Hesiod's Theogony - transl. by H.G. Evelyn-White
The Magvs
FOREWORD
Once you know that life for soul begins at the
moment of bodily death, then you remember life
begins in chaos, oblivion, without form & void,
pitchdark shadows upon the face of the abyssal.
Newly departed souls pray in fear LET THERE BE
LIGHT and--the Gods willing--a tunnel of light
begins to take form amid the funereal tenebrae,
each heaven splaying out from His splendeur in
their respective sidereal (Solaire) modalities,
tones, colors, vibrations approaching infinity.
Souls sing praises in resonance with the music,
else dissonance each to its own degree of will,
election and practice in life--and so in death,
for the tree of judgment is known by its fruit.
For the meek and humble Elysium emerges out of
the light. But for the selfish and unrepentant,
up to a century of grief and foreboding awaits.
Each soul journeys to heaven unto judgment and
the second death which is when soul is cut-off
from its heavenly abode and reenters the realm
of mortality oft-much to soul's futile chagrin
(oversoul overrules) in the world of time, our
mundane realm as temporal life of soul in body.
The creative forces of the Gods authorize each
horoscope at birth, whence time takes over and
the planetary transits on the dynamic meridian
of the body exert their power from birth until
death when heaven is divided nine in departure;
the tenth being this Earth, Empireum, Empyrean.
Once you know these things then classical myth
comes alive--no longer vicarious nor enigmatic,
and the Gods are verily the Gods of the living,
the living God. Let classic myth enlighten you.
Very Truly Yours,
Daniel Joseph Min
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[begin verbatim quotation http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm]
THE THEOGONY OF HESIOD
translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White [1914]
(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.
[end verbatim quotation http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm]
mommadona
"The Magvs" <souereign....@parthian.magoi> wrote in message
news:3GMYMZH03754...@Gilgamesh-frog.org...
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
(SNIP OF SOMEONE WITH TOO MUCH TIME AND EGO AND TOO MUCH MONEY WRAPPED UP IN
THE EGO)
Go Away - You can't even spell Magus right and you wouldn't know one if you
stepped on one.
Don få Rune Våge Jokkmokker
"mommadona" <momm...@mail.baymoon.com> wrote in message
news:aocog...@enews2.newsguy.com...
Joseph
> In article <aod6i...@enews2.newsguy.com>
> "Dhoo'l-Qarnayn XIV" <ea...@beyond.web.lies.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > begin 666 Allegory.gif
> > M1TE&.#=AU `K`?<``/___\O*K6$[8H>:A'9%8CL^H9R0A#E(>GZ1G,G'GQPG
> > M*)!Q9CXM$*:ST=S9ZCX^1CT\&30]+(" F)]W?YBAQC]-I!H50U5NBG9F?X]V
> > M?TU(=FA\=F=PI4U/FW> L4D]'(N9P*RBM[6AI8B/;PTC" 8+$T5)+(N7L'9F
> > MDYB)K%$N1'I'3V%@F%<](Y>C7R$?8V)-8D=A8V9X8RY 8C@N8$5?=J"NFV9X
> > M3IEX17^,P'-0>&(^27V+7Z"J@QTG/9^QP$U?H6)137=S8V=C<XR(A-O8V59O
> > M8GV0L!42$Q4.*(!5=K*:EW=LH)>,;F)+CH%6AZF7AY:/N143!Z&H;Y20.GI1
> > M8D8N*O3PVJJ/J+BXT1<7**VKA81S9&N!BZRRG4E*&F)G.%\Q23DI*7--34Q9
> > M*#T]8D!6/F)>AV=C7U5>8CU-8G=?8TT]8KK$PH=?8[C G6 ]-D]A089AFF!
> > M=<G%W<;"AGY//R\?/)B<F$U-8G:'@V)F39B$F'MW=WIVAX=NFV)-=B0L8:B'
> > M@S,U>CI,3;G#L#Q.D+BRG$PO8NGERLS1W-O4R<C!N%9MH8AW0B4E>G9V.9>@
> > MK$X^2C L/2T=*1PH$TI=AQPF31PI!89_JRP]3BP=$6B JB\@3E],+24[#"TM
> > M*3 L3:FUL8MG=HMGARTM$7>);E=Q=T4L3@8+*+K'UG>)4=#6N4AG3;&)F#(S
> > MC8AG3CA)/8N@FZ2@NV!>0;RAK&)-0<;&RF).A%%B33A!CZ2;EZ2#EXR0G)28
> > MA'-C3T)93B@S>1 50&B!FV%..9.F@:RTP4Q>E(N+7F)\B6INBY>+I,[.RF)N
> >
>
> Subscribe.
> l be asimilated.
--
Joseph ( The probability for an event which can happen in two
indistinguishable ways is the sum of the probability for each way
considered separately) Count de Money.
Robert Ehrlich
Sun wrote:
> In article <3GMYMZH03754...@Gilgamesh-frog.org>
> The Magvs <souereign....@parthian.magoi> wrote:
> >
>
> The Collected Buffoonery of Daniel J. Min - Usenet's most failed prophet.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Who is Danny Min?
> What does he post?
> Examples of failed prophecies
> What you should do
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Who is Daniel J. Min?
> Daniel J. Min is a denizen of Usenet newsgroups. He posts using various variations on his name, including using asterisks or underlines in place of letters. Often he will post as "Nomen Nescio" or Anonymous, and he used to post as GOD>.
> The reason for this is to get around peoples "kill files" or "bozo filters"
>
> However, he consistently posts through anonymous "remailers" in order to disguise his true identity
>
> He posts to various newsgroups, including alt.astrology, alt.astronomy, and alt.prophecies.nostradamus. He posts in any inappropriate newsgroup he deems neccessary.
>
> Additionally Danny has been known to directly email people, once again, using his anonymous remailer service.
>
> What does he post?
> Danny posts various garbage claims about astrological influences, and birthdata, which he generally makes up as he goes along. Outstanding amongst his posts include claims to know exactly the birthdata of Jesus Christ, Johannes Kepler, Ptolemy, and various other historical characters.
> He posts silly prophecies and claims, and even at times posts his own "kill file list" which has become so large that it's unlikely he even *sees* anyone else s posts anymore.
>
> Some Classic examples of Danny's failed prophecies
> (Danny's "prophetic" words are italicized)
> Danny predicts the "Great Khan of Terror":
> On 15 Nov 1999 22:34:03 -0600, GOD wrote in these newsgroups:
> The king of terror will come some time around the month of May in 2000.
>
> At this time, the inner planets will all be lined up on one side of the sun with the exception of the Earth which will be directly at the opposite side.
>
> The increased gravitational effects of the sun combined with the added pull from the other planets will have a devastating effect on the earth.
>
> At this time, all major fault lines will rupture. California will experience the big one at this time.
>
> Volcanic activity will increase and it is very likely that the Long Valley Caulderra will explode cataclysmicly. These types of events will be occurring at roughly the same time throughout the entire planet.
>
> To top it off, the suns corona will be nudged away from the earth...towards the grouped inner planets, effectively creating a massive coronal hole (I.E." the "three days of darkness").
>
> When the pull of the alignment comes to pass, the corona will snap back to the earth facing side thereby releasing a CME of massive proportions....aimed directly at planet Earth.
>
> Believe me, there will be terror at this time.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Danny moves "The Great Kahn of Terror" by yet another 7 months:
> On Mon, 19 Jun 2000 19:59:25 -0500, No User wrote:
> >On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, bo...@vornet.com (BobO fficer) wrote:
>
> >>On Mon, 19 Jun 2000 12:37:04 -0500, to alt.astrology et al I wrote
>
> >>>Enjoy 1999 seventh month. It is Ethanim 2000.
>
> >>you said it was last September or October,
>
> Yes, the seventh month 1999 in the revised Roman calendar was from sunset September 10th to sunset October 10th but the first month 1999 was in the spring of 1762 BC, sunset Saturday March 24th to sunset April 22nd proleptic Julian. The seventh month Ethanim was therefore 2000, not of 1999 but FROM the first month in the YEAR 1999 of the passover. Hence, the YEAR 1999 seventh month AND seven months. See?
> >>I let you take every day of the year 1999
>
> >The LORD granted the centuries and you did not repent. He giveth and He taketh away. You Robert, speak blasphemy of the LORD.
> >>and you were wrong.
>
> >I am corrected by scripture--and Nostradamus was likewise.
> >>there was no terror from the skies, no killer asteroid.
>
> >And yet again must that universal ruler of infernal hades be raised up as it is written. Beware the star in fortune opposing, in the rule of night from heaven it advances to WINNOW, "Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" [Mat 3:12]
> >>Daniel
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Daniel Expects half the world's population destroyed in October 2000
> On Sun, 2 Jul 2000 23:00:02 +0200 (CEST), Nomen Nescio wrote:
> >On Sun, 2 Jul 2000, "Douglas Deaton" wrote:
>
> >>I am new here and somewhat ignorant.
>
> >>Doug
>
> That makes two of us, or 6 billion of us if I'm not entirely mistaken.
> At October much will be made clear
> by ways and means of the elements.
> I expect half the population gone,
> global equalisation of temperature
> and pressure, the time, a new race,
> His perpetual age the moment where,
> or at the place when, smoke clears.
>
> Enjoy the fireworks!
> Daniel Joseph Min- >
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Daniel predicts the US presidential election for 2000
> On 12 Nov 2000 23:44:00 -0000, Daniel Joseph Min wrote:
> The 42nd President of the United States is the very
> last of all the American Presidents to hold office.
>
> He will announce our *National Emergency* shortly,
> thus will continue in the office of the President,
> having already been inaugurated in due diligence
> when he was elected President. Gore is still VP.
>
> &There is no reason to repeal the 22nd amendment,
> given that Mr. President William Jefferson Clinton
> has been elected twice only, and no more, thus the
> amendment does not apply. Neither does a term limit
> apply in his case, given that this is indeed a true
> state of emergency with bloody violence seen to be
> escalating in the State of Florida and elsewhere,
> spreading like wildfire as it is in the mid east.
>
> Get to higher ground if you can (look at England!)
> Daniel Joseph Min
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So what should you do about him?
>
> Well, first of all, you can be pretty sure based on his success rate that anything he has to say is wrong.
> Someone once said, rather well, that "there is too much Min, and not enough Nostradamus" in what he posts.
>
> Complaining won't do much, because he's they type of individual that doesn't feel the need to explain himself.
> Asking him to stop only feeds him.
> complaining to his anonymous remailer service results in nothing.
> About the best thing to be said, is just be aware of what a buffoon he is.
Asiya
news:aod6i...@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
>
Don't post binaries to alt.tarot, Jason.
Asiya