THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

[107-135] Prometheus Bound 131
Who, darkly hiding in a fennel reed
Fountains of fire, so secretly purloined
And gave to be the teacher of all arts
And giver of all good to mortal men.
And now this forfeit for my sin I pay,
Thus lodged in fetters under the bare sky.
Woe's me I
What murmur hovereth near?
What odor, where visible shape
Is none? Some god, or a mortal,
Or one of the middle race?
Hath he come to this world's-end
Idly to gloat o'er my toils,
Or what would he have?—Behold me
Fettered, the god ill-fated,
The foeman of Zeus, the detested
Of all who enter his courts,
And only because of my love,
My too-great love for mankind.
Ah me! once more the murmur
I hear as of hovering birds;
And the air is whirring with quick
Beating of wings. For me
There is fear, whatever approaches.
(The CHORUS OF THE DAUGHTERS OF OCEANUS enter,
drawn in a winged car.)
CHORUS(singing)
Fear nothing; in friendship and eager
With winged contention of speed
Together we draw near thy rock.
Scarce we persuaded our father,
But now at last the swift breezes
Have brought us. Down in the depth
Of our sea-cave came the loud noise
Of the welding of iron; and wonderment
Banished our maiden shame;
All in haste, unsandalled, hither
We flew in this winged car.
strophe I