Hesiod......................................................................................................................................................1

Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise.

Through him mortal men are famed or unfamed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. For easily he

makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure,

and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud, Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling

Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. And I, Perses, would tell of

(ll. 1124) So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the

one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and they are

wholly different in nature. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce,

through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the other is the elder

daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of

the earth: and she is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work

when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good

order; and neighbour vies with is neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And

potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of

(ll. 2541) Perses, lay up these things in your heart, and do not let that Strife who delights in mischief hold

your heart back from work, while you peep and peer and listen to the wrangles of the courthouse. Little

concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year's victuals laid up betimes, even that which the

earth bears, Demeter's grain. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and strive to get

another's goods. But you shall have no second chance to deal so again: nay, let us settle our dispute here with

true judgement divided our inheritance, but you seized the greater share and carried it off, greatly swelling the

glory of our bribeswallowing lords who love to judge such a cause as this. Fools! They know not how much

more the half is than the whole, nor what great advantage there is in mallow and asphodel (1).

(ll. 4253) For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a

day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the

smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. But Zeus in the anger of his heart

hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men.

He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow

fennelstalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds

(ll. 5459) `Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire

a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil

thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.'

(ll. 6068) So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaestus make

haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet,

lovely maidenshape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene to teach her needlework and the

weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares

that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus, to put in her a shameless mind

(ll. 6982) So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God

moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess brighteyed

Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her,

and the richhaired Hours crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with

all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a

deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he

called this woman Pandora (2), because all they who dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men

(ll. 8389) But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious ArgusSlayer, the

swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what

Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it

might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was

(ll. 90105) For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills and hard toil and heavy

sickness which bring the Fates upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the

great lid of the jar (3) with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to

men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly

out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegisholding Zeus who gathers the

clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of

themselves diseases come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently;

for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus.

(ll. 106108) Or if you will, I will sum you up another tale well and skilfully and do you lay it up in your

(ll. 109120) First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men who

lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of

heart, remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them; but with legs and arms never

failing they made merry with feasting beyond the reach of all evils. When they died, it was as though they

were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit

abundantly and without stint. They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in

(ll. 121139) But after earth had covered this generation they are called pure spirits dwelling on the earth,

and are kindly, delivering from harm, and guardians of mortal men; for they roam everywhere over the earth,

clothed in mist and keep watch on judgements and cruel deeds, givers of wealth; for this royal right also they

received; then they who dwell on Olympus made a second generation which was of silver and less noble

by far. It was like the golden race neither in body nor in spirit. A child was brought up at his good mother's

side an hundred years, an utter simpleton, playing childishly in his own home. But when they were full grown

and were come to the full measure of their prime, they lived only a little time in sorrow because of their

foolishness, for they could not keep from sinning and from wronging one another, nor would they serve the

immortals, nor sacrifice on the holy altars of the blessed ones as it is right for men to do wherever they dwell.

Then Zeus the son of Cronos was angry and put them away, because they would not give honour to the

(ll. 140155) But when earth had covered this generation also they are called blessed spirits of the

underworld by men, and, though they are of second order, yet honour attends them also Zeus the Father

made a third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ashtrees (4); and it was in no way equal

to the silver age, but was terrible and strong. They loved the lamentable works of Ares and deeds of violence;

they ate no bread, but were hard of heart like adamant, fearful men. Great was their strength and

unconquerable the arms which grew from their shoulders on their strong limbs. Their armour was of bronze,

and their houses of bronze, and of bronze were their implements: there was no black iron. These were

destroyed by their own hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades, and left no name: terrible though

(ll. 156169b) But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus the son of Cronos made yet another, the

fourth, upon the fruitful earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a godlike race of heromen who are

called demigods, the race before our own, throughout the boundless earth. Grim war and dread battle

destroyed a part of them, some in the land of Cadmus at sevengated Thebe when they fought for the flocks of

Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over the great sea gulf to Troy for richhaired Helen's

sake: there death's end enshrouded a part of them. But to the others father Zeus the son of Cronos gave a

living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by

sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the

graingiving earth bears honeysweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos

rules over them (5); for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. And these last equally have

(ll. 169c169d) And again farseeing Zeus made yet another generation, the fifth, of men who are upon the

(ll. 170201) Thereafter, would that I were not among the men of the fifth generation, but either had died

before or been born afterwards. For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from labour and sorrow by

day, and from perishing by night; and the gods shall lay sore trouble upon them. But, notwithstanding, even

these shall have some good mingled with their evils. And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when

they come to have grey hair on the temples at their birth (6). The father will not agree with his children, nor

the children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with comrade; nor will brother be dear to

brother as aforetime. Men will dishonour their parents as they grow quickly old, and will carp at them,

chiding them with bitter words, hardhearted they, not knowing the fear of the gods. They will not repay

their aged parents the cost their nurture, for might shall be their right: and one man will sack another's city.

There will be no favour for the man who keeps his oath or for the just or for the good; but rather men will

praise the evildoer and his violent dealing. Strength will be right and reverence will cease to be; and the

wicked will hurt the worthy man, speaking false words against him, and will swear an oath upon them. Envy,

foulmouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face, will go along with wretched men one and all. And then

Aidos and Nemesis (7), with their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will go from the widepathed earth

and forsake mankind to join the company of the deathless gods: and bitter sorrows will be left for mortal

(ll. 202211) And now I will tell a fable for princes who themselves understand. Thus said the hawk to the

nightingale with speckled neck, while he carried her high up among the clouds, gripped fast in his talons, and

she, pierced by his crooked talons, cried pitifully. To her he spoke disdainfully: `Miserable thing, why do you

cry out? One far stronger than you now holds you fast, and you must go wherever I take you, songstress as

you are. And if I please I will make my meal of you, or let you go. He is a fool who tries to withstand the

stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame.' So said the swiftly flying hawk,

(ll. 212224) But you, Perses, listen to right and do not foster violence; for violence is bad for a poor man.

Even the prosperous cannot easily bear its burden, but is weighed down under it when he has fallen into

delusion. The better path is to go by on the other side towards justice; for Justice beats Outrage when she

comes at length to the end of the race. But only when he has suffered does the fool learn this. For Oath keeps

pace with wrong judgements. There is a noise when Justice is being dragged in the way where those who

devour bribes and give sentence with crooked judgements, take her. And she, wrapped in mist, follows to the

city and haunts of the people, weeping, and bringing mischief to men, even to such as have driven her forth in

(ll. 225237) But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to the men of the land, and go not aside

from what is just, their city flourishes, and the people prosper in it: Peace, the nurse of children, is abroad in

their land, and allseeing Zeus never decrees cruel war against them. Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt

men who do true justice; but lightheartedly they tend the fields which are all their care. The earth bears them

victual in plenty, and on the mountains the oak bears acorns upon the top and bees in the midst. Their woolly

sheep are laden with fleeces; their women bear children like their parents. They flourish continually with

good things, and do not travel on ships, for the graingiving earth bears them fruit.

(ll. 238247) But for those who practise violence and cruel deeds farseeing Zeus, the son of Cronos, ordains

a punishment. Often even a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and devises presumptuous deeds, and

the son of Cronos lays great trouble upon the people, famine and plague together, so that the men perish

away, and their women do not bear children, and their houses become few, through the contriving of

Olympian Zeus. And again, at another time, the son of Cronos either destroys their wide army, or their walls,

(ll. 248264) You princes, mark well this punishment you also; for the deathless gods are near among men

and mark all those who oppress their fellows with crooked judgements, and reck not the anger of the gods.

For upon the bounteous earth Zeus has thrice ten thousand spirits, watchers of mortal men, and these keep

watch on judgements and deeds of wrong as they roam, clothed in mist, all over the earth. And there is virgin

Justice, the daughter of Zeus, who is honoured and reverenced among the gods who dwell on Olympus, and

whenever anyone hurts her with lying slander, she sits beside her father, Zeus the son of Cronos, and tells

him of men's wicked heart, until the people pay for the mad folly of their princes who, evilly minded, pervert

judgement and give sentence crookedly. Keep watch against this, you princes, and make straight your

judgements, you who devour bribes; put crooked judgements altogether from your thoughts.

(ll. 265266) He does mischief to himself who does mischief to another, and evil planned harms the plotter

(ll. 267273) The eye of Zeus, seeing all and understanding all, beholds these things too, if so he will, and

fails not to mark what sort of justice is this that the city keeps within it. Now, therefore, may neither I myself

be righteous among men, nor my son for then it is a bad thing to be righteous if indeed the unrighteous

shall have the greater right. But I think that allwise Zeus will not yet bring that to pass.

(ll. 274285) But you, Perses, lay up these things within you heart and listen now to right, ceasing altogether

to think of violence. For the son of Cronos has ordained this law for men, that fishes and beasts and winged

fowls should devour one another, for right is not in them; but to mankind he gave right which proves far the

best. For whoever knows the right and is ready to speak it, farseeing Zeus gives him prosperity; but whoever

deliberately lies in his witness and forswears himself, and so hurts Justice and sins beyond repair, that man's

generation is left obscure thereafter. But the generation of the man who swears truly is better thenceforward.

(ll. 286292) To you, foolish Perses, I will speak good sense. Badness can be got easily and in shoals: the

road to her is smooth, and she lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed the

sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first; but when a man has

(ll. 293319) That man is altogether best who considers all things himself and marks what will be better

afterwards and at the end; and he, again, is good who listens to a good adviser; but whoever neither thinks for

himself nor keeps in mind what another tells him, he is an unprofitable man. But do you at any rate, always

remembering my charge, work, highborn Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly

crowned may love you and fill your barn with food; for Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard.

Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless drones who

waste the labour of the bees, eating without working; but let it be your care to order your work properly, that

in the right season your barns may be full of victual. Through work men grow rich in flocks and substance,

and working they are much better loved by the immortals (8). Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a

disgrace. But if you work, the idle will soon envy you as you grow rich, for fame and renown attend on

wealth. And whatever be your lot, work is best for you, if you turn your misguided mind away from other

men's property to your work and attend to your livelihood as I bid you. An evil shame is the needy man's

companion, shame which both greatly harms and prospers men: shame is with poverty, but confidence with

(ll. 320341) Wealth should not be seized: godgiven wealth is much better; for it a man take great wealth

violently and perforce, or if he steal it through his tongue, as often happens when gain deceives men's sense

and dishonour tramples down honour, the gods soon blot him out and make that man's house low, and wealth

attends him only for a little time. Alike with him who does wrong to a suppliant or a guest, or who goes up to

his brother's bed and commits unnatural sin in lying with his wife, or who infatuately offends against

fatherless children, or who abuses his old father at the cheerless threshold of old age and attacks him with

harsh words, truly Zeus himself is angry, and at the last lays on him a heavy requittal for his evil doing. But

do you turn your foolish heart altogether away from these things, and, as far as you are able, sacrifice to the

deathless gods purely and cleanly, and burn rich meats also, and at other times propitiate them with libations

and incense, both when you go to bed and when the holy light has come back, that they may be gracious to

you in heart and spirit, and so you may buy another's holding and not another yours.

(ll. 342351) Call your friend to a feast; but leave your enemy alone; and especially call him who lives near

you: for if any mischief happen in the place, neighbours come ungirt, but kinsmen stay to gird themselves (9).

A bad neighbour is as great a plague as a good one is a great blessing; he who enjoys a good neighbour has a

precious possession. Not even an ox would die but for a bad neighbour. Take fair measure from your

neighbour and pay him back fairly with the same measure, or better, if you can; so that if you are in need

(ll. 352369) Do not get base gain: base gain is as bad as ruin. Be friends with the friendly, and visit him who

visits you. Give to one who gives, but do not give to one who does not give. A man gives to the freehanded,

but no one gives to the closefisted. Give is a good girl, but Take is bad and she brings death. For the man who

gives willingly, even though he gives a great thing, rejoices in his gift and is glad in heart; but whoever gives

way to shamelessness and takes something himself, even though it be a small thing, it freezes his heart. He

who adds to what he has, will keep off brighteyed hunger; for it you add only a little to a little and do this

often, soon that little will become great. What a man has by him at home does not trouble him: it is better to

have your stuff at home, for whatever is abroad may mean loss. It is a good thing to draw on what you have;

but it grieves your heart to need something and not to have it, and I bid you mark this. Take your fill when

the cask is first opened and when it is nearly spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come

(ll. 370372) Let the wage promised to a friend be fixed; even with your brother smile and get a witness;

(ll. 373375) Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive you: she is after your barn. The man

(ll. 376380) There should be an only son, to feed his father's house, for so wealth will increase in the home;

but if you leave a second son you should die old. Yet Zeus can easily give great wealth to a greater number.

(ll. 381382) If your heart within you desires wealth, do these things and work with work upon work.

(ll. 383404) When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising (10), begin your harvest, and your ploughing

when they are going to set (11). Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year moves

round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the plains, and of those who live near the sea,

and who inhabit rich country, the glens and dingles far from the tossing sea, strip to sow and strip to

plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all Demeter's fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow

in its season. Else, afterwards, you may chance to be in want, and go begging to other men's houses, but

without avail; as you have already come to me. But I will give you no more nor give you further measure.

Foolish Perses! Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in bitter anguish of spirit you with your

wife and children seek your livelihood amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you. Two or three

times, may be, you will succeed, but if you trouble them further, it will not avail you, and all your talk will be

in vain, and your wordplay unprofitable. Nay, I bid you find a way to pay your debts and avoid hunger.

(ll. 405413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and an ox for the plough a slave woman and not a

wife, to follow the oxen as well and make everything ready at home, so that you may not have to ask of

another, and he refuses you, and so, because you are in lack, the season pass by and your work come to

nothing. Do not put your work off till tomorrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his

barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who putts off work is always at

(ll. 414447) When the piercing power and sultry heat of the sun abate, and almighty Zeus sends the autumn

rains (12), and men's flesh comes to feel far easier, for then the star Sirius passes over the heads of men,

who are born to misery, only a little while by day and takes greater share of night, then, when it showers

its leaves to the ground and stops sprouting, the wood you cut with your axe is least liable to worm. Then

remember to hew your timber: it is the season for that work. Cut a mortar (13) three feet wide and a pestle

three cubits long, and an axle of seven feet, for it will do very well so; but if you make it eight feet long, you

can cut a beetle (14) from it as well. Cut a felloe three spans across for a waggon of ten palms' width. Hew

also many bent timbers, and bring home a ploughtree when you have found it, and look out on the mountain

or in the field for one of holmoak; for this is the strongest for oxen to plough with when one of Athena's

handmen has fixed in the sharebeam and fastened it to the pole with dowels. Get two ploughs ready work on

them at home, one all of a piece, and the other jointed. It is far better to do this, for if you should break one of

them, you can put the oxen to the other. Poles of laurel or elm are most free from worms, and a sharebeam

of oak and a ploughtree of holmoak. Get two oxen, bulls of nine years; for their strength is unspent and

they are in the prime of their age: they are best for work. They will not fight in the furrow and break the

plough and then leave the work undone. Let a brisk fellow of forty years follow them, with a loaf of four

quarters (15) and eight slices (16) for his dinner, one who will attend to his work and drive a straight furrow

and is past the age for gaping after his fellows, but will keep his mind on his work. No younger man will be

better than he at scattering the seed and avoiding doublesowing; for a man less staid gets disturbed,

(ll. 448457) Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane (17) who cries year by year from the clouds above,

for she give the signal for ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter; but she vexes the heart of the man

who has no oxen. Then is the time to feed up your horned oxen in the byre; for it is easy to say: `Give me a

yoke of oxen and a waggon,' and it is easy to refuse: `I have work for my oxen.' The man who is rich in fancy

thinks his waggon as good as built already the fool! He does not know that there are a hundred timbers to

(ll. 458464) So soon as the time for ploughing is proclaimed to men, then make haste, you and your slaves

alike, in wet and in dry, to plough in the season for ploughing, and bestir yourself early in the morning so that

your fields may be full. Plough in the spring; but fallow broken up in the summer will not belie your hopes.

Sow fallow land when the soil is still getting light: fallow land is a defender from harm and a soother of

(ll. 465478) Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to make Demeter's holy grain sound and heavy,

when first you begin ploughing, when you hold in your hand the end of the ploughtail and bring down your

stick on the backs of the oxen as they draw on the polebar by the yokestraps. Let a slave follow a little

behind with a mattock and make trouble for the birds by hiding the seed; for good management is the best for

mortal men as bad management is the worst. In this way your cornears will bow to the ground with fullness

if the Olympian himself gives a good result at the last, and you will sweep the cobwebs from your bins and

you will be glad, I ween, as you take of your garnered substance. And so you will have plenty till you come

to grey (18) springtime, and will not look wistfully to others, but another shall be in need of your help.

(ll. 479492) But if you plough the good ground at the solstice (19), you will reap sitting, grasping a thin

crop in your hand, binding the sheaves awry, dustcovered, not glad at all; so you will bring all home in a

basket and not many will admire you. Yet the will of Zeus who holds the aegis is different at different times;

and it is hard for mortal men to tell it; for if you should plough late, you may find this remedy when the

cuckoo first calls (20) in the leaves of the oak and makes men glad all over the boundless earth, if Zeus

should send rain on the third day and not cease until it rises neither above an ox's hoof nor falls short of it,

then the lateplougher will vie with the early. Keep all this well in mind, and fail not to mark grey spring as it

(ll 493501) Pass by the smithy and its crowded lounge in winter time when the cold keeps men from field

work, for then an industrious man can greatly prosper his house lest bitter winter catch you helpless

and poor and you chafe a swollen foot with a shrunk hand. The idle man who waits on empty hope, lacking a

livelihood, lays to heart mischiefmaking; it is not an wholesome hope that accompanies a need man who

(ll. 502503) While it is yet midsummer command your slaves: `It will not always be summer, build barns.'

(ll. 504535) Avoid the month Lenaeon (21), wretched days, all of them fit to skin an ox, and the frosts

which are cruel when Boreas blows over the earth. He blows across horsebreeding Thrace upon the wide sea

and stirs it up, while earth and the forest howl. On many a highleafed oak and thick pine he falls and brings

them to the bounteous earth in mountain glens: then all the immense wood roars and the beasts shudder and

put their tails between their legs, even those whose hide is covered with fur; for with his bitter blast he blows

even through them although they are shaggybreasted. He goes even through an ox's hide; it does not stop

him. Also he blows through the goat's fine hair. But through the fleeces of sheep, because their wool is

abundant, the keen wind Boreas pierces not at all; but it makes the old man curved as a wheel. And it does

not blow through the tender maiden who stays indoors with her dear mother, unlearned as yet in the works of

golden Aphrodite, and who washes her soft body and anoints herself with oil and lies down in an inner room

within the house, on a winter's day when the Boneless One (22) gnaws his foot in his fireless house and

wretched home; for the sun shows him no pastures to make for, but goes to and fro over the land and city of

dusky men (23), and shines more sluggishly upon the whole race of the Hellenes. Then the horned and

unhorned denizens of the wood, with teeth chattering pitifully, flee through the copses and glades, and all, as

they seek shelter, have this one care, to gain thick coverts or some hollow rock. Then, like the Threelegged

One (24) whose back is broken and whose head looks down upon the ground, like him, I say, they wander to

(ll. 536563) Then put on, as I bid you, a soft coat and a tunic to the feet to shield your body, and you

should weave thick woof on thin warp. In this clothe yourself so that your hair may keep still and not bristle

Lace on your feet closefitting boots of the hide of a slaughtered ox, thickly lined with felt inside. And when

the season of frost comes on, stitch together skins of firstling kids with oxsinew, to put over your back and

to keep off the rain. On your head above wear a shaped cap of felt to keep your ears from getting wet, for the

dawn is chill when Boreas has once made his onslaught, and at dawn a fruitful mist is spread over the earth

from starry heaven upon the fields of blessed men: it is drawn from the ever flowing rivers and is raised high

above the earth by windstorm, and sometimes it turns to rain towards evening, and sometimes to wind when

Thracian Boreas huddles the thick clouds. Finish your work and return home ahead of him, and do not let the

dark cloud from heaven wrap round you and make your body clammy and soak your clothes. Avoid it; for

this is the hardest month, wintry, hard for sheep and hard for men. In this season let your oxen have half their

usual food, but let your man have more; for the helpful nights are long. Observe all this until the year is ended

and you have nights and days of equal length, and Earth, the mother of all, bears again her various fruit.

(ll. 564570) When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the solstice, then the star Arcturus (25) leaves

the holy stream of Ocean and first rises brilliant at dusk. After him the shrilly wailing daughter of Pandion,

the swallow, appears to men when spring is just beginning. Before she comes, prune the vines, for it is best

(ll. 571581) But when the Housecarrier (26) climbs up the plants from the earth to escape the Pleiades,

then it is no longer the season for digging vineyards, but to whet your sickles and rouse up your slaves. Avoid

shady seats and sleeping until dawn in the harvest season, when the sun scorches the body. Then be busy, and

bring home your fruits, getting up early to make your livelihood sure. For dawn takes away a third part of

your work, dawn advances a man on his journey and advances him in his work, dawn which appears and

(ll. 582596) But when the artichoke flowers (27), and the chirping grasshopper sits in a tree and pours

down his shrill song continually from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat, then goats are

plumpest and wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are feeblest, because Sirius parches head and

knees and the skin is dry through heat. But at that time let me have a shady rock and wine of Biblis, a clot of

curds and milk of drained goats with the flesh of an heifer fed in the woods, that has never calved, and of

firstling kids; then also let me drink bright wine, sitting in the shade, when my heart is satisfied with food,

and so, turning my head to face the fresh Zephyr, from the everflowing spring which pours down unfouled

(ll. 597608) Set your slaves to winnow Demeter's holy grain, when strong Orion (28) first appears, on a

smooth threshingfloor in an airy place. Then measure it and store it in jars. And so soon as you have safely

stored all your stuff indoors, I bid you put your bondman out of doors and look out for a servantgirl with no

children; for a servant with a child to nurse is troublesome. And look after the dog with jagged teeth; do

not grudge him his food, or some time the Daysleeper (29) may take your stuff. Bring in fodder and litter so

as to have enough for your oxen and mules. After that, let your men rest their poor knees and unyoke your

(ll. 609617) But when Orion and Sirius are come into midheaven, and rosyfingered Dawn sees Arcturus

(30), then cut off all the grapeclusters, Perses, and bring them home. Show them to the sun ten days and ten

nights: then cover them over for five, and on the sixth day draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysus.

But when the Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set (31), then remember to plough in season:

(ll. 618640) But if desire for uncomfortable seafaring seize you; when the Pleiades plunge into the misty

sea (33) to escape Orion's rude strength, then truly gales of all kinds rage. Then keep ships no longer on the

sparkling sea, but bethink you to till the land as I bid you. Haul up your ship upon the land and pack it closely

with stones all round to keep off the power of the winds which blow damply, and draw out the bilgeplug so

that the rain of heaven may not rot it. Put away all the tackle and fittings in your house, and stow the wings of

the seagoing ship neatly, and hang up the wellshaped rudder over the smoke. You yourself wait until the

season for sailing is come, and then haul your swift ship down to the sea and stow a convenient cargo in it, so

that you may bring home profit, even as your father and mine, foolish Perses, used to sail on shipboard

because he lacked sufficient livelihood. And one day he came to this very place crossing over a great stretch

of sea; he left Aeolian Cyme and fled, not from riches and substance, but from wretched poverty which Zeus

lays upon men, and he settled near Helicon in a miserable hamlet, Ascra, which is bad in winter, sultry in

(ll. 641645) But you, Perses, remember all works in their season but sailing especially. Admire a small ship,

but put your freight in a large one; for the greater the lading, the greater will be your piled gain, if only the

(ll. 646662) If ever you turn your misguided heart to trading and with to escape from debt and joyless

hunger, I will show you the measures of the loudroaring sea, though I have no skill in seafaring nor in

ships; for never yet have I sailed by ship over the wide sea, but only to Euboea from Aulis where the

Achaeans once stayed through much storm when they had gathered a great host from divine Hellas for Troy,

the land of fair women. Then I crossed over to Chalcis, to the games of wise Amphidamas where the sons of

the greathearted hero proclaimed and appointed prizes. And there I boast that I gained the victory with a

song and carried off an handled tripod which I dedicated to the Muses of Helicon, in the place where they

first set me in the way of clear song. Such is all my experience of manypegged ships; nevertheless I will tell

you the will of Zeus who holds the aegis; for the Muses have taught me to sing in marvellous song.

(ll. 663677) Fifty days after the solstice (34), when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the

right time for me to go sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless

Poseidon the EarthShaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the deathless gods, wish to slay them; for the

issues of good and evil alike are with them. At that time the winds are steady, and the sea is harmless. Then

trust in the winds without care, and haul your swift ship down to the sea and put all the freight no board; but

make all haste you can to return home again and do not wait till the time of the new wine and autumn rain

and oncoming storms with the fierce gales of Notus who accompanies the heavy autumn rain of Zeus and

(ll. 678694) Another time for men to go sailing is in spring when a man first sees leaves on the topmost

shoot of a figtree as large as the footprint that a cow makes; then the sea is passable, and this is the spring

sailing time. For my part I do not praise it, for my heart does not like it. Such a sailing is snatched, and you

will hardly avoid mischief. Yet in their ignorance men do even this, for wealth means life to poor mortals; but

it is fearful to die among the waves. But I bid you consider all these things in your heart as I say. Do not put

all your goods in hallow ships; leave the greater part behind, and put the lesser part on board; for it is a bad

business to meet with disaster among the waves of the sea, as it is bad if you put too great a load on your

waggon and break the axle, and your goods are spoiled. Observe due measure: and proportion is best in all

(ll. 695705) Bring home a wife to your house when you are of the right age, while you are not far short of

thirty years nor much above; this is the right age for marriage. Let your wife have been grown up four years,

and marry her in the fifth. Marry a maiden, so that you can teach her careful ways, and especially marry one

who lives near you, but look well about you and see that your marriage will not be a joke to your neighbours.

For a man wins nothing better than a good wife, and, again, nothing worse than a bad one, a greedy soul who

roasts her man without fire, strong though he may be, and brings him to a raw (35) old age.

(ll. 706714) Be careful to avoid the anger of the deathless gods. Do not make a friend equal to a brother; but

if you do, do not wrong him first, and do not lie to please the tongue. But if he wrongs you first, offending

either in word or in deed, remember to repay him double; but if he ask you to be his friend again and be ready

to give you satisfaction, welcome him. He is a worthless man who makes now one and now another his

(ll. 715716) Do not get a name either as lavish or as churlish; as a friend of rogues or as a slanderer of good

(ll. 717721) Never dare to taunt a man with deadly poverty which eats out the heart; it is sent by the

deathless gods. The best treasure a man can have is a sparing tongue, and the greatest pleasure, one that

moves orderly; for if you speak evil, you yourself will soon be worse spoken of.

(ll. 722723) Do not be boorish at a common feast where there are many guests; the pleasure is greatest and

(ll. 724726) Never pour a libation of sparkling wine to Zeus after dawn with unwashen hands, nor to others

(ll. 727732) Do not stand upright facing the sun when you make water, but remember to do this when he has

set towards his rising. And do not make water as you go, whether on the road or off the road, and do not

uncover yourself: the nights belong to the blessed gods. A scrupulous man who has a wise heart sits down or

(ll. 733736) Do not expose yourself befouled by the fireside in your house, but avoid this. Do not beget

children when you are come back from illomened burial, but after a festival of the gods.

(ll. 737741) Never cross the sweetflowing water of everrolling rivers afoot until you have prayed, gazing

into the soft flood, and washed your hands in the clear, lovely water. Whoever crosses a river with hands

unwashed of wickedness, the gods are angry with him and bring trouble upon him afterwards.

(ll. 742743) At a cheerful festival of the gods do not cut the withered from the quick upon that which has

(ll. 744745) Never put the ladle upon the mixingbowl at a wine party, for malignant illluck is attached to

(ll. 746747) When you are building a house, do not leave it roughhewn, or a cawing crow may settle on it

(ll. 748749) Take nothing to eat or to wash with from uncharmed pots, for in them there is mischief.

(ll. 750759) Do not let a boy of twelve years sit on things which may not be moved (39), for that is bad, and

makes a man unmanly; nor yet a child of twelve months, for that has the same effect. A man should not clean

his body with water in which a woman has washed, for there is bitter mischief in that also for a time. When

you come upon a burning sacrifice, do not make a mock of mysteries, for Heaven is angry at this also. Never

make water in the mouths of rivers which flow to the sea, nor yet in springs; but be careful to avoid this. And

(ll. 760763) So do: and avoid the talk of men. For Talk is mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to

bear and difficult to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her: even Talk is in

(ll. 765767) Mark the days which come from Zeus, duly telling your slaves of them, and that the thirtieth

day of the month is best for one to look over the work and to deal out supplies.

(ll. 769768) (40) For these are days which come from Zeus the allwise, when men discern aright.

(ll. 770779) To begin with, the first, the fourth, and the seventh on which Leto bare Apollo with the

blade of gold each is a holy day. The eighth and the ninth, two days at least of the waxing month (41), are

specially good for the works of man. Also the eleventh and twelfth are both excellent, alike for shearing

sheep and for reaping the kindly fruits; but the twelfth is much better than the eleventh, for on it the

airyswinging spider spins its web in full day, and then the Wise One (42), gathers her pile. On that day

(ll. 780781) Avoid the thirteenth of the waxing month for beginning to sow: yet it is the best day for setting

(ll. 782789) The sixth of the midmonth is very unfavourable for plants, but is good for the birth of males,

though unfavourable for a girl either to be born at all or to be married. Nor is the first sixth a fit day for a girl

to be born, but a kindly for gelding kids and sheep and for fencing in a sheepcote. It is favourable for the

birth of a boy, but such will be fond of sharp speech, lies, and cunning words, and stealthy converse.

(ll. 790791) On the eighth of the month geld the boar and loudbellowing bull, but hardworking mules on

(ll. 792799) On the great twentieth, in full day, a wise man should be born. Such an one is very

soundwitted. The tenth is favourable for a male to be born; but, for a girl, the fourth day of the midmonth.

On that day tame sheep and shambling, horned oxen, and the sharpfanged dog and hardy mules to the touch

of the hand. But take care to avoid troubles which eat out the heart on the fourth of the beginning and ending

(ll. 800801) On the fourth of the month bring home your bride, but choose the omens which are best for this

(ll. 802804) Avoid fifth days: they are unkindly and terrible. On a fifth day, they say, the Erinyes assisted at

(ll. 805809) Look about you very carefully and throw out Demeter's holy grain upon the wellrolled (43)

threshing floor on the seventh of the midmonth. Let the woodman cut beams for house building and plenty

of ships' timbers, such as are suitable for ships. On the fourth day begin to build narrow ships.

(ll. 810813) The ninth of the midmonth improves towards evening; but the first ninth of all is quite

harmless for men. It is a good day on which to beget or to be born both for a male and a female: it is never an

(ll. 814818) Again, few know that the twentyseventh of the month is best for opening a winejar, and

putting yokes on the necks of oxen and mules and swiftfooted horses, and for hauling a swift ship of many

(ll. 819821) On the fourth day open a jar. The fourth of the midmonth is a day holy above all. And again,

few men know that the fourth day after the twentieth is best while it is morning: towards evening it is less

(ll. 822828) These days are a great blessing to men on earth; but the rest are changeable, luckless, and bring

nothing. Everyone praises a different day but few know their nature. Sometimes a day is a stepmother,

sometimes a mother. That man is happy and lucky in them who knows all these things and does his work

without offending the deathless gods, who discerns the omens of birds and avoids transgressions.

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 deepblue 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 aegisholder and queenly Hera of Argos who

walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegisholder brighteyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo,

and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earthholder who shakes the earth, and reverend

Themis and quickglancing (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

(ll. 2628) `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. 2935) So said the readyvoiced 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. 3652) 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

loudthunderer is glad at the lilylike 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

(ll. 5374) 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 dancingplaces 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

(ll. 75103) 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

heavennourished 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 farshooting 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 newlytroubled 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. 104115) 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 manyfolded Olympus. These things declare to me from the beginning, ye Muses who

(ll. 116138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next widebosomed Earth, the eversure foundations

of all (4) the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the

widepathed 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

eversure abidingplace for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the

goddessNymphs 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 deepswirling

Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and

goldcrowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of

(ll. 139146) And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and

stubbornhearted 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 foreheads. And they were surnamed Cyclopes

(Orbeyed) because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their

(ll. 147163) 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

(ll. 164166) `My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage

(ll. 167169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great Cronos the

(ll. 170172) `Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father of evil name, for he first

(ll. 173175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put

(ll. 176206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading

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 seagirt 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 foamborn goddess and richcrowned 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

(ll. 207210) 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

(ll. 211225) 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

(ll. 226232) 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. 233239) 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

(ll. 240264) And of Nereus and richhaired 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 rosyarmed

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 rosyarmed

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 richcrowned 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. 265269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deepflowing Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris

and the longhaired Harpies, Aello (Stormswift) and Ocypetes (Swiftflier) who on their swift wings keep

pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they dart along.

(ll 270294) And again, Ceto bare to Phoreys the faircheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both

deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo wellclad, and saffronrobed Enyo,

and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the

clearvoiced 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 Darkhaired 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 threeheaded Geryones.

Him mighty Heracles slew in seagirt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the

widebrowed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the

(ll. 295305) 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. 306332) 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 brazenvoiced hound of Hades, fiftyheaded, relentless and strong. And

again she bore a third, the evilminded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, whitearmed 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 spoildriver. She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great,

swiftfooted and strong, who had three heads, one of a grimeyed 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

(ll. 333336) 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

(ll. 334345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deepswirling 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

(ll. 346370) 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 saffronclad, 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 neatankled 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. 371374) 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

(ll. 375377) And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas,

(ll. 378382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the stronghearted 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 (Dawnbringer), and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.

(ll. 383403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bare Zelus (Emulation) and

trimankled 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 loudthunderer. 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

Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth darkgowned 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 loudcrashing EarthShaker, 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 allseeing Dawn. So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and

(ll. 453491) But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid children, Hestia (18), Demeter, and

goldshod Hera and strong Hades, pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loudcrashing

EarthShaker, 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 stouthearted

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 thickwooded 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. 492506) 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 widepathed 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. 507543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neatankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with

her into one bed. And she bare him a stouthearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and

clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatterbrained 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 farseeing 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 clearvoiced

Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And readywitted Prometheus he bound with inextricable

bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a longwinged eagle, which used to

eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the longwinged bird devoured

in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the valiant son of shapelyankled 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 Thebanborn 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

(ll. 543544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the

(ll. 545547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him,

(ll. 548558) `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 oxbones 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

(ll. 559560) `Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!'

(ll. 561584) 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 farseen 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 farseen 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 brighteyed 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 newgrown 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. 585589) 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 brighteyed 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

(ll. 590612) 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

(ll. 613616) 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

(ll. 617643) 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 widepathed 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 richhaired 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

heartgrieving toil, the lordly Titans from high Othyrs, but the gods, givers of good, whom richhaired 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. 644653) `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

(ll. 654663) 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

(ll. 664686) 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

(ll. 687712) 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 lifegiving 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 thunderstone 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

(ll. 713735) 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 widepathed 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 neckcirclet, 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

(ll. 736744) 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

(ll. 744757) 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

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 allseeing

light for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped

(ll. 758766) 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

(ll. 767774) There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lowerworld, 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. 775806) And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of

backflowing (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, swiftfooted Iris,

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 widepathed 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 silverswirling 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. 807819) 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 loudcrashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Ocean's foundations, even Cottus and Gyes; but

Briareos, being goodly, the deeproaring EarthShaker made his soninlaw, giving him Cymopolea his

(ll. 820868) 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 reechoed. 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 darkblue 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 thunderstricken 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

(ll. 869880) And from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply, except Notus and Boreas and

clear Zephyr. These are a godsent 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

(ll. 881885) But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by force their struggle for honours

with the Titans, they pressed farseeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them, by Earth's prompting.

(ll. 886900) 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 brighteyed 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 brighteyed 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. 901906) 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

(ll. 907911) And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bare him three faircheeked Charites

(Graces), Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that

(ll. 912914) Also he came to the bed of allnourishing Demeter, and she bare whitearmed Persephone

(ll. 915917) And again, he loved Mnemosyne with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine goldcrowned

(ll. 918920) And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, and bare Apollo and Artemis

(ll. 921923) Lastly, he made Hera his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and

(ll. 924929) But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to brighteyed Tritogeneia (29), the awful, the

strifestirring, the hostleader, 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

(ll. 929a929t) (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 faircheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera....

....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 hostscaring weapon of

(ll. 930933) And of Amphitrite and the loudroaring EarthShaker was born great, wideruling Triton, and

he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, an

(ll. 933937) Also Cytherea bare to Ares the shieldpiercer 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

(ll. 938939) And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless

(ll. 940942) And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bare him a splendid son,

(ll. 943944) And Alemena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare mighty Heracles.

(ll. 945946) And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife.

(ll. 947949) And goldenhaired Dionysus made brownhaired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom

(ll. 950955) And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neatankled Alemena, when he had finished his

grievous toils, made Hebe the child of great Zeus and goldshod 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

(ll. 956962) 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 faircheeked 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

(ll. 963968) And now farewell, you dwellers on Olympus and you islands and continents and thou briny sea

within. Now sing the company of goddesses, sweetvoiced 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. 969974) Demeter, bright goddess, was joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion in a thriceploughed

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

(ll. 975978) And Harmonia, the daughter of golden Aphrodite, bare to Cadmus Ino and Semele and

faircheeked Agave and Autonoe whom long haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus also in richcrowned

(ll. 979983) 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

(ll. 984991) And Eos bare to Tithonus brazencrested 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, laughterloving Aphrodite

(ll. 9931002) And the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led away from Aeetes the daughter of Aeetes the

heavennurtured 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 coyeyed 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. 10031007) 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 silvershod goddess Thetis was subject to

(ll. 10081010) And Cytherea with the beautiful crown was joined in sweet love with the hero Anchises and

(ll. 10111016) 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. 10171018) And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and bare him

(ll. 10191020) These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bare them children like unto

(ll. 10211022) But now, sweetvoiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of