No More Learning

_Prometheus. _ None: or ere that I,
Loosed from these fetters--

_Io. _ Yea--but who shall loose
While Zeus is adverse?

_Prometheus. _ One who is born of thee:
It is ordained so.

_Io. _ What is this thou sayest?
A son of mine shall liberate thee from woe?

_Prometheus. _ After ten generations, count three more,
And find him in the third.

_Io. _ The oracle
Remains obscure.

_Prometheus. _ And search it not, to learn
Thine own griefs from it.

_Io.
_ Point me not to a good,
To leave me straight bereaved.

_Prometheus. _ I am prepared
To grant thee one of two things.

_Io. _ But which two?
Set them before me; grant me power to choose.

_Prometheus. _ I grant it, choose now: shall I name aloud
What griefs remain to wound thee, or what hand
Shall save me out of mine?

_Chorus. _ Vouchsafe, O god,
The one grace of the twain to her who prays;
The next to me; and turn back neither prayer
Dishonour'd by denial. To herself
Recount the future wandering of her feet;
Then point me to the looser of thy chain,
Because I yearn to know him.

_Prometheus. _ Since ye will,
Of absolute will, this knowledge, I will set
No contrary against it, nor keep back
A word of all ye ask for. Io, first
To thee I must relate thy wandering course
Far winding. As I tell it, write it down
In thy soul's book of memories. When thou hast past
The refluent bound that parts two continents,
Track on the footsteps of the orient sun
In his own fire, across the roar of seas,--
Fly till thou hast reached the Gorgonaean flats
Beside Cisthene.