Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 3,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (earthquake, clouds, wind, dew, rain, meteorits): Text and notes — Cambridge, 1940

DOI Seite / Zitierlink: 
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14698#0834

DWork-Logo
Überblick
loading ...
Faksimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Vollansicht
OCR-Volltext
74° The superannuation of Zeus

Moreover, Aischylos is aware of the popular belief that Zeus holds
his throne upon the same precarious tenure as his predecessors.
That belief is involved in the plot of Prometheus Bound. Prometheus
there says to Io :

But now no limit is appointed me

Of torment, till Zeus fall from his high throne.

Io Zeus fall! Comes there a time when that may be?

Prom. 'Twould gladden thee, I trow, to see that day.

Io Most surely, since from him are all my woes.

Prom. Then be assured the very truth is so.

Io What hand shall wrest from him the staff of power?

Prom. His own vain counsel, lorn of wisdom's light.

Io In what wise? tell me, so it bring no harm.

Prom. Winning a bride, whose wedding he shall rue,

Io Of Heaven or Earth ? If not forbidden, tell.

Prom. Inquire no more. 'Tis not to be revealed.

Io Shall his new consort oust him from his throne ?

Prom. Their son shall be more puissant than his sire.

Io And may he not avoid that overthrow?

Prom. Only when I, delivered from my bonds—1

But the sentence is broken off, and Prometheus does not reveal
how Zeus may escape the impending doom. Later in the same
play he reverts to the subject in the presence of the Ocean nymphs'

Pro?n. Yet Zeus himself, though stubborn be his will,

Shall be brought low at last, through the marriage-bond

He purposeth. For it shall hurl him down

From power supreme to nothing. Then shall come

To pass the curse his father Kronos cried

In that same hour when driven from his throne

Of primal sovereignty. To avert this doom

No god but I can point him the sure way.

I know each turn thereof. Then let him reign

Securely, trusting to his thunder's noise

And wielding there aloft his lightning brand !

Naught shall they warrant him from that sure fall,

Intolerable, unhonoured, unreprieved.

So dire a wrestler he himself provides

Against himself, a portent huge in might,

The weapons of whose forging shall o'er-blaze

His lightning and out-blare his thunder-blast.

And the new sea-god's spear, the trident dread,

Poseidon's arm that plagues the stricken lands

With earthquake, shall be shattered by his power.

Zeus, foundering on that rock, shall fathom then

What space divides the ruler from the slave.

1 Aisch. P.v. 755 ff. trans. L. Campbell.
 
Annotationen