Theogeny

Hesiod

(Richmond Lattimore Translation)

     Let us begin our singing
     from the Helikonian Muses
     who possess the great and holy mountain
     of Helikon
     and dance there on soft feet
     by the dark blue water
     of the spring, and by the altar
     of the powerful son of Kronos;
5    who wash their tender bodies in the waters
     of Permessos

     or Hippokrene, spring of the Horse,
     or holy Olmeios,
     and on the high places of Helikon
     have
ordered their dances
     which are handsome and beguiling,
     and light are the feet they move on.
     From there they rise, and put a veiling
     of deep mist upon them,
10    and walk in the night, singing
     in sweet voices,
and celebrating
     Zeus, the holder of the aegis, and Hera,
     his lady
     of Argos, who treads on golden sandals,
     and singing also
     Athene the gray-eyed, daughter of Zeus
     of the aegis,
     Phoibos Apollo, and Artemis
     of the showering arrows,
15   Poseidon who encircles the earth in his arms
     and shakes it,
     stately Themis, and Aphrodite
     of the fluttering eyelids,
     Hebe of the golden wreath, beautiful Dione,
     Leto and Iapetos and devious-devising Kronos,
     Eos, the dawn, great Helios
     and shining Selene,
20    Gaia, the earth, and great Okeanos,
     and dark Night,
     and all the holy rest of the everlasting
     immortals.

     And it was they who once taught Hesiod
     his splendid singing
     as he was shepherding his lambs
     on holy Helikon,
     and these were the first words of all
     the goddesses spoke to me,
25    the Muses of Olympia, daughters of Zeus
     of the aegis:
     "You shepherds of the wilderness, poor fools,
     nothing but bellies,

     we know how to say many false things
     that seem like true sayings,
     but we know also how to speak the truth
     when we wish to."
     So they spoke, these mistresses of words,
     daughters of great Zeus,
30    
and they broke off and handed me a staff
     of strong-growing
     olive shoot, a wonderful thing;
     they breathed a voice into me,
     and power to sing the story of things
     of the future, and things past.

     They told me to sing the race
     of the blessed gods everlasting,
     but always to put themselves
     at the beginning and end of my singing

35    But what is all this to me, the story
     of the oak or the boulder?


     Come you then, let us begin from the Muses,
     who by their singing
     delight the great mind of Zeus, their father,
     who lives on Olympos,
     as they tell of what is, and what is to be,
     and what was before now
     with
harmonious voices, and the sound
     that comes sweet from their mouths
40    never falters, and all the mansion of Zeus
     the father
     of the deep thunder is joyful
     in the light voice of the goddesses
     that scatters through it, and the peaks
     of snowy Olympos re-echo
     and the homes of the immortals, and they
     in divine utterance
     sing first the glory of the majestic race
     of immortals ,

45
    from its beginning, those born
     to wide Ouranos and Gaia,
     and the gods who were born to these in turn,
     the givers of blessings.
     Then next they sing of Zeus, the father
     of gods and of mortals,
     and they begin this strain and end
     this strain singing of him,
     how greatly he surpasses all gods,
     and in might is the strongest.
50    And then again the Olympian Muses,
     daughters of aegis--
     wearing Zeus, delight his mind that dwells
     on Olympos
     by singing the race of human kind,
     and the powerful Giants.
     Mnemosyne, queen of the Eleutherian hills,
     bore them
     in Pieria, when she had lain
     with the Kronian Father;
55    they bring forgetfulness of sorrows,
     and rest from anxieties.
     For nine nights Zeus of the counsels
     lay with her, going
     up into her sacred bed, far away
     from the other immortals.
     But when it was a year,
     after the seasons' turning
     and the months had waned away, and many days
     were accomplished,
60    she bore her nine daughters, concordant
     of heart, and singing
     is all the thought that is in them,
     and no care troubles their spirits.
     She bore them a little way off
     from the highest snowy summit
     of Olympos; there are their shining
     dancing places, their handsome
     houses, and the Graces and Desire live there
     beside them
65    in festivity; lovely is the voice
     that issues from their lips
     as they sing of all the laws and all
     the gracious customs
     of the immortals, and glorify them
     with their sweet voices.
     At that time, glorying in their power
     of song, they went to Olympos
     in immortal music, and all the black earth
     re-echoed to them
70    as they sang, and the lovely beat
     of their footsteps sprang beneath them

     as they hastened to their father, to him
     who is King in the heaven,
     who holds in his own hands the thunder
     and the flamy lightning,
     who overpowered and put down
     his father Kronos, and ordained
     to the immortals all rights that are theirs,
     and defined their stations.

75    All these things the Muses who have
     their homes on Olympos
     sang then, and they are nine daughters
     whose father is great Zeus:
     Kleio and Euterpe, Thaleia and Melpomene,
     Terpsichore and Erato, Polymnia and Ourania,
     with Kalliope, who of all holds the highest position.
80    For it is she who attends
     on the respected barons.
     And when on one of these kingly nobles,
     at the time of his birth,
     the daughters of great Zeus cast their eyes
     and bestow their favors,
     upon his speech they make a distillation
     of sweetness,
     and from his mouth the words run blandishing,

     and his people
85    all look in his direction as he judges
     their cases
     with straight decisions,
and,
     by an unfaltering declaration
     can put a quick and expert end even
     to a great quarrel:
     and that is why there are temperate barons,
     because for their people
     who have gone astray in assembly these
     lightly turn back their actions
90    to the right direction, talking them over
     with gentle arguments.
     As such a one walks through an assembly,
     the people adore him
     like a god, with gentle respect;
     he stands out among all assembled.
     Such is the holy gift the Muses
     give to humanity.
     So it is from the Muses, and from Apollo
     of the far cast,
95    that there are men on earth who are poets,
     and players on the lyre.
     The lords are from Zeus; but blessed
     is that one whom the Muses
     love, for the voice of his mouth runs
     and is sweet, and even
     when a man has sorrow fresh
     in the troublement of his spirit
     and is struck to wonder over the grief
     in his heart, the singer,
100   the servant of the Muses singing
     the glories of ancient
     men, and the blessed gods
     who have their homes on Olympos,
     makes him presently forget his cares,
     he no longer remembers
     sorrow, for the gifts of the goddesses
     soon turn his thoughts elsewhere.


     Hail, then, children of Zeus:
     grant me lovely singing.

105   Now sound out the holy stock
     of the everlasting immortals
     who came into being out of Gaia
     and starry Ouranos
     and gloomy Night, whom Pontos, the salt sea,
     brought to maturity;
     and tell, how at the first the gods
     and the earth were begotten
     and rivers, and the boundless sea,
     raging in its swell,
110   the blazing stars, and the wide sky above all,
     tell of
     the gods, bestowers of blessings,
     who were begotten of all these,
     and how they divided their riches
     and distributed their privileges,
     and how they first took possession
     of many-folded Olympos,

     tell me all this, you Muses
     who have your homes on Olympos,
115   from the beginning, and tell who was first
     to come forth among them.
     First of all there came Chaos,
     and after him came
     Gaia of the broad breast,
     to be the unshakable foundation
     of all the immortals who keep the crests
     of snowy Olympos,
     
and Tartaros the foggy in the pit
     of the wide-wayed earth,
120   and Eros, who is love, handsomest among all
     the immortals,
     who breaks the limbs' strength,
     who in all gods, in all human beings
     overpowers the intelligence in the breast,
     and all their shrewd planning.
     From Chaos was born Erebos, the dark,
     and black Night,
     and from Night again Aither and Hemera,
     the day, were begotten,
125   for she lay in love with Erebos
     and conceived and bore these two.
     But Gaia's first born was one
     who matched her every dimension,
     Ouranos, the starry sky,
     to cover her all over,
     to be an unshakable standing-place
     for the blessed immortals.
     Then she brought forth the tall Hills,
     those wild haunts that are beloved
130   by the goddess Nymphs who live on the hills
     and in their forests.
     Without any sweet act of love
     she produced the barren
     sea, Pontos, seething in his fury of waves,
     and after this
     she lay with Ouranos, and bore him
     deep-swirling Okeanos
     the ocean-stream;
and Koios, Krios,
     Hyperion, Iapetos,
135   and Theia too and Rheia, and Themis,
     and Mnemosyne,
     Phoibe of the wreath of gold,
     and Tethys the lovely.
     After these her youngest-born
     was devious-devising Kronos,
     most terrible of her children;
     and he hated his strong father.
     She brought forth also the Kyklopes,
     whose hearts are proud and powerful,
140   Brontes and Steropes, and Arges
     of the violent spirit,
     who made the thunder and gave it to Zeus,
     and fashioned the lightning.
     These in all the rest of their shape
     were made like gods,
     but they had only one eye set in the middle
     of their foreheads.
     Kyklopes, wheel-eyed, was the name given them,
     by reason
145   of the single wheel-shaped eye
     that was set in their foreheads.
     Strength and force, and contriving skills,
     were in all their labors.

     And still other children were born
     to Gaia and Ouranos,
     three sons, big and powerful, so great
     they could never be told of,
     Kottos, Briareos, and Gyes,
     overmastering children.
150   Each had a hundred intolerably strong arms
     bursting
     out of his shoulders,
     and on the shoulders
     of each grew fifty
     heads, above their massive bodies;
     irresistible
     and staunch strength matched the appearance
     of their big bodies,

     and of all children ever born
     to Gaia and Ouranos
155   these were the most terrible,
     and they hated their father
     from the beginning, and every time each one
     was beginning
     to come out,
he would push them back again,
     deep inside Gaia,
     and would not let them into the light,
     and Ouranos exulted
     in his wicked work; but great Gaia
     groaned within for pressure
160   of pain; and then she thought of an evil,
     treacherous attack.
     Presently creating the element of gray flint
     she made of it a great sickle,

     and explained it to her own children,
     and spoke, in the disturbance of her heart,
     to encourage them:
     "My sons, born to me of a criminal father,
     if you are willing
165   to obey me, we can punish your father
     for the brutal treatment
     he put upon you, for he was first to think
     of shameful dealing."

     So she spoke, but fear took hold of all,
     nor did one of them
     speak, but then great devious-devising Kronos
     took courage
     and spoke in return,
     and gave his gracious mother an answer:
170  "My mother, I will promise to undertake
     to accomplish
     this act, and for our father,
     him of the evil name, I care
     nothing, for he was the first
     to think of shameful dealing."
     So he spoke, and giant Gaia
     rejoiced greatly in her heart
     and took and hid him in a secret ambush,
     and put into his hands
175   the sickle, edged like teeth, and told him
     all her treachery.
     And huge Ouranos came on
     bringing night with him, and desiring
     love he embraced Gaia and lay over her
     stretched out
     complete, and from his hiding place his son
     reached with his left hand
     and seized him, and holding in his right
     the enormous sickle
180   with its long blade edged like teeth,
     he swung it sharply,
     and lopped the members of his own father,
     and threw them behind him
     to fall where they would,
     but they were not lost away when they were flung
     from his hand, but all the bloody drops
     that went splashing from them
     were taken in by Gaia, the earth,
     and with the turning of the seasons
185   she brought forth the powerful Furies
     and the tall Giants
     shining in their armor
     and holding long spears in their hands;
     and the nymphs they call, on boundless earth,
     the Nymphs of the Ash Trees.
     But the members themselves, when Kronos
     had lopped them with the flint,
     he threw from the mainland
     into the great wash of the sea water
190   and they drifted a great while
     on the open sea, and there spread
     a circle of white foam
     from the immortal flesh, and in it
     grew a girl,
whose course first took her
     to holy Kythera,
     and from there she afterward made her way
     to sea-washed Cyprus
     and
stepped ashore, a modest lovely Goddess,
     and about her
195   light and slender feet the grass grew,
     and the gods call her
     Aphrodite, and men do too,
     and the aphro-foam-born
     goddess, and garlanded Kythereia,
     because from the seafoam
     she grew,
land Kythereia because she had gone
     to Kythera,
     and Kyprogeneia, because she came forth
     from wave-washed Cyprus,

200   and Philommedea, because she appeared
     from medea, members.
     And Eros went with her, and handsome Himeros
     attended her
     when first she was born, and when she joined
     the immortal community,
     and here is the privilege she was given
     and holds from the beginning,
     and which is the part she plays among men
     and the gods immortal:
     the whispering together of girls,
205   the smiles and deceptions,
     the delight, and the sweetnesses of love,
     and the flattery.
     But their great father Ouranos,
     who himself begot them,
     bitterly gave to those others, his sons,
     the name of Titans,
     the Stretchers, for they stretched
     their power outrageously and accomplished
     a monstrous thing, and they would some day
210   be punished for it.
     But Night bore horrible Moros, and black Ker,
     End and Fate,
     and Death, and Sleep, and she bore also
     the brood of Dreams,
     she, dark Night, by herself,
     and had not been loved by any god,

     and then again she bore mocking Momos
     and painful Oizys,
215   and the Hesperides, who across
     the fabulous stream of the Ocean
     keep the golden apples
     and the fruit-bearing orchards,
     and she bore the destinies, the Moirai,
     and the cruelly never-forgetful
     Fates, Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos,
     who at their birth
     bestow upon mortals their portion
     of good and evil,
220   and these control the transgressions
     of both men and divinities,
     and these goddesses never remit
     their dreaded anger
     until whoever has done wrong
     gives them satisfaction.
     And she, destructive Night, bore Nemesis,
     who gives much pain
     to mortals; and afterward cheating Deception
     and loving Affection
225   and then malignant Old Age
     and overbearing Discord.
     Hateful Discord in turn
     bore painful Hardship,
     and Forgetfulness, and Starvation,
     and the Pains, full of weeping,

     the Battles and the Quarrels, the Murders
     and the Manslaughters,
     the Grievances, the lying Stories,
     the Disputations,
230   and Lawlessness and Ruin, who share
     one another's nature,
     and Oath, who does more damage than any other
     to earthly
     men, when anyone, of his knowledge,
     swears to a false oath.
     But Pontos, the great Sea, was father
     of truthful Nereus
     who tells no lies, eldest of his sons.
     They call him the Old Gentleman
235   because he is trustworthy, and gentle,
     and never forgetful
     of what is right, but the thoughts
     of his mind are mild and righteous.

     And Pontos again fathered great Thaumas,
     and haughty Phorkys
     when he lay with Gaia, and he fathered Keto
     of the fair face,
     and Eurybia, who has a heart of stone inside her.
240   To Nereus and to Doris
     of the lovely hair,
     daughter
     of Okeanos the completely encircling river,
     there were born
     in the barren sea daughters
     greatly beautiful even among goddesses:
     Ploto and Eukrante and Amphitrite and Sao,
     Eudora and Thetis, and Galene and Glauke,
245   Kymothoe and Speio, and Thoe and lovely Halia,
     Pasithea and Erato, Eunike of the rose arms,
     and graceful Melite and Eulimene and Agaue,
     Doto and Proto, Dynamene and Pherousa,
     Nesaie and Alctaie and Protomedeia,
250   Doris and Panopeia, and Galateia
     the beautiful,
     Hipponoe the lovely
     and klipponoe of the rose arms,
     Kymodoke who, with Kymatolege and Amphitrite,
     light of foot, on the misty face
     of the open water
     easily stills the waves and hushes
     the winds in their blowing,

255
   Kymo and Eione, Halimede
     of the bright garland,
     Glaukonome, the lover of laughter,
     and Pontoporeia,
     Leagore and Euagore and Laomedeia,
     Poulynoe and Autonoe and Lysianassa,
     Euarne of the lovely figure
     and face of perfection,

260   Psamathe of the graceful form
     and shining Menippe,
     Neso and Eupompe, and Themisto and Pronoe,
     and Nemertes, whose mind is like that
     of her immortal father.
     These were the daughters born
     to irreproachable Nereus,
     fifty in all, and the actions they know
     are beyond reproach, also.
265   Now Thaumas married a daughter
     of deep-running Okeanos,
     Elektra, and she bore him swift-footed Iris,
     the rainbow,
     and the Harpies of the lovely hair,
     Okypete and Aello,
     and these two in the speed of their wings
     keep pace with the blowing
     winds, or birds in flight, as they soar
     and swoop, high aloft.
270   And to Phorkys Keto bore the Graiai,
     with fair faces
     and gray from birth, and these the gods
     who are immortal
     and men who walk on the earth call Graiai,
     the gray sisters,
     Pemphredo robed in beauty and Enyo
     robed in saffron,
     and the Gorgons who, beyond the famous stream
     of the Ocean,
275   live in the utmost place toward night,
     by the singing Hesperides:
     they are Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa,
     whose fate was a sad one,
     for she was mortal, but the other two
     immortal and ageless
     both alike. Poseidon, he of the dark hair,
     lay with
     one of these, in a soft meadow
     and among spring flowers.
280   But when Perseus had cut off
     the head of Medusa
     there sprang from her blood great Chrysaor
     and the horse Pegasos

     so named from the pegai, the springs
     of the Ocean, where she was born,
     while Chrysaor is named from the golden aor,
     the sword he handles.
     Pegasos, soaring, left the earth,
     the mother of sheepflocks,
285   and came to the immortals, and there he lives
     in the household
     of Zeus, and
carries the thunder
     and lightning for Zeus of the counsels
.
     Chrysaor, married to Kallirhoe,
     daughter of glorious
     Okeanos, was father
     to the triple-headed Geryon,
     but Geryon was killed by the great strength
     of Herakles
290   at sea-circled Erytheia
     beside his own shambling cattle
     on that day when Herakles drove
     those broad-faced cattle
     toward holy Tiryns, when he crossed
     the stream of the Ocean
     and had killed Orthos and the oxherd Eurytion
     out in that gloomy meadow
     beyond the fabulous Ocean.
295   But she, Kallirhoe, bore another
     unmanageable monster

     like nothing human
     nor like the immortal gods either,
     in a hollow cave.
This was the divine
     and haughty Echidna,
     and half of her is a nymph
     with a fair face and eyes glancing,
     but the other half is a monstrous snake,
     terrible, enormous
300   and squirming and voracious,
     there in earth's secret places.

     For there she has her cave
     on the underside of a hollow
     rock, far from the immortal gods,
     and far from all mortals.
     There the gods ordained her a fabulous home
     to live in
     which she keeps underground among the Arimoi,
     grisly Echidna,
305   a nymph who never dies, and all her days
     she is ageless.
     They say that Typhon, the terrible,
     violent and lawless,
     was joined in love with this girl
     of the glancing eyes, and she
     conceiving bore children to him,
     with hard tempers.
     First she bore him Orthos,
     who was Geryones' herding dog,
310   and next again she bore the unspeakable,
     unmanageable
     Kerberos, the savage,
     the bronze-barking dog of Hades,
     fifty-headed, and powerful,
     and without pity.
     And third again she bore
     the grisly-minded Hydra
     of Lerna, whom the goddess
     white-armed Hera nourished
315   because of her quenchless grudge
     against the strong Herakles.

     Yet he, Herakles, son of Zeus,
     of the line of Amphitryon,
     by design of Athene the spoiler,
     and with help from warlike
     Iolaos, killed this beast
     with the pitiless bronze sword.
     Hydra bore the Chimaira, who snorted
     raging fire,
320   a beast great and terrible,
     and strong and swift-footed.
     Her heads were three: one was that
     of a glare-eyed lion,
     one of a goat, and the third of a snake,
     a powerful dragon.
325   But Chimaira was killed by Pegasos
     and gallant Bellerophon.
     But Echidna also, in love with Orthos,
     mothered the deadly
     Sphinx, the bane of the Kadmeians,
     and the Nemeian Lion
     whom Hera, the queenly wife of Zeus,
     trained up and settled
     among the hills of Nemeia,
     to be a plague to mankind.
330   There he preyed upon the tribes
     of the indwelling people,
     and was as a King over Tretos
     and Apesas and Nemeia.
     Nevertheless, the force of strong Herakles
     subdued him.
     Keto, joined in love with Phorkys,
     mothered
the youngest
     of the deadly snakes, that one who
     at the gloomy great hidden
335   limits of the Earth guards
     the all-golden apples.

     This snake is of the generation
     of Keto and Phorkys.
     Tethys bore to Okeanos the swirling Rivers,
     Neilos the Nile, Alpheios,
     and deep-eddying Eridanos,
     Strymon and Maiandros, Istros
     of the beautiful waters,
340   Phasis and Rhesos
     and silver-swirling Acheloios,

     Nessos and Rhodios, Heptaporos
     and Haliakmon,
     Grenikos and Aisepos, and Simoeis,
     who is godlike,
     Hermos and Peneios,
     and Kalos strongly flowing,
     and great Sangarios, and Ladon,
     and Parthenios,
345   Euenos and Ardeskos, and Skamandros,
     who is holy.

     She brought forth also a race apart
     of daughters, who with
     Lord Apollo and the Rivers have the young
     in their keeping
     all over the earth, since this right
     from Zeus is given them.
     They are Peitho, Admete, Ianthe and Elektra,
350   Doris and Prymno and Ourania like a goddess,
     Hippo and Klymene, Rhodeia and Kallirhoe,
     Zeuxo and Klytia, and Idyia and Pasithoe,
     Plexaura and Galaxaura and lovely Dione,
     Melobosis and Thoe, and Polydora the shapely,
355   Kerkeis of the lovely stature,
     and ox-eyed Plouto,
     Xanthe and Akaste, Persels and Ianeira,
     Petraie the lovely, and Menestho, and Europa,
     Metis and Eurynome, Telesto robed in saffron,
     Chryseis, and Asia, and alluring Kalypso,
360   Eudora and Tyche, and Amphiro and Okyroe,
     and Styx, who among them all
     has the greatest eminence.
     Now these are the eldest of the daughters
     who were born to Tethys
     and Okeanos, but there are many others
     beside these,
     for
there are three thousand
     light-stepping daughters of the Ocean
365   scattered far and wide, bright children
     among the goddesses, and all
     alike look after the earth
     and the depths of the standing water;
     and as many again are the rest of the Rivers,
     murmurously running,

     sons of Okeanos
and the lady Tethys
     was their mother,
     and it would be hard for a mortal man
     to tell the names
370   of all of them; but each is known
     by those who live by him.
     Theia brought forth great Helios
     and shining Selene
     the Sun and Moon, and Eos the Dawn,
     who lights all earthly
     creatures, and the immortal gods
     who hold the wide heaven.
     These she brought forth, being subdued
     in love to Hyperion.
375   Eurybia, shining among the goddesses,
     was joined in love
     with Krios, and brought forth
     the great Astraios and Pallas
     and Perses, who shines among all
     for his intelligence.
     Eos, a goddess couched in love with a god,
     brought forth
     to Astraios the strong-spirited winds,
     Zephyros
380   the brightener, Boreas of the headlong track,
     and Notos.
     After these she, Erigeneia,
     bore Eosphoros, the dawnstar,
     and all those other shining stars
     that are wreathed in the heaven.
     And Styx, daughter of Okeanos,
     lying in love with Pallas,
     bore in their halls Rivalry
     and sweet-stepping Victory,
385   and also Power and Force,
     who are her conspicuous children,
     and these have no home that is not the home
     of Zeus, no resting
     place nor road, except where that god
     has guided them,
     but always they are housed by Zeus
     of the heavy thunder.
     For this was the will of Styx,
     that Okeanid never-perishing,
390   on the day when the Olympian flinger
     of the lightning
     summoned all the immortal gods
     to tall Olympos
     and said that any god who fought on his side
     with the Titans
     should never be beaten out of his privilege,
     but each should maintain
     the position he had had before
     among the immortals; he said, too,
395   that the god who under Kronos
     had gone without position or privilege

     should under him be raised to these,
     according to justice.
     And Styx the imperishable was first
     to come to Olympos
     bringing her children, as her own father
     had advised her.
     Zeus gave her position,
     and gave her great gifts further,
400   for he established her to be the oath
     of the immortals,
     and that her children all their days
     should live in his household.
     And so, as he had promised, in every way
     he fulfilled it
     throughout. But he himself keeps
     the great power, and is master.
     Now, Phoibe in turn went into the bed
     of love with Koios,
405   a goddess with a god, and there
     through his love she conceived
     and bore Leto of the dark robe,
     a sweet goddess always,
     kind to mortal men
     and to the immortal divinities,
     sweet from the beginning,
     the gentlest of all who are on Olympos.

     She bore also renowned Asteria, whom on a day
410   Perses led home to his great house,
     to be called his true wife,
     and she conceiving bore Hekate, whom Zeus,
     son of Kronos,
     honored above all others,
     for he gave her gifts that were glorious,
     to have a part of the earth as hers,
     and a part of the barren
     sea, and she, with a place also
     in the starry heaven,
415   is thus exalted exceedingly
     even among the immortals.
     For even now, whenever any one
     of mortal men makes
     a handsome sacrifice in propitiation,
     according to usage,
     he invokes Hekate, and recompense abundant
     and lightly granted
     befalls that man whose prayers
     the goddess receives with favor,
420   and she grants him good success,
     for hers is the power to do this.



     For among the children who were born
     to Ouranos and Gaia
     and had station allotted,
     among all these she has a certain office.
     Nor did the son of Kronos use violence
     toward her nor deprive her
     of the rights she had among Titan gods
     of the older generation
425   but she holds her apportioned share
     as formerly from the beginning,
     nor, because she is an only child,
     does the goddess have the less honor,
     and a privileged place in the earth,
     and in the sky, and the sea also;
     but as much as others and far more,
     seeing that Zeus honors her.
     She greatly assists and advantages any man,
     as she pleases, and in
430   the assembly of the people a man shines
     when she wishes it,
     and when men put on their armor
     to go to battle, where men
     are wasted, the goddess
     is present there also, to give out
     the victory and the glory
     to whichever side she wishes.
     And she sits beside solemn kings when they give
     their judgment.
435   She is great, too,
     where men contend in athletics,
     and there the goddess stands by those
     whom she will, and assists them,
     and one who, by his force and strength,
     has won a fine prize,
     lightly and gladly carries it home,
     and brings glory to his parents.
     She is great also in standing by the riders
     as she wishes,
440   and those who on the gray-green,
     the hard-wracking sea, make a living,
     and they pray to Hekate
     and to the deep-thunderous Earthshaker,
     and lightly the high goddess
     grants a great haul of fish, and lightly
     too she takes it away when it has shown,
     if such is her pleasure.
     She is great in the farms also
     to help Hermes swell the produce,
445   and the driven herds of cattle
     and the wide-ranging goat flocks
     and the flocks of deep-fleeced sheep,
     all these also at her own pleasure

     she weightens to many out of few,
     or makes few out of many.
     Thus, though she is only the single child
     of her mother
     she is honored with high offices
     among all the immortals.
450   Zeus son of Kronos made her, too,
     protector of those children
     who after her laid eyes on the Dawn,
     the many-light-beaming;
     so she, from the beginning,
     has protected children, and these are her offices.
     Rheia, submissive in love to Kronos,
     bore glorious children,
     Histia and Demeter,
     Hera of the golden sandals,
455   and strong Hades, who under the ground
     lives in his palace
     and has a heart without pity;
     the deep-thunderous Earthshaker,
     and Zeus of the counsels,
     who is the father of gods and of mortals,
     and underneath whose thunder
     the whole wide earth shudders;
     
but, as each of these children
     came from the womb of its mother
460   to her knees, great Kronos swallowed it down,
     with the intention
     that no other of the proud children
     of the line of Ouranos
     should ever hold the king's position
     among the immortals.
     For he had heard, from Gaia
     and from starry Ouranos,
     that it had been ordained for him,
     for all his great strength,
465   to be beaten by his son,
     and through the designs of great Zeus.
     Therefore he kept watch, and did not sleep,
     but waited
     for his children, and swallowed them,
     and Rheia's sorrow was beyond forgetting.

     But when she was about to bear Zeus,
     the father of mortals
     and gods, then Rheia went
     and entreated her own dear parents,
470   and these were Gaia and starry Ouranos,
     to think of some plan
     by which, when she gave birth to her dear son,
     the thing might not
     be known, and the fury of revenge
     be on devious-devising Kronos
     the great, for his father,
     and his own children whom he had swallowed.
     They listened gladly
     to their beloved daughter, and consented,
475   and explained to her
     all that had been appointed to happen
     concerning Kronos, who was King, and his son,
     of the powerful
     spirit, and sent her to Lyktos,
     in the fertile countryside of Crete
     at that time when she was to bring forth
     the youngest of her children,
     great Zeus; and
the Earth, gigantic Gaia,
     took him inside her
480   in wide Crete, there to keep him alive
     and raise him.
     There Earth arrived
     through the running black night, carrying
     him, and came first to Lyktos,
     and holding him in her arms, hid him
     in a cave in a cliff, deep in
     under the secret places
     of earth, in Mount Aigaion
     which is covered with forest.
485   She wrapped a great stone in baby-clothes,
     and this she presented
     to the high lord, son of Ouranos,
     who once ruled the immortals,
     and he took it then in his hands
     and crammed it down in his belly,
     hard wretch, nor saw in his own mind
     how there had been left him
     instead of the stone a son,
     invincible and unshakable

490   ago for the days to come, who soon by force
     and his hands defeating him
     must drive him from his title,
     and then be lord over the immortals.
     And presently after this the shining limbs

     and the power
     of the lord, Zeus, grew great,
     and with the years circling on
     great Kronos, the devious-devising,
     fooled by the resourceful
495   promptings of Gaia, once again
     brought up his progeny.
     First he vomited up the stone,
     which last he had swallowed,
     and this Zeus took and planted in place,
     on earth of the wide ways,
     at holy Pytho, in the hollow ravines
     under Parnassos,
500   to be a portent and a wonder
     to mortal men thereafter.
     Then he set free from their dismal bonds
     the brothers of his father,
     he sons of Ouranos, whom his father
     in his wild temper had enchained,
     and they remembered, and knew gratitude
     for the good he had done them,
     and they gave him the thunder,
     and the smoky bolt, and the flash
505   of the lightning, which Gaia the gigantic
     had hidden till then.

     With these to support him, he is lord
     over immortals and mortals.


     Iapetos took Klymene
     the light-stepping daughter of Ocean,
     to be his wife, and mounted into the same bed
     with her,
     and she bore him a son, Atlas,
     of the powerful spirit,
510   and she bore him high-vaunting Menoitios,
     and Prometheus
     of the intricate and twisting mind,

     and Epimetheus
     the gullible, who from the beginning
     brought bad luck to men
     who eat bread, for he first accepted
     from Zeus the girl Zeus fashioned
     and married her.
     Menoitios was mutinous,
     and Zeus of the wide brows
515   struck him with the blazing thunderbolt
     and dropped him to Erebos
     because of his too-great hardihood
     and outrageous action.
     But Atlas, under strong constraint,
     at earth's uttermost
     places, near the sweet-singing Hesperides,
     standing upright
     props the wide sky upon his head
     and his hands never wearied,
520   for this was the doom
     which Zeus of the counsels dealt out to him.
     And in ineluctable, painful bonds
     he fastened Prometheus
     of the subtle mind, for he drove a stanchion
     through his middle. Also
     he let loose on him the wing-spread eagle,
     and it was feeding
     on his imperishable liver, which by night
     would grow back
525   to size from what the spread-winged bird
     had eaten in the daytime.

     But Herakles, the powerful son
     of lightfooted Alkmene,
     killed the eagle
     and drove that pestilential affliction
     from Iapetos' son, and set him free
     from all his unhappiness,
     not without the will of high-minded Zeus
     of Olympos

530   in order that the reputation
     of Thebes-born Herakles
     might be greater even than it had been
     on the earth that feeds many.
     With such thoughts in mind he honored his son
     and made him glorious,
     and angry as he had been before,
     he gave up his anger;
     for Prometheus once had matched wits
     against the great son of Kronos.
535   It was when gods, and mortal men,
     took their separate positions
     at Mekone, and Prometheus,
     eager to try his wits, cut up
     a great ox, and set it before Zeus,
     to see if he could outguess him.
     He took the meaty parts and the inwards
     thick with fat, and set them
     before men, hiding them away
     in an ox's stomach,
540   but the white bones of the ox he arranged,
     with careful deception,
     inside a concealing fold of white fat,
     and set it before Zeus.
     At last the father of gods
     and men spoke to him, saying:
     "Son of Iapetos, conspicuous among all Kings,
     old friend, oh how prejudicially
     you divided the portions."
545   So Zeus, who knows imperishable counsels,
     spoke in displeasure,
     but Prometheus the devious-deviser,
     lightly smiling,
     answered him again, quite well aware
     of his artful deception:
     "Zeus most high, most honored
     among the gods everlasting,
     choose whichever of these the heart within
     would have you."

550   He spoke, with intent to deceive, and Zeus,
     who knows imperishable
     counsels, saw it, the trick
     did not escape him, he imagined
     evils for mortal men in his mind,
     and meant to fulfil them.
     In both his hands he took up the portion
     of the white fat. Anger
     rose up about his heart
     and the spite mounted in his spirit
555   when he saw the white bones of the ox
     in deceptive arrangement.


     Ever since that time the races of mortal men
     on earth have burned
     the white bones to the immortals
     on the smoky altars.


     Then Zeus the cloud-gatherer
     in great vexation said to him:
     "Son of Iapetos, versed in planning
     beyond all others,
560   old friend, so after all you did not forget
     your treachery."
     So Zeus, who knows imperishable counsels,
     spoke in his anger,
     and ever remembering this deception
     thereafter,
he would not
     give the force of weariless fire
     to the ash-tree people,
     not to people who inhabit the earth
     and are mortal,
565   no, but the strong son of Iapetos
     outwitted him
     and stole the far-seen glory
     of weariless fire, hiding it
     in the hollow fennel stalk;
     this bit deep into the feeling
     of Zeus who thunders on high,
     and it galled the heart inside him
     when he saw the far-seen glory of fire
     among mortal people,
570   and next, for the price of the fire,
     he made an evil thing for mankind.
     For the renowned smith of the strong arms
     took earth, and molded it,
     through Zeus's plans, into the likeness
     of a modest young girl,
     and the goddess gray-eyed Athene
     dressed her and decked her
     in silverish clothing, and over her head
     she held, with her hands,
575   an intricately wrought veil in place,
     a wonder to look at,
     and over this on her head
     she placed a wreath of gold, one
     that the very renowned smith
     of the strong arms had fashioned
580   working it out with his hands,
     as a favor to Zeus the father.
     On this had been done much intricate work,
     a wonder to look at:
     wild animals, such as the mainland
     and the sea also produce
     in numbers, and he put many on,
     the imitations of living
     things, that have voices, wonderful,
     and it flashed in its beauty.
585   But when, to replace good,
     he had made this beautiful evil
     thing, he led her out
     where the rest of the gods and mortals
     were, in the pride and glory
     that the gray-eyed daughter of a great
     father had given; wonder
     seized both immortals and mortals
     as they gazed on this sheer deception,
     more than mortals can deal with.
590   For from her originates the breed
     of female women,
     and they live with mortal men,
     and are a great sorrow to them,
     and hateful poverty they will not share,
     but only luxury.
     As when, inside the overarching hives,
     the honeybees
595   feed their drones (and these are accomplished
     in doing no good,
     while the bees, all day long
     until the sun goes down
     do their daily hard work
     and set the white combs in order,
     and the drones, spending their time
     inside the hollow skeps,
     gamer the hard work of others
     into their own bellies),
600   so Zeus of the high thunder established women,
     for mortal
     men an evil thing,

     and they are accomplished in bringing
     hard labors.
     And Zeus made, in place
     of the good, yet another evil.
     For whoever, escaping marriage
     and the sorrowful things women do,
     is unwilling to marry, must come then
     to a mournful old age
605   bereft of one to look after it,
     and in need of livelihood
     lives on, and when he dies
     the widow-inheritors divide up
     what he has. While if the way of marriage
     befalls one
     and he gets himself a good wife,
     one with ways suited to him,
     even so through his lifetime the evil remains,
     balancing
610   the good, and he whose luck
     is to have cantankerous children
     lives keeping inside him discomfort
     which will not leave him
     in heart and mind; and for this evil
     there is no healing.

     So it is not possible to hide
     from the mind of Zeus, nor escape it;
     for not even the son of Iapetos,
     the gentle Prometheus,
615   was able to elude that heavy anger,
     but, for all his
     numerous shifts, force
     and the mighty chain confine him.
     Now, when Ouranos their father
     was bitter at heart against Obriareos
     and Kottos and Gyes (because he was so struck
     by their towering
     vigor, and their stature and beauty),
     therefore he bound them
620   in strong bonds, and settled them
     under the wide-wayed earth. There
     dwellers under the ground
     and with a life full of agony
     they lived at the uttermost end,
     at the edges of the great earth,
     with a long spell of grieving,
     and at their hearts a great sorrow;
     but Zeus son of Kronos,
     and the other immortal divinities
625   whom Rheia of the fair tresses
     had born in love to Kronos,
     brought them back to the light
     again at the instigation of Gaia.

     For Gaia had told the gods the whole truth,
     from the beginning,
     that with these Three victory would be won,
     and glorious honor.
     For a long time now, the Titan gods
     and those who were descended
630   from Kronos had fought each other,
     with hard heart-hurting struggles,
     ranged in opposition
     all through the hard encounters:
     one side, the haughty Titans,
     fought from towering Othrys,
     but they of the other side, the gods,
     the givers of good things,
     whom Rheia bore in love to Kronos,
     these fought from Olympos.
635   These then, with heart-hurting rancor
     against each other, fought
     for ten full years, continually,
     nor was there any
     release from the hardship of hostility,
     nor any end to it
     for either side, and the balance
     of the fighting was even. But after
     Zeus had given the Three Gods all they wished
     and needed,
640   ambrosia and nectar, which the very gods
     themselves feed on,
     then the bold spirit rose up again
     in the hearts of all three,
     when they had eaten of the nectar
     and delightful ambrosia.

     Then to these three spoke the father of gods
     and of mortals:
     "Hear me, 0 shining children
     of Ouranos and Gaia
645   while I speak out what the heart
     in my breast commands me.
     All our days, the Titan gods and we,
     who were born
     of Kronos, have been fighting
     a long time now, in opposed
     battle, for the sake of victory and power.
     Now, therefore,
     show yourselves against the Titans
     in the grim encounter,
650   and show the greatness of your strength,
     your hands irresistible;
     remember the love we gave you, the kindness,
     how you had been treated
     before you came back into the light
     out of cruel bondage,
     and out from under the gloom and the mist,
     all through our contriving."

     So he spoke, and in turn unfaulted Kottos
     answered him:
655   "What need to speak, what you say
     is not unknown. We ourselves
     know it, your counsels and perception
     are beyond all others,
     that you are the immortals' defender
     against stark ruin.
     For it is only by your forethought
     we ever came back up
     again from the gloom and the mist
     and from that merciless bondage,
660   through you, 0 lord, son of Kronos,
     when we suffered what we never had looked for.
     Therefore now, with stubborn spirit
     and resolute purpose
     we shall be defenders of your power
     in the grim encounter
     and fight against the Titans
     in the strong shock of battle.
"
     So he spoke, and the gods,
     the givers of blessings, assented
665   as they heard what he said,
     and the spirit in them was insistent on battle
     more even than it had been,
     and they launched an unwelcome onset
     all, the female and the male gods alike,
     on that day,
     and the Titan gods, and those
     of the generation of Kronos,
     and those whom Zeus had upraised
     from under the earth and Erebos
670   back to the light, fierce gods and mighty,
     with strength overmastering.
     Each and all alike had a hundred strong arms
     bursting
     out of his shoulders, and on the shoulders
     of each grew fifty
     heads above their massive bodies,
     and now at this time

     these stood forth against the Titans
     in bitter combat
675   wielding in their ponderous hands
     steep cliffside boulders,
     while on the opposite side the Titans
     stiffened their battalions
     in eager courage, and the work of force
     and hands was conspicuous
     on either side, and the infinite great sea
     moaned terribly
     and the earth crashed aloud,
     and the wide sky resounded

680   as it was shaken, and tall Olympos rocked
     on its bases
     in the fan of the wind of the immortals,
     and a strong shudder drove deep
     into gloomy Tartaros under the suddenness
     of the footrush
     and the quenchless crashing of their feet
     and their powerful missiles.

     So either against either they threw
     their re-echoing weapons
685   and the noise of either side outcrying
     went up to the starry
     heaven as with great war crying
     they drove at each other.

     Now Zeus no longer held in his strength,
     but here his heart filled
     deep with fury, and now he showed
     his violence entire
     and indiscriminately. Out of the sky
     and off Olympos
690   he moved flashing his fires incessantly,
     and the thunderbolts,
     the crashing of them and the blaze
     together came flying, one after
     another, from his ponderous hand,
     and spinning whirls of inhuman
     flame, and with it the earth,
     the giver of life, cried out
     aloud as she burned, and the vast forests
     in the fire screamed.
695   All earth was boiling with it,
     and the courses of the Ocean
     and the barren sea, and the steam
     and the heat of it was engulfing
     the Titans of the earth, while the flames
     went up to the bright sky
     unquenchably, and the blaze
     and the glare of thunder and lightning
     blinded the eyes of the Titan gods,
     for all they were mighty.
700   The wonderful conflagration crushed Chaos,
     and to the eyes' seeing
     and ears' hearing the clamor of it,
     it absolutely
     would have seemed as if Earth
     and the wide Heaven above her
     had collided, for such would have been
     the crash arising
     as Earth wrecked and the sky came piling down
     on top of her,
705   so vast was the crash heard
     as the gods collided in battle.

     The winds brought on with their roaring
     a quake of the earth and dust storm,
     with thunder and with lightning,
     and the blazing thunderbolt,
     the weapons thrown by great Zeus,
     and they carried the clamor
     and outcry between the hosts opposed,
     and a horrible tumult
710   of grisly battle uprose,
     and both sides showed power in the fighting.
     Then the battle turned; before that,
     both sides attacking
     in the fury of their rage fought on
     through the strong encounters.
     But now the Three, Kottos and Briareos
     and Gyes,
     insatiate of battle, stirred
     the grim fighting in the foremost,
715   for from their powerful hands they volleyed
     three hundred boulders
     one after another, and their missile flights
     overwhelmed the Titans
     in darkness, and these they drove
     underneath the wide-wayed
     earth, and fastened them there
     in painful bondage,
for now they
     had beaten the Titan gods with their hands,
     for all their high hearts.
720   They drove them as far underground
     as earth is distant from heaven.
     Such is the distance from earth's surface
     to gloomy Tartaros.
     For a brazen anvil dropping out of the sky
     would take nine
     nights, and nine days, and land on earth
     on the tenth day,
     and a brazen anvil dropping off the earth
     would take nine
725   nights, and nine days, and land in Tartaros
     on the tenth day.


     A wall of bronze is driven around it,
     and night is drifted
     about its throat in a triple circlet,
     while upward from it
     there grow and branch the roots of the earth,
     and of the barren sea.
     There the Titan gods live buried under the darkness
730   and the mists, and this is by the decree
     of Zeus the cloud-gatherer,
     in a moldy place, at the uttermost edges
     of monstrous
     earth.
There is no way out for them;
     Poseidon has fitted
     brazen doors, and the walls run around
     enclosing everything.
     And there Gyes, Kottos,
     and great-hearted Briareos
735   are settled as faithful sentinels
     for Zeus of the aegis.

     And there, for the gloomy earth,
     and for Tartaros of the mists,
     and for the barren great sea
     and the starry heaven,
     for all these, the springs
     and the sources stand there, all in order;
     an unpleasant, moldy place,
     and even the gods loathe it;
740   it is a great chasm, and once
     one were inside the gates of it
     within a whole year's completion
     he would not come to the bottom,
     but stormblast on cruel stormblast
     would sweep him one way
     and another; this is a monstrous place,
     and even the immortals
     fear it. And here stand the terrible houses
     of dark Night,
745   and the buildings are sheathed in the dark
     of the clouds.
Before them
     Atlas, son of Iapetos, stands
     staunchly upholding
     the wide heaven upon his head
     and with arms unwearying
     sustains it, there where
Night and Day
     come close to each other
     and speak a word of greeting
     and cross on the great threshold
750   of bronze, for the one is coming back in
     and the other is going
     outdoors, and the house never at once
     contains both of them,
     but at every time, while one of them
     is out of the house, faring
     over the length of the earth,
     the other remaining indoors
     waits for the time of her own journey,
     when the other one comes back;
755   the one carries for people on earth Light
     the far-flashing,
     while the other one carries Sleep
     in her arms, and he is Death's brother,
     and she is Night, the destructive,
     veiled in a cloud of vapor.
     And there the children of Night
     the gloomy have their houses.
     These are Sleep and Death, dread divinities.
     Never upon them
760   does Helios, the shining sun,
     cast the light of his eye-beams,

     neither when he goes up the sky
     nor comes down from it.
     One of these, across the earth
     and the wide sea-ridges,
     goes his way quietly back and forth,
     and is kind to mortals,
     but the heart of the other one is iron,
     and brazen feelings
765   without pity are inside his breast.
     When he takes hold of anyone
     he keeps him; and even the immortal gods
     hate this one.
     And there, at the front, stand
     the resounding halls of the Earth gods,
     of Hades the powerful,
     and of august Persephone,
     there they stand, and before them
     a dreaded hound, on watch,
770   who has no pity, but a vile stratagem:
     as people go in
     he fawns on all, with actions of his tail
     and both ears,
     but he will not let them go back out,
     but lies in wait for them
     and eats them up, when he catches any
     going back through the gates.
775   And there is housed a goddess
     loathed even by the immortals:
     dreaded Styx, eldest daughter of Ocean,
     who flows back
     on himself, and apart from the gods
     she lives in her famous palace
     which is overroofed with towering rocks,
     and the whole circuit
     is undergirded with silver columns,
     and pushes heaven;

780
   and seldom does the daughter of Thaumas,
     fleet-footed Iris,
     come her way with a message
     across the sea's wide ridges,
     those times when dispute and quarreling
     start among the immortals,
     and some one of those who have their homes
     on Olympos is lying,
     
and Zeus sends Iris
     to carry the many-storied water
785   that the gods swear their great oath on,
     thence, in a golden pitcher,
     that cold water that drizzles down
     from a steep sky-climbing
     cliffside, and it is one horn
     of the Ocean stream, and travels
     off that holy river a great course
     through night's blackness
     under the wide-wayed earth,
     and this water is a tenth part
790   of all, for in nine loops
     of silver-swirling waters, around
     the earth and the sea's wide ridges
     he tumbles into salt water,
     but this stream, greatly vexing the gods,
     runs off the precipice.
     And whoever of the gods,
     who keep the summits of snowy
     Olympos, pours of this water,
     and swears on it, and is forsworn,
795   is laid flat, and does not breathe,
     until a year is completed;
     nor is this god let come near ambrosia
     and nectar
     to eat, but with no voice in him,
     and no breath, he is laid out
     flat, on a made bed, and the evil coma
     covers him.

     But when, in the course of a great year,
     he is over his sickness,
800   there follows on in succession another trial,
     yet harsher:
     for nine years he is cut off
     from all part of the everlasting
     gods, nor has anything to do
     with their counsels, their festivals
     for nine years entire, but in the tenth
     he once more mingles
     in the assemblies of the gods
     who have their homes on Olympos.
805   Such an oath did the gods make
     of the imperishable, primeval
     water of Styx; and it jets down
     through jagged country.
     And there, for the gloomy earth,
     and for Tartaros of the mists,
     and for the barren great sea
     and the starry heaven,
     for all these the springs and sources

     stand there, all in order;
810   an unpleasant, moldy place,
     and even the gods loathe it.

     And there are the marmoreal gates,
     and the brazen threshold
     self-ongrown, unshakable,
     and gripped on to branching
     roots, and in front of it,
     and apart from all the immortals,
     are settled the Titans, the other side
     of gloomy Chaos;

815   only the glorious helpers of Zeus,
     the loud-crashing,
     are settled in houses along the foundations
     of the Ocean:

     Kottos and Gyes, that is;
     but of strong-grown Briareos
     the deep-stroking shaker of the Earth,
     Poseidon, made
     a son-in-law, and married him to Kymopoleia,
     his daughter.


820   Now after Zeus had driven the Titans
     out of heaven,
     gigantic Gaia, in love with Tartaros,
     by means of golden
     Aphrodite, bore the youngest of her children,
     Typhoeus;
     the hands and arms of him are mighty,
     and have work in them,
     and the feet of the powerful god
     were tireless, and up from his shoulders
825   there grew a hundred snake heads,
     those of a dreaded dragon,
     and
the heads licked with dark
     tongues, and from the eyes on
     the inhuman heads fire glittered
     from under the eyelids:
     from all his heads fire flared
     from his eyes' glancing;
     and inside each one of these horrible heads
     there were voices
830   that threw out every sort of horrible sound,
     for sometimes
     it was speech such as the gods
     could understand, but at other
     times, the sound of a bellowing bull,
     proud-eyed and furious
     beyond holding,
or again like a lion
     shameless in cruelty,
835   or again it was like the barking of dogs,
     a wonder to listen to,
     or again he would whistle
     so the tall mountains re-echoed to it.
     And now that day there would have been done
     a thing past mending,
     and he, Typhoeus, would have been master
     of gods and of mortals,
     had not the father of gods and men
     been sharp to perceive it
     and gave a hard, heavy clap of thunder,
     so that
the earth
840   gave grisly reverberation,
     and the wide heaven above, and
     the sea, and the streams of Ocean,
     and the underground chambers.
     And great Olympos was shaken
     under the immortal feet
     of the master as he moved,
     and the earth groaned beneath him,
     and the heat and blaze from both of them
     was on the dark-faced sea,
845   from the thunder and lightning of Zeus
     and from the flame of the monster,
     from his blazing bolts and from the scorch
     and breath of his stormwinds,

     and all the ground and the sky
     and the sea boiled, and towering
     waves were tossing and beating all up
     and down the promontories
     in the wind of these immortals,
     and a great shaking of the earth
850   came on, and Hades, lord over
     the perished dead, trembled,
     and the Titans under Tartaros,
     who live beside Kronos,
     trembled to the dread encounter
     and the unending clamor.
     But now, when Zeus had headed up
     his own strength, seizing
     his weapons, thunder, lightning,
     and the glowering thunderbolt,
855   he made a leap from Olympos, and struck,
     setting fire
     to all those wonderful heads set about
     on the dreaded monster.
     Then, when Zeus had put him down
     with his strokes, Typhoeus
     crashed, crippled, and the gigantic earth
     groaned beneath him,
     and the flame from the great lord
     so thunder-smitten ran out
860   along the darkening and steep forests
     of the mountains
     as he was struck, and a great part
     of the gigantic earth burned
     in the wonderful wind of his heat,
     and melted, as tin melts
     in the heat of the carefully grooved crucible
     when craftsmen
     work it, or as iron, though that is
     the strongest substance,
865   melts under stress of blazing fire
     in the mountain forests
     worked by handicraft of Hephaistos
     inside the divine earth.
     So earth melted in the flash
     of the blazing fire; but Zeus
     in tumult of anger cast Typhoeus
     into broad Tartaros.
     And from Typhoeus comes the force of winds
     blowing wetly:
870   all but Notos, Boreas, and clearing Zephyros,
     for their generation is of the gods,
     they are a great blessing
     to men, but the rest of them blow wildly
     across the water
     and burst upon the misty face
     of the open sea, bringing
     heavy distress to mortal men,
     and rage in malignant
875   storm, and blow from veering directions,

     and scatter the shipping
     and drown the sailors,
     and there is no remedy against this evil
     for men who run into such winds
     as these on the open water.
     And then again, across the limitless
     and flowering
     earth, they ruin the beloved works
     of ground-dwelling people
880   by overwhelming them with dust
     and hard tornadoes.



     Now when the immortal gods had finished
     their work of fighting,
     they forced the Titans to share with them
     their titles and privilege.
     Then, by the advice of Gaia,
     they promoted Zeus, the Olympian
     of the wide brows, to be King
     and to rule over the immortals
885   and he distributed among them their titles
     and privilege.


     Zeus, as King of the gods,
     took as his first wife Metis,
     and she knew more than all the gods
     or mortal people.
     But when she was about to be delivered
     of the goddess, gray-eyed
     Athene, then Zeus, deceiving her perception
     by treachery
890   and by slippery speeches,
     put her away inside his own belly.
     This was by the advices of Gaia,
     and starry Ouranos,
     for so they counseled,
     in order that no other everlasting
     god, beside Zeus, should ever be given
     the kingly position.
     For it had been arranged that, from her,
     children surpassing in wisdom
895   should be born, first the gray-eyed girl,
     the Tritogeneia
     Athene; and she is the equal of her father
     in wise counsel
     and strength; but then a son to be King
     over gods and mortals
     was to be born of her, and his heart
     would be overmastering:
     but before this, Zeus put her away
     inside his own belly
900   so that this goddess should think for him,
     for good and for evil.
     Next Zeus took to himself Themis,
     the shining, who bore him the Seasons,
     Lawfulness, and Justice,
     and prospering Peacetime:
these
     are concerned to oversee the actions
     of mortal people;
     and the Fates, to whom Zeus of the counsels
     gave the highest position:
905   they are Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos:
     they distribute
     to mortal people what people have,
     for good and for evil.
     Eurynome, daughter of Okeanos,
     lovely in appearance,
     bore to Zeus
the three Graces
     with fair cheeks; these are
     Aglaia and Euphrosyne and lovely Thalia,
910   and from the glancing of their lidded eyes
     bewildering
     love distills; there is beauty
     in their glance,
from beneath brows.
     Zeus entered also into the bed
     of fruitful Demeter,
     who bore him Persephone of the white arms,
     she that Aidoneus
     ravished away from her mother,
     and Zeus of the counsels granted it.
915   Then again,
he loved Mnemosyne,
     of the splendid tresses,
     from whom were born to him the Muses
     with veils of gold, the Nine
     whose pleasure is all delightfulness,
     and the sweetness of singing.

     Leto, who had lain in the arms of Zeus
     of the aegis,
     bore Apollo, and Artemis
     of the showering arrows,
920   children more delightful than all
     the other Ouranians.
     Last of all, Zeus took Hera
     to be his fresh consort,
     and she, lying in the arms
     of the father of gods and mortals,
     conceived and bore Hebe to him, and Ares,
     and Eileithyia.
     Then from his head, by himself,
     he produced Athene of the gray eyes,
925   great goddess, weariless,
     waker of battle noise, leader of armies,
     a goddess queen who delights in war cries,
     onslaughts, and battles,
     while Hera, without any act of love,
     brought forth glorious
     Hephaistos,
for she was angered
     and quarteling with her husband;
     and Hephaistos in arts and crafts
     surpasses all the Ouranians.


     [Now Hera was angered, and quarreled
     with her husband, and because
     of this quarrel
she herself brought forth a glorious son
     Hephaistos, without any act of love-making

     with Zeus of the aegis;
     but he, apart from Hera, had lain in love with a fair-faced
     daughter of Okeanos and lovely-haired Tethys,
     Metis, whom he deceived,
     for all she was so resourceful,
     
for he snatched her up in his hands
     and put her inside his belly
     for fear that she might bring forth
     a thunderbolt stronger than his own;
     therefore the son of Kronos, who dwells high,
     seated in the bright air,
     swallowed her down of a sudden,
     but she then conceived Pallas
     Athene, but the father of gods
     and men gave birth to her
     near the summit of Triton
     beside the banks of the river.
     But Metis herself, hidden away
     under the vitals of Zeus,

     stayed there; she was Athene's mother;
     worker of right actions,
     beyond all the gods
     and beyond all mortal people in knowledge;
     and there Athene had given to her hands
     what made her supreme
     over all other immortals who have
     their homes on Olympos;
     for Metis made the armor of Athene,
     terror of armies,
     in which Athene was born
     with her panoply of war upon her.]



930   From Amphitrite and Poseidon,
     loud-thundering earth shaker,
     was born great Triton, widely powerful,
     he who, sustaining
     the sea's basis, beside his dear mother
     and the lord his father,
     dwells in the golden house, a dreaded god.
     Now Kythereia
     to Ares, stabber of shields,
bore Panic
     and Terror, dreaded
935   gods, who batter the dense battalions
     of men embattled
     in horrible war,
they with Ares,
     sacker of cities. She also
     bore him Harmonia, she whom high-spirited
     Kadmos married.
     Maia, daughter of Atlas,
     mounted the sacred bed
     of Zeus, and bore Hermes the good,
     the herald of the immortals.
940   Semele, daughter of Kadmos,
     lay in love with Zeus also
     and bore him a glorious son, Dionysos,
     giver of good things,
     she mortal, he immortal,
     but now both are gods together.
     Alkmene, lying in love with Zeus
     who gathers the clouds,
     bore him powerful Herakles.
945   Hephaistos, of the high renown
     and the strong arms, took
     Aglaia, youngest of the Graces,
     to be his fresh wife.
     Dionysos, he of the golden hair,
     took blonde Ariadne,
     daughter of Minos, to be his blossoming wife,
     and Kronian
     Zeus caused her likewise to be immortal
     and ageless.
950   Herakles, the strong and courageous son
     of light-stepping
     Alkmene, after he had completed
     his sorrowful labors,
     took the daughter of great Zeus
     and Hera of the golden
     sandals, Hebe, as his modest wife
     on snowy Olympos,
     blessed he, who having ended his long work,
     lives now
955   among the immortals, without sorrow,
     ageless all his days always.
     To Helios, the unwearied Sun,
     the glorious daughter
     of Okeanos, Perseis, bore Circe
     and the King Aietes,
     and Aietes, son of Helios
     who pours his light on mortals,
     married, by the counsels of the gods,
     the fair-faced
960   daughter of Okeanos, the terminal river,
     Idyia, who, subdued to him in love,
     and through golden
     Aphrodite, bore him Medeia of the slim ankles.



     Farewell now, you who have your homes
     on Olympos, farewell
     to islands, mainland masses,
     and the open sea that is between them.
965   But now, 0 sweet-spoken Muses of Olympos,
     daughters
     of Zeus of the aegis,
     sing out now the names of those goddesses
     who went to bed with mortal men and,
     themselves immortal,
     bore to these children in the likeness
     of the immortals.
     Demeter, shining among goddesses,
     after the embraces
970   of the hero Iasion in the sweetness of love,
     brought forth Ploutos
     in a three-times-plowed field
     there in the fertile countryside
     of Crete, a good son, who walks over earth
     and the sea's wide ridges
     everywhere, and he who meets him
     with the giving of hands between them
     is made a prosperous man,

     to whom great wealth is granted.
975   To Kadmos, Harmonia,
     daughter of Aphrodite the golden,
     bore Ino, and Semele, and Agaue of the fair face,
     and Autonoe, who was taken to wife
     by Aristaios
     of the deep hair, and Polydoros,
     in high-crowned Thebes.
     Kallirhoe, daughter of Okeanos,
     lying in the embraces
980   of powerful-minded Chrysaor,
     through Aphrodite the golden
     bore him a son, most powerful
     of all men mortal,
     Geryones, whom Herakles
     in his great strength killed
     over his dragfoot cattle
     in water-washed Erytheia.
     To Tithonos, Eos the Dawn bore Memnon
     of the brazen
985   helm, king of Ethiopians,
     and the lord Emathion.
     Then, embraced by Kephalos,
     she engendered a son, glorious

     Phaethon, the strong, a man in the likeness
     of the immortals;
     and, while he still had the soft flower
     of the splendor of youth upon him,
     still thought the light thoughts of a child,
     Aphrodite, lover of laughter,
990   swooped down and caught him away
     and set him in her holy temple
     to be her nocturnal temple-keeper,
     a bright divinity.
     Jason, the son of Aison, by counsel
     of the everlasting
     gods, took Medeia, daughter of Aietes
     King under god's hand,
     and led her from Aietes' house,
     having completed the many
995   painful trials that the great, proud king,
     Pelias, had imposed
     upon him, for he was oppressive,
     hardhearted and heavy-handed,
     but Jason did all, and came back to Iolkos,
     after much suffering,
     and brought back with him on the fast ship
     the girl of the glancing
     eyes, Medeia, and made her
     his blossoming wife, and she
1000  submitting in love to Jason,

     shepherd of the people, bore him
     a son, Medeios, and Cheiron
     the son of Philyra fostered him
     on the mountains, and so the purpose
     of mighty Zeus was accomplished.



     But of the daughters of Nereus,
     the old man of the sea, one,
     Psamathe, shining among goddesses,
     joined to Aiakos
1005  in love through golden Aphrodite,
     bore him Phokos,
     while Thetis, she of the silver feet,
     submitting to Peleus
     bore him Achilleus, the lion-hearted,
     breaker of warriors.
     Kythereia of the garlands joining
     in love's delight
     with the hero Anchises, bore him Aineias,
     among the forests
1010  and many-folded valleys of the peaks of Ida.
     Circe, daughter of Helios, who is the son
     of Hyperion,
     was joined in love
     with hardy-minded Odysseus, and bore him
     Agrios and Latinos,
     a man faultless and powerful,
     [and also, through golden Aphrodite,
     bore him Telegonos],
1015  and these far, far away in the uttermost,
     magical islands
     were Kings over the Tyrsenians,
     of glorious reputation.
     Kalypso, shining among goddesses,
     joining in love's
     delight with Odysseus, bore him Nausithoos
     and Nausinoos.
     These went to bed with mortal men and,
     themselves immortal,
1020  bore to them children in the likeness
     of the immortals.



     But now, 0 sweet-spoken Muses of Olympos,
     daughters
     of Zeus of the aegis,
     sing out the generation of women.



     Like her . . . or like her . . . or like her
     who . . .








     

              Synopsis



Honor to the Muses -- the sources of inspiration for the arts and
branches of learning, and "daughters of Zeus"



The Muses sing and celebrate the Gods, listed as Zeus, Hera,
Athene, Phoibos Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Themis, Aphrodite,
Hebe, Dione, Leto, Iapetos, Kronos, Eos, Helios, Selene, Gaia,
Okeanos, and Night.



The Muses visit Hesiod, as he's shepherding his lambs at Mount
Helikon.



They breathe a voice into him and power to sing the story of things
of the future, and things past
.



All the mansion of Zeus the father of the deep thunder is joyful
in the light voice of the goddesses



The Muses sing first the glory of the majestic race of immortals,
from its beginning, those born to wide Ouranos and Gaia



The Muses sing the race of human kind, and the powerful Giants.
Mnemosyne, queen of the Eleutherian hills, bore them



For nine nights Zeus of the counsels lay with her in Pieria



She bore her nine daughters, concordant of heart, and singing is
all the thought that is in them, and no care troubles their spirits.



Zeus overpowered and put down his father Kronos, and ordained to the
immortals all rights that are theirs, and defined their stations.



The nine daughters are Kleio and Euterpe, Thaleia and Melpomene,
Terpsichore and Erato, Polymnia and Ourania, with Kalliope, who of
all holds the highest position.



When the Muses bestow their favors on a kingly noble, upon his speech
they make a distillation of sweetness, and from his mouth the words run
blandishing,




Then the people adore him like a god, with gentle respect; Such is
the holy gift the Muses give to humanity.



Blessed is the poet whom the Muses love, for the voice of his mouth
runs and is sweet
, and even when a man has sorrow fresh, he presently
forgets his cares.



Now Hesiod sounds out the holy stock of the everlasting immortals
who came into being out of Gaia and starry Ouranos and gloomy Night,
whom Pontos, the salt sea, brought to maturity; and tells, how at the
first the gods and the earth were begotten and rivers, and the boundless
sea, raging in its swell, the blazing stars, and the wide sky above all.



In the very beginning, Chaos, the nothingness out of which the first ob-
jects of existence appeared, arose spontaneously. The parthenogenic
children of Chaos were Gaia (the Earth), Eros (Desire or sexual love),
Tartarus (the Underworld), Erebus (Darkness) and Nyx (Night).



Erebos and Nyx reproduced to make Aither (Brightness) and Hemera (Day),
and from Gaia came Ouranos (Sky), the Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus
(Sea). Ouranos mated with Gaia to create three sets of offspring: the
twelve Titans (Oceanos, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, The-
mis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys and Kronos), a race of powerful deities
that ruled during the legendary Golden Age; the three Kyklopes or Cyclops
(Brontes, Steropes and Arges), a race of one-eyed giants; and the three
Hecatonchires (Kottos, Briareos and Gyges), hundred-handed giants of e-
ven greater power and ferocity than the Titans.



Ouranos was so disgusted with the Hecatonchires that he pushed them
back into Gaia's womb
, so Gaia begged the Titans to punish their father.
Only Kronos, the youngest and most ambitious Titan, was willing to do so,
and he castrated his father with Gaia's sickle. Ouranos' blood splattered
onto the earth
, producing
the Erinyes (the vengeful Furies), the Gigantes
(Giants) and the Meliai (a race of tree nymphs). Kronos threw Ouranos' se-
vered testicles
into the sea, and Aphrodite (the goddess of Love) formed
out of the sea-foam which resulted
.



Nyx produced many children, including Moros (Doom), Ker and the Keres (Dest-
inies), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (Sleep), Oneiroi (Dreams), Momos (Blame),
Oizys (Hardship), the Hesperides (Daughters of Night), the Moirai (Fates),
Nemesis (Retribution), Philotes (Love), Geras (Old Age), Eris (Discord),
Lethe (Oblivion), Limos (Famine), Ponos (Pain), Hysmine (Battles), the
Neikea (Quarrels), the Phonoi (Murders), Androktasia (Manslaughters),
Makhai (Fight), Pseudologos (Lies), Amphilogia (Disputes), Dysnomia (Law-
lessness), Ate (Ruin), Horkos (Oaths) Apate (Deceit), Algea (Illnesses),
and Logoi (Stories).



After Ouranos's castration, Gaia married Pontus and they went on to produce
a line of sea deities, nymphs and monsters, including Nereus (the Old Man of
the Sea, also known as Proteus and Phorcys in his other aspects, from whom
were descended the Nereids, the fifty nymphs of the sea, the best-known be-
ing Thetis), Thaumas (who later married the Oceanid Electra, and bore Iris, or
Rainbow
, and the two winged spirits, Aello and Ocypetes, known as the Harpies),
Eurybia and Cetus (a hideous sea monster).



Cetus and her sibling Phorcys had many children of their own, including the Gra-
iae
(the three grey witches with one eye and one tooth shared among them), and
the three Gorgons (the best known being the snake-haired Medusa, who would later
give birth to the winged-horse Pegasus who carries the thunder and lightning for
Zeus). Chrysaor, married to Kallirhoe, daughter of Okeanos, was father to triple-hea-
ded Geryon
, who was killed by Herakles. But Kallirhoe bore another unmanageable
monster, Echidna (a serpent-bodied monster who, with Typhon conceived Orthos,
who was Geryones' herding dog
, and next again she bore Kerberos, the savage, the
bronze-barking dog of Hades; She also bore the Hyrdra, which itself bore the Chim-
aira
, a fire-snorting beast ultimately killed by Pegasos; Echnida also bore the Sphinx
and the Nemean Lion.) and Ophion.



Keto, joined in love with Phorkys, bore the snake that guards the all-golden apples;
The Titans married between themselves and had Titan offspring of ther own: Oce-
anus and Tethys bore all the rivers, fountains and lakes of the world
as well as the
three-thousand Oceanid nymphs (including Electra, Calypso and Styx); Theia and
Hyperion had Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn); Crius and Eurybia bore
Astraios (father, with Eos, of the wind gods, Zephyros, Boreas, Notos and Eurus, as
well as all the stars), Pallas (father, with the Oceanid Styx, of Zelos or Zeal, Nike or
Victory, Cratos or Strength and Bia or Force), and Perses; Coeus and Phoebe married
to produce Leto and Asteria (mother, with her cousin Perses of Hecate, the goddess
of wilderness, childbirth, witchcraft and magic); Iapetos married the Oceanid nymph
Clymene and had Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus.



Kronos, who had established himself as leader of the Titans, married his sister Rhea
but, mindful of the prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, he made
sure to swallow each of the children
she birthed: Hestia (goddess of the hearth and
domesticity), Demeter (goddess of the earth and fertility), Hera (goddess of women
and marriage), Hades (god of the Underworld), Poseidon (god of the sea) and Zeus (god
of the sky and thunder, and later to become the king of the gods) in that order. How-
ever, with the help of Gaia and Ouranos, Rhea managed to trick Kronos into saving
Zeus
from this fate, and then to further trick him into vomiting up his other five children



Iapetos and Klymene bore Atlas of the powerful spirit, and Prometheus of the intricate
and twisting mind
. Atlas props the wide sky upon his head, for this was the doom Zeus
of the counsels dealt out to him. Prometheus once had matched wits against Zeus,
intending to decieve him by hiding the white bones of the ox inside a fold of white fat.
Ever remembering this deception thereafter, Zeus would not give fire to humans. But
Prometheus stole the secret of fire for man, so as punishment, in ineluctable, painful
bonds he fastened Prometheus
and let loose on him the wing-spread eagle, to feed on
his imperishable liver
. Then Zeus called on Athena and Hephaistos, the lame blacksmith
to the gods, to create a beautiful woman, Pandora, who opened a jar (referred to as
"Pandora's box" in modern accounts) releasing all the evils of mankind, leaving on-
ly Hope inside once she had closed it again. Hesiod also suggested at this point that
women in general were henceforth to be considered a curse on men. For whoever es-
capes marriage, must come to a mournful old age
, while he who marries often has can-
tankerous children
.




Ouranos, bitter at heart against Obriareos and Kottos and Gyes because of their tow-
ering vigor, bound them in strong bonds, and settled them under the earth. Zeus released
them
and, joined by the other offspring of Rhea and Kronos (collectively known as the
Olympian gods, for their chosen home on Mount Olympus), along with the Kyklopes, Pro-
metheus and Epimetheus, then waged a great ten-year war on the Titans and the Giants
for control of the cosmos. When Zeus released the Hecatonchires from their imprison-
ment in Tartarus, he gave them ambrosia and asked their help in fighting the Titans, and
they pledged their support. The three shook the earth, Zeus unleashed his full anger
against the Titans, engulfing the earth in flames, boiling the oceans and waterways,
blinding the Titans with the glare of his lightning, and the conflagration crushed chaos
itself. Finally, with the fierce strength of the Hecatonchires, they overwhelmed the Titans
and threw them down into Tartarus.



A wall of bronze is driven around it, and night is drifted about its throat in a triple circlet;
And there Gyes, Kottos, and Briareos are sentinels. Night and Day come close to each
other and cross on the great threshold of bronze; the one carries for people on earth
Light
, the other carries Sleep in her arms, and he is Death's brother. And there, at the
front, stand the halls of Hades and Persephone, and dreaded Styx, eldest daughter of
Ocean
. Zeus sends Iris to carry the many-storied water that the gods swear their great
oath on, but this stream runs off the precipice. And whoever of the gods swears on it,
and is forsworn, is laid flat
, and does not breathe, and the evil coma covers him for a year



In her anger at the defeat of the Titans, Gaia had a final son, fathered by Tartarus,
known as Typhoeus or Typhon. Typhoeus was one of the most grotesque and deadly mon-
sters
of all time, reaching as high as the stars, his hands reaching east and west
with a hundred dragon heads on each, his bottom half composed of gigantic hissing
viper coils, and his whole body covered in wings and with fire flashing from his
eyes
. He too was defeated by Zeus, however, who trapped him underneath Mount Etna.



Zeus, now established as king of the Olympian gods, first married the Oceanid Metis,
but, in order to avoid a prophecy that any offspring of his union with Metis would be
greater than he, Zeus swallowed Metis herself to prevent her from giving birth. How-
ever, Metis was already was pregnant with Athena at that time and she nurtured her
inside Zeus, until Athena burst forth from Zeus’ forehead, fully armed.



Zeus’ second wife was the Titan Themis, who bore the three Horae (the Hours,
goddesses controlling orderly life), Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), Eirene (Peace),
Tyche (Prosperity) and the three Moirae (the Fates, white-robed personifications of
destiny, namely Klotho the Spinner, Lachesis the Alotter and Atropos the Unturned,
an alternative version of their parentage to their creation by Nyx).



Zeus’ third wife was the Oceanid Eurynome, who bore the three Charites or
Graces, goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility,
namely Aglaea (Beauty), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer).



Zeus’ fourth wife was his own sister Demeter, who bore Persephone, who was
later to marry Hades and bear Melinoe (goddess of ghosts), Zagreus (god of the
Orphic mysteries) and Macaria (goddess of the blessed afterlife).



Zeus’ fifth wife was the Titan Mnemosyne, from whom came the nine Muses, Clio
(History), Euterpe (Music), Thalia (Comedy), Melpomene (Tragedy), Terpsichore
(Dance), Erato (Lyric Poetry), Polyhymnia (Choral Poetry), Urania (Astronomy)
and Calliope (Heroic Poetry).



Zeus’ sixth wife was the second generation Titan Leto, who gave birth to Apollo
(the god of music, poetry and oracles, who was born on the floating island of
Delos after Hera had banned Leto from giving birth on earth) and his twin sis-
ter Artemis (goddess of the hunt, childbirth and fertility).



Zeus’ seventh and final wife was his sister Hera, who gave birth to Hebe (cup-
bearer of the gods), Ares (god of war), Enyo (goddess of war), Hephaistos (the
lame blacksmith and craftsman of the gods) and Eileithyia (goddess of childbirth
and midwifery).



Outside his marriages, however, Zeus also had many affairs with mortal women,
such as: Semele, who was the mother of Dionysus (also known to the Greeks as
Bacchus), god of wine and ecstacy; Danae, who was the mother of the hero Per-
seus; Leda, who was the mother of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra and the twins
Castor and Pollux; and Alkmene, who was the mother of the hero Heracles.



Zeus' brother Poseidon married the Nereid Amphitrite and produced Triton, the
messenger of the deep. The hero Theseus, who was the son of Aethra, was con-
sidered to have been jointly fathered by both Poseidon and by Aethra’s husband
Aegeus, as Aethra had lain with both on the night of his conception.



Aphrodite was given in marriage by Zeus to his own son, the lame and ugly Heph-
aistos, in an attempt to prevent any jealousy and rivalry which might arise
over her great beauty. But she nevertheless had an affair with Ares and gave
birth to Eros (Love), Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Cowardice) and Harmonia (Harmony).
Harmonia would later marry Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, to sire Ino, Semele
(the mother of Dionysus by Zeus), Agaue, Polydorus and Autonoe.