Four Plays of Aeschylus - Aeschylus

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with scorn and contempt, and Oceanus retires. But the courage which he lacks his daughters possess to the full; they remain by Prometheus to the end, and share his fate, literally in the crack of doom. But before the end, the strange half human figure of Io, victim of the lust of Zeus and the jealousy of Hera, comes wandering by, and tells Prometheus of her wrongs. He, by his divine power, recounts to her not only the past but also the future of her wanderings. Then, in a fresh access of frenzy, she drifts away into the unknown world. Then Prometheus partly reveals to the sea maidens his secret, and the mysterious cause of Zeus' hatred against him—a cause which would avail to hurl the tyrant from his power. So deadly is this secret, that Zeus will, in the lapse of ages, be forced to reconcile himself with Prometheus, to escape dethronement. Finally, Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, appears with fresh threats, that he may extort the mystery from the Titan. But Prometheus is firm, defying both the tyrant and his envoy, though already the lightning is flashing, the thunder rolling, and sky and sea are mingling their fury. Hermes can say no more; the sea nymphs resolutely refuse to retire, and wait their doom. In this crash of the world, Prometheus flings his final defiance against Zeus, and amid the lightnings and shattered rocks that are overwhelming him and his companions, speaks his last word, "It is unjust!"

      Any spectacular representation of this finale must, it is clear, have roused intense sympathy with the Titan and the nymphs alike. If, however, the sequel-plays had survived to us, we might conceivably have found and realized another and less intolerable solution. The name Zeus, in Greek, like that of God, in English, comprises very diverse views of divine personality. The Zeus in the Prometheus has little but the name in common with the Zeus in the first chorus of the Agamemnon, or in The Suppliant Maidens (ll. 86–103): and parallel reflections will give us much food for thought. But, in any case, let us realize that the Prometheus is not a human play: with the possible exception of Io, every character in it is an immortal being. It is not as a vaunt, but as a fact, that Prometheus declares, as against Zeus (l. 1053), that "Me at least He shall never give to death."

      A stupendous theological drama of which two-thirds has been lost has left an aching void, which now can never be filled, in our minds. No reader of poetry needs to be reminded of the glorious attempt of Shelley to work out a possible and worthy sequel to the Prometheus. Who will not echo the words of Mr. Gilbert Murray, when he says that "no piece of lost literature has been more ardently longed for than the Prometheus Freed"?

      But, at the end of a rather prolonged attempt to understand and translate the surviving tragedies of Aeschylus, one feels inclined to repeat the words used by a powerful critic about one of the greatest of modern poets—"For man, it is a weary way to God, but a wearier far to any demigod." We shall not discover the full sequel of Aeschylus' mighty dramatic conception: we "know in part, and we prophesy in part." The Introduction (pp. xvi.-xviii.) prefixed by Mr. A. O. Prickard to his edition of the Prometheus is full of persuasive grace, on this topic: to him, and to Dr. Verrall of Cambridge—lucida sidera of help and encouragement in the study of Aeschylus—the translator's thanks are due, and are gratefully and affectionately rendered.

      E. D. A. M.

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      DEDICATION

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      Take thou this gift from out the grave of Time.

       The urns of Greece lie shattered, and the cup

       That for Athenian lips the Muses filled,

       And flowery crowns that on Athenian hair

       Hid the cicala, freedom's golden sign,

       Dust in the dust have fallen. Calmly sad,

       The marble dead upon Athenian tombs

       Speak from their eyes "Farewell": and well have fared

       They and the saddened friends, whose clasping hands

       Win from the solemn stone eternity.

       Yea, well they fared unto the evening god,

       Passing beyond the limit of the world,

       Where face to face the son his mother saw,

       A living man a shadow, while she spake

       Words that Odysseus and that Homer heard—

       I too, O child, I reached the common doom, The grave, the goal of fate, and passed away. —Such, Anticleia, as thy voice to him, Across the dim gray gulf of death and time Is that of Greece, a mother's to a child— Mother of each whose dreams are grave and fair— Who sees the Naiad where the streams are bright And in the sunny ripple of the sea Cymodoce with floating golden hair: And in the whisper of the waving oak Hears still the Dryad's plaint, and, in the wind That sighs through moonlit woodlands, knows the horn Of Artemis, and silver shafts and bow. Therefore if still around this broken vase, Borne by rough hands, unworthy of their load, Far from Cephisus and the wandering rills, There cling a fragrance as of things once sweet, Of honey from Hymettus' desert hill, Take thou the gift and hold it close and dear; For gifts that die have living memories— Voices of unreturning days, that breathe The spirit of a day that never dies.

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      Io, the daughter of Inachus, King of Argos, was beloved of Zeus. But Hera was jealous of that love, and by her ill will was Io given over to frenzy, and her body took the semblance of a heifer: and Argus, a many-eyed herdsman, was set by Hera to watch Io whithersoever she strayed. Yet, in despite of Argus, did Zeus draw nigh unto her in the shape of a bull. And by the will of Zeus and the craft of Hermes was Argus slain. Then Io was driven over far lands and seas by her madness, and came at length to the land of Egypt. There was she restored to herself by a touch of the hand of Zeus, and bare a child called Epaphus. And from Epaphus sprang Libya, and from Libya, Belus; and from Belus, Aegyptus and Danaus. And the sons of Aegyptus willed to take the daughters of Danaus in marriage. But the maidens held such wedlock in horror, and fled with their father over the sea to Argos; and the king and citizens of Argos gave them shelter and protection from their pursuers.

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      DANAUS, THE KING OF ARGOS, HERALD OF AEGYPTUS.

       Chorus of the Daughters of Danaus. Attendants. Scene. —A sacred precinct near the gates of Argos: statue and shrines of Zeus and other deities stand around.

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      ZEUS! Lord and guard of suppliant hands!

       Look down benign on us who crave

       Thine aid—whom winds and waters drave

       From where, through drifting shifting sands,

       Pours Nilus to the wave.

       From

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