Prometheus Unbound

Near Prometheus’s cave, Panthea and Ione are sleeping. They are gradually awoken by the procession of “a train of dark forms and shadows” (IV.8)—the ghosts of “the dead hours” (IV.13), who are taking Time to his eternal tomb. In rhyming meter, Unseen Spirits herald the arrival of the Spirits of Air and Earth. The shadowy Hours have heard the call of Hope, Love, and Power. They describe their history: Where once they were “hounds” pursuing prey, they are now united with “might and pleasure” (IV.79). The Spirits of the Human Mind enter; together with the Hours, they celebrate the new utopia of wisdom and joy expressed through the arts and science. When they finish their song, they leave.

Ione and Panthea can hear the “deep music of the rolling world” (IV.186), or the so-called music of the spheres, imagined to be the sound of celestial bodies rotating and orbiting. Panthea describes the Spirit of the Earth sleeping happily and soundly. On its forehead is a star that symbolizes the unification of heaven and earth. The light from the star illuminates “the melancholy ruins” (IV.288) of past fallen empires.

The Earth celebrates the joy and triumph that covers it and describes how all of nature rejoices.