Prometheus Bound (Browning, 1833)/Prometheus Bound/Notes
NOTES TO PROMETHEUS BOUND.
Note 1. Page 1.
The fable of Prometheus, as narrated by Æschylus, widely differs from Hesiod's account; and since it is not drawn from any sources which we can examine, there appears to be no reason for doubting the powers of his own invention as developed upon it. All that every body has seen or imagined under the mask of Prometheus, I could not narrate here without changing this note into an essay. Sir Isaac Newton saw the nephew of Sesostris, and Le Clerc saw the grandson of Noah, and Bryant saw Noah himself, and Joannes Muller a resemblance to Job; and a great many others saw a great deal besides. But a translator is not, or at least need not be, a speculator.
Note 2. Page 1.
Vide Theogony, vs. 385. This personification of Strength is introduced in only one other place, as far as I am aware, in the extant writings of Æschylus. See the Choëphorœ, vs. 234.
Μόνον Κράτος τε καὶ Δικη ξὺν τῷ τρίτφ
Πάντων μεγίστφ Ζηνὶ συγγένοιτό σοι.
Note 3. Page 3.
Strong is the tie of kindred and of friendship.
See the Andromache, vs. 986. τὸ ξυγγενὲς γὰρ δεινόν.
Note 4. Page 4.
Every thing
Is full of sorrow, save to rule the gods.
I have preferred Blomfield's ἐπαχθῆ to ἐπράχθη.
Note 5. Page 8.
The ferule-treasured secret fount of fire.
Τὴν ωάρθηκι θησαυρισθεῐσαν, says Hesychius. The ferule was hollow, and capable of containing fire.
Note 6. Page 9.
And rush'd I shoonless on my wingëd car.
Bishop Blomfield considers the word shoonless as being expressive of extreme haste; and he quotes several passages from ancient writers as illustrative of this view. With regard to his quotation from Bion's elegy—
ἀνὰ δρυμὼς ἀλάληται
Πενυαλέα νήπλεκτος ἀσάνδαλος.
it might be observed, with submission, that the word ἀσάνδαλος appears to indicate the negligence of sorrow rather than of haste.
Perhaps the shoonless state of the sea-nymphs is to be attributed to an agitation arising from both causes: at least, it may be more poetical to think so.
Note 7. Page 21.
———kick against the goad.
τρὸς κέντρα κῶλον ἐκτενεῖς. This proverb occurs also, and more exactly in the words of Scripture, in the Agamemnon, vs. 1614. τρὸς κέντρα μὴ λάκιζε. Also in Pindar, Pyth. ii. 173. and Euripides, Fragm. Peliad.
Note 8. Page 22.
No, in good truth; upon my heart, the fate.
Before the time of Elmsley, this was the opening line to a speech of Oceanus. With admirable judgment, he removed the landmark; and restored one of the sublimest passages of poetry to lips most worthy to pronounce it,—to the lips of Prometheus.
Note 9. Page 22.
———him o' the hundred heads.
In a fragment of Pindar, preserved by Strabo, Typhon is represented as having only fifty heads: but it seems to be thought corrupted. See Julian's fourth letter. He is called "hundred-headed" in the 1st and 8th Pythian.
Note 10. Page 25.
———thy calamity
Shall be my teacher.
See the Medea, vs. 1200.
Τύχην γὰρ εἳχομεν διδάσκαλον
Note 11. Page 27.
And Arabia's battle-crown.
The introduction of Arabia in this place has been a wonder among critics. Butler explains it by extending its boundary; and a learned writer, in the Edinburgh Review, perhaps more satisfactorily, by limiting Æschylus's geographical information.
Note 12. Page 29.
Men seeing, saw in vain; and did not hear,
Hearing.
The twenty-first verse of the fifth chapter of Jeremiah is suggested to us by this passage in a profane writer. The resemblance can scarcely be accidental.
Note 13. Page 29.
To them, of winter shone no certain sign.
See Apollonius Rhodius, lib. i. vs. 490.
Ήδ᾽ ὡς ἒμπεδον αἰὲν ἐν αἰθέρι τέκμαρ ἒχουσιν
Άσρα, σεληναίη τε, καὶ ἡέλιοιο κέλενθοι.
Note 14. Page 36.
And none, save I, contrived the linen-wing'd,
Sea-wand'ring ships.
Euripides ascribes the invention of navigation to some one of the gods. See the speech of Theseus in the Supplices, from vs. 201 to 213. Euripides must have had Prometheus in his mind. Among the obligations, due from man to deity, he records—
πόντου τε ναυστολήμαθ´ ὡς διαλλαγὰς
ἒχοιμεν ἁλλήλοισιν, ὦν πέωοιτο γῆ.
ἄ δ´ ἒστ´ ἃσημα κοὐ σαφῆ, γινώσκομεν
εἰς πῦρ βλέποντες, καὶ καρὰ σπλάγχνων πτύχας
μάντεις προσημαίνουσιν, οἰωνῶν τ´ ἂπο.
Sophocles, in the first choral ode of his Œdipus Coloneus, ascribes the invention to Neptune.
Note 15. Page 37.
What saith the hornëd virgin, hearest thou?
Hermann and Elmsley, followed by Blomfield, attach this line to the preceding speech of Io: and after all, I have ventured to adhere to the old editions. It certainly does seem to me finer and more characteristic, that Io, hurried on by the vehemence of anguish, should appear to have forgotten the presence of Prometheus, than that she should give utterance to anguish, with the mere object of describing it to him. Bishop Blomfield observes, that in the case of this line being attributed to the Chorus, to the Chorus must also be attributed the conclusion of Io's next speech. I confess my inability to feel the full force of this remark, or indeed to see any necessary connection between the two passages. Io, in her next speech, has become aware of Prometheus's superior wisdom, and her whole object is to profit by it.
Note 16. Page 39.
Jove's counsel, Vulcan's hand.
In a fragment of the Prometheus Solutus preserved in the translation of Attius, a line occurs very similar to this:—
Saturnius me sic infixit Jupiter,
Jovisque numen Mulcibri ascivit manus.
Note 17. Page 43.
And Lerne's height.
Bishop Blomfield has received Canter's Λέρνης τε κρηνὴν into his text; but he mentions in a note, a conjecture, which "nuper in mentem venit," and "magis placet,"—ἀκτήν τε Λέρνης. It pleases me much more: it is picturesque, and varies the scene; and as we are just now looking at "Cenchrea's pleasant wave," nobody can be solicitous about having "Lerne's fount" besides—κοὐ μίγνυται ὒδασιν ὒδωρ. Butler and Scholefield retain Λέρνης ἂκπαν: and the latter observes in a note, that it is an allusion to the rocks hanging over Lerne. He seems, however, to doubt the accuracy of the reading.
Note 18. Page 48.
The third in generation after ten.
Bishop Blomfield has enumerated thirteen:—Epaphus, Libya, Belus, Danaus, Hypermnestra, Abas, Prœtus, Acrisius, Danae, Perseus, Electryon, Alcmena, and Hercules the Deliverer. The predicted spouse, whose son was to be superior to his father, was Thetis. In submission to the prophecy, she married Peleus instead of Jupiter, and her Achilles fulfilled it.
Note 19. Page 49.
Which in the book-memorial of thy mind.
See the opening of the tenth Olymp., and Sophocles's Θὲς δ᾽ ἐν φρενὸς δέλτοισι τοὺς ἐμοὺς λόγους. Parallel thoughts respecting the tablet of Hamlet's memory will be written upon the reader's.
Note 20. Page 50.
The Gorgons, serpent-hair'd, and man-abhorr'd.
The Pythian priestess exclaims, in her powerful description of the Furies (vide Eumenid. vs. 48.) "οὒτοι γυναῖκας, ἀλλὰ Γοργόνας λέγω." It may therefore be humbly conjectured that Gorgons had some kind of horrible family likeness to Furies;—an honor, to which the priestess will by no means admit Harpies.
Note 21. Page 50.
Beware of Jove's sharp-mouth'd, unbarking dogs.
Erfurdt has justly observed, that the Greek poets have called the most fearful monsters dogs. In this place griffins are called dogs; a little further on, and in the Agamemnon, eagles are called dogs; in the Œdipus Tyrannus of Sophocles, the sphinx is called a dog; in the Hercules Furens of Euripides, the hydra is called a dog; in the Electra, both of Sophocles and Euripides, the Furies are called dogs; in Apollonius Rhodius, the Harpies are called dogs; in the Andromache of Euripides, (what a climax!) a woman is called a dog; and Synesius goes a step higher, and calls the Devil a dog: in short, Brutus did not know the strength of his own expression when he said that he would "rather be a dog."
Note 22. Page 51.
Cleft ground, where from the hills of Byblinus.
Bishop Blomfield supposes the poet to be here speaking of the Catadupa of the Nile, where that river is precipitated from the mountains.
Note 23. Page 58.
Wise are the worshippers of Adrastia.
Bishop Blomfield notices this word in a learned and interesting manner in his Glossary. He observes that Adrastia is to be identified with Nemesis, the goddess of temperance; and that the Greeks, in order to avert envy, were in the habit of saying, "I do homage to Nemesis,"—προσκυνῶ τὴν Νέμεσιν.
Note 24. Page 61.
Maturing Time
Teacheth all things.
See Pindar's tenth Olymp.
ὃ τ᾽ ἐξελέγχων μόνος
Άλάθειαν ἐτήτυμον
Χρόνος
"Time, the corrector when our judgments err;
The test of love, truth; sole philosopher;
For all besides are sophists!"Childe Harold, Canto 4.
Note 25. Page 62.
In vain thou chafest me with exhortation,
As waves the rock.
Gataker, in his annotations on Marcus Antoninus, has many interesting observations on this idea, which he traces up to Homer. Elmsley and Blomfield endeavour to turn the wave into Prometheus instead of into Mercury; and against Morell and Butler, and the disciples of Apostolius. It is a poetical, not a grammatical question; and I cannot help thinking that poetry decides as my translation has done.
Note 26. Page 64.
Then let the shaggy lightning be.
The hair of the lightning—literally. In the Agamemnon there is a great beard of light; and that of Gray's Minstrel, which streamed like a meteor, would never have done so without Æschylus.