Thou art Hermes, Captain of thieves! Hast thou again been stealing The heifers of Admetus in the sweet Meadows of asphodel?
or Hera's girdle?
Or the earth-shaking trident of Poseidon?
HERMES.
And thou, Prometheus; say, hast thou again Been stealing fire from Helios' chariot-wheels To light thy furnaces?
PROMETHEUS.
Why comest thou hither So early in the dawn?
HERMES.
The Immortal Gods Know naught of late or early.

Zeus himself The omnipotent hath sent me.
PROMETHEUS.
For what purpose?
HERMES.
To bring this maiden to thee.
PROMETHEUS.
I mistrust The Gods and all their gifts.

If they have sent her It is for no good purpose.
HERMES.
What disaster Could she bring on thy house, who is a woman?
PROMETHEUS.
The Gods are not my friends, nor am I theirs.
Whatever comes from them, though in a shape As beautiful as this, is evil only.
Who art thou?
PANDORA.
One who, though to thee unknown, Yet knoweth thee.
PROMETHEUS.
How shouldst thou know me, woman?
PANDORA.
Who knoweth not Prometheus the humane?
PROMETHEUS.
Prometheus the unfortunate; to whom Both Gods and men have shown themselves ungrateful.
When every spark was quenched on every hearth Throughout the earth, I brought to man the fire And all its ministrations.

My reward Hath been the rock and vulture.
HERMES.
But the Gods At last relent and pardon.
PROMETHEUS.
They relent not; They pardon not; they are implacable, Revengeful, unforgiving! HERMES.
As a pledge Of reconciliation they have sent to thee This divine being, to be thy companion, And bring into thy melancholy house The sunshine and the fragrance of her youth.
PROMETHEUS.
I need them not.

I have within myself All that my heart desires; the ideal beauty Which the creative faculty of mind Fashions and follows in a thousand shapes More lovely than the real.