Agave as stained with blood is
banished the land, vainly imploring the god's mercy. With lamentations
at the thought of exile, which is the lot of both, the play ends.
[1] The quotations are from Milman's translation in Routledge's
Universal Library.
PASSAGES
1
_Evolution of human life_
_Prometheus._ List rather to the deeds
I did for mortals: how, being fools before
I made them wise and true in aim of soul,
And let me tell you--not as taunting men,
But teaching you the intention of my gifts--
How, first beholding, they beheld in vain,
And hearing, heard not, but like shapes in dreams
Mixed all things wildly down the tedious time;
Nor knew to build a house against the sun
With wicketed sides, nor any woodcraft knew,
But lived, like silly ants, beneath the ground,
In hollow caves unsunned. There came to them
No steadfast sign of winter nor of spring,
Flower perfumed, nor summer full of fruit;
But blindly and lawlessly they did all things,
Until I taught them how the stars do rise
And set in mystery, and devised for them
Number, the inducer of philosophies,
The synthesis of letters, and, beside,
The artificer of all things, Memory,
That sweet Muse-Mother.
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