Themes
Hybris – Τhe three ‘victims’ alluded to in the poem (Agamemnon, Andromeda, Prometheus) were explicity or implicitly involved in an act of hybris.
Continuous suffering (stressed by the adverbs ‘again’ (l. 1) ‘with the years’ (l. 4)
Line 7: “Δεμένη πάνω στον βράχο που έγινε με τον πόνο δικός μου”
O ταλαιπωρημένος άνθρωπος αποκτά μια οικειότητα με την άψυχη φύση που τον περιβάλλει.
Language
Line 5: ‘Τhe sea, the sea, who will be able to drain it dry?’
An allusion to Aeschylus’ Agamemnon 958. The line is outspoken by Clytemnestra in her attempt to justify Agamemnon’s treading on the purple carpet leading to the palace.
[cf. Notes for a Week, Monday & Wednesday; Gymnopaidia, Mycenae, The Last Dance]
Line 6: “I see the hands, each dawn, beckoning to the hawk and the vulture”
Even though the chained persona loquens is Andromeda, the reference to the hawk and the vulture blends her voice with the outcry of chained Prometheus.
Mythic Characters
Prometheus (implicitly)
Agamemnon (implicitly)
Andromeda
Bibliography
Capri-Karka, C. 1982. Love and the Symbolic Journey in the Poetry of Cavafy, Eliot and Seferis, Pella.
Capri-Karka, C. 1985. War in the poetry of George Seferis, New York, at 56-7.
Jakob, D. 1986. ‘Η “Ανδρομέδα” του Γιώργου Σεφέρη’, Diavazo 142: 130-7.