EPIMETHEUS. I know not. 'T is a mystery.
PANDORA. Hast thou never Lifted the lid?
EPIMETHEUS. The oracle forbids. Safely concealed there from all mortal eyes Forever sleeps the secret of the Gods. Seek not to know what they have hidden from thee, Till they themselves reveal it.
PANDORA. As thou wilt.
EPIMETHEUS. Let us go forth from this mysterious place. The garden walks are pleasant at this hour; The nightingales among the sheltering boughs Of populous and many-nested trees Shall teach me how to woo thee, and shall tell me By what resistless charms or incantations They won their mates.
PANDORA. Thou dost not need a teacher.
(They go out.)
CHORUS OF THE EUMENIDES. What the Immortals Confide to thy keeping, Tell unto no man; Waking or sleeping, Closed be thy portals To friend as to foeman.
Silence conceals it; The word that is spoken Betrays and reveals it; By breath or by token The charm may be broken.
With shafts of their splendors The Gods unforgiving Pursue the offenders, The dead and the living! Fortune forsakes them, Nor earth shall abide them, Nor Tartarus hide them; Swift wrath overtakes them!