Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
father. On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many
creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it,
wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty
shone out from it.
(ll. 585-589) But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price
for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which
the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place
where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the
deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile,
not to be withstood by men.
(ll. 590-612) For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her
is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to
their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in
wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is
to do mischief—by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down
the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at
home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own
bellies—even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to
mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to
be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the
sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age
without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of
livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide
his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of
marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually
contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children,
lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him;
and this evil cannot be healed.
(ll. 613-616) So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of
Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped his
heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he
knew many a wile.
(ll. 617-643) But when first their father was vexed in his heart with
Obriareus and Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds, because he
was jealous of their exceeding manhood and comeliness and great size:
and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were
afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the end of the
earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with
great grief at heart. But the son of Cronos and the other deathless
gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare from union with Cronos, brought them up
again to the light at Earth’s advising. For she herself recounted all
things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory
and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as
many as sprang from Cronos had long been fighting together in stubborn
war with heart-grieving toil, the lordly Titans from high Othyrs, but
the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea bare in union with
Cronos, from Olympus. So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting
continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the
hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the issue of the
war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three with all
things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and
when their proud spirit revived within them all after they had fed on
nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and
gods spoke amongst them:
(ll. 644-653) ‘Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven, that I may
say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are
sprung from Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day
to get victory and to prevail. But do you show your great might and
unconquerable strength, and face the Titans in bitter strife; for
remember our friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are come
back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our
counsels.’
(ll. 654-663) So he said. And blameless Cottus answered him again:
‘Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves
we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you
became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through
your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom and from our
merciless bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O lord, son of
Cronos. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will
aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the Titans in
hard battle.’
(ll. 664-686) So he said: and the gods, givers of good things,
applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for war
even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up
hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that were born of Cronos
together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom
Zeus brought up to the light from Erebus beneath the earth. An hundred
arms sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads
growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against
the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands.
And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks, and
both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might.
The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly:
wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its
foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking
reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful
onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their
grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they
shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great
battle-cry.
(ll. 687-712) Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his
heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From
Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the
bolts flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder
and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed
around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about.
All the land seethed, and Ocean’s streams and the unfruitful sea. The
hot vapour lapped round the earthborn Titans: flame unspeakable rose to
the bright upper air: the flashing glare of the thunder-stone and
lightning blinded their eyes for all that there were strong. Astounding
heat seized Chaos: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears
it seemed even as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together; for
such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth were being hurled to
ruin, and Heaven from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash
was there while the gods were meeting together in strife. Also the
winds brought rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder and lightning
and the lurid thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great Zeus, and
carried the clangour and the warcry into the midst of the two hosts. An
horrible uproar of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and
the battle inclined. But until then, they kept at one another and
fought continually in cruel war.
(ll. 713-735) And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareos and Gyes
insatiate for war raised fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one upon
another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the
Titans with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed
earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by
their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to
Tartarus. For a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and
days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil
falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the
tenth. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple
line all about it like a neck-circlet, while above grow the roots of
the earth and unfruitful sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who drives
the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place
where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for
Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on
every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled Obriareus live,
trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis.
(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends
of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry
heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.
It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would
not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel
blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is
awful even to the deathless gods.
(ll. 744-757) There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in
dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus 1622 stands immovably
upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where
Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great
threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the
house, the other comes out at the door.
And the house never holds them both within; but always one is without
the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and
waits until the time for her journeying come; and the one holds
all-seeing light for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms
Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous
cloud.
(ll. 758-766) And there the children of dark Night have their
dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks
upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he
comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over
the earth and the sea’s broad back and is kindly to men; but the other
has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze:
whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful
even to the deathless gods.
(ll. 767-774) There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of
the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound
guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those
who go in he fawns with his tail and both his ears, but suffers them
not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomsoever he
catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone.
(ll. 775-806) And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless
gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of back-flowing 1623 Ocean. She
lives apart from the gods in her glorious house vaulted over with great
rocks and propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars. Rarely
does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-footed Iris, come to her with a
message over the sea’s wide back.
But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when
any of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus sends Iris
to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods from far away, the
famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock.
Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the
dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is
allotted to her. With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the
earth and the sea’s wide back, and then falls into the main 1624; but
the tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble to the gods. For
whoever of the deathless gods that hold the peaks of snowy Olympus
pours a libation of her water is forsworn, lies breathless until a full
year is completed, and never comes near to taste ambrosia and nectar,