DIALOGUES OF THE GODS.

I.

PROMETHEUS OBTAINS HIS RELEASE FROM ZEUS BY A PROPHECY. Prometheus and Zeus.1

Prometheus. Set me free, O Zeus, for I have already endured dreadful sufferings.

Zeus. Set you free, say you? you who ought to have heavier fetters, and all Caucasus heaped on your head; and not only your liver gnawed by sixteen vultures, but also your eyes scooped out, in return for your fashioning such animals as men, and for stealing my fire, and fabricating women. As for the tricks you put upon me in your distribution of the flesh meats, in offering me bones wrapped up in fat, and reserving the better portion of the pieces for yourself, why need I speak?

3

Prometheus. Have I then not paid enough penalty, nailed for such a long period of time to Caucasus, supporting that most cursed of winged creatures, the vulture,* with my liver?

1 Cf. Hesiod, Θεογ. 510-560, Ερ. καὶ Ημ. 48-58; Æschylus, Προμ. Δεσμ. ; and the Προμήθευς ή Καύκασος of Lucian.

3

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2 Keipɛola. Lit. "shorn" or cropped" (tonderi), like hair which grows again. The vital parts of Prometheus were each day renewed. According to Eschylus, Prometheus was destined to suffer for some thousands of years before the advent of his saviour, Heraklês, would deliver him from his agonies. Hyginus, the Fabulist, reduces the time to the comparatively trifling period of thirty years. But, as Wieland not unjustly observes, who would look for chronological accuracy in myth and miracle?

4 'AɛTÒv. Strictly, an "eagle." 'Aɛròç and yú are indiscriminately used by the mythologists for the torturers of Prometheus.

B

Zeus. Not an infinitesimal part that of what you ought to suffer.

Prometheus. Yet you shall not release me without recompense. But I will impart something to you, Zeus, exceedingly important.

Zeus. You are for outwitting me, Prometheus.

Prometheus. And what advantage should I gain? For you will not be ignorant hereafter of the whereabouts of Kaucasus; neither will you be in want of chains, should I be caught playing you any trick.

Zeus. Say, first, what sort of equivalent you will pay, of so much importance to us.

Prometheus. If I tell you for what purpose you are now on your travels, shall I have credit with you, when I prophesy about the rest?

Zeus. Of course.

Prometheus. You are off to Thetis, to an intrigue with her. Zeus. That indeed you have correct knowledge of. But what then, after that? For you seem to have some inkling of the truth.

Prometheus. Don't have anything to do with the Nereid, Zeus: for, if she should be pregnant by you, her progeny will treat you exactly as you, too, treated'

Zeus. This do you assert that I shall be expelled from my kingdom?

Prometheus. Heaven forbid, Zeus! Intercourse with her, however, threatens something of the kind.

Zeus. Good-bye to Thetis, then. And as for you, for these timely warnings Hephaestus shall set you free.

1 But for the very hasty interruption of Zeus, Prometheus would have added-" Cronos and Rhea," the parents of the present usurping King of Gods and Men, dethroned by their unnatural son. See Ov. Metam. xi. 221-228, where it is Proteus who gives the warning prediction to Thetis.

II.

ZEUS THREATENS TO PUT EROS IN FETTERS.

1

Eros and Zeus.

Eros. Well, if I have really done wrong at all, Zeus, pardon me: for I am but an infant, and still without sense. Zeus. You an infant-you the Eros, who are far older than Iapetus? 1 Because you have not grown a beard, and don't show gray hairs, do you really claim on that account to be considered an infant, when, in fact, you are an old scamp?

Eros. But what great injury have I-the old scamp, as you call me- -done you, that you intend putting me in

irons ?

Zeus. Consider, accursed rascal, whether they are trifling injuries you have done me, you, who make such sport of me, that there is nothing which you have not turned me into-satyr, bull, gold, swan, eagle-but not any one of them have you made to be in love with me at all; nor have I perceived that, for anything that depends upon you, I have been agreeable to any woman; but I am obliged to have recourse to juggling tricks against them, and to conceal my proper self, while they are really in love with the bull or swan, and, if they have but a glimpse of me, they die of fear.3

Eros. Naturally enough, Zeus, for, being mortal women, they can't endure the sight of your person.

1 One of the Titans, progenitor of the human race, son of Uranus and Ge, and father of Prometheus. "As old as Iapetus" was a proverb with the Greeks, equivalent to our "as old as Adam." Cf. Hesiod Oɛoy. 120; Plato Evμπ. ad init., O. A. vii. 1. and Aristoph. Nɛp. 985.

2 An epigram in the Greek Anthologia thus sums up some of the principal liaisons, and the mistresses, of the King of Gods and Men :“ Ζεὺς κύκνος, ταῦρος, σάτυρος, χρυσὸς δι' ἔρωτα

Λήδης, Εὐρώπης, ̓Αντιόπης, Δανάης.”

But the catalogue is incomplete. Besides these heroines, have been commemorated Io, Alkmena, Semele, Kallisto Klytoria, Asteria, Ægina, Mnemosyne.

3 Like Semele, the Theban princess, mother of Bacchus.

1

Zeus. How is it, then, that Branchus and Hyacinthus love Apollo?

Eros. But even from him the beauty, Daphne, fled away, for all his flowing locks and beardless chin. If you wish to be loved, don't shake your ægis, and don't take your thunderbolt with you; but make yourself as agreeable as you can, letting down your locks on both sides of your face, and tying them up again under your coronet; wear a fine purple dress, put on golden sandals, step along keeping time to the sounds of the pipe and cymbals, and you will see that more women will follow you than all the Mænads of Bacchus.

Zeus. Get away with you. I would not take the offer of being loved, on condition of becoming such a figure.

Eros. Then, Zeus, don't wish to love, either: that, at all events, is an easy matter.

Zeus. Not so; but I do wish to love, and to enjoy their society in a less vexatious fashion. Upon this, and this condition alone, I let you go.

III.

ZEUS ORDERS HERMES TO SLAY ARGUS, AND TO CONDUCT

IO TO EGYPT.

Zeus and Hermes.

Zeus. Hermes, you know the daughter of Inachus, the famous beauty?

Hermes. Yes, you mean the far-famed Io.

Zeus. She is no longer a girl, but a heifer.

Hermes. Prodigious that! But how was she transformed?

Zeus. Hera, in a fit of jealousy, metamorphosed her,2 and

1 Son of Apollo by a lady of Miletus, from whom the Branchidæ, the guardians of the Oracle of Apollo at Miletus, who surrendered the treasures of their temple to Darius, derived their descent. For Hyacinthus see . A. x. 11; and Ovid, Metam. x. 162-219.

2 According to Ovid (Metam. i. 13-17), it was Jupiter himself who effected the metamorphosis, to save the Argive princess from the rage of Juno. Cf. Εναλ. Διαλ. vii.