Epeisodion 4
Io
With a divinity or with a mortal? If it may be told, speak out.
765
Prometheus
Why ask with whom? I may not speak of this.
Io
Is it by his consort that he shall be dethroned?
Prometheus
Yes, since she shall bear a son mightier than his father.
Io
And has he no means to avert this doom?
Prometheus
No, none—except me, if I were released from bondage.
770
Io
Who then is to release you against the will of Zeus?
Prometheus
It is to be one of your own grandchildren.
Io
What did you say? A child of mine will release you from your misery?
Prometheus
The third in descent after ten generations.
Io
Your prophecy is not easy to understand.
775
Prometheus
Yes, so do not seek to learn the full extent of your own sufferings.
Io
Do not offer me a favor and then withdraw it.
Prometheus
I will present you with one or other of two tales.
Io
Which two? Set them forth and offer me the choice.
Prometheus
I am making the offer: choose whether I shall reveal the sufferings still in store for you or the one who will be my deliverer.
780
Chorus
Consent to bestow on her one of these favors, and on me the other; do not deny me the tale. Tell her about her further wanderings;
tell me who will deliver you—for I would like to know this.
785
Prometheus
Well, since you are bent on this, I will not refuse to proclaim all that you still crave to know. First, to you, Io, will I declare your much-vexed wandering, and may you engrave it on the recording tablets of your mind.
When you have crossed the stream that bounds the two continents, toward the flaming east, where the sun walks,......
crossing the surging sea until you reach the Gorgonean plains of Cisthene, where the daughters of Phorcys dwell, ancient maids,
790
