Which drew disease and pain from my wan bosom
Draining the poison of despair, shall take
And interchange sweet nutriment.
Shelley (Prometheus Unbound, III, 3).
In Shelley’s great poem, Prometheus is not merely the Titan who, having stolen fire from heaven to benefit man, was chained to a pillar while an eagle tore at his vitals, he is the spirit of humanity. Man has (through superstition) given the god, Zeus, great powers which he uses to enslave and oppress man’s own mind and body. Ultimately the god is overthrown, Prometheus, the spirit of man, is released, and the world enters upon its progress towards perfection.
This and the following quotations are from a collection of references to Mother-Earth.
Say, mysterious Earth! O say, great mother and goddess,
Was it not well with thee then, when first thy lap was ungirdled,