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148 Aeschylus [731-761]
strait, which ever after in memorial of thy crossing men shall call the
Bosporus, the fording of the heifer. Thus thou wilt abandon the plain of
Europe and venture on the continent of Asia.—Now doth not the tyrant
of the gods seem to you altogether violent? Behold how this god, desiring
to mingle with a mortal woman, hath imposed on her these wanderings.—
Thou hast met, O maiden, a bitter claimant for thy favor; and the words
thou hast heard are not even the prelude to what must follow.
Alas, for me!
Io
PROMETHEUS
Once more you cry out and groan; what will you do when you have
learned the troubles that remain?
LEADER
Nay, have you calamities still to recount?
PROMETHEUS
As it were a stormy sea of lamentable woe.
Io
What profit have I in life? Why do I not hurl myself out of hand from
this rude precipice, that broken on the plain below I may have speedy
respite from my troubles? It were better to die once for all than to drag
out my lingering days in anguish.
PROMETHEUS
How hardly would you endure my struggles, for death that would release
me from my woes is denied me by Destiny. Now there is no goal
before me of my conflict until Zeus is thrown from his supremacy.
Io
And shall Zeus ever fall from power?
PROMETHEUS
You would rejoice, I think, to see his overthrow.
Io
Why should I not, who am abused by Zeus?
PROMETHEUS
You may learn from me that your wish is truth.
Io
Who shall despoil him of the tyrant's sceptre?