NOTES TO PROMETHEUS BOUND

Note 54 (p. 167).“. . . thou shalt holdAn honoured seat beside Erectheus’ home.”Erectheus, who, as his name signifies (ἔραζε,Eretz, Heb.,Erde, Teut.,Earth), was the earth-born, or Adam of Attic legend, had a temple on the Acropolis, beside the temple of the city-protecting (πολιάς) Pallas, of which the ruins yet remain. The cave of the Furies was on the Hill of Mars, directly opposite.—SeeIntroductory Remarks.Note 55 (p. 168).“. . . save my cityFrom brothered strife, and from domestic brawls.”It was a principle with the Romans that no victory in a civil war should be followed by a triumph; and, accordingly, in the famous triumph of Julius Cæsar, which lasted three days, there was nothing to remind the Roman eye that the conqueror of Pharsalia had ever plucked a leaf from Pompey’s laurels. In v. 826, I read withMül. ὀυ δόμοις παρων, the present reading, μόλις, being clumsy any way that I have seen it translated.Note 56 (p. 169).“The fortress of gods.”This designation is given to Athens with special reference to the Persian wars; for the Persians destroyed everywhere the temples of the Greek gods (only in the single case of Delos are they said to have made an exception), and the Athenians, in conquering the Persians, saved not only their own lives, but the temples of the gods from destruction.Note 57 (p. 169).“Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten.”Well., as usual, is too cautious in not changing μὴ κύρσας into δὴ κύρσας withPauwandMül., or μὴν withLin. andSchoe.Note 58 (p. 169).“Not for his own, for guilt inherited.”“The sins of the fathers, as in the Old Testament, so also among the Greeks, are visited on the children even to the third and fourth generation; nay, even the idea of original sin, derived from the Titanic men of the early ages, and exhibiting itself as a rebellious inclination against the gods more or less in all—this essentially Christian idea was not altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks.”—Schoemann.Note 59 (p. 170).“And, when Hermes is near thee.”What we call a “god-send,” or a “wind-fall,” was called by the Greeks ἓρμαιον, or a thing given by the grace of Hermes. In his original capacity as the patron god of Arcadian shepherds, Hermes was, in like manner, looked on as the giver of patriarchal wealth in the shape of flocks.—Il. xiv. 490.Note 60 (p. 170).“Ye Fates, high-presiding.”There is no small difficulty in this passage, from the state of the text; but, unless it be the Furies themselves that are spoken of, asKl. imagines (Theol. p. 45), I cannot think there are any celestial powers to whom the strong language of the Strophe will apply but the Fates. If the former supposition be adopted, we must interrupt the chaunt between Athena and the Furies, putting this Strophe into the mouth of the Areopagites, as, indeed,Kl. proposes; but this seems rather a bold measure, and has found no favour. It remains, therefore, only to make such changes in the text as will admit of the application of the whole passage to the Fates, who stand in the closest relation to the Furies, as is evident from Strophe III. of the chorus (p. 146above). ThisMül. has done; and I follow him, not, however, without desiring some more distinct proof that ματροκασιγνῆται, in Greek, can possibly mean sisters.—SeeSchoe.’s note.Note 61 (p. 170).“Jove, that rules the forum, noblyIn the high debate hath conquered.”Ζεὺς ἀγορᾶιος. The students of Homer may recollect the appeal of Telemachus to the Ithacans in council assembled (Odys. II. 68). Jove, as we have already had occasion to remark, has a peculiar right of presidency over every grand event of human life, and every important social institution; so that, on certain occasions, the Greek Polytheism becomes, for the need, a Monotheism—somewhat after the same fashion as the aristocratic Government of the old Roman Republic had the power of suddenly changing itself, on important occasions, into an absolute monarchy, by the creation of a Dictator.Note 62 (p. 172).“Gracious-minded sisterhood.”The Furies were called Ευμενίδες, or gracious, to propitiate their stern deity by complimentary language. Suidas says (voc. Ευμενίδες) that Athena, in this play, calls the Furies expressly by this name; but the fact is, that it does not occur in the whole play. Either, therefore, the word ἔυφρων, which I have translated “gracious-minded” in the play, must be considered to have given occasion to the remark of the lexicographer (which seems sufficient), or, withHermannandSchoe., we must suppose something to have fallen out of the present speech.NOTE.Onp. 132, after thedramatis personæ, I perceive that I have stated that the scene of this piece changes from Delphi to theHill of Mars, Athens. This is either inaccurate, or, at least, imperfect; for the first change of scene is manifestly (as statedp. 148), to the temple of Athena Pallas, on the Acropolis; and, though the imagination naturally desires that the institution of the Court of the Areopagus should take place on the exact seat of its future labours, yet the construction of the drama by no means necessitates another change of scene, and the allusion to the Hill of Mars inp. 162is easily explicable on the supposition that it lies directly opposite the Acropolis, and that Pallas points to it with her finger.NOTES TO PROMETHEUS BOUNDNote 1 (p. 183).“This Scythian soil, this wild untrodden waste.”“The ancient Greek writers called all the Northern tribes (i.e.all who dwelt in the Northern parts of Europe and Asia) generally by the name of Scythians and Celto-Scythians; while some even more ancient than these make a division, calling those beyond the Euxine, Ister, and Adria, Hyperboreans, Sarmatians, and Arimaspi; but those beyond the Caspian Sea, Sacæ and Massagetæ.” Strabo, Lib. XI. p. 507.—Stan.Note 2 (p. 183).“This daring wretch.”λεωργὸν, a difficult word; “evil-doer”—Med. andProw.;Bösewicht—Toelp.;Freveler—Schoe. The other translation of this word—“artificer of man” (Potter)—given in theEtym.was very likely an invention of Lexicographers to explain this very passage. But the expounders did not consider thatÆschylusthrough the whole play makes no allusion to this function of the fire-worker. It was, I believe, altogether a recent form of the myth.—SeeWeiske. “The precise etymology of the word is uncertain.”—Lin.Note 3 (p. 183).“. . . a kindred god.”“A fellow deity”—Med. But this is not enough. Vulcan, as a smith, and Prometheus were kindred in their divine functions, for which reason they were often confounded in the popular legends, as in the case of the birth of Pallas from the brain of Jove, effected by the axe, some say of Hephaestus, some of Prometheus—Apollodor. I. 3-6.Euripid. Ion. 455; from which passage of the tragedianWelckeris of opinion that Prometheus, not Hephaestus, must have a place in the pediment of the Parthenon representing the birth of Pallas.—Class. Museum, Vol. II. p. 385.Note 4 (p. 183).“High-counselled sonOf right-decreeing Themis.”NotClymeneaccording to the Theogony (V. 508) orAsia, one of the Oceanides according to Apollodorus (I. 2), which parentage has been adopted byShelleyin hisPrometheus Unbound. That Æschylus in preferring this maternity meant to represent the Titan as suffering in the cause ofRightagainstMight, as Welcker will have it (Trilog. p. 42), is more than doubtful. One advantage, however, is certainly gained, viz., that Prometheus is thus brought one degree further up the line of ascent in direct progress from the two original divinities of the Theogony—UranusorHeaven, andGeeor theEarth; for, according to Hesiod,Themisis the daughter,Clymeneonly the grand-daughter, of these primeval powers (Theog. 135, 315). Thus, Prometheus is invested with more dignity, and becomes a more worthy rival of Jove.Note 5 (p. 183).“. . . saviour shall be none.”I entirely agree withSchoe. that in the indefinite expression—(ο) λωφήσων γὰρ ὀυ πέφυκέ πω any allusion, such as the Scholiast suggests, toHercules, the person by whom salvation did at length come, would be in the worst possible taste here, and quite foreign to the tone of the passage.Note 6 (p. 184).“Jove is not weak that he should bend.”This character of harshness and inexorability belongs as essentially toJoveas to theFates. Pallas, in the Iliad, makes the same complaint—“But my father, harsh and cruel, with no gentle humour raging,Thwarts my will in all things.”IliadVIII. 360.We must bear in mind that Jove represents three things—(1) that iron firmness of purpose which is so essential to the character of a great ruler; (2) the impetuous violence and resistless power of the heavenly elements when in commotion; (3) the immutability of the laws of Nature.Note 7 (p. 184).“All things may be, but thisTo dictate to the gods.”Ἅπαντ ἐπράχθη πλὴν θε(ο)ισι κοιρανεῖν—literally,all things have been done, save commanding the gods. I do not know whether there is any philological difficulty in the way of this translation. It certainly agrees perfectly well with the context, and has the advantage of not changing the received text.Schoe., however, adoptingHerm.’s emendation of ἐπαχθῆ translates—“Last trägt ein jeder, nur der Götter König nicht.”“All have their burdens save the king of the gods.”On the theological sentiment, I would compare that ofSeneca—“In regno nati sumus; Deo parere libertas est” (Vit. Beat.15)—and that ofEuripides, where the captive Trojan queen, finding the king of men, Agamemnon, willing to assist her, but afraid of the opinion of the Greeks, speaks as follows:—“Ουκἔστι θνητῶν ὃστις ἐστ ἐλέυθερος,ἢ χρημάτων γαρ δ(ο)υλος ἐστιν ἡ τύχηςη πλῆθος ἀυτὸν πόλεως, ἤ νόμων γρἤφαιἔιργουσι χρῆσθαι μὴ κατὰ γνῶμην τρόποις.”Hec. 864.Note 8 (p. 185).“Thou hast been calledIn vain the Provident.”This is merely translatingPrometheus(from προ before, and μῆτις counsel) into English. These allusions to names are very frequent in Æschylus—so much so as to amount to amannerism; but we who use a language, the heritage of years, a coinage from which the signature has been mostly rubbed off, must bear in mind that originally all words, and especially names, were significant. See the Old Testament everywhere (particularly Gen. c. xxix. and xli., with which compare Homer, Odyssey xix. 407). And, indeed, in all original languages, like Greek or German, which declare their own etymology publicly to the most unlearned, no taunt is more natural and more obvious than that derived from a name. Even in Scotland, a man who is calledBairnsfatherwill be apt to feel rather awkward if he has no children. “In the oldest Greek legend,” saysWelcker(Tril.p. 356), “names were frequently invented, in order to fix down the character or main feature of the story”—(so Bunyan in the Pilgrim’s Progress)—a true principle, which many German writers abuse, to evaporate all tradition into mere fictitious allegory. But the practice of the Old Testament patriarchs shows that the significancy of a name affords of itself no presumption against its historical reality.Note 9 (p. 185).Prometheus. The critics remark with good reason the propriety of the stout-hearted sufferer observing complete silence up to this point. It is natural for pain to find a vent in words, but a proud man will not complain in the presence of his adversary. Compare the similar silence of Cassandra in the Agamemnon; and for reasons equally wise, that of Faust in the Auerbach cellar scene. So true is it that a great poet, like a wise man, is often best known, not by what he says, but by what he doesnotsay—(και τῆς ἂγαν γάρ έστί που σιγῆς βάρος, as Sophocles has it). As to the subject of the beautiful invocation here made by the Titan sufferer, the reader will observe not merely its poetical beauty (to which there is something analogous in Manfred, act I. sc. 2—“My mother Earth,And thou fresh-breaking day, and you, ye mountains,And thou the bright eye of the Universe,”)but also its mythological propriety in the person of the speaker, as in the early times the original elementary theology common to the Greeks with all polytheists, had not been superseded by those often sadly disguised impersonations which are represented by the dynasty of Jove.OceanandHyperion(ὑπερίων—he that walks aloft) are named in the Theogony, along withThemisandIapetus, as the first generation of gods, directly begotten from Heaven and Earth.—(Theog. 133-4.) In the natural progress of religious opinion, this original cosmical meaning of the Greek gods, though lost by anthropomorphism to the vulgar, was afterwards brought out by the natural philosophers, and by the philosophical poets; of which examples occur everywhere among the later classics. Indeed, the elemental worship seems never to have been altogether exploded, but continued to exist in strange confusion along with the congregation of fictitious persons to which it had given birth. So in Homer, Agamemnon prays—“Father Jove from Ida swaying, god most glorious and great,And thou Sun, the all-perceiving and all-hearing power, and yeRiversandEarth,” etc.—Il. III. 277.Note 10 (p. 185).“The multitudinous laughter.”ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα. I must offer an apology here for myself, Mr. Swayne, and Captain Medwyn, because I find we are in a minority. The Captain, indeed, has paraphrased it a little—“With long loud laughs, exulting to be free,”but he retains the laugh, which is the stumbling-block. Swayne has“Ye ocean wavesThat with incessant laughter bound and swellCountless,”also a little paraphrased, but giving due prominence to the characteristic idea. E. P. Oxon. has“Ocean smiling with its countless waves,”with a reference to Stanley’s note, “Refertur ad levem sonum undarum ventis exagitatarum qui etiam aliquantulumcrispantmaris dorsum quasi amabili quadam γελασιᾳ,” in which words we see the origin ofPot.’s—“Ye wavesThat o’er the interminable ocean wreatheYour crisped smiles.”Prow. has—“Dimpled in multitudinous smiles.”AndSchoe.’s—“Zahllosses Blinken.”And soBlom. in a note, emphatically—“Lenisfluctuum agitatio.”But why all this gentleness? Does it agree either with the strength of the poet’s genius, or with the desolation of the wild scene around his hero? I at once admit that γελάω is often used in Greek, where, according to our usage,smilewould be the word; but in the Old Testament we find the broad strong wordlaughoften retained in descriptions of nature; and I see not the least reason for walking in satin shoes here.Note 11 (p. 186).“. . . in a reed concealed it.”νάρθηξ—“still used for this purpose in Cyprus, where the reed still retains the old Greek name”—Welcker,Tril.p. 8, who quotes Walpole’s Memoirs relative to Turkey, p. 284, and Tournefort, Letter 6. I recollect at school smoking a bit of bamboo cane for a cigar.Note 12 (p. 186).“. . . Ah me! ah me! who comes?”The increased agitation of mind is here expressed in the original by the abandonment of the Iambic verse, and the adoption of the Bacchic—τίς ἀχὼ, etc., which speedily passes into the anapæst, as imitated by my Trochees. Milton was so steeped in Greek, that I think he must have had this passage in his mind when he wrote the lines of Samson Agonistes, v. 110, beginning “But who are these?” Altogether, the Samson is, in its general tone and character, quite a sort of Jewish Prometheus.Note 13 (p. 187).“Daughters of prolific Tethys.”The ancient sea-goddess, sister and wife of Oceanus, daughter of Heaven and Earth. The reader will observe that the mythology of this drama preserves a primeval or, according to our phrase, antediluvian character throughout. The mythic personages are true contemporaries belonging to the most ancient dynasty of the gods. For this reason Ocean appears in a future stage of the play, notPoseidon. Tethys, with the other Titans and Titanesses are enumerated by Hesiod, Theog. 132-7, as follows—“Earth to Uranus wedded bore Ocean deep with whirling currents,Coeus, Creios, Hyperion, Theia, Rhea, Iapetus,Themis, Mnemosyne, lovely Tethys, likewise Phœbe golden-crowned,Then the youngest of them all, deep-designing Kronos.”As for the epithetprolificapplied toTethys, the fecundity of fish is a proverb in natural history; but I suppose it is rather the infinite succession of waves on the expanded surface of Ocean that makes his daughters so numerous in the Theogony (362)—“Thrice ten hundred they are counted delicate-ancled Ocean maids.”Note 14 (p. 187).“. . . the giant traceOf Titan times hath vanished.”Here we have distinctly indicated that contrast between theoldand thenewgods, which Æschylus makes so prominent, not only in this play, but also in the Furies. The conclusion has been drawn by various scholars that Æschylus was secretly unfavourable to the recognised dynasty of Jove, and that his real allegiance was to these elder gods. But the inference is hasty and unauthorised. His taste for the sublime led him into these primeval ages, as it also did Milton: that is all we can say.Note 15 (p. 188).“. . . the new-forged counselsThat shall hurl him from his throne.”The new-forged counsels were of Jove’s own devising—viz., that he should marry Thetis; of which marriage, if it should take place, the son was destined to usurp his father’s throne.—Scholiast.Note 16 (p. 188).“O, ’tis hard, most hard to reachThe heart of Jove!”Inexorability is a grand characteristic of the gods.“Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.”—Virg., Æn.VI.And so Homer makes Nestor say of Agamemnon, vainly hoping to appease the wrath of Pallas Athena, by hecatombs—“Witless in his heart he knew not what dire sufferings he must bear,For not lightly from their purposed counsel swerve the eternal gods.”Odys. III. 147.And of Jove, in particular, Hera says to Themis, in the council of the gods—“Well thou knowestHow the Olympian’s heart is haughty, and his temper how severe.”IliadXV. 94.Note 17 (p. 188).“My mother Themis, not once but oft, and Earth(One shape of various names).”Æschylus does not and could not confound these two distinct persons, asPot. will have it.—See Eumenides, 2.Schoe. has stated the whole case very clearly.Pot. remarks with great justice, that a multiplicity of names “is a mark of dignity;” it by no means follows, however, thatThemis, in this passage, is one of those many names which Earth receives. In illustration we may quote a passage from theKurma Ouran(Kennedy’s Researches on Hindoo Mythology; London, 1831; p. 208)—“That,” says Vishnu, pointing to Siva, “is the great god of gods, shining in his own refulgence, eternal, devoid of thought, who produced thee (Brahma), and gave to thee the Vedas, and who likewise originated me, andgave me various names.” Southey, in the roll of celestialdramatis personæprefixed to the Curse of Kehama, says “that Siva boasts as many asone thousand and eight names.”Note 18 (p 189).“Suspicion’s a disease that cleaves to tyrants,And they who love most are the first suspected.”“Nam regibus boni quam mali suspectiores sunt, semperque his aliena virtus formidolosa est.”—Sall. Cat. VII. “In princes fear is stronger than love; therefore it is often more difficult for them to tear themselves from persons whom they hate than to cast off persons whom they love.”—Richter(Titan).Note 19 (p. 189).“I only of the godsThwarted his will.”This is one of the passages which has suggested to many minds a comparison between the mythical tortures of the Caucasus and the real agonies of Calvary. The analogy is just so far; only the Greek imagination never could look on Prometheus as suffering altogether without just cause; he suffered for his own sins. ThisToepel. p. 71, has well expressed thus—“Prometheus deos laesit ut homines bearet: Christus homines beavit ut suae, Deique patris obsecundaret voluntati.”Note 20 (p. 189).“. . . in cunning torment stretched.”ἀνηλεῶς ἐῤῥύθμισμαι—“so bin ich zugerichtet.”—Passow. A sort of studious malignity is here indicated. So we say allegorically totrimone handsomely, todresshim, when we mean topunish. The frequent use of this verb ρυθμίζω is characteristic of the Greeks, than whom no people, as has been frequently remarked, seem to have possessed a nicer sense of the beauty of measure and the propriety of limitation in their poetry and works of art. So Sophocles, Antig. 318, has ρυθμίζειν λύπην.Note 21 (p. 190).“Blind hopes of good I plantedIn their dark breasts.”A striking phrase, meaning, however, nothing more, I imagine, according to the use of the Greek writers (and also of the Latins withcaecus) thandim,indistinct; neither, indeed, is the phrase foreign to our colloquial English idiom—“The swearing to ablindetcetera they (the Puritans) looked upon as intolerable.”—Calamy’s Life of Baxter. In the well-known story of Pandora, Hesiod relates that, when the lid of the fatal box was opened, innumerable plagues flew out, onlyHoperemained within.—Works and Days, 84.Note 22 (p. 190).“And flame-faced fire is now enjoyed by mortals?”Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, in his account of New South Wales (London, 1804), mentions that the wild natives produced fire with much difficulty, and preserved it with the greatest care. The original inhabitants of New Holland, and the wild African bushmen described by Moffat, the missionary, are among the lowest specimens of human nature with which we are acquainted. As for Æschylus, it is evident he follows in this whole piece the notion of primitive humanity given in his introductory chapters by Diodorus, and generally received amongst the ancients, viz., that the fathers of our race were the most weak and helpless creatures imaginable, like the famous Egyptian frogs, as it were, only half developed from the primeval slime.Note 23 (p. 191).EnterOcean. “This sea god enters,” says Brunoy, quoted byPot., on “I know not what winged animal—bizarrerie inexplicable.” Very inexplicable certainly; and yet, as the tragedian expressly calls the animal abird, I do not see why so many translators, both English and German, should insist on making it asteed. The bird certainly was a little anomalous, having, as we learn below, four feet (τετρασκελὴς ὀιωνός, v. 395—afour-footed bira); but it was a bird for all that, and the air was its element. If the creature must have a name, we must even call it a griffin, or a hippogriff, notwithstanding Welcker’s remarks (Tril.p. 26). Those who wish to see its physiognomy more minutely described may consult Aeliean. hist, animal. IV. 27, in an apt passage quoted fromJacobsbyBoth. There is an ambiguity in the passage which I have translated—“Thought instinctive reined the creature,”some applying γνώμῃ not to the animal, but to the will of the rider. SoProw.—“Following stillEach impulse of my guiding will.”But for the poetical propriety of my translation I can plead the authority ofSouthey—“The ship of Heaven instinct with thought displayedIts living sail, and glides along the sky.”Curse of Kehama, VII. 1.and ofMilton—“The chariot of paternal DeityInstinct with spirit.”—VI. 750.and what is much more conclusive in the present instance, that of Homer, whose τιτυσκόμεναι φρεσὶ νῆες (Odyssey VIII. 556), or self-piloted ships of the Phœnicians, belong clearly to the same mythical family as the self-reined griffin of old Ocean.Note 24 (p. 191).“From my distant caves cerulean.”i.e., in the far West, extreme Atlantic, or “ends of the earth,” according to the Homeric phrase.“To the ends I make my journey of the many-nurturing Earth,There where Ocean, sire of gods, and ancient mother Tethys dwells,They who nursed me in their palace, and my infant strength sustained,”saysHerain the Iliad (XIV. 200).Note 25 (p. 192).“Enough my brother Atlas’ miseries grieve me.”The reader will see by referring to the old editions and toPot. that the following description of the miseries of Atlas and Typhon is, in the MS., given to Ocean; and, it must be confessed, there seems a peculiar dramatic propriety in making the old sea god hold up the fate of the Cilician Blaster as a warning to the son of Iapetus, whom he saw embarked in a similar career of hopeless rebellion against the Thunderer. But philological considerations, well stated bySchoe., have weighed with that editor, as with his predecessorsBlom. andWell., whose authority and arguments I am for the present willing to follow, though not without some lingering doubts. The alteration of the text originally proceeded from Elmsley, and the original order of the dialogue is stoutly defended byToepel. in his notes.Note 26 (p. 192)“The pillars of Heaven and Earth upon his shoulders.”If the reader is a curious person, he will ask how Atlas when standing on the Earth—in the extreme west of the Earth—could bear the pillars ofHeavenandEarth?and the question will be a very proper one; for the fact is that, as Hesiod distinctly states the case, he bore the pillars ofHeaven only(Theog. 517). This is, indeed, the only possible idea that could be admitted into a mythology which proceeded on the old principle that the Earth was a flat solid platform in the centre of the Universe, round which the celestial pole (πόλος) wheeled. The phrase “pillars of Heaven and Earth” is, therefore, to a certain extent an improper one; for the Earth, being the stable base of all things, required no pillars to support it. In one sense it is true that the pillars of Atlas are the pillars of Heaven and Earth, viz., in so far as they have Heaven at one end and Earth at the other, which is what Homer means when he says (Odyssey I. 54), that these pillars “γᾶιάν τε καὶ ὀυρανὸν ἀμφὶς ἔχουσιν.” And that this is the idea of Æschylus, also, is plain, both from the present passage, and from the Epode of the next following Chorus, where, unless we force in one conjecture of Schütz, or another of Hermann into the text, there is no mention of anything but thecelestial pole. In all this I but express in my own words,and with a very decided conviction, the substance of the admirable note inSchoe. to v. 426,Well.Note 27 (p. 192).“. . . Typhon.”The idea of Typhon is that of a strong windy power, δεινόν ὑβριστήν τ ἄνεμον, according to the express statement of Hesiod (Theog. 307). The Greek wordTyphon, with which ourtyphus feveris identical, expresses the state of beingswollenorblown up; with this, the other idea ofheat, which belongs also to Typhon (Sallust, περὶ θεῶν, c. 4), is naturally connected. According to the elementary or physical system of mythology, therefore, Typhon is neither more nor less than asimoomorhot wind.Note 28 (p. 193).“Knowest thou not this, Prometheus, that mild wordsAre medicines of fierce wrath?”The reader may like to see Cicero’s version of these four lines—“Oceanus. Atqui Prometheu te hoc, tenere existimoMederi posse rationem iracundiæ.”“Prom. Si quidem qui tempestivam medicinam admovensNon ad gravescens vulnus illidat manus.”Tusc. Q., III. 31.Note 29 (p. 194).“. . . holy Asia weepFor thee, Prometheus.”Here, and in the epithet of the rivers in the Epode (compare Homer’s Odyssey X. 351, ἱερων ποταμων, andNägelsbach, Homer, Theologie, p. 85), the original word is ἁγνος, a term to be particularly noted, both in the heathen writers and in the Old Testament, as denoting that religious purity in connection with external objects and outward ceremonies which the Christian sentiment confines exclusively to the moral state of the soul. I have thought it important, in all cases, to retain the Greek phrase, and not by modernizing to dilute it. The religious sentiment in connection with external nature is what the moderns generally do not understand, and least of all the English, whose piety does not readily exhibit itself beyond the precincts of the church porch. The Germans, in this regard, have a much more profound sympathy with the Greek mind.Note 30 (p. 194).“. . . Araby’s wandering warriors weepFor thee, Prometheus.”Arabia certainly comes in, to a modern ear, not a little strangely here, between the Sea of Azof and the Caucasus; but the Greeks, we must remember, were a people whose notions ofbarbariangeography (as they would call it) were anything but distinct; and, in this play, the poet seems wisely to court vagueness in these matters rather than to study accuracy.Note 31 (p 195).“For, soothly, having eyes to see, they saw not.”With regard to the origin of the human race there are two principal opinions, which have in all times prevailed. One is, that man was originally created perfect, or in a state of dignity far transcending what he now exhibits; that the state in which the earliest historical records present him is a state of declension and aberration from the primeval source; and that thewhole progress of what is called civilization is only a series of attempts, for the most part sufficiently clumsy, and always painful, whereby we endeavour to reinstate ourselves in our lost position. This philosophy of history—for so it may most fitly be called—is that which has always been received in the general Christian world; and, indeed, it seems to flow necessarily from the reception of the Mosaic records, not merely as authentic Hebrew documents, but as veritable cosmogony and primeval history—as containing a historical exposition of the creation of the world, and the early history of man. The other doctrine is, that man was originally created in a condition extremely feeble and imperfect; very little removed from vegetable dulness and brutish stupidity; and that he gradually raised himself by slow steps to the exercise of the higher moral and intellectual faculties, by virtue of which he claims successful mastery over the brute, and affinity with the angel. This doctrine was very common, I think I may safely say the current and generally received doctrine, among the educated Greeks and Romans; though the poets certainly did not omit, as they so often do, to contradict themselves by their famous tradition of a golden age, which it was their delight to trick out and embellish. In modern times, this theory ofprogressive development, as it may be called, has, as might have been expected, found little favour, except with philosophers of the French school; and those who have broached it in this country latterly have met with a most hot reception from scientific men, principally, we may presume, from the general conviction that such ideas go directly to undermine the authority of the Mosaic record. It has been thought, also, that there is something debasing and contrary to the dignity of human nature in the supposition that the great-grandfather of the primeval father of our race may have been a monkey, or not far removed from that species; but, however this be, with regard toÆschylus, it is plain he did not find it inconsistent with the loftiest views of human duty and destiny to adopt the then commonly received theory of a gradual development; and, in illustration, I cannot do better than translate a few sentences fromDiodorus, where the same doctrine is stated in prose: “Men, as originally generated, lived in a confused and brutish condition, preserving existence by feeding on herbs and fruits that grew spontaneously. * * * Their speech was quite indistinct and confused, but by degrees they invented articulate speech. * * * They lived without any of the comforts and conveniences of life, without clothing, without habitations,without fire(Prometheus!), and without cooked victuals; and not knowing to lay up stores for future need, great numbers of them died during the winter from the effects of cold and starvation. By which sad experience taught, they learned to lodge themselves in caves, and laid up stores there. By-and-by, they discovered fire and other things pertaining to a comfortable existence. The arts were then invented, and man became in every respect such as a highly-gifted animal might well be, having hands and speech, and a devising mind ever present to work out his purposes.” Thus far the Sicilian (I. 8); and the intelligent reader need not be informed that, to a certain extent, many obvious and patent facts seemed to give a high probability to his doctrine. “Dwellers in caves,” for instance, or “troglodytes,” were well known to the ancients, and the modern reader will find a historical account of them inStrabo, and other obvious places. TheHorites(Gen. xiv. 6) were so called from the Hebrew wordHor, a cave—(see Gesenius and Jahn, I. 2-26). But it is needless to accumulate learned references in a matter patent to the most modern observation.—Moffat’s “African Missions” will supply instances of human beings in a state as degraded as anything here described by the poet; and withregard to the aboriginal Australians, I have preserved in my notes the following passage fromCollins: “The Australians dwell in miserable huts of bark, all huddled together promiscuously (ἔφυρον εικῆ πάντα!) amid much smoke and dirt.Some also live in caves.” I do by no means assert, however, that these creatures are remnants of primeval humanity, according to the development theory; I only say they afford that theory a historic analogy; while, on the other hand, they are equally consistent with the commonly received Christian doctrine, as man is a creature who degenerates from excellence much more readily in all circumstances than he attains to it. These Australians and Africans may be mere imbecile stragglers who have been dropt from the great army of humanity in its march.

Note 54 (p. 167).“. . . thou shalt holdAn honoured seat beside Erectheus’ home.”

“. . . thou shalt holdAn honoured seat beside Erectheus’ home.”

“. . . thou shalt hold

An honoured seat beside Erectheus’ home.”

Erectheus, who, as his name signifies (ἔραζε,Eretz, Heb.,Erde, Teut.,Earth), was the earth-born, or Adam of Attic legend, had a temple on the Acropolis, beside the temple of the city-protecting (πολιάς) Pallas, of which the ruins yet remain. The cave of the Furies was on the Hill of Mars, directly opposite.—SeeIntroductory Remarks.

Note 55 (p. 168).“. . . save my cityFrom brothered strife, and from domestic brawls.”

“. . . save my cityFrom brothered strife, and from domestic brawls.”

“. . . save my city

From brothered strife, and from domestic brawls.”

It was a principle with the Romans that no victory in a civil war should be followed by a triumph; and, accordingly, in the famous triumph of Julius Cæsar, which lasted three days, there was nothing to remind the Roman eye that the conqueror of Pharsalia had ever plucked a leaf from Pompey’s laurels. In v. 826, I read withMül. ὀυ δόμοις παρων, the present reading, μόλις, being clumsy any way that I have seen it translated.

Note 56 (p. 169).“The fortress of gods.”

“The fortress of gods.”

This designation is given to Athens with special reference to the Persian wars; for the Persians destroyed everywhere the temples of the Greek gods (only in the single case of Delos are they said to have made an exception), and the Athenians, in conquering the Persians, saved not only their own lives, but the temples of the gods from destruction.

Note 57 (p. 169).“Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten.”

“Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten.”

Well., as usual, is too cautious in not changing μὴ κύρσας into δὴ κύρσας withPauwandMül., or μὴν withLin. andSchoe.

Note 58 (p. 169).“Not for his own, for guilt inherited.”

“Not for his own, for guilt inherited.”

“The sins of the fathers, as in the Old Testament, so also among the Greeks, are visited on the children even to the third and fourth generation; nay, even the idea of original sin, derived from the Titanic men of the early ages, and exhibiting itself as a rebellious inclination against the gods more or less in all—this essentially Christian idea was not altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks.”—Schoemann.

Note 59 (p. 170).“And, when Hermes is near thee.”

“And, when Hermes is near thee.”

What we call a “god-send,” or a “wind-fall,” was called by the Greeks ἓρμαιον, or a thing given by the grace of Hermes. In his original capacity as the patron god of Arcadian shepherds, Hermes was, in like manner, looked on as the giver of patriarchal wealth in the shape of flocks.—Il. xiv. 490.

Note 60 (p. 170).“Ye Fates, high-presiding.”

“Ye Fates, high-presiding.”

There is no small difficulty in this passage, from the state of the text; but, unless it be the Furies themselves that are spoken of, asKl. imagines (Theol. p. 45), I cannot think there are any celestial powers to whom the strong language of the Strophe will apply but the Fates. If the former supposition be adopted, we must interrupt the chaunt between Athena and the Furies, putting this Strophe into the mouth of the Areopagites, as, indeed,Kl. proposes; but this seems rather a bold measure, and has found no favour. It remains, therefore, only to make such changes in the text as will admit of the application of the whole passage to the Fates, who stand in the closest relation to the Furies, as is evident from Strophe III. of the chorus (p. 146above). ThisMül. has done; and I follow him, not, however, without desiring some more distinct proof that ματροκασιγνῆται, in Greek, can possibly mean sisters.—SeeSchoe.’s note.

Note 61 (p. 170).“Jove, that rules the forum, noblyIn the high debate hath conquered.”

“Jove, that rules the forum, noblyIn the high debate hath conquered.”

“Jove, that rules the forum, nobly

In the high debate hath conquered.”

Ζεὺς ἀγορᾶιος. The students of Homer may recollect the appeal of Telemachus to the Ithacans in council assembled (Odys. II. 68). Jove, as we have already had occasion to remark, has a peculiar right of presidency over every grand event of human life, and every important social institution; so that, on certain occasions, the Greek Polytheism becomes, for the need, a Monotheism—somewhat after the same fashion as the aristocratic Government of the old Roman Republic had the power of suddenly changing itself, on important occasions, into an absolute monarchy, by the creation of a Dictator.

Note 62 (p. 172).“Gracious-minded sisterhood.”

“Gracious-minded sisterhood.”

The Furies were called Ευμενίδες, or gracious, to propitiate their stern deity by complimentary language. Suidas says (voc. Ευμενίδες) that Athena, in this play, calls the Furies expressly by this name; but the fact is, that it does not occur in the whole play. Either, therefore, the word ἔυφρων, which I have translated “gracious-minded” in the play, must be considered to have given occasion to the remark of the lexicographer (which seems sufficient), or, withHermannandSchoe., we must suppose something to have fallen out of the present speech.

NOTE.

Onp. 132, after thedramatis personæ, I perceive that I have stated that the scene of this piece changes from Delphi to theHill of Mars, Athens. This is either inaccurate, or, at least, imperfect; for the first change of scene is manifestly (as statedp. 148), to the temple of Athena Pallas, on the Acropolis; and, though the imagination naturally desires that the institution of the Court of the Areopagus should take place on the exact seat of its future labours, yet the construction of the drama by no means necessitates another change of scene, and the allusion to the Hill of Mars inp. 162is easily explicable on the supposition that it lies directly opposite the Acropolis, and that Pallas points to it with her finger.

Note 1 (p. 183).“This Scythian soil, this wild untrodden waste.”

“This Scythian soil, this wild untrodden waste.”

“The ancient Greek writers called all the Northern tribes (i.e.all who dwelt in the Northern parts of Europe and Asia) generally by the name of Scythians and Celto-Scythians; while some even more ancient than these make a division, calling those beyond the Euxine, Ister, and Adria, Hyperboreans, Sarmatians, and Arimaspi; but those beyond the Caspian Sea, Sacæ and Massagetæ.” Strabo, Lib. XI. p. 507.—Stan.

Note 2 (p. 183).“This daring wretch.”

“This daring wretch.”

λεωργὸν, a difficult word; “evil-doer”—Med. andProw.;Bösewicht—Toelp.;Freveler—Schoe. The other translation of this word—“artificer of man” (Potter)—given in theEtym.was very likely an invention of Lexicographers to explain this very passage. But the expounders did not consider thatÆschylusthrough the whole play makes no allusion to this function of the fire-worker. It was, I believe, altogether a recent form of the myth.—SeeWeiske. “The precise etymology of the word is uncertain.”—Lin.

Note 3 (p. 183).“. . . a kindred god.”

“. . . a kindred god.”

“A fellow deity”—Med. But this is not enough. Vulcan, as a smith, and Prometheus were kindred in their divine functions, for which reason they were often confounded in the popular legends, as in the case of the birth of Pallas from the brain of Jove, effected by the axe, some say of Hephaestus, some of Prometheus—Apollodor. I. 3-6.Euripid. Ion. 455; from which passage of the tragedianWelckeris of opinion that Prometheus, not Hephaestus, must have a place in the pediment of the Parthenon representing the birth of Pallas.—Class. Museum, Vol. II. p. 385.

Note 4 (p. 183).“High-counselled sonOf right-decreeing Themis.”

“High-counselled sonOf right-decreeing Themis.”

“High-counselled son

Of right-decreeing Themis.”

NotClymeneaccording to the Theogony (V. 508) orAsia, one of the Oceanides according to Apollodorus (I. 2), which parentage has been adopted byShelleyin hisPrometheus Unbound. That Æschylus in preferring this maternity meant to represent the Titan as suffering in the cause ofRightagainstMight, as Welcker will have it (Trilog. p. 42), is more than doubtful. One advantage, however, is certainly gained, viz., that Prometheus is thus brought one degree further up the line of ascent in direct progress from the two original divinities of the Theogony—UranusorHeaven, andGeeor theEarth; for, according to Hesiod,Themisis the daughter,Clymeneonly the grand-daughter, of these primeval powers (Theog. 135, 315). Thus, Prometheus is invested with more dignity, and becomes a more worthy rival of Jove.

Note 5 (p. 183).“. . . saviour shall be none.”

“. . . saviour shall be none.”

I entirely agree withSchoe. that in the indefinite expression—(ο) λωφήσων γὰρ ὀυ πέφυκέ πω any allusion, such as the Scholiast suggests, toHercules, the person by whom salvation did at length come, would be in the worst possible taste here, and quite foreign to the tone of the passage.

Note 6 (p. 184).“Jove is not weak that he should bend.”

“Jove is not weak that he should bend.”

This character of harshness and inexorability belongs as essentially toJoveas to theFates. Pallas, in the Iliad, makes the same complaint—

“But my father, harsh and cruel, with no gentle humour raging,Thwarts my will in all things.”IliadVIII. 360.

“But my father, harsh and cruel, with no gentle humour raging,

Thwarts my will in all things.”

IliadVIII. 360.

We must bear in mind that Jove represents three things—(1) that iron firmness of purpose which is so essential to the character of a great ruler; (2) the impetuous violence and resistless power of the heavenly elements when in commotion; (3) the immutability of the laws of Nature.

Note 7 (p. 184).“All things may be, but thisTo dictate to the gods.”

“All things may be, but thisTo dictate to the gods.”

“All things may be, but this

To dictate to the gods.”

Ἅπαντ ἐπράχθη πλὴν θε(ο)ισι κοιρανεῖν—literally,all things have been done, save commanding the gods. I do not know whether there is any philological difficulty in the way of this translation. It certainly agrees perfectly well with the context, and has the advantage of not changing the received text.Schoe., however, adoptingHerm.’s emendation of ἐπαχθῆ translates—

“Last trägt ein jeder, nur der Götter König nicht.”“All have their burdens save the king of the gods.”

“Last trägt ein jeder, nur der Götter König nicht.”

“All have their burdens save the king of the gods.”

On the theological sentiment, I would compare that ofSeneca—“In regno nati sumus; Deo parere libertas est” (Vit. Beat.15)—and that ofEuripides, where the captive Trojan queen, finding the king of men, Agamemnon, willing to assist her, but afraid of the opinion of the Greeks, speaks as follows:—

“Ουκἔστι θνητῶν ὃστις ἐστ ἐλέυθερος,ἢ χρημάτων γαρ δ(ο)υλος ἐστιν ἡ τύχηςη πλῆθος ἀυτὸν πόλεως, ἤ νόμων γρἤφαιἔιργουσι χρῆσθαι μὴ κατὰ γνῶμην τρόποις.”Hec. 864.

“Ουκἔστι θνητῶν ὃστις ἐστ ἐλέυθερος,

ἢ χρημάτων γαρ δ(ο)υλος ἐστιν ἡ τύχης

η πλῆθος ἀυτὸν πόλεως, ἤ νόμων γρἤφαι

ἔιργουσι χρῆσθαι μὴ κατὰ γνῶμην τρόποις.”

Hec. 864.

Note 8 (p. 185).“Thou hast been calledIn vain the Provident.”

“Thou hast been calledIn vain the Provident.”

“Thou hast been called

In vain the Provident.”

This is merely translatingPrometheus(from προ before, and μῆτις counsel) into English. These allusions to names are very frequent in Æschylus—so much so as to amount to amannerism; but we who use a language, the heritage of years, a coinage from which the signature has been mostly rubbed off, must bear in mind that originally all words, and especially names, were significant. See the Old Testament everywhere (particularly Gen. c. xxix. and xli., with which compare Homer, Odyssey xix. 407). And, indeed, in all original languages, like Greek or German, which declare their own etymology publicly to the most unlearned, no taunt is more natural and more obvious than that derived from a name. Even in Scotland, a man who is calledBairnsfatherwill be apt to feel rather awkward if he has no children. “In the oldest Greek legend,” saysWelcker(Tril.p. 356), “names were frequently invented, in order to fix down the character or main feature of the story”—(so Bunyan in the Pilgrim’s Progress)—a true principle, which many German writers abuse, to evaporate all tradition into mere fictitious allegory. But the practice of the Old Testament patriarchs shows that the significancy of a name affords of itself no presumption against its historical reality.

Note 9 (p. 185).

Prometheus. The critics remark with good reason the propriety of the stout-hearted sufferer observing complete silence up to this point. It is natural for pain to find a vent in words, but a proud man will not complain in the presence of his adversary. Compare the similar silence of Cassandra in the Agamemnon; and for reasons equally wise, that of Faust in the Auerbach cellar scene. So true is it that a great poet, like a wise man, is often best known, not by what he says, but by what he doesnotsay—(και τῆς ἂγαν γάρ έστί που σιγῆς βάρος, as Sophocles has it). As to the subject of the beautiful invocation here made by the Titan sufferer, the reader will observe not merely its poetical beauty (to which there is something analogous in Manfred, act I. sc. 2—

“My mother Earth,And thou fresh-breaking day, and you, ye mountains,And thou the bright eye of the Universe,”)

“My mother Earth,

And thou fresh-breaking day, and you, ye mountains,

And thou the bright eye of the Universe,”)

but also its mythological propriety in the person of the speaker, as in the early times the original elementary theology common to the Greeks with all polytheists, had not been superseded by those often sadly disguised impersonations which are represented by the dynasty of Jove.OceanandHyperion(ὑπερίων—he that walks aloft) are named in the Theogony, along withThemisandIapetus, as the first generation of gods, directly begotten from Heaven and Earth.—(Theog. 133-4.) In the natural progress of religious opinion, this original cosmical meaning of the Greek gods, though lost by anthropomorphism to the vulgar, was afterwards brought out by the natural philosophers, and by the philosophical poets; of which examples occur everywhere among the later classics. Indeed, the elemental worship seems never to have been altogether exploded, but continued to exist in strange confusion along with the congregation of fictitious persons to which it had given birth. So in Homer, Agamemnon prays—

“Father Jove from Ida swaying, god most glorious and great,And thou Sun, the all-perceiving and all-hearing power, and yeRiversandEarth,” etc.—Il. III. 277.

“Father Jove from Ida swaying, god most glorious and great,

And thou Sun, the all-perceiving and all-hearing power, and ye

RiversandEarth,” etc.—Il. III. 277.

Note 10 (p. 185).“The multitudinous laughter.”

“The multitudinous laughter.”

ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα. I must offer an apology here for myself, Mr. Swayne, and Captain Medwyn, because I find we are in a minority. The Captain, indeed, has paraphrased it a little—

“With long loud laughs, exulting to be free,”

but he retains the laugh, which is the stumbling-block. Swayne has

“Ye ocean wavesThat with incessant laughter bound and swellCountless,”

“Ye ocean waves

That with incessant laughter bound and swell

Countless,”

also a little paraphrased, but giving due prominence to the characteristic idea. E. P. Oxon. has

“Ocean smiling with its countless waves,”

with a reference to Stanley’s note, “Refertur ad levem sonum undarum ventis exagitatarum qui etiam aliquantulumcrispantmaris dorsum quasi amabili quadam γελασιᾳ,” in which words we see the origin ofPot.’s—

“Ye wavesThat o’er the interminable ocean wreatheYour crisped smiles.”

“Ye waves

That o’er the interminable ocean wreathe

Your crisped smiles.”

Prow. has—

“Dimpled in multitudinous smiles.”

AndSchoe.’s—

“Zahllosses Blinken.”

And soBlom. in a note, emphatically—

“Lenisfluctuum agitatio.”

But why all this gentleness? Does it agree either with the strength of the poet’s genius, or with the desolation of the wild scene around his hero? I at once admit that γελάω is often used in Greek, where, according to our usage,smilewould be the word; but in the Old Testament we find the broad strong wordlaughoften retained in descriptions of nature; and I see not the least reason for walking in satin shoes here.

Note 11 (p. 186).“. . . in a reed concealed it.”

“. . . in a reed concealed it.”

νάρθηξ—“still used for this purpose in Cyprus, where the reed still retains the old Greek name”—Welcker,Tril.p. 8, who quotes Walpole’s Memoirs relative to Turkey, p. 284, and Tournefort, Letter 6. I recollect at school smoking a bit of bamboo cane for a cigar.

Note 12 (p. 186).“. . . Ah me! ah me! who comes?”

“. . . Ah me! ah me! who comes?”

The increased agitation of mind is here expressed in the original by the abandonment of the Iambic verse, and the adoption of the Bacchic—τίς ἀχὼ, etc., which speedily passes into the anapæst, as imitated by my Trochees. Milton was so steeped in Greek, that I think he must have had this passage in his mind when he wrote the lines of Samson Agonistes, v. 110, beginning “But who are these?” Altogether, the Samson is, in its general tone and character, quite a sort of Jewish Prometheus.

Note 13 (p. 187).“Daughters of prolific Tethys.”

“Daughters of prolific Tethys.”

The ancient sea-goddess, sister and wife of Oceanus, daughter of Heaven and Earth. The reader will observe that the mythology of this drama preserves a primeval or, according to our phrase, antediluvian character throughout. The mythic personages are true contemporaries belonging to the most ancient dynasty of the gods. For this reason Ocean appears in a future stage of the play, notPoseidon. Tethys, with the other Titans and Titanesses are enumerated by Hesiod, Theog. 132-7, as follows—

“Earth to Uranus wedded bore Ocean deep with whirling currents,Coeus, Creios, Hyperion, Theia, Rhea, Iapetus,Themis, Mnemosyne, lovely Tethys, likewise Phœbe golden-crowned,Then the youngest of them all, deep-designing Kronos.”

“Earth to Uranus wedded bore Ocean deep with whirling currents,

Coeus, Creios, Hyperion, Theia, Rhea, Iapetus,

Themis, Mnemosyne, lovely Tethys, likewise Phœbe golden-crowned,

Then the youngest of them all, deep-designing Kronos.”

As for the epithetprolificapplied toTethys, the fecundity of fish is a proverb in natural history; but I suppose it is rather the infinite succession of waves on the expanded surface of Ocean that makes his daughters so numerous in the Theogony (362)—

“Thrice ten hundred they are counted delicate-ancled Ocean maids.”

Note 14 (p. 187).“. . . the giant traceOf Titan times hath vanished.”

“. . . the giant traceOf Titan times hath vanished.”

“. . . the giant trace

Of Titan times hath vanished.”

Here we have distinctly indicated that contrast between theoldand thenewgods, which Æschylus makes so prominent, not only in this play, but also in the Furies. The conclusion has been drawn by various scholars that Æschylus was secretly unfavourable to the recognised dynasty of Jove, and that his real allegiance was to these elder gods. But the inference is hasty and unauthorised. His taste for the sublime led him into these primeval ages, as it also did Milton: that is all we can say.

Note 15 (p. 188).“. . . the new-forged counselsThat shall hurl him from his throne.”

“. . . the new-forged counselsThat shall hurl him from his throne.”

“. . . the new-forged counsels

That shall hurl him from his throne.”

The new-forged counsels were of Jove’s own devising—viz., that he should marry Thetis; of which marriage, if it should take place, the son was destined to usurp his father’s throne.—Scholiast.

Note 16 (p. 188).“O, ’tis hard, most hard to reachThe heart of Jove!”

“O, ’tis hard, most hard to reachThe heart of Jove!”

“O, ’tis hard, most hard to reach

The heart of Jove!”

Inexorability is a grand characteristic of the gods.

“Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando.”—Virg., Æn.VI.

And so Homer makes Nestor say of Agamemnon, vainly hoping to appease the wrath of Pallas Athena, by hecatombs—

“Witless in his heart he knew not what dire sufferings he must bear,For not lightly from their purposed counsel swerve the eternal gods.”Odys. III. 147.

“Witless in his heart he knew not what dire sufferings he must bear,

For not lightly from their purposed counsel swerve the eternal gods.”

Odys. III. 147.

And of Jove, in particular, Hera says to Themis, in the council of the gods—

“Well thou knowestHow the Olympian’s heart is haughty, and his temper how severe.”IliadXV. 94.

“Well thou knowest

How the Olympian’s heart is haughty, and his temper how severe.”

IliadXV. 94.

Note 17 (p. 188).“My mother Themis, not once but oft, and Earth(One shape of various names).”

“My mother Themis, not once but oft, and Earth(One shape of various names).”

“My mother Themis, not once but oft, and Earth

(One shape of various names).”

Æschylus does not and could not confound these two distinct persons, asPot. will have it.—See Eumenides, 2.Schoe. has stated the whole case very clearly.Pot. remarks with great justice, that a multiplicity of names “is a mark of dignity;” it by no means follows, however, thatThemis, in this passage, is one of those many names which Earth receives. In illustration we may quote a passage from theKurma Ouran(Kennedy’s Researches on Hindoo Mythology; London, 1831; p. 208)—“That,” says Vishnu, pointing to Siva, “is the great god of gods, shining in his own refulgence, eternal, devoid of thought, who produced thee (Brahma), and gave to thee the Vedas, and who likewise originated me, andgave me various names.” Southey, in the roll of celestialdramatis personæprefixed to the Curse of Kehama, says “that Siva boasts as many asone thousand and eight names.”

Note 18 (p 189).“Suspicion’s a disease that cleaves to tyrants,And they who love most are the first suspected.”

“Suspicion’s a disease that cleaves to tyrants,And they who love most are the first suspected.”

“Suspicion’s a disease that cleaves to tyrants,

And they who love most are the first suspected.”

“Nam regibus boni quam mali suspectiores sunt, semperque his aliena virtus formidolosa est.”—Sall. Cat. VII. “In princes fear is stronger than love; therefore it is often more difficult for them to tear themselves from persons whom they hate than to cast off persons whom they love.”—Richter(Titan).

Note 19 (p. 189).“I only of the godsThwarted his will.”

“I only of the godsThwarted his will.”

“I only of the gods

Thwarted his will.”

This is one of the passages which has suggested to many minds a comparison between the mythical tortures of the Caucasus and the real agonies of Calvary. The analogy is just so far; only the Greek imagination never could look on Prometheus as suffering altogether without just cause; he suffered for his own sins. ThisToepel. p. 71, has well expressed thus—“Prometheus deos laesit ut homines bearet: Christus homines beavit ut suae, Deique patris obsecundaret voluntati.”

Note 20 (p. 189).“. . . in cunning torment stretched.”

“. . . in cunning torment stretched.”

ἀνηλεῶς ἐῤῥύθμισμαι—“so bin ich zugerichtet.”—Passow. A sort of studious malignity is here indicated. So we say allegorically totrimone handsomely, todresshim, when we mean topunish. The frequent use of this verb ρυθμίζω is characteristic of the Greeks, than whom no people, as has been frequently remarked, seem to have possessed a nicer sense of the beauty of measure and the propriety of limitation in their poetry and works of art. So Sophocles, Antig. 318, has ρυθμίζειν λύπην.

Note 21 (p. 190).“Blind hopes of good I plantedIn their dark breasts.”

“Blind hopes of good I plantedIn their dark breasts.”

“Blind hopes of good I planted

In their dark breasts.”

A striking phrase, meaning, however, nothing more, I imagine, according to the use of the Greek writers (and also of the Latins withcaecus) thandim,indistinct; neither, indeed, is the phrase foreign to our colloquial English idiom—“The swearing to ablindetcetera they (the Puritans) looked upon as intolerable.”—Calamy’s Life of Baxter. In the well-known story of Pandora, Hesiod relates that, when the lid of the fatal box was opened, innumerable plagues flew out, onlyHoperemained within.—Works and Days, 84.

Note 22 (p. 190).“And flame-faced fire is now enjoyed by mortals?”

“And flame-faced fire is now enjoyed by mortals?”

Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, in his account of New South Wales (London, 1804), mentions that the wild natives produced fire with much difficulty, and preserved it with the greatest care. The original inhabitants of New Holland, and the wild African bushmen described by Moffat, the missionary, are among the lowest specimens of human nature with which we are acquainted. As for Æschylus, it is evident he follows in this whole piece the notion of primitive humanity given in his introductory chapters by Diodorus, and generally received amongst the ancients, viz., that the fathers of our race were the most weak and helpless creatures imaginable, like the famous Egyptian frogs, as it were, only half developed from the primeval slime.

Note 23 (p. 191).

EnterOcean. “This sea god enters,” says Brunoy, quoted byPot., on “I know not what winged animal—bizarrerie inexplicable.” Very inexplicable certainly; and yet, as the tragedian expressly calls the animal abird, I do not see why so many translators, both English and German, should insist on making it asteed. The bird certainly was a little anomalous, having, as we learn below, four feet (τετρασκελὴς ὀιωνός, v. 395—afour-footed bira); but it was a bird for all that, and the air was its element. If the creature must have a name, we must even call it a griffin, or a hippogriff, notwithstanding Welcker’s remarks (Tril.p. 26). Those who wish to see its physiognomy more minutely described may consult Aeliean. hist, animal. IV. 27, in an apt passage quoted fromJacobsbyBoth. There is an ambiguity in the passage which I have translated—

“Thought instinctive reined the creature,”

some applying γνώμῃ not to the animal, but to the will of the rider. SoProw.—

“Following stillEach impulse of my guiding will.”

“Following still

Each impulse of my guiding will.”

But for the poetical propriety of my translation I can plead the authority ofSouthey—

“The ship of Heaven instinct with thought displayedIts living sail, and glides along the sky.”Curse of Kehama, VII. 1.

“The ship of Heaven instinct with thought displayed

Its living sail, and glides along the sky.”

Curse of Kehama, VII. 1.

and ofMilton—

“The chariot of paternal DeityInstinct with spirit.”—VI. 750.

“The chariot of paternal Deity

Instinct with spirit.”—VI. 750.

and what is much more conclusive in the present instance, that of Homer, whose τιτυσκόμεναι φρεσὶ νῆες (Odyssey VIII. 556), or self-piloted ships of the Phœnicians, belong clearly to the same mythical family as the self-reined griffin of old Ocean.

Note 24 (p. 191).“From my distant caves cerulean.”

“From my distant caves cerulean.”

i.e., in the far West, extreme Atlantic, or “ends of the earth,” according to the Homeric phrase.

“To the ends I make my journey of the many-nurturing Earth,There where Ocean, sire of gods, and ancient mother Tethys dwells,They who nursed me in their palace, and my infant strength sustained,”

“To the ends I make my journey of the many-nurturing Earth,

There where Ocean, sire of gods, and ancient mother Tethys dwells,

They who nursed me in their palace, and my infant strength sustained,”

saysHerain the Iliad (XIV. 200).

Note 25 (p. 192).“Enough my brother Atlas’ miseries grieve me.”

“Enough my brother Atlas’ miseries grieve me.”

The reader will see by referring to the old editions and toPot. that the following description of the miseries of Atlas and Typhon is, in the MS., given to Ocean; and, it must be confessed, there seems a peculiar dramatic propriety in making the old sea god hold up the fate of the Cilician Blaster as a warning to the son of Iapetus, whom he saw embarked in a similar career of hopeless rebellion against the Thunderer. But philological considerations, well stated bySchoe., have weighed with that editor, as with his predecessorsBlom. andWell., whose authority and arguments I am for the present willing to follow, though not without some lingering doubts. The alteration of the text originally proceeded from Elmsley, and the original order of the dialogue is stoutly defended byToepel. in his notes.

Note 26 (p. 192)“The pillars of Heaven and Earth upon his shoulders.”

“The pillars of Heaven and Earth upon his shoulders.”

If the reader is a curious person, he will ask how Atlas when standing on the Earth—in the extreme west of the Earth—could bear the pillars ofHeavenandEarth?and the question will be a very proper one; for the fact is that, as Hesiod distinctly states the case, he bore the pillars ofHeaven only(Theog. 517). This is, indeed, the only possible idea that could be admitted into a mythology which proceeded on the old principle that the Earth was a flat solid platform in the centre of the Universe, round which the celestial pole (πόλος) wheeled. The phrase “pillars of Heaven and Earth” is, therefore, to a certain extent an improper one; for the Earth, being the stable base of all things, required no pillars to support it. In one sense it is true that the pillars of Atlas are the pillars of Heaven and Earth, viz., in so far as they have Heaven at one end and Earth at the other, which is what Homer means when he says (Odyssey I. 54), that these pillars “γᾶιάν τε καὶ ὀυρανὸν ἀμφὶς ἔχουσιν.” And that this is the idea of Æschylus, also, is plain, both from the present passage, and from the Epode of the next following Chorus, where, unless we force in one conjecture of Schütz, or another of Hermann into the text, there is no mention of anything but thecelestial pole. In all this I but express in my own words,and with a very decided conviction, the substance of the admirable note inSchoe. to v. 426,Well.

Note 27 (p. 192).“. . . Typhon.”

“. . . Typhon.”

The idea of Typhon is that of a strong windy power, δεινόν ὑβριστήν τ ἄνεμον, according to the express statement of Hesiod (Theog. 307). The Greek wordTyphon, with which ourtyphus feveris identical, expresses the state of beingswollenorblown up; with this, the other idea ofheat, which belongs also to Typhon (Sallust, περὶ θεῶν, c. 4), is naturally connected. According to the elementary or physical system of mythology, therefore, Typhon is neither more nor less than asimoomorhot wind.

Note 28 (p. 193).“Knowest thou not this, Prometheus, that mild wordsAre medicines of fierce wrath?”

“Knowest thou not this, Prometheus, that mild wordsAre medicines of fierce wrath?”

“Knowest thou not this, Prometheus, that mild words

Are medicines of fierce wrath?”

The reader may like to see Cicero’s version of these four lines—

“Oceanus. Atqui Prometheu te hoc, tenere existimoMederi posse rationem iracundiæ.”“Prom. Si quidem qui tempestivam medicinam admovensNon ad gravescens vulnus illidat manus.”Tusc. Q., III. 31.

“Oceanus. Atqui Prometheu te hoc, tenere existimo

Mederi posse rationem iracundiæ.”

“Prom. Si quidem qui tempestivam medicinam admovens

Non ad gravescens vulnus illidat manus.”

Tusc. Q., III. 31.

Note 29 (p. 194).“. . . holy Asia weepFor thee, Prometheus.”

“. . . holy Asia weepFor thee, Prometheus.”

“. . . holy Asia weep

For thee, Prometheus.”

Here, and in the epithet of the rivers in the Epode (compare Homer’s Odyssey X. 351, ἱερων ποταμων, andNägelsbach, Homer, Theologie, p. 85), the original word is ἁγνος, a term to be particularly noted, both in the heathen writers and in the Old Testament, as denoting that religious purity in connection with external objects and outward ceremonies which the Christian sentiment confines exclusively to the moral state of the soul. I have thought it important, in all cases, to retain the Greek phrase, and not by modernizing to dilute it. The religious sentiment in connection with external nature is what the moderns generally do not understand, and least of all the English, whose piety does not readily exhibit itself beyond the precincts of the church porch. The Germans, in this regard, have a much more profound sympathy with the Greek mind.

Note 30 (p. 194).“. . . Araby’s wandering warriors weepFor thee, Prometheus.”

“. . . Araby’s wandering warriors weepFor thee, Prometheus.”

“. . . Araby’s wandering warriors weep

For thee, Prometheus.”

Arabia certainly comes in, to a modern ear, not a little strangely here, between the Sea of Azof and the Caucasus; but the Greeks, we must remember, were a people whose notions ofbarbariangeography (as they would call it) were anything but distinct; and, in this play, the poet seems wisely to court vagueness in these matters rather than to study accuracy.

Note 31 (p 195).“For, soothly, having eyes to see, they saw not.”

“For, soothly, having eyes to see, they saw not.”

With regard to the origin of the human race there are two principal opinions, which have in all times prevailed. One is, that man was originally created perfect, or in a state of dignity far transcending what he now exhibits; that the state in which the earliest historical records present him is a state of declension and aberration from the primeval source; and that thewhole progress of what is called civilization is only a series of attempts, for the most part sufficiently clumsy, and always painful, whereby we endeavour to reinstate ourselves in our lost position. This philosophy of history—for so it may most fitly be called—is that which has always been received in the general Christian world; and, indeed, it seems to flow necessarily from the reception of the Mosaic records, not merely as authentic Hebrew documents, but as veritable cosmogony and primeval history—as containing a historical exposition of the creation of the world, and the early history of man. The other doctrine is, that man was originally created in a condition extremely feeble and imperfect; very little removed from vegetable dulness and brutish stupidity; and that he gradually raised himself by slow steps to the exercise of the higher moral and intellectual faculties, by virtue of which he claims successful mastery over the brute, and affinity with the angel. This doctrine was very common, I think I may safely say the current and generally received doctrine, among the educated Greeks and Romans; though the poets certainly did not omit, as they so often do, to contradict themselves by their famous tradition of a golden age, which it was their delight to trick out and embellish. In modern times, this theory ofprogressive development, as it may be called, has, as might have been expected, found little favour, except with philosophers of the French school; and those who have broached it in this country latterly have met with a most hot reception from scientific men, principally, we may presume, from the general conviction that such ideas go directly to undermine the authority of the Mosaic record. It has been thought, also, that there is something debasing and contrary to the dignity of human nature in the supposition that the great-grandfather of the primeval father of our race may have been a monkey, or not far removed from that species; but, however this be, with regard toÆschylus, it is plain he did not find it inconsistent with the loftiest views of human duty and destiny to adopt the then commonly received theory of a gradual development; and, in illustration, I cannot do better than translate a few sentences fromDiodorus, where the same doctrine is stated in prose: “Men, as originally generated, lived in a confused and brutish condition, preserving existence by feeding on herbs and fruits that grew spontaneously. * * * Their speech was quite indistinct and confused, but by degrees they invented articulate speech. * * * They lived without any of the comforts and conveniences of life, without clothing, without habitations,without fire(Prometheus!), and without cooked victuals; and not knowing to lay up stores for future need, great numbers of them died during the winter from the effects of cold and starvation. By which sad experience taught, they learned to lodge themselves in caves, and laid up stores there. By-and-by, they discovered fire and other things pertaining to a comfortable existence. The arts were then invented, and man became in every respect such as a highly-gifted animal might well be, having hands and speech, and a devising mind ever present to work out his purposes.” Thus far the Sicilian (I. 8); and the intelligent reader need not be informed that, to a certain extent, many obvious and patent facts seemed to give a high probability to his doctrine. “Dwellers in caves,” for instance, or “troglodytes,” were well known to the ancients, and the modern reader will find a historical account of them inStrabo, and other obvious places. TheHorites(Gen. xiv. 6) were so called from the Hebrew wordHor, a cave—(see Gesenius and Jahn, I. 2-26). But it is needless to accumulate learned references in a matter patent to the most modern observation.—Moffat’s “African Missions” will supply instances of human beings in a state as degraded as anything here described by the poet; and withregard to the aboriginal Australians, I have preserved in my notes the following passage fromCollins: “The Australians dwell in miserable huts of bark, all huddled together promiscuously (ἔφυρον εικῆ πάντα!) amid much smoke and dirt.Some also live in caves.” I do by no means assert, however, that these creatures are remnants of primeval humanity, according to the development theory; I only say they afford that theory a historic analogy; while, on the other hand, they are equally consistent with the commonly received Christian doctrine, as man is a creature who degenerates from excellence much more readily in all circumstances than he attains to it. These Australians and Africans may be mere imbecile stragglers who have been dropt from the great army of humanity in its march.

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