Thou dost cryout, fetching again deep groans:
What wilt thou do when thou hast heard in full

The evils yet to come?
CHORUS

And wilt thou tell
The maiden something further: some fresh sorrow?

PROMETHEUS
A stormy sea of wrong and ruining.

IO
What does it profit me to live! Oh, why

Do I not throw myself from this rough crag
And in one leap rid me of all my pain?

Better to die at once than live, and all
My days be evil.

PROMETHEUS
Thou would'st find it hard

To bear what I must bear: for unto me
It is not given to die,-a dear release

From pain; but now of suffering there is
No end in sight till Zeus shall fall.

IO
And shall

Zeus fall? His power be taken from him?
No matter when if true-

PROMETHEUS
'Twould make thee happy

Methinks, if thou could'st see calamity
Whelm him.

IO
How should it not when all my woes

Are of his sending? learn how
These things shall be.

The tyrant's rod?
And fond imaginings.

IO
But how? Oh, speak,

If the declaring draw no evil down I
PROMETHEUS

A marriage he shall make shall vex him sore.
IO

A marriage? Whether of gods or mortals?
Speak!

If this be utterable!
PROMETHEUS

Why dost thou ask
What I may not declare?

IO
And shall he quit

The throne of all the worlds, by a new spouse
Supplanted?

PROMETHEUS
She will bear to him a child,

And he shall be in might more excellent
Than his progenitor.

IO
And he will find

No way to parry this strong stroke of fate?
PROMETHEUS

None save my own self-when these bonds are loosed.
IO

And who shall loose them if Zeus wills not?
Of thine own seed.

How say'st thou? Shall a child
Of mine release thee?

PROMETHEUS
Son of thine, but son

The thirteenth generation shall beget.
IO

A prophecy oracularly dark.
PROMETHEUS

Then seek not thou to know thine own fate.
IO

Nay,
Tender me not a boon to snatch it from me.

PROMETHEUS
Of two gifts thou hast asked one shall be thine.

IO
What gifts? Pronounce and leave to me the choice.

PROMETHEUS
Nay, thou are free to choose. Say, therefore, whether

I shall declare to thee thy future woes
Or him who shall be my deliverer.

CHORUS
Nay, but let both be granted! Unto her

That which she chooseth, unto me my choice,
That I, too, may have honour from thy lips.

First unto her declare her wanderings,
And unto me him who shall set thee free;

'Tis that I long to know.
PROMETHEUS

I will resist
No further, but to your importunacy

All things which ye-desire to learn reveal.
And, Io, first to thee I will declare

Thy far-driven wanderings; write thou my words
In the retentive tablets of thy heart.

When thou hast crossed the flood that flows between
And is the boundary of two continents,

Turn to the sun's uprising, where he treads
Printing with fiery steps the eastern sky,

And from the roaring of the Pontic surge
Do thou pass on, until before thee lies

The Gorgonean plain, Kisthene called,
Where dwell the gray-haired three, the Phorcides,

Old, mumbling maids, swan-shaped, having one eye
Betwixt the three, and but a single tooth.

On them the sun with his brightbeams ne'er glanceth
Nor moon that lamps the night. Not far from them

The sisters three, the Gorgons, have their haunt;
Winged forms, with snaky locks, hateful to man,

Whom nothing mortal looking on can live.
Thus much that thou may'st have a care of these.

Now of another portent thou shalt hear.
Beware the dogs of Zeus that ne'er give tongue,

The sharp-beaked gryphons, and the one-eyed horde
Of Arimaspians, riding upon horses,

Who dwell around the river rolling gold,
The ferry and the frith of Pluto's port.

Go not thou nigh them. After thou shalt come
To a far land, a dark-skinned race, that dwell

Beside the fountains of the sun, whence flows
The river Ethiops: follow its banks

Until thou comest to the steep-down slope
Where from the Bibline mountains Nilus old

Pours the sweet waters of his holy stream.
And thou, the river guiding thee, shalt come

To the three-sided, wedge-shaped land of Nile,
Where for thyself, Io, and for thy children

Long sojourn is appointed. If in aught
My story seems to stammer and to er

From indirectness, ask and ask again
Till all be manifest. I do not lack

For leisure, having more than well contents me
CHORUS

If there be aught that she must suffer yet,
Or aught omitted in the narrative

Of her long wanderings, I pray thee speak.
But if thou hast told all, then grant the boon

We asked and doubtless thou wilt call to mind.
PROMETHEUS

Nay, she has heard the last of her long journey.
But, as some warrant for her patient hearing

I will relate her former sufferings
Ere she came hither. Much I will omit

That had detained us else with long discourse
And touch at once her journey's thus far goal.

When thou wast come to the Molossian plain
That lies about the high top of Dodona,

Where is an oracle and shrine of Zeus
Thesprotian, and-portent past belief-

The talking oaks, the same from whom the word
Flashed clear and nothing questionably hailed the

The destined spouse-ah! do I touch old wounds?-
Of Zeus, honoured above thy sex; stung thence

In torment, where the road runs by the sea,
Thou cam'st to the broad gulf of Rhea, whence

Beat back by a strong wind, thou didst retrace
Most painfully thy course; and it shall be

That times to come in memory of thy passage
Shall call that inlet the Ionian Sea.

Thus much for thee in witness that my mind
Beholdeth more than that which leaps to light.

Now for the things to come; what I shall say
Concerns ye both alike. Return we then

And follow our old track. There is a city
Yclept Canobus, built at the land's end,

Even at the mouth and mounded silt of Nile,
And there shall Zeus restore to thee thy mind

With touch benign and laying on of hands.
And from that touch thou shalt conceive and bear

Swarth Epaphus, touch-born; and he shall reap
As much of earth as Nilus watereth

With his broad-flowing river. In descent
The fifth from him there shall come back to Argos,

Thine ancient home, but driven by hard hap,
Two score and ten maids, daughters of one house,

Fleeing pollution of unlawful marriage
With their next kin, who winged with wild desire,

As hawks that follow hard on cushat-doves,
Shall harry prey which they should not pursue

And hunt forbidden brides. But God shall be
Exceeding jealous for their chastity;

And old Pelasgia, for the mortal thrust
Of woman's hands and midnight murder done

Upon their new-wed lords, shall shelter them;
For every wife shall strike her husband down

Dipping a two-edged broadsword in his blood.
Oh, that mine enemies might wed such wivesl

But of the fifty, one alone desire
Shall tame, as with the stroke of charming-wand,

So that she shall not lift her hands to slay
The partner of her bed; yea, melting love

Shall blunt her sharp-set will, and she shall choose
Rather to be called weak and womanly

Than the dark stain of blood; and she shall be
Mother of kings in Argos. 'Tis a tale

Were't told in full, would occupy us long.
For, of her sowing, there shall spring to fame

The lion's whelp, the archer bold, whose bow
Shall set me free. This is the oracle

Themis, my ancient Mother, Titan-born,

• maiden [´meidn] n.少女 a.未婚的 (初中英语单词)
• suffering [´sʌfəriŋ] n.痛苦；灾害 (初中英语单词)
• release [ri´li:s] vt&n.释放；放松；赦免 (初中英语单词)
• generation [,dʒenə´reiʃən] n.发生；世代；同龄人 (初中英语单词)
• snatch [snætʃ] v.&n.抢，夺取，抓住 (初中英语单词)
• therefore [´ðeəfɔ:] ad.&conj.因此；所以 (初中英语单词)
• boundary [´baundəri] n.界线，边界 (初中英语单词)
• contents [´kɔ:ntents] n.容纳物；要旨 (初中英语单词)
• doubtless [´dautlis] ad.无疑地；大概，多半 (初中英语单词)
• relate [ri´leit] v.阐明；使联系；涉及 (初中英语单词)
• hither [´hiðə] ad.到此处 (初中英语单词)
• witness [´witnis] n.见证人 vt.目击 (初中英语单词)
• restore [ri´stɔ:] vt.(使)恢复；修复 (初中英语单词)
• conceive [kən´si:v] v.设想；表达；怀孕 (初中英语单词)
• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• winged [´wiŋd] a.有翼的 (初中英语单词)
• jealous [´dʒeləs] a.妒忌的 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• partner [´pɑ:tnə] n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词)
• throne [θrəun] n.宝座；王位 (高中英语单词)
• prophecy [´prɔfisi] n.预言(能力) (高中英语单词)
• mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
• stammer [´stæmə] v.&n.口吃 (高中英语单词)
• manifest [´mænifest] a.明显的 v.表明 (高中英语单词)
• leisure [´leʒə] n.空闲；悠闲；安定 (高中英语单词)
• oracle [´ɔrəkl] n.预言(者)；圣理名言 (高中英语单词)
• shrine [ʃrain] n.神龛；神殿；圣地 (高中英语单词)
• torment [´tɔ:ment] vt.(使)痛苦，折磨 (高中英语单词)
• forbidden [fə´bidn] forbid的过去分词 (高中英语单词)
• archer [´ɑ:tʃə] n.射手，弓箭手 (高中英语单词)
• hateful [´heitfəl] a.可恨的，可憎的 (英语四级单词)
• whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
• sojourn [´sɔdʒə:n] vi.&n.旅居；逗留 (英语四级单词)
• warrant [´wɔrənt] n.根据；委任书；权利 (英语四级单词)
• painfully [´peinfuli] ad.痛苦地；费力地 (英语四级单词)
• uprising [ʌp´raiziŋ] n.叛乱；起义，暴动 (英语六级单词)