Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound and the Seven Against Thebes Part 3

PR. I will tell thee clearly every thing which thou desirest to learn, not interweaving riddles, but in plain language, as it is right to open the mouth to friends. Thou seest him that bestowed fire on mortals, Prometheus.

IO. O thou that didst dawn a common benefit upon mortals, wretched Prometheus, as penance for what offense art thou thus suffering?

PR. I have just ceased lamenting my own pangs.

IO. Wilt thou not then accord to me this boon?

PR. Say what it is that thou art asking, for thou mightest learn everything from me.

IO. Say who it was that bound thee fast in this cleft?

PR. The decree of Jupiter, but the hand of Vulcan.

IO. And for what offenses art thou paying the penalty?

PR. Thus much alone is all that I can clearly explain to thee.

IO. At least, in addition to this, discover what time shall be to me woe-worn the limit of my wanderings.

PR. Not to learn this is better for thee than to learn it.

IO. Yet conceal not from me what I am to endure.

PR. Nay, I grudge thee not this gift.

IO. Why then delayest thou to utter the whole?

PR. 'Tis not reluctance, but I am loth to shock thy feelings.

IO. Do not be more anxious on my account than is agreeable to me.[50]

PR. Since thou art eager, I must needs tell thee: attend thou.

CH. Not yet, however; but grant me also a share of the pleasure. Let us first learn the malady of this maiden, from her own tale of her destructive[51] fortunes; but, for the sequel of her afflictions let her be informed by thee.

PR. It is thy part, Io, to minister to the gratification of these now before thee, both for all other reasons, and that they are the sisters of thy father. Since to weep and lament over misfortunes, when one is sure to win a tear from the listeners, is well worth the while.

IO. I know not how I should disobey you; and in a plain tale ye shall learn everything that ye desire; and yet I am pained even to speak of the tempest that hath been sent upon me from heaven, and the utter marring of my person, whence it suddenly came upon me, a wretched creature! For nightly visions thronging to my maiden chamber, would entice me with smooth words: "O damsel, greatly fortunate, why dost thou live long time in maidenhood, when it is in thy power to achieve a match the very n.o.blest? for Jupiter is fired by thy charms with the shaft of pa.s.sion, and longs with thee to share in love. But do not, my child, spurn away from thee the couch of Jupiter; but go forth to Lerna's fertile mead, to the folds and ox-stalls of thy father, that the eye of Jove may have respite from its longing." By dreams such as these was I unhappy beset every night, until at length I made bold to tell my sire of the dreams that haunted me by night. And he dispatched both to Pytho and Dodona[52] many a messenger to consult the oracles, that he might learn what it behooved him to do or say, so as to perform what was well-pleasing to the divinities. And they came bringing a report back of oracles ambiguously worded, indistinct, and obscurely delivered. But at last a clear response came to Inachus, plainly charging and directing him to thrust me forth both from my home and my country, to stray an outcast to earth's remotest limits; and that, if he would not, a fiery-visaged thunder-bolt would come from Jupiter, and utterly blot out his whole race. Overcome by oracles of Loxias such as these, unwilling did me expel and exclude me unwilling from his dwelling: but the bit of Jupiter[53] perforce constrained him to do this. And straightway my person and my mind were distorted, and horned, as ye see, stung by the keenly-biting fly, I rushed with maniac boundings to the sweet stream of Cerchneia, and the fountain[54] of Lerna; and the earth-born neatherd Argus of untempered fierceness, kept d.o.g.g.i.ng me, peering after my footsteps with thick-set eyes. Him, however, an unlooked-for sudden fate bereaved of life; but I hornet-stricken am driven by the scourge divine from land to land. Thou hearest what has taken place, and if thou art able to say what pangs there remain for me, declare them; and do not, compa.s.sionating me, warm me with false tales, for I p.r.o.nounce fabricated statements to be a most foul malady.

CH. Ah! ah! forbear! Alas! Never, never did I expect that a tale [so]

strange would come to my ears, or that sufferings thus horrible to witness and horrible to endure, outrages, terrors with their two-edged goad, would chill my spirit. Alas! alas! O Fate! Fate! I shudder as I behold the condition of Io.

PR. Prematurely, however, are thou sighing, and art full of terror.

Hold, until thou shalt also have heard the residue.

CH. Say on; inform me fully: to the sick indeed it is sweet to get a clear knowledge beforehand of the sequel of their sorrows.

PR. Your former desire at any rate ye gained from me easily; for first of all ye desired to be informed by her recital of the affliction[55]

that attaches to herself. Now give ear to the rest, what sort of sufferings it is the fate of this young damsel before you to undergo at the hand of Juno: thou too, seed of Inachus, lay to heart my words, that thou mayest be fully informed of the termination of thy journey. In the first place, after turning thyself from this spot toward the rising of the sun, traverse unplowed fields; and thou wilt reach the wandering Scythians, who, raised from off the around, inhabit wicker dwellings on well-wheeled cars, equipped with distant-shooting bows; to whom thou must not draw near, but pa.s.s on out of their land, bringing thy feet to approach the rugged roaring sh.o.r.es. And on thy left hand dwell the Chalybes, workers of iron, of whom thou must needs beware, for they are barbarous, and not accessible to strangers. And thou wilt come to the river Hybristes,[56] not falsely so called, which do not thou cross, for it is not easy to ford, until thou shalt have come to Caucasus itself, loftiest of mountains, where from its very brow the river spouts forth its might. And surmounting its peaks that neighbor on the stars, thou must go into a southward track, where thou wilt come to the man-detesting host of Amazons, who hereafter shall make a settlement, Themiscyra, on the banks of Thermodon, where lies the rugged Salmydessian sea-gorge, a host by mariners hated, a step-dame to ships; and they will conduct thee on thy way, and that right willingly. Thou shalt come too to the Cimmerian isthmus, hard by the very portals of a lake, with narrow pa.s.sage, which thou undauntedly must leave, and cross the Maeotic frith; and there shall exist for evermore among mortals a famous legend concerning thy pa.s.sage, and after thy name it shall be called the Bosphorus; and after having quitted European ground, thou shalt come to the Asiatic continent. Does not then the sovereign of the G.o.ds seem to you to be violent alike toward all things? for he a G.o.d l.u.s.ting to enjoy the charms of this mortal fair one, hath cast upon her these wanderings. And a bitter wooer, maiden, hast thou found for thy hand; for think that the words which thou hast now heard are not even for a prelude.

IO. Woe is me! ah! ah!

PR. Thou too in thy turn[57] art crying out and moaning: what wilt thou do then, when thou learnest the residue of thy ills?

CH. What! hast thou aught of suffering left to tell to her?

PR. Ay, a tempestuous sea of baleful calamities.

IO. What gain then is it for me to live? but why did I not quickly fling myself from this rough precipice, that dashing on the plain I had rid myself of all my pangs? for better is it once to die, than all one's days to suffer ill.

PR. Verily thou wouldst hardly bear the agonies of me to whom it is not doomed to die. For this would be an escape from sufferings. But now there is no limit set to my hardships, until Jove shall have been deposed from his tyranny.

IO. What! is it possible that Jupiter should ever fall from his power?

PR. Glad wouldst thou be, I ween, to witness this event.

IO. And how not so, I, who through Jupiter am suffering ill?

PR. Well, then, thou mayest a.s.sure thyself of these things that they are so.

IO. By whom is he to be despoiled of his sceptre of tyranny.

PR. Himself, by his own senseless counsels.

IO. In what manner? Specify it, if there be no harm.

PR. He will make such a match as he shall one day rue.[58]

IO. Celestial or mortal? If it may be spoken, tell me.

PR. But why ask its nature? for it is not a matter that I can communicate to you.

IO. Is it by a consort that he is to be ejected from his throne?

PR. Yes, surely, one that shall give birth to a son mightier than the father.[59]

IO. And has he no refuge from this misfortune?

PR. Not he, indeed, before at any rate I after being liberated from my shackles--

IO. Who, then, is he that shall liberate thee in despite of Jupiter?

PR. It is ordained that it shall be one of thine own descendants.

IO. How sayest thou? Shall child of mine release thee from thy ills?

PR. Yes, the third of thy lineage in addition to ten other generations.[60]

IO. This prophecy of thine is no longer easy for me to form a guess upon.