Read the excerpt from "Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.[Prometheus.]Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours,And moments aye divided by keen pangsTill they seemed years, torture and solitude,Scorn and despair,—these are mine empire:—More glorious far than that which thou surveyestFrom thine unenvied throne, O Mighty God!Almighty, had I deigned to share the shameOf thine ill tyranny, and hung not hereNailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain,Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb,Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life.Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!**Jupiter has chained Prometheus to the face of a steep cliff to be tortured for all eternity as punishment for giving humans fire. In this excerpt, Prometheus is raging against Jupiter for the injustice being done to him. Prometheus defiantly tells Jupiter that, even though Jupiter is an all-powerful god, Prometheus does not envy him. Prometheus also criticizes Jupiter’s treatment of humans. (Note: Jupiter and Zeus are the same god; the only difference is the name. Jupiter is the supreme god in Roman mythology, and Zeus is the supreme god in Greek mythology.)Read the excerpt from Prometheus by Josephine Preston Peabody.At last that earlier enmity between the gods and the Titans came to an end. The banished rebels were set free from Tartarus, and they themselves came and besought their brother, Prometheus, to hear the terms of Zeus. For the King of gods and men had promised to pardon his enemy, if he would only reveal this one troublous secret.In all heaven and earth there was but one thing that marred the new harmony,—this long struggle between Zeus and Prometheus; and the Titan [Prometheus] relented. He spoke the prophecy, warned Zeus not to marry Thetis, and the two were reconciled.
Read the excerpt from Pygmalion and Galatea by Josephine Preston Peabody.But it chanced that Pygmalion fell to work upon an ivory statue of a maiden, so lovely that it must have moved to envy every breathing creature that came to look upon it. With a happy heart the sculptor wrought day by day, giving it all the beauty of his dreams, until, when the work was completed, he felt powerless to leave it. He was bound to it by the tie of his highest aspiration, his most perfect ideal, his most patient work.Read the excerpt from Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.HIGGINS. It’s only imagination. Low spirits and nothing else. Nobody’s hurting you. Nothing’s wrong. You go to bed like a good girl and sleep it off. Have a little cry and say your prayers: that will make you comfortable.LIZA. I heard YOUR prayers. "Thank God it’s all over!”HIGGINS [impatiently] Well, don’t you thank God it’s all over? Now you are free and can do what you like.LIZA [pulling herself together in desperation] What am I fit for? What have you left me fit for? Where am I to go? What am I to do? What’s to become of me?HIGGINS [enlightened, but not at all impressed] Oh, that’s what’s worrying you, is it? [He thrusts his hands into his pockets, and walks about in his usual manner, rattling the contents of his pockets, as if condescending to a trivial subject out of pure kindness]. I shouldn’t bother about it if I were you. I should imagine you won’t have much difficulty in settling yourself, somewhere or other, though I hadn’t quite realized that you were going away. [She looks quickly at him: he does not look at her, but examines the dessert stand on the piano and decides that he will eat an apple]. You might marry, you know. [He bites a large piece out of the apple, and munches it noisily]. You see, Eliza, all men are not confirmed old bachelors like me and the Colonel. Most men are the marrying sort (poor devils!); and you’re not bad-looking; it’s quite a pleasure to look at you sometimes—not now, of course, because you’re crying and looking as ugly as the very devil; but when you’re all right and quite yourself, you’re what I should call attractive. That is, to the people in the marrying line, you understand. You go to bed and have a good nice rest; and then get up and look at yourself in the glass; and you won’t feel so cheap.
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Read the excerpt from "Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.SCENE.—A Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. Prometheus is discovered bound to the Precipice.* Panthea and Ione are seated at his feet. Time, night. During the Scene, morning slowly breaks.Prometheus. Monarch of Gods and Dæmons, and all SpiritsBut One, who throng those bright and rolling worldsWhich Thou and I alone of living thingsBehold with sleepless eyes! regard this EarthMade multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thouRequitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise,And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate,Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn,O’er mine own misery and thy vain revenge.Three thousand years of sleep-unsheltered hours,And moments aye divided by keen pangsTill they seemed years, torture and solitude,Scorn and despair,—these are mine empire:—More glorious far than that which thou surveyestFrom thine unenvied throne, O Mighty God!Almighty, had I deigned to share the shameOf thine ill tyranny, and hung not hereNailed to this wall of eagle-baffling mountain,Black, wintry, dead, unmeasured; without herb,Insect, or beast, or shape or sound of life.Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!***very steep rock face or cliff**Jupiter has chained Prometheus to the face of a steep cliff to be tortured for all eternity as punishment for giving humans fire. In this excerpt, Prometheus is raging against Jupiter for the injustice being done to him. Prometheus defiantly tells Jupiter that, even though Jupiter is an all-powerful god, Prometheus does not envy him. Prometheus also criticizes Jupiter’s treatment of humans. (Note: Jupiter and Zeus are the same god; the only difference is the name. Jupiter is the supreme god in Roman mythology, and Zeus is the supreme god in Greek mythology.)Read the excerpt from Prometheus by Josephine Preston Peabody.This was his greatest gift to man, but it was a theft from the immortal gods, and Zeus would endure no more. He could not take back the secret of fire; but he had Prometheus chained to a lofty crag in the Caucasus, where every day a vulture came to prey upon his body, and at night the wound would heal, so that it was ever to suffer again. It was a bitter penalty for so noble-hearted a rebel, and as time went by, and Zeus remembered his bygone services, he would have made peace once more. He only waited till Prometheus should bow his stubborn spirit, but this the son of Titans would not do. Haughty as rock beneath his daily torment, believing that he suffered for the good of mankind, he endured for years.. . . Year after year, lashed by the storms and scorched by the heat of the sun, he hung in chains and the vulture tore his vitals, while the young Oceanides* wept at his feet, and men sorrowed over the doom of their protector.*water nymphs who were the daughters of Titans Oceanus and Thetis
Read the excerpt from "Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.SCENE.—A Ravine of Icy Rocks in the Indian Caucasus. Prometheus is discovered bound to the Precipice.* Panthea and Ione are seated at his feet. Time, night. During the Scene, morning slowly breaks.Prometheus. Monarch of Gods and Dæmons, and all SpiritsBut One, who throng those bright and rolling worldsWhich Thou and I alone of living thingsBehold with sleepless eyes! regard this EarthMade multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thouRequitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise,And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts,With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.***very steep rock face or cliff**Jupiter has chained Prometheus to the face of a steep cliff to be tortured for all eternity as punishment for giving humans fire. In this excerpt, Prometheus criticizes Jupiter’s treatment of humans. (Note: Jupiter and Zeus are the same god; the only difference is the name. Jupiter is the supreme god in Roman mythology, and Zeus is the supreme god in Greek mythology.)Read the excerpt from Prometheus by Josephine Preston Peabody.One secret hardened his spirit. He was sure that the empire of Zeus must fall some day, since he knew of a danger that threatened it. For there was a certain beautiful sea-nymph, Thetis, whom Zeus desired for his wife. (This was before his marriage to Queen Juno.) Prometheus alone knew that Thetis was destined to have a son who should be far greater than his father. If she married some mortal, then, the prophecy was not so wonderful; but if she were to marry the King of gods and men, and her son should be greater than he, there could be no safety for the kingdom. This knowledge Prometheus kept securely hidden; but he ever defied Zeus, and vexed him with dark sayings about a danger that threatened his sovereignty. No torment could wring the secret from him. Year after year, lashed by the storms and scorched by the heat of the sun, he hung in chains and the vulture tore his vitals, while the young Oceanides* wept at his feet, and men sorrowed over the doom of their protector.*water nymphs who were the daughters of Titans Oceanus and Thetis
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Read the excerpt from "Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.[Prometheus.]No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,Heaven’s ever-changing Shadow, spread below,Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!**Jupiter has chained Prometheus to the face of a steep cliff to be tortured for all eternity as punishment for giving humans fire. (Note: Jupiter and Zeus are the same god; the only difference is the name. Jupiter is the supreme god in Roman mythology, and Zeus is the supreme god in Greek mythology.)Read the excerpt from Prometheus by Josephine Preston Peabody.At last that earlier enmity between the gods and the Titans came to an end. The banished rebels were set free from Tartarus, and they themselves came and besought their brother, Prometheus, to hear the terms of Zeus.
Read the excerpt from "Prometheus Unbound” by Percy Bysshe Shelley.[Prometheus.]The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spearsOf their moon-freezing crystals, the bright chainsEat with their burning cold into my bones.Heaven's wingèd hound, polluting from thy lipsHis beak in poison not his own, tears upMy heart; and shapeless sights come wandering by,The ghastly people of the realm of dream,Mocking me: and the Earthquake-fiends are chargedTo wrench the rivets from my quivering woundsWhen the rocks split and close again behind**Jupiter has chained Prometheus to the face of a steep cliff to be tortured for all eternity as punishment for giving humans fire. (Note: Jupiter and Zeus are the same god; the only difference is the name. Jupiter is the supreme god in Roman mythology, and Zeus is the supreme god in Greek mythology.)Read the excerpt from Prometheus by Josephine Preston Peabody.This was his greatest gift to man, but it was a theft from the immortal gods, and Zeus would endure no more. He could not take back the secret of fire; but he had Prometheus chained to a lofty crag in the Caucasus, where every day a vulture came to prey upon his body, and at night the wound would heal, so that it was ever to suffer again. It was a bitter penalty for so noble-hearted a rebel, and as time went by, and Zeus remembered his bygone services, he would have made peace once more. He only waited till Prometheus should bow his stubborn spirit, but this the son of Titans would not do. Haughty as rock beneath his daily torment, believing that he suffered for the good of mankind, he endured for years.
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