Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/217

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No aiding art he knew, no saving food,

No curing oil nor draught, but all in lack

Of remedies they dwindled, till I taught

The medicinal blending of soft drugs,

Whereby they ward each sickness from their side.

I ranged for them the methods manifold

Of the diviner's art; I first discerned

Which of night's visions hold a truth for day,

I read for them the lore of mystic sounds,

Inscrutable before; the omens seen

Which bless or ban a journey, and the flight

Of crook-clawed birds, did I make clear to man—

And how they soar upon the right, for weal,

How, on the left, for evil; how they dwell,

Each in its kind, and what their loves and hates,

And which can flock and roost in harmony.

From me, men learned what deep significance

Lay in the smoothness of the entrails set

For sacrifice, and which, of various hues,

Showed them a gift accepted of the gods;

They learned what streaked and varied comeliness

Of gall and liver told; I led them, too,

(By passing thro' the flame the thigh-bones, wrapt

In rolls of fat, and th' undivided chine),

Unto the mystic and perplexing lore

Of omens; and I cleared unto their eyes

The forecasts, dim and indistinct before,

Shown in the flickering aspect of a flame.

Of these, enough is said. The other boons,

Stored in the womb of earth, in aid of men—

Copper and iron, silver, gold withal—

Who dares affirm he found them ere I found?

None—well I know—save who would babble lies!

Know thou, in compass of a single phrase—

All arts, for mortals' use, Prometheus gave.