Characters

VIOLENCE, servant of Zeus

hephaestus

prometheus

chorus of daughters of Oceanus

OCEANUS

IO, daughter of Inachus, loved by Zeus

HERMES

[Scene: A remote, uninhabited region of Scythia. One of the two side-passages is imagined to lead eventually to Olympus and Greece, the other to further lands at the edge of the world. Enter POWER and VIOLENCE, leading PROMETHEUS prisoner; they are accompanied by HEPHAESTUS, who is carrying his tools.]

POWER: We have reached the land at the furthest bounds of earth, the Scythian marches, a wilderness where no mortals live. Hephaestus, you must attend to the instructions the
4–5	Father has laid upon you, to bind this criminal to the high rocky cliffs in the unbreakable fetters of adamantine bonds; for it was your glory, the gleam of fire that makes all skills attainable, that he stole and gave to mortals. For such an
10	offence he must assuredly pay his penalty to the gods, to teach him that he must accept the autocracy of Zeus and abandon his human-loving ways.
HEPHAESTUS: So far as you two are concerned, Power and Violence,¹ the orders of Zeus have been completely fulfilled, and there is no task still lying before you. But for my part, I
15	can hardly bring myself to take a kindred god and forcibly bind him at this stormy ravine; still, I have no alternative but to endure doing it, for it is dangerous to slight the Father’s word. [To PROMETHEUS:] God of lofty cunning, son of
19–20	Themis² of wise counsel, I, under as much constraint as you, am going to nail you, with metal bonds hard to undo, to this rock, remote from men. Here you will hear no mortal voice, see no mortal form; you will lose the bloom of your skin, grilled by the brilliant flames of the sun; welcome to you will
25	be Night of the gaudy apparel when she hides the daylight, but welcome too the return of the sun to disperse the early- morning frost;³ and you will be continually worn down by the burden of one or another kind of suffering, for he who can relieve it is not yet born.⁴ This is what you have gained from your human-loving ways. Though a god, you did not
30	tremble before the anger of the gods, and you gave honours to mortals beyond what is right; in punishment for which you will keep watch on this rock, upright, without sleep, without bending your knee,⁵ and will utter many wailing laments, all in vain. The mind of Zeus is implacable – and
35	everyone is harsh when new to power.
POWER: Well, then, why are you waiting and grieving to no purpose? Why do you not loathe this god whom the gods hate so much, who traitorously gave your most prized possession to mortals?
HEPHAESTUS: Kinship is terribly powerful, you know, and so is companionship.⁶
40 POWER: I agree; but how is it possible to disobey the word of the Father? Are you not more in terror of that?
HEPHAESTUS: You are always pitiless and full of ruthlessness.
POWER: Because it does no good to lament over this fellow; so don’t waste effort when it won’t be of any use.
45 HEPHAESTUS: Oh, how I hate my craft skills!
POWER: Why do you hate them? Quite simply, your skills aren’t in any way responsible for the task you now have.⁷
HEPHAESTUS: All the same, I wish someone else had been allotted them.
50 POWER: Everything is burdensome, except ruling over the gods: no one is free but Zeus.
HEPHAESTUS: These things [indicating the bonds he is to fasten on PROMETHEUS] prove to me that that is so, and I have no way to argue otherwise.
POWER: Well, won’t you hurry up and put the bonds on him, so that the Father doesn’t look and see you idling?
HEPHAESTUS: Well, you can see that the harness is ready here.⁸
55 POWER: Then put it round his arms and with all the strength at your command strike with your hammer and nail it to the rock.
HEPHAESTUS [beginning to do so]: The job is being completed, you see, with no dallying.
POWER: Strike harder, squeeze him, don’t leave any slack! He’s very clever at finding ways out of impossible situations.
60 HEPHAESTUS: Well, this arm is fixed so it can hardly be freed.
62 POWER: Then pin down that other one safely too, so that he’ll learn, this intellectual,⁹ that Zeus is cleverer than he is.
72 HEPHAESTUS [as he finishes clamping the arms]: I’ve got to do it; you needn’t keep ordering me.
73, 71 POWER: I most certainly shall order you, in fact I’ll hound you on. Now put the armpit-bands around his ribcage.
63 HEPHAESTUS [doing so]: No one could justly find fault with me – except this one here.
64–5 POWER: Now drive the remorseless bite of the adamantine wedge with all your power right through his chest.
HEPHAESTUS [as he reluctantly prepares to do so]: Ah, Prometheus, I groan for your sufferings!
POWER: Hesitating again, are you? Grieving for the enemies of Zeus? Take care you don’t have cause to pity yourself, one of these days!
HEPHAESTUS [having fixed the wedge]: Do you see this sight, hard for eyes to look on?
70, 74 POWER: I see this fellow getting what he deserves. Move down, and hoop his legs strongly.
75 HEPHAESTUS [doing so]: There, the job is done; the work did not take long.
POWER: Now hammer in the pierced fetters¹⁰ with all your strength; for your work is being assessed by a tough appraiser.¹¹
HEPHAESTUS: Your tongue tells the same tale as your appearance.
79–80 POWER: You be soft if you want, but don’t make it into a reproach to me that I am implacable and have a harsh temper.
HEPHAESTUS [who has finished his work]:
	The trap is around his legs; let us go.
	[He leaves; POWER and VIOLENCE remain.]
POWER: There now, practise your impudence here, robbing the gods of their prerogatives and handing them over to beings who live for a day. How are mortals going to be able to bail
85	you out of these sufferings? The gods are wrong to call you Prometheus, ‘the Forethinker’; you now need someone to exercise forethought for you as to how you’re going to wriggle out of this piece of handiwork.
	[POWER and VIOLENCE depart.]

89–90 PROMETHEUS: O bright Sky, and you swift-flying winds, and river-springs, and you countless twinkling waves of the sea, and Earth, mother of all, behold what I, a god, am suffering at the hands of the gods!

	Look, with what indignities
94–5	I am tormented, to endure
	these trials for endless years!
	Such a degrading bondage has been invented for me
	by the new high commander of the Blest Ones.
	Alas, I groan for my present suffering
	and for that which is coming: where can one fix
99–100	a limit for these sorrows?

	But what am I saying? I have precise foreknowledge of all that will happen: none of my sufferings will come as a surprise. I must bear my destined fate as easily as may be, knowing
105	that the power of Necessity is unchallengeable. And yet it is impossible for me either to keep silence or to speak about my fortunes. I am in this wretchedness, yoked in these constraining bonds, because I gave privileges to mortals: I hunted
109–10	for, and stole, a source of fire, putting it into a fennel stalk,¹² and it has shown itself to be mortals’ great resource and their teacher of every skill. Such is the offence for which I am paying this penalty, pinned in these bonds under the open sky.

	[Suddenly] Hey, what is that?
115	What sound, what scent has been wafted to me, unseen,
	from gods, from mortals, or from both together?
	Has someone come to this rock at the end of the world
	to be a spectator of my sufferings – or what do they want?
	Behold me, the prisoner, the god in misery,
120	the enemy of Zeus, who incurred
	the hostility of all the gods
	who enter Zeus’ courts
	through being too friendly to mortals!
124–6	Ah, ah, what is this rustling sound of birds
	that I now hear close by? The air is whistling
	with the light beating of wings.
	Whatever approaches me makes me fearful!

	[Enter the CHORUS of nymphs, daughters of OCEANUS, seated in a winged vehicle or vehicles.¹³]
CHORUS:
	Have no fear: this is a friendly company
129–31	that has come to this rock
	on swift, striving wings, having with difficulty
	persuaded our father to consent.
	The swift breezes have borne and sped me here;
	for the sound of stroke on steel penetrated to the depths
	of my cave, and shocked my grave-faced modesty out of me;
135	and I hurried here, unshod, in a winged car.
PROMETHEUS:
	Ah me, ah me!
	Offspring of prolific Tethys,¹⁴
138–40	children of Father Oceanus,
	who rolls round the whole earth
	in tireless flood,
	look, see in what bonds
	I am pinned
	to the topmost cliffs of this ravine
	to keep an unenviable watch!

CHORUS:
144–5	I see, Prometheus; and fear brings rushing into my eyes
	a mist full of tears
	on seeing you
	left here to wither, bound to this rock
	by these degrading bonds of adamant.
	New rulers wield the helm on Olympus,
150	and Zeus rules arbitrarily by new-made laws;
	what once was mighty he now casts into oblivion.
PROMETHEUS:
	Would that he had cast me
	below the earth, below Hades who welcomes the dead,
	into boundless Tartarus,
155	and cruelly fixed me there with unbreakable chains,
	so that no god nor any other being
	could gloat over these afflictions!
	As it is, I wretchedly endure the buffeting
	of the winds high up, to my enemies’ delight.

CHORUS:
160	What god is so hard-hearted
	as to take delight in this?
	Who does not share the distress
	of your sufferings – except for Zeus? He, with constant anger,
	making his resolve inflexible,
165	is conquering the sons of Uranus,¹⁵ nor will he stop
	till either he has glutted his desires or by some contrivance
	another takes his power – which is hard to take.
PROMETHEUS:
	I tell you that even though my limbs are held
	in these strong, degrading fetters,
	the president of the immortals¹⁶ will yet have need of me,
170	to reveal the new plan by which
	he can be robbed of his sceptre and his privileges;
	and he will not charm me
	by the honey-tongued spells
	of persuasion, nor will I ever disclose it
	in terror of harsh menaces,
175	until he releases me from these savage bonds
	and consents to pay compensation
	for this degrading treatment.

CHORUS:
	You are audacious and unyielding
	in the face of these bitter pains,
180	and you speak too freely.
	A piercing fear agitates my mind,
	and I am afraid what may befall you:
	where are you ever to reach harbour and see a limit
184–5	to these sufferings? For the son of Cronus has a character
	that is immovable, a heart that is inexorable.
PROMETHEUS:
	He is harsh, I know, and makes justice
	as he pleases; all the same, I fancy,
	his mind will one day
	be softened, when he is shattered in the way I spoke of:
190	one day he will calm his stubborn wrath
	and come into unity and friendship with me,
	as eager for it as I will be.

CHORUS: Tell us everything and reveal the story: on what accusation did Zeus arrest you, to abuse you in such a cruel
195	and degrading way? Explain it to us, if it doesn’t harm you to do so.
PROMETHEUS: It is painful for me even to speak of these things, but it is also painful to keep silent: it is wretched either way. As soon as the gods began to quarrel and mutual strife was
200	stirred up among them, some wishing to depose Cronus from his throne – so that Zeus could reign, forsooth! – while those on the other side were determined that Zeus should never rule over the gods, at that time I gave the best advice to
205	the Titans, the children of Uranus and Gaea, but could not persuade them. They despised ingenious stratagems, and in the pride of their strength they thought they could retain control with ease by brute force. But my mother, Themis,
210	also called Gaea – one person under multiple names¹⁷ – had more than once prophesied to me how the future would come to pass, saying that it was destined that the victors should be those who excelled not in might nor in power but in guile.¹⁸
215	I spoke to them explaining this, but they simply did not see fit even to look at the idea. Well, it then seemed to me the best of the available options to stand beside Zeus in an alliance that both parties welcomed, taking my mother with
219–20	me; and by my counsels the black depths of Tartarus’ recesses now cover Cronus of ancient birth together with those who fought beside him. Such are the benefits that the autocrat of the gods has received from me, and this is the evil reward with which he has recompensed me! It seems that this malady
225	is built into autocracy, that of not trusting one’s friends. But as to the question you ask – what is the cause of his thus degrading me – I will now explain it. As soon as he took his seat on his father’s throne, he immediately assigned to the
230	various gods their various privileges,¹⁹ and organized his government; but of those wretched creatures, mortals, he took no account at all – on the contrary, he wanted to obliterate the race altogether and create another new one.
235	And no one resisted that plan except me. I had the courage to do it, and rescued mortals from the fate of being shattered and going to Hades.²⁰ And that, you see, is why I am being racked by these torments, agonizing to suffer and piteous to
239–40	see. I took special pity on mortals but was not held to merit it myself; instead I have been disciplined in this merciless way, a sight to bring disgrace on Zeus.
CHORUS: One would have to be made of stone and have a soul of iron, Prometheus, not to share the distress of your
245	affliction. I would not have wished to see it, and now that I have seen it, I am pained to the heart.
PROMETHEUS: Yes, I certainly am pitiable for friends to behold.
CHORUS: You didn’t, I suppose, go even further than that?
PROMETHEUS: I did: I stopped mortals foreseeing their death.²¹
CHORUS: What remedy did you find for that affliction?
250 PROMETHEUS: I planted blind hopes within them.
CHORUS: That was a great benefit you gave to mortals.
PROMETHEUS: And what is more, I gave them fire.
CHORUS: You mean those short-lived beings now possess flaming fire?
PROMETHEUS: From which they will learn many skills.
255 CHORUS: And those are the offences for which Zeus –
PROMETHEUS: Is degrading me and is not relaxing my suffering in the least.
CHORUS: And has no end been set for your trials?
PROMETHEUS: No end at all, other than ‘when such be his will’.
CHORUS: And how can it possibly ever be his will? What hope is there? Don’t you see you were wrong? To say you were
260	wrong is no pleasure to me, and it’s painful for you. Let us leave that matter: look for some means of release from your torment.
PROMETHEUS: It’s very easy for someone who is standing safely out of trouble to advise and rebuke the one who is in trouble.
265	I knew all that, all along. I did the wrong thing intentionally, intentionally, I won’t deny it: by helping mortals, I brought trouble on myself. But I certainly never thought I would
270	have a punishment anything like this, left to wither on these elevated rocks, my lot cast on this deserted, neighbourless crag. Now stop lamenting my present woes: descend to the ground and hear of my future fortunes, so that you will know
275	it all to the end. Do as I ask, do as I ask. Share the suffering of one who is in trouble now: misery, you know, wanders everywhere, and alights on different persons at different times.

CHORUS:
	We receive your call
	willingly, Prometheus,
	and now with light foot I shall leave
	my seat in this swift-moving car
280	and the pure upper air, the pathway of birds,
	and approach this rugged earth below:
	I want to hear
	the tale of your troubles to the end.

	[As the CHORUS are descending,²² OCEANUS enters, flying on a winged steed.²³]
OCEANUS:
284–85	After traversing a long journey
	I have finally reached you, Prometheus;
	I steered this swift-winged bird
	by mental power, without rein or bit.
	I share the pain of your misfortunes, I assure you;
290	our kinship,²⁴ I feel, compels me to do so,
	and, quite apart from that, there is no one to whom
	I would pay greater respect than to you.
	I will prove to you that this is true, and that it is not
	in my nature to speak pleasant but empty words.
295	Come now, tell me what should be done to help you:
	you will never say that you have
	a firmer friend than Oceanus.
PROMETHEUS: Here, what is this? Have you too come to be a spectator of my sufferings? How did you dare to leave the
300	stream that bears your name, and your self-built, rock-roofed cavern, and come to this land,²⁵ the mother of iron? Have you come to see what has happened to me and to share my distress? Behold the spectacle, then – me, the friend of Zeus,
305	who helped establish his autocracy, what torments I am now racked with at his hands!
OCEANUS: I see it, Prometheus; and I also want to give you
309–10	advice, the best advice, cunning though you are. Know your self²⁶ and change to a new pattern of behaviour, because there is also a new autocrat in the gods’ realm. If you go on hurling out such sharp and savage words, Zeus, though he sits far above, may well hear you, with the result that the crowd of miseries you have at present will seem like child’s
315	play. Cast off the temper you have, poor suffering one, and look for a way to escape these troubles. What I am going to say may seem to you rather hackneyed, but these, Prometheus, are the wages of an over-arrogant tongue. Are you still
320	not humbled, not yielding to your troubles? Do you want to get more of them, on top of what you have? Well, if you accept me as your adviser, you won’t kick out against the goad, being aware that we have a harsh monarch holding
325	irresponsible power. Now I will go and try to see if I can get you released from these sufferings. You keep quiet and don’t speak too impetuously; or do you not know very well, exceptionally intelligent as you are, that foolish words lead to punishment being inflicted?
330 PROMETHEUS: I congratulate you on being safe from accusation, not having dared to share in my efforts. Leave the thing alone now too; don’t get involved in it. In any case you won’t persuade him, because he’s not easy to persuade. And look out for yourself, in case your journey brings you some grief.
335 OCEANUS: You’re much better at admonishing others than you are at admonishing yourself: I judge that by facts,²⁷ not by words. But I am determined to go; don’t drag me back. I tell you, I tell you that Zeus will grant me this boon, so as to release you from these sufferings.
340 PROMETHEUS: I thank you for that, and I shall never cease to be grateful; you are certainly not short of zeal. But don’t make the effort. Any effort you make for me, if you do make one, will be wasted and will do no good. Keep quiet, and
345	keep yourself out of harm’s way. Even if my fortunes are poor, I wouldn’t for that reason want suffering to strike as many others as possible! Certainly not, seeing how distressed I am by the fate of my brother Atlas,²⁸ who stands in the
350	lands of the west, supporting on his shoulders the pillars of heaven and earth, a grievous burden on his arms. And I have seen and pitied the earth-born inhabitant of the Cilician cave,²⁹ a fierce monster with a hundred heads, now subdued
355	by force – furious Typhon, who once rose up against the gods,³⁰ hissing terror from his formidable jaws while a fierce radiance flashed from his eyes, with the intention of overthrowing the autocracy of Zeus by force. But there came against him the unsleeping weapon of Zeus, the downrushing thunderbolt breathing out flame, which struck him out of his
360	haughty boasts – for he was hit right in the centre of his body, and his strength was thundered out of him and reduced
365	to ashes. And now he lies, a sprawled, inert body, near the narrows of the sea,³¹ crushed under the roots of Mount Etna; on its topmost peaks Hephaestus sits forging red-hot iron,³² and from thence one day will burst forth rivers of fire, devouring
370	with their savage jaws the smooth fields of Sicily with their fine crops.³³ Such is the rage in which Typhos will boil over, raining hot darts of fiery breath that no one can touch, even though he has been calcinated by the thunderbolt of Zeus. You are not without experience, and you don’t need
375	me to teach you: save yourself, you know how to. And I will endure my present fate, until the anger in Zeus’ heart is assuaged.
OCEANUS: So, Prometheus, you don’t know that words are the healers of a sick temper?³⁴
380 PROMETHEUS: Yes, if one tries to soften the heart at the right moment, and doesn’t try to reduce the swollen spirit against its will when it is still firm.³⁵
OCEANUS: And what harm, tell me, can you see determination and courage bringing with them?
PROMETHEUS: Wasted labour and empty-headed naivety.³⁶
385 OCEANUS: Allow me to suffer from that affliction: to be sensible while being thought stupid is the best policy.³⁷
PROMETHEUS: That shortcoming will be thought to be mine.³⁸
OCEANUS: Your words are plainly meant to send me back home.
PROMETHEUS: Yes: by lamenting for me, you risk incurring enmity.
OCEANUS: You mean the enmity of him who has lately come to sit on the almighty throne?
390 PROMETHEUS: Take care that his heart never becomes aggrieved with you.
OCEANUS: Your misfortunes, Prometheus, serve to instruct me.
PROMETHEUS: On your way, then; off you go; maintain your present intentions.
394–5 OCEANUS: As you speak these words, I am already starting off. My four-legged bird is beating the smooth pathway of the air with his wings; he will be glad to have a rest in his home stables.
	[OCEANUS flies off.]

CHORUS:³⁹
	I groan, Prometheus, for your terrible fate:
399–401	I let fall a flow of teardrops
	from my tender eyes, and moisten my cheek
	with their watery stream;
	for Zeus, exercising this unlimited control
	under laws of his own making,
404–5	is displaying the arrogance of power
	towards the gods of old.

	And every land is now crying out in grief,
408–10	lamenting <the destruction of> the privileges,
	magnificent and time-honoured,
	of yourself and your brethren:
	all the mortals who dwell
	in the inhabited abodes of holy Asia
	suffer together
	with your great and grievous sufferings,

415–16	and the maidens, undaunted by battle,
	who inhabit the land of Colchis,⁴⁰
	and the Scythian host, who dwell
	in the most distant region of earth
	around Lake Maeotis,⁴¹

420	and the martial flower of Arabia,⁴²
	inhabiting a city on a lofty cliff
	near the Caucasus,
	a savage host who cry clamorously
	as they fight with sharp-tipped spears.

	Before now I have seen
425	but one other Titan god subdued,
	humbled and bound in such weariless toil:
	Atlas of mighty, surpassing strength,
	who upholds on his back
429–30	the earth and the vault of the sky.

	<But for your fate, Prometheus, the earth laments,>
	the waves of the sea cry out in unison
	<with your sufferings>, the depths groan,
	Hades’ dark subterranean recesses rumble in response,
	and the flowing streams of holy rivers
435	lament your piteous pain.

PROMETHEUS: Do not think that my silence is due to vanity or arrogance. No, my heart is eaten up with brooding, when I see myself treated so outrageously. After all, who was it but
440	I that did all the distributing of privileges to these new gods? But I will say no more about that, because I would be telling you what you already know. Instead, listen to the miseries of mortals, how infantile they were before I made them intelligent
445	and possessed of understanding. I shall say this, not because I have any desire to criticize humans but to demonstrate the goodwill that inspired my gifts to them. In the beginning, though they had eyes and ears, they could make nothing of what they saw and heard; like dream-figures they
450	lived a life of utter random confusion all their days. They knew nothing of brick-built, sun-warmed houses, nor of wooden construction; they dwelt underground, like tiny ants,
454–6	in the sunless recesses of caves. Nor had they any reliable indicator of winter, or of flowery spring, or of fruitful summer; they did everything without planning, until I showed them the hard-to-discern risings and settings of stars.⁴³ I also
459–60	invented for them the art of number, supreme among all techniques, and that of combining letters into written words, the tool that enables all things to be remembered and is mother of the Muses.⁴⁴ And I was the first to bring beasts⁴⁵ under the yoke as slaves to the yoke-strap and the pack-saddle,
465	so that they might relieve humans of their greatest labours; and I brought horses to love the rein and pull chariots, making them a luxurious ornament for men of great wealth. And it was no one other than me who invented the linen-winged vehicles in which sailors roam the seas. Such contrivances have I
470	invented for mortals, yet, wretched that I am, I have no device by which I can escape from my present sufferings.
475 CHORUS: Having been subjected to a painful degradation, you are mentally straying, robbed of your wits; like a bad doctor who has fallen sick, you are in despair and unable to discover by what remedies your own condition is curable.
PROMETHEUS: When you have heard the rest of what I have to say, you will be even more amazed by all the skills and devices that I have contrived. The greatest was this. If anyone fell sick, there was no means of aiding him, neither by food
480	nor ointment nor potion: they withered and decayed for want of remedies, until I showed them how to mix gentle curative drugs, with which they can now defend themselves against all kinds of diseases. I also systematized many kinds of seercraft.
485	I was the first to interpret from dreams what actual events were destined to happen; I made known to them the difficult arts of interpreting significant utterances and encounters on journeys;⁴⁶ I defined precisely the flight of crook-taloned birds, which of them were favourable and
489–90	which sinister by nature, the habits of each species and their mutual hatreds, affections and companionships;⁴⁷ and the
493–5	smoothness of internal organs,⁴⁸ and what colour bile should have if it is to be pleasing to the gods, and the mottled appearance and proper shape of the liver-lobe; I wrapped the thigh bones and the long chine in fat and burnt them,⁴⁹ guiding mortals towards a skill of making difficult inferences, and opening their eyes to the signs the flames gave, which till
500	then had been dark to them. So much for that; but as for the things hidden beneath the earth that benefit humanity – copper, iron, silver and gold – who can claim to have discovered them before I did? No one, I know for sure, unless
505	he wanted to spout pointless drivel. To sum up everything in a short sentence: know that all the skills that mortals have come from Prometheus.
CHORUS: Well, don’t benefit mortals beyond the proper measure while neglecting yourself when you are in distress. I
509–10	am confident that you will yet be released from these bonds and be no less powerful than Zeus.
PROMETHEUS: The decisive decree of destiny is not ordained to bring that to pass in that way yet awhile: only after being racked by countless pains and torments am I at last to escape these bonds. Craft is far weaker than Necessity.
515 CHORUS: Well, who is the steersman of Necessity?⁵⁰
PROMETHEUS: The triple Fates and the unforgetting Furies.
CHORUS: You mean Zeus is less strong than these?
PROMETHEUS: Certainly he cannot escape destiny.
CHORUS: And what is Zeus’ destiny, if not to reign eternally?
520 PROMETHEUS: I will not go on to tell you that: do not persist in asking.
CHORUS: It must be something awesome that you are concealing.
PROMETHEUS: Mention some other matter. It is certainly not time to reveal this one – it must be kept as closely hidden as
525	possible, because by keeping it safe I can escape this degrading bondage and pain.

CHORUS:
	May Zeus, the disposer of all things,
	never set his power in opposition to my will;
	nor may I be backward
530	in piously approaching the gods with feasts
	of slaughtered oxen beside the immortal stream of my father, Oceanus;
	nor may I sin in speech,
	but may this abide for me
535	and never melt away:

	it is pleasant to pass
	the length of one’s life in confident hopes, nourishing
	one’s spirit amid bright joys.
540	But I shudder to look on you,
	tormented by countless woes < >:
	for you do not fear Zeus,
	and, following your individual judgement, Prometheus,
	you give too much honour to mortals.

545	Come, my friend, what favour has this favour done you?
	Tell me, where do you find any support?
	What help can there be from creatures of a day? Did you not even consider
549–50	the helpless, dreamlike feebleness by which
	the blind race of men is fettered? Never
	will the schemes of mortals transgress the ordering of Zeus.

	I learned this from seeing
	your wretched fortune, Prometheus;
555	and this song that has flown to my lips is very different
	from the wedding song I sang in honour of bath⁵¹ and bed
	on the occasion of your marriage, when you wooed and won
560	my sister Hesione⁵² to be your wife and bedfellow.
	[Enter IO, horned like a cow.]
IO:
	<Ió!>
	What land, what people are these? Who should I say this is
	that I see, wind-battered,
	harnessed to the rocks?
	For what crime are you thus being murdered?
564–5	Tell me where on earth
	I have wandered in my misery.

	[She begins to dance wildly.]
	Oh, oh! Ah, ah!
	A gadfly is stinging me again, wretched me! –
	[Suddenly changing direction:]
	Keep him off! Ah, dah! I <am mad with> fear,
	seeing the myriad-eyed cowherd!⁵³
	He is on the move, keeping a crafty eye:
570	even though he is dead, the earth cannot cover him –
	he crosses over from the underworld
	to hunt me – wretched me! – and makes me wander
	starving along the sands of the seashore;
574–5	and in accompaniment the noisy reed-pipe, fashioned with wax,⁵⁴
	drones its soporific⁵⁵ melody.
	Ió, ió, popoi –
	where have my far-flung wanderings brought me?
	What crime, son of Cronus, what crime is it you have
	found me guilty of,
	that you have yoked me to these sufferings – ah, ah! –
580–81	and torment me out of my mind like this,
	wretched that I am, ever driven by the fearful gadfly?
	Burn me with fire, or bury me in the earth,
	or give me as prey to the monsters of the sea:
	do not begrudge
	my prayer, O lord!
585	My far-flung wanderings
	have exhausted me utterly, and I cannot tell how
	to escape my sufferings.
	[To PROMETHEUS:] Do you hear the voice of the maiden with cow’s horns?
590 PROMETHEUS: How could I not hear the gadfly-driven daughter of Inachus, who warmed the heart of Zeus with desire and who now, hated by Hera, has been forced into this lengthy, exhausting flight?

IO:
	How are you able to utter the name of my father?
	Tell me, miserable that I am, who are you,
595	who are you, suffering one,
	that can address me, who suffer too, so correctly,
	and can name my god-sent affliction,
	which withers me and pricks me with stings that force me to wander – ah, ah?
	Starving, with undignified leaps and bounds,
600	I have come here, rushing wildly,
	mastered by the wiles of an angry Hera.
	Who among the wretched – oi, ah, ah! –
	suffer as I do?
605	Give me a clear indication
	of what still lies in store for me
	to suffer. What means of escape, what cure for my affliction?
	Reveal it, if you know it:
	speak and tell it to the wretched wandering maiden.
610 PROMETHEUS: I will tell you clearly all that you wish to learn, not weaving it in riddles but in plain speech, in the way that it is right to open one’s lips to friends.⁵⁶ You see before you Prometheus, who gave fire to mortals.
IO: Unhappy Prometheus, you who have shown yourself the common benefactor of all humanity! What are you undergoing this punishment for?
615 PROMETHEUS:I have just finished lamenting my sufferings.
IO: Then will you not grant me this boon?
PROMETHEUS: Say what boon you want: whatever it is, you will learn it from me.
IO: Tell me who bound you in this ravine.
PROMETHEUS: The decision of Zeus and the hand of Hephaestus.
620 IO: And for what wrongdoing are you paying the penalty?
PROMETHEUS: By explaining just so much to you, I have done enough.⁵⁷
IO: And in addition to that, reveal to me what time will mark the end of my miserable wanderings.
PROMETHEUS: It is better for you not to learn that than to learn it.
625 IO: Please do not conceal from me what I am destined to suffer.
PROMETHEUS: I do not begrudge you this boon.
IO: Why then are you waiting instead of telling it all to me?
PROMETHEUS: Not from any ill-will, but I am reluctant to disturb your mind.
IO: Do not take more care for my welfare than pleases me.
630 PROMETHEUS: Since you are so eager, I must speak. Listen, then.
CHORUS: Not yet! Give me, too, a share of the pleasure. Let us first ask about her affliction, and let her tell us herself of her disastrous fortunes; as to the trials that still await her, let her be informed by you.
635 PROMETHEUS: It is for you, Io, to do this group a favour, especially since they are sisters of your father.⁵⁸ It is something worthwhile to weep and lament thoroughly over one’s misfortunes, in circumstances where one can expect to wring tears from the listeners.
640 IO: I do not know how I can refuse your request. You will learn clearly everything you want to know – though I am ashamed even to speak of the god-sent tempest and the ruin of my appearance, how they swooped into my wretched life. In
645	my maiden chamber I was persistently visited by nocturnal visions which coaxed me in smooth words: ‘Most greatly blessed maiden, why do you remain a virgin so long, when you could have the greatest of unions? Zeus has been struck
650	by a dart of desire coming from you, and wishes to partake of Cypris with you. Do not, my child, spurn the bed of Zeus, but go out to the deep meadow of Lerna, among the flocks and cow byres of your father, so that Zeus’ eye may be
655	assuaged of its desire.’ Every night I was miserably plagued by dreams like that, until I brought myself to tell my father about the dreams that kept coming to me nightly. He sent envoys repeatedly to Delphi and Dodona to consult the
660	oracles, so that he could learn what he should do or say so as to act in a manner pleasing to the gods: they returned reporting ambiguous responses, their expression obscure and hard to interpret. Finally a clear word came to Inachus,
665	plainly telling and enjoining him to thrust me out of my house and my native place, to wander unprotected on the furthest confines of the land; and that if he refused, a fiery thunderbolt would come from Zeus that would annihilate
670	his entire family. Persuaded by these oracles of Loxias, he expelled me and shut me out of his house – as reluctant to do it as I was to go: the bridle of Zeus compelled him against his will to act thus. Immediately my body and mind were
675	twisted. I grew horns, as you now see; I was pricked by the sharp sting of a gadfly; and, with maddened leaps, I rushed off to the stream of Cerchnea,⁵⁹ good to drink from, and the spring of Lerna; and my footsteps were dogged by the earth-born herdsman Argus, intemperate in his fierceness, staring with his many eyes. A swift death unexpectedly
680	robbed him of life, but I, harassed by the gadfly as if by a divine scourge, have been driven on from land to land. You hear what has happened to me. If you can say what still
685	remains of my sufferings, tell me. And do not, out of pity, excite me with false tales: I think that concocted stories are a most disgraceful plague.

CHORUS:
	Here, here, keep away! Ah,
	never, never did I suppose such a strange tale
	would come to my hearing,
690	nor that sufferings so painful to see, so painful to bear,
	would strike my soul
	with a double-pronged goad of terror!
	Ió! Destiny, destiny!
695	I shudder when I see what Io is experiencing!

PROMETHEUS: You are groaning, and full of fear, so early? Wait until you have learned the rest as well!
CHORUS: Speak, tell us all. For the afflicted, you know, it is pleasant to understand clearly in advance the pain they have still to suffer.
700 PROMETHEUS: You obtained your previous request from me easily, since you first wanted to learn from her the account of her own trials. Now hear about the future, what sufferings
705	this young woman is destined to endure at Hera’s hands. And you, child of Inachus, take my words to heart, so that you may learn how your journey will end. In the first place, starting from here, turn towards the sunrise and travel over the uncultivated plains.⁶⁰ You will come to the nomad Scythians,
710	who dwell in wicker homes, off the ground, on strong- wheeled wagons, armed with far-shooting bows. Do not go near them: go on through and out of their country, keeping your path close to the rocky coast of the groaning sea. Next,
715	on your left hand, dwell the Chalybes,⁶¹ workers in iron: beware of them, for they are savage and not safe for strangers to approach. You will then come to the Violent River,⁶² not inaptly named; do not cross it – it is not easy to cross – until
720	you come to Caucasus itself, the highest of mountains, where the river pours its strength out from the very summit. After crossing over those peaks close to the stars, you must take the way to the south, where you will come to the man-hating
725	host of the Amazons, who will one day settle at Themiscyra on the Thermodon, where is the savage cape of Salmydessus, inhospitable to sailors, the stepmother of ships.⁶³ They will be very glad to guide you on your way. You will then come
729–30	to the Cimmerian isthmus,⁶⁴ right at the narrow gateway to the lake; with a bold heart you must leave it and cross the Maeotic channel. Your crossing will in all future time be much spoken of among men, and the channel will be named after it: Bosporus, ‘Strait of the Cow’. Having thus left the
735	land of Europe, you will have come to the continent of Asia. [To the CHORUS:] Do you think that the autocrat of the gods is equally brutal in all his dealings? That god, because he wanted to sleep with this mortal girl, imposed these wanderings
739–40	on her! [To IO:] You found an unpleasant suitor for your hand, young woman; for with all of what you’ve so far heard, you should consider that you’re not yet even at the beginning of things.
IO: Ió, oh, oh! Ah me!
PROMETHEUS: You are crying out and moaning aloud again. What can one imagine you will do when you learn what remains of your troubles?
745 CHORUS: You mean you are going to tell her of sufferings that still remain for her?
PROMETHEUS: A stormy sea of ruinous sorrows.
IO: What good does life do me? Why do I not straight away throw myself from this rugged rock,⁶⁵ so that I can crash
750	to the ground and be rid of all my troubles? It is better to die once and for all than to suffer terribly all the days of my life.
PROMETHEUS: You would certainly find it hard to endure my trials. For me, death is not in my destiny: that would have
755	been a release from my sufferings. As it is, no end has been set for my toils, until Zeus falls from his autocratic ruler- ship.
IO: You mean it is possible that Zeus will one day fall from power?
PROMETHEUS: I imagine you’d be pleased to see that event.
IO: Of course, seeing how Zeus has ill-treated me.
760 PROMETHEUS: Well, you can take it that it is so, and rejoice.
IO: By whom will he be robbed of his autocratic sceptre?
PROMETHEUS: By himself – by his own foolish decision.
IO: In what way? Explain, if it doesn’t do any harm.
PROMETHEUS: He will make a marriage that he will come to regret.
765 IO:With a goddess or a mortal? Tell me, if you can.
PROMETHEUS: Why do you ask what marriage? I must not speak or utter it.
IO: Is he to be removed from his throne by his wife?
PROMETHEUS: She will bear a son superior to his father.⁶⁶
IO: And is there no escape for him from that fate?
770 PROMETHEUS: None, unless I were to provide it after being released from my bonds.
IO: And who is going to release you, against the will of Zeus?
PROMETHEUS: It is destined to be one of your offspring.
IO: What are you saying? Is my son going to free you from your sufferings?
PROMETHEUS: He will be the third in birth on top of ten other births.⁶⁷
775 IO: This time the meaning of your prophecy is not easy to guess.
PROMETHEUS: Then don’t expect to learn about all your future troubles, either.
IO: Don’t hold out a benefit to me and then rob me of it.
PROMETHEUS: I will present you with one or the other of two tales.
IO: What tales? Put them before me and give me the choice.
780 PROMETHEUS: I give it to you. Choose: I will tell you plainly either the troubles that remain for you, or the person who will release me.
CHORUS: Please be willing to give one of these favours to her and the other to me. Tell her about the rest of her wanderings,
785	and tell me about your deliverer: I long to hear that.
PROMETHEUS: Since you are so eager, I will not refuse to tell you everything you ask for. First, Io, I shall tell you about the wanderings on which you will be driven: inscribe them
790	on the memory tablets of your mind. When you have crossed the stream that parts the two continents, go on towards the fiery rising of the sun, crossing a waveless sea,⁶⁸ until you reach the land of the Gorgons, the plain of Cisthene, where
795	the Phorcides⁶⁹ dwell, three ancient maidens of swan-like aspect,⁷⁰ owning an eye in common and having only a single tooth, whom neither the sun with his rays, nor the moon by night, ever looks upon;⁷¹ and near them their three winged
800	sisters, the snake-tressed Gorgons, haters of humans, whom no mortal can look on and draw another breath. This is what I tell you as a warning to beware; now hear of another disagreeable sight. You must beware of the sharp-toothed,
804–5	unbarking hounds of Zeus, the griffins, and the one-eyed, horse-riding host of the Arimaspians,⁷² who dwell by the stream of the river Pluto,⁷³ which flows with gold: do not go near them. You will then come to a land at the furthest bounds of earth, to a black tribe that dwells at the sources of
810	the sun,⁷⁴ where flows the river Aethiops. Follow the bank of this river until you come to the cataract⁷⁵ where the Nile pours down from the Bybline Mountains its holy stream, good to drink from. It will lead you to the three-cornered
815	land of Nilotis,⁷⁶ where, Io, you are destined to found a settlement far from home for yourself and your children. If any of this is obscure and hard to understand, please ask again and you will learn it more clearly. I have ample leisure – more than I want.
820 CHORUS: If you have anything still left, or previously omitted, to tell her about her terrible wanderings, tell it. If you have told it all, then give us, in our turn, the favour we ask for – I am sure you remember about it.
PROMETHEUS: She has heard about her journey right to the end. But so that she can know that what she has heard from
825	me is not an empty story, I will tell her about the troubles she has endured before coming here, offering this as the evidence verifying my words. [To IO:] I shall leave out the great majority of the story and go straight to the last part of your wanderings. When you had come to the lands of
830	Molossia and approached the lofty ridge of Dodona, home of the oracular seat of Thesprotian Zeus and of the incredible marvel of the speaking oak trees, by which you were addressed, openly and not in riddling words, as Zeus’ glorious
835	consort that was to be – does any of this strike a chord with you? – from there, in gadfly-driven madness, you rushed on your way along the coast to the great gulf of Rhea,⁷⁷ from which you have then had to run, as it were, before the storm,
839–40	wandering in the opposite direction.⁷⁸ Know well that for the future that arm of the sea shall be called ‘Ionian’, to be for all mankind a memorial to your journey.⁷⁹ You have all this as evidence that my mind can see more than what is manifest. [To the CHORUS:] The rest I shall tell to you and to her
845	alike, going back to the same track my previous words were treading. There is a city called Canobus,⁸⁰ on the edge of land and sea, right at the mouth of the Nile where it lays down its silt. There Zeus will restore you to your right mind <and cause you to conceive> simply by touching you and laying
850–51	his hand on you, nothing to be afraid of. And you will bear a black child, Epaphus, named after the manner in which Zeus engendered him;⁸¹ he will reap the fruits of all the
853–5	land that is watered by the broad-flowing Nile. The fifth generation from him, a female brood of fifty children,⁸² will come back to Argos, not by choice but in flight from a kindred marriage to their cousins; the cousins, their minds excited by lust, hawks following close behind the doves,⁸³ will come to hunt marriages that they should not have been hunting, but god will deny them possession of their bodies.
860	The Pelasgian land will be drenched with blood by deadly female violence when the men are audaciously slain in the wakeful night; for each woman will deprive her husband of his life, dipping a two-edged sword in his blood. So may the
865	bridal night be for my enemies!⁸⁴ But one of the girls⁸⁵ will be charmed by desire into refraining from killing her bed- fellow; she will choose the alternative of being called a coward rather than a polluted murderer. She will become the
870	mother of a royal house in Argos. It would take a long narrative to recount it all explicitly, but from her line, at any rate, will be born a brave scion, famous for archery, who will release me from these sufferings. Such is the prophecy that was narrated to me by my mother of ancient birth, Themis
875	the Titaness; but how and in what way it is to happen would take a lengthy narrative to explain, and you would profit nothing by learning it.
	[IO begins to dance wildly again.]
IO:
	Eleleu, eleleu!
	My mind is struck again by hot spasms
879–80	of madness, and I am pricked
	by the gadfly’s fiery dart!
	In terror my heart is thumping my midriff,
	my eyes are rolling in circles,
	I am blown off course by the wild winds
	of insanity, I cannot control my tongue,
885	and its turbid, random flow of words
	dashes against the hateful waves of ruin.
	[IO rushes away in the opposite direction to that from which she entered.]

CHORUS:
	Truly wise, truly wise was he
	who first grasped this in his mind
	and expressed it clearly with his tongue,
890	that it is best by far to marry in one’s own station,
	and that a poor man should not yearn to wed
	either among those who luxuriate in wealth
	or among those who glory in their high birth.

	Never, never,
895–6	O < > Fates, may you see me
	as the sharer of Zeus’ bed,
	nor may I be united with any partner from among the heavenly ones:
	for I am afraid when I see
	Io, the man-shunning virgin, devastated
900	by the terrible, troublous, vagrant wanderings caused by Hera.

	For me, when marriage is on my own level,
	it inspires no fear; but I do fear
	that the eye of a superior god, from which one cannot flee,
	may look on me with desire.
	Against such a campaign one cannot fight, against such craft one is helpless;
905	there would be nothing I could do with myself:
	I cannot see how
	I could escape the wiles of Zeus.

PROMETHEUS: I declare to you that Zeus, arrogant though his thoughts are, will yet be brought low: such is the union he is
909–10	preparing to make, which will cast him out of his autocracy and off his throne into oblivion. Then indeed the curse of his father Cronus, which he uttered when he fell from his ancient throne, will be completely fulfilled. None of the gods, except myself, will be able to show him clearly the way to avoid
915	such misery: I know it all, and how it will happen. So let him now sit there feeling secure, trusting in his celestial noise- making and brandishing his fire-breathing weapon in his hands: they will not avail in the least to save him from falling
920	a disgraceful, unendurable fall. Such is the contender that he is even now himself preparing against himself, a monster almost impossible to fight against, who will discover a fire more powerful than the lightning bolt, a mighty crash surpassing the thunder, and a weapon to plague the sea and
925	shake the earth which will shatter to pieces the three-pointed spear of Poseidon. By stumbling into this evil fate, Zeus will learn how far apart are rulership and slavery.
CHORUS: You’re just saying things against Zeus that you would like to be true.
PROMETHEUS: I am saying what will come to pass and also what I desire.
930 CHORUS: You mean it’s actually to be expected that someone will lord it over Zeus?
PROMETHEUS: And he will have to bear an even harsher yoke of suffering than this.
CHORUS: How can you not be afraid to hurl out such words?
PROMETHEUS: Why should I be afraid, when death is not in my destiny?
CHORUS: But he could put you to a trial even more painful than this.
935 PROMETHEUS: Well, let him do so: nothing could take me by surprise.
CHORUS: Those who bow to Necessity⁸⁶ are wise.
PROMETHEUS: Revere and pray and truckle to whoever is currently in command! To me, Zeus matters less than nothing.
939–40	Let him rule and act as he likes for this short time: he will not be ruling the gods for long. [HERMES is seen approaching.] But I see Zeus’ message-boy is here, the servant of the new autocrat; he will certainly have something fresh to announce.

945 HERMES: You, the clever fellow,⁸⁷ too spiteful for your own good, you who committed a crime against the gods by giving privileges to beings who live for a day, you, the fire-thief – it’s you I’m talking to. The Father orders you to state what this union is about which you are bragging, the one that is to cause his fall from power; and you are to say this not in
950	riddles but plainly and precisely. And do not compel me, Prometheus, to make a second journey; you are aware that Zeus is not softened by such methods.
PROMETHEUS: Haughtily spoken and full of pride, these words are, for a mere menial of the gods! You⁸⁸ are young and your
955	rule is young, and you think that you inhabit a citadel that grief cannot enter. Have I not observed two successive autocrats⁸⁹ cast out of it? And to the third, the one who reigns now, I shall see it happen too – very shamefully, and very
960	soon. Do I seem to you at all to be afraid of the new gods, and cowering before them? I am very far indeed from that – the furthest possible! You hurry back the way you came; you will learn nothing of what you have asked of me.
965 HERMES: This is just the kind of arrogant behaviour by which you landed yourself in this trouble in the first place.
PROMETHEUS: I can tell you for sure, I wouldn’t exchange my misfortunes for your servitude.
HERMES: Oh, I suppose it’s better to be in servitude to this rock than to be the faithful messenger of my father, Zeus!
970 PROMETHEUS: < >!⁹⁰ That is how one ought to insult the insolent.
HERMES: You seem to be revelling in your present situation.
PROMETHEUS: Revelling? May I see my enemies revelling like this – and I’m counting you among them!
HERMES: Why, are you accusing me as well on account of what has happened to you?
975 PROMETHEUS: Quite simply, I hate all the gods who are so unjustly harming me after I helped them.
HERMES: From what I can hear, you’ve got a serious mental sickness.
PROMETHEUS: I’m happy to be sick, if it’s a sickness to hate one’s enemies.
HERMES: You’d be quite intolerable if you were prospering.
980 PROMETHEUS: Ah me!⁹¹
HERMES: That is not an expression that Zeus understands.
PROMETHEUS: Well, time, as it grows old, teaches everything! HERMES: Well, you don’t yet understand how to be sensible.
PROMETHEUS: No – if I were, I wouldn’t be speaking to a menial like you.
HERMES: It looks as though you mean to say nothing of what the Father has asked you to say.
985 PROMETHEUS: Well, I’d willingly pay him that favour – if I owed him one.
HERMES: You seem to be making fun of me as if I were a child.
PROMETHEUS: Well, aren’t you a child, or even more senseless than a child, if you expect to get any information from me? There is no ill-treatment, no contrivance, by which Zeus will
990	induce me to reveal this secret, until these degrading bonds have been unloosed. So let him hurl his blazing fire, let him throw everything into turmoil and confusion with his white feathers of snow and his thunders rumbling beneath the
995	earth: none of that will bend me to make me say at whose hands he is destined to fall from his supreme power.
HERMES: Consider whether this attitude seems likely to be to your advantage.
PROMETHEUS: This has all been considered, and planned, long ago.
1000 HERMES: Bring yourself, you fool, bring yourself at long last, in the light of your present sufferings, to take a sensible view.
PROMETHEUS: You are making yourself a nuisance to no purpose, as if you were giving advice to the waves. Let it never enter your thoughts that I might fear the intentions of Zeus, become womanish in mentality and implore the one I hate
1005	so greatly, stretching out my upturned palms as women do, to free me from these bonds. One hundred per cent, no!
HERMES: It looks as though, however much I say, I will say it in vain. My entreaties have made you no softer or more
1009–10	pliable; like a newly harnessed colt, you have taken the bit between your teeth, and you are struggling and fighting against the reins. But it is an unsound strategy that makes you so vehement: for someone who is not thinking sensibly, pure unadulterated obstinacy has no power at all. If you do
1015	not do as I have said, consider what a tempest, what a triple wave of evil, will assail you, from which no escape will be possible. In the first place, the Father will tear this rugged ravine wall into fragments with his thunder and the fire of his lightning bolt, and will bury you under it, gripped in the
1020	embrace of the rocks. After the completion of a vast length of time, you will come back again to the light; and then, I tell you, the winged hound of Zeus, the bloodthirsty eagle, will greedily butcher your body into great ragged shreds,
1025	coming uninvited for a banquet that lasts all day, and will feast on your liver, which will turn black with gnawing.⁹² Of such torment expect no end until some god appears to be your successor in suffering and is willing to go down to
1030	rayless Hades and the dark depths of Tartarus.⁹³ Make your decision in the light of that, because this threat is no invention, it has all too certainly been uttered. For the mouth of Zeus does not know how to lie; he fulfils every word he
1034–35	speaks.⁹⁴ So consider and reflect: do not suppose that self-will is ever better policy than prudence.
CHORUS: In our opinion, what Hermes says is not beside the point: he urges you to abandon self-will and to pursue wise prudence. Follow his advice: it is shameful for the wise to err.

PROMETHEUS:
1040–41	When he announced this message to me, I tell you,
	I already knew it; and there is no disgrace
	in an enemy suffering ill-treatment from his enemy.
	So let the double-ended tress of fire⁹⁵
	be hurled against me, let the air
1045	be set awhirl by thunder and by a convulsion
	of savage gales; let the wind
	shake earth from its foundations, roots and all,
	and let the waves of the sea with their ferocious surge
1049–51	engulf the paths of the stars
	in heaven; let him cast my body
	headlong into black Tartarus,
	whirling down in cruel compulsion:
	come what may, he won’t kill me.
HERMES:
1054–5	That decision, and those words,
	sound as though they came from a lunatic.
	In what way do this fellow’s boasts
	fall short of insanity and mental derangement?
	[Addressing the CHORUS:]
	But you at least, the sympathizers
1059–60	with his suffering, should quickly
	leave this place for some other,
	lest the merciless roar of the thunder
	strike the wits out of your minds.
CHORUS [moving closer to PROMETHEUS]:
	Say something else; give me advice
	that will actually persuade me, because that was certainly
1065	not a tolerable suggestion that you trailed past me.
	How can you advise me to behave like a coward?
	I am willing to stay with him and suffer what I must;⁹⁶
	for I have learned to hate traitors,
	and there is no plague
1070	that I detest more than that.
HERMES:
	Well, remember what I have proclaimed,
	and when disaster hunts you down
	do not complain about your fate, nor ever say
1074–5	that Zeus cast you into a calamity
	that you had not foreseen.
	No, indeed; you will have brought it on yourselves,
	for knowingly, not by surprise
	nor by deception,
	you will have been caught up in the inescapable net
	of disaster through your own folly.
	[Exit HERMES. Wild music begins to play, and thunder is heard.]
PROMETHEUS:
1080	Now in deed, no more in word alone,
	the earth is shaking and reeling!
	From the depths, in accompaniment, there bellows
	the sound of thunder; fiery twists
1084–5	of lightning shine out; the dust
	is whirled by whirlwinds; the blasts
	of all the winds at once leap at one another
	in a raging display of mutual strife,
	and sky and sea are blended into one.
1089–90	Such is the tempest that has plainly come
	from Zeus upon me, to strike terror.
	[As the CHORUS scatter and flee in panic]
	O my honoured mother, O Sky
	around whom rolls the light that shines on all,
	see how unjustly I suffer!
	[The rock breaks open, and PROMETHEUS disappears into its interior.⁹⁷]