I o e e i g e 2

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Hermes: Undoubtedly better to serve this rock than to
be Zeus’ trusted envoy!

Prometheus: Sarcasm is the stay of spite.

Hermes: You seem to revel in your plight!

Prometheus: Revel] Might [ see my enemies thus reveling,
and you among them.

Hermes: So you blame me now for your disgrace.
Prometheus: All the gods I helped I hate who returned me

wrongs for the good I gave.

Hermes: I think you are more than a little mad.
Prometheus: Then let me be mad be it mad to hate foes.
Hermes: You could not be borne, if prosperous.
Prometheus: Ah me, I am burdened with countless woes!.
Hermes: Woe—is a word Zeus doesn’t know!
Prometheus: But time, growing old, teaches everything.
Hermes: True, though as yet you haven’t learned wisdom.
Prometheus: Or I would not address you, a hireling.
Hermes: So you will not tell what the father would know!

Prometheus: Yes, I should pay back the favor I owe him!
Hermes: You chide me as though I were a child.
Prometheus: And are you not a child that you think to
draw from me my secret knowledge? You show less wit
than a child would. There is no torture or intrigue by which
Zeus can inveigle me to utter this, no, not until he loose these
bonds oppressing me! So let him hurl his burning brand, let
him co-mingle and confound the world into churning thun-
dering earth and white-winged show—impervious am I to
those—and still unnamed, the agent of this overthrow.
Hermes: See, now, does this seem to benefit you?
Prometheus: It was seen and resolved upon long ago.
Hermes: Forget that resolve, and resolve, foolish god,
to think better regarding your present problem.
Prometheus: You implore me idly, you might as well exhort
the surge, for never imagine that I shall grow womanish with
fear at the judgment Zeus pronounced on me, that I shall