Aeschylus

For Heaven is not unmindful of men of blood. In the end the black Spirits of Vengeance bring to obscurity him who hath prospered in unrighteousness and wear down his fortunes by reverse; and once he hath passed among them that are brought to naught, there is no more help for him. Glory in excess is fraught with peril; ’tis the lofty peak that is smitten by heaven’s thunderbolt. Prosperity unassailed by envy is my choice. Let me not be a destroyer of cities; no, nor let me be despoiled and live to see my own life in another’s power!

Alas, O king, for our brave army, for the great honour of Persian rule, and for the array of men whom a god has now mown down! The land laments its native youth, slain by Xerxes, who has crammed Hades with Persians. For many warriors, the flower of the land, masters of the bow, a dense myriad of men, have gone down to Hades and perished. Alas, alas for our trusty strength! And the land of Asia, O king of the country, is grievously, grievously bowed upon her knee.

If you stand in due awe of such majesty, you will have a bulwark for your land and a safeguard for your city such as no one among mankind possesses, neither among the Scythians nor in the land of Pelops. This council I establish untouched by gain, worthy of reverence, quick to anger, a wakeful guardian of the land on behalf of those who sleep. This exhortation I have extended to my citizens for the time to come. But now you must rise, take up your ballots, and decide the case with reverence for your oath. I have spoken.

No mortal wight shall scatheless pass his life free from all suffering unto the end. Alas! Alas! One tribulation cometh to-day, another the morrow.

O travail, travail of my city utterly destroyed! Alas, the sacrifices my father offered, the many pasturing kine slain to save its towers! Yet they availed naught to save the city from suffering even as it hath; and I, my soul on fire, must soon fall to the ground.

Hear now my ordinance, people of Attica, as you judge the first trial for shed blood. For the future, too, this council of judges shall always exist for the host of Aegeus. This Hill of Ares, where the Amazons had their seat and their tents when they came in arms out of hatred for Theseus, and raised against him this new, high-towered city, and sacrificed to Ares, from whom the rock takes its name, the Hill of Ares—on it the citizens’ reverence, and fear, its kin, shall keep them from wrongdoing by day and by night alike, so long as the citizens themselves do not corrupt the laws with foul additions. Stain clear water with mud, and you will never find a drink. Neither anarchy nor despotism: this I counsel my citizens to uphold and revere, and not to cast fear wholly out of the city. For what mortal who fears nothing is just?

Prometheus
I stopped mortals from foreseeing their doom.
Chorus
What cure did you find for that sickness?
Prometheus
I planted blind hopes in them.
Chorus
That was a great boon you gave to mortals.
Prometheus
And more than that, I gave them fire.
Chorus
And now creatures of a day possess blazing fire?
Prometheus
Yes, and from it they will learn many arts.

Zeus, who leadeth mortals the way of understanding, Zeus, who hath stablished as a fixed ordinance that “wisdom cometh by suffering.” But even as trouble, bringing memory of pain, droppeth o’er the mind in sleep, so to those who would not cometh wisdom. With constraint, methinks, cometh the grace of the powers divine enthroned upon their awful seats.

Aye, and numbers, too, chiefest of sciences, I invented for them, and the combining of letters, creative mother of the Muses’ arts, wherewith to hold all things in memory.

Ye mighty Fates, through the power of Zeus vouchsafe fulfilment thus even as Justice now turneth! “For word of hate let word of hate be said,” crieth Justice aloud as she exacteth the debt, “and for murderous stroke let murderous stroke be paid.” “To him that doeth, it shall be done by,” so saith a precept thrice-aged.