Page:Prometheus Bound (Webster 1866).djvu/24



Unveil to us thy story, tell out all—

For what imputed guilt Zeus holds thee bond,

Putting thee thus to torment and to shame.

Tell, if to tell us do not cost thee hurt.

To tell these things indeed is painful for me,

But to keep silence on them is pain too.

Yea, all ways is it wretched. When first grew

The strife among the gods, and they were ranged

Faction to adverse faction, these all zeal

To overtopple Kronos from his seat

That Zeus, forsooth, might king it, these astir

To thwart them, that Zeus ne'er should rule the gods,

I, counselling for the best, could not persuade

The Titans, sons of Uranus and Earth.

They, in their pride of strength despising arts

Of subtlety, supposed they should prevail

With little effort and by force alone.

But me, a many times, my mother Themis,

And Gaia, she who beareth many names,

Had warned of how the end should be achieved: