PROMETHEUS BOUND, The, of Xschylus, has been called °the most sublime poem in the world.' Macaulay declares that by the principles of dramatic writing we shall instantly condemn, but iI we think only of the poetry we must admit that it has never been surpassed in energy and magnificence.
The chief character comes from a remote past. 2Eschylus was merely the conscious artist that gives the impressive figure final and im mortal form. The play is the perfect type of the primitive tragedy, which Aristotle des ignated °simple?) It has one feature possessed by no other tragedy; it transports us to a mar velous and fantastic sphere, to the most primi tive period in the history of the world. The god that seeks to elevate man, that gives him the light of understanding, engrosses our atten tion. From the beginning to the end of the play the illusion is not broken. A god suffering for humanity is before our eyes; deities live and move in visible presence.
Zeus desired to create a new race after his own design. He was not satisfied with ephem eral man, a creation of the crude Titan world. But Prometheus, pierced by our human mis eries, champions the old race: he steals fire from heaven and teaches the arts to insensate creatures. But Zeus will brook no infringe ment of his laws and resolves to punish the re calcitrant. So he commissions his two satellites, Might and Force, to drag the rebel to a steep rock in Scythia, °whose rugged brows are bent upon the swelling main, Here the play begins.
Unfeeling Might turns the criminal over to Hephaestus, the smith, who clamps Prometheus to the cliff, where he will never see a human form: broiled by the sun's bright flame, he will welcome the spangled-robed night, and again the sun as it breaks the hoar-frost of the morn. Prometheus bears the taunts of Might in silence. Then the Titan invokes inanimate nature to witness the intolerable indignity to which he has been subjected: the divine nether, the rivers, the innumerable laughter of the sea waves, Mother Earth and the bright circle of the all-seeing Sun. Suddenly a rush of wings is heard and a troop of sea nymphs enter in a winged car — °maidens yet rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty.) Prometheus appeals to their pity. They remind him that a new pilot is at the helm in Olympus. The Titan swears that he will do something yet, when times are ripe, to this raw, unthankful king. Exultantly he cries that threats will not make him cringe. Weak women that they are, replete with tenderness, the Oceanids cannot understand how one can dare resist the will of Zeus. They beg Prometheus to unfold his story. One faction of the deities determined to cast out Cronus and set up Zeus as their king. By the help of the resourceful Prometheus, Zeus gained the throne. But the new roler did not, give his supporter the recompense deserved. He resolved even to annihilate the human race. Prometheus alone opposed the sovereign. The sympathizing nymphs now exhort the sufferer to seek some release. They alight from the car to hear the details of the Titan's story, when their father, Oceanus, enters astride a winged horse. The old man of the sea remonstrates with his kinsman and bids him beg for pardon. But the Titan, like Satan, hardens in his strength.
From this homely scene .iEschylus soars aloft to a height of poetry as beautiful as it is magnificent. The whole world makes moan: the daughters of Colchis, the Scythian hordes, Asia's martial glory, the surge of the sea, Hades in the abyss of the earth, and all the streams murmur and sigh in a pathos of woe. Prometheus then enumerates the benefits he has conferred on man: reason, house-building, tam ing of beasts, science, literature, mathematics, astronomy, navigation, medicine, divination, mining. The chorus admonish him that all these gifts were for naught, since weak, ephem eral man could not help him in return. Io enters. The only mark of her metamorphosis is her horns. In admirable verses the poet de picts her fatigue, her despair and the tender sympathy she manifests at the sight of the suf ferer bound on the storm.-beaten rock. Pro metheus tells her that he recognizes the daugh ter of Inachus, who had set Jove afire with love and is now by vengeful Hera driven o'er the earth. In a melodiously plaintive narrative,
full of charm and grace, Io relates how phan tasms and dreams came to her at night and reached the organ of her fancy, urged her to go out to the meadow-land that Zeus might be lightened of his passion; how her father had driven her forth from home; and now by gadfly sharply stung, pursued by the immitigable Argus, °with frantic bound from land to land I fly?' Prometheus now tells the harassed maiden that she must traverse Europe, through a wild and dangerous country, to the Tauric Chersonese, cross the Thracian Bosporus to Asia and then proceed to the plains of Cisthene, where the Gorgons dwell, and to the land of the griffins and Arimaspians, through a region peo pled by monsters. At last she will come to a far land, whence she must creep down the river Aethiops unti I she comes to the Delta. There in the city of Canohis Zeus will restore her to her pristine form with hut the touch and gentle pressure of his hand; and she will bear a son, swarthy Touchborn, who is to rule over all the land watered by the Nile. In the fifth gen eration 50 maidens, fleeing the proffered mar riage of their cousins, shall return to her home in Argos and shall in the watches of the night put their lords to death. But one of the maidens will spare her mate. From this pair will spring a royal race, one of whose descend ants is destined to deliver Prometheus. With a cry of terror the demented In darts away, and the chorus moralize on the of un equal matches. A great change has now come over the Titan. He i> rt mind d by the ap pearance of Io that he will find respite; and so he resolves to await the retributive hour. The awns which he contemplated a moment ago seem now but a pulse beat. The steadfastness with which he asserts his will in the face of disaster makes an impression of unusual gran deur. °Let him in calm assurance seat him sure, fixing his faith on the deafening crash rever berating in the sky, and holding in his hand the thunder-stone high poised. He shall find a flame more furious far than the livid lightning's flash, a deafening crash to drown the thun der's roar The chorus are horrified. They remind the Titan that those who bow down to Necessity are wise. He replies: °Cringe low, crook the knee, truckle to the ruler ever. Fawn upon Zeus, and if you will, but think not that I care aught for him. Homage may he have from all, but none from me? Heaven's winged herald, Hermes, now sails downward on the bosom of the air. He com mands Prometheus to yield up his secret. But the Titan observes the menial of the new crowned king with some surprise and thrice as much disdain: Zeus shall soon know that the victim holds a power above his oppressor: •Let him hurl his red Levin and with storms and subterranean shocks of thunder confound the universe — never will he be able to extort the secret by any pain or ignominy he may devise? Deaf to all entreaties, Prometheus will never sue for grace or bend the suppliant knee, never implore the hated king with base spaniel fawn ing and womanish supplication of hands. Hermes replies that Zeus will smite the rock with a thunderbolt and hurl the prisoner down into the yawning chasm of the earth, and after a long sweep of time the Titan will come forth to the light again only to have his body torn to a shred by the winged hound of Zeus, the ravening eagle, which will cram his crop full on the captive's liver. The nymphs urge the obdurate god to yield, but their entreaties are vain: the forked curl of flame be hurled upon my head, heaven and earth convulsed with thunder and quivering spasm of winds ex asperate; let the billow of the deep with its boisterous sure confound the paths of the stars in the sky, let him hurl me into the vortices of necessity — he cannot destroy me? Hermes soars aloft. A storm breaks. The ocean swells and foams, all the sway of earth shakes like a thing unfirm, thunder subterrane reverberates, fiery•zigzag flashes gleam, whirlwinds twirl the dust, the winds leap together in conflicting blasts and the threat of Hermes goes into sublime fulfilment.