“_What, O what was the sin in me, O son of Cronos, that thou didst find? Why hast thou doomed me thus to suffer By the gadfly’s goad still onward driven, Weary of fleeing, distraught with dread?... Enough I have wandered— Wandered afar till my strength is spent; And still from my doom escape is none. Dost thou mark my speech? The hornèd maiden hearest thou?_“[20] Prometheus does indeed hear and know her, he says, the poor frenzied daughter of Inachus, whom Zeus loves. As he speaks her father’s name, Io catches at it eagerly. Perhaps this may be a friend. IO. _Who told thee of my sire? Tell me, the sufferer—who art thou, That thou hast named aright One wretched as thyself?..._ PROM. _This is Prometheus, who gave fire to men._ IO. _Of all our human kind, proved helper thou, Ill-starred Prometheus—what hath earned thee this?_[20] In rapid interchange of question and answer, the cause of the quarrel, and its consequence, are related to Io; and then, because she knows that Prometheus can foresee the future, she begs him to tell her what is in store for herself. The titan warns her that the knowledge can only bring fresh pain; and for awhile the prophecy is delayed, as Io, at the petition of the nymphs, tells her own strange story. IO. _Your will is law to me; I must obey. ... Albeit I blush to tell. Haunting my virgin chamber, night by night, Came visions to beguile me while I slept With fair smooth words: “O maiden highly blest, Be maiden now no more; to whom ‘tis given To mate thee with the Highest; thy beauty’s shaft Glows in the heart of Zeus, and for his bride He claims thee.”_[20] Her father Inachus sent anxious messages to the oracles at Delphi and Dodona to inquire what this persistent vision might mean. At first ambiguous answers came. _But at the last to Inachus there came A peremptory word, with mandate clear, To cast me from my country and my home, At the world’s end a wanderer far from men; And, if he would not, swift from Zeus should come A fiery bolt that should consume his race._[20] With sorrowful heart, Inachus obeyed the oracular command, constrained thereto by Zeus. Io was driven out to the pastures of her father’s herds.