PROMETHEUS: Go on, go on! These are earthly passions that turn against me, but I am not a man and know nothing of ingratitude. You will not change one letter of your fate; it will be fulfilled in its entirety. You will be the new Hercules. I, who proclaimed the glory of the first one, also proclaim yours; and you will be no less generous than he.

AHASUERUS: Are you mad?

PROMETHEUS: The truth men do not know is the madness of whoever proclaims it. Go on, finish it!

AHASUERUS: Glory never pays for anything, and then it dies.

PROMETHEUS: This glory will never die. Go on, finish what you’re doing; teach the sharp beak of the eagle how to devour my entrails, but listen . . . No, don’t listen; you cannot understand me.

AHASUERUS: No, speak, speak.

PROMETHEUS: The passing world cannot understand the eternal, but you will be the link between the two.

AHASUERUS: Tell me everything, I’m listening.

PROMETHEUS: I will tell you nothing. Go on, tighten the chains on my wrists so that I cannot escape, so that you will find me here when you return. You want me to tell you everything? I have already told you that a new race will inhabit the earth, made from the finest spirits of the extinct race; the multitude of others will perish. A noble family, lucid and powerful, it will be the perfect blend of the divine and the human. A new era will be born, but between that old era and this a link is needed, and that link is you.

AHASUERUS: Me?

PROMETHEUS: Yes, you, the chosen one, the king. Yes, indeed, Ahasuerus, you shall be king. The wanderer shall find rest. He who was scorned by men shall govern them.

AHASUERUS: Cunning Titan, you wish to deceive me. Me, a king?

PROMETHEUS: Yes, you. Who else could it be? The new world needs something from the old world, and no one can explain those two worlds better than you. Thus there will be no break between the two humanities. From the imperfect will come the perfect, and your mouth will tell it of its origins. You will tell the new mankind of all the good and evil of the old. You will spring to life once again like the tree whose dead leaves have been removed to reveal only the lush green ones, but in this case the lushness will be eternal.

AHASUERUS: A shining vision! Can it really be me?

PROMETHEUS: Yes, really.

AHASUERUS: These eyes . . . these hands . . . a new and better life . . . Sublime vision! Well, it is only fair, Titan. The punishment was fair, but so is the glorious remission of my sin. I shall live? Me? A new and better life? No, surely you mock me.

PROMETHEUS: Well, then, leave me; one day you will return, when these immense heavens open for the spirits of new life to descend. You will find me here, at peace. Go.