Ah, I have been waiting long.
PANDORA.
How beautiful is this house! The atmosphere Breathes rest and comfort, and the many chambers Seem full of welcomes.
EPIMETHEUS.
They not only seem, But truly are.

This dwelling and its master Belong to thee.
PANDORA.
Here let me stay forever! There is a spell upon me.
EPIMETHEUS.
Thou thyself Art the enchantress, and I feel thy power Envelop me, and wrap my soul and sense In an Elysian dream.
PANDORA, O, let me stay.
How beautiful are all things round about me, Multiplied by the mirrors on the walls! What treasures hast thou here! Yon oaken chest, Carven with figures and embossed with gold, Is wonderful to look upon! What choice And precious things dost thou keep hidden in it?
EPIMETHEUS.
I know not.

'T is a mystery.
PANDORA.
Hast thou never Lifted the lid?
EPIMETHEUS.
The oracle forbids.
Safely concealed there from all mortal eyes Forever sleeps the secret of the Gods.
Seek not to know what they have hidden from thee, Till they themselves reveal it.
PANDORA.
As thou wilt.
EPIMETHEUS.
Let us go forth from this mysterious place.
The garden walks are pleasant at this hour; The nightingales among the sheltering boughs Of populous and many-nested trees Shall teach me how to woo thee, and shall tell me By what resistless charms or incantations They won their mates.
PANDORA.
Thou dost not need a teacher.
(They go out.) CHORUS OF THE EUMENIDES.
What the Immortals Confide to thy keeping, Tell unto no man; Waking or sleeping, Closed be thy portals To friend as to foeman.
Silence conceals it; The word that is spoken Betrays and reveals it; By breath or by token The charm may be broken.
With shafts of their splendors The Gods unforgiving Pursue the offenders, The dead and the living! Fortune forsakes them, Nor earth shall abide them, Nor Tartarus hide them; Swift wrath overtakes them! With useless endeavor, Forever, forever, Is Sisyphus rolling His stone up the mountain! Immersed in the fountain, Tantalus tastes not The water that wastes not! Through ages increasing The pangs that afflict him, With motion unceasing The wheel of Ixion Shall torture its victim! VI IN THE GARDEN EPIMETHEUS.
Yon snow-white cloud that sails sublime in ether Is but the sovereign Zeus, who like a swan Flies to fair-ankled Leda! PANDORA.
Or perchance Ixion's cloud, the shadowy shape of Hera, That bore the Centaurs.
EPIMETHEUS.
The divine and human.
CHORUS OF BIRDS.
Gently swaying to and fro, Rocked by all the winds that blow, Bright with sunshine from above Dark with shadow from below, Beak to beak and breast to breast In the cradle of their nest, Lie the fledglings of our love.
ECHO.
Love! love! EPIMETHEUS.
Hark! listen! Hear how sweetly overhead The feathered flute-players pipe their songs of love, And echo answers, love and only love.
CHORUS OF BIRDS.
Every flutter of the wing, Every note of song we sing, Every murmur, every tone, Is of love and love alone.
ECHO.
Love alone! EPIMETHEUS.
Who would not love, if loving she might be Changed like Callisto to a star in heaven?
PANDORA.
Ah, who would love, if loving she might be Like Semele consumed and burnt to ashes?
EPIMETHEUS.
Whence knowest thou these stories?
PANDORA.
Hermes taught me; He told me all the history of the Gods.
CHORUS OF REEDS.
Evermore a sound shall be In the reeds of Arcady, Evermore a low lament Of unrest and discontent, As the story is retold Of the nymph so coy and cold, Who with frightened feet outran The pursuing steps of Pan.
EPIMETHEUS.
The pipe of Pan out of these reeds is made, And when he plays upon it to the shepherds They pity him, so mournful is the sound.
Be thou not coy and cold as Syrinx was.
PANDORA.
Nor thou as Pan be rude and mannerless.
PROMETHEUS (without).
Ho! Epimetheus! EPIMETHEUS.
'T is my brother's voice; A sound unwelcome and inopportune As was the braying of Silenus' ass, Once heard in Cybele's garden.
PANDORA.
Let me go.
I would not be found here.

I would not see him.
(She escapes among the trees.) CHORUS OF DRYADES.
Haste and hide thee, Ere too late, In these thickets intricate; Lest Prometheus See and chide thee, Lest some hurt Or harm betide thee, Haste and hide thee! PROMETHEUS (entering.) Who was it fled from here?
I saw a shape Flitting among the trees.
EPIMETHEUS.
It was Pandora.
PROMETHEUS.
O Epimetheus! Is it then in vain That I have warned thee?
Let me now implore.
Thou harborest in thy house a dangerous guest.
EPIMETHEUS.
Whom the Gods love they honor with such guests.
PROMETHEUS.
Whom the Gods would destroy they first make mad.
EPIMETHEUS.
Shall I refuse the gifts they send to me?
PROMETHEUS.
Reject all gifts that come from higher powers.
EPIMETHEUS.
Such gifts as this are not to be rejected.
PROMETHEUS.
Make not thyself the slave of any woman.
EPIMETHEUS.
Make not thyself the judge of any man.
PROMETHEUS.
I judge thee not; for thou art more than man; Thou art descended from Titanic race, And hast a Titan's strength, and faculties That make thee godlike; and thou sittest here Like Heracles spinning Omphale's flax, And beaten with her sandals.
EPIMETHEUS.
O my brother! Thou drivest me to madness with thy taunts.
PROMETHEUS.
And me thou drivest to madness with thy follies.
Come with me to my tower on Caucasus: See there my forges in the roaring caverns, Beneficent to man, and taste the joy That springs from labor.

Read with me the stars, And learn the virtues that lie hidden in plants, And all things that are useful.
EPIMETHEU5.
O my brother! I am not as thou art.