Prometheus (1-5)

HERMES Well, Hephaestus, here is the Caucasus, where this poor Titan will have to be nailed up. Now then let us look about for a suitable rock, if there is a place anywhere that has no snow on it, so that the irons may be riveted in more firmly and he may be in full sight of everybody as he hangs there.

HEPHAESTUS Yes, let’s look about, Hermes : we mustn't crucify him low and close to the ground for fear that men, his own handiwork, may come to his aid, nor yet on the summit, either, for he would be out of sight from below. Suppose we crucify him half way up, somewhere hereabouts over the ravine, with his hands outstretched from this rock to that one ?

HERMES Right you are; the cliffs are sheer and inaccessible on every side, and overhang slightly, and the rock has only this narrow foothold, so that one can barely stand on tip toe ; in short, it will make a very handy cross. Well, Prometheus, don’t hang back: climb up and let yourself be riveted to the mountain.

PROMETHEUS Come, Hephaestus and Hermes, at any rate you might pity me in my undeserved misfortune.

HERMES You mean, be crucified in your stead the instant we disobey the order! Don’t you suppose the Caucasus has room enough to hold two more pegged up? Come, hold out your right hand. Secure it, Hephaestus, and nail it up, and bring your hammer down with a will. Give me the other hand too. Let that be well secured also. That’s good. The eagle will soon fly down to eat away your liver, so that you may have full return for your beautiful and clever handiwork in clay.

PROMETHEUS O Cronus and Iapetus and you, O mother (Earth)! What a fate I suffer, luckless that I am, when I have done no harm.

HERMES No harm, Prometheus? In the first place you undertook to serve out our meat and did it so unfairly and trickily that you abstracted all the best of it for yourself and cheated Zeus by wrapping “bones in glistening fat”: for I remember that Hesiod says so.[*] Then you made human beings, thoroughly unprincipled creatures, particularly the women; and to top all, you stole fire, the most valued possession of the gods, and actually gave that to men. When you have done so much harm, do you say that you have been put in irons without having done any wrong?

PROMETHEUS Hermes, you seem to be “blaming a man who is blameless,” to speak with the poet,[*] for you reproach me with things for which I should have sentenced myself to maintenance in the Prytaneum if justice were being done.[*] At any rate, if you have time, I should be glad to stand trial on the charges, so that I might prove that Zeus has passed an unjust sentence on me. As you are ready-tongued and litigious, suppose you plead in his behalf that he was just in his decision that I be crucified near the Caspian gates here in the Caucasus, a most piteous spectacle for all the Scythians.

HERMES Your appeal, Prometheus, will be tardy and of no avail, but say your say just the same; for in any case we must remain here until the eagle flies down to attend to your liver. This interval of leisure may as well be employed in listening to a sophistic speech, as you are a very clever scoundrel at speech-making.

PROMETHEUS Speak first, then, Hermes, and see that you accuse me as eloquently as you can and that you don’t neglect any of your father’s claims. Hephaestus, I make you judge.

HEPHAESTUS No, by Heaven; you will find me an accuser

PROMETHEUS Well, then, divide the accusation ; you can accuse me of the theft now, and then Hermes will criticize the serving of the meat and the making of men. You both belong to trades-unions and are likely to be good at speaking.

HEPHAESTUS Hermes shall speak for me too, for I am no hand at court specches but stick by my forge for the most part, while he is an orator and has taken uncommon interest in such matters.

PROMETHEUS I should never have thought that Hermes would care to speak about the theft or to reproach me with anything like that, when I follow his own trade ! However, if you agree to this, son of Maea, it is high time you were getting on with your accusation.