Olympus Glory
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HESIOD was a Greek epic poet who flourished in Boeotia in the C8th B.C. He was alongside Homer the most respected of the old Greek poets. His works included a poem titled the Theogony, a cosmological work describing the origins and genealogy of the gods, Works and Days, on the subjects of farming, morality and country life, and a large number of lost or now fragmentary poems including the Catalogues of Women, Eoiae, and Astronomy.
Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. Translated by Evelyn-White, H G. Loeb Classical Library Volume 57. London: William Heinemann, 1914.
The Evelyn-White volume is no longer in print but second-hand copies might be obtained from Amazon.com sellers (click on image right for details). In addition to the Theogony the volume also contains Hesiod's Works and Days, Shield of Heracles, Hesiodic fragments, Homeric Hymns, and fragments of Epic Cycle poems.
Loeb has now replaced this volume with three new translations, one containing the works Hesiod, another fragments of early Greek Epic and the third the Homeric Hymns and Homerica. These, as well as several other more recent translations and academic commentaries, appear in the booklist (left below).
HESIOD CONTENTS
1. Hymn to the Muses
2. Cosmogony
3.Castration of Uranus
4. Spirits of Night
5. Sea Gods
6. Bestiary
7. The Titans
8. Hymn to Hecate
9. Children of Cronus
10. Prometheus
11. Titanomachy
12. Cosmography
13. Typhoeus
14. Olympian Gods
15. Goddesses and Men
THE THEOGONY, TRANSLATED BY H. G. EVELYN-WHITE
HYMN TO THE MUSES
[1] From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse's Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night, veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene, and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and quick-glancing1 Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for ever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the goddesses said to me – the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis: 'Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame, mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things.”
[29] So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they plucked and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvellous thing, and breathed into me a divine voice to celebrate things that shall be and things there were aforetime; and they bade me sing of the race of the blessed gods that are eternally, but ever to sing of themselves both first and last. But why all this about oak or stone?2
[36] Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are and that shall be and that were aforetime with consenting voice. Unwearying flows the sweet sound from their lips, and the house of their father Zeus the loud-thunderer is glad at the lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spread abroad, and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound, and the homes of the immortals. And they uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the reverend race of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth and wide Heaven begot, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things. Then, next, the goddesses sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men, as they begin and end their strain, how much he is the most excellent among the gods and supreme in power. And again, they chant the race of men and strong giants, and gladden the heart of Zeus within Olympus, -- the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder.
[53] Them in Pieria did Mnemosyne (Memory), who reigns over the hills of Eleuther, bear of union with the father, the son of Cronos, a forgetting of ills and a rest from sorrow. For nine nights did wise Zeus lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the immortals. And when a year was passed and the seasons came round as the months waned, and many days were accomplished, she bare nine daughters, all of one mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus. There are their bright dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside them the Graces and Himerus (Desire) live in delight. And they, uttering through their lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all and the goodly ways of the immortals, uttering their lovely voice. Then went they to Olympus, delighting in their sweet voice, with heavenly song, and the dark earth resounded about them as they chanted, and a lovely sound rose up beneath their feet as they went to their father. And he was reigning in heaven, himself holding the lightning and glowing thunderbolt, when he had overcome by might his father Cronos; and he distributed fairly to the immortals their portions and declared their privileges.
[75] These things, then, the Muses sang who dwell on Olympus, nine daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania and Calliope,3 who is the chiefest of them all, for she attends on worshipful princes: whomsoever of heaven-nourished princes the daughters of great Zeus honour, and behold him at his birth, they pour sweet dew upon his tongue, and from his lips flow gracious words. All the people look towards him while he settles causes with true judgements: and he, speaking surely, would soon make wise end even of a great quarrel; for therefore are there princes wise in heart, because when the people are being misguided in their assembly, they set right the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words. And when he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle reverence, and he is conspicuous amongst the assembled: such is the holy gift of the Muses to men. For it is through the Muses and far-shooting Apollo that there are singers and harpers upon the earth; but princes are of Zeus, and happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet flows speech from his mouth. For though a man have sorrow and grief in his newly-troubled soul and live in dread because his heart is distressed, yet, when a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the glorious deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus, at once he forgets his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all; but the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these.
[104] Hail, children of Zeus! Grant lovely song and celebrate the holy race of the deathless gods who are for ever, those that were born of Earth and starry Heaven and gloomy Night and them that briny Sea did rear. Tell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they shared their honours amongst them, and also how at the first they took many-folded Olympus. These things declare to me from the beginning, ye Muses who dwell in the house of Olympus, and tell me which of them first came to be.
THE COSMOGONY
[116] Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all4 the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether5 and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love.
THE CASTRATION OF URANUS
[134] But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
[139] And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges,6 who gave Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their 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.
[147] 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.
[163] And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart: “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.”
[167] 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: “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.”
[173] 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.
[176] And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her.7 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 Meliae8 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 Philommedes9 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.
[207] But these sons whom be begot himself great Heaven used to call Titans (Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and did presumptuously a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come afterwards.
THE SPIRITS OF NIGHT
[211] And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos,10 who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty. Also deadly Night bare Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.
[226] 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.
THE SEA GODS
[233] And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who is true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he is trusty and gentle and does not forget the laws of righteousness, but thinks just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phoreys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who has a heart of flint within her.
[240] And of Nereus and rich-haired Doris, daughter of Ocean the perfect river, were born children,11 passing lovely amongst goddesses, Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and Amphitrite, and Eudora, and Thetis, Galene and Glauce, Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe and lovely Halie, and Pasithea, and Erato, and 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 Cymatolege12 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 Nemertes13 who has the nature of her deathless father. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus, skilled in excellent crafts.
[265] 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.
THE BESTIARY
[270] 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 One14 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.
[295] 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.
[306] 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.
[333] 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.
THE TITAN GODS
[334] 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.
[346] Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters15 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. 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.
[371] 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.
[375] 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.
[378] 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 Erigenia16 bare the star Eosphorus (Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.
[383] 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 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.
[404] 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.
HYMN TO HECATE
[410] 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,17 she is honoured amongst all the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her honours.
CHILDREN OF CRONUS
[453] But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid children, Hestia,18 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.19 Therefore he kept no blind outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing grief seized Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child might be concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty Cronos for his own father and also for the children whom he had swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter, and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronos the king and his 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.
[492] 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.20 And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals.
PROMETHEUS
[507] 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.
[545] 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: “Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!”
[545] So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick: “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.
[558] But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly vexed and said to him: “Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!”
[560] 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 theMelian21 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 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.
[585] 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.
[590] 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.
[613] 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.
THE TITANOMACHY
[617] 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: “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.”
[654] 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.”
[664] 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 theTitans 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.
[687] Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the bold flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The 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.
[713] 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.
COSMOGRAPHY
[736] 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.
[744] There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus22 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.
[758] 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.
[767] 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 is ears, but suffers them not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomsoever he catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone.
[775] And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of back-flowing23 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 main24; but the tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble to the gods. For whoever of the deathless gods that hold the peaks of snowy Olympus pours a libation of her water is forsworn, lies breathless until a full year is completed, and never comes near to taste ambrosia and nectar, but lies spiritless and voiceless on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance overshadows him. But when he has spent a long year in his sickness, another penance and an harder follows after the first. For nine years he is cut off from the eternal gods and never joins their councils of their feasts, nine full years. But in the tenth year he comes again to join the assemblies of the deathless gods who live in the house of Olympus. Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and primaeval water of Styx to be: and it spouts through a rugged place.
[807] And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of the dark earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor. And there are shining gates and an immoveable threshold of bronze having unending roots and it is grown of itself.25 And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos. But the glorious allies of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Ocean's foundations, even Cottus and Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the deep-roaring Earth-Shaker made his son-in-law, giving him Cymopolea his daughter to wed.
TYPHOEUS
[820] But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the aid of golden Aphrodite. Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew an hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion, relentless of heart; and at anothers, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains re-echoed. And truly a thing past help would have happened on that day, and he would have come to reign over mortals and immortals, had not the father of men and gods been quick to perceive it. But he thundered hard and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide heaven above, and the sea and Ocean's streams and the nether parts of the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long waves raged along the beaches round and about, at the rush of the deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who live with Cronos, because of the unending clamour and the fearful strife. So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped form Olympus and struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunder- stricken lord in the dim rugged glens of the mount,26 when he was smitten. A great part of huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapour and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled27 crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is softened by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus.28 Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire. And in the bitterness of his anger Zeus cast him into wide Tartarus.
[869] And from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply, except Notus and Boreas and clear Zephyr. These are a god-sent kind, and a great blessing to men; but the others blow fitfully upon the seas. Some rush upon the misty sea and work great havoc among men with their evil, raging blasts; for varying with the season they blow, scattering ships and destroying sailors. And men who meet these upon the sea have no help against the mischief. Others again over the boundless, flowering earth spoil the fair fields of men who dwell below, filling them with dust and cruel uproar.
[881] But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by force their struggle for honours with the Titans, they pressed far-seeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them, by Earth's prompting. So he divided their dignities amongst them.
THE OLYMPIAN GODS
[886] Now Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his wife first, and she was wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to bring forth the goddess bright-eyed Athene, Zeus
craftily deceived her with cunning words and put her in his own belly, as Earth and starry Heaven advised. For they advised him so, to the end that no other should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of Zeus; for very wise children were destined to be born of her, first the maiden bright-eyed Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and in wise understanding; but afterwards she was to bear a son of overbearing spirit, king of gods and men. But Zeus put her into his own belly first, that the goddess might devise for him both good and evil.
[901] Next he married bright Themis who bare the Horae (Hours), and Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), and blooming Eirene (Peace), who mind the works of mortal men, and the Moerae (Fates) to whom wise Zeus gave the greatest honour, Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have.
[907] And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bare him three fair-cheeked Charites (Graces), Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows.
[912] Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bare white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.
[915] And again, he loved Mnemosyne with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine gold-crowned Muses were born who delight in feasts and the pleasures of song.
[918] And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, and bare Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
[921] Lastly, he made Hera his blooming wife: and she was joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia.
[924] But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia,29 the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. But Hera without union with Zeus -- for she was very angry and quarrelled with her mate -- bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven.
[929a]30 But Hera was very angry and quarrelled with her mate. And because of this strife she bare without union with Zeus who holds the aegis a glorious son, Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons of Heaven in crafts. But Zeus lay with the fair- cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera . . . ((lacuna)) deceiving Metis (Thought) although she was full wise. But he seized her with his hands and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something stronger than his thunderbolt: therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athene: and the father of men and gods gave her birth by way of his head on the banks of the river Trito. And she remained hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus, even Metis, Athena's mother, worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There the goddess (Athena) received that31 whereby she excelled in strength all the deathless ones who dwell in Olympus, she who made the host-scaring weapon of Athena. And with it (Zeus) gave her birth, arrayed in arms of war.
[930] And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was born great, wide-ruling Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, an awful god.
[933] Also Cytherea bare to Ares the shield-piercer Panic and Fear, terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.
[938] And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed.
[940] And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bare him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus, -- a mortal woman an immortal son. And now they both are gods.
[943] And Alemena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare mighty Heracles.
[945] And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his
buxom wife.
[947] And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos made her deathless and unageing for him.
[950] And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled Alcmena, when he had finished his grievous toils, made Hebe the child of great Zeus and gold-shod Hera his shy wife in snowy Olympus. Happy he! For he has finished his great works and lives amongst the dying gods, untroubled and unaging all his days.
[956] And Perseis, the daughter of Ocean, bare to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king. And Aeetes, the son of Helios who shows light to men, took to wife fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean the perfect stream, by the will of the gods: and she was subject to him in love through golden Aphrodite and bare him neat-ankled Medea.
OF GODDESSES AND MEN
[963] And now farewell, you dwellers on Olympus and you islands and continents and thou briny sea within. Now sing the company of goddesses, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, -- even those deathless one who lay with mortal men and bare children like unto gods.
[969] Demeter, bright goddess, was joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land of Crete, and bare Plutus, a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and the sea's wide back, and him who finds him and into whose hands he comes he makes rich, bestowing great wealth upon him.
[975] And Harmonia, the daughter of golden Aphrodite, bare to Cadmus Ino and Semele and fair-cheeked Agave and Autonoe whom long haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus also in rich-crowned Thebe.
[979] And the daughter of Ocean, Callirrhoe was joined in the love of rich Aphrodite with stout hearted Chrysaor and bare a son who was the strongest of all men, Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen.
[984] And Eos bare to Tithonus brazen-crested Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and the Lord Emathion. And to Cephalus she bare a splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit.
[993] And [Jason] the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led away from Aeetes, [Medea] the daughter of Aeetes the heaven-nurtured king, when he had finished the many grievous labours which the great king, over bearing Pelias, that outrageous and presumptuous doer of violence, put upon him. But when the son of Aeson had finished them, he came to Iolcus after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl with him on his swift ship, and made her his buxom wife. And she was subject to Iason, shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains. And the will of great Zeus was fulfilled.
[1003] But of the daughters of Nereus, the Old man of the Sea, Psamathe the fair goddess, was loved by Aeacus through golden Aphrodite and bare Phocus. And the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men.
[1008] And Cytherea with the beautiful crown was joined in sweet love with the hero Anchises and bare Aeneas on the peaks of Ida with its many wooded glens.
[1011] And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion's son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite. And they ruled over the famous Tyrenians, very far off in a recess of the holy islands.
[1017] And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.
[1019] These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bare them children like unto gods.
[1021] But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.
THE END
1. The epithet probably indicates coquettishness.
2. A proverbial saying meaning, 'why enlarge on irrelevant topics?'
3. 'She of the noble voice': Calliope is queen of Epic poetry.
4. Earth, in the cosmology of Hesiod, is a disk surrounded by the river Oceanus and floating upon a waste of waters. It is called the foundation of all (the qualification 'the deathless ones ...' etc. is an interpolation), because not only trees, men, and animals, but even the hills and seas (ll. 129, 131) are supported by it.
5. Aether is the bright, untainted upper atmosphere, as distinguished from Aer, the lower atmosphere of the earth.
6. Brontes is the Thunderer; Steropes, the Lightener; and Arges, the Vivid One.
7. The myth accounts for the separation of Heaven and Earth. In Egyptian cosmology Nut (the Sky) is thrust and held apart from her brother Geb (the Earth) by their father Shu, who corresponds to the Greek Atlas.
8. Nymphs of the ash-trees, as Dryads are nymphs of the oak-trees. Cp. note on Works and Days, l. 145.
9. 'Member-loving': the title is perhaps only a perversion of the regular Philomeides (laughter-loving).
10. Cletho (the Spinner) is she who spins the thread of man's life; Lachesis (the Disposer of Lots) assigns to each man his destiny; Atropos (She who cannot be turned) is the 'Fury with the abhorred shears.'
11. Many of the names which follow express various qualities or aspects of the sea: thus Galene is 'Calm', Cymothoe is the 'Wave-swift', Pherusa and Dynamene are 'She who speeds (ships)' and 'She who has power.'
12. The 'Wave-receiver' and the 'Wave-stiller.'
13. 'The Unerring' or 'Truthful'; cp. l. 235.
14. i.e. Poseidon.
15. Goettling notes that some of these nymphs derive their names from lands over which they preside, as Europa, Asia, Doris, Ianeira ('Lady of the Ionians'), but that most are called after some quality which their streams possessed: thus Xanthe is the 'Brown' or 'Turbid,' Amphirho is the 'Surrounding' river, Ianthe is 'She who delights,' and Ocyrrhoe is the 'Swift-flowing.'
16. i.e. Eos, the 'Early-born.'
17. Van Lennep explains that Hecate, having no brothers to support her claim, might have been slighted.
18. The goddess of the hearth (the Roman 'Vesta'), and so of the house. Cp. Homeric Hymns v.22 ff.; xxxix.1 ff.
19. The variant reading 'of his father' (sc. Heaven) rests on inferior MS. authority and is probably an alteration due to the difficulty stated by a Scholiast: 'How could Zeus, being not yet begotten, plot against his father?' The phrase is, however, part of the prophecy. The whole line may well be spurious, and is rejected by Heyne, Wolf, Gaisford and Guyet.
20. Pausanias (x. 24.6) saw near the tomb of Neoptolemus 'a stone of no great size,' which the Delphians anointed every day with oil, and which he says was supposed to be the stone given to Cronos.
21. A Scholiast explains: 'Either because they (men) sprang from the Melian nymphs (cp. l. 187); or because, when they were born (?), they cast themselves under the ash-trees, that is, the trees.' The reference may be to the origin of men from ash-trees: cp. Works and Days, l. 145 and note.
22. sc. Atlas, the Shu of Egyptian mythology: cp. note on line 177.
23. Oceanus is here regarded as a continuous stream enclosing the earth and the seas, and so as flowing back upon himself.
24. The conception of Oceanus is here different: he has nine streams which encircle the earth and the flow out into the 'main' which appears to be the waste of waters on which, according to early Greek and Hebrew cosmology, the disk-like earth floated.
25. i.e. the threshold is of 'native' metal, and not artificial.
26. According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed by Zeus amongst the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar represents him as buried under Aetna, and Tzetzes reads Aetna in this passage.
27. The epithet (which means literally 'well-bored') seems to refer to the spout of the crucible.
28. The fire god. There is no reference to volcanic action: iron was smelted on Mount Ida; cp. Epigrams of Homer, ix. 2-4.
29. i.e. Athena, who was born 'on the banks of the river Trito' (cp. l. 929l)
30. Restored by Peppmuller. The nineteen following lines from another recension of lines 889-900, 924-9 are quoted by Chrysippus (in Galen).
31. sc. the aegis. Line 929s is probably spurious, since it disagrees with l. 929q and contains a suspicious reference to Athens.
Transliteration
Olympos
Translation
(Mount) Olympus
OLYMPOS (Olympus) was the home of the gods who dwelt in fabulous palaces of marble and gold.
Olympos is clearly described in Homer's Iliad. It was essentially an ancient akropolis--a fortified hill-top and palace complex--located just below the peaks of Mount Olympos. The golden gates of the heavenly fortress were guarded by the three Horai (Horae) and it contained the palace of Zeus, lesser palaces for the other gods, and stables for the immortal horses. The buildings were built of stone with bronze foundations and were surrounded by cloistered courtyards with golden pavements.
The main structure was the palace of Zeus. It had a fairly simple layout--as was typical of ancient Greek palaces--with a central hall, private bedchambers and storage rooms. The golden-floored hall served as both a council chamber and feast-hall for the Olympian gods and provided them an expansive view of the world below allowing them to observe mankind from the heights. The golden tables and tripods of the feast were automatons animated by the divine smith Hephaistos (Hephaestus), and trundled in and out of the hall as required.
Before the palace of Zeus was a large, cloistered courtyard where the full assembly of the gods would gather--including all of the earth-, river- and sea-deities as well as nymphs.
The peak of Olympos functioned as the secondary seat or throne of Zeus, apart from the rest of other gods.
The Olympian akropolis lay above the clouds and the paths of the stars, near the apex of the solid bronze-dome of the sky. It existed in the zone known as the aither--the bright upper-air of heaven or shining blue of the sky. The gods feasted on ambrosia and nectar, substances collected from the meadows of the earth-encircling river Okeanos or the smoke of sacrificial offerings wafting to heaven.
N.B. This page is still incomplete and under construction. The quotes from the Iliad are complete.
ALTERNATE NAME SPELLING
Transliteration
Oulympos
Translation
(Mount) Olympus
CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES
OLYMPUS IN THE ILIAD
Homer, Iliad 1. 43 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
'So he [the Trojan priest Khryseus (Chryseus)] spoke in prayer, and Phoibos (Phoebus) Apollon heard him, and strode down along the pinnacles of Olympos, angered in his heart, carrying across his shoulders the bow and the hooded quiver.'
Homer, Iliad 1. 221 ff :
'And she [Athena] went back again to Olympos to the house of Zeus of the aigis with the other divinities (daimones).'
Homer, Iliad 1. 390 ff :
'[Akhilleus (Achilles) beseeches his mother Thetis :] ‘You then, if you have power to, protect your own son, going to Olympos and supplicating Zeus, if ever before now either by word you comforted Zeus' heart or by action . . . You said you only among the immortals beat aside shameful destruction from Kronos' son the dark-misted, that time when all the other Olympians sought to bind him, Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athene. Then you, goddess, went and set him free from his shackles, summoning in speed the creature of the hundred hands [the Hekatonkheir Briareus] to tall Olympos . . . He rejoicing in the glory of it sat down by Kronion (Cronion), and the rest of the blessed gods were frightened and gave up binding him. Sit beside him and take his knees and remind him of these things now . . .’
Thetis answered him then . . . ‘I will go to cloud-dark Olympos and ask this thing of Zeus who delights in thunder (terpikeraunos) . . . Zeus went to the blameless Aithiopes (Ethiopians) at the Okeanos (Oceanus) yesterday to feast, and the rest of the gods went with him. On the twelfth day he will be coming back to Olympos, and then I will go for your sake to the house of Zeus, bronze-founded, and take him by the knees and I think I can persuade him.’'
Homer, Iliad 1. 493 ff :
'But when the twelfth dawn after this day appeared, the gods who live forever came back to Olympos all in a body and Zeus led them; nor did Thetis forget the entreaties of her son [Akhilleus (Achilles)], but she emerged from the sea's waves early in the morning and went up to the tall sky and Olympos. She found Kronos' (Cronus') broad-browed son (euryopa Kronides) apart from the others sitting upon the highest peak of rugged Olympos. She came and sat beside him with her left hand embracing his knees, but took him underneath the chin with her right hand and spoke in supplication to lord Zeus son of Kronos : ‘Father Zeus . . . Zeus of the counsels, lord of Olympos . . .’
. . . He [Zeus] spoke, the son of Kronos, and nodded his head with the dark brows, and the immortally anointed hair of the great god swept from his divine head, and all Olympos was shaken.
So these two who had made their plans separated, and Thetis leapt down again from shining Olympos into the sea's depth, but Zeus went back to his own house, and all the gods rose up from their chairs to greet the coming of their father, not one had courage to keep his place as the father advanced, but stood up to greet him. Thus he took his place on the throne; yet Hera was not ignorant, having seen how he had been plotting counsels with Thetis the silver-footed, the daughter of the sea's ancient, and at once she spoke revilingly to Zeus the son Kronos . . .
He [Zeus] spoke [reprimanding her], and the goddess the ox-eyed lady Hera was frightened and went and sat down in silence wrenching her heart to obedience, and all the Ouranian (Heavenly) gods in the house of Zeus were troubled. Hephaistos (Hephaestus) . . . springing to his feet put a two-handled goblet into his mother's hands and spoke again to her once more : ‘. . . It is too hard to fight against the Olympian. There was a time once before now I was minded to help you, and he caught me by the foot and threw me from the magic threshold, and all day long I dropped helpless, and about sunset I landed in Lemnos, and there was not much life left in me. After that fall it was the Sintian men who took care of me.’
He spoke, and the goddess of the white arms Hera smiled at him, and smiling she accepted the goblet out of her son's hand. Thereafter beginning fro the left he poured drinks for the other gods, dipping up from the mixing bowl the sweet nectar. But among the blessed immortals uncontrollable laughter went up as they saw Hephaistos bustling about the palace. Thus thereafter the whole day long until the sun went under they feasted, nor was anyone's hunger denied a fair portion, nor denied the beautifully wrought lyre in the hands of Apollon nor the antiphonal sweet sound of the Mousai (Muses) singing.
Afterwards when the light of the flaming sun went under they went away each one to sleep in his home where for each one the far-renowned strong-handed Hephaistos had built a house by means of his craftsmanship and cunning. Zeus the Olympian and lord of the lightning went to his own bed, where always he lay when sweet sleep came on him. Going up the bed he slept and Hera of the gold throne (khrysothronos) beside him.'
Homer, Iliad 2. 1 ff :
'Now the rest of the gods, and men who were lords of chariots, slept night long, but the ease of sleep came not upon Zeus who was pondering in his heart how he might bring honour to Akhilleus (Achilles) . . . He cried out to the dream and addressed him in winged words : ‘Go forth, evil Dream . . . no longer are the gods who live on Olympos arguing the matter, since Hera forced them all over by her supplication.’'
Homer, Iliad 2. 48 ff :
'Now the goddess Eos (Dawn) drew close to tall Olympos with her message of light to Zeus and the other immortals.'
Homer, Iliad 2. 166 ff :
'Nor did the goddess grey-eyed Athene disobey her [Hera], but went in speed down the peaks of Olympos, and lightly she arrived beside the fast ships of the Akhaians (Achaeans).'
Homer, Iliad 2. 412 ff :
'Powerful Agamemnon spoke in prayer : ‘Zeus, exalted and mightiest, sky-dwelling (aither) in the dark mist (kelainephes) . . .’'
Homer, Iliad 2. 447 ff :
'From the magnificent bronze the gleam went dazzling all about through the upper air (aither) to the heaven (ouranos).'
Olympus Glory Free
Homer, Iliad 2. 484 ff :
'You Mousai (Muses) who have your homes on Olympos.'
Homer, Iliad 4. 1 ff :
'Now the gods at the side of Zeus were sitting in council over the golden floor, and among them the goddess Hebe poured them nectar as wine, while they in the golden drinking-cups drank to each other, gazing down on the city of the Trojans. Presently the son of Kronos (Cronus) was minded to anger Hera, if he could, with words offensive, speaking to cross her . . . So he spoke; and Athene and Hera muttered, since they were sitting close to each other, devising evil for the Trojans.'
Homer, Iliad 3. 407 ff :
'[Helene rebukes the goddess Aphrodite :] ‘Abandon the gods'way, turn your feet back never again to the path of Olympos.’'
Homer, Iliad 4. 75 ff :
'Speaking so he [Zeus] stirred up Athene, who was eager before this, and she went in a flash of speed down the pinnacles of Olympos. As when the son of devious-devising Kronos (Cronus) casts down a star, portent to sailors or to widespread armies of peoples glittering, and thickly the sparks of fire break from it, in such a likeness Pallas Athene swept flashing earthward and plunged between the two hosts [of Greeks and Trojans].'
Homer, Iliad 5. 355 ff :
'There to the left of the fighting [at Troy] she [the wounded goddess Aphrodite] found Ares the violent sitting . . . Dropping on one knee before her beloved brother in deep supplication she asked for his gold-bridled horses : ‘Beloved brother, rescue me and give me your horses so I may come to Olympos where is the place (hedos) of the immortals. I am in too much pain from the wound of a mortal's spear-stroke, Tydeus' son's, who would fight now even against Zeus father.’
So she spoke, and Ares gave her the gold-bridled horses, and, still grieved in the inward heart, she mounted he chariot and beside her entering Iris gathered the reins up and whipped them into a run, and they winged their way unreluctant.
Now as they came to sheer Olympos, the place of the immortals, there swift Iris the wind-footed reined in her horses and slipped them from the yoke and threw fodder immortal before them, and now bright Aphrodite fell at the knees of her mother, Dione.'
Homer, Iliad 5. 398 ff :
'[Dione addresses Aphrodite :] ‘Many of us who have our homes on Olympos endure things from men, when ourselves we inflict hard pain on each other . . . Aides (Hades) the gigantic had to endure with the rest the flying arrow when this self-same man [Herakles], the son of Zeus of the aigis, struck him among the dead men at Pylos, and gave him to agony; but he went up to the house of Zeus and to tall Olympos heavy at heart, stabbed through and through with pain, for the arrow was driven into his heavy shoulder, and his spirit was suffering. But Paiëon, scattering medicines that still pain, healed him, since he was not made to be one of the mortals. Brute, heavy-handed, who thought nothing of the bad he was doing, who with his archery hurt the gods that dwell on Olympos!’'
Homer, Iliad 5. 709 ff :
'Now as the goddess Hera of the white arms [seated on Olympos] perceived how the Argives were perishing in the strong encounter [with the Trojans led by the god Ares], immediately she spoke to Pallas Athene . . . [and urged they travel to Troy to aid the Greeks.]
So she spoke, nor did the goddess grey eyed Athene disobey her. But Hera, high goddess, daughter of Kronos (Cronus) the mighty, went away to harness the gold-bridled horses. Then Hebe in speed set about the chariot the curved wheels eight-spoked and brazen, with an axle of iron both ways. Golden is the wheel's felly imperishable, and outside it is joined, a wonder to look upon, the brazen running-rim, and the silver naves revolve on either side of the chariot, whereas the car itself is lashed fast with plaiting of gold and silver, with double chariot rails that circle about it, and the pole of he chariot is silver, to whose extremity Hebe made fast the golden and splendid yoke, and fastened the harness, golden and splendid, and underneath the yoke Hera, furious for hate and battle, led the swift-running horses.
Now in turn Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aigis, beside the threshold of her father slipped off her elaborate dress which she herself had wrought with her hands' patience, and now assuming the war tunic of Zeus who gathers the clouds . . . She set her feet in the blazing chariot and took up a spear heavy, huge, thick, wherewith she beats down the battalions of fighting men, against whom she of the mighty father is angered.
Hera laid the lash swifty on the horses; and moving of themselves groaned the gates of he sky that the Horai (Horae, Hours) guarded, those Horai to whose charge is give the huge sky and Olympos, to open up the dense darkness or again to close it. Through the way between they held the speed of their goaded horses. They found [Zeus] the son of Kronos (Cronus) sitting apart from the other gods, upon the highest peak of rugged Olympos. There the goddess of the white arms, Hera, stopping her horses, spoke to Zeus, high son of Kronos, and asked him a question : ‘Father Zeus, are you not angry with Ares for his violent acts . . .?’
Then in turn the father of gods and men made answer : ‘Go to it then, and set against him the spoiler Athene, who beyond all others is the one to visit harsh pains upon him.’
So he spoke, nor did the goddess of the white arms, Hera, disobey, but lashed on the horses, and they winged their way unreluctant through the space between the earth and the starry heaven. As far as into the hazing distance a man can see with his eyes, who sits in his eyrie gazing on the wine-blue water, as far as this is the stride of the gods' proud neighing horses.'
Homer, Iliad 5. 855 ff :
'Then Ares the brazen [wounded by Diomedes and the goddess Athena at Troy] bellowed with a sound as great as nine thousand men make, or ten thousand . . . As when out of the thunderhead the air shows darkening after a day's heat when the stormy wind uprises, thus to Tydeus' son Diomedes Ares the brazen showed as he went up with the clouds into the wide heaven. Lightly he came to the gods' citadel, headlong Olympos, and sat down beside Zeus Kronion (Cronion), grieving in his spirit, and showed him the immortal blood dripping from the spear cut.'
Homer, Iliad 5. 907 ff :
'Meanwhile, the two [goddesses] went back again to the house of great Zeus, Hera of Argos, with Athene who stands by her people, after they stopped the murderous work of manslaughtering Ares.'
Homer, Iliad 7.17 ff :
'Now as the goddess grey-eyed Athene [on Olympos] was aware of these two [the Trojan princes Hektor (Hector) and Paris] destroying the men of Argos in the strong encounter, she went down in a flash of speed from the peaks of Olympos to sacred Ilion [Troy], where Apollon stirred forth to meet her from his seat on Pergamos, where he planned that the Trojans should conquer. These two then encountered each other beside the oak tree, and speaking first the son of Zeus, lord Apollon, addressed her : ‘What can be your desire this time, o daughter of great Zeus, that you came down from Olympos at the urge of your mighty spirit? To give the Danaans victory in battle, turning it back? . . .’
Then in answer the goddess grey-eyed Athene spoke to him : ‘Worker from afar, thus let it be. These were my thoughts also as I came down from Olympos among the Akhaians (Achaeans) and Trojans.’'
Homer, Iliad 7.443 ff :
'The flowing-haired Akhaians (Achaeans) laboured [building a defensive fortification around their ships], and meanwhile the gods in session [on Olympos] at the side of Zeus who handles the lightning watched the huge endeavour of the bronze-armoured Akhaians; and the god Poseidon who shakes the earth (Ennosikhthon) began speaking among them.'
Homer, Iliad 8.1 ff :
'Now Eos (Dawn) the yellow-robed scattered over all the earth. Zeus who joys in the thunder made an assembly of all the immortals upon the highest peak of rugged Olympos. There he spoke to them himself, and the other divinities listened : ‘Hear me, all you gods and all you goddesses: hear me while I speak forth what the heart within my breast urges. Now let no female divinity, nor male god either, presume to cut across the way of my word, but consent to it all of you, so that I can make an end in speed of these matters. And any one I perceive against the gods' will attempting to go among the Trojans and help them, or among the Danaans, he shall go whipped against his dignity back to Olympos; or I shall take him and dash him down to the murk of Tartaros, far below, where the uttermost depth of the pit lies under earth, where there are gates of iron and a brazen doorstone, as far beneath the house of Aides (Hades) as from earth the sky lies. Then he will see how far I am strongest of all the immortals. Come, you gods, make this endeavour, that you all may learn this. Let down out of the sky a cord of gold; lay hold of it all you who are gods and all who are goddesses, yet not even so can you drag down Zeus from the sky to the ground, not Zeus the high lord of counsel, though you try until you grow weary. Yet whenever I might strongly be minded to pull you, I could drag you up, earth and all and sea and all with you, then fetch the golden rope about the horn of Olympos and make it fast, so that all once more should dangle in mid air. So much stronger am I than the gods, and stronger than mortals.’
So he spoke, and all of them stayed stricken to silence, stunned at his word, for indeed he had spoken to them very strongly.'
Homer, Iliad 8.198 ff :
'So he [Hektor] spoke, boasting [that he would slay Diomedes and Nestor who were routed in battle by the lightning-bolt of Zeus], and the lady Hera was angry, and started upon her throne, and tall Olympos was shaken, and she spoke straight out to the great god Poseidon . . .'
Homer, Iliad 8.341 & 8.361 ff :
'Hektor (Hector) followed close on the heels of the flowing-haired Akhaians (Achaeans), killing ever the last of the men . . .Now seeing them the goddess of the white arms, Hera [on Olympos], took pity and immediately she spoke to Pallas Athene her winged words . . .
Then in turn the goddess grey-eyed Athene answered her : ‘. . . So then : do you put under their harness our single-foot horses while I go back into the house of Zeus, the lord of the aigis, and arm me in my weapons of war . . .’
She spoke, nor failed to persuade the goddess Hera of the white arms. And she, Hera, exalted goddess, daughter of Kronos (Cronus) the mighty, went away to harness the gold-bridle horses. Now in turn Athene, daughter of Zeus of the aigis, beside the threshold of her father slipped off her elaborate dress which she herself had wrought with her hands' patience, and now assuming the war tunic of Zeus who gathers the clouds, she armed herself in her gear for the dismal fighting. She set her feet in the blazing chariot, and took up a spear, heavy, huge, thick, wherewith she beats down the battalions of fighting men, against whom she of the mighty father is angered. Hera laid the lash swiftly on the horses; and moving of themselves groaned the gates of the sky that the Horai (Horae, Hours) guarded, those Horai to whose charge is given the huge sky and Olympos to open up the dense darkness or again to close it. Through the way between they held the speed of their goaded horses.'
Homer, Iliad 8.409 :
'He [Zeus] spoke, and Iris, storm-footed, rose with his message and took her way from the peaks of Ida to tall Olympos, and at the utmost gates of many-folded Olympos met and stayed them [Hera and Athene], and spoke the word that Zeus had given her : ‘Where so furious? Hoe can your hearts so storm within you? The son of Kronos (Cronus) will not let you stand by the Argives. Since Zeus has uttered this threat and will make it a thing accomplished: that he will lame beneath the harness your fast-running horses, and hurl yourselves from the driver's place, and smash your chariot; and not in the circle of ten returning years would you be whole of the wounds where the stroke of the lightning this you; so that you may know, grey-eyed goddess, when it is your father you fight with . . .’
So Iris the swift-footed spoke and went away from them, and now Hera spoke a word to Pallas Athene : ‘Alas, daughter of Zeus of the aigis : I can no longer let us fight in the face of Zeus for the sake of mortals. Let one of them perish then, let another live, as their fortune wills; let him, as is his right and as his heart pleases, work out whatever decrees he will on Danaans and Trojans.’
So she spoke, and turned back again her single-foot horses, and the Horai (Hours) set free their flowing-maned horses from the harness, and tethered them at their mangers that were piled with ambrosia and leaned the chariot against the shining inward wall. Meanwhile the goddesses themselves took their place on the golden couches among the other immortals, their hearts deep grieving within them.'
Homer, Iliad 8.438 ff :
'Now father Zeus steered back from Ida his strong-wheeled chariot and horses to Olympos, and came among the gods' sessions, while for him the famed shaker of the earth [Poseidon] set free his horses, and put the chariot on its stand, with a cloth spread over it. Then Zeus himself of the wide brows took his place on the golden throne, as underneath his feet tall Olympos was shaken. These two alone, Hera and Athene, stayed seated apart aside from Zeus, and would not speak to him, nor ask him a question; but he knew the whole matter within his heart, and spoke to them : ‘Why then are you two sorrowful, Athene and Hera? Surely in the battle where men win glory you were not wearied out, destroying those Trojans on whom you have set your grim wrath. In the whole account, such is my strength and my hand so invincible, not all the gods who are on Olympos could turn me backward, but before this the trembling took hold of your shining bodies, before you could look upon the fighting and war's work of sorrow for I will say straight out, and it would now be a thing accomplished: once hit in your car by the lightning stroke you could never have come back to Olympos, where is the place of the immortals.’'
Homer, Iliad 11.72 ff :
'The pressure held their heads on a line [the Greek soliders], and they whirled and fought like wolves, and Eris (Hate), the Lady of Sorrow, was gladdened to watch them. She alone of all the immortals (theoi) attended this action but the other immortals were not there, but sat quietly remote and apart in their palaces (dômata), where for each one of them a house had been built in splendour along the folds of Olympos. All were blaming the son of Kronos, Zeus of the dark mists, because his will was to give glory to the Trojans. To these gods the father gave no attention at all, but withdrawn from them and rejoicing in the pride of his strength sat apart from the others looking out over the city of Troy and the ships of the Akhaians (Achaeans), watching the flash of bronze, and men killing and men killed.'
Homer, Iliad 11.218 :
'You Mousai (Muses) who have your homes (dômata) on Olympos.'
Homer, Iliad 13.242 :
'As a thunderbolt, which [Zeus] the son of Kronos (Cronus) catching up in his hand shakes from the shining edge of Olympos, flashes as a portent to men and the bright glints shine from it.'
Homer, Iliad 13.521 :
'[Ares] sheltered under the golden clouds on utmost Olympos, was sitting, held fast by command of Zeus, where the rest of the immortal gods were sitting still, in restraint from battle.'
Homer, Iliad 14.153 & 14.225 ff :
'Now Hera, she of the golden throne (khrysothronos), standing on Olympos' horn, looked out with her eyes, and saw at once how Poseidon, who was her very brother and her lord's brother, was bustling about the battle where men win glory, and her heart was happy. Then she saw Zeus, sitting along the loftiest summit on Ida of the springs, and in her eyes he was hateful. And now the lady ox-eyed Hera was divided in purpose as to who she could beguile the brain of Zeus of the aigis. And to her mind this thing appeared to the best counsel, to array herself in loveliness, and go down to Ida, and perhaps he might be taken with desire to lie in love with her next her skin, and she might be taken with desire to lie in love with her next her skin, and she might be able to drift an innocent warm sleep across his eyelids, and seal his crafty perceptions. She went into her chamber, which her beloved son Hephaistos had built for her, and closed the leaves in the door-posts snugly with a secret door-bar, and no other of the gods could open it. There entering she drew shut the leaves of the shining door, then first from her adorable body washed away all stains with ambrosia, and next anointed herself with ambrosial sweet olive oil, which stood there in its fragrance beside her, and from which, stirred in the house of Zeus by the golden pavement, a fragrance was shaken forever forth, on earth and in heaven. When with this he had anointed her delicate body and combed her hair, next with her hands she arranged her shining and lovely and ambrosial curls along her immortal head, and dressed in an ambrosial robe that Athene had made her carefully, smooth, and with many figures upon it, and pinned it across her breast with a golden brooch, and circled her waist about with a zone that floated a hundred tassels, and in the lobes of her carefully pierced ears she put rings and triple drops in mulberry clusters, radiant with beauty, and, lovely among goddesses, she veiled her head downward with a sweet fresh veil that glimmered pale like the sunlight. Underneath her shining feet she bound on the fair sandals. Now, when she had clothed her body in all this loveliness, she went out from the chamber, and called aside Aphrodite to come away from the rest of the gods, and spoke a word to her : ‘Would you do something for me, dear child, if I were to ask you? Or would you refuse it? Are you forever angered against me because I defend the Danaans, while you help the Trojans?’
Then the daughter of Zeus, Aphrodite, answered her : ‘Hera, honoured goddess, daughter to mighty Kronos (Cronus), speak forth whatever is in your mind. My heart is urgent to do it if I can, and if it is a thing that can be accomplished.’ . . .
So Aphrodite went back into the house, Zeus' daughter, while Hera in a flash of speed left the horn of Olympos and crossed over Pieria and Emathia the lovely and overswept the snowy hills of the Thrakian riders and their uttermost pinnacles, nor touched the ground with her feet. Then from Athos she crossed over the heaving main sea and came to Lemnos, and to the city of godlike Thoas. There she encountered Hypnos (Sleep), the brother of Thanatos (Death).'
Homer, Iliad 14.337 ff :
'Then with false lying purpose the lady Hera answered him [Zeus] : ‘Most honoured son of Kronos (Cronus), what sort of thing have you spoken? If now your great desire is to lie in love together here on the peaks of Ida, everything can be seen. Then what would happen if some one of the gods everlasting saw us sleeping, and went and told all the other immortals of it? I would not simply rise out of bed and go back again, into your house, and such a thing would be shameful. No, if this is your heart's desire, if this is your wish, then there is my chamber, which my beloved son Hephaisto (Hephaestus) s has built for me, and closed the leaves in the door-posts snugly. We can go back there and lie down, since bed is your pleasure.’'
Homer, Iliad 15.4 ff :
'[Zeus waking upon Mount Ida] looked scowling terribly at Hera, and spoke a word to her : ‘Hopeless one, it was your evil design, your treachery, Hera . . . perhaps for this contrivance of evil and pain you will win first reward when I lash you with whip strokes. Do you not remember that time you hung from high and on your feet I slung two anvils, and about your hands drove a golden chain, unbreakable. You among the clouds and the bright sky hung, nor could the gods about tall Olympos endure it and stood about, but could not set you free. If I caught one I would seize and throw him from the threshold, until he landed stunned on the earth, yet even so the weariless agony for Herakles the godlike would not let go my spirit . . .’'
Homer, Iliad 15.78 ff :
'He [Zeus on Mount Ida] spoke, and the goddess of the white arms Hera did not disobey him but went back to tall Olympos from the mountains of Ida. As the thought flashes in the mind of a man who, traversing much territory, thinks of things in the mind's awareness, ‘I wish I were this place, or this,’ and imagines many things; so rapidly in her eagerness winged Hera, a goddess. She came to sheer Olympos and entered among the assembled immortal gods in the house of Zeus, and they seeing her rose all to swarm about her and lifted their cups in greeting. But Hera passed by the others and accepted a cup from Themis of the fair cheeks, since she had first come running to greet her and had spoken to her and addressed her in winged words : ‘Hera, why have you come? You seem like one who has been terrified. I know, it was the son of Kronos (Cronus), your husband, frightened you.’
In turn the goddess Hera of the white arms answered her : ‘Ask me nothing of this, divine Themis. You yourself know what his spirit is, how it is stubborn and arrogant. Preside still over the gods in their house, the feast's fair division. Yet so much may you hear, and with you all the other immortals, how Zeus discloses evil actions, and I do not think the heart of all will be pleasured alike, neither among mortals nor gods either, although one now still feasts at his pleasure.’
The lady Hera spoke so and sat down, and the gods about the house of Zeus were troubled. Hera was smiling with her lips, but above the dark brows her forehead was not at peace. She spoke before them all in vexation : ‘Fools, we who try to work against Zeus, thoughtlessly. Still we are thinking in our anger to go near, and stop him by argument or force. He sits apart and cares nothing nor thinks of us, and says that among the other immortals he is pre-eminently the greatest in power and strength. Therefore each of you must take whatever evil he sends you. Since I think already a sorrow has been wrought against Ares. His son has been killed in the fighting, dearest of all men to him, Askalaphos, whom stark Ares calls his own son.’
So she spoke. Then Ares struck against both his big things with the flats of his hands, and spoke a word of anger and sorrow : ‘Now, you who have your homes on Olympos, you must not blame me for going among the ships of the Akhaians, and avenging my son's slaughter, even though it be my fate to be struck by Zeus' thunderbolt, and sprawl in the blood and dust by the dead men.’
So he spoke, and ordered Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror) to harness his horses and himself got into his shining armour. And there might have been wrought another anger, and bitterness from Zeus, still greater, more wearisome among the immortals, had not Athene, in her fear for the sake of all gods, sprung up and out through the forecourt, left her chair where she was sitting, and taken the helmet off from his head, the shield from his shoulders, and snatched out of his heavy hand the bronze spear, and fixed it apart, and then in speech reasoned with violent Ares : ‘Madman, mazed of your wits, this is ruin! Your ears can listen still to reality, but your mind is gone and your discipline. Do you not hear what the goddess Hera of the white arms tells us, and she coming back even now from Zeus of Olympos? Do you wish, after running the course of many misfortunes yourself, still to come back to Olympos under compulsion though reluctant, and plant seed of great sorrow among the rest of us? Since he will at once leave the Akhaians (Achaeans) and the high-hearted Trojans, and come back to batter us on Olympos and will catch up as they come the guilty one and the guiltless. Therefore I ask of you to give up your anger for your son. By now some other, better of his strength and hands than your son was, has been killed, or will soon be killed; and it is a hard thing to rescue all the generation and seed of all mortals.’
So she spoke, and seated on a chair violent Ares. But Hera called to come with her outside the house Apollon and Iris, who is messenger among the immortal gods, and spoke to them and addressed them in winged words : ‘Zeus wishes both of you to go to him with all speed, at Ida; but when you have come there and looked upon Zeus' countenance, then you must do whatever he urges you, and his orders.’
So the lady Hera spoke, and once more returning sat on her throne. They in a flash of speed winged their way onward. They came to Ida with all her springs, the mother of wild beasts, and found the wide-browed son of Kronos on the height of Gargaron, sitting still, and fragrant cloud gathered in a circle about him. These two came into the presence of Zeus the cloud gatherer and stood, nor was his heart angry when he looked upon them, seeing they had promptly obeyed the message of his dear lady.'
Olympus Glory
Homer, Iliad 15.186 ff :
'Then deeply vexed [Poseidon] the famed shaker of the earth spoke to her [the messenger-goddess Iris] : ‘. . . We are three brothers born by Rhea to Kronos (Cronus), Zeus, and I, and the third is Haides, lord of the dead men. All was divided among us three ways, each given his domain. I when the lots were shaken drew the grey sea to live in forever; Haides drew the lot of the mists and the darkness, and Zeus was allotted the wide sky, in the cloud and the bright air. But earth and high Olympos are common to all three.’'
Homer, Iliad 18.165 ff :
'And now he [Hektor (Hector)] would have dragged it [the body of Patroklos (Patroclus)] away and won glory forever had not swift wind-footed Iris come running from Olympos with a message for [Akhilleus (Achilles)] Peleus' son to arm. She came secretly from Zeus and the other gods, since it was Hera who sent her . . .
Then in turn Akhilleus of the swift feet answered her : ‘Divine Iris, what god sent you to me with a message?’
Then in turn swift wind-footed Iris spoke to him : ‘Hera sent me, the honoured wife of Zeus; but the son of Kronos, who sits on high, does not know this, nor any other immortal, of all those who dwell by the snows of Olympos.’'
Homer, Iliad 18.369 :
'Thetis of the silver feet came to the house of Hephaistos (Hephaestus), imperishable, starry, and shining among the immortals, built in bronze for himself by the god of the dragging footsteps.'
Homer, Iliad 19.126 ff :
'He [Zeus] caught by the shining hair of her head the goddess Ate (Delusion) in the anger of his heart, and swore a great oath, that never after this might Ate, who deludes all, come back to Olympos and the starry sky. So speaking, he whirled her about in his hand and slung her out of the starry heaven, and presently she came to men's establishments.'
Homer, Iliad 20.4 ff :
'Zeus, from the many-folded peak of Olympos, told Themis to summon all the gods into assembly. She went everywhere, and told them to make their way to Zeus' house. There was no Potamos (River) who was not there, only Okeanos (Oceanus), there was not any one of the Nymphai (Nymphs) who live in the lovely groves, and the springs of the rivers and grass of the meadows, who came not. These all assembling into the house of Zeus cloud gathering took places among the smooth-stone cloister walks which Hephaistos (Hephaestus) had built for Zeus the father by his craftsmanship and contrivance.
So they were assembled within Zeus' house; and the shaker of the earth did not fail to hear the goddess, but came up among them from the sea, and sat in the midst of them, and asked Zeus of his counsel : ‘Why, lord of the shining bolt, have you called the gods to assembly once more? Are you deliberating Akhaians (Achaeans) and Trojans? For the onset of battle is almost broken to flame between them.’
In turn Zeus who gathers the clouds spoke to him in answer : ‘You have seen, shaker of the earth, the counsel within me, and why I gathered you. I think of these men though they are dying. Even so, I shall stay here upon the fold of Olympos sitting still, watching, to pleasure my heart. Meanwhile all you others go down, wherever you may go among the Akhaians and Trojans and give help to either side, as your own pleasure directs you.’'
Homer, Iliad 20.141 :
'In turn Poseidon the shaker of the earth answered her [Hera] : ‘Hera, do not be angry without purpose . . . But soon, I think, when they [the gods allied with the Trojans] have fought with us they will get back to Olympos and the throng of the other gods beaten back by the overmastering strength of our hands.’'
Homer, Iliad 21.385 ff :
'But upon the gods descended the wearisome burden of hatred [i.e. the gods allied with the Greeks against the gods allied with the Trojans], and the wind of their fury blew from division, and they collided with a grand crash, the broad earth echoing and the huge sky sounded as with trumpets. Zeus heard it from where he sat on Olympos, and was amused in his deep heart for pleasure, as he watched the gods' collision in conflict.'
Homer, Iliad 21.438 ff :
'But now the powerful shaker of the earth spoke to Apollon : ‘Phoibos (Phoebus), why do you and I stand yet apart. It does not suit when the others have begun, and it were too shameful if without fighting we go back to the brazen house of Zeus on Olympos (Oulumpon de Dios poti khalkobates).’'
Homer, Iliad 21.505 ff :
'Leto picked up the curved bow and the arrows [of Artemis] which had fallen in the turn of the dust one way and another. When she had taken up the bow she went back to her daughter. But the maiden [Artemis] came to the bronze-founded house on Olympos of Zeus, and took her place kneeling at the knees of her father and the ambrosial veil trembled about her. Her father Kronides (Cronides) caught her against him, and laughed softly, and questioned her.'
Homer, Iliad 21.518 :
'The rest of the gods who live forever went back to Olympos, some in anger and others glorying greatly, and sat down at the side of their father the dark-misted.'
Homer, Iliad 22.165 ff :
'These two [Akhilleus (Achilles) and Hektor (Hector)] swept whirling about the city of Priamos in the speed of their feet, while all the gods were looking upon them [from Olympos] . . . Then Zeus the gatherer of the clouds spoke : ‘Tritogeneia [Athene], dear daughter, do not loose heart; for I say this not in outright anger, and my meaning toward you is kindly. Act as your purpose would have you do, and hold back no longer.’
So he spoke, and stirred on Athene, who was eager before this, and she went in a flash of speed down the pinnacles of Olympos.'
Homer, Iliad 24.95 & 120 ff :
'So she [the sea-goddess Thetis] spoke, and shining among divinities took up her black veil, and there is no darker garment. She went on her way [from the bottom of the sea to Olympos], and in front of her rapid wind-footed Iris guided her, and the wave of the water opened about them. They stepped out on the dry land and swept to the sky. There they found [Zeus] the son of Kronos of the wide brows, and gathered about him sat all the rest of the gods, the blessed, who live forever. She sat down beside Zeus father, and Athene made a place for her. Hera put into her hand a beautiful golden goblet and spoke to her to comfort her, and Thetis accepting drank from it. The father of gods and men [Zeus] began the discourse among them : ‘You have come to Olympos, divine Thetis, for all your sorrow, with an unforgotten grief in your heart. I myself know this. But even so I will tell you why I summoned you hither.’ . . .
He spoke and the goddess silver-foot Thetis did not disobey him but descended in a flash of speed from the peaks of Olympos and made her way to the shelter of her son.’'
Homer, Iliad 24.425 :
'Surely it is good to give the immortals their due gifts because my own son, if ever I had one, never forgot in his halls the gods who live on Olympos. Therefore they remembered him even in death's stage.'
Homer, Iliad 24.467 :
'Hermes spoke, and went away to the height (makros) of Olympos.'
Homer, Iliad 24.692 :
'Hermes left them [the Trojans] and went away to the height of Olympos, and Eos (Dawn), she of the yellow robe, scattered over all earth.'
OTHER SOURCES
Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis 170 ff (trans. Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) :
'For thee [Artemis] the Amnisiades rub down the hinds [the golden horned deer that draw the chariot of Artemis] loosed from the yoke, and from the mead of Hera they gather and carry for them to feed on much swift-springing clover, which also the horses of Zeus eat; and golden troughs they fill with water to be for the deer a pleasant draught . . .
But when the Nymphai encircle thee in the dance, near the springs of Aigyptian Inopos or Pitane - for Pitane too is thine - or in Limnai or where, goddess, thou camest from Skythia to dwell, in Alai . . . for the god Helios never passes by that beauteous dance, but stays his car to gaze upon the sight, and lights of day are lengthened.'
Olympus Glory Free Slot
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 26 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
'[From a description of an ancient Greek painting at Neapolis (Naples) :] Birth of Hermes . . . He is born on the crest of Olympos, at the very top, the abode of the gods. There, as Homer says, one feels no rain and hears no wind, nor is it ever beaten by snow, it is so high; but it is absolutely divine and free from the ills that pertain to the mountains which belong to men. There the Horai (Seasons) care for Hermes at his birth. The painter has depicted these also, each according to her time, and they wrap him in swaddling clothes, sprinkling over him the most beautiful flowers, that he may have swaddling clothes not without distinction. While they turn to [Maia] the mother of Hermes lying on her couch of travail, he slips out of his swaddling clothes and begins to walk at once and descends from Olympos. The mountain rejoices in him--for its smile is like that of a man--and you are to assume that Olympos rejoices because Hermes was born there.
Now what of the theft? Cattle grazing on the foothills of Olympos, yonder cattle with golden horns and whiter than snow--for they are sacred to Apollon--he leads over a winding course into a cleft of the earth.'
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 2. 21 :
'[From a description of an ancient Greek painting depicting the wrestling match of Herakles and Antaios :] Do not look carelessly at the top of the mountain, but assume that gods have there a place from which to view the contest; for, observe, a golden cloud is painted, which serves, I fancy, as a canopy for them.'
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 2. 27 :
'[From a description of an ancient Greek painting at Neapolis (Naples) :] The Birth of Athena. These, wonder-struck beings are gods and goddesses, for the decree has gone forth that not even the Nymphai may leave the heavens, but that they, as well as the Potamoi (Rivers) from which they are sprung, must be at hand; and they shudder at the sight of Athena, who at this moment has just burst forth fully armed from the head of Zeus.'
Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 2. 34 (trans. Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) :
'That the gates of heaven (ouranos) are in charge of the Horai (Seasons) we may leave to the special knowledge and prerogative of Homer, for very likely he became an intimate of the Horai when he inherited the skies.'
Olympus Glory Egt
SOURCES
GREEK
- Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C8th B.C.
- Callimachus, Hymns- Greek Poetry C3rd B.C.
- Philostratus the Elder, Imagines- Greek Rhetoric C3rd A.D.
OTHER SOURCES
Numerous.