Epeisodion 4
Prometheus
inhabit Themiscyra on the Thermodon, where, fronting the sea, is Salmydessus’ rugged jaw, evil host of mariners, step-mother of ships. The Amazons will gladly guide you on your way. Next, just at the narrow portals of the harbor, you shall reach
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the Cimmerian isthmus. This you must leave with stout heart and pass through the channel of Maeotis; and ever after among mankind there shall be great mention of your passing, and it shall be called after you the Bosporus.
Βόσπορος, by popular etymology derived from βοῦς and πόρος, passing of the cow, is, according to Wecklein, a Thracian form of Φωσφόρος, light-bearing, an epithet of the goddess Hecate. The dialectical form, once misunderstood, was then, it is conjectured, transferred from the Thracian (cp. Aesch. Pers. 746) to the Crimean strait. In theSuppliantsAeschylus makes Io cross the Thracian
Bosporus.Then, leaving the soil of Europe,
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you shall come to the Asian continent.
Does it not seem to you that the tyrant of the gods is violent in all his ways? For this god, desirous of union with this mortal maid, has imposed upon her these wanderings. Maiden, you have gained a cruel suitor
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for your hand. As to the tale you now have heard— understand that it has not even passed the introduction.
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Prometheus
What! You are crying and groaning again? What will you do, I wonder, when you have learned the sufferings still in store for you?
Chorus
What! Can it be that you have sufferings still left to recount to her?
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Prometheus
Yes, a tempestuous sea of calamitous distress.
Io
What gain have I then in life? Why did I not hurl myself straightaway from this rugged rock, so that I was dashed to earth and freed from
all my sufferings? It is better to die once and for all than linger out all my days in misery.
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Prometheus
Ah, you would hardly bear my agonies to whom it is not foredoomed to die; for death would have freed me from my sufferings.
But now no limit to my tribulations has been appointed until Zeus is hurled from his sovereignty.
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Io
What! Shall Zeus one day be hurled from his dominion?
Prometheus
You would rejoice, I think, to see that happen.
Io
Why not, since it is at the hand of Zeus that I suffer?
Prometheus
Then you may assure yourself that these things are true.
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Io
By whom shall he be despoiled of the sceptre of his sovereignty?
Prometheus
By himself and his own empty-headed purposes.
Io
In what way? Oh tell me, if there be no harm in telling.
Prometheus
He shall make a marriage that shall one day cause him distress.
