[64] [Byron was a lover and worshipper of Prometheus as a boy. His first English exercise at Harrow was a paraphrase of a chorus of the _Prometheus Vinctus_ of Æschylus, line 528, _sq._ (see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 14). Referring to a criticism on _Manfred_ (_Edinburgh Review_, vol xxviii. p. 431) he writes (October 12, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 174): "The _Prometheus_, if not exactly in my plan, has always been so much in my head, that I can easily conceive its influence over all or any thing that I have written." The conception of an immortal sufferer at once beneficent and defiant, appealed alike to his passions and his convictions, and awoke a peculiar enthusiasm. His poems abound with allusions to the hero and the legend. Compare the first draft of stanza xvi. of the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_ (_Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 312, var. ii.); _The Prophecy of Dante_, iv. 10, seq.; the _Irish Avatar_, stanza xii. line 2, etc.] [65] {49}[Compare-- Τοιαῦτ' ἐπηύρου τοῦ φιλανθρώπου τρόπου _P. V._, line 28. Compare, too-- Θνητὸυς δ' ἐν οἴ.κtῳ προθέμενος, τούτου τυχεῖν Οὐκ ἠξιώθην αὐτὸς Ibid., lines 241, 242.] [66] [Compare-- Διὸς γὰρ δυσπαραίτητοι φρένες. Ibid., line 34. Compare, too-- ...γιγνώσκονθ' ὅτι Τὸ τῆς ἀνάγκης ἐστ' ἀδήριτον σθένος Ibid., line 105.] [67] {50}[Compare-- "The maker--call him Which name thou wilt; he makes but to destroy." _Cain_, act i. sc. 1. Compare, too-- "And the Omnipotent, who makes and crushes." _Heaven and Earth_, Part I. sc. 3.] [68] [Compare-- Ὄτῳ θανεῖν μέν ἐστιν οὐ πεπρωμένον _P. V._, line 754.] [69][Compare-- ...πάντα προὐξεπίσταμαι Σκεθρῶς τά μέλλοντα Ibid., lines 101, 102.] [70] [Compare-- Θνητοῖς δ' ἀήγων αὐτὸς εὑρόμην πόνους. Ibid., line 269.] [71] {51}[Compare-- "But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity." _Manfred_, act i. sc. 2, lines 39, 40, _vide post_, p. 95.] [m] ----_and equal to all woes_.--[Editions 1832, etc.] [72] [The edition of 1832 and subsequent issues read "and equal." It is clear that the earlier reading, "an equal," is correct. The spirit opposed by the spirit is an equal, etc. The spirit can also oppose to "its own funereal destiny" a firm will, etc.]