No More Learning

Chorus —
Woman, what blood but that of Troy, which Zeus Foredoomed for expiation by his hand
For whom the penalty was pledged ? And now, Over his murdered body, Thou
Talk of libation ! — Thou ! Thou ! Thou !
But mark ! Not thine of sacred wine
Over his head, but ours on thine
Of curse, and groan, and torn-up stone,
To slay or storm thee from the gate,
The City's curse, the People's hate,
Execrate, exterminate —
Clytemnestra —
Ay, ay, to me how lightly you adjudge
Exile or death, and never had a word
Of counter condemnation for Him there ;
Who, when the field throve with the proper flock For Sacrifice, forsooth let be the beast,
And with his own hand his own innocent
Blood, and the darling passion of my womb — Her slew — to lull a peevish wind of Thrace.
And him who cursed the city with that crime You hail with acclamation ; but on me,
Who only do the work you should have done, You turn the ax of condemnation. Well ; Threaten you me, I take the challenge up ;
288
J2SCHYLUS' AGAMEMNON.
Here stand we face to face ; win Thou the game, And take the stake you aim at ; but if I— Then, by the Godhead that for me decides, Another lesson you shall learn, though late.
Chorus —
Man-mettled evermore, and now Manslaughter-maddened ! Shameless brow ! But do you think us deaf and blind
Chorus —
Woe, woe, woe, woe ! That death as sudden as the blow
That laid Thee low would me lay low Where low thou liest, my sovereign Lord ! Who ten years long to Trojan sword Devoted, and to storm aboard,
In one ill woman's cause accurst, Liest slain before thy palace door
By one accursedest and worst !
Not to know, and long ago,
What Passion under all the prate
Of holy justice made thee hate — Where Love was due, and love where
Avenging Fury of my slaughtered child,
I swear I will not reign the slave of fear
While he that holds me, as I hold him, dear,
Kindles his fire upon this hearth : my fast
Shield for the time to come, as of the past.
Yonder lies he that in the honeyed arms
Of his ChryseideB under Troy walls
Dishonored mine : and this last laureled wench, Prophetic messmate of the rower's bench,
Thus far in triumph his, with him along
Shall go, together chanting one death song
To Hades — fitting garnish for the feast
Which Fate's avenging hand through mine hath drest
Clytemnestra —
Nay, then, hear ! By this dead Husband, and the reconciled
Clytemnestra —
Call not on Death, old man, that, called or no,
Comes quick ; nor spend your ebbing breath on me,
Nor Helena : who but as arrows be Shot by the hidden hand behind the bow.
Chorus — Alas, alas ! The Curse I know
That round the House of Atreus clings,
About the roof, about the walls, Shrouds it with his sable wings ;
^SCHYLUS' AGAMEMNON.
And still as each new victim falls, And gorged with kingly gore,
Down on the bleeding carcass flings, And croaks for " More, more, more ! "
Clytemnestra —
Ay, now, indeed, you harp on likelier strings. Not I, nor Helen, but that terrible
Alastor of old Tantalus in Hell;
Who, one sole actor in the scene begun
By him, and carried down from sire to son,
The mask of Victim and Avenger shifts : And, for a last catastrophe, that grim
Guest of the abominable banquet lifts His head from Hell, and in my person cries For one full-grown sufficient sacrifice,
Requital of the feast prepared for him
Of his own flesh and blood — And there it lies.
Chorus —
O Agamemnon ! O my Lord ! Who, after ten years toiled ;
After barbarian lance and sword Encountered, fought, and foiled ;
Returning with the just award Of Glory, thus inglorious by Thine own domestic Altar die,
Fast in the spider meshes coiled
Of Treason most abhorred !
Clytemnestra —
And by what retribution more complete,
Than, having in the meshes of deceit
Enticed my child, and slain her like a fawn Upon the altar ; to that altar drawn
Himself, like an unconscious beast, full-fed With Conquest, and the garland on his head,
Is slain ? and now, gone down among the Ghost, Of taken Troy indeed may make the most,
But not one unrequited murder boast.
What hand, what pious hand shall wash the wound Through which the sacred spirit ebbed and fled !
With reverend care composed, and to the ground Commit the mangled form of Majesty,
And pour the due libation o'er the mound ! Clytemnestra —
This hand, that struck the guilty life away, VOL. III. — 19
Cliorus —
Oh, Agamemnon, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead !
290
Chorus
. ESCHYLUS' AGAMEMNON.
The guiltless carcass in the dust shall lay
With due solemnities : and if with no
Mock tears, or howling counterfeit of woe,
On this side earth ; perhaps the innocent thing, Whom with paternal love he sent before, Meeting him by the melancholy shore,
Her arms about him with a kiss shall fling, — And lead him to his shadowy throne below.
Alas ! alas ! the fatal rent
Which through the house of Atreus went, Gapes again ; a purple rain
Sweats the marble floor, and falls
From the tottering roof and walls,
The Demon heaving under ; gone
The master prop they rested on :
And the storm once more awake
Of Nemesis ; of Nemesis Whose fury who shall slake !
Clytemnestra — Even I
Chorus
; who by this last grand victim hope The Pyramid of Vengeance so to cope,
That — and methinks I hear him in the deep
Beneath us growling toward his rest — the stern
Alastor to some other roof may turn, Leaving us here at last in peace to keep
—What of life's harvest yet remains to reap. Thou to talk of reaping Peace
Who sowest Murder ! Woman,
And, despite that iron face —
Iron as the bloody mace
Thou bearest — boasting as if Vengeance
Centered in that hand alone ;
Know that, Fury pledged to Fury, Vengeance owes himself the debts
He makes, and while he serves thee, whets His knife upon another stone,
Against thyself, and him with thee Colleaguing, as you boast to be,
The tools of Fate. But Fate is Zeus ;
Zeus — who for a while permitting
Sin to prosper in his name,
Shall vindicate his own abuse ;
And having brought his secret thought To light, shall break and fling to shame The baser tools with which he wrought.
cease !
^SCHYLUS' AGAMEMNON.
^Egisthus —
All hail, thou daybreak of my just revenge !
In which, as waking from injurious sleep, Methinks I recognize the Gods enthroned
In the bright conclave of eternal Justice, Revindicate the wrongs of man to man !
For see this man —so dear to me now dead — Caught in the very meshes of the snare
By which his father Atreus netted mine.
For that same Atreus surely, was it not ?
Who, wrought by false Suspicion to fixed Hate, From Argos out his younger brother drove,
My sire — Thyestes — drove him like a wolf, Keeping his cubs — save one — to better purpose. For when at last the home-heartbroken man
Crept humbly back again, craving no more
Of his own country than to breathe its air
In liberty, and of her fruits as much
As not to starve withal — the savage King,
With damnable alacrity of hate,
And reconciliation of revenge, —
Bade him, all smiles, to supper such a supper, Where the prime dainty was — my brother's flesh, So maimed and dipt of human likelihood,
That the unsuspecting Father, light of heart,
And quick of appetite, at once fell to,
And ate — ate — what, with savage irony
As soon as eaten, told — the wretched man Disgorging with a shriek, down to the ground
The table with its curst utensil dashed,
And, grinding into pieces with his heel,
Cried, loud enough for Heaven and Hell to hear,
" Thus perish all the race of Pleisthenes ! "
And now behold ! the son of that same Atreus
By me the son of that Thyestes slain
Whom the kind brother, sparing from the cook, Had with his victim packed to banishment ;
Where Nemesis — (so sinners from some nook, Whence least they think assailable, assailed) — Reared me from infancy till fully grown,
To claim in full my father's bloody due.
Ay, I it was — none other — far away
Who spun the thread, which gathering day by day Mesh after mesh, inch upon inch, at last
Reached him, and wound about him, as he lay,
292
JSSCHYLUS' AGAMEMNON.
And in the supper of his smoking Troy Devoured his own destruction — scarce condign Return for that his Father forced on mine.
Chorus —
jEgisthus, only things of haser breed
Insult the fallen ; fallen too, as you boast,
By one who planned but dared not do the deed. This is your hour of triumph. But take heed ; The blood of Atreus is not all outrun
With this slain King, but flowing in a son, Who saved by such an exile as your own
For such a counter retribution —
^Egisthus — Oh,
You then, the nether benches of the realm, Dare open tongue on those who rule the helm ? Take heed yourselves ; for, old and dull of wit, And hardened as your mouth against the bit, Be wise in time ; kick not against the spurs ; Remembering Princes are shrewd taskmasters.
Chorus — Beware thyself, bewaring me ; Remembering that, too sharply stirred,
The spurrer need beware the spurred j As thou of me ; whose single word Shall rouse the City — yea, the very
Stones you walk upon, in thunder Gathering o'er your head, to bury
Thee and thine Adultress under ! JEgisthus — Raven, that with croaking jaws
Unorphean, undivine, After you no City draws ;
And if any vengeance, mine — Chorus — Upon your withered shoulders
Who daring not to strike the blow
Thine !
Thy worse than woman craft designed, —To worse than woman —
uiEgisthus — Soldiers, ho ! Clytemnestra
Softly, good JSgisthus, softly ; let the sword that has so deep
Drunk of righteous Retribution now within the scabbard sleep !
And if Nemesis be sated with the blood already spilt, Even so let us, nor carry lawful Justice into Guilt Sheathe your sword; dismiss your spears; and you, Old
men, your howling cease,
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT.
293
And, ere ill blood come to running, each unto his home in peace, Recognizing what is done for done indeed, as done it is,
And husbanding your soanty breath to pray that nothing more amiss. Farewell. Meanwhile, you and I, jEgisthus, shall deliberate,
When the storm is blowing under, how to settle House and State.
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT. By RICHARD GARNETT.
(From " Iphigenia in Delphi. ")
[Richakd Garnett, C. B. , LL. D. , English poet and man of letters, was born at Lichfield, England, in 1836 ; son and namesake of the Assistant Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum. He was himself in its service from 1851 to 1899, latterly as Keeper of Printed Books. He has published, besides vol umes of collected original poems, " Poems from the German," " A Cbaplet from the Greek Anthology," "Sonnets from Dante, Petrarch, and Camoens" ; also "Io in Egypt," "Iphigenia in Delphi," "The Twilight of the Gods," etc. ; Lives of Milton, Carlyle, Emerson, William Blake, and Edward Gibbon Wake field ; " History of Italian Literature," etc. ]
[Aroument. — An oracle declared that Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, must be sacrificed to Artemis, to procure a passage to Troy for the Grecian fleet lying becalmed at Aulis. Iphigenia was brought to Aulis under pretense of a marriage with Achilles, and was about to be put to death when Artemis substituted a hind in her place, and conveyed her to Taurls in Scythia, where she became priestess. The Greeks believed that she bad been actually sacrificed, and it was partly in revenge for this deed that Agamemnon was murdered on his return from Troy, by his wife Clytemnestra. When Agamem non's son Orestes had grown up, he took vengeance on Clytemnestra and her paramour iEgisthus by the help of his sister Electra ; and then, being persecuted by the Furies on account of the death of his mother, repaired to Delphi to ask counsel of Apollo. He was directed to go to Tauris and carry off the statue of Artemis. In this he succeeded by the aid of Iphigenia, and returned in her com pany to Delphi, to be purified from the murder of Clytemnestra. Meanwhile Electra, who was ignorant of the existence of Iphigenia, had also repaired to Delphi to inquire respecting the fate of her long absent brother, and to consecrate the ax with which Clytemnestra had slain Agamemnon, and with which she had in turn been destroyed by Orestes. — Gabnbtt. ]
Eurycles [entering the temple] —
Daughter of Agamemnon, turn and hear A heavy word from a reluctant tongue.
Electra —
Who art thou, man ? whence sent ? what thing to tell ?
294
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Eurycles —
One of Orestes' comrades, bound with him
To Scythia — bound without him back to Greece.
Electra —
Without ! without ! Thou darest not to call Orestes dead!
Eurycles — I have not seen him die. Electra —
Then animate ? Thou darest to be mute ! Eurycles —
0 princess, listen only to my tale,
And I will tell thee truly all I know. Electra —
Speak quickly, while I yet have life to hear. Eurycles —
Long did the north wind baffle, but at length
We gained the coast of massacre, and found
A cave low-arched, wave-whispering, at its mouth, But vaulted loftily within, and dry.
Therein we entered, and with food and drink Refreshed ourselves ; and then Orestes spake,
" Rest here, my friends, while Pylades with us Goes forth to explore this region, what it
And how the goddess' image may be won. "
And so they parted, venturous but the hours Wore on, nor came there any sign from them. Then took we counsel, and cast forth lot
For perquisition, and fell on me.
Then went forth, and found an open space Before moated city, and in
Pylades and thy brother standing bound
Their armor rent from them, their dress defiled With blood and dust, and from the brow of each Oozed the thick sullen droppings, and judged Our friends the booty of
Beset by rustics armed with clubs and stones,
And turned me round to fly but as turned Came forth wondrous woman tall and fair, Grecian in aspect, in Grecian garb
Draping her stateliness symmetrical.
And truly had deemed her Artemis,
But that, the while she approached and shore lock From either captive, thundering pealed acclaim Exultant from the barbarous multitude,
" The priestess, who shall give the men to death "
multitude.
a !
I
a
a
I
a
it
a ;
it I
;
I
;
a
is,
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT.
I turned and fled, and flying saw her still
And hastening to our ambush I called forth
My comrades to the rescue, but alas !
One said, How shall we brave a host in arms ? And one, The slaughter is performed ere this. And one, The Pythian but fulfills his pledge — What peace is peaceful as the peace of death ? And so we sailed. Alas ! regard me not
So rigidly with thy dismaying eyes !
For verily, had I prevailed, thou hadst heard Thy brother's fortune from thy brother's lips, Or never from the lips of any man.
Electro, —
1 hate thee not, but get thee from my sight.
Eurycles —
I go as thou commandest, yet not far :
Full surely thou wilt soon have need of me.
295
[Goes out.
Electro, —
Now see I all the blindness of our race,
Now see I all the malice of the gods.
O my Orestes ! O my brother ! now
A mangled victim ! who could e'er conceive
The time to have been when thou didst come a swift Avenger, terrible and beautiful,
Yet cloaked with craft, unrecognizable,
Bearing the urn thou feign'dst to contain thy dust ? And I believed, and took it to my arms,
And wept such tears as I am shedding now,
But then did never deem to shed again ;
Till thy dear heart was melted, and thy arms
Met sudden round my neck, and thou didst cry,
" Believe it not, Electra, but believe
Thou clasp'st the living brother, not the dead,"
Who had not deemed me mad had I rejoined :
" I would, Orestes, that the tale were true.
Yet, had it been true, then hadst thou obtained Decorous rights of sepulture most meet,
Paid by a kindred hand, thy sister had warmed
Thy chill ash for a little with her breast,
And then avenged it. Yea, this hand had reeked And dripped with the adulterous blood, thou pure, And I sole quarry of the hounds of hell. "
Ah me ! the gladness I was glad to lose !
What sudden thought grasps and enkindles me ? The wheel of circumstance brings all things back.
296
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT. Again thou diest, my brother, and again
[Snatches a brand from the altar.
Iphigenia [entering] —
Ha, wretched ! what art doing with that brand ?
My vengeance lives. Alas !
And with this hatchet cleave thy hateful head, And spill thy abominable blood accursed, Vassal of Artemis. But thou, false god, Smooth murderer with ambiguous oracles, Thou art not safe, as thou esteem'st thyself. Look down, and thou shalt see to what a deed A desperate heart can prompt a daring hand. Forsake thy nectared and ambrosial feast,
And save thy shrine, if thou art indeed a god !
Electra —
I fire the fane of a deceitful god.
Iphigenia —
Nay, truly, if this hand can hinder thee.
Electra —
Ah me ! the brand is caught from out my grasp.
Iphigenia —
Thou seest, the weak are strong by piety.
Electra —
0 miserable slave of the Unjust !
May these requite thee, abject, with the doom Bestowed by them upon the brave and free ! Thou hast a brother ? — mayst thou see him die ! A sister ? — mayst thou slay her with thy hand !
Iphigenia —
Curse, frantic, with a curse I do not heed ; For surely thou art crazed with wretchedness.
Electra —
O maiden, as a mother who has lost Daughter or son, clasps the insensible urn, And fondles and feigns her child— So thee, though thou art colder than an urn, Yet will feign another, and will make Thee umpire of my quarrel with the gods.
had — alas alas — brother his name Thou knowest not, nor shalt suffice, he turned Hither, inquiring of his death or life.
I cannot go,
Electra —
Thou wouldst then rather I should burn thy eyes!
Iphigenia —
Apollo will protect his combatant.
I
I !
it, !
a
is ;
it
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT. 297
Now, that the god said " death," who would have blamed ? But it was little for my brother to die,
Unless the gods could have their sport with him,
So he was told, " Find such and such, and rest. "
He went to find and he found the grave. Now, stood and railed, the god would say, " What rest so deep as the grave's quietude "
base, contemptible, and lying god — see thou chokest with thy zeal to earn
The wages of thy supple abjectness.
Come, plead thy master's cause, and be repaid With some reward unenviable by me.
Iphigenia —
Alas for all thy solemn hierarchy,
Olympus, and the order that controls
The world, had Love dominion for an hour
But this was craft and wisdom of the gods,
That, knowing Love by nature masterful,
Inconstant, willful, proud, tyrannical,
They compassed him with all fragility,
Set him at subtlest variance with himself,
Stronger than Change or Death, than Time that leaves The storied bronze with unengraven front,
Yet weak as weakness' self; nor weak alone,
But without weakness inconceivable.
Say now we grant were impossible
Thy brother should perish, had found thee here Asking the god for him with thy wild voice
Thou buyest not Love save with the anxious heart That quakes at what may happen —often mutt;
Else were thy love as empty as thy fear.
Electra —
Methinks hear the main's inhabitant Marveling why the foolish seaman drowns. Thy brother alive, and mine dead.
Iphigenia —
'Tis for that thing pity thee, and now Would offer thee sister in his room.
Electra —
Thee for sister, heartless Say as soon Artemis' image, or her cruel self
Or even her satellite, the murderess.
Iphigenia —
Alas thou knowest not what thou dost reject. But why curse Artemis 'tis her serve.
?
I
! ;
is I ? ! ?
! !
if I
a
I is
aI it
it,
1O
!
298
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Electra —
Thou servest Artemis ! Had I but known ! Off! off! detested!
Iphigenia — Whence this frantic rage ? Electra —
Off ! ere I smite thee ! Thou, my sister, thou ! Iphigenia —
Again I warn thee that thou dost reject
Thou knowest not what. A sister's were a breast Whereon to weep, venting in raining tears
The fury thou amassest now in clouds,
And hurlest at the gods in thunderbolts.
Electra —
Hear, then :
I had a sister, and have not.
Iphigenia —
Wretched, by what calamity deprived ?
Electra —
A Mighty One (inquire not for her name)
Looked upon her, and thought — How beautiful ! Simple, and sweet, and innocent, and blithe
With buoyant life, yet must the virgin die,
For I have some strange pleasure in her death. Wherefore she took the maid and slaughtered her.
Electra —
Sister, ere me a victim of the Unjust,
Leave ghostly Acheron, if thou canst,
And see awhile, how thy beloved avenges thee !
Iphigenia —
Thou talkest idly ; grief hath turned thy brain. Ah me ! Thy eyes blaze, and a fire of light
Is poured upon thee, all from head to foot.
Eurycles —
Behold thy brother's murderess !
Iphigenia — I? I? Eurycles —
[Snatches a brand from the altar.
Iphigenia —
Mad woman, cease ! ah me ! help ! rescue ! help !
Eurycles [running in] —
What means this clamor and commotion ?
[Perceiving Iphigenia] Gods!
Electra —
Thou palsiest me with look unspeakable.
The Scythian woman, vowed to Artemis !
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT. 299
Electro, — I
Kind gods, do not curse ye any more.
[Snatches the ax from the altar, and strikes Iphigenia.
Die, hatefullest !
[Iphigenia falls.
O drunkenness of joy !
Aye, moan. Thy moans are music to mine ears.
Orestes [entering] —
Eyes ! what do ye behold ?
Electra — Eurycles — Electra —
Orestes !
Prince !
O crown of life !
Off ! off ! abominable ! O temple, fall upon us ! bury us !
Electra ! wretch detestable !
Iphigenia — Electra !
Hasten and kiss me ere it be too late !
Electra —
Orestes, to this sudden shock of joy
My whole frame thrills responsive,
My full heart's
Glad clamor in my bosom silences
All dissonancy, and I do not ask,
How here ? how sped ? how saved ? how taken for lost ? Or why thou spurnest my embrace, the while
Thou kneelest to caress a murderer.
[Rising.
Orestes —
O day of happiness ! Orestes! clasp —
[Dies. Orestes throws himself upon the body.
Orestes [not regarding Electra] —
O speak, look, make some sign, or only breathe !
Electra —
How, when thou deign'st no look or word to me ?
Orestes —
Thou slayest me, counterfeiting to be slain.
Electra —
Met ever brother with a greeting like this ?
Orestes —
Woe ! woe ! it is most certain she is dead. Peace, execrable, red with sister's blood !
Electra —
Orestes, thou art mad or mockest me.
What ravest thou of sisters and their blood ? Look upon me, thou hast no sister else.
Orestes —
Too true the word thou spakest then, accursed ! Yet rather say I have no sister at all,
300
FATE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT.
For never will I hail thee sister more. Electro, —
Alas ! alas ! the Fury grasps thee again !
Too long have I perceived thou knowest me not O hide thee in my bosom, ere she gaze
Thy heart cold with her petrifying eyes 1
Orestes —
I
Electro, [to Iphigenia] —
see indeed a Fury, seeing thee.
Abominable ! more hateful than I
Who thought thee but his murderer, for then Most surely I had kissed him by the Styx. But thou hast stolen his love away from me And how to win it back I do not know.
Orestes —
Thou sayest well : not the abyss of Acheron Could part us with a chasm like thy crime.
Electro —
Why ravest thou, and idly talk'st of crime ?
I have slain who would have slain thee, have I not ?
deemed.
Orestes —
No, thou hast murdered my deliverer.
Electro —
What ? not the ministrant of Artemis ?
Orestes —
Yea ; and thy sister, for thy better knowledge.
Electro —
O foolish ! Deem'st thou her Chrysothemis ?
Orestes —
Chrysothemis sleeps sound in Argive earth.
Electro —
And all men know Iphigenia slain At Aulis, by the vengeful Artemis.
Orestes —
Thou art near the mark ; yet call the place Delphi, not Aulis, and the murderer of blood Electra, and no longer Artemis.
For Artemis was merciful, and caught
The victim away in darkness, and the Greeks Slaughtered a hind, esteeming it the maid.
But she was rapt to Tauris, there became
The priestess of the sanctuary, gave
Me life and sweet return, for herself took death, For thee, most miserable, fratricide.
Electra —
Apollo, how art thou avenged of me !
^SCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS. 301
PROMETHEUS.
By . S8CHYLUS.
(Version of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. )
[Elizabeth Barrett was born in Durham, England, 1809, and became deeply versed in classics and philosophy, whioh inspired and perraded her earli est work, the translation of " Prometheus Bound " (1833, rewritten 1850) and " The Seraphim " (1838). An invalid for many years, and always delicate, she was much secluded ; but having become attached to Robert Browning through her poem " Lady Geraldine's Courtship," eloped with and married him in 1846. They lived mostly in Italy till her death at Florence in 1861. Her most massive production, full of her best thought, feeling, and art, is the great verse novel " Aurora Leigh " (1856). " Casa Guidi Windows " (1848-1851) deals with the revolution of 1848. The sequence "Sonnets from the Portuguese" is most widely known by name. Of the others, "The Cry of the Children," "The Swan's Nest," and " A Musical Instrument" are deservedly popular. ]
Chorus —
Remote the veil from all things and relate The story to us, — of what crime accused, Zeus smites thee with dishonorable 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 Chronos 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 forever, — I, who brought
The counsel 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,
302
-ESCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS.
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 Zeui
As willing to receive her. Tartarus, With its abysmal cloister of the Dark,
Because I
The antique Chronos and his siding hosts,
And, by that counsel helped, 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
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
dared it !
I
drew mortals back to light,
gave that counsel, covers up
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.
To fly this sight ; and, now I gaze on
sicken inwards. Prometheus —
— must Chorus
be a sad
To my friends, indeed, sight.
And didst thou sin
No more than so
Prometheus — did restrain besides
My mortals from premeditating death. Chorus —
How didst thou medicine the plague fear of death Prometheus —
set blind Hopes to inhabit in their house.
Iyearned before
III
?
? I
it,
^SCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS.
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.
Chorus —
And truly for such sins Zeus tortures thee And will remit no anguish ? Is there set No limit before thee to thine agony ?
Prometheus —
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
And 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 neighboring 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 ;
804 -ESCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS.
•— Prometheus
••#•••
And I drop to the rugged ground and there Await the tale of thy despair.
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 honors 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,
made them wise and true in aim of soul. I—
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 heirdom 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 seamen's chariots, wandering on the brine With linen wings. And I — oh, 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
-ESCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS.
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, colored 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 arts 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.
tol. in. — 20
306 . ESCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS.
Ohorua —
Is Zeus less absolute than these are ?
Prometheus — Tea, And therefore cannot fly what is ordained.
Chorus —
What is ordained for Zeus, except to be A king forever ?
Prometheus — 'Tis too early yet For thee to learn it : ask no more.
Chorus — Perhaps
Thy secret may be something holy ? Prometheus —
Turn In silence. For by that same secret kept,
To another matter : this, it is not time To speak abroad, but utterly to veil
'scape this chain's dishonor and its woe. ##•**•
I •
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
Heemes enters.
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 feet, Since Zeus, thou mayst 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, shamed to sudden ruin ? — Do I seem
To tremble and quail before your modern gods ?
^SCHYLUS' PROMETHEUS.
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.