Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges 1606, who gave Zeus
the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the
gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their fore-heads. And
they were surnamed Cyclopes (Orb-eyed) because one orbed eye was set in
their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their works.
(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and
Heaven, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and Gyes,
presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not
to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their
strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in
their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Earth and
Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own
father from the first.
And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so soon as
each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and
Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being
straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great
sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons. And she spoke, cheering
them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:
(ll. 164-166) ‘My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey
me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first
thought of doing shameful things.’
(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them
uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his
dear mother:
(ll. 170-172) ‘Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I
reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing
shameful things.’
(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit,
and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle,
and revealed to him the whole plot.
(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love,
and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her 1607.
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 1608
all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members
with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were
swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around
them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she
drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to
sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass
grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call
Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because
she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and
Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes 1609
because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely
Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the
assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this
is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods,—the
whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and
love and graciousness.
(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom he begot himself great Heaven used to
call Titans (Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and
did presumptuously a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come
afterwards.
(ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and
she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky
Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the
Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing
fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless
avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos 1610, who give men at
their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the
transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from
their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty.
Also deadly Night bare Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict mortal men, and
after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted
Strife.
(ll. 226-232) But abhorred Strife bare painful Toil and Forgetfulness
and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders,
Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin,
all of one nature, and Oath who most troubles men upon earth when
anyone wilfully swears a false oath.
(ll. 233-239) And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who is
true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he is trusty
and gentle and does not forget the laws of righteousness, but thinks
just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud
Phorcys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who
has a heart of flint within her.
(ll. 240-264) And of Nereus and rich-haired Doris, daughter of Ocean
the perfect river, were born children 1611, passing lovely amongst
goddesses, Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and Amphitrite, and Eudora, and
Thetis, Galene and Glauce, Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe and lovely Halie, and
Pasithea, and Erato, and rosy-armed Eunice, and gracious Melite, and
Eulimene, and Agaue, Doto, Proto, Pherusa, and Dynamene, and Nisaea,
and Actaea, and Protomedea, Doris, Panopea, and comely Galatea, and
lovely Hippothoe, and rosy-armed Hipponoe, and Cymodoce who with
Cymatolege 1612 and Amphitrite easily calms the waves upon the misty
sea and the blasts of raging winds, and Cymo, and Eione, and
rich-crowned Alimede, and Glauconome, fond of laughter, and Pontoporea,
Leagore, Euagore, and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe, and
Lysianassa, and Euarne, lovely of shape and without blemish of form,
and Psamathe of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso, Eupompe,
Themisto, Pronoe, and Nemertes 1613 who has the nature of her deathless
father. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus, skilled in
excellent crafts.
(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep-flowing
Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired Harpies, Aello
(Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep
pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they
dart along.
(ll 270-294) And again, Ceto bare to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae,
sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk
on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo,
and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land
towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and
Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the
two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One
1614 in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her
head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so
called because he was born near the springs (_pegae_) of Ocean; and
that other, because he held a golden blade (_aor_) in his hands. Now
Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, and came to
the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of Zeus and brings to
wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined in love to
Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed
Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling
oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and
had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the
herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.
(ll. 295-305) And in a hollow cave she bare another monster,
irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying
gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing
eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful,
with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the
holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far
from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods
appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima
beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all
her days.
(ll. 306-332) Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and
lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she
conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bare Orthus the
hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a second, a monster not to
be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh,
the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong.
And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the
goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with
the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of
Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying
sword through the plans of Athene the spoil-driver. She was the mother
of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great,
swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion;
in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth
a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon
slay; but Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the
deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which
Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of
Nemea, a plague to men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her own
people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength
of stout Heracles overcame him.
(ll. 333-336) And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bare her
youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the
secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the
offspring of Ceto and Phorcys.
(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and
Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair
stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of
Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and
Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair
stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and
divine Scamander.
(ll. 346-370) Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters 1615
who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers have youths in their keeping—to
this charge Zeus appointed them—Peitho, and Admete, and Ianthe, and
Electra, and Doris, and Prymno, and Urania divine in form, Hippo,
Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie, and Idyia, and
Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura, and lovely Dione, Melobosis and Thoe
and handsome Polydora, Cerceis lovely of form, and soft eyed Pluto,
Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and
Europa, Metis, and Eurynome, and Telesto saffron-clad, Chryseis and
Asia and charming Calypso, Eudora, and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe,
and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest
daughters that sprang from Ocean and Tethys; but there are many
besides. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean
who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the
earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses.