Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/99



The fable of Prometheus, as narrated by Æschylus, widely differs from Hesiod's account; and since it is not drawn from any sources which we can examine, there appears to be no reason for doubting the powers of his own invention as developed upon it. All that every body has seen or imagined under the mask of Prometheus, I could not narrate here without changing this note into an essay. Sir Isaac Newton saw the nephew of Sesostris, and Le Clerc saw the grandson of Noah, and Bryant saw Noah himself, and Joannes Muller a resemblance to Job; and a great many others saw a great deal besides. But a translator is not, or at least need not be, a speculator.

Vide Theogony, vs. 385. This personification of Strength is introduced in only one other place, as far as I am aware, in the extant writings of Æschylus. See the Choëphorœ, vs. 234.