POWER: Hit harder. Bind him tightly, don’t leave slack.
He can devise impossible escapes.
60
HEPHAESTUS: One arm is bound and will not soon come free.
POWER: The other now—strap firmly. Let him learn
that all his cleverness*5 cannot outsmart Zeus.
HEPHAESTUS: No one could fault my work, except its victim.
POWER: Now drive the keen edge of this steely spike
right through his chest. Put strength behind the blow.
HEPHAESTUS: aiai Prometheus! Now I groan for your pains.
POWER: What, shirking again, and groaning for Zeus’ foes?
Watch out, you’ll soon be pitying yourself.
HEPHAESTUS: You see a sight that pains the eyes to look on.
70
POWER: I see somebody getting what he deserves.
Now fasten the restraints around his sides.
HEPHAESTUS: I do what I must do. Don’t heap on orders.
POWER: I will push you. I’ll shout it in your ears.
Go lower now—use force to bind his legs.
HEPHAESTUS: The job is done. It didn’t need much effort.
POWER: Now strike with all your force to lock the shackles.
The great Inspector*6 won’t be trifled with.
HEPHAESTUS: Such ugly words—they match your ugly form.
POWER: Better to speak more gently. It’s not your place
80
to cast insults if I’m strong-willed and tough.
HEPHAESTUS: I’m going now. His limbs are tightly bound.
(Exits.)
POWER: (to Prometheus) Now go and do your worst—steal from the gods
and give their prize to mortals! Your human friends—
how can they help you drain this sea of troubles?
The gods who called you Foresight*7 named you wrong.
It’s foresight that you lack. You need it now—
to tell you how you can get out of this.
(Power and Might exit, leaving Prometheus alone onstage.)
PROMETHEUS: You, sacred air, and you, swift-soaring winds,
you, springs of rivers, you, endless sparkling sheen
90
of ocean waves, and you, all-mothering earth,
all-seeing circuit of sun—I call on you.
See what I suffer, a god, at the hands of gods.*8
Worn down, outraged—See how!—
I shall drag out ten thousand years
of weary time.
Such is the outrageous penalty
the new prince of the gods has found.
(moaning) pheu! pheu! I groan at every pain,
the one that’s here, the one to come,
100
wondering where the end of burdens lies.
But what am I saying? I knew what lay ahead,
knew everything beforehand. Nothing strange
will ever come to pain me. I must endure
my destined lot, certain that the power
of Necessity is too strong to be broken.
I cannot keep my evil fortunes silent,
yet cannot voice them, either. Such are the bonds
by which I’m yoked, for giving fire to men.
Yes, I did give it—hunted it, sealed it in fennel—
110
the wellspring of flame, teacher of every craft,
a help for every need in mortal life.
That’s the crime for which I now must pay,
beneath the open sky, spitted to the rocks.
(listening) Ah! Ah!
What sound? What noiseless smell is this?
Is it divine, or mortal, or mixed,
This thing that has reached me at earth’s end?
What does it want—To watch me suffer?
You there! Look at me, a god in chains,
120
foe of great Zeus, the target of hate
for all the gods, those courtiers
who come and go in Zeus’ halls—
because I loved mankind too much.
pheu! pheu! Is that rustle I hear
the sound of nearby birds? The air
is whistling with the strokes of wings!
Whatever nears me brings me dread.
(The Chorus of young women, the daughters of Ocean, appear, seeming to hover in an airborne vehicle.)
strophe 1
CHORUS: Don’t be afraid. We are your friends,
we who now vie on fleets of wings
130
to reach this place, with hard-won leave
from Ocean, our father.
We found swift winds to bring us here,
for a dreadful din of hammered steel
shot through our cave, shaking away
all grave-faced shame. No time for shoes;
we sped here in our winged car.
PROMETHEUS: (cries in surprise) aiai! aiai!
Children of Tethys—she who bore many—
and of the one who twists around
the whole of the earth with unceasing flow,
140
father Ocean—look here, see here
how I am pinned with chain, and hold
on the upper crag of this jagged cliff
a guard-post none would want.
antistrophe 1
CHORUS: We see, Prometheus. A fearsome mist
of tears has clouded our eyes, as we look
at your body stretched out here,
baked and withered on this rock,
outraged by chains of hardest steel.
New are the steersmen who hold Olympus;
150
new are the laws by which Zeus rules,
laws that do not deserve the name.
He has locked away the gargantuans of old.*9
PROMETHEUS: Would he had buried me with them, deep down,
bound me there with unbending chains,
in Tartarus’ endless pit, and the halls
of Hades, trader in corpses. Then no one,
no god, no mortal, would laugh over this.
But no—I suffer in open air,
tossed by the winds, a joy to my foes.
strophe 2
160
CHORUS: Who takes such joy? What god
has such a flinty heart? Who wouldn’t
mourn instead for your pains? Only Zeus—
the one who has set his mind forever
against the race of Uranus,*10
the one who will not cease from spite
until he is sated, or until
some trickster seizes his hard-won crown.
PROMETHEUS: Yes, that’s so. Even though I’m now disgraced,
bound hand and foot,
170
yet the head man of the blessed
will one day need me to reveal
the new design by which his staff
of power will be snatched away.
When that day comes I will not yield
to the spell of his honeyed, coaxing words,
nor bend before his iron threats;
nothing will make me tell what I know,
until he undoes these pitiless bonds
and pays me back the ways that he’s outraged me.
antistrophe 2
180
CHORUS: That’s brave. You don’t give in
to the gnawing pain.
But you speak too freely.
A piercing fear stirs up my mind,
a dread of where your path might lead,
where you might find
an end of strife
and reach safe harbor. For Cronus’ son
has an iron heart that can’t be swayed.
PROMETHEUS: He’s tough, I know, and gives no ground
190
when he makes his verdicts. Even so,
his heart will soften in the end,
when he’s destroyed by what’s to come.
Then his temper will be soothed,
/>
and he’ll look to me as ally and friend.
He’ll rush toward me—and I toward him.
CHORUS: Uncover all and tell us everything.
On what charge did Zeus make you prisoner,
heaping such shame and outrages upon you?
Teach us your tale—unless it might bring you harm.
PROMETHEUS: It’s painful even to speak these things, but also
200
pain not to speak them. Ill fate either way.
When the gods began their rage at one another
and civil strife was stirred up in their ranks,
some wanting to pitch Cronus off his throne
so that their precious Zeus might reign, the rest
striving to guarantee Zeus wouldn’t rule,
then I brought forth my strategies, and urged them
on Titan gods—offspring of Earth and Sky—
but couldn’t win their trust. Minds set on force,
they spurned my tricks and subtleties, and thought
210
that they’d use strength to stay in power, no trouble.
And yet my mother—Themis, call her, or Gaea,
she’s the same under all her names—had often
foretold to me just what the future held,
that force and strength of arm would not be needed,
but those with greater craft and wiles would rule.
Though I explained these matters to the Titans
they didn’t care to even look them over.
Of all my options then, this seemed the best:
to take my mother with me, and join sides
220
with Zeus, as both he wanted and I wanted;
it was by my schemes that the deep, dark pit
of Tartarus now hides the ancient Cronus,
him and his allies. But getting all this from me,
the tyrant of the gods has paid me back
with foul rewards—these chains you see me in.
An illness somehow sickens all usurpers:
the inability to trust their friends.
But I’ll now answer what you asked: the charge
on which he visits outrages upon me.
230
Newly seated on his father’s throne,
he set out to divide up spoils and put
his reign in order. But he had no regard
for the long-suffering race of men. He planned
to make them vanish, and create a new race.
No one opposed this plan, except for me.
I had the courage. I spared humankind
from going, broken, to the depths of Hades.
Thus comes it that I’m bent under these scourges—
240
painful to suffer, grievous to look upon.
I put men first in pity, and then found
there was none left for me. Without mercy
I’m forced into line—a sight to bring Zeus shame.
CHORUS: Iron-hearted or made of stone are they
who would not grieve, Prometheus, for your troubles.
As for me, I wish I’d never seen them.
But having seen, I’m pierced straight through the heart.
PROMETHEUS: To friends I am indeed a sight to pity.
CHORUS: Did you perhaps do more than what you’ve told us?
250
PROMETHEUS: I allowed mankind to stop foreseeing doom.
CHORUS: What medicine did you find for that disease?
PROMETHEUS: I planted in them hopes that would obscure it.
CHORUS: That was a worthy gift you gave to mortals.
PROMETHEUS: There’s more. I gave them fire as their companion.
CHORUS: So now the mortal race owns blazing fire?
PROMETHEUS: Yes, and they’ll learn many arts from it.
CHORUS: Then it’s for crimes like these that Zeus decided—
PROMETHEUS: —to wreak atrocities and not relent.
CHORUS: Is there no appointed limit for your struggle?
260
PROMETHEUS: None, except whatever day he chooses.
CHORUS: Choose—why would he? What hope in that? Don’t you see
that you’ve gone wrong? No joy for me to say
how wrong you’ve gone—and pain for you to hear.
Let’s leave that. Seek some respite from your toils.
PROMETHEUS: An easy thing, when standing clear of troubles,
to counsel and advise with thoughtful words
those laboring on the rack. I know all this.
I chose to go wrong, and I won’t deny it.
I helped mankind, and brought pains on myself.
270
But I never thought he’d give me pains like these—
hung out to parch upon this spire of rock,
exiled to a desert, neighborless, alone.
But don’t, I pray you, grieve for present evils.
Step down onto the ground, and hear what’s coming—
learn how my story runs, and how it ends.
Do this, I beg you! Share the heavy burden
of him who toils before you. For you know
that pain’s a wanderer—it roams now here, now there.
CHORUS:*11 What you ask, Prometheus,
280
is what I want. With nimble foot
I now desert this speedy perch
and the air, the holy path for birds,
to join you on your jagged rock;
for I want to hear straight to the end
your tale of troubles.
(The Chorus step from their conveyance onto the stage. At that moment Ocean, their father, enters, mounted on a monstrous bird, perhaps a griffin.)
OCEAN:*12 I have come to you, Prometheus,
at the end of a very long road,
steering this swift-winged bird
by my thoughts, without need of reins.
290
Know this: that I grieve your misfortunes.
Kinship*13 alone decrees this, I think,
but also, beyond our ties of blood,
there is no one whom I favor more
than I do you.
You will soon know how true I speak;
I use no empty, wheedling words.
Just say what I can do to help.
You’ll never claim a surer friend
than I who stand before you—Ocean.
300
PROMETHEUS: Ha! What’s this? Are you here, too, arriving
to gawk at pains? How did you find the nerve
to leave the river that bears your name, your caves,
those rock-roofed caves that nature carved, to come here—
to a land that’s iron’s mother?*14 Come to see
my misfortunes, as you say, and share my pain?
Behold the sight. See how the friend of Zeus,
the one who helped establish him in rule,
is crippled by him under pains like these.
OCEAN: I see them, Prometheus, and I bring advice,
310
what’s best for you—though I know you’re always scheming.
Learn to know yourself, and learn new ways.
For new, too, is the ruler of the gods.
If you throw down these harsh and whetted words,
perhaps, though throned on high and far removed,
Zeus may hear you, and make this host of toils
you suffer now seem only children’s games.
You must, poor wretch, give up this mood of yours
and seek a way to free yourself from troubles.
Perhaps my words will seem old-fashioned to you.
320
But the wages of a too-proud tongue, Prometheus,
are the kinds of things you’re undergoing now.
You’re not yet humbled; you don’t yield to troubles,
but always seek to add to those you have.
Adopt my teachings, and you will no longer
kick out against the goads that sting; you’ll see
that cruel monarchs can’t be audited.*15
Yet I shall go to him. I’ll do what I can
to free you from the pains that now beset you.
Just hold your peace. Don’t give your tongue free rein.
330
With all your wisdom, you find it hard to see
that useless ranting brings on punishment.
PROMETHEUS: Congratulations. You’ve stayed free of blame,
although you dared to share my lot with me.*16
I tell you, let this be. Don’t let it vex you.
You won’t persuade him anyway; he’s past that.
Look to your safety. Going there might harm you.
OCEAN: You’re better at looking out for those near to you
than for yourself. I judge by deeds, not words.
But don’t stand in the way of what I’ve started.
340
I tell you this: Zeus will give what I ask;
as a gift to me, he’ll free you from these labors.
PROMETHEUS: I praise this in you, and I’ll go on praising:
You have no lack of zeal. But save your effort.
Your troubles will be in vain and will not help me,
if indeed you’re willing to go so far—to act.
Remain at peace, don’t get yourself involved;
Just because I’m suffering, I don’t want
my sufferings to spread to each and all.
No way. My brother’s fate already grieves me,
350
Atlas, who stands in the western tracts of the world,
propping upright the pillar of earth and heaven
with his two shoulders, a weight beyond all bearing.*17
I’ve seen as well the earth-born one—grim monster—
as he crouched in Cilician caves, and pitied him;
he of the hundred heads, brought low by might,
the raging Typho.*18 He fought all gods at once,
hissing out terror from his fearsome jaws,
ferocious lightnings shooting from his eyes,
as if to take down Zeus’ rule by force.
360
But at him came the unsleeping bolt of Zeus,
the sky-dropped thunderclap all wreathed in flame,
and knocked him down from his high-hearted boasts.
The blow went deep into his heart and mind;
his strength was lightning-seared, reduced to ash;
and now he lies, a useless, sprawling mass,
crushed beneath the base of mighty Aetna,*19
beside the straits of the Messinian sea.
Hephaestus sits there, on the highest ridges,
and smites hot iron. Streams of fire will burst forth,*20
370
devouring with the jaws of savage beasts
the spreading fields of Sicily fair in fruit—
The Greek Plays Page 24
