the stability of Jove's throne. This was that by a certain woman Jove would beget a son who should displace him and end the sway of the Olympians. The god naturally desired more accurate information of this decree of Fate. But to reveal the secret Prometheus disdained. In this steadfastness the Titan was supported by the knowledge that in the thirteenth generation there should arrive a hero, sprung from Jove himself, to release him. And in fullness of time the hero did arrive: none other than the mighty Hercules desirous of rendering the highest service to mankind. No higher service, thinks this radiant and masterful personage, who, as we shall see, had already cleared the world of many a monster, — remains to be performed than to free the champion of mankind, suffering through the ages because he had brought light into the world. "The soul of man," says Hercules to the Titan The soul of man can never be enslaved Save by its own infirmities, nor freed Save by its very strength and own resolve O let the soul stand in the open door Of life and death and knowledge and desire And see the peaks of thought kindle with sunrise! To dwell at last upon the shining mountains And he kills the vulture; and sets Jove's victim free. By his demeanor Prometheus has become the ensample of magnanimous endurance, and of resistance to oppression. Titan! to whose immortal eyes The sufferings of mortality, Seen in their sad reality, Were not as things that gods despise, A silent suffering, and intense; 1§§ 156, 161, 191 and.Commentary, § 10. 2 From Herakles, a drama by George Cabot Lodge. The rock, the vulture, and the chain, All that the proud can feel of pain, Thy godlike crime was to be kind, In the endurance and repulse Of thine impenetrable spirit, Which earth and heaven could not convulse, A mighty lesson we inherit.1 . . . 16. Longfellow's Prometheus. A happy application of the story of Prometheus is made by Longfellow in the following verses: 2 1 From Byron's Prometheus. See also his translation from the Prometheus Vinctus of Eschylus, and his Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte. 2 Prometheus, or The Poet's Forethought. See Commentary. All is but a symbol painted Of the Poet, Prophet, Seer; In their feverish exultations, In their triumph and their yearning, In their words among the nations, Shall it, then, be unavailing, All this toil for human culture? Through the cloud-rack, dark and trailing, Must they see above them sailing O'er life's barren crags the vulture? Such a fate as this was Dante's, By defeat and exile maddened; Thus were Milton and Cervantes, Nature's priests and Corybantes, By affliction touched and saddened. But the glories so transcendent That around their memories cluster, And, on all their steps attendant, All the melodies mysterious, Through the dreary darkness chanted; Thoughts in attitudes imperious, Voices soft, and deep, and serious, Words that whispered, songs that haunted! All the soul in rapt suspension, With the rapture of creating! Ah, Prometheus! heaven-scaling! In such hours of exultation Round the cloudy crags Caucasian! Though to all there is not given Strength for such sublime endeavor, All the hearts of men forever; Yet all bards, whose hearts unblighted Gleaming through the realms benighted, As they onward bear the message! 17. The Brazen Age. Next to the Age of Silver came that of brass,1 more savage of temper and readier for the strife of arms, yet not altogether wicked. 18. The Iron Age. Last came the hardest age and worst, - of iron. Crime burst in like a flood; modesty, truth, and honor fled. The gifts of the earth were put only to nefarious uses. Fraud, violence, war at home and abroad were rife. The world was wet with slaughter; and the gods, one by one, abandoned it, Astræa, following last, goddess of innocence and purity. 19. The Flood. Jupiter, observing the condition of things, burned with anger. He summoned the gods to council. Obeying the call, they traveled the Milky Way to the palace of Heaven. There, Jupiter set forth to the assembly the frightful condition of the earth, and announced his intention of destroying its inhabitants, and providing a new race, unlike the present, which should be worthier of life and more reverent toward the gods. Fearing lest a conflagration might set Heaven itself on fire, he proceeded to drown the world. Not satisfied with his own waters, he called his brother Neptune to his aid. Speedily the race of men, and their possessions, were swept away by the deluge. 1 Compare Byron's political satire, The Age of Bronze. 20. Deucalion and Pyrrha. Parnassus alone, of the mountains, overtopped the waves; and there Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, found refuge - he a just man and she a faithful worshiper of the gods. Jupiter, remembering the harmless lives and pious demeanor of this pair, caused the waters to recede, the sea to return to its shores, and the rivers to their channels. Then Deucalion and Pyrrha, entering a temple defaced with slime, approached the unkindled altar and, falling prostrate, prayed for guidance and aid. The oracle 1 answered, "Depart from the temple with head veiled and garments unbound, and cast behind you the bones of your mother." They heard the words with astonishment. Pyrrha first broke silence : "We cannot obey; we dare not profane the remains of our parents." They sought the woods, and revolved the oracle in their minds. At last Deucalion spoke: "Either my wit fails me or the command is one we may obey without impiety. The earth is the great parent of all; the stones are her bones; these we may cast behind us; this, I think, the oracle means. At least, to try will harm us not." They veiled their faces, unbound their garments, and, picking up stones, cast them behind them. The stones began to grow. 'soft and to assume shape. By degrees they put on a rude resemblance to the human form. Those thrown by Deucalion became men; those by Pyrrha, women. It was a hard race that sprang up, and well adapted to labor. 21. The Demigods and Heroes. As preceding the Age of Iron, Hesiod mentions an Age of Demigods and Heroes. Since, however, these demigods and heroes were, many of them, reputed to have been directly descended from Deucalion, their epoch must be regarded as subsequent to the deluge. The hero, Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, became the ancestor of the Hellenes, or Greeks. The Eolians and Dorians were, according to legend, descended from his sons Eolus and Dorus; from his son Xuthus, the Achaeans and Ionians derived their origin. Another great division of the Greek people, the Pelasgic, resident in the Peloponnesus or southern portion of the peninsula, was said to have sprung from a different stock of heroes, that of 1 Oracles, see §§ 24, 30, and Commentary. |