100 AESCHYLUS
[Second Scene of First Episodc.'
OcEANUS enters. Oceanus. I reach the bourne of my weary road Where I may see and answer thee, Prometheus, in thine agony. On the back of the quick-winged bird I glode, 335 And I bridled him in With the will of a god. Behold, thy sorrow aches in me
Constrained by the force of kin. Nay, though that tie were all undone, 340
For the life of none beneath the sun Would I seek a larger benison
Than 1 seek for thine. And thou shalt learn my words are truth, That no fair parlance of the mouth 345
Grows falsely out of mine. Now give me a deed to prove my faith ; For no faster friend is named in breath
Than I, Oceanus, am thine. Prometheus. Ha ! what has brought thee ? Hast thou also come 350
To look upon my woe ? How hast thou dared ^ To leave the depths called after thee ? the caves Self-hewn, and self-roofed with spontaneous rock. To visit Earth, the mother of my chain ? Hast come, indeed, to view my doom, and mourn 355 That I should sorrow thus ? Gaze on, and see How I, the fast friend of your Zeus, — how I The erector of the empire in his hand. Am bent beneath that hand in this despair. 359
Oceanus. Prometheus, I behold ; and I would fain
^ Rather, " bad the heart." Compare verse 705.
