This he should drive me from my home and land,

And bid me wander to the extreme verge

Of all the earth-or, if he willed it not, Should have a thunder with a fiery eye Leap straight from Zeus to burn up all his race

To the last root of it.' By which Loxian word

Subdued, he drove me forth, and shut me out,

He lóth, me loth,-but Zeus's violent bit Compelled him to the deed!—when instantly

My body and soul were changed and distraught,

And, horned as ye see, and spurred along

By the fanged insect, with a maniac leap

I rushed on to Cerchnea's limpid stream And Lerne's fountain-water. There,

Of a sliding cold!

Ah fate!-ah me !-
I shudder to see

This wandering maid in her agony.

Prometheus. Grief is too quick in thee, and fear too full!

Be patient till thou hast learnt the rest!
Chorus.
Speak-teach!
To those who are sad already, it seems
sweet,

By clear foreknowledge to make perfect, pain.

Prometheus, The boon ye asked me first was lightly won,

For first ye asked the story of this maid's grief

As her own lips might tell it- -now

Depart that country. On the left hand dwell

The iron-workers, called the Chalybes, Of whom beware! for certes they are uncouth,

And nowise bland to strangers. Reach

Attempt no passage ;-it is hard to pass. Or ere thou come to Caucasus itself, The highest of mountains,-where the river leaps

The precipice in his strength !-thou must toil up

Those mountain-tops that neighbor with the stars,

And tread the south way, and draw near, at last,

The Amazonian host that hateth man,
Inhabitants of Themiscyra, close
Upon Thermodon, where the sea's rough
jaw

Doth gnash at Salmydessa and provide
A cruel host to seamen, and to ships
A stepdame. They, with unreluctant
hand,

Shall lead thee on and on, till thou arrive

Just where the ocean gates show narrow

If it be utterable.

Prometheus.
which?

Why should I say

It ought not to be uttered, verily.

Io.

Then

It is his wife shall tear him from his throne ?

Prometheus. It is his wife shall bear a son to him,

More mighty than the father.
Io.

Hath he no refuge?

Prometheus.

From this doom

None-or ere that I, Loosed from these fetters

The ocean-shore,

toward

Rhea's

mighty bay, And, tost back from it, was tost to it again

In stormy evolution !-and, know well, In coming time that hollow of the sea Shall bear the name Ionian, and present A monument of Io's passage through, Unto all mortals. Be these words the signs

Of my soul's power to look beyond the veil

Of visible things. The rest to you and her,

I will declare in common audience, nymphs,

Returning thither, where my speech brake off.

There is a town Canobus, built upon The earth's fair margin, at the mouth of Nile,

Shall slay a husband, dyeing deep in blood

The sword of a double edge! I wish Indeed

As fair a marriage-joy to all my foes!) One bride alone shall fail to smite to

death

The head upon her pillow touched with love,

Made impotent of purpose, and impelled

To choose the lesser evil-shame on her cheeks,

The blood-guilt on ner hands. Which bride shall bear

A royal race in Argos-tedious speech
Were needed to relate particulars
Of these things-'tis enough that from
her seed,