Delphi Complete Works of Aeschylus (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (30 page)

CHORUS
[517]
Can it be
that Zeus has less power than they do?

PROMETHEUS
[518]
Yes, in
that even he cannot escape what is foretold.

CHORUS
[519]
Why, what
is fated for Zeus except to hold eternal sway?

PROMETHEUS
[520]
This you
must not learn yet; do not be over-eager.

CHORUS
[521]
It is some
solemn secret, surely, that you enshroud in mystery.

PROMETHEUS
[522]
Think of
some other subject, for it is not the proper time to speak of this. No matter
what, this must be kept concealed; for it is by safeguarding it that I am to
escape my dishonorable bonds and outrage.

CHORUS
[526]
May Zeus,
who apportions everything, never set his power in conflict with my will, nor
may I be slow to approach the gods, with holy sacrifices of oxen slain, by the
side of the ceaseless stream of Oceanus, my father; and may I not offend in
speech; but may this rule abide in my heart and never fade away.Sweet it is to
pass all the length of life amid confident hopes, feeding the heart in glad
festivities. But I shudder as I look on you, racked by infinite tortures. You
have no fear of Zeus, Prometheus, but in self-will you reverence mortals too
much.

[545]
Come, my friend, how mutual was your
reciprocity? Tell me, what kind of help is there in creatures of a day? What
aid? Did you not see the helpless infirmity, no better than a dream, in which
the blind generation of men is shackled? Never shall the counsels of mortal men
transgress the ordering of Zeus.
I have learned this lesson from observing the luck, Prometheus, that has
brought about your ruin. And the difference in the song stole into my thought —
this song and that, which, about your bridal bed and bath, I raised to grace
your marriage, when you wooed with gifts and won my sister Hesione to be your
wedded wife.

[
Enter Io.
]

IO
[561]
What land
is this? What people? By what name am I to call the one I see exposed to the
tempest in bonds of rock? What offence have you committed that as punishment
you are doomed to destruction? Tell me to what region of the earth I have
wandered in my wretchedness? Oh, oh! Aah! Aah! A gad-fly, phantom of earth-born
Argus is stinging me again! Keep him away, O Earth! I am fearful when I behold that
myriad-eyed herdsman. He travels onward with his crafty gaze upon me; not even
in death does the earth conceal him, but passing from the shades he hounds me,
the forlorn one, and drives me famished along the sands of the seashore.

[575]
The waxen pipe
drones forth in accompaniment a clear-sounding slumberous strain. Alas, alas!
Where is my far-roaming wandering course taking me? In what, O son of Cronus,
in what have you found offence so that you have bound me to this yoke of misery
— aah! are you harassing a wretched maiden to frenzy by this terror of the
pursuing gadfly? Consume me with fire, or hide me in the earth, or give me to
the monsters of the deep to devour; but do not grudge, O Lord, the favor that I
pray for. My far-roaming wanderings have taught me enough, and I cannot discern
how to escape my sufferings. Do you hear the voice of the horned virgin?

PROMETHEUS
[589]
How can I
fail to hear the maiden frenzied by the gadfly, the daughter of Inachus? It is
she who fires the heart of Zeus with passion, and now, through Hera’s hate, is
disciplined by force with interminable wandering.

IO
[593]
Why do you
call my father’s name? Tell me, the unfortunate maid, who you are, unhappy
wretch, that you thus correctly address the miserable maiden, and have named
the heaven-sent plague that wastes and stings me with its maddening goad. Ah
me! In frenzied bounds I come, driven by torturing hunger, victim of Hera’s
vengeful purpose. Who of the company of the unfortunate endures — aah! aah! — sufferings
such as mine? Oh make it clear to me what misery I am fated to suffer, what
remedy is there, what cure, for my affliction. Reveal it, if you have the
knowledge. Oh speak, declare it to the unfortunate, wandering virgin.

PROMETHEUS
[609]
I will
tell you plainly all that you would like to know, not weaving riddles, but in
simple language, since it is right to speak openly to friends. Look, I whom you
see am Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind.

IO
[613]
O you who
have shown yourself a common benefactor of mankind, wretched Prometheus, why do
you suffer so?

PROMETHEUS
[615]
I have
only just now finished lamenting my own calamities.

IO
[616]
You will
not then do this favor for me?

PROMETHEUS
[617]
Say what
it is you wish; for you can learn all from me.

IO
[618]
Tell me who
has bound you fast in this ravine.

PROMETHEUS
[619]
Zeus by
his will, Hephaestus by his hand.

IO
[620]
And for
what offence do you pay the penalty?

PROMETHEUS
[621]
It
suffices that I have made clear to you this much and no more.

IO
[622]
No, also
tell me the end of my wandering — what time is set for wretched me.

PROMETHEUS
[624]
It would
be better not to know than to know, in your case.

IO
[625]
I beg you,
do not hide from me what I am doomed to suffer.

PROMETHEUS
[626]
No, it is
not that I do not want to grant your request.

IO
[627]
Why then
your reluctance to tell me everything?

PROMETHEUS
[628]
I am not
unwilling; but I hesitate to crush your spirit.

IO
[629]
Do not be
more kind to me than I myself desire.

PROMETHEUS
[630]
Since you
insist, I must speak. Listen, then.

CHORUS
[631]
No, not
yet. Grant us too a portion of the pleasure. Let us first inquire the story of
her affliction and let her with her own lips relate the events that brought
horrid calamity upon her. Then let her be instructed by you as to the toils
still to come.

PROMETHEUS
[635]
It is for
you, Io, to grant them this favor, especially since they are your father’s
sisters. For it is worthwhile to indulge in weeping and in wailing over evil
fortunes when one is likely to win the tribute of a tear from the listener.

IO
[640]
I do not
know how to refuse you. You shall learn in truthful speech all that you would
like to know. Yet I am ashamed to tell about the storm of calamity sent by
Heaven, of the marring of my form, and of the source from which it swooped upon
me, wretched that I am.

[645]
For visions of
the night, always haunting my maiden chamber, sought to beguile me with
seductive words, saying: “O damsel greatly blessed of fortune, why linger in
your maidenhood so long when it is within your power to win a union of the
highest? Zeus is inflamed by passion’s dart for you and is eager to unite with
you in love. Do not, my child, spurn the bed of Zeus, but go forth to Lerna’s
meadow land of pastures deep and to your father’s flocks and where his cattle
feed, so that the eye of Zeus may find respite from its longing.”

[655]
By such dreams
was I, to my distress, beset night after night, until at last I gained courage
to tell my father of the dreams that haunted me. And he sent many a messenger
to Pytho and Dodona so that he might discover what deed or word of his would
find favor with the gods. But they returned with report of oracles, riddling,
obscure, and darkly worded. Then at last there came an unmistakable utterance
to Inachus, charging and commanding him clearly that he must thrust me forth
from home and native land to roam at large to the remotest confines of the
earth; and, if he would not, a fiery thunderbolt would come from Zeus that
would utterly destroy his whole race.

[669]
Yielding
obedience to such prophetic utterances of Loxias, he drove me away and barred
me from his house, against his will and mine; but the constraint of Zeus forced
him to act by necessity. Immediately my form and mind were distorted, and with
horns, as you see, upon my forehead, stung by a sharp-fanged gadfly I rushed
with frantic bounds to Cerchnea’s sweet stream and Lerna’s spring. But Argus,
the earth-born herdsman, untempered in his rage, pursued me, peering with his
many eyes upon my steps. A sudden death robbed him of life unexpectedly; while
I, still tormented by the gadfly, am driven on from land to land before the
heaven-sent plague.

[683]
That is what
happened; and if you can declare what toils still remain, reveal them. Do not,
from pity, seek to soothe me with untrue words; for I consider false words to
be the foulest sickness.

CHORUS
[687]
Oh, ah, go
away, alas! Never, oh never, did I dream that words so strange would greet my
ears; or that sufferings so grievous to look upon, yes, and so grievous to
endure, a tale of outrage, would strike my soul as if with double-pronged goad.
Alas, O Fate, O Fate, I shudder to behold the plight that has befallen Io.

PROMETHEUS
[696]
You lament
and are full of fear all too soon. Wait until you have learned the rest as
well.

CHORUS
[698]
Proceed,
tell all. It is comforting for the sick to know clearly beforehand what pain
still awaits them.

PROMETHEUS
[700]
You gained
your former request easily from me; for you first desired the story of her
ordeal from her own lips. Hear now the sequel, the sufferings this maid is
fated to endure at Hera’s hand. And may you, daughter of Inachus, lay to heart
my words so that you may learn the end of your wanderings.

[707]
First, from this
spot, turn yourself toward the rising sun and make your way over untilled
plains; and you shall reach the Scythian nomads, who dwell in thatched houses,
perched aloft on strong-wheeled wagons and are equipped with far-darting bows.
Do not approach them, but keeping your feet near the rugged shore, where the
sea breaks with a roar, pass on beyond their land. On the left hand dwell the
workers in iron, the Chalybes, and you must beware of them, since they are
savage and are not to be approached by strangers. Then you shall reach the
river Hybristes, which does not belie its name. Do not cross this, for it is
hard to cross, until you come to Caucasus itself, loftiest of mountains, where
from its very brows the river pours out its might in fury. You must pass over
its crests, which neighbor the stars, and enter upon a southward course, where
you shall reach the host of the Amazons, who loathe all men. They shall in time
to come inhabit Themiscyra on the Thermodon, where, fronting the sea, is
Salmydessus’ rugged jaw, evil host of mariners, step-mother of ships. The
Amazons will gladly guide you on your way. Next, just at the narrow portals of
the harbor, you shall reach the Cimmerian isthmus. This you must leave with
stout heart and pass through the channel of Maeotis; and ever after among
mankind there shall be great mention of your passing, and it shall be called
after you the Bosporus. Then, leaving the soil of Europe, you shall come to the
Asian continent.

[736]
Does it not seem
to you that the tyrant of the gods is violent in all his ways? For this god,
desirous of union with this mortal maid, has imposed upon her these wanderings.
Maiden, you have gained a cruel suitor for your hand. As to the tale you now
have heard — understand that it has not even passed the introduction.

IO
[742]
Ah me, ah
me, alas!

PROMETHEUS
[743]
What! You
are crying and groaning again? What will you do, I wonder, when you have
learned the sufferings still in store for you?

CHORUS
[745]
What! Can
it be that you have sufferings still left to recount to her?

PROMETHEUS
[746]
Yes, a
tempestuous sea of calamitous distress.

IO
[747]
What gain
have I then in life? Why did I not hurl myself straightaway from this rugged
rock, so that I was dashed to earth and freed from all my sufferings? It is
better to die once and for all than linger out all my days in misery.

PROMETHEUS
[753]
Ah, you
would hardly bear my agonies to whom it is not foredoomed to die; for death
would have freed me from my sufferings. But now no limit to my tribulations has
been appointed until Zeus is hurled from his sovereignty.

IO
[757]
What!
Shall Zeus one day be hurled from his dominion?

PROMETHEUS
[758]
You would
rejoice, I think, to see that happen.

IO
[759]
Why not,
since it is at the hand of Zeus that I suffer?

PROMETHEUS
[760]
Then you
may assure yourself that these things are true.

IO
[761]
By whom
shall he be despoiled of the sceptre of his sovereignty?

PROMETHEUS
[762]
By himself
and his own empty-headed purposes.

IO
[763]
In what
way? Oh tell me, if there be no harm in telling.

PROMETHEUS
[764]
He shall
make a marriage that shall one day cause him distress.

IO
[765]
With a
divinity or with a mortal? If it may be told, speak out.

PROMETHEUS
[766]
Why ask
with whom? I may not speak of this.

IO
[767]
Is it by
his consort that he shall be dethroned?

PROMETHEUS
[768]
Yes, since
she shall bear a son mightier than his father.