CHORUS.
Dread is the secret that thou hidest thus.
PROMETHEUS.
Think of some other question; this to tell
The time is not yet ripe; deep in my breast
The secret must be buried; thus alone
May I from chains and tortures be set free.
* * * * *
PROMETHEUS DEFIES ZEUS.
LINES 928-1114.
PROMETHEUS.
Yet, yet shall Zeus, for all his proud self-will,
Be humbled. On a wedlock he is bent
Whereof the fateful offspring shall one day
Hurl him from sovereignty to nothingness,
And so fulfil the curse old Chronos spake,
When from his immemorial throne he fell.
And this his doom how to escape not one
Of all the gods can rede him saving I.
But to me all is known. Then let him sit
Triumphant while his thunders roll through heaven,
And his hand grasps the flaming thunderbolt;
All his artillery shall not save its lord
From utter shame and ruin bottomless.
Such the antagonist himself arrays
Against himself, dread and invincible,
One who a fiercer than the lightning's flame,
A louder than the thunder's peal shall find,
And wrest the truncheon that makes earth to quake,
Poseidon's trident, from its wielder's hand.
Wrecked on misfortune's rock, he then shall know
How high it is to reign, to serve how low.