About the opening scene of Act III of Prometheus Unbound, there is general agreement that it “is an example of irony in the classical sense in which everything the speaker says is true, but in a way that he does not comprehend” (NS 256). The “fatal child” of Jupiter's eager anticipation will be fatal to him, not for him. Drunk with power and sexually aroused, Jupiter calls for Idaean Ganymede to “fill the daedal cups” and for a “wide voice” of exultation to rise up circling into a full-throated plenum of song and celebration. But in reality this tyrant of the world is on the brink of an annihilation toward which he will plunge with the “Ai! Ai!” (III.i.79) of Prometheus's pain and Apollo's written grief on his lips. What Jupiter has brought forth will not dynastically seal his sovereignty as the only potent begetter; instead, its advent will put an end to him just as he previously put an end to Saturn. All this is true enough. The enthroned tyrant of heaven does incarnate the old story of pride running before a fall.