神統記

1Let us begin our song with the Muses of Helicon,

who hold the great and holy mountain of Helicon,

and dance on soft feet around the violet-dark spring

and around the altar of the mighty son of Cronus.

5When they have washed their tender skin in Permessus,

or in the Horse's Spring, or in holy Olmeius,

on the topmost peak of Helicon they set their dances,

lovely dances, full of longing; and they move with quick feet.

From there they set out, wrapped in thick mist,

10and go by night, sending out a voice of great beauty,

hymning Zeus who holds the aegis, and lady Hera

of Argos, who walks in sandals of gold,

and the daughter of aegis-holding Zeus, bright-eyed Athena,

and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who shoots arrows,

15and Poseidon who holds the earth and shakes it,

and revered Themis, and Aphrodite of the quick glance,

and Hebe of the golden crown, and fair Dione,

and Leto and Iapetus, and Cronus of the crooked counsel,

and Eos and great Helios and shining Selene,

20and Gaia and great Oceanus and black Night,

and the holy race of the other immortals who are forever.

It was they who once taught Hesiod beautiful song,

while he was pasturing his lambs below holy Helicon.

This was the first word the goddesses spoke to me,

25the Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-holding Zeus:

"Shepherds camped in the fields, poor wretches, nothing but bellies,

we know how to say many false things that resemble the truth,

and we know, when we choose, how to speak what is true."

So spoke the ready-tongued daughters of great Zeus,

30and they plucked a shoot of flourishing laurel and gave it to me

as a staff, a wonder to see; and they breathed into me a voice

from the gods, so that I might celebrate what will be and what was.

They told me to hymn the race of the blessed ones who are forever,

and always to sing of themselves at the beginning and at the end.

35But why say all this about an oak or a rock?

Come, let us begin from the Muses, who with their hymns

delight the great mind of Zeus the father within Olympus,

telling what is, what will be, and what was before,

their voices in one. Tireless the sweet sound flows

40from their mouths, and the halls of the father,

loud-thundering Zeus, laugh at the lily-soft voice of the goddesses

as it spreads; and the peak of snowy Olympus rings,

and the homes of the immortals. Sending out an undying voice,

first they honour in song the reverend race of the gods

45from the beginning, those whom Gaia and wide Uranus bore,

and the gods born from them, the givers of good things.

Second they sing of Zeus, father of gods and of men,

taking him up as they begin their song and as they end it,

telling how far he is the best of the gods and the greatest in power.

50Then again they sing of the race of men and of the strong Giants,

and delight the mind of Zeus within Olympus —

the Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-holding Zeus.

In Pieria Mnemosyne bore them, lying with the father, the son of Cronus —

Mnemosyne, who rules over the hills of Eleuther —

55to be a forgetting of evils and a rest from cares.

For nine nights Zeus the counsellor lay with her,

going up to the holy bed apart from the immortals.

But when a year had come round and the seasons had turned,

as the months waned and many days were completed,

60she bore nine daughters of one mind, whose hearts are set

on song, and whose spirit knows no care —

a little below the topmost peak of snowy Olympus.

There are their bright dancing-floors and their fair houses.

Beside them the Graces and Desire have their dwellings,

65in the midst of feasting. Sending a lovely voice from their mouths

they sing, and they celebrate the customs of all

and the good ways of the immortals, sending out a lovely voice.

Then they went up to Olympus, exulting in their beautiful voice,

with immortal song; and the black earth rang around them

70as they sang, and a lovely beat rose beneath their feet

as they went to their father. He is king in heaven,

holding himself the thunder and the blazing thunderbolt,

having overcome his father Cronus by force; and he set all things

in good order among the immortals and assigned to each its honour.

75These are the things the Muses sang, who have their homes on Olympus,

the nine daughters born of great Zeus:

Clio and Euterpe and Thalia and Melpomene,

Terpsichore and Erato and Polymnia and Urania,

and Calliope, who is the most eminent of them all,

80for it is she who attends upon revered kings.

Whichever of the Zeus-nourished kings the daughters of great Zeus

honour and look upon at his birth,

they pour sweet dew upon his tongue,

and gentle words flow from his mouth. And the people

85all look to him as he settles the ordinances

with straight judgments; and speaking without stumbling

he quickly and skilfully puts an end even to a great quarrel.

This is why kings are prudent: because for people who suffer wrong

in the assembly they bring the matter back to right

90with ease, persuading them with gentle words.

When he goes through the gathering they entreat him like a god,

with soft reverence, and he stands out among those assembled.

Such is the holy gift the Muses give to men.

For it is from the Muses and from far-shooting Apollo

95that there are singers and lyre-players on the earth,

and from Zeus there are kings. Happy is the man the Muses

love: sweet is the voice that flows from his mouth.

For if a man has grief in a heart newly wounded

and is parched with sorrow, and then a singer,

100a servant of the Muses, hymns the glories of men of old

and the blessed gods who hold Olympus,

at once he forgets his heavy thoughts and remembers

none of his cares: the gifts of the goddesses turn him quickly aside.

Hail, children of Zeus! Grant me a song that stirs desire.

105Celebrate the holy race of the immortals who are forever,

those born from Gaia and from starry Uranus,

and from dark Night, and those whom the salt sea nourished.

Tell how at the first the gods and the earth came to be,

and the rivers, and the boundless sea raging with its swell,

110and the shining stars, and the wide heaven above;

and the gods born from them, the givers of good things;

and how they divided their wealth and apportioned their honours,

and how at the first they took many-folded Olympus.

Tell me these things, Muses who have your homes on Olympus,

115from the beginning, and say which of them came first of all.

116First of all Chaos came to be; and next

broad-breasted Gaia, the ever-secure seat of all,

of the immortals who hold the peak of snowy Olympus;

and misty Tartarus in a recess of the wide-wayed earth;

120and Eros, most beautiful among the immortal gods,

the loosener of limbs, who overcomes in the breast

the mind and the careful counsel of all gods and all men.

From Chaos came Erebus and black Night;

and from Night came Aether and Day,

125whom she conceived and bore after joining in love with Erebus.

Gaia first bore one equal to herself,

starry Uranus, to cover her on every side,

and to be an ever-secure seat for the blessed gods.

She bore the long hills, the pleasant haunts of the goddesses,

130the Nymphs who dwell among the wooded glens of the hills.

She also bore the barren sea, raging with its swell —

Pontus — without any act of love. But afterwards,

bedded with Uranus, she bore deep-eddying Oceanus,

and Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus,

135and Theia and Rhea and Themis and Mnemosyne,

and Phoebe of the golden crown and lovely Tethys.

After them was born Cronus of the crooked counsel, the youngest,

most terrible of the children; and he hated his lusty father.

She bore also the Cyclopes, who have overbearing hearts:

140Brontes and Steropes and Arges of the violent spirit,

who gave Zeus the thunder and fashioned the thunderbolt for him.

In all else they were like the gods,

but a single eye was set in the middle of their foreheads.

Cyclopes was their name, and the name fits them,

145since one round eye was set in each one's forehead.

Strength and force were theirs, and craft in their work.

Others too were born from Gaia and Uranus,

three great and mighty sons, not to be named lightly:

Cottus and Briareus and Gyes, arrogant children.

150A hundred arms sprang from their shoulders,

not to be approached; and fifty heads grew

from the shoulders of each, upon their sturdy limbs.

and their strength was immense, matching their great form.

154All those who were born from Gaia and Uranus

155were the most terrible of children, and their father hated them

from the first. As each one of them came to be,

he would hide them all away and not let them into the light,

down in a hollow of Gaia; and Uranus took delight

in the evil deed. But huge Gaia groaned within,

160pressed tight; and she devised a crafty and evil art.

At once she made a kind of grey adamant,

and fashioned a great sickle, and told her dear children of it.

Grieving in her heart, she spoke to give them courage:

"My children, and children of a reckless father — if you are willing

165to obey me, we can punish your father for his wicked outrage.

For he was the first to plot deeds that bring shame."

So she spoke; and fear seized them all, and not one of them

uttered a word. But great Cronus of the crooked counsel took heart

and answered his careful mother with these words:

170"Mother, I will undertake this work and carry it through,

for I have no regard for our father of the hateful name.

For he was the first to plot deeds that bring shame."

So he spoke; and huge Gaia rejoiced greatly in her heart.

She hid him in ambush and set him there, and put into his hands

175the sickle with jagged teeth, and explained the whole plot to him.

Great Uranus came, bringing on the night, and spread himself

over Gaia, longing for love, stretched out

on all sides. Then his son reached out from the ambush

with his left hand, and in his right he took the huge sickle,

180long and jagged-toothed; and he swiftly reaped away

his own father's genitals, and threw them behind him

to be carried off. Nor did they fly from his hand without effect:

for all the bloody drops that spurted forth

Gaia received; and as the years came round

185she bore the strong Erinyes and the great Giants,

gleaming in their armour, holding long spears in their hands,

and the Nymphs whom men call Meliae over the boundless earth.

As for the genitals, when he had cut them off with the adamant

and thrown them from the land into the surging sea,

190they were carried over the water a long while, and a white

foam rose from the immortal flesh; and in it a girl

was nurtured. First she came near to holy Cythera,

and from there she arrived at sea-girt Cyprus.

The revered and beautiful goddess stepped ashore, and grass

195grew up beneath her slender feet. Aphrodite —

the foam-born goddess, and Cytherea of the fair crown —

is what gods and men call her, because she was nurtured

in the foam; and Cytherea because she touched at Cythera;

and Cyprogenes because she was born in surf-beaten Cyprus;

200and Philommedes because she appeared out of the genitals.

Eros went with her, and fair Desire followed her,

at her birth and when she first went among the gods.

From the beginning she has held this honour, and this is the portion

allotted to her among men and among the immortal gods:

205girls' whispering, and smiles, and deceptions,

and sweet delight, and love, and gentleness.

Their father, great Uranus, used to call the sons he had begotten

by the nickname of Titans, reproaching them.

He said that in their recklessness they had strained to do a great deed,

210and that vengeance for it would come afterwards.

211Night bore hateful Doom and black Fate

and Death; she bore Sleep, and she bore the tribe of Dreams.

Dark Night bore them lying with no one.

Next she bore Blame and painful Distress,

215and the Hesperides, who tend the fair golden apples

beyond famed Oceanus, and the trees that bear that fruit.

She bore the Fates and the Dooms who punish without pity,

Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give to mortals

at their birth their share of good and of evil,

220and who pursue the transgressions of men and of gods;

and the goddesses never cease from their terrible anger

until they have given the wrongdoer a harsh requital.

Deadly Night bore Nemesis too, a grief to mortal men;

and after her she bore Deceit and Affection,

225and ruinous Old Age, and she bore hard-hearted Strife.

And hateful Strife bore painful Toil,

and Forgetfulness and Hunger and the Pains that bring tears,

and Combats and Battles and Murders and Slaughters,

and Quarrels and Lies and Disputes and Wrangling,

230and Lawlessness and Ruin, who keep close company,

and Oath, who does the greatest harm of all to men on earth

whenever someone knowingly swears a false oath.

233Pontus fathered Nereus, who tells no lies and speaks the truth,

the eldest of his children. Men call him the Old Man

235because he is unerring and gentle, and does not forget

what is right, but knows just and kindly counsels.

Next, joining with Gaia, he begot great Thaumas and proud Phorcys,

and Ceto of the lovely cheeks,

and Eurybia, who has a heart of adamant in her breast.

240To Nereus and lovely-haired Doris were born

much-desired children of the goddesses, in the barren sea —

Doris being the daughter of Oceanus, that perfect river:

Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and Amphitrite,

Eudora, Thetis, Galene, and Glauce,

245Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe, and lovely Halie,

Pasithea, Erato, and rose-armed Eunice,

graceful Melite, Eulimene, and Agaue,

Doto, Proto, Pherusa, and Dynamene,

Nesaea, Actaea, and Protomedea,

250Doris, Panopea, and shapely Galatea,

lovely Hippothoe, and rose-armed Hipponoe,

and Cymodoce, who with ease calms the waves

on the misty sea and the blasts of raging winds,

together with Cymatolege and fair-ankled Amphitrite;

255Cymo, Eione, and Halimede of the fair crown,

smile-loving Glauconome, and Pontoporea,

Leagore, Euagore, and Laomedea,

Polynoe, Autonoe, and Lysianassa,

Euarne, lovely in form and faultless in appearance,

260graceful-bodied Psamathe, and bright Menippe,

Neso, Eupompe, Themisto, and Pronoe,

and Nemertes, who has her immortal father's mind.

These were born from blameless Nereus,

fifty daughters, skilled in blameless works.

265Thaumas took to wife Electra, the daughter

of deep-flowing Oceanus; and she bore swift Iris

and the lovely-haired Harpies, Aello and Ocypete,

who keep pace with the blasts of the winds and with birds

on their swift wings, for they dart high through the air.

270To Phorcys Ceto bore the Graeae of the fair cheeks,

grey-haired from birth; and Graeae they are called

by the immortal gods and by men who walk on the ground:

Pemphredo in her fine robe, and Enyo in her saffron robe.

And she bore the Gorgons, who live beyond famed Oceanus,

275at the edge of the world toward Night, where the clear-voiced Hesperides are:

Sthenno and Euryale and Medusa, who suffered a wretched fate.

She was mortal, but the other two were immortal and ageless,

the two of them. With that one the dark-haired god lay

in a soft meadow among the flowers of spring.

280And when Perseus cut off her head,

great Chrysaor sprang out, and the horse Pegasus.

The horse got his name because he was born beside

the springs of Oceanus; and the other held a golden sword in his hands.

Pegasus flew away, leaving the earth that mothers flocks,

285and came to the immortals. He lives in the house of Zeus

and carries thunder and lightning for Zeus the counsellor.

Chrysaor fathered three-headed Geryon,

joining with Callirrhoe, daughter of famed Oceanus.

Him the strength of Heracles killed

290beside his shambling cattle in sea-girt Erytheia,

on the day when he drove the broad-browed cattle

to holy Tiryns, crossing the ford of Oceanus,

after killing Orthus and the herdsman Eurytion

in the misty steading beyond famed Oceanus.

295Ceto bore another monster, one beyond dealing with,

like neither mortal men nor immortal gods:

in a hollow cave, divine and strong-hearted Echidna,

half a nymph with flashing eyes and lovely cheeks,

and half a monstrous serpent, terrible and huge,

300gleaming and flesh-eating, in the hollows of the holy earth.

There she has her cave, down beneath a hollow rock,

far from the immortal gods and from mortal men.

There the gods allotted her a famous dwelling to inhabit.

Grim Echidna was kept beneath the earth among the Arimi,

305an immortal nymph, unaging for all her days.

They say that Typhaon lay in love with her,

a terrible, violent, lawless thing, with the flashing-eyed girl;

and she conceived and bore strong-hearted children.

First she bore Orthus, the dog of Geryon;

310then she bore another, beyond dealing with, not to be described:

Cerberus the flesh-eater, the bronze-voiced hound of Hades,

with fifty heads, shameless and strong.

Third she bore the Hydra, who knows grim things,

the Hydra of Lerna, whom the white-armed goddess Hera reared,

315in her unrelenting anger against the strength of Heracles.

But the son of Zeus killed it with pitiless bronze —

the son of Amphitryon, together with Iolaus dear to Ares —

Heracles, by the counsels of Athena who brings the spoil.

Echidna bore the Chimaera too, who breathes irresistible fire,

320terrible and great, swift-footed and strong.

She had three heads: one of a fierce-eyed lion,

one of a goat, one of a snake, a powerful serpent —

in front a lion, behind a serpent, in the middle a goat —

breathing out the terrible force of blazing fire.

325Pegasus and good Bellerophon brought her down.

And she bore deadly Phix, a ruin to the people of Cadmus,

submitting to Orthus; and she bore the Nemean lion,

whom Hera, the glorious wife of Zeus, reared

and settled in the hills of Nemea, a scourge to men.

330There the lion preyed on the tribes of men who lived nearby,

holding sway over Tretus of Nemea and over Apesas.

But the might of Heracles' strength overpowered him.

Ceto, joining in love with Phorcys, bore as her youngest

a terrible serpent, which in the hollows of the dark earth,

335at its great limits, guards apples all of gold.

This is the offspring of Ceto and Phorcys.

337Tethys bore to Oceanus the eddying Rivers:

Nile, Alpheus, and deep-eddying Eridanus,

Strymon, Maeander, and fair-flowing Ister,

340Phasis, Rhesus, and silver-eddying Achelous,

Nessus, Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus,

Granicus, Aesepus, and divine Simois,

Peneus, Hermus, and Caicus with its good stream,

great Sangarius, Ladon, and Parthenius,

345Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander.

She bore also a holy race of daughters, who upon the earth

bring young men to manhood, together with lord Apollo

and with the Rivers; this is the portion they have from Zeus:

Peitho, Admete, Ianthe, and Electra,

350Doris, Prymno, and godlike Urania,

Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe,

Zeuxo, Clytie, Idyia, and Pasithoe,

Plexaura, Galaxaura, and lovely Dione,

Melobosis, Thoe, and shapely Polydora,

355Cerceis of lovely form, and ox-eyed Pluto,

Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, and Xanthe,

lovely Petraea, Menestho, and Europa,

Metis, Eurynome, and Telesto in her saffron robe,

Chryseis, Asia, and desirable Calypso,

360Eudora, Tyche, Amphiro, and Ocyrrhoe,

and Styx, who is the most eminent of them all.

These are the eldest daughters born

from Oceanus and Tethys; but there are many others besides.

For there are three thousand slender-ankled daughters of Oceanus,

365who are scattered far and wide, and everywhere alike

attend the earth and the depths of the waters, bright children of goddesses.

And there are just as many rivers, running with a noise,

sons of Oceanus, whom lady Tethys bore.

It is hard for a mortal man to tell the names of them all,

370but those who live near each one know it.

Theia bore great Helios and shining Selene,

and Eos, who gives light to all upon the earth

and to the immortal gods who hold the wide heaven;

she bore them after yielding to Hyperion in love.

375To Crius Eurybia, bright among goddesses,

joining with him in love, bore great Astraeus and Pallas,

and Perses, who surpassed all others in his knowledge.

To Astraeus Eos bore the strong-hearted winds,

clearing Zephyrus and Boreas who travels in haste,

380and Notus — a goddess bedded in love with a god.

After them the early-born goddess bore the star Eosphorus,

and the shining stars with which heaven is crowned.

Styx, daughter of Oceanus, joining with Pallas,

bore in his halls Zelus and fair-ankled Nike,

385and she bore Cratos and Bia, children of high renown.

Apart from them there is no house of Zeus, no seat,

no road on which the god goes without them leading the way;

they are always seated beside deep-thundering Zeus.

For so Styx planned it, the undying daughter of Oceanus,

390on the day when the Olympian lord of lightning

called all the immortal gods to high Olympus,

and said that whoever fought at his side against the Titans

would not be stripped of his privileges: each would keep

the honour he had held before among the immortal gods.

395And he said that whoever had gone without honour or privilege under Cronus

would be raised to honour and privilege, as is right.

So undying Styx came first to Olympus,

bringing her children, by the counsel of her dear father.

Zeus honoured her and gave her exceptional gifts.

400He made her herself the great oath of the gods,

and made her children live beside him for all their days.

And for all the others too, just as he had promised,

he carried it through to the end; and he himself rules and reigns in great power.

404Phoebe came to the longed-for bed of Coeus.

405A goddess conceiving in the embrace of a god,

she bore Leto of the dark robe, gentle always,

mild toward men and toward the undying gods,

gentle from the first, the softest-tempered on Olympus.

She bore also Asteria of the good name, whom Perses

410once led into his great house to be called his wife.

Asteria conceived and bore Hecate, whom above all others

Zeus son of Cronus honored, and gave her shining gifts:

a share of the earth and of the unharvested sea.

From the starry sky as well she was allotted honor,

415and among the undying gods she is held highest in regard.

Even now, when any man who walks the earth

makes fine offerings by custom and seeks favor,

he calls on Hecate. Great honor follows that man,

and easily, if the goddess receives his prayers kindly;

420and she grants him wealth, for the power is hers to give.

Of all who were born from Gaia and Uranus

and were allotted honor, she holds a portion of every one.

The son of Cronus used no force on her and took nothing away

of what she had been given among the Titans, the earlier gods;

425she keeps it as the first division from the beginning made it.

Nor, being an only child, does she have any less honor

or privilege on the earth, in the sky, and in the sea;

she has far more, since Zeus himself holds her in honor.

She stands in strength beside whomever she chooses, and profits him.

430In the assembly the man she chooses stands out among the people.

And when men arm themselves for the war that destroys men,

there too the goddess is present, and to whom she wishes

she gladly gives victory and holds out glory.

In judgment she sits beside kings who are held in awe.

435She is good again when men contend in the games:

there too the goddess stands by them and profits them,

and the one who wins by force and strength carries off

the fine prize with ease and joy, and brings glory to his parents.

She is good at the side of horsemen, whomever she chooses.

440And for those whose work is the gray and difficult water —

they pray to Hecate and to the loud Shaker of the Earth —

the glorious goddess easily grants a great catch,

and easily takes it away as it shows, if that is her will.

In the stalls, with Hermes, she is good at increasing the stock:

445herds of cattle, wide-scattered flocks of goats,

flocks of woolly sheep — if her heart is willing,

she makes many out of few, and out of many fewer.

So, though she is her mother's only child,

she is honored with privileges among all the immortals.

450The son of Cronus made her nurse of the young, of those who after her

saw with their eyes the light of Dawn who looks far.

So from the beginning she is nurse of the young; these are her honors.

453Rhea, mastered by Cronus, bore shining children:

Hestia, Demeter, and Hera of the golden sandals,

455and strong Hades, who lives in halls beneath the ground

with a heart that shows no pity, and the loud Shaker of the Earth,

and Zeus the planner, father of gods and of men,

under whose thunder the wide earth shakes.

Great Cronus swallowed them, each one,

460as each came from the holy womb to its mother's knees.

This was his intent: that none of the proud line of Heaven

but himself should hold the honor of kingship among the immortals.

For he had learned from Gaia and from starry Uranus

that it was fated for him to be brought down by his own child,

465strong as he was, through the designs of great Zeus.

So he kept no idle watch, but lay in wait

and swallowed his children; and grief that would not pass held Rhea.

But when she was about to give birth to Zeus,

father of gods and of men, she begged her own parents,

470Gaia and starry Uranus,

to plan with her some way to hide the birth

of her dear child, and to exact payment for the Fury of her father

and for the children whom great crooked-scheming Cronus had swallowed.

They listened closely to their daughter and did as she asked,

475and told her everything that was fated to come about

concerning king Cronus and his strong-hearted son.

They sent her to Lyctus, to the rich country of Crete,

when she was near to bearing the youngest of her children,

great Zeus. Vast Gaia took him from her

480to nurse and rear him in broad Crete.

She carried him through the quick black night

and came first to Lyctus; taking him in her hands she hid him

in a sheer cave, under the secret places of the holy earth,

on Mount Aegaeum, thick with woods.

485Then Rhea wrapped a great stone in swaddling and put it

into the hands of the son of Uranus, great lord, king of the earlier gods.

He took it and let it down into his belly,

the hard man, and never saw in his mind that afterward

in place of the stone his own son was left,

490unbeaten and untroubled, who would soon master him by force

and drive him from his honor and rule among the immortals.

Quickly then the strength and the shining limbs

of that lord grew; and as the year came round,

tricked by the shrewd promptings of Gaia,

495great crooked-scheming Cronus brought his offspring up again,

beaten by the skill and the strength of his own son.

First he threw up the stone, the last thing he had swallowed.

Zeus set it fast in the earth of wide roads

at most holy Pytho, under the hollows of Parnassus,

500to be a sign thereafter, a marvel to mortal men.

And he freed his father's brothers from their deadly bonds,

the sons of Uranus, whom their father had bound in his folly.

They did not forget the kindness, and in return

they gave him thunder and the smoldering thunderbolt

505and lightning; before that, huge Gaia had kept them hidden.

Trusting in these he rules over mortals and immortals.

507Iapetus took as wife the fair-ankled daughter of Ocean,

Clymene, and went up with her into a bed they shared.

She bore him Atlas, a son of stubborn heart,

510and she bore Menoetius of great renown, and Prometheus,

intricate, shifting in his schemes, and wrong-headed Epimetheus,

who from the start was a disaster to men who eat bread,

since it was he who first accepted from Zeus the molded woman,

that maiden. As for arrogant Menoetius, far-seeing Zeus

515struck him with the smoking bolt and sent him down to Erebus

for his recklessness and his overbearing manhood.

Atlas holds up the wide sky under hard compulsion

at the edges of the earth, in front of the clear-voiced Hesperides,

standing with his head and his tireless hands.

520This was the lot that Zeus the planner dealt him.

And he bound Prometheus of the intricate counsels in fetters no one slips,

painful bonds, driving them through the middle of a pillar,

and he set a long-winged eagle on him. It fed on his liver,

which does not die, and by night the liver grew back

525to the whole of what the wide-winged bird had eaten all day.

That bird the brave son of fair-ankled Alcmene,

Heracles, killed, and turned the cruel sickness away

from the son of Iapetus and released him from his misery,

and not against the will of Olympian Zeus who rules on high,

530so that the fame of Heracles, born at Thebes,

might grow still greater over the earth that feeds many.

Out of regard for this Zeus honored his outstanding son

and, angry as he was, let go the wrath he had held before

because Prometheus had matched his wits against the mighty son of Cronus.

535For when gods and mortal men were settling their accounts

at Mecone, Prometheus with a ready heart divided

a great ox and set it out, meaning to deceive the mind of Zeus.

On one side he laid the meat and the entrails rich with fat

inside the hide, and covered them over with the ox's paunch;

540on the other he set the white bones of the ox,

arranged with cunning craft and covered in gleaming fat.

Then the father of men and gods spoke to him:

"Son of Iapetus, most conspicuous of all lords,

my friend, how one-sided a division you have made."

545So Zeus, who knows counsels that do not perish, spoke in mockery.

And crooked-scheming Prometheus answered him,

smiling faintly, and he did not forget his cunning craft:

"Zeus, most glorious, greatest of the gods who live forever,

take whichever of these the heart in your breast tells you to take."

550He spoke with guile. But Zeus, who knows counsels that do not perish,

saw it, and the trick did not escape him; and in his heart he foresaw

evils for mortal men, evils that were going to be fulfilled.

With both hands he lifted up the white fat,

and his mind was angered, and rage came into his heart

555when he saw the white bones of the ox laid out with cunning craft.

Since that time the tribes of men on earth burn white bones

for the immortals on altars where the smoke rises.

Deeply vexed, Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him:

"Son of Iapetus, who knows plans beyond all others,

560my friend, so you have not yet forgotten your cunning craft."

So Zeus, who knows counsels that do not perish, spoke in anger,

and from then on, always remembering the trick,

he would not give the force of tireless fire to the ash-trees,

to the mortal men who live upon the earth.

565But the good son of Iapetus got the better of him,

stealing the far-seen gleam of tireless fire

in a hollow fennel stalk. It bit deep in the heart

of high-thundering Zeus and angered him within

when he saw the far-seen gleam of fire among men.

570At once, in exchange for fire, he made an evil for men.

The famous Lame God molded out of earth,

by the designs of the son of Cronus, the likeness of a modest girl.

The gray-eyed goddess Athena girdled and dressed her

in silver-white clothing; over her head she drew down with her hands

575a veil of intricate work, a wonder to look at;

and around her head Pallas Athena set

garlands of fresh grass, lovely flowers.

On her head she placed a crown of gold

that the famous Lame God had made himself,

580working it with his hands to please Zeus his father.

Many intricate things were worked into it, a wonder to look at:

the beasts that the mainland and the sea nourish in their numbers,

he set many of them in, and much grace shone out of it,

marvelous things, like living creatures with voices.

585When he had made this beautiful evil in exchange for a good,

he led her out to where the other gods and men were,

and she gloried in the finery of the gray-eyed daughter of a mighty father.

Wonder took hold of the undying gods and of mortal men

when they saw the sheer trap, against which men have no defense.

590From her comes the race of women, the female kind;

from her come the ruinous stock and the tribes of women,

a great affliction who live among mortal men,

no partners in ruinous poverty, but only in plenty.

It is as when bees in their roofed hives

595feed the drones, partners in bad work:

all day long until the sun goes down

the bees are busy and lay down the white combs,

while the drones stay inside under the roofs of the hives

and rake another's labor into their own bellies.

600In just this way high-thundering Zeus made women

an evil for mortal men, partners in painful work.

And he gave a second evil in place of a good.

A man who flees marriage and the troublesome work of women

and refuses to wed comes to a ruinous old age

605with no one to care for his years. He does not lack a living

while he lives, but when he dies distant kinsmen

divide up what he had. And the man whose lot of marriage comes,

who gets a good wife, sound in her judgment —

for him, all his life long, evil keeps pace with good,

610unremitting. And whoever meets with a bad breed

lives with a grief that will not let go in his chest,

in his heart and his spirit, and it is an evil beyond cure.

So there is no stealing past the mind of Zeus, no getting around it.

Not even Prometheus, son of Iapetus, who wards off harm,

615escaped his heavy anger: under compulsion,

for all his knowledge, a great bond holds him down.

617When their father first grew angry in his heart at Obriareus

and at Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in strong bonds,

begrudging them their overbearing manhood, their form

620and their size; and he settled them under the earth of wide roads.

There they lived beneath the ground in pain,

sitting at the far edge, at the limits of the great earth,

grieving a very long time, with great sorrow in their hearts.

But the son of Cronus and the other immortal gods,

625whom fair-haired Rhea bore in love with Cronus,

brought them back up into the light on Gaia's advice.

For she herself had told them the whole of it:

that with these they would win victory and shining glory.

They had been fighting a long time, carrying heart-sore labor,

630set against one another in violent encounters —

the Titan gods and those who had been born from Cronus,

the proud Titans from high Othrys on the one side,

and from Olympus the gods who give good things,

whom fair-haired Rhea bore after she lay with Cronus.

635They held heart-sore anger against one another then

and fought without a break for more than ten years.

There was no release from the hard quarrel, no end

for either side; the outcome of the war was drawn level.

But when Zeus had given them everything they needed,

640nectar and ambrosia, which the gods themselves eat,

the proud spirit rose in the breasts of them all,

and when they had tasted the nectar and the sweet ambrosia,

then the father of men and gods spoke among them:

"Hear me, shining children of Gaia and Uranus,

645so that I may say what the heart in my breast bids me say.

For a very long time now, set against one another,

we have fought day after day for victory and power,

the Titan gods and we who were born from Cronus.

Show your great strength and your hands that no one can face

650against the Titans in this grim fighting.

Remember our kindness toward you: after all you suffered,

you came back to the light from that cruel bondage,

out of the murky dark, because we planned it."

So he spoke. And blameless Cottus answered at once:

655"You tell us nothing we do not know, dread lord. We ourselves

know that your judgment and your understanding go beyond ours,

and that you became the defender of the immortals against chilling ruin.

By your good sense we came back from the murky dark,

back again out of the pitiless bonds,

660lord son of Cronus, after suffering past all hope.

So now, with fixed mind and willing heart,

we will guard your power in the terrible fighting,

and go against the Titans in the violent encounters."

So he spoke. And the gods who give good things praised his words

665when they heard them, and their spirit longed for war

more than before. On that day they all raised

a battle no one would envy, female and male alike:

the Titan gods, and those born from Cronus,

and those whom Zeus had sent up from Erebus below the ground,

670terrible and strong, with overbearing force in them.

A hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of each of them,

all alike, and fifty heads on every one of them

grew out of the shoulders on their heavy limbs.

They stood then against the Titans in the grim fighting,

675holding sheer rocks in their heavy hands.

On the other side the Titans closed up their ranks

eagerly, and both sides showed at once

the work of their hands and their strength. The endless sea roared terribly,

the earth crashed loudly, and the wide sky groaned

680as it shook; tall Olympus was rocked from its base

by the rush of the immortals, and a heavy quaking reached

murky Tartarus — the sharp din of feet as well,

of the rout beyond telling and of the strong missiles.

So they hurled their weapons of grief at one another.

685The voices of both reached the starry sky

as they called out, and they came together with a great war cry.

Zeus no longer held back his force. Now at once

his mind was filled with it, and he showed the whole

of his strength. From the sky and from Olympus together

690he came on flashing without pause, and the bolts

flew close-packed with thunder and lightning

from his heavy hand, rolling holy flame before them,

one after another. All around, the life-bearing earth

crashed as it burned, and the vast forest roared aloud in the fire.

695The whole land boiled, and the streams of Ocean,

and the barren sea. A hot blast wrapped around

the earthborn Titans, and flame beyond telling reached

the bright upper air, and the flashing glare

of thunderbolt and lightning blinded even the strongest eyes.

700A terrible heat took hold of Chaos. To the eyes it seemed

as if it were seen, and to the ears as if it were heard,

exactly as though Gaia and the wide sky above her

were closing together — for such a crash would rise up

with her crushed beneath and him falling down from on high;

705such was the crash when the gods clashed in their quarrel.

The winds too crashed, with quaking and with dust,

carrying thunder and lightning and the smoldering bolt,

the shafts of great Zeus, and they carried shout and cry

into the middle of both sides. An unapproachable din rose up

710from the dreadful quarrel, and the force of their deeds showed plain.

The battle turned. Until then they had held against each other

and fought without yielding through the violent encounters.

But among the foremost these roused the sharp battle:

Cottus and Briareos and Gyes, who never had enough of war.

715From their heavy hands they sent three hundred rocks

one after another, and they shadowed the Titans over

with their missiles, and sent them below the earth of wide roads,

and bound them there in painful bonds,

having beaten them with their hands, high-spirited though they were,

720as far under the ground as the sky is from the earth,

for that is the distance from earth down to murky Tartarus.

A bronze anvil falling from the sky for nine nights and days

would reach the earth on the tenth;

and it is the same again from earth to murky Tartarus.

725A bronze anvil falling from the earth for nine nights and days

would reach Tartarus on the tenth.

A bronze wall is driven around it, and night

is poured in three rows around its throat; and above it

grow the roots of the earth and of the barren sea.

730There the Titan gods are hidden away under the murky dark

by the will of Zeus who gathers the clouds,

in a place of decay, at the ends of the vast earth.

For them there is no way out. Poseidon set doors of bronze

upon it, and a wall runs around it on both sides.

735There Gyes and Cottus and great-hearted Obriareus live.

736There lie the sources and the limits of them all in order:

of the dark earth, of misty Tartarus,

of the barren sea, and of the starry sky —

grim and mouldering places, hated even by the gods.

740A great chasm gapes there. A man who passed inside the gates

would not reach its floor in one whole turning year,

but gust after cruel gust would carry him

this way and that. Even to the immortal gods

this wonder is a terror. And the dread house of dark Night

745stands there, wrapped about in blue-black cloud.

In front of it the son of Iapetus holds up the wide sky,

standing with his head and his unwearied arms,

unshaken. There Night and Day come close and greet

each other as they cross the great bronze threshold.

750One goes down inside, the other steps out

through the door; the house never keeps them both within.

Always one of them is out beyond the walls,

ranging over the earth, while the other waits inside

for her own hour of setting out to come.

755The one carries the far-seeing light for those on earth;

the other carries Sleep in her arms, the brother of Death —

ruinous Night, hidden in a cloud like mist.

There the children of dark Night keep their house:

Sleep and Death, terrible gods. The blazing Sun

760never looks on them with his rays,

not climbing to the sky, not coming down from it.

One of them roams the earth and the broad back of the sea

quietly, and is gentle to human beings.

The other has a heart of iron, a spirit of bronze

765in his chest, without pity. Whatever man he seizes

he keeps, and he is hateful even to the immortal gods.

In front of that place stand the echoing halls

of the god below, of strong Hades and of dread Persephone.

They stand there, and a terrible dog keeps watch before them,

770a merciless dog with a vicious trick: on those who enter

he fawns alike with his tail and with both ears,

but he never lets them out again. He lies in wait

and eats whoever he catches going out through the gates

of strong Hades and of dread Persephone.

775There too lives a goddess the immortals hate,

dread Styx, eldest daughter of Ocean

who flows back on himself. Far from the gods she keeps

a famous house, roofed over with enormous rocks

and propped up toward the sky on every side

780by pillars of silver. Rarely does swift-footed Iris,

daughter of Thaumas, come there on an errand across the sea's broad back —

only when quarrel and strife break out among the immortals,

when one of those who live in the halls of Olympus lies.

Then Zeus sends Iris to fetch the great oath of the gods

785from far away, in a golden jug: that famous water,

cold, that drips down from a sheer rock,

a high one. Far under the wide-wayed earth it runs

from the holy river through the black night,

a branch of Ocean. A tenth share is given to Styx;

790the other nine wind round the earth and the sea's broad back

in silver eddies and fall into the salt water,

but this one flows out of the rock, a great affliction to the gods.

If any of the immortals who hold the snowy peak of Olympus

pours this water and swears falsely by it,

795he lies breathless for a full year.

He does not go near ambrosia or nectar

for his food, but lies there without breath and without voice

on a strewn bed, and an evil coma covers him.

And when he has finished out that long year of sickness,

800one hard trial follows another, harder still:

for nine years he is cut off from the everlasting gods,

never joining their council or their feasts,

all nine years long. In the tenth he joins them again,

in the gatherings of the immortals who live on Olympus.

805Such an oath the gods made of the imperishable water of Styx,

that ancient water, running through a broken, stony land.

There lie the sources and the limits of them all in order:

of the dark earth, of misty Tartarus,

of the barren sea, and of the starry sky —

810grim and mouldering places, hated even by the gods.

There are gleaming gates and a bronze threshold,

unshaken, fixed on roots that run on without end,

grown of itself. Beyond it, outside all the gods,

the Titans live, on the far side of gloomy Chaos.

815But the famous allies of loud-crashing Zeus

keep their houses on the foundations of Ocean:

Cottus and Gyes. Briareos, because he was good,

the deep-booming Earth-Shaker took as his son-in-law

and gave him his daughter Cymopolea to marry.

820When Zeus had driven the Titans out of the sky,

vast Earth bore her youngest child, Typhoeus,

joined with Tartarus through golden Aphrodite.

His hands were made for deeds of strength,

and the feet of the powerful god never tired. From his shoulders

825grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful serpent,

flickering with dark tongues, and from the eyes

in those uncanny heads fire flashed under the brows.

Fire burned from every head as he glared.

There were voices in all the terrible heads,

830sending out every kind of sound, past telling. Sometimes

they spoke so that the gods could understand;

sometimes it was the loud bellow of a bull, uncontrollable and proud;

sometimes the voice of a lion with a shameless heart;

sometimes a sound like puppies, a wonder to hear;

835and sometimes he only hissed, and the high mountains echoed him.

On that day a thing past mending would have happened,

and he would have ruled over mortals and immortals alike,

had the father of men and gods not seen it clearly.

He thundered hard and heavy, and all around

840the earth rang out terribly, and the wide sky above,

and the sea, and Ocean's streams, and Tartarus below the ground.

Great Olympus shook under his immortal feet

as the lord rose, and the earth groaned.

Heat from them both took hold of the violet sea —

845heat of thunder and lightning, of the fire from that monster,

of scorching winds and of the blazing thunderbolt.

All the earth boiled, and the sky and the sea boiled with it.

Long waves raged around the shores, all round about,

under the onrush of the immortals, and an endless shaking rose.

850Hades trembled, who rules the dead below,

and the Titans under Tartarus, gathered around Cronus,

at the unceasing din and the dreadful fighting.

When Zeus had gathered his strength and taken up his weapons —

thunder and lightning and the smoking thunderbolt —

855he leapt from Olympus and struck, and all around

he burned away the uncanny heads of the terrible monster.

When he had beaten him down with those lashing blows,

Typhoeus fell crippled, and the vast earth groaned.

Flame shot out from the thunderstruck lord

860in the dim rough gullies of the mountain

where he was struck, and much of the vast earth burned

in that uncanny blast. It melted the way tin melts

when young men heat it by their craft in well-pierced crucibles,

or the way iron melts, which is the hardest thing of all,

865when it is mastered by blazing fire in the mountain gullies

and runs in the holy ground under the hands of Hephaestus.

So the earth melted in the glare of the burning fire.

And Zeus, sick at heart, threw him down into wide Tartarus.

From Typhoeus comes the force of the winds that blow wet,

870apart from Notus, Boreas, and clearing Zephyrus.

Those are of the gods' own stock, a great help to mortals.

The rest of them gust at random over the sea.

Falling on the hazy water,

a great affliction to mortals, they rage in an evil squall.

875They blow now one way, now another, scattering ships

and destroying sailors. There is no defense against that harm

for the men who meet them out on the sea.

And over the boundless flowering land as well

they ruin the lovely work of people born of the earth,

880filling it with dust and with grinding uproar.

881When the blessed gods had finished their labor

and had settled by force the question of honors with the Titans,

then they urged Zeus to be king and to rule

over the immortals — wide-seeing Olympian Zeus —

885at Earth's prompting; and he shared out their honors well.

Zeus, king of the gods, took Metis as his first wife,

who knows more than any god or mortal.

But when she was about to give birth to Athena of the bright eyes,

he tricked her mind with cunning,

890coaxed her with soft words, and put her inside himself,

at the prompting of Earth and starry Uranus.

They had advised him so, that no one else

among the everlasting gods should hold the kingship in his place.

For it was fated that Metis would bear children of great mind:

895first the bright-eyed girl Tritogeneia,

with strength equal to her father's and shrewd counsel;

and after her a son, a king of gods and men,

with an overbearing heart.

But Zeus put her inside himself first,

900so that the goddess could tell him good from evil.

Second he married shining Themis, who bore the Horae —

Eunomia, Dike, and flourishing Eirene,

who watch over the work of mortal men —

and the Moirae, whom shrewd Zeus honored above all:

905Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who assign

to mortal men their share of good and evil.

Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, beautiful to look at,

bore him the three Graces with their lovely faces:

Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and charming Thalia.

910From their eyes, when they looked, desire dripped down,

the desire that loosens the limbs; they gaze out lovely from under their brows.

Then he came to the bed of Demeter who feeds many,

and she bore white-armed Persephone, whom Aidoneus

carried off from her mother, with shrewd Zeus consenting.

915Next he loved Mnemosyne of the beautiful hair,

and from her the Muses with gold headbands were born to him,

nine of them, who take delight in feasts and in the pleasure of song.

Leto bore Apollo and Artemis who shoots arrows,

a lovely pair beyond all the children of heaven,

920after she had joined in love with Zeus who bears the aegis.

Last of all he made blooming Hera his wife.

She bore Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia,

joined in love with the king of gods and men.

And out of his own head he brought forth bright-eyed Tritogeneia,

925dreadful, rouser of the war-cry, leader of armies, tireless,

a lady who delights in shouting and wars and battles.

Hera bore famous Hephaestus without joining in love —

she was furious and quarreled with her husband —

Hephaestus, most skilled in crafts of all the children of heaven.

930From Amphitrite and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker

came Triton of great strength, who holds the floor

of the sea and lives in a golden house

beside his dear mother and his lordly father, a dreadful god. To Ares,

piercer of shields, Cytherea bore Phobos and Deimos,

935terrible gods, who throw the packed ranks of men into confusion

in the freezing work of war, alongside Ares who sacks cities.

She bore Harmonia too, whom proud Cadmus took as his wife.

To Zeus, Maia the daughter of Atlas bore glorious Hermes,

herald of the immortals, after she came up to his holy bed.

940Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, bore him a shining son,

joined with him in love: Dionysus, who brings much joy,

an immortal born of a mortal. Now both of them are gods.

Alcmene bore the strength of Heracles,

joined in love with Zeus who gathers the clouds.

945Hephaestus, the famous god lame in both legs,

made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his blooming wife.

Golden-haired Dionysus made fair Ariadne,

the daughter of Minos, his blooming wife,

and the son of Cronus made her deathless and free from age.

950And Hebe — the brave son of fair-ankled Alcmene,

the strength of Heracles, when he had finished his grievous labors,

took her, the child of great Zeus and Hera of the golden sandals,

as his honored wife on snowy Olympus.

Happy is he, who finished a great work among the immortals

955and lives unharmed and ageless for all his days.

To tireless Helios the famous daughter of Ocean,

Perseis, bore Circe and King Aeetes.

Aeetes, son of Helios who gives light to men,

married, by the will of the gods,

960the daughter of the perfect river Ocean, Idyia of the lovely face.

And she, mastered through golden Aphrodite,

bore him in love Medea of the fair ankles.

963Now farewell, you who live in the halls of Olympus,

and you islands and mainlands and the salt sea between them.

965And now sing of the company of goddesses, sweet-voiced

Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who bears the aegis —

all those immortals who lay with mortal men

and bore children who were like the gods.

Demeter, shining among goddesses, bore Plutus,

970joined in lovely love with the hero Iasion

in a thrice-plowed fallow field in the rich country of Crete.

He is a good god. He goes over all the earth

and the broad back of the sea, and whoever meets him,

whoever comes into his hands, he makes rich and gives much prosperity.

975To Cadmus, Harmonia, daughter of golden Aphrodite,

bore Ino and Semele and Agave of the lovely face,

and Autonoe, whom deep-haired Aristaeus married,

and she bore Polydorus too, in well-crowned Thebes.

The daughter of Ocean, joined in the love

980of Aphrodite rich in gold with strong-hearted Chrysaor —

Callirrhoe — bore a son, the strongest of all mortals,

Geryon, whom the strength of Heracles killed

for the sake of the shambling cattle on sea-ringed Erytheia.

To Tithonus, Dawn bore Memnon of the bronze helmet,

985king of the Ethiopians, and lord Emathion.

And to Cephalus she bore a shining son,

mighty Phaethon, a man like the gods.

While he was still young, wearing the soft flower

of glorious youth, a boy with a child's mind,

990Aphrodite who loves laughter snatched him up and carried him off,

and made him the keeper of her holy shrines by night, a divine spirit.

And the daughter of Aeetes, the king raised by Zeus —

the son of Aeson, by the will of the everlasting gods,

led her away from Aeetes, having finished the grievous trials

995that the great overbearing king had set on him, many of them:

violent Pelias, lawless and a doer of brutal deeds.

When he had finished them he came back to Iolcus after much toil,

bringing the bright-eyed girl on his swift ship,

the son of Aeson, and he made her his blooming wife.

1000Mastered by Jason, shepherd of the people, she

bore a son, Medeus, whom Chiron reared in the mountains,

the son of Philyra. So the purpose of great Zeus was fulfilled.

As for the daughters of Nereus, the old man of the sea:

Psamathe, shining among goddesses, bore Phocus

1005in love with Aeacus, through golden Aphrodite;

and the silver-footed goddess Thetis, mastered by Peleus,

bore Achilles, breaker of ranks, with the heart of a lion.

Cytherea of the beautiful crown bore Aeneas,

joined in lovely love with the hero Anchises

1010on the peaks of Ida, wooded and many-folded.

Circe, daughter of Helios the son of Hyperion,

in love with Odysseus who endured so much,

bore Agrius and Latinus, blameless and strong.

And she bore Telegonus, through golden Aphrodite.

1015Far away, in a recess of the holy islands,

those sons ruled over all the renowned Tyrrhenians.

Calypso, shining among goddesses, bore to Odysseus

Nausithous and Nausinous, joined with him in lovely love.

These goddesses lay with mortal men,

1020and, immortal themselves, bore children who were like the gods.

And now sing of the company of women, sweet-voiced

Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who bears the aegis.