Prometheus Bound E-Book

Aeschylus

• Herausgeber: Phoemixx Classics Ebooks
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 51

Beschreibung

Prometheus Bound Aeschylus - Prometheus Bound is an Ancient Greek tragedy. In antiquity, it was attributed to Aeschylus, but now is considered by some scholars to be the work of another hand, and perhaps one as late as c. 430 BC. Despite these doubts of authorship, the play's designation as Aeschylean has remained conventional. The tragedy is based on the myth of Prometheus, a Titan who defies the gods and gives fire to mankind, acts for which he is subjected to perpetual punishment.The play is composed almost entirely of speeches and contains little action since its protagonist is chained and immobile throughout. At the beginning, Kratos (Authority), Bia (violence), and the smith-god Hephaestus chain the Titan Prometheus to a mountain in the Caucasus, with Hephaestus alone expressing reluctance and pity, and then departing. According to the author, Prometheus is being punished not only for stealing fire, but also for thwarting Zeus's plan to obliterate the human race. This punishment is especially galling since Prometheus was instrumental in Zeus's victory in the Titanomachy.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. Prometheus tells the chorus that the gift of fire to mankind was not his only benefaction; in the so-called Catalogue of the Arts (447-506), he reveals that he taught men all the civilizing arts, such as writing, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, architecture, and agriculture.Prometheus is then visited by Io, a human maiden pursued by a lustful Zeus; the Olympian transformed Io into a cow, and a gadfly sent by Zeus's wife Hera has chased Io all the way from Argos. Prometheus forecasts Io's future travels, telling her that Zeus will eventually end her torment in Egypt, where she will bear a son named Epaphus. He says one of her descendants (an unnamed Heracles), thirteen generations hence, will release him from his own torment.Finally, Hermes the messenger-god is sent down by the angered Zeus to demand that Prometheus tell him who threatens to overthrow him. Prometheus refuses, and Zeus strikes him with a thunderbolt that plunges Prometheus into the abyss.

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Aeschylus

Prometheus Bound

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Prometheus Bound

ARGUMENT

In the beginning, Ouranos and Gaia held sway over Heaven and Earth. And manifold children were born unto them, of whom were Cronos, and Okeanos, and the Titans, and the Giants. But Cronos cast down his father Ouranos, and ruled in his stead, until Zeus his son cast him down in his turn, and became King of Gods and men. Then were the Titans divided, for some had good will unto Cronos, and others unto Zeus; until Prometheus, son of the Titan lapetos, by wise counsel, gave the victory to Zeus. But Zeus held the race of mortal men in scorn, and was fain to destroy them from the face of the earth; yet Prometheus loved them, and gave secretly to them the gift of fire, and arts whereby they could prosper upon the earth. Then was Zeus sorely angered with Prometheus, and bound him upon a mountain, and afterward overwhelmed him in an earthquake, and devised other torments against him for many ages; yet could he not slay Prometheus, for he was a God.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

STRENGTH AND FORCE.HEPHAESTUS.PROMETHEUS.CHORUS OF SEA-NYMPHS.DAUGHTERS OF OCEANUS.OCEANUS.IO.HERMES.

Scene—A rocky ravine in the mountains of Scythia.

STRENGTH.Lo, the earth’s bound and limitary land,The Scythian steppe, the waste untrod of men!Look to it now, Hephaestus—thine it is,Thy Sire obeying, this arch-thief to clenchAgainst the steep-down precipice of rock,With stubborn links of adamantine chain.Look thou: thy flower, the gleaming plastic fire,He stole and lent to mortal man—a sinThat gods immortal make him rue to-day,Lessoned hereby to own th’ omnipotenceOf Zeus, and to repent his love to man!

HEPHAESTUS.O Strength and Force, for you the best of ZeusStands all achieved, and nothing bars your will:But I—I dare not bind to storm-vext cleftOne of our race, immortal as are we.Yet, none the less, necessity constrains,For Zeus, defied, is heavy in revenge!(To PROMETHEUS)O deep-devising child of Themis sage,Small will have I to do, or thou to bear,What yet we must. Beyond the haunt of manUnto this rock, with fetters grimly forged,I must transfix and shackle up thy limbs,Where thou shalt mark no voice nor human form,But, parching in the glow and glare of sun,Thy body’s flower shall suffer a sky-change;And gladly wilt thou hail the hour when NightShall in her starry robe invest the day,Or when the Sun shall melt the morning rime.But, day or night, for ever shall the loadOf wasting agony, that may not pass,Wear thee away; for know, the womb of TimeHath not conceived a power to set thee free.Such meed thou hast, for love toward mankindFor thou, a god defying wrath of gods,Beyond the ordinance didst champion men,And for reward shalt keep a sleepless watch,Stiff-kneed, erect, nailed to this dismal rock,With manifold laments and useless criesAgainst the will inexorable of Zeus.Hard is the heart of fresh-usurpèd power!

STRENGTH.Enough of useless ruth! why tarriest thou?Why pitiest one whom all gods wholly hate,One who to man gave o’er thy privilege?

HEPHAESTUS.Kinship and friendship wring my heart for him.

STRENGTH.Ay—but how disregard our Sire’s command?Is not thy pity weaker than thy fear?

HEPHAESTUS.Ruthless as ever, brutal to the full!

STRENGTH.Tears can avail him nothing: strive not thou,Nor waste thine efforts thus unaidingly.

HEPHAESTUS.Out on my cursed mastery of steel!

STRENGTH.Why curse it thus? In sooth that craft of thineStandeth assoiled of all that here is wrought.

HEPHAESTUS.Would that some other were endowed therewith!

STRENGTH.All hath its burden, save the rule of Heaven,And freedom is for Zeus, and Zeus alone.

HEPHAESTUS.I know it; I gainsay no word hereof.

STRENGTH.Up, then, and hasten to do on his bonds,Lest Zeus behold thee indolent of will!

HEPHAESTUS.Ah well—behold the armlets ready now!

STRENGTH.Then cast them round his arms and with sheer strengthSwing down the hammer, clinch him to the crags.

HEPHAESTUS.Lo, ’tis toward—no weakness in the work!

STRENGTH.Smite harder, wedge it home—no faltering here!He hath a craft can pass th’ impassable!

HEPHAESTUS.This arm is fast, inextricably bound.

STRENGTH.Then shackle safe the other, that he knowHis utmost craft is weaker far than Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS.He, but none other, can accuse mine art!

STRENGTH.Now, strong and sheer, drive thro’ from breast to backThe adamantine wedge’s stubborn fang.

HEPHAESTUS.Alas, Prometheus! I lament thy pain.

STRENGTH.Thou, faltering and weeping sore for thoseWhom Zeus abhors! ’ware, lest thou rue thy tears!

HEPHAESTUS.Thou gazest on a scene that poisons sight.

STRENGTH.I gaze on one who suffers his desert.Now between rib and shoulder shackle him—

HEPHAESTUS.Do it I must—hush thy superfluous charge!

STRENGTH.Urge thee I will—ay, hound thee to the prey.Step downward now, enring his legs amain!

HEPHAESTUS.Lo, it is done—’twas but a moment’s toil.

STRENGTH.Now, strongly strike, drive in the piercing gyves—Stern is the power that oversees thy task!

HEPHAESTUS.Brutish thy form, thy speech brutality!

STRENGTH.Be gentle, an thou wilt, but blame not meFor this my stubbornness and anger fell!

HEPHAESTUS.Let us go hence; his legs are firmly chained.

STRENGTH (To PROMETHEUS).Aha! there play the insolent, and steal,For creatures of a day, the rights of gods!O deep delusion of the powers that named theePrometheus, the Fore-thinker! thou hast needOf others’ forethought and device, wherebyThou may’st elude this handicraft of ours!

[Exeunt HEPHAESTUS, STRENGTH and FORCE.—A pause.]

PROMETHEUS.O Sky divine, O Winds of pinions swift,O fountain-heads of Rivers, and O thou,Illimitable laughter of the Sea!O Earth, the Mighty Mother, and thou Sun,Whose orbed light surveyeth all—attest,What ills I suffer from the gods, a god!