all
inventions,[37] the combinations too of letters, and Memory, effective
mother-nurse of all arts. I also first bound with yokes beasts
submissive to the collars; and in order that with their bodies they
might become to mortals substitutes for their severest toils, I brought
steeds under cars obedient to the rein,[38] a glory to pompous luxury.
And none other than I invented the canvas-winged chariots of mariners
that roam over the ocean. After discovering for mortals such inventions,
wretch that I am, I myself have no device whereby I may escape from my
present misery.

CH. Thou hast suffered unseemly ills, baulked in thy discretion thou art
erring; and like a bad physician, having fallen into a distemper thou
art faint-hearted, and, in reference to thyself, thou canst not discover
by what manner of medicines thou mayest be cured.

PR. When thou hearest the rest of my tale, thou wilt wonder still more
what arts and resources I contrived. For the greatest--if that any one
fell into a distemper, there was no remedy, neither in the way of diet,
nor of liniment, nor of potion, but for lack of medicines they used to
pine away to skeletons, before that I pointed out to them the
composition[39] of mild remedies, wherewith they ward off all their
maladies. Many modes too of the divining art did I classify, and was the
first that discriminated among dreams those which are destined to be a
true vision; obscure vocal omens[40] too I made known to them; tokens
also incidental on the road, and the flight of birds of crooked talons I
clearly defined, both those that are in their nature auspicious, and the
ill-omened, and what the kind of life that each leads, and what are
their feuds and endearments[41] and intercourse one with another: the
smoothness too of the entrails, and what hue they must have to be
acceptable to the gods, the various happy formations of the gall and
liver, and the limbs enveloped in fat: and having roasted the long chine
I pointed out to mortals the way into an abstruse art; and I brought to
light the fiery symbols[42] that were aforetime wrapt in darkness. Such
indeed were these boons; and the gains to mankind that were hidden under
ground, brass, iron, silver, and gold--who could assert that he had
discovered before me? No one, I well know, who does not mean to idly
babble. And in one brief sentence learn the whole at once--All arts
among the human race are from Prometheus.

CH. Do not now serve the h