[长,慎入]Prometheus Bound

Prometheus Bound

By Aeschylus

Written ca. 430 B.C.E

Dramatis Personae

KRATOS
BIA
HEPHAESTUS
PROMETHEUS
CHORUS OF THE OCEANIDES
OCEANUS
IO


Scene

Mountainous country, and in the middle of a deep gorge a Rock, towards which KRATOS and BIA carry the gigantic form of PROMETHEUS. HEPHAESTUS follows dejectedly with hammer, nails, chains, etc.


KRATOS
Now have we journeyed to a spot of earth
Remote-the Scythian wild, a waste untrod.
And now, Hephaestus, thou must execute
The task our father laid on thee, and fetter
This malefactor to the jagged rocks
In adamantine bonds infrangible;
For thine own blossom of all forging fire
He stole and gave to mortals; trespass grave
For which the Gods have called him to account,
That he may learn to bear Zeus' tyranny
And cease to play the lover of mankind.

HEPHAESTUS
Kratos and Bia, for ye twain the hest
Of Zeus is done with; nothing lets you further.
But forcibly to bind a brother God,
In chains, in this deep chasm raked by all storms
I have not courage; yet needs must I pluck
Courage from manifest necessity,
For woe worth him that slights the Father's word.
O high-souled son of them is sage in counsel,
With heavy heart I must make thy heart heavy,
In bonds of brass not easy to be loosed,
Nailing thee to this crag where no wight dwells,
Nor sound of human voice nor shape of man
Shall visit thee; but the sun-blaze shall roast
Thy flesh; thy hue, flower-fair, shall suffer change;
Welcome will Night be when with spangled robe
She hides the light of day; welcome the sun
Returning to disperse the frosts of dawn.
And every hour shall bring its weight of woe
To wear thy heart away; for yet unborn
Is he who shall release Chee from thy pain.
This is thy wage for loving humankind.
For, being a God, thou dared'st the Gods' ill will,
Preferring, to exceeding honour, Man.
Wherefore thy long watch shall be comfortless,
Stretched on this rock, never to close an eye
Or bend a knee; and vainly shalt thou lift,
With groanings deep and lamentable cries,
Thy voice; for Zeus is hard to be entreated,
As new-born power is ever pitiless.

KRATOS
Enough! Why palter? Why wast idle pity?
Is not the God Gods loathe hateful to thee?
Traitor to man of thy prerogative?

HEPHAESTUS
Kindred and fellowship are dreaded names.

KRATOS
Questionless; but to slight the Father's word-
How sayest thou? Is not this fraught with more dread?

HEPHAESTUS
Thy heart was ever hard and overbold.

KRATOS
But wailing will not ease him! Waste no pains
Where thy endeavour nothing profiteth.

HEPHAESTUS
Oh execrable work! O handicraft!

KRATOS
Why curse thy trade? For what thou hast to do,
Troth, smithcraft is in no wise answerable.

HEPHAESTUS
Would that it were another's craft, not mine!

KRATOS
Why, all things are a burden save to rule
Over the Gods; for none is free but Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS
To that I answer not, knowing it true.

KRATOS
Why, then, make haste to cast the chains about him,
Lest glancing down on thee the Father's eye
Behold a laggard and a loiterer.

HEPHAESTUS
Here are the iron bracelets for his arms.

KRATOS
Fasten them round his arms with all thy strength!
Strike with thy hammer! Nail him to the rocks!

HEPHAESTUS
'Tis done! and would that it were done less well!

KRATOS
Harder-I say-strike harder-screw all tight
And be not in the least particular
Remiss, for unto one of his resource
Bars are but instruments of liberty.

HEPHAESTUS
This forearm's fast: a shackle hard to shift.

KRATOS
Now buckle this! and handsomely! Let him learn
Sharp though he be, he's a dull blade to Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS
None can find fault with this: -save him it tortures.

KRATOS
Now take thine iron spike and drive it in,
Until it gnaw clean through the rebel's breast.

HEPHAESTUS
Woe's me, Prometheus, for thy weight of woe!

KRATOS
Still shirking? still a-groaning for the foes
Of Zeus? Anon thou'lt wail thine own mishap.

HEPHAESTUS
Thou seest what eyes scarce bear to look upon!

KRATOS
I see this fellow getting his deserts!
But strap him with a gelt about his ribs.

HEPHAESTUS
I do what I must do: for thee-less words!

KRATOS
"Words," quotha? Aye, and shout 'em if need be.
Come down and cast a ring-bolt round his legs.

HEPHAESTUS
The thing is featly done; and 'twas quick work.

KRATOS
Now with a sound rap knock the bolt-pins home!
For heavy-handed is thy task-master.

HEPHAESTUS
So villainous a form vile tongue befits.

KRATOS
Be thou the heart of wax, but chide not me
That I am gruffish, stubborn and stiff-willed.

HEPHAESTUS
Oh, come away! The tackle holds him fast.

KRATOS
Now, where thou hang'st insult Plunder the Gods
For creatures of a day! To thee what gift
Will mortals tender to requite thy pains?
The destinies were out miscalling the
Designer: a designer thou wilt need
From trap so well contrived to twist thee free.
Exeunt.

PROMETHEUS
O divine air Breezes on swift bird-wings,
Ye river fountains, and of ocean-waves
The multitudinous laughter Mother Earth!
And thou all-seeing circle of the sun,
Behold what I, a God, from Gods endure!
Look down upon my shame,
The cruel wrong that racks my frame,
The grinding anguish that shall waste my strength,
Till time's ten thousand years have measured out their length!
He hath devised these chains,
The new throned potentate who reigns,
Chief of the chieftains of the Blest. Ah me!
The woe which is and that which yet shall be
I wail; and question make of these wide skies
When shall the star of my deliverance rise.
And yet-and yet-exactly I foresee
All that shall come to pass; no sharp surprise
Of pain shall overtake me; what's determined
Bear, as I can, I must, knowing the might
Of strong Necessity is unconquerable.
But touching my fate silence and speech alike
Are unsupportable. For boons bestowed
On mortal men I am straitened in these bonds.
I sought the fount of fire in hollow reed
Hid privily, a measureless resource
For man, and mighty teacher of all arts.
This is the crime that I must expiate
Hung here in chains, nailed 'neath the open sky. Ha! Ha!
What echo, what odour floats by with no sound?
God-wafted or mortal or mingled its strain?
Comes there one to this world's end, this mountain-girt ground,
To have sight of my torment? Or of what is he fain?
A God ye behold in bondage and pain,
The foe of Zeus and one at feud with all
The deities that find
Submissive entry to the tyrant's hall;
His fault, too great a love of humankind.
Ah me! Ah me! what wafture nigh at hand,
As of great birds of prey, is this I hear?
The bright air fanned
Whistles and shrills with rapid beat of wings.
There cometh nought but to my spirit brings
Horror and fear.
The DAUGHTERS OF OCEANUS draw near in mid-air in their winged chariot.

CHORUS
Put thou all fear away!
In kindness cometh this array
On wings of speed to mountain lone,
Our sire's consent not lightly won.
But a fresh breeze our convoy brought,
For loud the din of iron raught
Even to our sea-cave's cold recess,
And scared away the meek-eyed bashfulness.
I tarried not to tic my sandal shoe
But haste, post haste, through air my winged chariot flew.

PROMETHEUS
Ah me! Ah me!
Fair progeny
That many-childed Tethys brought to birth,
Fathered of Ocean old
Whose sleepless stream is rolled
Round the vast shores of earth
Look on me! Look upon these chains
Wherein I hang fast held
On rocks high-pinnacled,
My dungeon and my tower of dole,
Where o'er the abyss my soul,
Sad warder, her unwearied watch sustains!

CHORUS
Prometheus, I am gazing on thee now!
With the cold breath of fear upon my brow,
Not without mist of dimming tears,
While to my sight thy giant stature rears
Its bulk forpined upon these savage rocks
In shameful bonds the linked adamant locks.
For now new steersmen take the helm
Olympian; now with little thought
Of right, on strange, new laws Zeus stablisheth his realm,
Bringing the mighty ones of old to naught.

PROMETHEUS
Oh that he had conveyed me
'Neath earth, 'neath hell that swalloweth up the dead;
In Tartarus, illimitably vast
With adamantine fetters bound me fast-
There his fierce anger on me visited,
Where never mocking laughter could upbraid me
Of God or aught beside!
But now a wretch enskied,
A far-seen vane,
All they that hate me triumph in my pain.

CHORUS
Who of the Gods is there so pitiless
That he can triumph in thy sore distress?
Who doth not inly groan
With every pang of thine save Zeus alone?
But he is ever wroth, not to be bent
From his resolved intent
The sons of heaven to subjugate;
Nor shall he cease until his heart be satiate,
Or one a way devise
To hurl him from the throne where he doth monarchize.

PROMETHEUS
Yea, of a surety-though he do me wrong,
Loading my limbs with fetters strong-
The president
Of heaven's high parliament
Shall need me yet to show
What new conspiracy with privy blow
Attempts his sceptre and his kingly seat.
Neither shall words with all persuasion sweet,
Not though his tongue drop honey, cheat
Nor charm my knowledge from me; nor dures
Of menace dire, fear of more grievous pains,
Unseal my lips, till he have loosed these chains,
And granted for these injuries redress.

CHORUS
High is the heart of thee,
Thy will no whit by bitter woes unstrung,
And all too free
The licence of thy bold, unshackled tongue.
But fear hath roused my soul with piercing cry!
And for thy fate my heart misgives me! I
Tremble to know when through the breakers' roar
Thy keel shall touch again the friendly shore;
For not by prayer to Zeus is access won;
An unpersuadable heart hath Cronos' son.

PROMETHEUS
I know the heart of Zeus is hard, that he hath tied
Justice to his side;
But he shall be full gentle thus assuaged;
And, the implacable wrath wherewith he raged
Smoothed quite away, nor he nor I
Be loth to seal a bond of peace and amity.

CHORUS
All that thou hast to tell I pray unfold,
That we may hear at large upon what count
Zeus took thee and with bitter wrong affronts:
Instruct us, if the telling hurt thee not.

PROMETHEUS
These things are sorrowful for me to speak,
Yet silence too is sorrow: all ways woe!
When first the Blessed Ones were filled with wrath
And there arose division in their midst,
These instant to hurl Cronos from his throne
That Zeus might be their king, and these, adverse,
Contending that he ne'er should rule the Gods,
Then I, wise counsel urging to persuade
The Titans, sons of Ouranos and Chthon,
Prevailed not: but, all indirect essays
Despising, they by the strong hand, effortless,
Yet by main force-supposed that they might seize
Supremacy. But me my mother Themis
And Gaia, one form called by many names,
Not once alone with voice oracular
Had prophesied how power should be disposed-
That not by strength neither by violence
The mighty should be mastered, but by guile.
Which things by me set forth at large, they scorned,
Nor graced my motion with the least regard.
Then, of all ways that offered, I judged best,
Taking my mother with me, to support,
No backward friend, the not less cordial Zeus.
And by my politic counsel Tartarus,
The bottomless and black, old Cronos hides
With his confederates. So helped by me,
The tyrant of the Gods, such service rendered
With ignominious chastisement requites.
But 'tis a common malady of power
Tyrannical never to trust a friend.
And now, what ye inquired, for what arraigned
He shamefully entreats me, ye shall know.
When first upon his high, paternal throne
He took his seat, forthwith to divers Gods
Divers good gifts he gave, and parcelled out
His empire, but of miserable men
Recked not at all; rather it was his wish
To wipe out man and rear another race:
And these designs none contravened but me.
I risked the bord attempt, and saved mankind
From stark destruction and the road to hell.
Therefore with this sore penance am I bowed,
Grievous to suffer, pitiful to see.
But, for compassion shown to man, such fate
I no wise earned; rather in wrath's despite
Am I to be reformed, and made a show
Of infamy to Zeus.

CHORUS
He hath a heart
Of iron, hewn out of unfeeling rock
Is he, Prometheus, whom thy sufferings
Rouse not to wrath. Would I had ne'er beheld them,
For verily the sight hath wrung my heart.

PROMETHEUS
Yea, to my friends a woeful sight am I.

CHORUS
Hast not more boldly in aught else transgressed?

PROMETHEUS
I took from man expectancy of death.

CHORUS
What medicine found'st thou for this malady?

PROMETHEUS
I planted blind hope in the heart of him.

CHORUS
A mighty boon thou gavest there to man.

PROMETHEUS
Moreover, I conferred the gift of fire.

CHORUS
And have frail mortals now the flame-bright fire?

PROMETHEUS
Yea, and shall master many arts thereby.

CHORUS
And Zeus with such misfeasance charging thee-

PROMETHEUS
Torments me with extremity of woe.

CHORUS
And is no end in prospect of thy pains?

PROMETHEUS
None; save when he shall choose to make an end.

CHORUS
How should he choose? What hope is thine? Dost thou
Not see that thou hast erred? But how thou erredst
Small pleasure were to me to tell; to the
Exceeding sorrow. Let it go then: rather
Seek thou for some deliverance from thy woes.

PROMETHEUS
He who stands free with an untrammelled foot
Is quick to counsel and exhort a friend
In trouble. But all these things I know well.
Of my free will, my own free will, I erred,
And freely do I here acknowledge it.
Freeing mankind myself have durance found.
Natheless, I looked not for sentence so dread,
High on this precipice to droop and pine,
Having no neighbour but the desolate crags.
And now lament no more the ills I suffer,
But come to earth and an attentive ear
Lend to the things that shall befall hereafter.
Harken, oh harken, suffer as I suffer!
Who knows, who knows, but on some scatheless head,
Another's yet for the like woes reserved,
The wandering doom will presently alight?

CHORUS
Prometheus, we have heard thy call:
Not on deaf cars these awful accents fall.
Lo! lightly leaving at thy words
My flying car
And holy air, the pathway of great birds,
I long to tread this land of peak and scar,
And certify myself by tidings sure
Of all thou hast endured and must endure.
While the winged chariot of the OCEANIDES comes to ground their father OCEANUS enters, riding on a monster.

OCEANUS
Now have I traversed the unending plain
And unto thee, Prometheus, am I come,
Guiding this winghd monster with no rein,
Nor any bit, but mind's firm masterdom.
And know that for thy grief my heart is sore;
The bond of kind, methinks, constraineth me;
Nor is there any I would honour more,
Apart from kinship, than I reverence thee.
And thou shalt learn that I speak verity:
Mine is no smooth, false tongue; for do but show
How I can serve thee, grieved and outraged thus,
Thou ne'er shalt say thou hast, come weal, come woe,
A friend more faithful than Oceanus.

PROMETHEUS
How now? Who greets me? What! Art thou too come
To gaze upon my woes? How could'st thou leave
The stream that bears thy name, thine antres arched
With native rock, to visit earth that breeds
The massy iron in her womb? Com'st thou
To be spectator of my evil lot
And fellow sympathizer with my woes?
Behold, a thing indeed to gaze upon
The friend of Zeus, co-stablisher of his rule,
See, by this sentence with what pains I am bowed I

OCEANUS
Prometheus, all too plainly I behold:
And for the best would counsel thee: albeit
Thy brain is subtle. Learn to know thy heart,
And, as the times, so let thy manners change,
For by the law of change a new God rules.
But, if these bitter, savage, sharp-set words
Thou ventest, it may be, though he sit throned
Far off and high above thee, Zeus will hear;
And then thy present multitude of ills
Will seem the mild correction of a babe.
Rather, O thou much chastened one, refrain
Thine anger, and from suffering seek release.
Stale, peradventure, seem these words of mine:
Nevertheless, of a too haughty tongue
Such punishment, Prometheus, is the wage.
But thou, not yet brought low by suffering,
To what thou hast of ill would'st add far worse.
Therefore, while thou hast me for schoolmaster,
Thou shalt not kick against the pricks; the more
That an arch-despot who no audit dreads
Rules by his own rough will. And now I leave thee,
To strive with what success I may command
For thy deliv'rance. Keep a quiet mind
And use not over-vehemence of speech-
Knowest thou not, being exceeding wise,
A wanton, idle tongue brings chastisement?

PROMETHEUS
I marvel that thou art not in my case,
Seeing with me thou did'st adventure all.
And now, I do entreat thee, spare thyself.
Thou wilt not move him: he's not easy moved
Take heed lest thou find trouble by the way.

OCEANUS
Thou are a better counsellor to others
Than to thyself: I judge by deeds not words.
Pluck me not back when I would fain set forth.
My oath upon it, Zeus will grant my prayer
And free thee from these pangs.

PROMETHEUS
I tender the
For this my thanks and ever-during praise.
Certes, no backward friend art thou; and yet
Trouble not thyself; for at the best thy labour
Will nothing serve me, if thou mean'st to serve.
Being thyself untrammelled stand fast.
For, not to mitigate my own mischance,
Would I see others hap on evil days.
The thought be far from me. I feel the weight
Of Atlas' woes, my brother in the west
Shouldering the pillar that props heaven and earth,
No wieldy fardel for his arms to fold.
The giant dweller in Cilician dens
I saw and pitied-a terrific shape,
A hundred-headed monster-when he fell,
Resistless Typhon who withstood the Gods,
With fearsome hiss of beak-mouth horrible,
While lightning from his eyes with Gorgon-glare
Flashed for the ravage of the realm of Zeus.
But on him came the bolt that never sleeps,
Down-crashing thunder, with emitted fire,
Which shattered him and all his towering hopes
Dashed into ruin; smitten through the breast,
His strength as smoking cinder, lightning-charred.
And now a heap, a helpless, sprawling hulk,
He lies stretched out beside the narrow seas,
Pounded and crushed deep under Etna's roots.
But on the mountain-top Hephaestus sits
Forging the molten iron, whence shall burst
Rivers of fire, with red and ravening jaws
To waste fair-fruited, smooth, Sicilian fields.
Such bilious up-boiling of his ire
Shall Typho vent, with slingstone-showers red-hot,
And unapproachable surge of fiery spray,
Although combusted by the bolt of Zeus.
But thou art not unlearned, nor needest me
To be thy teacher: save thyself the way
Thou knowest and I will fortify my heart
Until the wrathfulness of Zeus abate.

OCEANUS
Nay then, Prometheus, art thou ignorant
Words are physicians to a wrath-sick soul?

PROMETHEUS
Yes, if with skill one soften the ripe core,
Not by rough measures make it obdurate.

OCEANUS
Seest thou in warm affection detriment
Or aught untoward in adventuring?

PROMETHEUS
A load of toil and a light mind withal.

OCEANUS
Then give me leave to call that sickness mine.
Wise men accounted fools attain their ends.

PROMETHEUS
But how if I am galled by thine offence?

OCEANUS
There very palpably thou thrustest home.

PROMETHEUS
Beware lest thou through pity come to broils.

OCEANUS
With one established in Omnipotence?

PROMETHEUS
Of him take heed lest thou find heaviness.

OCEANUS
I am schooled by thy calamity, Prometheus!

PROMETHEUS
Pack then! And, prithee, do not change thy mind!

OCEANUS
Thou criest "On" to one in haste to go.
For look, my dragon with impatient wings
Flaps at the broad, smooth road of level air.
Fain would he kneel him down in his own stall.
Exit OCEANUS.

CHORUS after alighting
I mourn for thee, Prometheus, minished and brought low,
Watering my virgin cheeks with these sad drops, that flow
From sorrow's rainy fount, to fill soft-lidded eyes
With pure libations for thy fortune's obsequies.
An evil portion that none coveteth hath Zeus
Prepared for thee; by self-made laws established for his use
Disposing all, the elder Gods he purposeth to show
How strong is that right arm wherewith he smites a foe.
There hath gone up a cry from earth, a groaning for the fall
Of things of old renown and shapes majestical,
And for thy passing an exceeding bitter groan;
For thee and for thy brother Gods whose honour was thine own:
These things all they who dwell in Asia's holy seat,
Time's minions, mourn and with their groans thy groans repeat.
Yea, and they mourn who dwell beside the Colchian shore,
The hero maids unwedded that delight in war,
And Scythia's swarming myriads who their dwelling make
Around the borders of the world, the salt Maeotian lake.
Mourns Ares' stock, that flowers in desert Araby,
And the strong city mourns, the hill-fort planted high,
Near neighbour to huge Caucasus, dread mountaineers
That love the clash of arms, the counter of sharp spears.
Beforetime of all Gods one have I seen in pain,
One only Titan bound with adamantine chain,
Atlas in strength supreme, who groaning stoops, downbent
Under the burthen of the earth and heaven's broad firmament.
Bellows the main of waters, surge with foam-seethed surge
Clashing tumultuous; for thee the deep seas chant their dirge;
And Hell's dark under-world a hollow moaning fills;
Thee mourn the sacred streams with all their fountain-rills.

PROMETHEUS
Think not that I for pride and stubbornness
Am silent: rather is my heart the prey
Of gnawing thoughts, both for the past, and now
Seeing myself by vengeance buffeted.
For to these younger Gods their precedence
Who severally determined if not I?
No more of that: I should but weary you
With things ye know; but listen to the tale
Of human sufferings, and how at first
Senseless as beasts I gave men sense, possessed them
Of mind. I speak not in contempt of man;
I do but tell of good gifts I conferred.
In the beginning, seeing they saw amiss,
And hearing heard not, but, like phantoms huddled
In dreams, the perplexed story of their days
Confounded; knowing neither timber-work
Nor brick-built dwellings basking in the light,
But dug for themselves holes, wherein like ants,
That hardly may contend against a breath,
They dwelt in burrows of their unsunned caves.
Neither of winter's cold had they fixed sign,
Nor of the spring when she comes decked with flowers,
Nor yet of summer's heat with melting fruits
Sure token: but utterly without knowledge
Moiled, until I the rising of the stars
Showed them, and when they set, though much obscure.
Moreover, number, the most excellent
Of all inventions, I for them devised,
And gave them writing that retaineth all,
The serviceable mother of the Muse.
I was the first that yoked unmanaged beasts,
To serve as slaves with collar and with pack,
And take upon themselves, to man's relief,
The heaviest labour of his hands: and
Tamed to the rein and drove in wheeled cars
The horse, of sumptuous pride the ornament.
And those sea-wanderers with the wings of cloth,
The shipman's waggons, none but I contrived.
These manifold inventions for mankind
I perfected, who, out upon't, have none-
No, not one shift-to rid me of this shame.

CHORUS
Thy sufferings have been shameful, and thy mind
Strays at a loss: like to a bad physician
Fallen sick, thou'rt out of heart: nor cans't prescribe
For thine own case the draught to make thee sound.

PROMETHEUS
But hear the sequel and the more admire
What arts, what aids I cleverly evolved.
The chiefest that, if any man fell sick,
There was no help for him, comestible,
Lotion or potion; but for lack of drugs
They dwindled quite away; until I taught them
To compound draughts and mixtures sanative,
Wherewith they now are armed against disease.
I staked the winding path of divination
And was the first distinguisher of dreams,
The true from false; and voices ominous
Of meaning dark interpreted; and tokens
Seen when men take the road; and augury
By flight of all the greater crook-clawed birds
With nice discrimination I defined;
These by their nature fair and favourable,
Those, flattered with fair name. And of each sort
The habits I described; their mutual feuds
And friendships and the assemblages they hold.
And of the plumpness of the inward parts
What colour is acceptable to the Gods,
The well-streaked liver-lobe and gall-bladder.
Also by roasting limbs well wrapped in fat
And the long chine, I led men on the road
Of dark and riddling knowledge; and I purged
The glancing eye of fire, dim before,
And made its meaning plain. These are my works.
Then, things beneath the earth, aids hid from man,
Brass, iron, silver, gold, who dares to say
He was before me in discovering?
None, I wot well, unless he loves to babble.
And in a single word to sum the whole-
All manner of arts men from Prometheus learned.

CHORUS
Shoot not beyond the mark in succouring man
While thou thyself art comfortless: for
Am of good hope that from these bonds escaped
Thou shalt one day be mightier than Zeus.

PROMETHEUS
Fate, that brinks all things to an end, not thus
Apportioneth my lot: ten thousand pangs
Must bow, ten thousand miseries afflict me
Ere from these bonds I freedom find, for Art
Is by much weaker than Necessity.

CHORUS
Who is the pilot of Necessity?

PROMETHEUS
The Fates triform, and the unforgetting Furies.

CHORUS
So then Zeus is of lesser might than these?

PROMETHEUS
Surely he shall not shun the lot apportioned.

CHORUS
What lot for Zeus save world-without-end reign?

PROMETHEUS
Tax me no further with importunate questions.

CHORUS
O deep the mystery thou shroudest there

PROMETHEUS
Of aught but this freely thou may'st discourse;
But touching this I charge thee speak no word;
Nay, veil it utterly: for strictly kept
The secret from these bonds shall set me free.

CHORUS
May Zeus who all things swayeth
Ne'er wreak the might none stayeth
On wayward will of mine;
May I stint not nor waver
With offerings of sweet savour
And feasts of slaughtered kine;
The holy to the holy,
With frequent feet and lowly
At altar, fane and shrine,
Over the Ocean marches,
The deep that no drought parches,
Draw near to the divine.
My tongue the Gods estrange not;
My firm set purpose change not,
As wax melts in fire-shine.
Sweet is the life that lengthens,
While joyous hope still strengthens,
And glad, bright thoughts sustain;
But shuddering I behold thee,
The sorrows that enfold thee
And all thine endless pain.
For Zeus thou hast despised;
Thy fearless heart misprized
All that his vengeance can,
Thy wayward will obeying,
Excess of honour paying,
Prometheus, unto man.
And, oh, beloved, for this graceless grace
What thanks? What prowess for thy bold essay
Shall champion thee from men of mortal race,
The petty insects of a passing day?
Saw'st not how puny is the strength they spend?
With few, faint steps walking as dreams and blind,
Nor can the utmost of their lore transcend
The harmony of the Eternal Mind.
These things I learned seeing thy glory dimmed,
Prometheus. Ah, not thus on me was shed
The rapture of sweet music, when I hymned
The marriage-song round bath and bridal bed
At thine espousals, and of thy blood-kin,
A bride thou chosest, wooing her to thee
With all good gifts that may a Goddess win,
Thy father's child, divine Hesione.
Enter IO, crazed and horned.

IO
What land is this? What people here abide?
And who is he,
The prisoner of this windswept mountain-side?
Speak, speak to me;
Tell me, poor caitiff, how did'st thou transgress,
Thus buffeted?
Whither am I, half-dead with weariness,
For-wandered?
Ha! Ha!
Again the prick, the stab of gadfly-sting!
O earth, earth, hide,
The hollow shape-Argus-that evil thing-
The hundred-eyed-
Earth-born-herdsman! I see him yet; he stalks
With stealthy pace
And crafty watch not all my poor wit baulks!
From the deep place
Of earth that hath his bones he breaketh bound,
And from the pale
Of Death, the Underworld, a hell-sent hound
On the blood-trail,
Fasting and faint he drives me on before,
With spectral hand,
Along the windings of the wasteful shore,
The salt sea-sand!
List! List! the pipe! how drowzily it shrills!
A cricket-cry!
See! See! the wax-webbed reeds! Oh, to these ills
Ye Gods on high,
Ye blessed Gods, what bourne? O wandering feet
When will ye rest?
O Cronian child, wherein by aught unmeet
Have I transgressed
To be yoke-fellow with Calamity?
My mind unstrung,
A crack-brained lack-wit, frantic mad am I,
By gad-fly stung,
Thy scourge, that tarres me on with buzzing wingl
Plunge me in fire,
Hide me in earth, to deep-sea monsters fling,
But my desire-
Kneeling I pray-grudge not to grant, O King!
Too long a race
Stripped for the course have I run to and fro;
And still I chase
The vanishing goal, the end of all my woe;
Enough have I mourned!
Hear'st thou the lowing of the maid cow-horned?

PROMETHEUS
How should I hear thee not? Thou art the child
Of Inachus, dazed with the dizzying fly.
The heart of Zeus thou hast made hot with love
And Hera's curse even as a runner stripped
Pursues thee ever on thine endless round.

IO
How dost thou know my father's name? Impart
To one like thee
A poor, distressful creature, who thou art.
Sorrow with me,
Sorrowful one! Tell me, whose voice proclaims
Things true and sad,
Naming by all their old, unhappy names,
What drove me mad-
Sick! Sick! ye Gods, with suffering ye have sent,
That clings and clings;
Wasting my lamp of life till it be spent!
Crazed with your stings!
Famished I come with trampling and with leaping,
Torment and shame,
To Hera's cruel wrath, her craft unsleeping,
Captive and tame
Of all wights woe-begone and fortune-crossed,
Oh, in the storm
Of the world's sorrow is there one so lost?
Speak, godlike form,
And be in this dark world my oracle I
Can'st thou not sift
The things to come? Hast thou no art to tell
What subtle shift,
Or sound of charming song shall make me well?
Hide naught of ill
But-if indeed thou knowest-prophesy-
In words that thrill
Clear-toned through air-what such a wretch as
Must yet abide-
The lost, lost maid that roams earth's kingdoms wide?

PROMETHEUS
What thou wouldst learn I will make clear to thee,
Not weaving subtleties, but simple sooth
Unfolding as the mouth should speak to friends.
I am Prometheus, giver of fire to mortals.

IO
Oh universal succour of mankind,
Sorrowful Prometheus, why art thou punished thus?

PROMETHEUS
I have but now ceased mourning for my griefs.

IO
Wilt thou not grant me then so small a boon?

PROMETHEUS
What is it thou dost ask? Thou shalt know all.

IO
Declare to me who chained thee in this gorge.

PROMETHEUS
The hest of Zeus, but 'twas Hephaestus' hand.

IO
But what transgression dost thou expiate?

PROMETHEUS
Let this suffice thee: thou shalt know no more.

IO
Nay, but the end of my long wandering
When shall it be? This too thou must declare.

PROMETHEUS
That it is better for thee not to know.

IO
Oh hide not from me what I have to suffer!

PROMETHEUS
Poor child! Poor child! I do not grudge the gift.

IO
Why then, art thou so slow to tell me all?

PROMETHEUS
It is not from unkindness; but I fear
'Twill break thy heart.

IO
Take thou no thought for me
Where thinking thwarteth heart's desire!

PROMETHEUS
So keen
To know thy sorrows! List I and thou shalt learn.

CHORUS
Not till thou hast indulged a wish of mine.
First let us hear the story of her grief
And she herself shall tell the woeful tale.
After, thy wisdom shall impart to her
The conflict yet to come.

PROMETHEUS
So be it, then.
And, Io, thus much courtesy thou owest
These maidens being thine own father's kin.
For with a moving story of our woes
To win a tear from weeping auditors
In nought demeans the teller.

IO
I know not
How fitly to refuse; and at your wish
All ye desire to know I will in plain,
Round terms set forth. And yet the telling of it
Harrows my soul; this winter's tale of wrong,
Of angry Gods and brute deformity,
And how and why on me these horrors swooped.
Always there were dreams visiting by night
The woman's chambers where I slept; and they
With flattering words admonished and cajoled me,
Saying, "O lucky one, so long a maid?
And what a match for thee if thou would'st wed
Why, pretty, here is Zeus as hot as hot-
Love-sick-to have thee! Such a bolt as thou
Hast shot clean through his heart And he won't rest
Till Cypris help him win thee! Lift not then,
My daughter, a proud foot to spurn the bed
Of Zeus: but get thee gone to meadow deep
By Lerna's marsh, where are thy father's flocks
And cattle-folds, that on the eye of Zeus
May fall the balm that shall assuage desire."
Such dreams oppressed me, troubling all my nights,
Woe's me! till I plucked courage up to tell
My father of these fears that walked in darkness.
And many times to Pytho and Dodona
He sent his sacred missioners, to inquire
How, or by deed or word, he might conform
To the high will and pleasure of the Gods.
And they returned with slippery oracles,
Nought plain, but all to baffle and perplex-
And then at last to Inachus there raught
A saying that flashed clear; the drift, that
Must be put out from home and country, forced
To be a wanderer at the ends of the earth,
A thing devote and dedicate; and if
I would not, there should fall a thunderbolt
From Zeus, with blinding flash, and utterly
Destroy my race. So spake the oracle
Of Loxias. In sorrow he obeyed,
And from beneath his roof drove forth his child
Grieving as he grieved, and from house and home
Bolted and barred me out. But the high hand
Of Zeus bear hardly on the rein of fate.
And, instantly-even in a moment-mind
And body suffered strange distortion. Horned
Even as ye see me now, and with sharp bite
Of gadfly pricked, with high-flung skip, stark-mad,
I bounded, galloping headlong on, until
I came to the sweet and of the stream
Kerchneian, hard by Lerna's spring. And thither
Argus, the giant herdsman, fierce and fell
As a strong wine unmixed, with hateful cast
Of all his cunning eyes upon the trail,
Gave chase and tracked me down. And there he perished
By violent and sudden doom surprised.
But I with darting sting-the scorpion whip
Of angry Gods-am lashed from land to land.
Thou hast my story, and, if thou can'st tell
What I have still to suffer, speak; but do not,
Moved by compassion, with a lying tale
Warm my cold heart; no sickness of the soul
Is half so shameful as composed falsehoods.

CHORUS
Off! lost one! off! Horror, I cry!
Horror and misery
Was this the traveller's tale I craved to hear?
Oh, that mine eyes should see
A sight so ill to look upon! Ah me!
Sorrow, defilement, haunting fear,
Fan my blood cold,
Stabbed with a two-edged sting!
O Fate, Fate, Fate, tremblingly I behold
The plight of Io, thine apportioning!

PROMETHEUS
Thou dost lament too soon, and art as one
All fear. Refrain thyself till thou hast heard
What's yet to be.

CHORUS
Speak and be our instructor:
There is a kind of balm to the sick soul
In certain knowledge of the grief to come.

PROMETHEUS
Your former wish I lightly granted ye:
And ye have heard, even as ye desired,
From this maid's lips the story of her sorrow.
Now hear the sequel, the ensuing woes
The damsel must endure from Hera's hate.
And thou, O seed of Inachaean loins,
Weigh well my words, that thou may'st understand
Thy journey's end. First towards the rising sun
Turn hence, and traverse fields that ne'er felt plough
Until thou reach the country of the Scyths,
A race of wanderers handling the long-bow
That shoots afar, and having their habitations
Under the open sky in wattled cotes
That move on wheels. Go not thou nigh to them,
But ever within sound of the breaking waver,
Pass through their land. And on the left of the
The Chalybes, workers in iron, dwell.
Beware of them, for they are savages,
Who suffer not a stranger to come near.
And thou shalt reach the river Hybristes,
Well named. Cross not, for it is ill to cross,
Until thou come even unto Caucasus,
Highest of mountains, where the foaming river
Blows all its volume from the summit ridge
That o'ertops all. And that star-neighboured ridge
Thy feet must climb; and, following the road
That runneth south, thou presently shall reach
The Amazonian hosts that loathe the male,
And shall one day remove from thence and found
Themiscyra hard by Thermodon's stream,
Where on the craggy Salmadessian coast
Waves gnash their teeth, the maw of mariners
And step-mother of ships. And they shall lead the
Upon thy way, and with a right good will.
Then shalt thou come to the Cimmerian Isthmus,
Even at the pass and portals of the sea,
And leaving it behind thee, stout of heart,
Cross o'er the channel of Maeotis' lake.
For ever famous among men shall be
The story of thy crossing, and the strait
Be called by a new name, the Bosporus,
In memory of thee. Then having left
Europa's soil behind thee thou shalt come
To the main land of Asia. What think ye?
Is not the only ruler of the Gods
A complete tyrant, violent to all,
Respecting none? First, being himself a God,
He burneth to enjoy a mortal maid,
And then torments her with these wanderings.
A sorry suitor for thy love, poor girl,
A bitter wooing. Yet having heard so much
Thou art not even in the overture
And prelude of the song.

IO
Alas! Oh! Oh!

PROMETHEUS
Thou dost cryout, fetching again deep groans:
What wilt thou do when thou hast heard in full
The evils yet to come?

CHORUS
And wilt thou tell
The maiden something further: some fresh sorrow?

PROMETHEUS
A stormy sea of wrong and ruining.

IO
What does it profit me to live! Oh, why
Do I not throw myself from this rough crag
And in one leap rid me of all my pain?
Better to die at once than live, and all
My days be evil.

PROMETHEUS
Thou would'st find it hard
To bear what I must bear: for unto me
It is not given to die,-a dear release
From pain; but now of suffering there is
No end in sight till Zeus shall fall.

IO
And shall
Zeus fall? His power be taken from him?
No matter when if true-

PROMETHEUS
'Twould make thee happy
Methinks, if thou could'st see calamity
Whelm him.

IO
How should it not when all my woes
Are of his sending? learn how
These things shall be.
The tyrant's rod?
And fond imaginings.

IO
But how? Oh, speak,
If the declaring draw no evil down I

PROMETHEUS
A marriage he shall make shall vex him sore.

IO
A marriage? Whether of gods or mortals?
Speak!
If this be utterable!

PROMETHEUS
Why dost thou ask
What I may not declare?

IO
And shall he quit
The throne of all the worlds, by a new spouse
Supplanted?

PROMETHEUS
She will bear to him a child,
And he shall be in might more excellent
Than his progenitor.

IO
And he will find
No way to parry this strong stroke of fate?

PROMETHEUS
None save my own self-when these bonds are loosed.

IO
And who shall loose them if Zeus wills not?
Of thine own seed.
How say'st thou? Shall a child
Of mine release thee?

PROMETHEUS
Son of thine, but son
The thirteenth generation shall beget.

IO
A prophecy oracularly dark.

PROMETHEUS
Then seek not thou to know thine own fate.

IO
Nay,
Tender me not a boon to snatch it from me.

PROMETHEUS
Of two gifts thou hast asked one shall be thine.

IO
What gifts? Pronounce and leave to me the choice.

PROMETHEUS
Nay, thou are free to choose. Say, therefore, whether
I shall declare to thee thy future woes
Or him who shall be my deliverer.

CHORUS
Nay, but let both be granted! Unto her
That which she chooseth, unto me my choice,
That I, too, may have honour from thy lips.
First unto her declare her wanderings,
And unto me him who shall set thee free;
'Tis that I long to know.

PROMETHEUS
I will resist
No further, but to your importunacy
All things which ye-desire to learn reveal.
And, Io, first to thee I will declare
Thy far-driven wanderings; write thou my words
In the retentive tablets of thy heart.
When thou hast crossed the flood that flows between
And is the boundary of two continents,
Turn to the sun's uprising, where he treads
Printing with fiery steps the eastern sky,
And from the roaring of the Pontic surge
Do thou pass on, until before thee lies
The Gorgonean plain, Kisthene called,
Where dwell the gray-haired three, the Phorcides,
Old, mumbling maids, swan-shaped, having one eye
Betwixt the three, and but a single tooth.
On them the sun with his brightbeams ne'er glanceth
Nor moon that lamps the night. Not far from them
The sisters three, the Gorgons, have their haunt;
Winged forms, with snaky locks, hateful to man,
Whom nothing mortal looking on can live.
Thus much that thou may'st have a care of these.
Now of another portent thou shalt hear.
Beware the dogs of Zeus that ne'er give tongue,
The sharp-beaked gryphons, and the one-eyed horde
Of Arimaspians, riding upon horses,
Who dwell around the river rolling gold,
The ferry and the frith of Pluto's port.
Go not thou nigh them. After thou shalt come
To a far land, a dark-skinned race, that dwell
Beside the fountains of the sun, whence flows
The river Ethiops: follow its banks
Until thou comest to the steep-down slope
Where from the Bibline mountains Nilus old
Pours the sweet waters of his holy stream.
And thou, the river guiding thee, shalt come
To the three-sided, wedge-shaped land of Nile,
Where for thyself, Io, and for thy children
Long sojourn is appointed. If in aught
My story seems to stammer and to er
From indirectness, ask and ask again
Till all be manifest. I do not lack
For leisure, having more than well contents me

CHORUS
If there be aught that she must suffer yet,
Or aught omitted in the narrative
Of her long wanderings, I pray thee speak.
But if thou hast told all, then grant the boon
We asked and doubtless thou wilt call to mind.

PROMETHEUS
Nay, she has heard the last of her long journey.
But, as some warrant for her patient hearing
I will relate her former sufferings
Ere she came hither. Much I will omit
That had detained us else with long discourse
And touch at once her journey's thus far goal.
When thou wast come to the Molossian plain
That lies about the high top of Dodona,
Where is an oracle and shrine of Zeus
Thesprotian, and-portent past belief-
The talking oaks, the same from whom the word
Flashed clear and nothing questionably hailed the
The destined spouse-ah! do I touch old wounds?-
Of Zeus, honoured above thy sex; stung thence
In torment, where the road runs by the sea,
Thou cam'st to the broad gulf of Rhea, whence
Beat back by a strong wind, thou didst retrace
Most painfully thy course; and it shall be
That times to come in memory of thy passage
Shall call that inlet the Ionian Sea.
Thus much for thee in witness that my mind
Beholdeth more than that which leaps to light.
Now for the things to come; what I shall say
Concerns ye both alike. Return we then
And follow our old track. There is a city
Yclept Canobus, built at the land's end,
Even at the mouth and mounded silt of Nile,
And there shall Zeus restore to thee thy mind
With touch benign and laying on of hands.
And from that touch thou shalt conceive and bear
Swarth Epaphus, touch-born; and he shall reap
As much of earth as Nilus watereth
With his broad-flowing river. In descent
The fifth from him there shall come back to Argos,
Thine ancient home, but driven by hard hap,
Two score and ten maids, daughters of one house,
Fleeing pollution of unlawful marriage
With their next kin, who winged with wild desire,
As hawks that follow hard on cushat-doves,
Shall harry prey which they should not pursue
And hunt forbidden brides. But God shall be
Exceeding jealous for their chastity;
And old Pelasgia, for the mortal thrust
Of woman's hands and midnight murder done
Upon their new-wed lords, shall shelter them;
For every wife shall strike her husband down
Dipping a two-edged broadsword in his blood.
Oh, that mine enemies might wed such wivesl
But of the fifty, one alone desire
Shall tame, as with the stroke of charming-wand,
So that she shall not lift her hands to slay
The partner of her bed; yea, melting love
Shall blunt her sharp-set will, and she shall choose
Rather to be called weak and womanly
Than the dark stain of blood; and she shall be
Mother of kings in Argos. 'Tis a tale
Were't told in full, would occupy us long.
For, of her sowing, there shall spring to fame
The lion's whelp, the archer bold, whose bow
Shall set me free. This is the oracle
Themis, my ancient Mother, Titan-born,
Disclosed to me; but how and in what wise
Were long to tell, nor would it profit thee.

IO
Again they come, again
The fury and the pain!
The gangrened wound! The ache of pulses dinned
With raging throes
It beats upon my brain-the burning wind
That madness blows!
It pricks-the barb, the hook not forged with heat,
The gadfly dart!
Against my ribs with thud of trampling feet
Hammers my heart!
And like a bowling wheel mine eyeballs spin,
And I am flung
By fierce winds from my course, nor can rein in
My frantic tongue
That raves I know not what!-a random tide
Of words-a froth
Of muddied waters buffeting the wide,
High-crested, hateful wave of ruin and God's wrath!
Exit raving.

CHORUS
I hold him wise who first in his own mind
This canon fixed and taught it to mankind:
True marriage is the union that mates
Equal with equal; not where wealth emasculates,
Or mighty lineage is magnified,
Should he who earns his bread look for a bride.
Therefore, grave mistresses of fate, I pray
That I may never live to see the day
When Zeus takes me for his bedfellow; or
Draw near in love to husband from on high.
For I am full of fear when I behold
Io, the maid no human love may fold,
And her virginity disconsolate,
Homeless and husbandless by Hera's hate.
For me, when love is level, fear is far.
May none of all the Gods that greater are
Eve me with his unshunnable regard;
Fir in that warfare victory is hard,
And of that plenty cometh emptiness.
What should befall me then I dare not guess;
Nor whither I should flee that I might shun
The craft and subtlety of Cronos' Son.

PROMETHEUS
I tell thee that the self-willed pride of Zeus
Shall surely be abased; that even now
He plots a marriage that shall hurl him forth
Far out of sight of his imperial throne
And kingly dignity. Then, in that hour,
Shall be fulfilled, nor in one tittle fail,
The curse wherewith his father Cronos cursed him,
What time he fell from his majestic place
Established from of old. And such a stroke
None of the Gods save me could turn aside.
I know these things shall be and on what wise.
Therefore let him secure him in his seat,
And put his trust in airy noise, and swing
His bright, two-handed, blazing thunderbolt,
For these shall nothing stead him, nor avert
Fall insupportable and glory humbled.
A wrestler of such might he maketh ready
For his own ruin; yea, a wonder, strong
In strength unmatchable; and he shall find
Fire that shall set at naught the burning bolt
And blasts more dreadful that o'er-crow the thunder.
The pestilence that scourgeth the deep seas
And shaketh solid earth, the three-pronged mace,
Poseidon's spear, a mightier shall scatter;
And when he stumbleth striking there his foot,
Fallen on evil days, the tyrant's pride
Shall measure all the miserable length
That parts rule absolute from servitude.

CHORUS
Methinks the wish is father to the thought
And whets thy railing tongue.

PROMETHEUS
Not so: the wish And the accomplishment go hand in hand.

CHORUS
Then must we look for one who shall supplant
And reign instead of Zeus?
Far, far more grievous shall bow down his neck.

CHORUS
Hast thou no fear venting such blasphemy?

PROMETHEUS
What should I fear who have no part nor lot
In doom of dying?

CHORUS
But he might afflict the
With agony more dreadful, pain beyond
These pains.

PROMETHEUS
Why let him if he will
All evils I foreknow.

CHORUS
Ah, they are wise
Who do obeisance, prostrate in the dust,
To the implacable, eternal Will.

PROMETHEUS
Go thou and worship; fold thy hands in prayer,
And be the dog that licks the foot of power!
Nothing care I for Zeus; yea, less than naught!
Let him do what he will, and sway the world
His little hour; he has not long to lord it
Among the Gods.
Oh here here runner comes
The upstart tyrant's lacquey! He'll bring news,
A message, never doubt it, from his master.
Enter HERMES.
Hermes. You, the sophistical rogue, the heart of gall,
The renegade of heaven, to short-lived men
Purveyor of prerogatives and tities,
Fire-thief! Dost hear me? I've a word for thee.
Thou'rt to declare-this is the Father's pleasure
These marriage-feasts of thine, whereof thy tongue
Rattles a-pace, and by the which his greatness
Shall take a fall. And look you rede no riddles,
But tell the truth, in each particular
Exact. I am not to sweat for thee, Prometheus,
Upon a double journey. And thou seest
Zeus by thy dark defiance is not moved.

PROMETHEUS
A very solemn piece of insolence
Spoken like an underling of the Gods! Ye are young!
Ye are young! New come to power And ye suppose
Your towered citadel Calamity
Can never enter! Ah, and have not
Seen from those pinnacles a two-fold fall
Of tyrants? And the third, who his brief "now"
Of lordship arrogates, I shall see yet
By lapse most swift' most ignominious,
Sink to perdition. And dost thou suppose
I crouch and cower in reverence and awe
To Gods of yesterday? I fail of that
So much, the total all of space and time
Bulks in between. Take thyself hence and count
Thy toiling steps back by the way thou camest,
In nothing wiser for thy questionings.

HERMES
This is that former stubbornness of thine
That brought thee hither to foul anchorage.

PROMETHEUS
Mistake me not; I would not, if I might,
Change my misfortunes for thy vassalage.

HERMES
Oh! better be the vassal of this rock
Than born the trusty messenger of Zeus

PROMETHEUS
I answer insolence, as it deserves,
With insolence. How else should it be answered?

HERMES
Surely; and, being in trouble, it is plain
You revel in your plight.

PROMETHEUS
Revel, forsooth!
I would my enemies might hold such revels
And thou amongst the first.

HERMES
Dost thou blame me
For thy misfortunes?

PROMETHEUS
I hate all the Gods,
Because, having received good at my hands,
They have rewarded me with evil.
Proves thee stark mad!

HERMES
This proves thee stark mad!

PROMETHEUS
Mad as you please, if hating
Your enemies is madness

HERMES
Were all well
With thee, thou'dst be insufferable!

PROMETHEUS
Alas!

HERMES
Alas, that Zeus knows not that word, Alas!

PROMETHEUS
But ageing Time teacheth all knowledge.

HERMES
Time
Hath not yet taught thy rash, imperious will
Over wild impulse to win mastery.

PROMETHEUS
Nay: had Time taught me that, I had not stooped
To bandy words with such a slave as thou.

HERMES
This, then, is all thine answer: thou'lt not
One syllable of what our Father asks.

PROMETHEUS
Oh, that I were a debtor to his kindness!
I would requite him to the uttermost!

HERMES
A cutting speech! You take me for a boy
Whom you may taunt and tease.

PROMETHEUS
Why art thou not
A boy-a very booby-to suppose
Thou wilt get aught from me? There is no wrong
However shameful, nor no shift of malice
Whereby Zeus shall persuade me to unlock
My lips until these shackles be cast loose.
Therefore let lightning leap with smoke and flame,
And all that is be beat and tossed together,
With whirl of feathery snowflakes and loud crack
Of subterranean thunder; none of these
Shall bend my will or force me to disclose
By whom 'tis fated he shall fall from power.

HERMES
What good can come of this? Think yet again!

PROMETHEUS
I long ago have thought and long ago
Determined.

HERMES
Patience! patience! thou rash fool
Have so much patience as to school thy mind
To a right judgment in thy present troubles.

PROMETHEUS
Lo, I am rockfast, and thy words are wave
That weary me in vain. Let not the thought
Enter thy mind, that I in awe of Zeus
Shall change my nature for a girl's, or beg
The Loathed beyond all loathing-with my hands
Spread out in woman's fashion-to cast loose
These bonds; from that I am utterly removed.

HERMES
I have talked much, yet further not my purpose;
For thou art in no whit melted or moved
By my prolonged entreaties: like a colt
New to the harness thou dost back and Plunge.
Snap at thy bit and fight against the rein.
And yet thy confidence is in a straw;
For stubbornness, if one be in the wrong,
Is in itself weaker than naught at all.
See now, if thou wilt not obey my words,
What storm, what triple-crested wave of woe
Unshunnable shall come upon thee. First,
This rocky chasm shall the Father split
With earthquake thunder and his burning bolt,
And he shall hide thy form, and thou shalt hang
Bolt upright, dandled in the rock's rude arms.
Nor till thou hast completed thy long term
Shalt thou come back into the light; and then
The hound of Zeus, the tawny eagle,
Shall violently fall upon thy flesh
And rend it as 'twere rags; and every day
And all day long shall thine unbidden guest
Sit at thy table, feasting on thy liver
Till he hath gnawn it black. Look for no term
To such an agony till there stand forth
Among the Gods one who shall take upon him
Thy sufferings and consent to enter hell
Far from the light of Sun, yea, the deep pit
And mirk of Tartarus, for thee. Be advised;
This is not stuffed speech framed to frighten the
But woeful truth. For Zeus knows not to lie

CHORUS
To our mind
The words of Hermes fail not of the mark.
For he enjoins thee to let self-will go
And follow after prudent counsels. Him
Harken; for error in the wise is shame.

PROMETHEUS
These are stale tidings I foreknew;
Therefore, since suffering is the due
A foe must pay his foes,
Let curled lightnings clasp and clash
And close upon my limbs: loud crash
The thunder, and fierce throes
Of savage winds convulse calm air:
The embowelled blast earth's roots uptear
And toss beyond its bars,
The rough surge, till the roaring deep
In one devouring deluge sweep
The pathway of the stars
Finally, let him fling my form
Down whirling gulfs, the central storm
Of being; let me lie
Plunged in the black Tartarean gloom;
Yet-yet-his sentence shall not doom
This deathless self to die!

HERMES
These are the workings of a brain
More than a little touched; the vein
Of voluble ecstasy!
Surely he wandereth from the way,
His reason lost, who thus can pray
A mouthing mad man he!
Therefore, O ye who court his fate,
Rash mourners-ere it be too late
And ye indeed are sad
For vengeance spurring hither fast-
Hence! lest the bellowing thunderblast
Like him should strike you mad I

CHORUS
Words which might work persuasion speak
If thou must counsel me; nor seek
Thus, like a stream in spate,
To uproot mine honour. Dost thou dare
Urge me to baseness! I will bear
With him all blows of fate;
For false forsakers I despise;
At treachery my gorge doth rise:
I spew it forth with hate!

HERMES
Only-with ruin on your track-
Rail not at fortune; but look back
And these my words recall;
Neither blame Zeus that he hath sent
Sorrow no warning word forewent!
Ye labour for your fall
With your own hands I Not by surprise
Nor yet by stealth, but with clear eyes,
Knowing the thing ye do,
Ye walk into the yawning net
That for the feet of is set
And Ruin spreads for you.
Exit.

PROMETHEUS
The time is past for words; earth quakes
Sensibly: hark! pent thunder rakes
The depths, with bellowing din
Of echoes rolling ever nigher:
Lightnings shake out their locks of fire;
The dust cones dance and spin;
The skipping winds, as if possessed
By faction-north, south, east and west,
Puff at each other; sea
And sky are shook together: Lo
The swing and fury of the blow
Wherewith Zeus smiteth me
Sweepeth apace, and, visibly,
To strike my heart with fear. See, see,
Earth, awful Mother! Air,
That shedd'st from the revolving sky
On all the light they see thee by,
What bitter wrongs I bear!
The scene closes with earthquake and thunder, in the midst of which PROMETHEUS and the DAUGHTERS OF OCEANUS sink into the abyss.

THE END

ΕΥΘΥΦΡΩΝ

标题这个装B的词指的是关于苏格拉底的一本书，中文名字叫《游叙弗伦》。

在我眼中“游叙弗伦”象征一种状态多过一位古人或一场谈话，而我就处于这种状态之中，这篇日志本应昨晚就涂完，但拖着未必没有好处，起码我在梦中得到新的启示。这个梦里即将北还的queenie大人第一次成为主角，“它”按我心愿蹂躏了我的自信。其中一个情节是我与queenie游览我家乡的西水坡遗址，这里“已经”成为建筑拙劣但香火繁盛的寺庙，老和尚从水泥质的旋梯慢慢走下来——这正是我对家乡的印象。人流渐渐散去，queenie谈了一个有关史前文化的很尖锐的问题（具体问题记不清了），我提起何炳棣先生关于农业起源的大作，同时不得不愧怍地说“这本书我买了好几年，但还没读它”。

在梦之外，我实际上没有何的那本书，而是从《读史阅世六十年》中得知这部与《中国青铜时代》存在激烈争论的著作。但或许即使为我所购买，它也会像《游叙弗伦》一般，静静地伫立于飘下的细尘之中，等待我在若干年后的某一天偶尔将其翻阅。在这期间它并不属于我，它只是一册废纸（正如蛮王大人前日所云）。对我来说读的最快的书，永远是那些学人的八卦和并不切实的藏书心得。

很庆幸我的导师虽无苏格拉底的知识（如果我们认为苏格拉底不像他自称的那么无知的话），亦无苏格拉底无敌的口才，但他的睿智，也就是对严密逻辑的追求却同苏格拉底并无二致。能被人善意地攻击是一件多么愉快的事情。我羡慕游叙弗伦，他被苏格拉底善意地攻击，这是苏格拉底对人的一贯态度；我同情游叙弗伦，因为他面对自己惰弱的心智，急忙逃跑了。

以这本书中的一句话作为结尾（也是我现在gtalk的签名档）：

你智过于我正如你年轻于我，可是你因多智而倦勤。

nov: 希望藏在yy破灭之后

北京短暂的秋天渐渐远去了，岁暮的钟声仿佛已在耳畔砸响。整个11月的心情如同粉饰太平的小阳春天气一般，潜在的各种yy基本都处于坏灭的境地。

首先需要检讨的是糜烂的生活，若不是中间屡次大吃大喝，那么月底面对纷至沓来的各种恶政就不会束手无策，要知道这个月还从导师那里报销了一部分书费，可见本科时无忧无虑的公卿般的生活现在已经成为奢侈的想象而已。不过这也不能全怪个人，近若干天一盆盆冰水将兴奋无比的金融投资者浇得不知所措，好在本人只被浇成落汤鸡，还没有精神失常，不过眼睁睁看着账面上的数字一天比一天少，总不是件快乐的事情，反正小康生活现在基本没指望了……

很遗憾我把个人的修炼放在了第二位。11月交了两篇不成样子的作业，当然这些作业对付不成样子的课程，简直门当户对极了。拒绝胡乱拼凑的后果是使人感到现有知识真是无比贫乏，最终下定决心回到哲学史，时段暂时仅限于从Thales到Plotinus。Thales之前也看了Vernant的小册子，不过篇幅上比成熟的哲学史要小很多。现还在Parmenides之流身边打转转，横亘在面前的还有无数名山巨川。如果只痴迷于古希腊的话那我一定会被导师骂死，所以这个月还从后往前胡乱看了几本所谓名著，月初从地坛买的书有的已经看完（8卦类），有的书尚无暇问津。月中yy的藏书目录由于给人带来无限打击，计划无限期延迟了。德语又小测验一次，基本没复习，弄了80多，还算过得去（考虑到很多人运用了令人不齿的手段的情况）。总体而言我坚信我走在正确的道路上，只是速度还太慢了些。

有钱的时候颇想去听音乐会，而北大也经常有这类演出，不过后来这种想法就被硬生生地掐灭了，一来是我不喜欢单独或找个男人去看演出，二来是后来财政压力太大，即使是北大的音乐会我也听不起了——好像很可怜的样子。只能每天在电脑里放流浪者之歌、哥德堡变奏曲等，既能纾缓压力，又可聊以自慰（前者让人感到苦中作乐地愉悦，后者本身就要治疗睡眠）……

好吧，其实必须承认挪用听音乐会的钱作其他用途乃是因为收到拒信的结果，这也是11月最不着边际的yy了。好在仔细权衡后发觉本来就是虚无缥缈的事，看着别人放的纸船慢慢向灯火通明的彼岸漂去，未必不是路人的乐事。

希望12月不要这般沉闷，多下大雪，最好伴以电闪雷鸣，让大家都高兴高兴。

感觉很不好

早上去上古人类学，这门课是由两位老人开设的，之前是吴新智院士讲了半学期，下面该聆听张森水先生的高论了，可是今天高星老师却赶来“客串”讲课，第一张幻灯片就是“张森水先生千古！”——他昨天过世了。有迟到的人匆匆走进教室，问旁边的人出了什么事，那同学小声说“挂了”，非常令人生气。

高星老师是从美国回来的博士，虽自称准备很不充分，还是介绍了旧石器时代考古学的诸种新方法，很羡慕别的研究所的同学，不必像我们一样浪费一年时间呆在研究生院听某些老师业余至极的破课，昨天回所导师问他指定的书目我读的怎么样了，我说我愿意以现在读哲学史的方法一本本去校读古代典籍，可惜现在的条件很不具备！不过别的同学表现就更差，他们绝大多数人的理想只是用本不算愚笨的头脑去追求最简单低俗的东西罢了。导师说他现在还年轻，不会像其他老师般让我做他不愿意做的事情，晚上请了我和同小组几个师兄师姐吃饭，一伙人说说笑笑地步行到簋街，给人带来冬夜中的一丝温暖。

另一个让人感到不爽的是被人拒了，塞翁失马，我也能省一小笔钱。详情略。

我们的家园在哪儿

读黑格尔的《哲学史讲演录》（商务1959年9月），时常感到在读极其优美的散文（这当然要拜贺麟与王太庆二位先生之功劳），从第157页开始黑格尔终于开始讨论希腊哲学，开头一句就是“一提到希腊这个名字，在有教养的欧洲人心中，尤其在我们德国人心中，自然会引起一种家园之感”，看到这句话实在令人心头一震，希腊文明现在早就不仅是欧洲人心灵的家园，它早已成为全世界思想的强权者，无论学者是要追本溯源还是牵强附会。不禁想哪些东西能让年轻而又总觉得自己很成熟的中国人油然而有“家园之感”呢？

附：黑格尔“希腊哲学引言”（p157-163）

一提到希腊这个名字，在有教养的欧洲人心中，尤其在我们德国人心中，自然会引起一种家园之感。欧洲人远从希腊之外，从东方，特别是从叙利亚获得他们的宗教，来世，与超世间的生活。然而今生，现世，科学与艺术，凡是满足我们精神生活，使精神生活有价值、有光辉的东西，我们知道都是从希腊直接或间接传来的，——间接地绕道通过罗马。后一种途径，是希腊文化传给我们所取得较早的形式。此外它又通过昔时的普遍教会传来，这个教会本身也是导源于罗马的，就在今天它还保持着罗马人的语言。宗教的教训以及拉丁文的福音，来源都是教会神父。我们的法律，也以自罗马取得最完善的形式自夸。日耳曼人的粗犷性格，必须通过来自罗马的教会与法律的严格训练，受到磨练。通过这种训练，欧洲人的性格才成为柔韧，担当得起自由。所以当欧洲的人类返回自己的家中，正视了现在之后，他在历史中所受的外来成分才得以扬弃。人既已回到自己家中，享受自己的家园，也就转向了希腊人。我们且把拉丁经典让给教会，把罗马法让给法学，不去谈它。那更高的、更自由的科学（哲学），和我们的优美自由的艺术一样，我们知道，我们对于它的兴趣与爱好都根植于希腊生活，从希腊生活中我们吸取了希腊的精神。如果我们可以心神向往一个东西，那便是向往这样的国度，这样的光景。

我们所以对希腊人有家园之感，乃是因为我们感到希腊人把他们的世界化作家园；这种化外在世界为家园的共同精神把希腊人和我们结合在一起。在日常生活中，我们喜欢那些安于家室、自身满足而无求于外无求于上的人们与家庭，希腊人便是这样。他们当然多多少少从亚细亚、叙利亚、埃及取得了他们宗教、文化、社会组织的实质来源，但是他们把这个来源的外来成分大大地消融了，大大地改变了，加工改造了，转化了，造成了另外一个东西，所以他们和我们一样，所珍视、所认识、所爱好的那些东西，本质上正是他们自己的东西。

因此，在希腊生活的历史中，当我们进一步追溯时，以及有追溯之必要时，我们可以不必远溯到东方和埃及，即在希腊世界与希腊生活方式之内，就可以追寻出：科学与艺术的发生、萌芽、发达直至最盛的历程，以及衰落的根源，都纯粹在希腊人自己的范围里面。因为希腊精神的发展之需要外来的东西当作材料，当作刺激。他们在这些材料中自己意识到自己是自由的，并且有了自由的活动。他们加在外来的材料基础上的形式，是一种特有的精神气息——自由与美的精神；这种精神，从一方面看，可以说是形式，但是从另一方面看，事实上却正是更高的实质内容。

但是他们不仅像这样自己创造了他们的文化实质（并且毫不感激地忘掉了外来的来源，把它置于背后——也许是埋藏在他们自己也模糊不清的神秘意识的蒙昧中），不仅使他们的生活畅适自足，而且珍视他们这个精神的再生，——这种精神的再生才是他们真正的诞生。他们不仅使曾经使用过享受过自己所产生所创造的文化的主人；而且对他们整个生活的这种畅适自足，对他们自身的根本和本源，是自己意识到的，并且是感觉到感激和愉快的，——并不是为了存在，为了占有，为了使用。因为希腊人的精神——作为从精神的再生中生出来的精神——正是自己意识到自己是属于他们自己的：（一）希腊人的精神就活动在希腊人的生活里，并且（二）意识到这种生活，知道这种生活是精神自身的实现。他们把他们的生活想象成一个与他们分离的对象，这个对象独立地产生出来，独立地对他们有价值。他们认识到根本与本源之为根本与本源——不过这根本与本源是内在于他们的。因此他们给自己编造出一个他们所经历和体验过的一切事物的历史。他们不仅想象世界——亦即诸神与人类、地、天、风、山、河等等——的发生，而且想象他们的生活的一切方面——譬如火的发明，与火相关联的祭祀牺牲，种子，农业，橄榄树，马，婚姻，财产，法律，艺术，崇拜神灵，科学，城市，贵族等等，——他们在一些美好的故事中，想象这一切事物的来源，并且说明这些事物与他们的关系。从这外在的方面，他们把一切事物历史的起源，都看作他们自己的事业和功绩。

在这种实际生活中的畅适自足中，或者更可以说，在这种畅适自足的精神中，在这种表现为怡然自得的精神中，在物质、社会、法律、道德、政治各方面生活上都怡然自得的精神中，在这个自由优美的历史性品质中，在“追忆女神”的品质中——（希腊人的历史经历，在希腊人看来也就是“追忆女神”）——也就存在着自由思想的萌芽，也就存在着哲学发生于希腊人中间的特色。

正如希腊人在生活上安于家园一样，哲学也是畅适自足，哲学上的畅适自足，亦即人在精神上的畅适自足，怡然如在家园。如果我们对希腊人有家园之感，就应该对他们的哲学特别有家园之感，——不过哲学并不只是在希腊人那里有如故乡，因为哲学本身正是人的精神的故乡；我们在哲学里所从事的，乃是思想，乃是我们内在的东西，乃是摆脱一切特殊性的自由精神。思想的发展，在希腊人那里，是从他们最原始的素质中启发出来，发展出来的；我们不必远求于外在的机缘，便可研讨希腊哲学。要了解希腊哲学，我们必须亲身流连于希腊人的精神生活之中。

但是我们必须对希腊人的性格与观点作更详细一点的规定。希腊人固然是从他们自身出发的，但是同时他们也有一个前提。这前提是历史性的。从思想讲来，这前提是精神与自然合一的东方式的“实体化”，这是自然的合一，而只是从自身出发，处在自身之中，则是那另一个极端的抽象主观性（纯形式主义）。当这主观性尚是空的，或者变成了空的时候，便是近代世界的抽象原则了。希腊人站在这两极端之间，处于一个美好的中介地位，所以这个中介是“美”的中介，因为它既是自然的，也是精神的，不过精神性依然是主导的、决定的主体。沉没于自然之中的精神，与自然共处在实质的合一里面，当它是意识的时候，则它主要是直观——是一般的没有尺度的东西；就精神之作为一个主观意识而言，它确乎是有范型作用的——不过没有尺度。希腊人以自然与精神的实质合一为基础，为他们的本质；并且以这种合一为对象而保有着它、认识着它，——不过并非沉没在对象之中，而是回复到自身之内，——他们并没有退回到形式主观性的极端：而是与自身为一体，因此是自由的主体，仍以那最初的合一为内容、本质、与基质，——作为自由的主体，将其对象陶铸为“美”。希腊人的意识所达到的阶段，就是“美”的阶段。因为“美”是理想，是从精神里涌出来的思想；不过，虽是这样，精神的个性还没有独立自为，成为抽象的主观性，在自身中发挥其自身成为一个思想世界。然而希腊人的这种主观性本身还带着自然的、感性的色彩、不过这种自然的色彩是和东方的不同等级，不同价值，而且也不占优越地位。在希腊，精神的原则居于首位，自然事物的存在形态不复有独立的效准，只不过是那照澈一切的精神的表现，并被降为精神存在的工具与外形。然而精神却尚未将自己当作媒介，在自身中表象自己，在自身中建立它的世界。

因此自由的道德能够在希腊得到地位，也必然在希腊得到地位，因为自由的精神实质是希腊人的道德、法律、制度的基础。因为其中还依然包含自然因素，所以国家的道德形式也还染有自然成分。国家是一些小的自然个体，这些个体并不能团结为一个整体。“普遍”不是独立自由地存在，精神也就依然有限制。在希腊世界中，自在自为的存在着的永恒事物由思想发挥出来，得到自觉；不过虽然如此，主观性依然具有偶然的性质与它相对立，因为基本上它还是与自然性有关联的。[在这里面，我们就可以解释上面所提到的事实，即在希腊只有少数人是自由的。]

东方无尺度的实体的力量，通过了希腊精神，才达到了有尺度有限度的阶段。希腊精神就是尺度、明晰、目的，就在于给予各种形形色色的材料以限制；就在于把不可度量者与无限华美丰富者化为规定性与个体性。希腊世界的丰富，只是寄托在无数的美丽、可爱、动人的个体上，——寄托在一切存在物中的清晰明朗上。希腊人中最伟大的便是那些个体性：艺术上、诗歌上、科学上、义气上、道德上的那些杰出人物。如果和东方人想象中的华美壮丽弘大相比，和埃及的建筑、东方诸国的宏富相比，希腊人的清妙作品（美丽的神、雕像、庙宇）以及他们的严肃作品（制度与事迹），可能都像是一些渺小的儿童的游戏：希腊所发展的思想，尤其是这个样子。这种思想对于个体性的丰富内容予以限度，和对东方的伟大予以限度一样，并且将这丰富内容追溯到它的单纯的灵魂，而这个灵魂本身却是一个更高的理想世界——思想世界——的丰富财产的源泉。

有一个古人曾说：“人啊，你从你的情欲中取得了你的神灵的材料”，——譬如东方人（特别是印度人）便从自然原素、自然力、自然形相中取得他们的神灵；——我们可以补充一句：“你从思想中取得了构成上帝的元素与材料。”在这里思想乃是产生上帝的基地，并不是开始的思想便足以构成了解全部文化的基本原则。正好相反。开始的思想看起来非常贫乏，高度抽象，它的内容和东方加在他们的对象上的内容对比起来，是很少的。思想的开始本身是直接的，是在自然性和直接性的形式之下的。希腊思想和东方思想都同有着这种自然性和直接性。但是希腊思想把东方的内容化成了一些完全贫乏的范畴，所以这些思想在我们看来，是不大值得注意的，因为他们还不是真正的思想，尚未具备思想的形式与范畴，而还存在着自然性。因此他们以自然为“绝对”，而又不是作为思想的绝对。这就是说，我们永远应当分开两个东西：“普遍”或“概念”，和这个“普遍”的“实在”，因为问题在于“实在”本身究竟是思想还是自然。起初的时候，“实在”还带着直接性的形式，只是潜在的思想：我们将希腊哲学从伊奥尼亚学派的自然哲学讲起，理由便在于此。

从这个时代希腊的外在历史情况说来，希腊哲学开始于基督降生前六世纪，亦即居鲁士的时代，当小亚细亚伊奥尼亚诸自由邦衰落的时期。因为这个进入高度文化的美丽世界衰落了，所以发生了哲学。克娄苏[按系吕底亚王]与吕底亚人首先威胁了伊奥尼亚的自由，以后波斯的侵略更把它整个摧毁了，因此多数居民另觅安居之所，建立了殖民地，特别是在西方。与这一次伊奥尼亚诸城邦衰落同时，希腊的另一部分脱离了旧贵族的统治。柏洛比德族（Pelopiden）与大部分别的外来王族衰替了。希腊与外界发生了多方面的接触，希腊人也部分的在他们自己中间寻求一种社交联系。宗法生活过去了，多数城邦开始需要法规与制度——要求建立自己的自由。我们看见有许多伟大人物的崛起，他们作了他们同胞的统治者，并不是凭着他们的门第，而是由于才能、想象、学识出人头地，受人尊敬。这些人物与他们的同胞们发生着种种不同的关系。他们中间有一部分是忠告者，——但良好的忠告每每是不为人所采纳遵行的；有一部分人为他们的同胞憎恨与蔑视，——这些人就放弃公共事业而退隐了。另一些人则很桀骜强悍，几乎变成了他们同胞的残暴的统治者。另外一些人则是为了自由而创立法律的人。

文德尔班《哲学史教程》之一节

巴门尼德的思想相当之“绕”，前些日子在课堂上听郝刘祥老师噼噼啪啪讲了一阵子，处于懂与不懂之间，回来之后看一些简要的哲学介绍，基本没有起到作用（还没看黑格尔《讲演录》），这两天从头翻文德尔班《哲学史教程》（罗达仁翻译，商务1987年4月），这一节在第56-58页，把巴门尼德“it is and cannot not-be”的概念翻译成“‘存在’和‘充实着的空间’是同一的东西”，感觉似乎笨拙了点（没查文德尔班原文是什么），不过后来把这两页抄了一遍，又细看一遍，终于能弄清楚文德尔班的辩证思路，感觉效果比读那些简介性质的书好得多。


一个链接，百度百科“存在论”的词条（暂且作为参考）

附这两页内容（不懂希腊语，未必写的正确，原书加着重号的词这里都用斜体表示）：

5. 与这个爱非斯人（赫拉克利特）的理论形成鲜明对照的是由巴门尼德提出的存在的概念。他是爱利亚学派的领袖，这个时期最重要的思想家。但是要从他的说教诗的少数残篇中重新设想他如何构制他的概念是不容易的。他的说教诗十分独特的特点在于他把最枯燥无味的抽象与富丽堂皇的想象结合起来了。有一个存在（έστι γάρ είναι），这一点对于这个爱利亚人说来，是一个如此无容反驳的公理，因此，他只叙述它而不证明它，而且只用反面的说法（durch eine negative Wendung）去解释它，这反面的说法才向我们完全透露了他要我们了解他的主要思想的涵义。他又说，“非存在”（μή εϊναι）或者不“存在”的东西（τό μή έόν）是不可能存在也是不可能被思维的。因为一切思想总是与存在着的东西有关，存在着的东西就是思想的内容[1]。在巴门尼德那里，这种存在和意识相互关联的观点走得太远，以至思想和存在这两者被宣称合二为一了。没有一种思想，它的内容不是存在；没有一种存在，它不是思想：思想和存在是同一个东西。

这些命题，假若我们只从字面理解，其本体论的观点看起来是非常抽象的；但是如果我们考虑到这位伟大的爱利亚人的断简残篇对于他关于“存在”（或存在着的东西）所要表达的看法并为留下任何怀疑之处，那么这些命题就有着完全不同的意义了。这就是实体性，即物质性（τόπλέον）。对于他来说，“存在”和“充实着的空间”是同一的东西。对于一切“存在着”的东西说来，这个“存在”，这个充实着的空间的功能，恰恰是同一的东西；因此，只有一个没有内在区分的单一的存在。“非存在”，或者说不存在的东西[没有存在的属性的东西]，意思就是无形体，就是虚空（τόκενόν）。巴门尼德所用εϊναι（存在）一词的双重意义（照此，这词一时意谓“充满的”，一时又意谓“现实性”）就导致这样一个命题：虚空不可能存在。

然而如朴素地用感官观察事物，甚至观察潜藏在巴门尼德那些原则里的事物，就会发现，事物与事物之所以能区分是由于虚空把它们隔开了，事物借助于这种隔离才表现出多样性和复杂性。另方面，所有发生在物质世界的运动，又基于“充实的”东西在“虚空”中所经历的位置的改变。因此，如果虚空不是真实的或不是现实的，那么个别事物的多样性和运动就不可能是现实的了。

经验在共存和连锁中显示出来的事物的多样性迫使米利都学派探索万物所由变形的、共有的、永恒的本原。然而，当宇宙实体或世界本原的概念在巴门尼德那里拔高到登峰造极的地步，拔高到存在的概念时，似乎要把各别事物同这个概念统一起来，其可能性是如此之小，以至于事物的现实性被否定了，这个统一的存在永远是唯一的存在[2]。原来为了阐明世界而形成的这个概念，其内部已发展到如此地步，如要继续坚持它就一定要否定它原来要企图阐明的东西。在这个意义上，爱利亚学说就是无宇宙论：万物的多样性已沉没在这全一之中：只有后者才“存在”，而前者只是欺骗和假象。

按照巴门尼德，我们必须断言，“一”或“存在”是永恒的，从不产生，永不消灭；特别是（如色诺芬尼曾经主张过的），它是完全同一（völlige Einerleiheit），毫无区分的自我相同（unterschiedslose Sichselbst-Gleichheit），即彻底均匀，绝对不变。他追随色诺芬尼，认为“一”是有限的，完整的，和封闭的（abgeschlossen）。于是，存在便是一个滚圆的球体，内部完全均匀：这个唯一的统一的宇宙体同时也是单纯的，排除一切特殊的宇宙思想[3]：τό γάρ πλέον έστί νόημα。

[1] 卡尔斯登编辑的《残篇》，vv. 第94页起。
[2] 爱利亚学派思想的这种巨大作用使用明显的模棱两可的语言表达出来的，一方面，έν的意思既是数字上的一，又是质量上的一或单一，而动词εϊναι不仅有系词的作用，而且有“现实性”的意义。
[3] 因此，象“唯物主义”和“唯心主义”这类术语对于这种意识与其对象（物质世界）简单的等同就用不上了。