SCENE.-STRENGTH and FORCE, HEPHASTUS and PROMETHEUS, at the Rocks. Strength. WE reach the utmost limit of the earth, The Scythian track, the desert without man,— Presents a deed for doing.-No more !—but I, That I must dare it,—and our Zeus commands flower, Scorched in the sun's clear heat, shall fade away, Strength. Be it so. Why loiter in vain pity? Why not hate A god the gods hate?-one too who betrayed Hephaestus. An awful thing Grant it be; Is kinship joined to friendship. Strength. Is disobedience to the Father's word A possible thing? Dost quail not more for that? Hephaestus. Thou, at least, art a stern one! ever bold! Strength. Why, if I wept, it were no remedy! And do not thou spend labor on the air To bootless uses. Hephaestus. Cursed handicraft! I curse and hate thee, O my craft! Strength. Thy craft, most plainly innocent of all These pending ills? Hephaestus. Why hate I would some other hand All work hath its pain, Were here to work it! Strength. Except to rule the gods. There is none free Make haste, and bind the fetters over HIM, Lest Zeus behold thee lagging. Wedge him in deeper,—leave no inch to stir! He's terrible for finding a way out Where others could not. |