But thou art not unlearned, nor needest me To be thy teacher: save thyself the way Thou knowest and I will fortify my heart Until the wrathfulness of Zeus abate.
OCEANUS
Nay then, Prometheus, art thou ignorant Words are physicians to a wrath-sick soul?
PROMETHEUS
Yes, if with skill one soften the ripe core, Not by rough measures make it obdurate.
OCEANUS
Seest thou in warm affection detriment Or aught untoward in adventuring?
PROMETHEUS
A load of toil and a light mind withal.
OCEANUS
Then give me leave to call that sickness mine.
Wise men accounted fools attain their ends.
PROMETHEUS
But how if I am galled by thine offence?
OCEANUS
There very palpably thou thrustest home.
PROMETHEUS
Beware lest thou through pity come to broils.
OCEANUS
With one established in Omnipotence?
PROMETHEUS
Of him take heed lest thou find heaviness.
OCEANUS
I am schooled by thy calamity, Prometheus!
PROMETHEUS
Pack then! And, prithee, do not change thy mind!
OCEANUS
Thou criest "On" to one in haste to go.
For look, my dragon with impatient wings Flaps at the broad, smooth road of level air.
Fain would he kneel him down in his own stall.
Exit OCEANUS.
CHORUS (after alighting)
I mourn for thee, Prometheus, minished and brought low, Watering my virgin cheeks with these sad drops, that flow From sorrow's rainy fount, to fill soft-lidded eyes With pure libations for thy fortune's obsequies.
An evil portion that none coveteth hath Zeus Prepared for thee; by self-made laws established for his use Disposing all, the elder Gods he purposeth to show How strong is that right arm wherewith he smites a foe.
There hath gone up a cry from earth, a groaning for the fall Of things of old renown and shapes majestical, And for thy passing an exceeding bitter groan;For thee and for thy brother Gods whose honour was thine own:
These things all they who dwell in Asia's holy seat, Time's minions, mourn and with their groans thy groans repeat.
Yea, and they mourn who dwell beside the Colchian shore, The hero maids unwedded that delight in war, And Scythia's swarming myriads who their dwelling make Around the borders of the world, the salt Maeotian lake.
Mourns Ares' stock, that flowers in desert Araby, And the strong city mourns, the hill-fort planted high, Near neighbour to huge Caucasus, dread mountaineers That love the clash of arms, the counter of sharp spears.
Beforetime of all Gods one have I seen in pain, One only Titan bound with adamantine chain, Atlas in strength supreme, who groaning stoops, downbent Under the burthen of the earth and heaven's broad firmament.
Bellows the main of waters, surge with foam-seethed surge Clashing tumultuous; for thee the deep seas chant their dirge;And Hell's dark under-world a hollow moaning fills;Thee mourn the sacred streams with all their fountain-rills.
PROMETHEUS
Think not that I for pride and stubbornness Am silent: rather is my heart the prey Of gnawing thoughts, both for the past, and now Seeing myself by vengeance buffeted.
For to these younger Gods their precedence Who severally determined if not I?
No more of that: I should but weary you With things ye know; but listen to the tale Of human sufferings, and how at first Senseless as beasts I gave men sense, possessed them Of mind. I speak not in contempt of man;I do but tell of good gifts I conferred.
In the beginning, seeing they saw amiss, And hearing heard not, but, like phantoms huddled In dreams, the perplexed story of their days Confounded; knowing neither timber-work Nor brick-built dwellings basking in the light, But dug for themselves holes, wherein like ants, That hardly may contend against a breath, They dwelt in burrows of their unsunned caves.
Neither of winter's cold had they fixed sign, Nor of the spring when she comes decked with flowers, Nor yet of summer's heat with melting fruits Sure token: but utterly without knowledge Moiled, until I the rising of the stars Showed them, and when they set, though much obscure.
Moreover, number, the most excellent Of all inventions, I for them devised, And gave them writing that retaineth all, The serviceable mother of the Muse.
I was the first that yoked unmanaged beasts, To serve as slaves with collar and with pack, And take upon themselves, to man's relief, The heaviest labour of his hands: and Tamed to the rein and drove in wheeled cars The horse, of sumptuous pride the ornament.
And those sea-wanderers with the wings of cloth, The shipman's waggons, none but I contrived.
These manifold inventions for mankind I perfected, who, out upon't, have none-No, not one shift-to rid me of this shame.
CHORUS
Thy sufferings have been shameful, and thy mind Strays at a loss: like to a bad physician Fallen sick, thou'rt out of heart: nor cans't prescribe For thine own case the draught to make thee sound.
PROMETHEUS
1
The chiefest that, if any man fell sick, There was no help for him, comestible, Lotion or potion; but for lack of drugs They dwindled quite away; until I taught them To compound draughts and mixtures sanative, Wherewith they now are armed against disease.
I staked the winding path of divination And was the first distinguisher of dreams, The true from false; and voices ominous Of meaning dark interpreted; and tokens Seen when men take the road; and augury By flight of all the greater crook-clawed birds With nice discrimination I defined;These by their nature fair and favourable, Those, flattered with fair name. And of each sort The habits I described; their mutual feuds And friendships and the assemblages they hold.
And of the plumpness of the inward parts What colour is acceptable to the Gods, The well-streaked liver-lobe and gall-bladder.
Also by roasting limbs well wrapped in fat And the long chine, I led men on the road Of dark and riddling knowledge; and I purged The glancing eye of fire, dim before, And made its meaning plain. These are my works.
Then, things beneath the earth, aids hid from man, Brass, iron, silver, gold, who dares to say He was before me in discovering?
