Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
And as many other rivers are there, babbling as they flow, sons of
Ocean, whom queenly Tethys bare, but their names it is hard for a
mortal man to tell, but people know those by which they severally
dwell.
(ll. 371-374) And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bare great
Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all
that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide
heaven.
(ll. 375-377) And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius
and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent
among all men in wisdom.
(ll. 378-382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds,
brightening Zephyrus, and Boreas, headlong in his course, and Notus,—a
goddess mating in love with a god. And after these Erigenia 1616 bare
the star Eosphorus (Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming stars with which
heaven is crowned.
(ll. 383-403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and
bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house.
Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful
children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor
path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with
Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx the deathless daughter of
Ocean plan on that day when the Olympian Lightener called all the
deathless gods to great Olympus, and said that whosoever of the gods
would fight with him against the Titans, he would not cast him out from
his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst
the deathless gods. And he declared that he who was without office and
rights under Cronos, should be raised to both office and rights as is
just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through
the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honoured her, and gave her very
great gifts, for her he appointed to be the great oath of the gods, and
her children to live with him always. And as he promised, so he
performed fully unto them all. But he himself mightily reigns and
rules.
(ll. 404-452) Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus.
Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought
forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless
gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bare
Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be
called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the
son of Cronos honoured above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a
share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in
starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For
to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices
and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great
honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives
favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is
with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these
she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took
anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods:
but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning,
privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea. Also, because she
is an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more
still, for Zeus honours her. Whom she will she greatly aids and
advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the
assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men
arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at
hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will. Good is
she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is
with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the
victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his
parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to
those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to
Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess
gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so
she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock.
The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep,
if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So,
then. albeit her mother’s only child 1617, she is honoured amongst all
the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young
who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So
from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her
honours.
(ll. 453-491) But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid
children, Hestia 1618, Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Hades,
pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing
Earth-Shaker, and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder
the wide earth is shaken. These great Cronos swallowed as each came
forth from the womb to his mother’s knees with this intent, that no
other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst
the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he
was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was,
through the contriving of great Zeus 1619. Therefore he kept no blind
outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing
grief seized Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of
gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry
Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child
might be concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty
Cronos for his own father and also for the children whom he had
swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter,
and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronos the king
and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land
of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her
children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish
and to bring up. Thither came Earth carrying him swiftly through the
black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a
remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded
Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier
king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch!
he knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left
behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome
him by force and might and drive him from his honours, himself to reign
over the deathless gods.
(ll. 492-506) After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince
increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily
was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his
offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he
vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it
fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of
Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men 1620.
And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father,
sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they
remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder
and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth
had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and
immortals.
(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene,
daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him
a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and
clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained
Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for
it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had
formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him
with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad
presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard constraint
upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the
borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot
wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready-witted Prometheus he bound with
inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle,
and set on him a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal
liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the
long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the
valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of
Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction—not
without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of
Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over
the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honoured his famous
son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before
because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of
Cronos. For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even
then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions
before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set
flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with
an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with
cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of
gods said to him:
(ll. 543-544) ‘Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir,
how unfairly you have divided the portions!’
(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him.
But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his
cunning trick:
(ll. 548-558) ‘Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods,
take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids.’ So he
said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and
failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief
against mortal men which also was to be fulfilled. With both hands he
took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his
spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because
of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless
gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly
vexed and said to him:
(ll. 559-560) ‘Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not
yet forgotten your cunning arts!’
(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and
from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give
the power of unwearying fire to the Melian 1621 race of mortal men who
live on the earth. But the noble son of Iapetus outwitted him and stole
the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk. And
Zeus who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was
angered when he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire. Forthwith he
made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous
Limping God formed of earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of
Cronos willed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed
her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she spread with her
hands a broidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene, put
about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she
put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God
made himself and worked with his own hands as a favour to Zeus his