Prom. Yea; she shall bear child mightier than his sire.

      Io. Has he no way to turn aside that doom?

      Prom. No, none; unless I from my bonds be loosed.184

      Io. Who then shall loose thee 'gainst the will of Zeus?

      Prom. It must be one of thy posterity.

      Io. What, shall a child of mine free thee from ills?

      Prom. Yea, the third generation after ten.185

      Io. No more thine oracles are clear to me.

      Prom. Nay, seek not thou thine own drear fate to know.

      Io. Do not, a boon presenting, then withdraw it.

      Prom. Of two alternatives, I'll give thee choice.

      Io. Tell me of what, then give me leave to choose.

      Prom. I give it then. Choose, or that I should tell

      Thy woes to come, or who shall set me free.

      Chor. Of these be willing one request to grant

      To her, and one to me; nor scorn my words:

      Tell her what yet of wanderings she must bear,

      And me who shall release thee. This I crave.

      Prom. Since ye are eager, I will not refuse

      To utter fully all that ye desire.

      Thee, Io, first I'll tell thy wanderings wild,

      Thou, write it in the tablets of thy mind.

      When thou shalt cross the straits, of continents

      The boundary,186 take thou the onward path

      On to the fiery-hued and sun-tracked East.

      [And first of all, to frozen Northern blasts

      Thou'lt come, and there beware the rushing whirl,

      Lest it should come upon thee suddenly,

      And sweep thee onward with the cloud-rack wild;]187

      Crossing the sea-surf till thou come at last

      Unto Kisthene's Gorgoneian plains,

      Where dwell the grey-haired virgin Phorkides,188

      Three, swan-shaped, with one eye between them all

      And but one tooth; whom nor the sun beholds

      With radiant beams, nor yet the moon by night:

      And near them are their wingèd sisters three,

      The Gorgons, serpent-tressed, and hating men,

      Whom mortal wight may not behold and live.

      Such is one ill I bid thee guard against;

      Now hear another monstrous sight: Beware

      The sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that never bark,189

      The Gryphons, and the one-eyed, mounted host

      Of Arimaspians, who around the stream

      That flows o'er gold, the ford of Pluto, dwell:190

      Draw not thou nigh to them. But distant land

      Thou shalt approach, the swarthy tribes who dwell

      By the sun's fountain,191 Æthiopia's stream:

      By its banks wend thy way until thou come

      To that great fall where from the Bybline hills

      The Neilos pours its pure and holy flood;

      And it shall guide thee to Neilotic land,

      Three-angled, where, O Io, 'tis decreed

      For thee and for thy progeny to found

      A far-off colony. And if of this

      Aught seem to thee as stammering speech obscure,

      Ask yet again and learn it thoroughly:

      Far more of leisure have I than I like.

      Chor. If thou hast aught to add, aught left untold

      Of her sore-wasting wanderings, speak it out;

      But if thou hast said all, then grant to us

      The boon we asked. Thou dost not, sure, forget it.

      Prom. The whole course of her journeying she hath heard,

      And that she know she hath not heard in vain

      I will tell out what troubles she hath borne

      Before she came here, giving her sure proof

      Of these my words. The greater bulk of things

      I will pass o'er, and to the very goal

      Of all thy wanderings go. For when thou cam'st

      To the Molossian plains, and by the grove192

      Of lofty-ridged Dodona, and the shrine

      Oracular of Zeus Thesprotian,

      And the strange portent of the talking oaks,

      By which full clearly, not in riddle dark,

      Thou wast addressed as noble spouse of Zeus, —

      If aught of pleasure such things give to thee, —

      Thence strung to frenzy, thou did'st rush along

      The sea-coast's path to Rhea's mighty gulf,193

      In backward way from whence thou now art vexed,

      And for all time to come that reach of sea,

      Know well, from thee Ionian shall be called,

      To all men record of thy journeyings.

      These then are tokens to thee that my mind

      Sees somewhat more than that is manifest.

      What follows (to the Chorus) I will speak to you and her

      In common, on the track of former words

      Returning once again. A city stands,

      Canôbos, at its country's furthest bound,

      Hard by the mouth and silt-bank of the Nile;

      There Zeus shall give thee back thy mind again,194

      With hand that works no terror touching thee, —

      Touch only – and thou then shalt bear a child

      Of Zeus begotten, Epaphos, “Touch-born,”

      Swarthy of hue, whose lot shall be to reap

      The whole plain watered by the broad-streamed Neilos:

      And in the generation fifth from him

      A household numbering fifty shall return

      Against their will to Argos, in their flight

      From wedlock with their cousins.195 And they too,

      (Kites but a little space behind the doves)

      With