IO
As thou didst proffer hope, withdraw it not.
As thou didst proffer hope, withdraw it not.
Aeschylus
unless the telling harm, say on!
PROMETHEUS
Wooing a bride, his ruin he shall win.
IO
Goddess, or mortal? tell me, if thou may'st.
PROMETHEUS
No matter which--more must not be revealed.
IO
Doth then a consort thrust him from his throne?
PROMETHEUS
The child she bears him shall o'ercome his sire.
IO
And hath he no avoidance of this doom?
PROMETHEUS
None, surely--till that I, released from bonds--
IO
Who can release thee, but by will of Zeus?
PROMETHEUS
Fate gives this duty to a child of thine!
IO
How? Shall a child of mine undo thy woes?
PROMETHEUS
Yea, of thy lineage, thirteen times removed.
IO
Dark beyond guessing grows thine oracle.
PROMETHEUS
Yea--seek not therefore to foreknow thy woes.
IO
As thou didst proffer hope, withdraw it not.
PROMETHEUS
Two tales I have--choose! for I grant thee one.
IO
And which be they? reveal, and leave me choice.
PROMETHEUS
I grant it: shall I in all clearness show
Thy future woes, or my deliverance?
CHORUS
Nay! of the two, vouchsafe her wish to her
And mine to me, deigning a truth to each--
To her, reveal her future wanderings--
To me, thy future saviour, as I crave!
PROMETHEUS
I will not set myself to thwart your will
Withholding aught of what ye crave to know.
First to thee, Io, will I tell and trace
Thy scared circuitous wandering mark it well,
Deep in retentive tablets of the soul.
When thou hast overpast the ferry's flow
That sunders continent from continent,
Straight to the eastward and the flaming face
Of dawn, and highways trodden by the sun,
Pass, till thou come unto the windy land
Of daughters born to Boreas: beware
Lest the strong spirit of the stormy blast
Snatch thee aloft, and sweep thee to the void,
On wings of raving wintry hurricane!
Wend by the noisy tumult of the wave,
Until thou reach the Gorgon-haunted plains
Beside Cisthene. In that solitude
Dwell Phorcys' daughters, beldames worn with time,
Three, each swan-shapen, single-toothed, and all
Peering thro' shared endowment of one eye;
Never on them doth the sun shed his rays,
Never falls radiance of the midnight moon.
But, hard by these, their sisters, clad with wings,
Serpentine-curled, dwell, loathed of mortal men,--
The Gorgons! --he of men who looks on them
Shall gasp away his life. Of such fell guard
I bid thee to beware.
PROMETHEUS
Wooing a bride, his ruin he shall win.
IO
Goddess, or mortal? tell me, if thou may'st.
PROMETHEUS
No matter which--more must not be revealed.
IO
Doth then a consort thrust him from his throne?
PROMETHEUS
The child she bears him shall o'ercome his sire.
IO
And hath he no avoidance of this doom?
PROMETHEUS
None, surely--till that I, released from bonds--
IO
Who can release thee, but by will of Zeus?
PROMETHEUS
Fate gives this duty to a child of thine!
IO
How? Shall a child of mine undo thy woes?
PROMETHEUS
Yea, of thy lineage, thirteen times removed.
IO
Dark beyond guessing grows thine oracle.
PROMETHEUS
Yea--seek not therefore to foreknow thy woes.
IO
As thou didst proffer hope, withdraw it not.
PROMETHEUS
Two tales I have--choose! for I grant thee one.
IO
And which be they? reveal, and leave me choice.
PROMETHEUS
I grant it: shall I in all clearness show
Thy future woes, or my deliverance?
CHORUS
Nay! of the two, vouchsafe her wish to her
And mine to me, deigning a truth to each--
To her, reveal her future wanderings--
To me, thy future saviour, as I crave!
PROMETHEUS
I will not set myself to thwart your will
Withholding aught of what ye crave to know.
First to thee, Io, will I tell and trace
Thy scared circuitous wandering mark it well,
Deep in retentive tablets of the soul.
When thou hast overpast the ferry's flow
That sunders continent from continent,
Straight to the eastward and the flaming face
Of dawn, and highways trodden by the sun,
Pass, till thou come unto the windy land
Of daughters born to Boreas: beware
Lest the strong spirit of the stormy blast
Snatch thee aloft, and sweep thee to the void,
On wings of raving wintry hurricane!
Wend by the noisy tumult of the wave,
Until thou reach the Gorgon-haunted plains
Beside Cisthene. In that solitude
Dwell Phorcys' daughters, beldames worn with time,
Three, each swan-shapen, single-toothed, and all
Peering thro' shared endowment of one eye;
Never on them doth the sun shed his rays,
Never falls radiance of the midnight moon.
But, hard by these, their sisters, clad with wings,
Serpentine-curled, dwell, loathed of mortal men,--
The Gorgons! --he of men who looks on them
Shall gasp away his life. Of such fell guard
I bid thee to beware.
