| Aeschylus Index |
IO
Alas! Oh! Oh!
PROMETHEUS
Thou dost cryout, fetching again deep groans:
What wilt thou do when thou hast heard in full
The evils yet to come?
CHORUS
And wilt thou tell
The maiden something further: some fresh sorrow?
PROMETHEUS
A stormy sea of wrong and ruining.
IO
What does it profit me to live! Oh, why
Do I not throw myself from this rough crag
And in one leap rid me of all my pain?
Better to die at once than live, and all
My days be evil.
PROMETHEUS
Thou would'st find it hard
To bear what I must bear: for unto me
It is not given to die,-a dear release
From pain; but now of suffering there is
No end in sight till Zeus shall fall.
IO
And shall
Zeus fall? His power be taken from him?
No matter when if true-
PROMETHEUS
'Twould make thee happy
Methinks, if thou could'st see calamity
Whelm him.
IO
How should it not when all my woes
Are of his sending? learn how
These things shall be.
The tyrant's rod?
And fond imaginings.
IO
But how? Oh, speak,
If the declaring draw no evil down I
PROMETHEUS
A marriage he shall make shall vex him sore.
IO
A marriage? Whether of gods or mortals?
Speak!
If this be utterable!
PROMETHEUS
Why dost thou ask
What I may not declare?
IO
And shall he quit
The throne of all the worlds, by a new spouse
Supplanted?
PROMETHEUS
She will bear to him a child,
And he shall be in might more excellent
Than his progenitor.
IO
And he will find
No way to parry this strong stroke of fate?
PROMETHEUS
None save my own self-when these bonds are loosed.
IO
And who shall loose them if Zeus wills not?
Of thine own seed.
How say'st thou? Shall a child
Of mine release thee?
PROMETHEUS
Son of thine, but son
The thirteenth generation shall beget.
IO
A prophecy oracularly dark.
PROMETHEUS
Then seek not thou to know thine own fate.
IO
Nay,
Tender me not a boon to snatch it from me.
PROMETHEUS
Of two gifts thou hast asked one shall be thine.
IO
What gifts? Pronounce and leave to me the choice.
PROMETHEUS
Nay, thou are free to choose. Say, therefore, whether
I shall declare to thee thy future woes
Or him who shall be my deliverer.
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