ZEUS' RISE TO POWER: THE CREATION OF MORTALS 91
me discovered the seamen's vessels which with wings of sail are beaten by the
waves. Such are the contrivances I, poor wretch, have found for mortals, but I
myself have no device by which I may escape my present pain.
CHORUS: You suffer an ill-deserved torment, and confused in mind and heart
are all astray; like some bad doctor who has fallen ill, you yourself cannot de-
vise a remedy to effect a cure.
PROMETHEUS: Listen to the rest, and you will be even more amazed at the
kinds of skills and means that I devised; the greatest this: if anyone fell sick,
there existed no defense, neither food nor drink nor salve, but through lack of
medicines they wasted away until I showed them the mixing of soothing reme-
dies by which they free themselves from all diseases. I set forth the many ways
of the prophetic art. I was the first to determine which dreams would of neces-
sity turn out to be true, and I established for them the difficult interpretation of
sounds and omens of the road and distinguished the precise meaning of the
flight of birds with crooked talons, which ones are by nature lucky and propi-
tious, and what mode of life each had, their mutual likes, dislikes, and associa-
tion; the smoothness of the innards and the color of the bile that would meet
the pleasure of the gods, and the dappled beauty of the liver's lobe. I burned
the limbs enwrapped in fat and the long shank and set mortals on the path to
this difficult art of sacrifice, and made clear the fiery signs, obscure before. Such
were these gifts of mine. And the benefits hidden deep within the earth, cop-
per, iron, silver, and gold—who could claim that he had found them before me?
No one, I know full well, unless he wished to babble on in vain.
In a brief utterance learn the whole story: all arts come to mortals from
Prometheus.
When Hermes, Zeus' messenger, appears in the last episode, Prometheus is
arrogant and insulting in his refusal to bow to the threats of even more terrible
suffering and reveal his secret. The play ends with the fulfillment of the prom-
ised torment; the earth shakes and cracks, thunder and lightning accompany
wind and storm as Prometheus, still pinned to the rock, is plunged beneath the
earth by the cataclysm; there he will be plagued by the eagle daily tearing his
flesh and gnawing his liver. Prometheus' final utterance echoes and affirms the
fiery heat and mighty spirit of his first invocation: "O majesty of earth, my
mother, O air and sky whose circling brings light for all to share. You see me,
how I suffer unjust torments."
Io, ZEUS, AND PROMETHEUSIn order to appreciate Aeschylus' depiction of Zeus and his vision of the final
outcome of the conflict between Zeus and Prometheus,^15 we must introduce the
story of Io, a pivotal figure in Prometheus Bound.^16 In the series of exchanges be-
tween Prometheus and the various characters who come to witness his misery,
the scene with Io is particularly significant in terms of eventual reconciliation
and knowledge.