Page:The Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick).djvu/405

Rh They open the drama with an ode in which they describe the journey they have taken in order to pay Prometheus a visit of sympathy.

In the well-known fragment translated by Cicero, Prometheus, in return, narrates his sufferings, describes the torment he endures from the eagle, and longs for death as the goal of his anguish.

Herakles next appears upon the scene, and in him Prometheus recognizes his heaven-appointed deliverer. Nowhere are the noble and the repulsive features of Hellenic mythology more remarkably associated than in the numerous legends which gather round the person of Herakles. The fundamental idea embodied in this Zeus-born hero is, however, that of irresistible power, "whose action is as beneficent to the children of men as it is fatal to the enemies of light." The heroic deeds of Herakles are glorified by Pindar (Nem. i. 33, 34, 62–72), who also appeals to them as authenticating his divine vocation; while, according to the rhetorician Aristides, he was styled by men their saviour, the averter of evil. Nowhere, however, is he introduced in this character more significantly than as the liberator of Prometheus.

According to Hellenic mythology, Herakles closed the line of heroes, the earth-born sons of Zeus, whose mission it was to ennoble and elevate the human race. He therefore exhibited the highest result of the