Of Zeus, will, woman-hearted, supplicate

My hated adversary with bow abased

And abject inclination of my palms,

To free me from my bondage? It cannot be.

HERMES

Much to no purpose have I said, it seems.

Unmelted art thou yet nor softened by

My prayers, but, like a newly-bridled colt,

Dost champ and chafe against the irksome rein.

Yet the conceit that gives thee strength is frail:

For obstinacy, sustained not by a mind

Of healthy judgment, has no strength at all.

Consider, if thou wilt not hearken to me,

What dreadful tempest and wild waves of woe

Will overwhelm thee. First, this icy cliff

The Father’s thunder-clap and lightning-flame

Shall blast asunder, and thy body, clasped

In the rock’s embrace, bury beneath the earth:

Till, having outlived an endless expanse of Time,

Thou shalt return to light, and then the hound

Of Zeus, the blood-red eagle, ravenously

Shall tear thy tattered body limb from limb,

An uninvited, day-long banqueter

Feasting upon thy liver’s blackened flesh.

Such woe awaits thee, whereto expect no end

Until some god appear, relieving thee

Of toil, content to face the lightless glooms

Of Hades and the pit of Tartarus.

Even so take counsel with thyself, for this

Is no fictitious menace, but too true:

To speak false is unknown to the mouth of Zeus,

Each word shall be accomplished. So then, do you

Take heed, deliberate, and do not hold

Good counsel cheaper than an obstinate spirit.

CHORUS

To us it seems that Hermes speaks in season,

Bidding thee lay aside thy obstinacy

And with good counsel walk the path of wisdom.

Yield! It is baseness for the wise to err.

PROMETHEUS

Known to me, known was the message that he

Hath proclaimed, and for none is it shameful to bear

At the hands of his enemies evil and wrong.

So now let him cast, if it please him, the two-

Edged curl of his lightning, and shatter the sky

With his thundering frenzy of furious winds;

Let the earth be uptorn from her roots by the storm

Of his anger, and Ocean with turbulent tides

Pile up, till engulfed are the paths of the stars;

Down to the bottomless blackness of Tartarus

Let my body be cast, caught in the whirling

Waters of Destiny:

For with death I shall not be stricken!

HERMES

Nay, such are the feverish cries of a mind

Distorted, the crazed counsels of madmen.

What but the depth of distraction that desperate

Boast? what sign yet that his fury abates?

Be it so; and do you, who have come to his side

In compassion, begone, make good your escape,

That you may not be struck down senseless and stunned

By the roar of the thunder of heaven.

CHORUS

To a different tune must thou speak to persuade;

That turbulent threat is beyond sufferance.

Wouldst thou have me a coward, betraying a friend?

What he must I am willing to bear at his side.

For disloyalty I have been taught to detest —