b

the innermost recess of our grots, and banished my maidenly reserve; and I sped forth without my sandals in my winged chariot.

PROM.-Alas! alas! ye offspring of prolific Tethys, and daughters of Ocean your sire, who rolls around the whole earth in his restless stream, look ye upon me, see clasped in what bonds I shall have to keep a watch such as none need envy me on the topmost peaks of this glen.

е

CHORUS.-I see, Prometheus: and a fearful cloud full of tears spread speedily over my eyes, as I looked on thy frame withering on these rocks in galling adamantine fetters for new administrators are paramount in Olympus; and Jove, contrary to all rule, lords it with newfangled laws, and what was aforetime had in reverence he is obliterating.

PROM. Oh would that he had sent me beneath the earth, and below into the boundless Tartarus of Hades that receives the dead, after savagely securing me in indissoluble bonds, so that no god at any time, nor any other being, had exulted in this my doom. Whereas now, wretch that I am, the sport of the winds, I am suffering pangs that gladden the hearts of my foes.

b A proof of haste. Compare Theocr. Idyl. xxiv. 36. Horace, Sat. I. ii. 132. ŏXY πтερWτ. In the Eumenides, Minerva makes her appearance in such a vehicle, and Euripides in his Medea sends off his heroine by the same conveyance.

C

Tethys was the greatest of the marine goddesses, daughter of Uranus and Terra, mother of the principal rivers, Nilus, Alpheus, etc. and of three thousand daughters: she seems sometimes to have been confounded with her granddaughter Thetis. In such cases we shall as well bear in mind the observation of sir John Marsham: " Neque enim tanta πоλvɛórηç gentium, quanta fuit deorum πολυνώμια.”

d Compare the expression ποταμοῖο ῥέεθρα Ὠκεανοῦ of Homer, Il. xiv. 245. a passage which also illustrates the epithet ἀκοίμητῳ.

Milton has "ocean-stream," Par. Lost, I.

e ppovpáv. Translationibus a re militari maxime delectatur Æschylus animosissimus poeta. Butler.

fπɛλaw in its transitive sense, appropinquare facio.

So in Homer, Il. xii. 194. xiii. 1.

g

CHORUS.-Who of the gods is so hard-hearted as that these pangs of thine can be grateful to him? Who is there that sympathizes not with thy sufferings, Jove alone excepted? He indeed in his wrath, having an inflexible temper, is evermore breaking the spirit of the race of the celestials; and he will not give over before that either he shall have indulged his humour to satiety, or some one by some stratagem shall have seized upon his sovereignty that will be no easy prize.

PROM.-Verily hereafter the lord of the immortals" shall have need of me, albeit that I am ignominiously suffering in strong shackles, to discover to him the new plot by which he is despoiled of his sceptre and his honours. And neither shall he win me by the honey-tongued charms of persuasion; nor will I at any time, cowering beneath his stern menaces, divulge this matter before he shall have released me from my cruel bonds, and shall be willing to give me satisfaction for this outrage which I am enduring.

CHORUS.-Thou indeed both art hardy, and yieldest not one jot to thy bitter calamities, but art excessively free in thy language. But piercing terror is worrying my soul; and I fear for thy fortunes, when at length it may be thy destiny to make the haven and see the termination of these thy sufferings: for the son of Saturn hath a temper that supplication cannot reach, and a heart that is inexorable.

PROM.—I know that Jupiter is harsh, and makes justice depend on his own good pleasure: but for all that he shall hereafter be softened in his purpose, when he shall have been crushed in this way; and, after quelling1 his

See Heyne's note on Homer, Iliad. ix. 625.

Η μακάρων πρύτανις• to an Athenian ear perhaps this phrase must have presented some such a collocation as " the heaven's lord mayor" in the farce. i See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 420. 1.

k Cf. v. 410.

1 So in Tacitus, Hist. i. 58. ..... stratis jam militum odiis.

Statius, Sylv. ii. 5. Quid tibi constrata mansuescere profuit ira?

ruthless rage, with eagerness shall he some future day come into league and friendship with me that shall eagerly welcome his advances.

CHORUS. Unfold and enunciate to us the whole story, on the strength of what accusation it was that Jupiter seized thee, and is thus despitefully and bitterly tormenting thee. Inform us, if thou be in no respect hurt by the recital.

m

PROM.—Painful indeed are these things for me both to tell, a pain too it is for me to hold my peace, and in every way they are afflictive. As soon as ever the divinities began their quarrel, and a feud was reciprocally stirred up among them,-one party wishing to eject Saturn from his throne, in order forsooth that Jupiter may be king, and others exerting themselves for the contrary plan, that Jupiter might at no time rule over the gods:then I, when I gave the best advice, was not able to prevail upon the Titans, children of Uranus and Terra; but they, contemning in their stout spirits wily schemes, fancied that without any trouble, and by dint of main force, they were to win the sovereignty. But it was not once only that my mother Themis, and Terra, a single person with many designations, had forewarned me of the way in which the future should be accomplished, how that it was destined, that, not in the way of main force, nor by the strong hand, but by guile, the victors should prevail. When, however, I explained such points in discourse, they deigned not to pay me any regard at all. Of the plans

m.". Neither Mr. Blomfield nor any of the preceding commentators has remarked that this passage is an instance of the pendens nominativus, or nominative of a participle in place of what is called the genitive absolute." Quart. Rev. V. 219.

n Wellauer gives the preference to the Aldine reading áváσoy. His note is interesting-"Conjunctivum necessario recipiendum duxi, non offendens in sequente optativo (quem patet illius mutandi ansam dedisse), quia àváooŋ refertur ad rem in posterum duraturam, ãpžɛív autem ad consilium, quod exitum statim habiturum est. Simillimus est locus Homeri Od. xiii. 76. Herod. IX. lib. 12."

which then presented themselves to me, it appeared to me the best that I should invite my mother to share my counsel, and promptly side with Jupiter, who was right glad to receive us. And 'tis by means of my counsels that the murky abyss of Tartarus overwhelms the antique Saturn, his partisans and all. After receiving services such as these from me, the sovereign of the gods hath recompensed me with these foul requitals. For, owing to whatever cause it may be, this malady attaches to savereign power, the not putting confidence in friends. But for the object of your inquiries, upon what charge it is that he visits these outrages upon me, this matter I will clearly explain. As soon as ever he had established himself on his father's throne, forthwith to the different divinities he assigns each his guerdon, and was setting in order his empire: but of woe-begone mortals he took no sort of account, but was wishing, after having annihilated the entire race, to plant another new one. And against these schemes no one set his face except myself. But I ventured: I rescued mortals from being dashed to atoms and going to Hades'. 'Tis for this, in truth, that I am bowed down by sufferings such as these, agonizing to endure, and piteous to look upon. I that had compassion

παρεστώτων. sc. βουλευμάτων. Butler.

P Brunck received the accusative of the participle from one of the Paris MSS. and Porson, Schutz, and Dr. Blomfield have followed him, "sine causa," says Wellauer, "6 nam non solum minor est hujus lectionis auctoritas, sed errant etiam in eo, quod verba pooλaẞóvri μnrépa ad sequentia trahunt, quæ cum præcedentibus conjungi sensus postulat: loquitur enim de matre ad consilium vocata." Professor Scholefield reads pooλáẞovri.

a Compare the speech of king Richard II. to Northumberland in Shakspeare, K. Rich. II. Act V. Sc. i.

Northumberland, thou ladder wherewithal, etc.

r The want of an augment here sadly scandalized and perplexed the critics, till Porson cleared up the matter. καθεζόμην, καθήμην, καθεῦδον—augmentum non præponunt tragici, comici pro arbitrio vel præponunt vel abjiciSupplement to the Preface to the Hecuba. Note (D.)

unt."

for mortals", have myself been deemed unworthy to obtain this, but mercilessly am thus brought to order, a spectacle discreditable to Jupiter.

CHORUS.-Iron-hearted and made of rock too, Prometheus, is he, whosoever it be, that condoles not with thy disasters: for I, as I could have wished never to have beheld them, so now, when I behold them, I am filled with anguish in my heart.

PROM.-Aye, in very deed I am a piteous object for my friends to behold.

CHORUS.-And didst thou chance to advance even beyond this?

PROM.-I did indeed put an end to mortals' foresight of their dooma.

b

CHORUS. By the discovery of what specific for this malady?

PROM.-I introduced blind hopes to dwell within them. CHORUS.-In this thou wast donor of a mighty benefit to mortals.

PROM. Over and above these boons, however, I imparted fire to them.

CHORUS. -And are the creatures of a day now in possession of ruddy fire?

PROM.-Yes—from which they will moreover make themselves thoroughly acquainted with many arts.

CHORUS.-Is it indeed on charges such as these that

u With Dr. Blomfield's Glossary, on this very extraordinary phrase, compare Dr. Butler's note—“ πpoléμɛvos, i. q. Oéμɛvos valere affirmat Schutzmalim cum Pauwio subintelligi uavrov, ut sit sensus suscepto mortalium patrocinio, vel, quod forte simplicius, propositis ad miserandum mortalibus.”

* Supra, (v. 165. Blomf.) eundem sensum Chorus levioribus verbis extulerat- -hic autem magis incensus graviore dicendi genere utitur. Schutz. y See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 534. 3.

z Sc. in transgression. Caute ac moderate loquitur Chorus: non dicit μаρтεs, sed πεр. πp. ne animum Promethei offendat, eumque a pertexenda narratione absterreat." Schutz.

a See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 583. Obs. 4. and §. 550. Obs. 3.

Compare Horace III. Ode xxix. 29.

b See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 264. 4.