The Theogony
(ll. 1-25) From the Heliconian Muses let
us begin to sing, who hold the great and
holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft
feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar
of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when
they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus
or in the Horse's Spring or Olmeius, make
their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon
and move with vigorous feet. Thence they
arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick
mist, and utter their song with lovely voice,
praising Zeus the aegis- holder and queenly
Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals
and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder
bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and
Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon
the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and
reverend Themis and quick-glancing (1) Aphrodite,
and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair
Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty
counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright
Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and
dark Night, and the holy race of all the
other deathless ones that are for ever. And
one day they taught Hesiod glorious song
while he was shepherding his lambs under
holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses
said to me -- the Muses of Olympus, daughters
of Zeus who holds the aegis:
(ll. 26-28) `Shepherds of the wilderness,
wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we
know how to speak many false things as though
they were true; but we know, when we will,
to utter true things.'
(ll. 29-35) So said the ready-voiced daughters
of great Zeus, and they plucked and gave
me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvellous
thing, and breathed into me a divine voice
to celebrate things that shall be and things
there were aforetime; and they bade me sing
of the race of the blessed gods that are
eternally, but ever to sing of themselves
both first and last. But why all this about
oak or stone? (2)
(ll. 36-52) Come thou, let us begin with
the Muses who gladden the great spirit of
their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs,
telling of things that are and that shall
be and that were aforetime with consenting
voice. Unwearying flows the sweet sound from
their lips, and the house of their father
Zeus the loud-thunderer is glad at the lily-like
voice of the goddesses as it spread abroad,
and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound, and
the homes of the immortals. And they uttering
their immortal voice, celebrate in song first
of all the reverend race of the gods from
the beginning, those whom Earth and wide
Heaven begot, and the gods sprung of these,
givers of good things. Then, next, the goddesses
sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men,
as they begin and end their strain, how much
he is the most excellent among the gods and
supreme in power. And again, they chant the
race of men and strong giants, and gladden
the heart of Zeus within Olympus,
-- the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus
the aegis-holder.
(ll. 53-74) Them in Pieria did Mnemosyne
(Memory), who reigns over the hills of Eleuther,
bear of union with the father, the son of
Cronos, a forgetting of ills and a rest from
sorrow. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie
with her, entering her holy bed remote from
the immortals. And when a year was passed
and the seasons came round as the months
waned, and many days were accomplished, she
bare nine daughters, all of one mind, whose
hearts are set upon song and their spirit
free from care, a little way from the topmost
peak of snowy Olympus. There are their bright
dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside
them the Graces and Himerus (Desire) live
in delight. And they, uttering through their
lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all
and the goodly ways of the immortals, uttering
their lovely voice. Then went they to Olympus,
delighting in their sweet voice, with heavenly
song, and the dark earth resounded about
them as they chanted, and a lovely sound
rose up beneath their feet as they went to
their father. And he was reigning in heaven,
himself holding the lightning and glowing
thunderbolt, when he had overcome by might
his father Cronos; and he distributed fairly
to the immortals their portions and declared
their privileges.
(ll. 75-103) These things, then, the Muses
sang who dwell on Olympus, nine daughters
begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe,
Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato
and Polyhymnia and Urania and Calliope (3),
who is the chiefest of them all, for she
attends on worshipful princes: whomsoever
of heaven-nourished princes the daughters
of great Zeus honour, and behold him at his
birth, they pour sweet dew upon his tongue,
and from his lips flow gracious words. All
the people look towards him while he settles
causes with true judgements: and he, speaking
surely, would soon make wise end even of
a great quarrel; for therefore are there
princes wise in heart, because when the people
are being misguided in their assembly, they
set right the matter again with ease, persuading
them with gentle words. And when he passes
through a gathering, they greet him as a
god with gentle reverence, and he is conspicuous
amongst the assembled: such is the holy gift
of the Muses to men. For it is through the
Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there
are singers and harpers upon the earth; but
princes are of Zeus, and happy is he whom
the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his
mouth. For though a man have sorrow and grief
in his newly-troubled soul and live in dread
because his heart is distressed, yet, when
a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants
the glorious deeds of men of old and the
blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once
he forgets his heaviness and remembers not
his sorrows at all; but the gifts of the
goddesses soon turn him away from these.
(ll. 104-115) Hail, children of Zeus! Grant
lovely song and celebrate the holy race of
the deathless gods who are for ever, those
that were born of Earth and starry Heaven
and gloomy Night and them that briny Sea
did rear. Tell how at the first gods and
earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless
sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming
stars, and the wide heaven above, and the
gods who were born of them, givers of good
things, and how they divided their wealth,
and how they shared their honours amongst
them, and also how at the first they took
many-folded Olympus. These things declare
to me from the beginning, ye Muses who dwell
in the house of Olympus, and tell me which
of them first came to be.
(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came
to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure
foundations of all (4) the deathless ones
who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and
dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed
Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the
deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and
overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all
gods and all men within them. From Chaos
came forth Erebus and black Night; but of
Night were born Aether (5) and Day, whom
she conceived and bare from union in love
with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry
Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on
every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place
for the blessed gods. And she brought forth
long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs
who dwell amongst the glens of the hills.
She bare also the fruitless deep with his
raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union
of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven
and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and
Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and
Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned
Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was
born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible
of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
(ll. 139-146) And again, she bare the Cyclopes,
overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes
and stubborn-hearted Arges (6), who gave
Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt:
in all else they were like the gods, but
one eye only was set in the midst of their
fore-heads. And they were surnamed Cyclopes
(Orb-eyed) because one orbed eye was set
in their foreheads. Strength and might and
craft were in their works.
(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons
were born of Earth and Heaven, great and
doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos
and Gyes, presumptuous children. From their
shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to
be approached, and each had fifty heads upon
his shoulders on their strong limbs, and
irresistible was the stubborn strength that
was in their great forms. For of all the
children that were born of Earth and Heaven,
these were the most terrible, and they were
hated by their own father from the first.
And he used to hide them all away in a secret
place of Earth so soon as each was born,
and would not suffer them to come up into
the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil
doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being
straitened, and she made the element of grey
flint and shaped a great sickle, and told
her plan to her dear sons. And she spoke,
cheering them, while she was vexed in her
dear heart:
(ll. 164-166) `My children, gotten of a sinful
father, if you will obey me, we should punish
the vile outrage of your father; for he first
thought of doing shameful things.'
(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized
them all, and none of them uttered a word.
But great Cronos the wily took courage and
answered his dear mother:
(ll. 170-172) `Mother, I will undertake to
do this deed, for I reverence not our father
of evil name, for he first thought of doing
shameful things.'
(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth
rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid
him in an ambush, and put in his hands a
jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole
plot.
(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on
night and longing for love, and he lay about
Earth spreading himself full upon her (7).
Then the son from his ambush stretched forth
his left hand and in his right took the great
long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly
lopped off his own father's members and cast
them away to fall behind him. And not vainly
did they fall from his hand; for all the
bloody drops that gushed forth Earth received,
and as the seasons moved round she bare the
strong Erinyes and the great Giants with
gleaming armour, holding long spears in their
hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae
(8) all over the boundless earth. And so
soon as he had cut off the members with flint
and cast them from the land into the surging
sea, they were swept away over the main a
long time: and a white foam spread around
them from the immortal flesh, and in it there
grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Cythera,
and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt
Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely
goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath
her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite,
and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned
Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam,
and Cytherea because she reached Cythera,
and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy
Cyprus, and Philommedes (9) because sprang
from the members. And with her went Eros,
and comely Desire followed her at her birth
at the first and as she went into the assembly
of the gods. This honour she has from the
beginning, and this is the portion allotted
to her amongst men and undying gods, -- the
whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits
with sweet delight and love and graciousness.
(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom be begot
himself great Heaven used to call Titans
(Strainers) in reproach, for he said that
they strained and did presumptuously a fearful
deed, and that vengeance for it would come
afterwards.
(ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom
and black Fate and Death, and she bare Sleep
and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess
murky Night, though she lay with none, bare
Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides
who guard the rich, golden apples and the
trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean.
Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless
avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos
(10), who give men at their birth both evil
and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions
of men and of gods: and these goddesses never
cease from their dread anger until they punish
the sinner with a sore penalty. Also deadly
Night bare Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict
mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship
and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.
(ll. 226-232) But abhorred Strife bare painful
Toil and Forgetfulness and Famine and tearful
Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders,
Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes,
Lawlessness and Ruin, all of one nature,
and Oath who most troubles men upon earth
when anyone wilfully swears a false oath.
(ll. 233-239) And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest
of his children, who is true and lies not:
and men call him the Old Man because he is
trusty and gentle and does not forget the
laws of righteousness, but thinks just and
kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great
Thaumas and proud Phoreys, being mated with
Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia
who has a heart of flint within her.
(ll. 240-264) And of Nereus and rich-haired
Doris, daughter of Ocean the perfect river,
were born children (11), passing lovely amongst
goddesses, Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and Amphitrite,
and Eudora, and Thetis, Galene and Glauce,
Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe and lovely Halie, and
Pasithea, and Erato, and rosy-armed Eunice,
and gracious Melite, and Eulimene, and Agaue,
Doto, Proto, Pherusa, and Dynamene, and Nisaea,
and Actaea, and Protomedea, Doris, Panopea,
and comely Galatea, and lovely Hippothoe,
and rosy-armed Hipponoe, and Cymodoce who
with Cymatolege (12) and Amphitrite easily
calms the waves upon the misty sea and the
blasts of raging winds, and Cymo, and Eione,
and rich-crowned Alimede, and Glauconome,
fond of laughter, and Pontoporea, Leagore,
Euagore, and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe,
and Lysianassa, and Euarne, lovely of shape
and without blemish of form, and Psamathe
of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso,
Eupompe, Themisto, Pronoe, and Nemertes (13)
who has the nature of her deathless father.
These fifty daughters sprang from blameless
Nereus, skilled in excellent crafts.
(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra
the daughter of deep- flowing Ocean, and
she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired
Harpies, Aello (Storm-swift) and Ocypetes
(Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep
pace with the blasts of the winds and the
birds; for quick as time they dart along.
(ll 270-294) And again, Ceto bare to Phoreys
the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from
their birth: and both deathless gods and
men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo
well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the
Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in
the frontier land towards Night where are
the clear- voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and
Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful
fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying
and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired
One (14) in a soft meadow amid spring flowers.
And when Perseus cut off her head, there
sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse
Pegasus who is so called because he was born
near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and that
other, because he held a golden blade (aor)
in his hands. Now Pegasus flew away and left
the earth, the mother of flocks, and came
to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the
house of Zeus and brings to wise Zeus the
thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined
in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious
Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him
mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea
by his shambling oxen on that day when he
drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns,
and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed
Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim
stead out beyond glorious Ocean.
(ll. 295-305) And in a hollow cave she bare
another monster, irresistible, in no wise
like either to mortal men or to the undying
gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who
is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair
cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great
and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw
flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy
earth. And there she has a cave deep down
under a hollow rock far from the deathless
gods and mortal men. There, then, did the
gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell
in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath
the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies
not nor grows old all her days.
(ll. 306-332) Men say that Typhaon the terrible,
outrageous and lawless, was joined in love
to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she
conceived and brought forth fierce offspring;
first she bare Orthus the hound of Geryones,
and then again she bare a second, a monster
not to be overcome and that may not be described,
Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced
hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless
and strong. And again she bore a third, the
evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess,
white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond
measure with the mighty Heracles. And her
Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of
Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus,
destroyed with the unpitying sword through
the plans of Athene the spoil-driver. She
was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging
fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed
and strong, who had three heads, one of a
grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon;
and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth
a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did
Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay; but Echidna
was subject in love to Orthus and brought
forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the
Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera,
the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made
to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to
men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her
own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea
and Apesas: yet the strength of stout Heracles
overcame him.
(ll. 333-336) And Ceto was joined in love
to Phorcys and bare her youngest, the awful
snake who guards the apples all of gold in
the secret places of the dark earth at its
great bounds. This is the offspring of Ceto
and Phoreys.
(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying
rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling
Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair
stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus,
and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus,
and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus,
and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus,
and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great
Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus,
and divine Scamander.
(ll. 346-370) Also she brought forth a holy
company of daughters
(15) who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers
have youths in their keeping -- to this charge
Zeus appointed them -- Peitho, and Admete,
and Ianthe, and Electra, and Doris, and Prymno,
and Urania divine in form, Hippo, Clymene,
Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie,
and Idyia, and Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura,
and lovely Dione, Melobosis and Thoe and
handsome Polydora, Cerceis lovely of form,
and soft eyed Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste,
Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and Europa,
Metis, and Eurynome, and Telesto saffron-clad,
Chryseis and Asia and charming Calypso, Eudora,
and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe, and Styx
who is the chiefest of them all. These are
the eldest daughters that sprang from Ocean
and Tethys; but there are many besides. For
there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters
of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide,
and in every place alike serve the earth
and the deep waters, children who are glorious
among goddesses. And as many other rivers
are there, babbling as they flow, sons of
Ocean, whom queenly Tethys bare, but their
names it is hard for a mortal man to tell,
but people know those by which they severally
dwell.
(ll. 371-374) And Theia was subject in love
to Hyperion and bare great Helius (Sun) and
clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines
upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless
Gods who live in the wide heaven.
(ll. 375-377) And Eurybia, bright goddess,
was joined in love to Crius and bare great
Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also
was eminent among all men in wisdom.
(ll. 378-382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the
strong-hearted winds, brightening Zephyrus,
and Boreas, headlong in his course, and Notus,
-- a goddess mating in love with a god. And
after these Erigenia (16) bare the star Eosphorus
(Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming stars with
which heaven is crowned.
(ll. 383-403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean
was joined to Pallas and bare Zelus (Emulation)
and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house.
Also she brought forth Cratos
(Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children.
These have no house apart from Zeus, nor
any dwelling nor path except that wherein
God leads them, but they dwell always with
Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx
the deathless daughter of Ocean plan on that
day when the Olympian Lightener called all
the deathless gods to great Olympus, and
said that whosoever of the gods would fight
with him against the Titans, he would not
cast him out from his rights, but each should
have the office which he had before amongst
the deathless gods. And he declared that
he who was without office and rights as is
just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus
with her children through the wit of her
dear father. And Zeus honoured her, and gave
her very great gifts, for her he appointed
to be the great oath of the gods, and her
children to live with him always. And as
he promised, so he performed fully unto them
all.
But he himself mightily reigns and rules.
(ll. 404-452) Again, Phoebe came to the desired
embrace of Coeus.
Then the goddess through the love of the
god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned
Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the
deathless gods, mild from the beginning,
gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bare Asteria
of happy name, whom Perses once led to his
great house to be called his dear wife. And
she conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the
son of Cronos honoured above all. He gave
her splendid gifts, to have a share of the
earth and the unfruitful sea. She received
honour also in starry heaven, and is honoured
exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to
this day, whenever any one of men on earth
offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour
according to custom, he calls upon Hecate.
Great honour comes full easily to him whose
prayers the goddess receives favourably,
and she bestows wealth upon him; for the
power surely is with her. For as many as
were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all
these she has her due portion. The son of
Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything
away of all that was her portion among the
former Titan gods: but she holds, as the
division was at the first from the beginning,
privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and
in sea. Also, because she is an only child,
the goddess receives not less honour, but
much more still, for Zeus honours her. Whom
she will she greatly aids and advances: she
sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and
in the assembly whom she will is distinguished
among the people. And when men arm themselves
for the battle that destroys men, then the
goddess is at hand to give victory and grant
glory readily to whom she will. Good is she
also when men contend at the games, for there
too the goddess is with them and profits
them: and he who by might and strength gets
the victory wins the rich prize easily with
joy, and brings glory to his parents. And
she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she
will: and to those whose business is in the
grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to
Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker,
easily the glorious goddess gives great catch,
and easily she takes it away as soon as seen,
if so she will. She is good in the byre with
Hermes to increase the stock. The droves
of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks
of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases
from a few, or makes many to be less. So,
then. albeit her mother's only child (17),
she is honoured amongst all the deathless
gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse
of the young who after that day saw with
their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn.
So from the beginning she is a nurse of the
young, and these are her honours.
(ll. 453-491) But Rhea was subject in love
to Cronos and bare splendid children, Hestia
(18), Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong
Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under
the earth, and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker,
and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by
whose thunder the wide earth is shaken. These
great Cronos swallowed as each came forth
from the womb to his mother's knees with
this intent, that no other of the proud sons
of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst
the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth
and starry Heaven that he was destined to
be overcome by his own son, strong though
he was, through the contriving of great Zeus
(19). Therefore he kept no blind outlook,
but watched and swallowed down his children:
and unceasing grief seized Rhea. But when
she was about to bear Zeus, the father of
gods and men, then she besought her own dear
parents, Earth and starry Heaven, to devise
some plan with her that the birth of her
dear child might be concealed, and that retribution
might overtake great, crafty Cronos for his
own father and also for the children whom
he had swallowed down. And they readily heard
and obeyed their dear daughter, and told
her all that was destined to happen touching
Cronos the king and his stout-hearted son.
So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land
of Crete, when she was ready to bear great
Zeus, the youngest of her children. Him did
vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete
to nourish and to bring up. Thither came
Earth carrying him swiftly through the black
night to Lyctus first, and took him in her
arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath
the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded
Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling
son of Heaven, the earlier king of the gods,
she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling
clothes. Then he took it in his hands and
thrust it down into his belly: wretch! he
knew not in his heart that in place of the
stone his son was left behind, unconquered
and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome
him by force and might and drive him from
his honours, himself to reign over the deathless
gods.
(ll. 492-506) After that, the strength and
glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly,
and as the years rolled on, great Cronos
the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions
of Earth, and brought up again his offspring,
vanquished by the arts and might of his own
son, and he vomited up first the stone which
he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast
in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho
under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign
thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men (20).
And he set free from their deadly bonds the
brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom
his father in his foolishness had bound.
And they remembered to be grateful to him
for his kindness, and gave him thunder and
the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for
before that, huge Earth had hidden these.
In them he trusts and rules over mortals
and immortals.
(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the
neat-ankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean,
and went up with her into one bed. And she
bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also
she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever
Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained
Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief
to men who eat bread; for it was he who first
took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he
had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous,
and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid
thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because
of his mad presumption and exceeding pride.
And Atlas through hard constraint upholds
the wide heaven with unwearying head and
arms, standing at the borders of the earth
before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this
lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready-
witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable
bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through
his middle, and set on him a long- winged
eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver;
but by night the liver grew as much again
everyway as the long-winged bird devoured
in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the
valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew;
and delivered the son of Iapetus from the
cruel plague, and released him from his affliction
-- not without the will of Olympian Zeus
who reigns on high, that the glory of Heracles
the Theban-born might be yet greater than
it was before over the plenteous earth. This,
then, he regarded, and honoured his famous
son; though he was angry, he ceased from
the wrath which he had before because Prometheus
matched himself in wit with the almighty
son of Cronos. For when the gods and mortal
men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus
was forward to cut up a great ox and set
portions before them, trying to befool the
mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh
and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide,
covering them with an ox paunch; but for
Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with
cunning art and covered with shining fat.
Then the father of men and of gods said to
him:
(ll. 543-544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious
of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you
have divided the portions!'
(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is
everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus
answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting
his cunning trick:
(ll. 548-558) `Zeus, most glorious and greatest
of the eternal gods, take which ever of these
portions your heart within you bids.' So
he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose
wisdom is everlasting, saw and failed not
to perceive the trick, and in his heart he
thought mischief against mortal men which
also was to be fulfilled. With both hands
he took up the white fat and was angry at
heart, and wrath came to his spirit when
he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked
out: and because of this the tribes of men
upon earth burn white bones to the deathless
gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives
the clouds was greatly vexed and said to
him:
(ll. 559-560) `Son of Iapetus, clever above
all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten
your cunning arts!'
(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose
wisdom is everlasting; and from that time
he was always mindful of the trick, and would
not give the power of unwearying fire to
the Melian (21) race of mortal men who live
on the earth. But the noble son of Iapetus
outwitted him and stole the far-seen gleam
of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk.
And Zeus who thunders on high was stung in
spirit, and his dear heart was angered when
he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire.
Forthwith he made an evil thing for men as
the price of fire; for the very famous Limping
God formed of earth the likeness of a shy
maiden as the son of Cronos willed. And the
goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed
her with silvery raiment, and down from her
head she spread with her hands a broidered
veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene,
put about her head lovely garlands, flowers
of new-grown herbs. Also she put upon her
head a crown of gold which the very famous
Limping God made himself and worked with
his own hands as a favour to Zeus his father.
On it was much curious work, wonderful to
see; for of the many creatures which the
land and sea rear up, he put most upon it,
wonderful things, like living beings with
voices: and great beauty shone out from it.
(ll. 585-589) But when he had made the beautiful
evil to be the price for the blessing, he
brought her out, delighting in the finery
which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty
father had given her, to the place where
the other gods and men were. And wonder took
hold of the deathless gods and mortal men
when they saw that which was sheer guile,
not to be withstood by men.
(ll. 590-612) For from her is the race of
women and female kind: of her is the deadly
race and tribe of women who live amongst
mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets
in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And
as in thatched hives bees feed the drones
whose nature is to do mischief -- by day
and throughout the day until the sun goes
down the bees are busy and lay the white
combs, while the drones stay at home in the
covered skeps and reap the toil of others
into their own bellies -- even so Zeus who
thunders on high made women to be an evil
to mortal men, with a nature to do evil.
And he gave them a second evil to be the
price for the good they had: whoever avoids
marriage and the sorrows that women cause,
and will not wed, reaches deadly old age
without anyone to tend his years, and though
he at least has no lack of livelihood while
he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk
divide his possessions amongst them. And
as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage
and takes a good wife suited to his mind,
evil continually contends with good; for
whoever happens to have mischievous children,
lives always with unceasing grief in his
spirit and heart within him; and this evil
cannot be healed.
(ll. 613-616) So it is not possible to deceive
or go beyond the will of Zeus; for not even
the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped
his heavy anger, but of necessity strong
bands confined him, although he knew many
a wile.
(ll. 617-643) But when first their father
was vexed in his heart with Obriareus and
Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds,
because he was jealous of their exceeding
manhood and comeliness and great size: and
he made them live beneath the wide-pathed
earth, where they were afflicted, being set
to dwell under the ground, at the end of
the earth, at its great borders, in bitter
anguish for a long time and with great grief
at heart. But the son of Cronos and the other
deathless gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare
from union with Cronos, brought them up again
to the light at Earth's advising. For she
herself recounted all things to the gods
fully, how that with these they would gain
victory and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves.
For the Titan gods and as many as sprang
from Cronos had long been fighting together
in stubborn war with heart-grieving toil,
the lordly Titans from high Othyrs, but the
gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea
bare in union with Cronos, from Olympus.
So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting
continually with one another at that time
for ten full years, and the hard strife had
no close or end for either side, and the
issue of the war hung evenly balanced. But
when he had provided those three with all
things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which
the gods themselves eat, and when their proud
spirit revived within them all after they
had fed on nectar and delicious ambrosia,
then it was that the father of men and gods
spoke amongst them:
(ll. 644-653) `Hear me, bright children of
Earth and Heaven, that I may say what my
heart within me bids. A long while now have
we, who are sprung from Cronos and the Titan
gods, fought with each other every day to
get victory and to prevail. But do you show
your great might and unconquerable strength,
and face the Titans in bitter strife; for
remember our friendly kindness, and from
what sufferings you are come back to the
light from your cruel bondage under misty
gloom through our counsels.'
(ll. 654-663) So he said. And blameless Cottus
answered him again: `Divine one, you speak
that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves
we know that your wisdom and understanding
is exceeding, and that you became a defender
of the deathless ones from chill doom. And
through your devising we are come back again
from the murky gloom and from our merciless
bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O
lord, son of Cronos. And so now with fixed
purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid
your power in dreadful strife and will fight
against the Titans in hard battle.'
(ll. 664-686) So he said: and the gods, givers
of good things, applauded when they heard
his word, and their spirit longed for war
even more than before, and they all, both
male and female, stirred up hated battle
that day, the Titan gods, and all that were
born of Cronos together with those dread,
mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom
Zeus brought up to the light from Erebus
beneath the earth. An hundred arms sprang
from the shoulders of all alike, and each
had fifty heads growing upon his shoulders
upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against
the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks
in their strong hands. And on the other part
the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks,
and both sides at one time showed the work
of their hands and their might. The boundless
sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed
loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned,
and high Olympus reeled from its foundation
under the charge of the undying gods, and
a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and
the deep sound of their feet in the fearful
onset and of their hard missiles. So, then,
they launched their grievous shafts upon
one another, and the cry of both armies as
they shouted reached to starry heaven; and
they met together with a great battle-cry.
(ll. 687-712) Then Zeus no longer held back
his might; but straight his heart was filled
with fury and he showed forth all his strength.
From Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith,
hurling his lightning: the bold flew thick
and fast from his strong hand together with
thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome
flame. The life-giving earth crashed around
in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud
with fire all about. All the land seethed,
and Ocean's streams and the unfruitful sea.
The hot vapour lapped round the earthborn
Titans: flame unspeakable rose to the bright
upper air: the flashing glare of the thunder-
stone and lightning blinded their eyes for
all that there were strong. Astounding heat
seized Chaos: and to see with eyes and to
hear the sound with ears it seemed even as
if Earth and wide Heaven above came together;
for such a mighty crash would have arisen
if Earth were being hurled to ruin, and Heaven
from on high were hurling her down; so great
a crash was there while the gods were meeting
together in strife. Also the winds brought
rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder
and lightning and the lurid thunderbolt,
which are the shafts of great Zeus, and carried
the clangour and the warcry into the midst
of the two hosts. An horrible uproar of terrible
strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and
the battle inclined. But until then, they
kept at one another and fought continually
in cruel war.
(ll. 713-735) And amongst the foremost Cottus
and Briareos and Gyes insatiate for war raised
fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one
upon another, they launched from their strong
hands and overshadowed the Titans with their
missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed
earth, and bound them in bitter chains when
they had conquered them by their strength
for all their great spirit, as far beneath
the earth to Tartarus. For a brazen anvil
falling down from heaven nine nights and
days would reach the earth upon the tenth:
and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth
nine nights and days would reach Tartarus
upon the tenth. Round it runs a fence of
bronze, and night spreads in triple line
all about it like a neck-circlet, while above
grow the roots of the earth and unfruitful
sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who drives
the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under
misty gloom, in a dank place where are the
ends of the huge earth. And they may not
go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze
upon it, and a wall runs all round it on
every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled
Obriareus live, trusty warders of Zeus who
holds the aegis.
(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order,
are the sources and ends of gloomy earth
and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea
and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which
even the gods abhor.
It is a great gulf, and if once a man were
within the gates, he would not reach the
floor until a whole year had reached its
end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry
him this way and that. And this marvel is
awful even to the deathless gods.
(ll. 744-757) There stands the awful home
of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In
front of it the son of Iapetus (22) stands
immovably upholding the wide heaven upon
his head and unwearying hands, where Night
and Day draw near and greet one another as
they pass the great threshold of bronze:
and while the one is about to go down into
the house, the other comes out at the door.
And the house never holds them both within;
but always one is without the house passing
over the earth, while the other stays at
home and waits until the time for her journeying
come; and the one holds all-seeing light
for them on earth, but the other holds in
her arms Sleep the brother of Death, even
evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous cloud.
(ll. 758-766) And there the children of dark
Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death,
awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon
them with his beams, neither as he goes up
into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven.
And the former of them roams peacefully over
the earth and the sea's broad back and is
kindly to men; but the other has a heart
of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless
as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once
seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even
to the deathless gods.
(ll. 767-774) There, in front, stand the
echoing halls of the god of the lower-world,
strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A
fearful hound guards the house in front,
pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those
who go in he fawns with his tail and both
is ears, but suffers them not to go out back
again, but keeps watch and devours whomsoever
he catches going out of the gates of strong
Hades and awful Persephone.
(ll. 775-806) And there dwells the goddess
loathed by the deathless gods, terrible Styx,
eldest daughter of back-flowing
(23) Ocean. She lives apart from the gods
in her glorious house vaulted over with great
rocks and propped up to heaven all round
with silver pillars. Rarely does the daughter
of Thaumas, swift- footed Iris, come to her
with a message over the sea's wide back.
But when strife and quarrel arise among the
deathless gods, and when any of them who
live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus
sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great
oath of the gods from far away, the famous
cold water which trickles down from a high
and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed
earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the
dark night out of the holy stream, and a
tenth part of his water is allotted to her.
With nine silver-swirling streams he winds
about the earth and the sea's wide back,
and then falls into the main (24); but the
tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble
to the gods. For whoever of the deathless
gods that hold the peaks of snowy Olympus
pours a libation of her water is forsworn,
lies breathless until a full year is completed,
and never comes near to taste ambrosia and
nectar, but lies spiritless and voiceless
on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance overshadows
him. But when he has spent a long year in
his sickness, another penance and an harder
follows after the first. For nine years he
is cut off from the eternal gods and never
joins their councils of their feasts, nine
full years. But in the tenth year he comes
again to join the assemblies of the deathless
gods who live in the house of Olympus. Such
an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal
and primaeval water of Styx to be: and it
spouts through a rugged place.
(ll. 807-819) And there, all in their order,
are the sources and ends of the dark earth
and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea
and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which
even the gods abhor.
And there are shining gates and an immoveable
threshold of bronze having unending roots
and it is grown of itself (25). And beyond,
away from all the gods, live the Titans,
beyond gloomy Chaos. But the glorious allies
of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling
upon Ocean's foundations, even Cottus and
Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the deep-roaring
Earth-Shaker made his son-in-law, giving
him Cymopolea his daughter to wed.
(ll. 820-868) But when Zeus had driven the
Titans from heaven, huge Earth bare her youngest
child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by
the aid of golden Aphrodite. Strength was
with his hands in all that he did and the
feet of the strong god were untiring. From
his shoulders grew an hundred heads of a
snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering
tongues, and from under the brows of his
eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire,
and fire burned from his heads as he glared.
And there were voices in all his dreadful
heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable;
for at one time they made sounds such that
the gods understood, but at another, the
noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud
ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound
of a lion, relentless of heart; and at anothers,
sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and
again, at another, he would hiss, so that
the high mountains re-echoed. And truly a
thing past help would have happened on that
day, and he would have come to reign over
mortals and immortals, had not the father
of men and gods been quick to perceive it.
But he thundered hard and mightily: and the
earth around resounded terribly and the wide
heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams
and the nether parts of the earth. Great
Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of
the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat.
And through the two of them heat took hold
on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder
and lightning, and through the fire from
the monster, and the scorching winds and
blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed,
and sky and sea: and the long waves raged
along the beaches round and about, at the
rush of the deathless gods: and there arose
an endless shaking. Hades trembled where
he rules over the dead below, and the Titans
under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because
of the unending clamour and the fearful strife.
So when Zeus had raised up his might and
seized his arms, thunder and lightning and
lurid thunderbolt, he leaped form Olympus
and struck him, and burned all the marvellous
heads of the monster about him. But when
Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with
strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed
wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And
flame shot forth from the thunder- stricken
lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount
(26), when he was smitten. A great part of
huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapour
and melted as tin melts when heated by men's
art in channelled (27) crucibles; or as iron,
which is hardest of all things, is softened
by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts
in the divine earth through the strength
of Hephaestus (28). Even so, then, the earth
melted in the glow of the blazing fire. And
in the bitterness of his anger Zeus cast
him into wide Tartarus.
(ll. 869-880) And from Typhoeus come boisterous
winds which blow damply, except Notus and
Boreas and clear Zephyr. These are a god-sent
kind, and a great blessing to men; but the
others blow fitfully upon the seas. Some
rush upon the misty sea and work great havoc
among men with their evil, raging blasts;
for varying with the season they blow, scattering
ships and destroying sailors. And men who
meet these upon the sea have no help against
the mischief. Others again over the boundless,
flowering earth spoil the fair fields of
men who dwell below, filling them with dust
and cruel uproar.
(ll. 881-885) But when the blessed gods had
finished their toil, and settled by force
their struggle for honours with the Titans,
they pressed far-seeing Olympian Zeus to
reign and to rule over them, by Earth's prompting.
So he divided their dignities amongst them.
(ll. 886-900) Now Zeus, king of the gods,
made Metis his wife first, and she was wisest
among gods and mortal men. But when she was
about to bring forth the goddess bright-eyed
Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her with cunning
words and put her in his own belly, as Earth
and starry Heaven advised. For they advised
him so, to the end that no other should hold
royal sway over the eternal gods in place
of Zeus; for very wise children were destined
to be born of her, first the maiden bright-eyed
Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength
and in wise understanding; but afterwards
she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit,
king of gods and men. But Zeus put her into
his own belly first, that the goddess might
devise for him both good and evil.
(ll. 901-906) Next he married bright Themis
who bare the Horae
(Hours), and Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice),
and blooming Eirene
(Peace), who mind the works of mortal men,
and the Moerae (Fates) to whom wise Zeus
gave the greatest honour, Clotho, and Lachesis,
and Atropos who give mortal men evil and
good to have.
(ll. 907-911) And Eurynome, the daughter
of Ocean, beautiful in form, bare him three
fair-cheeked Charites (Graces), Aglaea, and
Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, from whose
eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves
the limbs: and beautiful is their glance
beneath their brows.
(ll. 912-914) Also he came to the bed of
all-nourishing Demeter, and she bare white-armed
Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from
her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.
(ll. 915-917) And again, he loved Mnemosyne
with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine
gold-crowned Muses were born who delight
in feasts and the pleasures of song.
(ll. 918-920) And Leto was joined in love
with Zeus who holds the aegis, and bare Apollo
and Artemis delighting in arrows, children
lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
(ll. 921-923) Lastly, he made Hera his blooming
wife: and she was joined in love with the
king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe
and Ares and Eileithyia.
(ll. 924-929) But Zeus himself gave birth
from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia
(29), the awful, the strife-stirring, the
host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who
delights in tumults and wars and battles.
But Hera without union with Zeus -- for she
was very angry and quarrelled with her mate
-- bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled
in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven.
(ll. 929a-929t) (30) But Hera was very angry
and quarrelled with her mate. And because
of this strife she bare without union with
Zeus who holds the aegis a glorious son,
Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons of
Heaven in crafts. But Zeus lay with the fair-
cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart
from Hera....
((LACUNA)) .... deceiving Metis (Thought)
although she was full wise. But he seized
her with his hands and put her in his belly,
for fear that she might bring forth something
stronger than his thunderbolt: therefore
did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in
the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But
she straightway conceived Pallas Athene:
and the father of men and gods gave her birth
by way of his head on the banks of the river
Trito. And she remained hidden beneath the
inward parts of Zeus, even Metis, Athena's
mother, worker of righteousness, who was
wiser than gods and mortal men. There the
goddess (Athena) received that (31) whereby
she excelled in strength all the deathless
ones who dwell in Olympus, she who made the
host-scaring weapon of Athena. And with it
(Zeus) gave her birth, arrayed in arms of
war.
(ll. 930-933) And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring
Earth-Shaker was born great, wide-ruling
Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea,
living with his dear mother and the lord
his father in their golden house, an awful
god.
(ll. 933-937) Also Cytherea bare to Ares
the shield-piercer Panic and Fear, terrible
gods who drive in disorder the close ranks
of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares,
sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom high-spirited
Cadmus made his wife.
(ll. 938-939) And Maia, the daughter of Atlas,
bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald
of the deathless gods, for she went up into
his holy bed.
(ll. 940-942) And Semele, daughter of Cadmus
was joined with him in love and bare him
a splendid son, joyous Dionysus, -- a mortal
woman an immortal son. And now they both
are gods.
(ll. 943-944) And Alemena was joined in love
with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare
mighty Heracles.
(ll. 945-946) And Hephaestus, the famous
Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces,
his buxom wife.
(ll. 947-949) And golden-haired Dionysus
made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of
Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos
made her deathless and unageing for him.
(ll. 950-955) And mighty Heracles, the valiant
son of neat-ankled Alemena, when he had finished
his grievous toils, made Hebe the child of
great Zeus and gold-shod Hera his shy wife
in snowy Olympus. Happy he! For he has finished
his great works and lives amongst the dying
gods, untroubled and unaging all his days.
(ll. 956-962) And Perseis, the daughter of
Ocean, bare to unwearying Helios Circe and
Aeetes the king. And Aeetes, the son of Helios
who shows light to men, took to wife fair-cheeked
Idyia, daughter of Ocean the perfect stream,
by the will of the gods: and she was subject
to him in love through golden Aphrodite and
bare him neat-ankled Medea.
(ll. 963-968) And now farewell, you dwellers
on Olympus and you islands and continents
and thou briny sea within. Now sing the company
of goddesses, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus,
daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, --
even those deathless one who lay with mortal
men and bare children like unto gods.
(ll. 969-974) Demeter, bright goddess, was
joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion
in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land
of Crete, and bare Plutus, a kindly god who
goes everywhere over land and the sea's wide
back, and him who finds him and into whose
hands he comes he makes rich, bestowing great
wealth upon him.
(ll. 975-978) And Harmonia, the daughter
of golden Aphrodite, bare to Cadmus Ino and
Semele and fair-cheeked Agave and Autonoe
whom long haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus
also in rich- crowned Thebe.
(ll. 979-983) And the daughter of Ocean,
Callirrhoe was joined in the love of rich
Aphrodite with stout hearted Chrysaor and
bare a son who was the strongest of all men,
Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in
sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling
oxen.
(ll. 984-991) And Eos bare to Tithonus brazen-crested
Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and the Lord
Emathion. And to Cephalus she bare a splendid
son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods,
whom, when he was a young boy in the tender
flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts,
laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught
up and made a keeper of her shrine by night,
a divine spirit.
(ll. 993-1002) And the son of Aeson by the
will of the gods led away from Aeetes the
daughter of Aeetes the heaven-nurtured king,
when he had finished the many grievous labours
which the great king, over bearing Pelias,
that outrageous and presumptuous doer of
violence, put upon him. But when the son
of Aeson had finished them, he came to Iolcus
after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl
with him on his swift ship, and made her
his buxom wife. And she was subject to Iason,
shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus
whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up
in the mountains. And the will of great Zeus
was fulfilled.
(ll. 1003-1007) But of the daughters of Nereus,
the Old man of the Sea, Psamathe the fair
goddess, was loved by Aeacus through golden
Aphrodite and bare Phocus. And the silver-shod
goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and
brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the
destroyer of men.
(ll. 1008-1010) And Cytherea with the beautiful
crown was joined in sweet love with the hero
Anchises and bare Aeneas on the peaks of
Ida with its many wooded glens.
(ll. 1011-1016) And Circe the daughter of
Helius, Hyperion's son, loved steadfast Odysseus
and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless
and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus
by the will of golden Aphrodite. And they
ruled over the famous Tyrenians, very far
off in a recess of the holy islands.
(ll. 1017-1018) And the bright goddess Calypso
was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and
bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.
(ll. 1019-1020) These are the immortal goddesses
who lay with mortal men and bare them children
like unto gods.
(ll. 1021-1022) But now, sweet-voiced Muses
of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the
aegis, sing of the company of women.
ENDNOTES:
(1) The epithet probably indicates coquettishness.
(2) A proverbial saying meaning, `why enlarge
on irrelevant topics?'
(3) `She of the noble voice': Calliope is
queen of Epic poetry.
(4) Earth, in the cosmology of Hesiod, is
a disk surrounded by the river Oceanus and
floating upon a waste of waters. It is called
the foundation of all (the qualification
`the deathless ones...' etc. is an interpolation),
because not only trees, men, and animals,
but even the hills and seas
(ll. 129, 131) are supported by it.
(5) Aether is the bright, untainted upper
atmosphere, as distinguished from Aer, the
lower atmosphere of the earth.
(6) Brontes is the Thunderer; Steropes, the
Lightener; and Arges, the Vivid One.
(7) The myth accounts for the separation
of Heaven and Earth. In Egyptian cosmology
Nut (the Sky) is thrust and held apart from
her brother Geb (the Earth) by their father
Shu, who corresponds to the Greek Atlas.
(8) Nymphs of the ash-trees, as Dryads are
nymphs of the oak- trees. Cp. note on "Works
and Days", l. 145.
(9) `Member-loving': the title is perhaps
only a perversion of the regular PHILOMEIDES
(laughter-loving).
(10) Cletho (the Spinner) is she who spins
the thread of man's life; Lachesis (the Disposer
of Lots) assigns to each man his destiny;
Atropos (She who cannot be turned) is the
`Fury with the abhorred shears.'
(11) Many of the names which follow express
various qualities or aspects of the sea:
thus Galene is `Calm', Cymothoe is the `Wave-swift',
Pherusa and Dynamene are `She who speeds
(ships)' and `She who has power'.
(12) The `Wave-receiver' and the `Wave-stiller'.
(13) `The Unerring' or `Truthful'; cp. l.
235.
(14) i. e. Poseidon.
(15) Goettling notes that some of these nymphs
derive their names from lands over which
they preside, as Europa, Asia, Doris, Ianeira
(`Lady of the Ionians'), but that most are
called after some quality which their streams
possessed: thus Xanthe is the `Brown' or
`Turbid', Amphirho is the `Surrounding' river,
Ianthe is `She who delights', and Ocyrrhoe
is the `Swift-flowing'.
(16) i. e. Eos, the `Early-born'.
(17) Van Lennep explains that Hecate, having
no brothers to support her claim, might have
been slighted.
(18) The goddess of the hearth (the Roman
"Vesta"), and so of the house.
Cp. "Homeric Hymns" v. 22 ff.;
xxxix. 1 ff.
(19) The variant reading `of his father'
(sc. Heaven) rests on inferior MS. authority
and is probably an alteration due to the
difficulty stated by a Scholiast: `How could
Zeus, being not yet begotten, plot against
his father?' The phrase is, however, part
of the prophecy. The whole line may well
be spurious, and is rejected by Heyne, Wolf,
Gaisford and Guyet.
(20) Pausanias (x. 24.6) saw near the tomb
of Neoptolemus `a stone of no great size',
which the Delphians anointed every day with
oil, and which he says was supposed to be
the stone given to Cronos.
(21) A Scholiast explains: `Either because
they (men) sprang from the Melian nymphs
(cp. l. 187); or because, when they were
born (?), they cast themselves under the
ash-trees, that is, the trees.' The reference
may be to the origin of men from ash-trees:
cp. "Works and Days", l. 145 and
note.
(22) sc. Atlas, the Shu of Egyptian mythology:
cp. note on line
177.
(23) Oceanus is here regarded as a continuous
stream enclosing the earth and the seas,
and so as flowing back upon himself.
(24) The conception of Oceanus is here different:
he has nine streams which encircle the earth
and the flow out into the `main' which appears
to be the waste of waters on which, according
to early Greek and Hebrew cosmology, the
disk-like earth floated.
(25) i. e. the threshold is of `native' metal,
and not artificial.
(26) According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed
by Zeus amongst the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar
represents him as buried under Aetna, and
Tzetzes reads Aetna in this passage.
(27) The epithet (which means literally `well-bored')
seems to refer to the spout of the crucible.
(28) The fire god. There is no reference
to volcanic action: iron was smelted on Mount
Ida; cp. "Epigrams of Homer", ix.
2-4.
(29) i. e. Athena, who was born `on the banks
of the river Trito'
(cp. l. 929l)
(30) Restored by Peppmuller. The nineteen
following lines from another recension of
lines 889-900, 924-9 are quoted by Chrysippus
(in Galen).
(31) sc. the aegis. Line 929s is probably
spurious, since it disagrees with l. 929q
and contains a suspicious reference to Athens.
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Evans Experientialism 
