Evening star., 1927-12-04
The Story of Civilization
Continued from Third Page)

- Continued from Third Page)
Nor knew to build a house against
- the sun
With wicketed sides, nor any
woodcraft knew,
esput lived like silly ants beneath
~ the ground
SIN hollow caves unsunned. There
t came to them
No steadfast sign of Winter or OF
~ Spring
Flower -perfumed, nor of Summer
- full of fruit.
s#But blindly and lawlessy they did
~ all things,
Until / taught them how the stars
do rise
And set in mystery, and devised
for them
Number, the inducer of philoso'
phies,
The synthesis of letters, and be-
# sides,
The artificer of all things. memory,
That sweet muse-mother. l was
first to yoke
The servile beasts in couples car
rying
An heirloom of mans burdens on
their backs.
I Joined to chariots steeds that
loved the bit
They champ at--the chief pomp of
golden ease.
And none but I originated ships,
The seaman's chariots, wandering
on the brine
With linen wings, and 10 miser-
able.
Who did devise for mortals all
these arts,
Have no device left now to save
(Mrs. Browning's translation)
For Just as in Hebrew story Eve
was punished for seeking knowledge
SO Prometheus is denounced by Zeus
for bringing down to the earth the
holy fire which, in primitive belief
belonged only to the gods. and tC
expiate his crime (when has not
knowledge been crime, and truth
heresy?) he is chained. at Zeus
command, to a rock on the heights OF
the Caucasus
The whole earth mourns with him
"There is a cry in the waves of the
sea as they fall together, and groan'
ing in the deep; a wall comes up
from the cavern realms Of death, and
the springs of the holy rivers sob
with the anguish of pity" All the
nations send their sympathy to this
political prisoner, and counsel him
to remember that suffering belongs
to all: Grief walks the earth and
sits down at the foot of each by
turns" But they do nothing. Oceanus
advises him to yield: do not spurn
against the pricks, seeing that who
reigns reigns by cruelty instead of
right" And the Chorus speaks
scornfuliy of the humanity for whose
. sake he suffers. Nay, thine was a
hopeless sacrifice. o beloved Speak
what help shall there be, and where?
Didst thou not see the race of men,
how little in effort and energy, dream
ers bound in chains? Such fruit is
plucked from the love of man
But Prometheus does not forget
that he is the son of Titan. with
divinity in his veins (perhaps he is
another form of the recurring myth
Of the crucified god?); he holds out
bravely, and as one who knows the
future, taunts Zeus by prophesying
his death. Zeus demands to know
at what hour and by what hand he
is to die; unanswered and scorned,
he sends an eagle to tear out Prone
theus' heart. $50 foresight and an.
ticipation consume us here, as in
Genesis and Ecclesiastes knowledge
is evii) Then comes the herald
Hermes with the last threat Of Zeus:
Prometheus shall be torn into pieces
by the eagle, and buried in the dark.
ness Of the earth. And as the light.
ming plays about him and the thunder
crashes wildly, Prometheus stands his
ground, bloody but unbowed, loving
justice more than life, and more than
the greatest god.
So the drama ends. This is the
sgrand style" par excellence: a titanic
energy of imagery and phrase, lofty
nobility of design and even of de.
tail. ''The other productions Of the
Greek tragedians," as Schlegel says.
"are so many tragedies; but this is
Tragedy herself" No wonder that
he tells how IFschylus and Euripides
contested for supremacy in the
drama, represents one phrase Of the
older man tipping the scales against
a score by the younger man; 1.-The
very earth shakes as Eschylus' lines
advance" Never since has the great
struggle between knowledge and su.
perstition, between enlightenment and
obscurantism, between genius and
dogma, been pictured more power.
fully or lifted to loftier reach of
symbol and utterance The Prone.
theus is one Of the high places in the
literature Of the world.
X y y y
Only legend can tell us of the later
years of 4Fschylus. He seems to have
reverted to the mystical religion that
filled the atmosphere of Eleusis, the
city of his birth; and in a play known
to us merely in fragments, and called
Prometheus Unbound. he makes the
great hero repent at last and ask
pardon of relentless Zeus; Shelley
might be forgiven for feeling that a
new drama on the theme was neces.
sary. Perhaps 4Gschylus was like
Job. and doubted only to believe
again; it is a pleasant denouement.
Only with Euripides was drama to re.
peat the development of philosophy
and dare to ask questions which no
theology could answer.
In his last years the old dEamatist
knew the bitterness of being super.
seded the young and fortunate
Sophocles won prize after prize from
him. So Eschylus left Athens and
went to live in Sicily. A pitiless legend
tells how an eagle, mistaking his bald
head for stone, dropped tortoise on
1t. killing him. But it makes little diff
ference how he died; he had survived
to GO, and had lived more lives than
one; and he had accomplished more
for Greek drama than the subtle
Euripides would do or the fiawless