Prometheus Bound E-Book

Aeschylus

• Herausgeber: Sovereign
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Serie: Plays by Aeschylus
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 50

Beschreibung

Prometheus, a Titan who defies the gods and gives fire to mankind, acts for which he is subjected to perpetual punishment. The Oceanids appear and attempt to comfort Prometheus by conversing with him. Prometheus cryptically tells them that he knows of a potential marriage that would lead to Zeus's downfall. A Titan named Oceanus commiserates with Prometheus and urges him to make peace with Zeus.

Leseprobe

Aeschylus

Aeschylus

Prometheus Bound

LONDON ∙ NEW YORK ∙ TORONTO ∙ SAO PAULO ∙ MOSCOW

PARIS ∙ MADRID ∙ BERLIN ∙ ROME ∙ MEXICO CITY ∙ MUMBAI ∙ SEOUL ∙ DOHA

TOKYO ∙ SYDNEY ∙ CAPE TOWN ∙ AUCKLAND ∙ BEIJING

New Edition

Published by Sovereign Classic

www.sovereignclassic.net

This Edition

First published in 2016

Copyright © 2016 Sovereign Classic

ISBN: 9781911535744

Contents

PROMETHEUS BOUND

PROMETHEUS BOUND

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

KRATOSBIAHEPHAESTUSPROMETHEUSCHORUS OF THE OCEANIDESOCEANUSIO

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 Gods loathe hateful to thee? Traitor to man of thy prerogative?

HEPHAESTUS

Kindred and fellowship are dreaded names.

KRATOS

Questionless; but to slight the Father’s word- How sayest thou? Is not this fraught with more dread?

HEPHAESTUS

Thy heart was ever hard and overbold.

KRATOS

But wailing will not ease him! Waste no pains Where thy endeavour nothing profiteth.

HEPHAESTUS

Oh execrable work! O handicraft!

KRATOS

Why curse thy trade? For what thou hast to do, Troth, smithcraft is in no wise answerable.

HEPHAESTUS

Would that it were another’s craft, not mine!

KRATOS

Why, all things are a burden save to rule Over the Gods; for none is free but Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS

To that I answer not, knowing it true.

KRATOS

Why, then, make haste to cast the chains about him, Lest glancing down on thee the Father’s eye Behold a laggard and a loiterer.

HEPHAESTUS

Here are the iron bracelets for his arms.

KRATOS

Fasten them round his arms with all thy strength! Strike with thy hammer! Nail him to the rocks!

HEPHAESTUS

‘Tis done! and would that it were done less well!

KRATOS

Harder-I say-strike harder-screw all tight And be not in the least particular Remiss, for unto one of his resource Bars are but instruments of liberty.

HEPHAESTUS

This forearm’s fast: a shackle hard to shift.

KRATOS

Now buckle this! and handsomely! Let him learn Sharp though he be, he’s a dull blade to Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS

None can find fault with this: -save him it tortures.

KRATOS

Now take thine iron spike and drive it in, Until it gnaw clean through the rebel’s breast.

HEPHAESTUS

Woe’s me, Prometheus, for thy weight of woe!

KRATOS

Still shirking? still a-groaning for the foes Of Zeus? Anon thou’lt wail thine own mishap.

HEPHAESTUS

Thou seest what eyes scarce bear to look upon!

KRATOS

I see this fellow getting his deserts! But strap him with a gelt about his ribs.

HEPHAESTUS

I do what I must do: for thee-less words!

KRATOS

“Words,” quotha? Aye, and shout ‘em if need be. Come down and cast a ring-bolt round his legs.

HEPHAESTUS

The thing is featly done; and ‘twas quick work.

KRATOS

Now with a sound rap knock the bolt-pins home! For heavy-handed is thy task-master.

HEPHAESTUS

So villainous a form vile tongue befits.

KRATOS

Be thou the heart of wax, but chide not me That I am gruffish, stubborn and stiff-willed.

HEPHAESTUS

Oh, come away! The tackle holds him fast.

KRATOS

Now, where thou hang’st insult Plunder the Gods For creatures of a day! To thee what gift Will mortals tender to requite thy pains? The destinies were out miscalling the Designer: a designer thou wilt need From trap so well contrived to twist thee free.

Exeunt.

PROMETHEUS

O divine air Breezes on swift bird-wings, Ye river fountains, and of ocean-waves The multitudinous laughter Mother Earth! And thou all-seeing circle of the sun, Behold what I, a God, from Gods endure! Look down upon my shame, The cruel wrong that racks my frame, The grinding anguish that shall waste my strength, Till time’s ten thousand years have measured out their length! He hath devised these chains, The new throned potentate who reigns, Chief of the chieftains of the Blest. Ah me! The woe which is and that which yet shall be I wail; and question make of these wide skies When shall the star of my deliverance rise. And yet-and yet-exactly I foresee All that shall come to pass; no sharp surprise