As friend to friend. Thine eyes behold Prometheus,
Whose warm benevolence gave fire to men.
IO. O thou, the common blessing of mankind,
Wretched Prometheus, wherefore are these sufferings?
PROM. Scarce have I ceas'd lamenting my misfortunes.
IO. And wilt thou not allow me that sad office?
PROM. Ask what thou wilt, thou shalt learn all from me.
IO. Say then, who bound thee in that rifted rock?
PROM. The ruthless will of Jove, but Vulcan's hand.
IO. In what offending art thou chasten'd thus?
PROM. Suffice it thee so much has been declar'd.
IO. Say then what time shall end my wretched wand'rings.
PROM. Better repose in ignorance, than know.
IO. Whate'er my woes to come, hide them not from me.
PROM. That favour unreluctant cou'd I grant thee.
IO. Why this delay then to declare the whole?
PROM. Ungrateful task to rend thy soul with anguish.
IO. Regard not me more than is pleasing to me.
PROM. Conjur'd thus strongly I must speak. Hear then.
CHOR. Not yet: this mournful pleasure let me, share:
Let us first learn the story of her woes;
Her lips will teach us each sad circumstance
Of misery past; the future be thy task.
PROM. Vouchsafe t' indulge their wish; they merit it;
And are besides the sisters of thy father[1].
Nor light the recompense, when they, who hear,
Melt at the melancholy tale, and drop,
In pity drop, the sympathizing tear.
- ↑ Inachus, the father of Iö, was the son of Oceanus and Tethys.
ferings; from whence Iö, rightly conceiving him to be a prophet, had requested him to tell her clearly what woes yet awaited her, and how they might be remedied: he answers, I will tell thee clearly, without that enigmatiçal obscurity which bad rendered oracles famous for
Dark-utter'd aiswers of ambiguous sense.
