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NOTES FOR PROMETHEUS BOUND
THE translation of Paul Elmer More, author of the Shelburne Essays and
The Greek Tradition, was first published in 1899. The present text contains
corrections and revisions made by the translator in his own personal
copy which was turned over to the editors. More's scheme of translation,
which is similar in some respects to that of Richard Aldington in his version
of Euripides' Alcestis, and to that of R. C. Trevelyan in his version
of Sophocles 7 Ajax, may perhaps best be described in a short quotation
from his introduction. In speaking of the Chorus, More says: "Their song
and the lyric parts throughout I have turned into semi-poetic language
to mark them off to the eye at least from the regular dialogue, which in the
original is in a metre akin to our blank verse and is here translated into
prose." Certain choral passages in Greek tragedy rendered into short
lines of English verse, skilfully composed, seem to preserve with peculiar
effectiveness the austerity and dignity of the original.
1. The reference is to the son which Thetis will bear if she consummates
her marriage with Zeus. This secret knowledge constitutes Prometheus'
only defence against Zeus.
2. This refers to Heracles.
3. The highly imaginative geography of the following speeches evidently
afforded great pleasure to the Greek audiences.
4. For the story of the Danaids, cf. Aeschylus, The Suppliants, and
its introduction.
5. Hermes here virtually identifies wisdom with prudent self-interest.