazen bonds
6
no hand can loose to this desolate crag, where neither voice nor form of mortal man shall you perceive; but, scorched by the sun’s bright beams, you shall lose the fair bloom of your flesh. And glad you shall be when spangled-robed night shall veil his brightness and
7
7
when the sun shall scatter again the frost of morning. Evermore the burden of your present ill shall wear you out; for your deliverer is not yet born. Such is the prize you have gained for your championship of man. For, god though you are, you did not fear the wrath of the gods, but
8
you bestowed honors upon mortal creatures beyond their due. Therefore on this joyless rock you must stand sentinel, erect, sleepless, your knee unbent. And many a groan and unavailing lament you shall utter; for the heart of Zeus is hard,
9
and everyone is harsh whose power is new.
10
10
Power
10
Well, why delay and excite pity in vain? Why do you not detest a god most hateful to the gods, since he has betrayed your prerogative to mortals?
11
11
Hephaestus
11
A strangely potent tie is kinship, and companionship as well.
12
12
Power
12
I agree; yet to refuse to obey the commands of the Father; is this possible? Do you not fear that more?
13
13
Hephaestus
13
Yes, you are ever pitiless and steeped in insolence.
14
14
Power
14
Yes, for it does not good to bemoan this fellow. Stop wasting your labor at an unprofitable task.
15
15
Hephaestus
15
Oh handicraft that I hate so much!
16
16
Power
16
Why hate it? Since in truth your craft is in no way to blame for these present troubles.
17
17
Hephaestus
17
Nevertheless, i wish it had fallen to another’s lot!
18
18
Power
18
Every job is troublesome except to be the commander of gods;
19
no one is free except Zeus.
20
20
Hephaestus
20
I know it by this task; I cannot deny it.
21
21
Power
21
Hurry then to cast the fetters about him, so that the Father does not see you loitering.
22
22
Hephaestus
22
Well, there then! The bands are ready, as you may see.
23
23
Power
23
Cast them about his wrists and with might strike with your hammer; rivet him to the rocks.
24
24
Hephaestus
24
There! The work is getting done and not improperly.
25
25
Power
25
Strike harder, clamp him tight, leave nothing loose; for he is wondrously clever at finding a way even out of desperate straits.
26
26
Hephaestus
26
This arm, at least, is fixed permanently.
27
27
Power
27
Now rivet this one too and securely, so that he may learn, for all his cleverness, that he is a fool compared to Zeus.
28
28
Hephaestus
28
None but he could justly blame my work.
29
29
Power
29
Now drive the adamantine wedge’s stubborn edge straight
30
through his chest with your full force.
31
31
Hephaestus
31
Alas, Prometheus, I groan for your sufferings.
32
32
Power
32
What! Shrinking again and groaning over the enemies of Zeus? Take care, so that the day does not come when you shall grieve for yourself.
33
33
Hephaestus
33
You see a spectacle grievous for eyes to behold.
34
34
Power
34
I see this man getting his deserts. Come, cast the girths about his sides.
35
35
Hephaestus
35
I must do this; spare me your needless ordering.
36
36
Power
36
Indeed, I’ll order you, yes and more—I’ll hound you on. Get down below, and ring his legs by force.
37
37
Hephaestus
37
There now! The work’s done and without much labor.
38
38
Power
38
Now hammer the piercing fetters with your full force; for the appraiser of our work is severe.
39
39
Hephaestus
39
The utterance of your tongue matches your looks.
40
40
Power
40
Be softhearted then,
41
but do not attack my stubborn will and my harsh mood.
42
42
Hephaestus
42
Let us be gone, since he has got the fetters on his limbs. Exit
43
43
Power
43
There now, indulge your insolence, keep on wresting from the gods their honors to give them to creatures of a day. Are mortals able to lighten your load of sorrow?
44
Falsely the gods call you Prometheus,Such etymologizing play (Pro-metheus, Fore-thought) was a serious matter to the Greeks, who found in the name of a person a significant indication of his nature or his fate. Unlike Shakespeare , Aeschylus saw nothing even half-humorous in such etymological analysis; and elsewhere, in playing on the names Apollo, Clytaemestra, Polynices, the nomen is an omen.for you yourself need forethought to free yourself from this handiwork. Exeunt Power and Force
45
45
Prometheus
45
O you bright sky of heaven, you swift-winged breezes, you river-waters, and
46
infinite laughter of the waves of ocean, O universal mother Earth , and you, all-seeing orb of the sun, to you I call! See what I, a god, endure from the gods.
47
Look, with what shameful torture I am racked and must wrestle
48
throughout the countless years of time apportioned me. Such is the ignominious bondage the new commander of the blessed has devised against me. Woe! Woe! For present misery and misery to come I groan, not knowing where
49
it is fated that deliverance from these sorrows shall arise.
50
And yet, what am I saying? All that is to be I know full well and in advance, nor shall any affliction come upon me unforeseen. I must bear my allotted doom as lightly as I can, knowing that
51
the might of Necessity permits no resistance.Yet I am not able to speak nor be silent about my fate. For it is because I bestowed good gifts on mortals that this miserable yoke of constraint has been bound upon me. I hunted out and stored in fennel stalk the stolen
52
source of fire that has proved a teacher to mortals in every art and a means to mighty ends. Such is the offence for which I pay the penalty, riveted in fetters beneath the open sky.
53
Ha! Behold!
54
What murmur, what scent wings to me, its source invisible, heavenly or human, or both? Has someone come to this crag at the edge of the world to stare at my sufferings—or with what motive? Behold me, an ill-fated god, chained,
55
the foe of Zeus,
56
hated of all who enter the court of Zeus, because of my very great love for mankind. Ha! What’s this? What may be this rustling stir of birds I hear
57
again nearby? The air whirs with the light rush of wings. Whatever approaches causes me alarm. The Daughters of Oceanus enter on a winged car
58
58
Chorus
58
Do not fear! For our group has come in swift rivalry of wings to this crag
59
as friend to you, having won our father’s consent as best we might. The swift-coursing breezes bore me on; for the reverberation of the clang of iron pierced the depths of our caves and drove my grave modesty away in fright;
60
unsandalled I have hastened in a winged car.
61
61
Prometheus
61
Alas! Alas! Offspring of fruitful Tethys and of him who with his sleepless current encircles the whole earth, children of your
62
father Oceanus, behold, see with what fetters, upon the summit crag of this ravine, I am to hold my unenviable watch.
63
63
Chorus
63
I see, Prometheus;
64
and over my eyes a mist of tears and fear spread as I saw your body withering ignominiously upon this rock in these bonds of adamant. For there are new rulers in heaven, and Zeus governs with
65
lawless customs; that which was mighty before he now brings to nothing.
66
66
Prometheus
66
Oh if only he had hurled me below the earth, yes beneath Hades, the entertainer of the dead, into impassable Tartarus,
67
and had ruthlessly fastened me in fetters no hand can loose, so that neither god nor any other might have gloated over this agony I feel! But, now, a miserable plaything of the winds, I suffer pains to delight my enemies.
70
70
Prometheus
70
Truly the day shall come when, although I am tortured in stubborn fetters,
71
the prince of the blessed will need me to reveal the new design whereby he shall be stripped of his sceptre and his dignities. Not by persuasion’s honeyed enchantments will he charm me;
72
and I will never, cowering before his dire threats, divulge this secret, until he releases me from my cruel bonds and provides compensation for this outrage.
75
75
Prometheus
75
I know that Zeus is harsh and
76
keeps justice in his own hands; but nevertheless one day his judgement will soften, when he has been crushed in the way that I know.A veiled allusion to the secret hinted at in l.171.Then, calming down his stubborn wrath, he shall at last bond with me in union and friendship,
77
as eager as I am to welcome him.
78
78
Chorus
78
Unfold the whole story and tell us upon what charge Zeus has caught you and painfully punishes you with such dishonor. Instruct us, unless, indeed, there is some harm in telling.
79
79
painful to keep it silent. My case is unfortunate every way. When first the heavenly powers were moved to wrath, and mutual dissension was stirred up among them—some bent on casting Cronus from his seat so Zeus, in truth, might reign; others, eager for
80
the contrary end, that Zeus might never win mastery over the gods—it was then that I, although advising them for the best, was unable to persuade the Titans, children of Heaven and Earth; but they, disdaining counsels of craft, in the pride of their strength
81
thought to gain the mastery without a struggle and by force. Often my mother Themis, or Earth (though one form, she had many names), had foretold to me the way in which the future was fated to come to pass. That it was not by brute strength nor through violence,
82
but by guile that those who should gain the upper hand were destined to prevail. And though I argued all this to them, they did not pay any attention to my words. With all that before me, it seemed best that, joining with my mother, I should place myself,
83
a welcome volunteer, on the side of Zeus; and it is by reason of my counsel that the cavernous gloom of Tartarus now hides ancient Cronus and his allies within it. Thus I helped the tyrant of the gods
84
84
and with this foul payment he has responded; for it is a disease that is somehow inherent in tyranny to have no faith in friends. However, you ask why he torments me, and this I will now make clear.
85
As soon as he had seated himself upon his father’s throne, he immediately assigned to the deities their several privileges and apportioned to them their proper powers. But of wretched mortals he took no notice, desiring to bring
86
the whole race to an end and create a new one in its place. Against this purpose none dared make stand except me— I only had the courage; I saved mortals so that they did not descend, blasted utterly, to the house of Hades. This is why I am bent by such grievous tortures,
87
painful to suffer, piteous to behold. I who gave mortals first place in my pity, I am deemed unworthy to win this pity for myself, but am in this way mercilessly disciplined, a spectacle that shames the glory of Zeus.
88
88
Chorus
88
Iron-hearted and made of stone, Prometheus,
89
is he who feels no compassion at your miseries. For myself, I would not have desired to see them; and now that I see them, I am pained in my heart.
90
90
Prometheus
90
Yes, to my friends indeed I am a spectacle of pity.
91
91
Chorus
91
Did you perhaps transgress even somewhat beyond this offence?
92
92
Prometheus
92
Yes, I caused mortals to cease foreseeing their doom.Doom here signifies doom of death.
93
93
Chorus
93
Of what sort was the cure that you found for this affliction?
94
94
Prometheus
94
I caused blind hopes to dwell within their breasts.
95
95
Chorus
95
A great benefit was this you gave to mortals.
96
96
Prometheus
96
In addition, I gave them fire.
97
97
Chorus
97
What! Do creatures of a day now have flame-eyed fire?
98
98
Prometheus
98
Yes, and from it they shall learn many arts.
99
99
Chorus
99
Then it was on a charge like this that Zeus—
100
100
Prometheus
100
Torments me and in no way gives me respite from pain.
101
101
Chorus
101
And is there no end assigned to your ordeal?
102
102
Prometheus
102
No, none except when it seems good to him.
103
103
Chorus
103
But how will it seem good to him? What hope is there? Do you not see that you have wronged? And yet it is not pleasant for me to talk about how you have wronged, and for you it is pain. So, let us quit this theme; and may you seek some release from your ordeal.
104
104
Prometheus
104
It is easy for him who keeps his foot free from harm to counsel and admonish him who is in misery. I have known this all the while. Of my own will, yes, of my own will I erred—I will not deny it. By helping mortals I found suffering for myself;