Spectator of my pangs? How hast thou dared
Quitting thy namesake flood, thy rock-roof'd caves
Self-wrought, this iron-teeming land to reach?
Art come indeed to gaze upon my doom, 310
And with my grievous woes to sympathize?
A spectacle behold;—this friend of Zeus,
This co-appointer of his sovereignty,
By what dire anguish I by him am bow'd.
Oceanos.
I see, Prometheus, and would fain to thee,
All subtle as thou art, best counsel give;
Know thine own self, thy manners mould anew,
For new the monarch who now rules the gods;
But if thou thus harsh, keenly-whetted words
Still hurlest, Zeus, though thron'd so far aloft, 320
Mayhap may hear thee, so the pangs which now
His wrath inflicts but childish sport may seem.
But come, O much enduring, quell thy rage;
Seek thou releasement from these miseries;
Stale may appear to thee the words I speak;
Yet such the penalty that waits, Prometheus,
On a too haughty tongue; But thou, e'en now
Nowise art humbled, nor dost yield to ills,
But to the present wouldest add new woe;
Therefore, I charge thee, hearkening my rede, 330
Kick not against the pricks, since harsh the king
Who now holds sway, accountable to none.
And now I go and will forthwith essay
If I avail to free thee from these toils.
