n of Kronos was afraid at
my doings, lest, with the aid of men, I might hurl him from his place
and set up new gods upon his throne. So he forgot all my good deeds in
times past, how I had aided him when the earth-born giants sought to
destroy his power and heaped rock on rock and crag on crag to smite
him on his throne, and he caught me by craft, telling me in smooth
words how that he was my friend, and that my honor should not fail in
the halls of Olympos. So he took me unawares and bound me with iron
chains, and bade Hephaistos take and fasten me to this mountain-side,
where the frost and wind and heat scorch and torment me by day and
night, and the vulture gnaws my heart with its merciless beak. But my
spirit is not wholly cast down, for I know that I have done good to
the sons of men, and that they honor the Titan Prometheus, who has
saved them from cold and hunger and sickness. And well I know, also,
that the reign of Zeus shall one day come to an end, and that another
shall sit at length upon his throne, even as now he sits on the throne
of his father, Kronos. Hither come, also, those who seek to comfort
me, and thou seest before thee the daughters of Okeanos, who have but
now left the green halls of their father to talk with me. Listen,
then, to me, daughter of Inachos, and I will tell thee what shall
befall thee in time to come. Hence from the ice-bound chain of
Caucasus thou shalt roam into the Scythian land and the regions of
Chalybes. Thence thou shalt come to the dwelling-place of the Amazons,
on the banks of the river Thermodon; these shall guide thee on thy
way, until at length thou shalt come to a strait, which thou wilt
cross, and which shall tell by its name forever where the heifer
passed from Europe into Asia. But the end of thy wanderings is not
yet."

Then Io could no longer repress her grief, and her tears burst forth
afresh; and Prometheus said, "Daughter of Inachos, if thou sorrowest
thus at what I have told thee, how wilt thou bear to hear what beyond
these things there remains for thee to do?" But Io said, "Of what use
is it, O Titan, to tell me of these woeful wanderings? Better were it
now to die and be at rest from all this misery and sorrow." "Nay, not
so, O maiden of Argos," said Prometheus, "for if thou livest, the days
will come when Zeus shall be cast down from his throne, and the end of
his reign shall also be the end of my sufferings. For when thou hast
passed by the Thrakian Bospor