Page:The Tragedies of Aeschylus - tr. Potter - 1812.pdf/47



wrote three Tragedies on the story of Prometheus: the first exhibited him as carrying the sacred gift of fire to men; the second as chained to Caucasus; the third as delivered from his chains. Of these the second only remains to us. The short account, which Prometheus gives in this of the barbarous state of man before he taught them the civilizing arts, makes us regret the loss of the first; and we have good reason to imagine that the portrait of Hercules in the third, delineated, by this great master, must have been inimitable. There is in this remaining drama a sublimity of conception, a strength, a fire, a certain savage dignity peculiar to this bold writer. The scenery is the greatest that the human imagination ever formed: the wild and desolate rock frowning over the sea, the stern and imperious sons of Pallas and Styx holding up Prometheus to its rifted side whilst Vulcan fixes his chains, the Nymphs of the Ocean flying to its summit to commiserate his