Kratos – For thine own pride, even flashing fire, source of all arts, he hath purloined and bestowed upon mortal creatures. Such is his offence; wherefore he is bound to make requital to the gods, that so he may be lessoned to brook the sovereignty of Zeus and forbear his championship of man. (7-11)
Prometheus – O thou bright sky of heaven, ye swift-winged breezes, ye river-waters, and multitudinous laughter of the waves of ocean, O universal mother Earth, Behold what I, a god, endure of evil from the gods. (88-92)
Prometheus – My allotted doom I needs must bear as lightly as I may, knowing that the might of Necessity brooketh no resistance. (104-5)
Prometheus – I hunted out and stored in fennel stalk the stolen source of fire that hath proved to mortals a teacher in every art and a means to mighty ends. (109-111)
Chorus of Oceanids – For new rulers lord it in heaven, and with new-fangled laws Zeus wieldeth arbitrary sway; and that which was mighty of old he now bringeth to naught. (148-151
Prometheus – Oh that he had hurled me below the earth, aye ’neath Hades, the entertainer of the dead, into impassable Tartarus,… (152-4)
Prometheus – Verily the day shall yet come when, though I be thus tortured in stubborn fetters, the Prince of the Blessed shall have need of me to reveal the new design and by whom he shall be stripped of his sceptre and his dignities. (168-172)
Prometheus – Of mine own will, aye, of mine own will I erred – gainsay it I cannot. In succouring mortals I found suffering for myself; nevertheless I thought not to be punished thus – to waste away upon cliffs in mid-air, my portion this desolate and drear crag. And now, I pray ye, bewail no more my present woes; alight on the ground and listen to my oncoming fortunes that ye may be told them from end to end.” (268-275)
Oceanus – Learn to know thyself and adapt to thyself new ways; for new likewise is the ruler among the gods. But if thou hurlest forth words so harsh and of such whetted edge, peradventure Zeus may hear thee, though throned afar, high in the heavens, so that thy present multitude of sorrows shall seem but childish sport. (311-316)
Prometheus – O thou bright sky of heaven, ye swift-winged breezes, ye river-waters, and multitudinous laughter of the waves of ocean, O universal mother Earth, Behold what I, a god, endure of evil from the gods. (88-92)
Prometheus – My allotted doom I needs must bear as lightly as I may, knowing that the might of Necessity brooketh no resistance. (104-5)
Prometheus – I hunted out and stored in fennel stalk the stolen source of fire that hath proved to mortals a teacher in every art and a means to mighty ends. (109-111)
Chorus of Oceanids – For new rulers lord it in heaven, and with new-fangled laws Zeus wieldeth arbitrary sway; and that which was mighty of old he now bringeth to naught. (148-151
Prometheus – Oh that he had hurled me below the earth, aye ’neath Hades, the entertainer of the dead, into impassable Tartarus,… (152-4)
Prometheus – Verily the day shall yet come when, though I be thus tortured in stubborn fetters, the Prince of the Blessed shall have need of me to reveal the new design and by whom he shall be stripped of his sceptre and his dignities. (168-172)
Prometheus – Of mine own will, aye, of mine own will I erred – gainsay it I cannot. In succouring mortals I found suffering for myself; nevertheless I thought not to be punished thus – to waste away upon cliffs in mid-air, my portion this desolate and drear crag. And now, I pray ye, bewail no more my present woes; alight on the ground and listen to my oncoming fortunes that ye may be told them from end to end.” (268-275)
Oceanus – Learn to know thyself and adapt to thyself new ways; for new likewise is the ruler among the gods. But if thou hurlest forth words so harsh and of such whetted edge, peradventure Zeus may hear thee, though throned afar, high in the heavens, so that thy present multitude of sorrows shall seem but childish sport. (311-316)
Prometheus – I envy thee that thou art clear of blame for having so much as dared to share with me in these my troubles. (332-4)
Prometheus – I am distressed by the fate of my brother Atlas, who, towards the west, stands bearing on his shoulders the pillar of heaven and earth, a burthen not easy for his arms to grasp. (349-352)
Atlas & PrometheusPrometheus – …I will drain to the dregs my present lot until such time as the mind of Zeus shall abate its wrath.
Oceanus – Knowest thou not then, Prometheus, that words are the mediciners of a disordered temper?
Prometheus – If one salve the soul in season, and not seek to reduce its swelling rage by violence. (377-382)
Prometheus – First of all, though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but understand not; but, like to shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. (447-451)
Oceanids – Do not benefit mortals beyond due measure and yet be heedless of thine own distress; forasmuch as I am of good hope that thou shalt be loosed from these bonds and have power no wise inferior to Zeus.
Prometheus – Not thus, nor yet, is fulfilling Fate destined to bring this end to pass. When I have been bent by pangs and tortures infinite, thus only am I to escape my bondage. Art is feebler far than Necessity.
Oceanids – Who then is the steersman of Necessity?
Prometheus – The triform Fates and mindful Furies.
Oceanids – Can it be that Zeus hath lesser power than they?
Prometheus – Aye, in that at least he cannot escape what is foredoomed.
(507-520)
Oceanids – Tell me, what succour for thee is there, and where, in creatures of a day? What aid? (545-7)
Io – What gain have I then in life? Why did I not hurl myself amain from this rugged rock, that so I had been dashed to earth and freed from all my sufferings? Better it were to die once for all than linger out all my days in misery. (747-751)
Hermes killing Argos, Io looking on
Io – …hath he [Zeus] no means to avert this doom?
Prometheus – No, none – except it were I, released from bondage.
Io – Who then is to loose thee against the will of Zeus?
Prometheus – It is to be one of thine own lineage. (769-772)
Prometheus – There at last Zeus restores thee to thy senses by the mere stroke and touch of his unterrifying hand. And thou shalt bring forth swart Epaphus,’ thus named from the manner of Zeus’ engendering;… (848-852)
Prometheus – For thy servitude, rest thee sure, I’d not barter my hard lot, not I.
Hermes – Better, no doubt, to serve this rock than to be trusted messenger of Father Zeus! (966-9)
Prometheus - There is no torment or device by which Zeus shall induce me to utter this until these injurious fetters be loosed. So then, let his blazing Levin be hurled, and with the white wings of the snow and thunders of earthquake let him confound the reeling world. For naught of this shall bend my will ever to tell at whose hands he is fated to be hurled from his sovereignty. (989-996)
Hermes – Thou dost take the bit in thy teeth like a new-harnessed colt and art restive and strugglest against the reins….First, the Father will shatter this jagged cliff with thunder and lightning-flame, and will entomb thy frame, while the rock shall still hold thee clasped in its embrace….Then verily the winged hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle, coming an unbidden banqueter the whole day long,…
Look for no term of this thine agony until some god appear to take upon himself thy woes and of his own free will descend into the sunless realm of Death and the dark deeps of Tartarus. (1009-10; 1016-9; 1021-3 & 1026-9)
Prometheus – Lo, now it hath passed from word to deed – the earth rocks, the echoing thunder-peal from the depths rolls roaring past me; the fiery wreathed lightening-flashes flare forth, and whirlwinds toss the swirling dust; the blasts of all the winds leap forth and set in hostile array their embattled strife; the sky is confounded with the deep. Behold, this stormy turmoil advances against me, manifestly sped of Zeus to make me tremble. O holy mother mine, O thou firmament that dost revolve the common light of all, thou seest the wrongs I suffer! (1080-1093)
Select Bibliography:
Conacher, J. D. Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound: A Literary Commentary (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980).
Golden, L. In Praise of Prometheus: Humanism and Rationalism in Aeschylean Thought (NC: Chapel Hill, 1962).
Griffith, Mark. The Authenticity of Prometheus Bound (Cambridge: CUP, 1977).
Herington, C. J. The Author of the Prometheus Bound (Texas: Austin, 1970).
Ireland, S. ‘Dramatic Structure in the Persae and Prometheus of Aeschylus,’ Greece and Rome20 (1973) 162-8.
Sutton, Dana F. ‘The Date of the Prometheus Bound,’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 23 (1983) 289-294.
Wutrich, T. R. Prometheus and Faust: The Promethean Revolt in Drama from Classical Antiquity to Goethe (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995).
