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136 Aeschylus [282-329]
The highway I leave of the birds;
And now to the rugged earth
I descend. I listen, I wait
For thy story of pain and disaster.
(OCEANUS enters, borne on a winged horse.)
OCEANUS
To thee I come, O Prometheus;
Borne on this swift-winged bird
That knoweth the will of his rider
And needeth no curb, from afar
I have flown a wearisome way,
Weary but ended at last.
I am grieved with thy grief; I am drawn
By our kinship, and even without it
Thee more than all others I honor.
I speak simple sooth, and my tongue
Knows not to flatter in idleness.
-Nay, tell me what aid I may render;
For never thy lips shall avow
Oceanus failed thee in friendship.
PROMETHEUS
Ho! What is this I look upon? What then, art thou too come to stare
upon my ruin? What new daring has brought thee from thy ocean stream
and thy rock-roofed unbuilded caverns hither to our earth, the mother
of iron? Art thou come to view my fate with indignation for my calamities?
Behold the spectacle! behold me, the friend of Zeus, who helped
him to a throne, now bowed down by his torments.
OCEANUS
I see, Prometheus; and, though thou art thyself cunning in device, I
would admonish thee to prudence. Learn to know thyself, put on the
habit of new ways, for there is a new tyrant among the gods. If still thou
hurlest forth these harsh and biting words, perchance from afar off, Zeus,
sitting above, may hear thee, and thy present burden of sorrows will
seem as the sport of children. But, O wretched sufferer, put away thy
moody wrath, and seek some respite from thy ills. My advice may sound
as the trite sayings of old, yet thou thyself canst see what are the wages
of too bold a tongue. Thou hast not learned humility, nor to yield to
evils, but rather wouldst add others new to thy present store. Take me
for thy teacher, and kick not against the pricks, for there rules in heaven
an austere monarch who is responsible to none. Now I will go and make
trial to win thy release from this grievous state. Do thou keep thy peace,