Works of Aeschylus - Aeschylus [60]
CHORUS
I see, I see.
XERXES
And this ill-furnish'd quiver?
CHORUS
Wherefore preserved?
XERXES
To store my treasured arrows.
CHORUS
Few, very few.
XERXES
And few my friendly aids.
CHORUS
I thought these Grecians shrunk appall'd at arms.
XERXES
No: they are bold and daring: these sad eyes
Beheld their violent and deathful deeds.
CHORUS
The ruin, sayst thou, of thy shattered fleet?
XERXES
And in the anguish of my soul I rent
My royal robes.
CHORUS
Wo, wo!
XERXES
And more than wo.
CHORUS
Redoubled, threefold wo!
XERXES
Disgrace to me,
But triumph to the foe.
CHORUS
Are all thy powers
In ruin crush'd?
XERXES
No satrap guards me now.
CHORUS
Thy faithful friends sunk in the roaring main.
XERXES
Weep, weep their loss, and lead me to my house;
Answer my grief with grief, an ill return
Of ills for ills. Yet once more raise that strain
Lamenting my misfortunes; beat thy breast,
Strike, heave the groan; awake the Mysian strain
To notes of loudest wo; rend thy rich robes,
Pluck up thy beard, tear off thy hoary locks,
And battle thine eyes in tears: thus through the streets
Solemn and slow with sorrow lead my steps;
Lead to my house, and wail the fate of Persia.
CHORUS
Yes, once more at thy bidding shall the strain
Pour the deep sorrows of my soul;
The suff'rings of my bleeding untry plain,
And bid the Mysian measures roll.
Again the voice of wild despair
With thrilling shrieks shall pierce the air;
For high the god of war his flaming crest
Raised, with the fleet of Greece surrounded,
The haughty arms of Greece with conquest bless'd,
And Persia's withered force confounded,
Dash'd on the dreary beach her heroes slain.,
Or whelm'd them in the darken'd main.
________
The End
Prometheus Bound
by Aeschylus
Translated by G. M. Cookson
Electronically Developed by MobileReference
Aeschylus Biography
Dramatis Personae
KRATOS
BIA
HEPHAESTUS
PROMETHEUS
CHORUS OF THE OCEANIDES
OCEANUS
IO
Scene
Mountainous country, and in the middle of a deep gorge a Rock, towards which KRATOS and BIA carry the gigantic form of PROMETHEUS. HEPHAESTUS follows dejectedly with hammer, nails, chains, etc.
KRATOS
Now have we journeyed to a spot of earth
Remote-the Scythian wild, a waste untrod.
And now, Hephaestus, thou must execute
The task our father laid on thee, and fetter
This malefactor to the jagged rocks
In adamantine bonds infrangible;
For thine own blossom of all forging fire
He stole and gave to mortals; trespass grave
For which the Gods have called him to account,
That he may learn to bear Zeus' tyranny
And cease to play the lover of mankind.
HEPHAESTUS
Kratos and Bia, for ye twain the hest
Of Zeus is done with; nothing lets you further.
But forcibly to bind a brother God,
In chains, in this deep chasm raked by all storms
I have not courage; yet needs must I pluck
Courage from manifest necessity,
For woe worth him that slights the Father's word.
O high-souled son of them is sage in counsel,
With heavy heart I must make thy heart heavy,
In bonds of brass not easy to be loosed,
Nailing thee to this crag where no wight dwells,
Nor sound of human voice nor shape of man
Shall visit thee; but the sun-blaze shall roast
Thy flesh; thy hue, flower-fair, shall suffer change;
Welcome will Night be when with spangled robe
She hides the light of day; welcome the sun
Returning to disperse the frosts of dawn.
And every hour shall bring its weight of woe
To wear thy heart away; for yet unborn
Is he who shall release Chee from thy pain.
This is thy wage for loving humankind.
For, being a God, thou dared'st the Gods' ill will,
Preferring, to exceeding honour, Man.
Wherefore thy long watch shall be comfortless,
Stretched on this rock, never to close an eye
Or bend a knee; and vainly shalt thou lift,
With groanings deep and lamentable cries,
Thy voice; for Zeus is hard to be entreated,
As new-born power is ever pitiless.
KRATOS
Enough! Why palter? Why wast idle pity?
Is not the God