Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/157

127 PROMETHEUS BOUND 127

^First Scene of Exodus.'

Prometheus. Yet Zeus, albeit most absolute of will, Shall turn to meekness, — such a marriage-rite 1075 He holds in preparation, which anon Shall thrust him headlong from his gerent seat Adown the abysmal void ; and so the curse His father Cronos muttered in his fall. As he fell from his ancient throne and cursed,^ loeu Shall be accomplished wholly. No escape From all that ruin shall the filial Zeus Find granted to him from any of his gods, Unless I teach him. I the refuge know, And I, the means. Now, therefore, let him sit 1085 And brave the imminent doom, and fix his faith On his supernal noises, hurtling on With restless hand the bolt that breathes out fire ; For these things shall not help him, none of them, Nor hinder his perdition when he falls 1090

To shame, and lower than patience : such a foe He doth himself prepare against himself, A wonder of unconquerable hate. An organizer of sublimer fire

Than glares in lightnings, and of grander sound 1090 Than aught the thunder rolls, out-thundering it. With power to shatter in Poseidon's fist^ The trident-spear, which, while it plagues the sea,

^ I. e., that his son Zeus might be overthrown by a son, just as he had overthrown his father Cronus.

"^ The oracle of Themis ran, according• to the myth, that Thetis should bear a son mightier than his father. Both Zeus and Poseidon (Neptune) desired her love. Wedded to Zeus she -would bear a son who would find a missile mightier than the thunderbolt. If she were wedded to Poseidon her son would master the trident. See verse 894.