Atlas
by Micha F. Lindemans

Atlas is a scion of the Titans, the Greek race of giants, and the son of Iapetus and the nymph Clymene. He is the father of the Hesperides, the Hyades and the Pleiades. He was also thought to be the king of legendary Atlantis ("Land of Atlas").

In the revolt of the Titans against the gods of the Olympic, Atlas stormed the heavens and Zeus punished him for this deed by condemning him to forever bear the heavens upon his shoulders. Hence his name, which means "bearer" or "endurer".

To complete the eleventh of his twelve labors, Heracles had to obtain the golden apples of the Hesperides, and he asked Atlas for help. Heracles offered to bear Atlas's burden in his absence, when he went to retrieve the apples. Atlas agreed to perform the task readily enough, since he did not plan on ever bearing that burden again. When Atlas returned with the apples, Heracles requested him to assume the load for a moment, saying he needed to adjust the pad to ease the pressure on his shoulders. After Atlas bore the heavens again, Heracles walked off with the golden apples.

When Atlas refused to give shelter to Perseus, the latter changed Atlas into stone, using Medusa's head. On the place where Atlas stood, now lie Mount Atlas (north-western Africa). In art, Atlas is usually depicted as a man bearing a globe.

"Atlas is a scion of the Titans, the Greek race of giants, and the son of Iapetus and the nymph Clymene. He is the father of the Hesperides, the Hyades and the Pleiades. He was also thought to be the king of legendary Atlantis ("Land of Atlas")."

Then there is this one from Critias (the Benjamin Jowett translation):

"He (Poseidon, with Cleito)also begat and brought up five pairs of twin male children; and dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions, he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men, and a large territory. And he named them all; the eldest, who was the first king, he named Atlas, and after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic."

Classic Greek mythology clearly states that Iapetus and the nymph Clymene were Atlas' parents, not Poseidon and Cleito. In fact, Poseidon was either a contemporary of Atlas or born after him. Of course, prior to the war between the Titans and the Greek gods, Poseidon was one of the children swallowed by his father Chronos, swallowed at birth, I might add, and hardly in any position to father anyone. Poseidon was not released until the war and by this time Atlas was already in command of the Titan forces. It is worth noting that, in the mythology I have seen, only Plato makes this mistake, if it is a mistake...

I submit that the name "Atlas" was a common name, there was more than one Atlas, and modern researchers only link the original Atlas with the story of Atlantis because they are confused by the usage.

That said, when Plato mentions "after him the whole island and the ocean were called Atlantic..." it might be a case of ascribing easy answers to complex solutions. According to the legend, Cleito and her parents were already living on the island before Poseidon reached it, the island could have already had a different name, been named after the original Titan, perhaps even named after someone else with a name similar to "Atlas."

Number 2, March/April 2000
by Adrienne Mayor

In the ancient imagination, heroes of the remote past would have towered over puny, present-day humans. The second-century A.D. Greek geographer Pausanias described the buzz of excitement that surrounded the supposed discovery of the bones of the great Greek champion Ajax, who fought in the Trojan War. According to the Iliad, Ajax's grave was at Rhoeteum, where the Greek ships had landed to attack Troy. When bones of heroic dimensions suddenly appeared there, people took them to be the remains of Ajax. An eyewitness explained to Pausanias how the sea had washed out the beach, revealing a jumble of big bones. "Ajax's kneecaps were exactly the size of a discus for the boy's pentathlon," wrote Pausanias. A boys discus was about five or six inches across. Kneecaps big enough to be worthy of the hero Ajax would most likely belong to a Miocene era (ca. 8 million years ago) mastodon or rhinoceros; the remains of both animals have been found in the region around Rhoeteum.

Ancient accounts of the bones of heroes like Ajax, as well as giants and monsters from the remote past, can be explained by the presence of the fossil remains of mastodons, mammoths, giant giraffes, rhinoceroses, cave bears and other large animals found in the eastern Mediterranean region. Not suprisingly, modern paleontology demonstrates that prehistoric fossils exist in the very places where myths about giant beings first arose. As the Greek author Philostratus (ca. A.D. 218) remarked, it was logical to accept that "giants once existed, because their awesome remains could be seen all around the world."

Adrienne Mayor is a classical folklorist specializing in legends about natural history. This article is based on her forthcoming book, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton University Press).

These include the so-called 6 Elder Olympians:
Zeus, Poseidon, Hades (men); and Hestia, Demeter, Hera (women).

Counterbalancing the Elder Olympians are the children of Iapetus the Titan -- Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, etc. (who originally lived in Asia Minor, before the Titans were banished by Zeus).

quote from: http://www.greekmythology.com/Books/Hesiod-Theogony/hesiod-theogony.html

Children of the Titans (337 - )
Line of Okeanos and Thetys (337 - 370)
Line of Hyperion and Theia (371 - )
Line of Kreios and Eurybia : Astraios and Pallas
Children of Astraios and Eos
Children of Styx and Pallas
line of Phoibe and Koios (404 - )
Leto
Asteria
Hekate
Line of Rhea and Kronos: The Elder Olympians
Hestia
Demeter
Hera
Hades
Poseidon
Zeus
Line of Iapetos and Klymene (506 - )
Atlas
Menoitios
Prometheus
Epimetheus

One of the more interesting issues regarding these sons of the Titans is that Hades inherited the land of Asia Minor. (Hades himself is a sublimation of the land of Hatti, which was absorbed into the Hittite capital city Hattusas.) Poseidon inherited the Aegean and Mediteranean Sea; while Zeus inherited the land portions of Crete and mainland Greece.

And another interesting issue regarding these children of the Titans is that Demeter was assumed (by Greek mythology) to have invented agriculture-- but after traveling (presumably sailing) from Asia Minor TO THE ISLAND OF SICILY. http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Demeter.html

ATLAS
 
Greek: AtlaV Transliteration: Atlas Translation: Daring
 
ATLAS was the younger TITAN-god of daring thoughts. After rebelling against Zeus he was condemned to bear the heavens upon his shoulders. According to some he was later released from this burden and made guardian of the pillars that were set to hold the heavens aloft in his stead.

Parents

(1) IAPETOS & KLYMENE (Theogony 507f, Hyginus Pref)
(2) IAPETOS & ASIA (Apollodorus 1.8)
(3) IAPETOS (Metamorphoses 4.627)

Offspring

(1) THE PLEIADES (Works & Days 383f, Of the Origin of Homer & Hesiod & their Contest 1, Homerica The Astronomy Frag 1, Greek Lyric III Simonides Frag 555, Metamorphoses 6.169, Dionysiaca 3.349)
(2) THE PLEIADES (by Pleione) (Apollodorus 3.110, Ovid Fasti 5.79)
(3) THE PLEIADES, THE HYADES, HYAS (by Pleione or Aethra) (Hyginus Fab 192, Hyginus Astronomica 2.21, Ovid Fasti 5.164)
(4) KALYPSO (Odyssey 1.52, Apollodorus E7.23-24)
(5) MAIRA (Pausanias 8.12.7)
(6) THE HESPERIDES (by Hesperis) (Diodorus Sicululs 4.26.2)
(7) DIONE (Hyginus Fabulae 83, Metamorphoses 6.172)

"Now Iapetos took to wife the neat-ankled maid Klymene, daughter of Okeanos, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas... 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." -Theogony 507f

"There [at the sources & ends of earth, sea, Tartaros] stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetos [Atlas] 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." -Theogony 744f

“A wave-washed island [Ogygia], a wooded island in the navel of the seas. A goddess has made her dwelling there whose father is Atlas the magician; he knows the depths of all the seas, and he, no other, guards the tall pillars that keep the sky and earth apart.” –Odyssey 1.52

"The stormy Peleiades ... Lovely Teygeta, and dark-faced Elektra, and Alkyone, and bright Asterope, and Kelaino, and Maia, and Merope, whom glorious Atlas begot." -Homerica, The Astronomy Frag 1

"Olympian Zeus himself from heaven in wrath smote down the insolent bands of Gigantes grim, and shook the boundless earth, Tethys and Okeanos, and the heavens, when reeled the knees of Atlas neath the rush of Zeus." -Quintus Smyrnaeus 11.415

“Does not even now great Atlas struggle to bear up the weight of heaven, far from his fathers’ land and his possessions? But almighty Zeus set free the Titanes, for as time passes and the breeze abates, the sails are set anew.” –Pindar Pythian 4 ant13

"Simonides represents him [Atlas] as holding the sky on his shoulders." -Greek Lyric III Simonides Frag 556 (from Philodemos, Piety)

“Atlas: a mountain in Libya. Polyidos the dithyrambic poet makes Atlas a shepherd: according to him, Perseus arrived on the scene, and Atlas asked who he was and where he had come from; and when Perseus’ words failed to persuade him to allow him to pass, he was compelled to show him the Gorgon’s face and turned him to stone; and the mountain was called Atlas after him. So the commentary on Lykophron.” –Greek Lyric V Polyidus Frag 837 (from Etymologicum Magnum)

“[Prometheus to Okeanos:]’The fate of Atlas grieves me – my own brother, who in the far West stands with his unwieldy load pressing upon his back, the pillar of heaven and earth.” –Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 347-349

"The Titanes had children ... Atlas (who holds the sky on his shoulders), Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoitios ... were all sons of Iapetos and Asia." -Apollodorus 1.8

"[The golden apples of the Hesperides] These apples were not, as some maintain, in Libya, but rather were with Atlas among the Hyperboreans. Ge had given them to Zeus when he married Hera." -Apollodorus 2.114

"Prometheus advised Herakles not to go after the apples himself, but rather to relive Atlas of the celestial sphere and dispatch him. So when Herakles reached Atlas among the Hyperboreans, he remembered Prometheus’ advise and took over the sphere. Atlas picked three apples from the garden of the Hesperides, then returned to Herakles. Not wanting to hold up the sphere, he told Herakles that he should carry the applies back to Eurystheus, and that Herakles could hold up the sky in his place. Herakles agreed, but by a trick gave the sphere back to Atlas. On the advise of Prometheus he asked Atlas to take the sky while he put a cushion on his head. Hearing this, Atlas set the apples down on the ground, and relieved Herakles of the sphere. Thus Herakles picked them up and left. (Some say, however, that he did not take the apples from Atlas, but killed the snake that guarded them, and picked them himself.) Returning with the apples he gave them to Eurystheus who made a present of them to Herakles. But Athene retrieved them from him and took them back, for it was not permitted by diving law to locate them anywhere else." -Apollodorus 2.119-120

"To Atlas and Okeanos’ daughter Pleione were born (on Arkadian Kyllene) seven daughters called the Pleiades, whose names are Alkyone, Merope, Kelaino, Elektra, Sterope, Taygete, and Maia." -Apollodorus 3.110-111

“[Illustrated on the throne of the statue of Aphrodite at Amyklai, Lakedaimon] To describe the reliefs … Poseidon and Zeus are carrying Taygete, daughter of Atlas, and her sister Alkyone. There are also reliefs of Atlas.” –Pausanias 3.18.10-16

“[In the temple of Zeus at Olympia are paintings] Among them is Atlas, supporting heaven and earth, by whose side stands Herakles ready to receive the load of Atlas.” –Pausanias 5.11.5

“[Depicted on the chest of Cypselus at Olympia] Atlas too is supporting, just as the story has it, heaven and earth upon his shoulders; he is also carrying the apples of the Hesperides. A man holding a sword is coming towards Atlas. This everybody can see is Herakles, though he is not mentioned especially in the inscription, which reads:- Here is Atlas holding heaven, but he will let go the apples.” –Pausanias 5.18.4

“[A depiction] It shows the heavens upheld be Atlas, and also Herakles and the apple-tree of the Hesperides with the Drakon coiled around it." -Pausanias 6.19.8

"[At Tanagra, Boiotia] is a place called Polos. Here they say that Atlas sat and meditated deeply upon hell and heaven, as Homer says of him: ‘Daughter of baneful Atlas, who knows the depths of every sea, while he himself holds up the tall pillars, which keep apart earth and heaven.” -Pausanias 9.20.3

“They [the Argonauts] found the sacred plot where, till the day before, the serpent Ladon, a son of the Libyan soil, had kept watch over the golden apples in the Garden of Atlas." –Argonautica 4.1390f

“The desolate dwelling place of Atlas [ie Libya].” –Lycophron 877

“But we must not fail to mention what the myths relate about Atlas and about the race of the Hesperides. The account runs like this: In the country known as Hesperitis there were two brothers whose fame was known abroad, Hesperos and Atlas. These brothers possessed flocks of sheep which excelled in beauty and were in colour of a golden yellow, this being the reason why the poets, in speaking of these sheep as mela, called them golden mela. Now Hesperos begat a daughter named Hesperis, who he gave in marriage to his brother and after whom the land was given the name Hesperitis; and Atlas begat by her seven daughters, who were named after their father Atlantides, and after their mother Hesperides. And since these Atlantides excelled in beauty and chastity, Busiris the king of the Aigyptians, the account says, was seized with a desire to get the maidens into his power; and consequently he dispatched pirates by sea with orders to seize the girls and deliver them into his hands …
[Herakles slew Busiris] Meanwhile the pirates had seized the girls while they were playing in a certain garden and carried them off, and fleeing swiftly to their ships had sailed away with them. Herakles came upon the pirates as they were taking their meal on a certain strand, and learning from the maidens what had taken place he slew the pirates to a man and brought the girls back to Atlas their father; and in return Atlas was so grateful to Herakles for his kindly deed that he not only gladly gave him such assistance as his Labour called for, but he also instructed him quite freely in the knowledge of astrology. For Atlas had worked out the science of astrology to a degree surpassing others and had ingeniously discovered the spherical arrangement of the stars, and for that reason was generally believed to be bearing the entire firmament upon his shoulders. Similarly in the case of Herakles, when he had brought to the Greeks the doctrine of the sphere, he gained great fame, as if he had taken over the burden of the firmament which Atlas had borne, since men intimated in this enigmatic way what had actually taken place ” –Diodorus Sicululs 4.26.2 [Diodorus here gives his own rational interpretation of the myth]

"From Iapetus and Clymene [were born]: Atlas, Epimetheus, Prometheus." -Hyginus Preface

"From Atlas and Pleione [were born]: Maia, Calypso, Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno." -Hyginus Preface

“After Juno [Hera] saw that Epaphus, born of a concubine, ruled such a great kingdom, she saw to it that he should be killed while hunting, and encouraged the Titanes to drive Jove [Zeus] from the kingdom and restore it to Saturn [Kronos]. When they tried to mount to heaven, Jove with the help of Minerva [Athene], Apollo, and Diana [Artemis], cast them headlong into Tartarus. On Atlas, who had been their leader, he put the vault of the sky; even now he is said to hold up the sky on his shoulders.” –Hyginus Fabulae 150

“Atlas by Pleione or an Oceanitide had twelve daughters, and a son, Hyas. The son was killed by a wild boar or a lion, and the sisters, grieving for him, died of this grief. The five of them first put among the stars have their place between the horns of the bull – Phaesyla, Ambrosia, Coronis, Eudora, Polyxo – and are called, from their brother’s name, Hyades ... The rest of the sisters, later dying from grief, were made stars, and because they were many, were called Pleiades.” –Hyginus Fabulae 192

“Hyas, son of Atlas and Pleione, [was killed] by a boar, or by a lion.” –Hyginus Fabulae 248

"[When Phaethon driving the chariot of the sun set the earth aflame] Even Atlas fails, his shoulders scarce sustain the flaming sky." -Metamorphoses 2.296

“Now at dusk, fearing to trust the night, he [Perseus flying on winged sandals] landed on the far Hesperian shore, the realm of Atlas, seeking rest awhile … Atlas Iapetionides surpassed all men in giant size. He ruled the world’s last lands and that far sea that greets the panting horses of the sun and welcomed their tired wheels. A thousand herds roamed on his pastures and a thousand flocks, unchecked, untroubled by a neighbour’s bounds; and there were trees whose glittering leaves of gold clothed golden apples under golden boughs. ‘Good friend’, Perseus addressed him, ‘if renown of lineage may count, I take my line from Juppiter [Zeus], my father; or if deeds can win your admiration, mine you will admire. I ask for rest and lodging.’ But the giant recalled the oracle which Themis Parnasia had given: ‘Atlas, a time shall come when from your tree the gold shall be despoiled, and of that spoil a son of Jove shall boast.’ In fear he had walled his orchards all around with massive ramparts and for guardian set an enormous Draco; and drove off all strangers from the borders of his realm. To Perseus too ‘Away! Begone!’ he cried, ‘Or you shall find no joy in that renown your lies invent, no joy in Juppiter [Zeus].’, and added force to threats, as Perseus tried fair words at first, then bravely grappled him. But when he found his strength surpassed (for who could match the strength of Atlas?) ‘Very well!’ he taunted, ‘If you rate my thanks so low, accept a gift!’ and turned his face away and on his left held out the loathsome head, Medusa’s head. Atlas, so huge, became a mountain; beard and hair were changed to forests, shoulders were cliffs, hands ridges; where his head had lately been, the soaring summit rose; his bones were turned to stone. Then each part grew beyond all measure (so the gods ordained) and on his shoulders rested the whole vault of heaven with all the innumerable stars.” –Metamorphoses 4.627

"My [Niobe's] mother ranks as sister of the Pleiades. That great giant, Atlas, whose shoulders bear the circling sky, is one grandfather." -Metamorphoses 6.172

"This neck [of Herakles] sustained the sky [in place of Atlas]." –Metamorphoses 9.198

“Titan Tethys was once married to Oceanus, whose translucent waters scarf the broad earth. Their child Pleione couples with sky-lifting Atlas – so the story is – and bears the Pleiades.” –Ovid Fasti 5.79

“Atlas did not shoulder the load of Olympus yet, when lovely, eye-catching Hyas was born. Oceanus’ daughter, Aethra, bore him and the Nymphae in timely births, but Hyas was born first ... [Hylas while hunting] sought the lair and brood of the whelped lioness and was bloody prey to the Libyan beast. His mother sobbed for Hyas, his sad sisters sobbed and Atlas, whose neck would haul the world.” –Ovid Fasti 5.164

“[Aeneas to Euander:] Dardanus, the progenitor and founder of Ilium’s city, born, as the Greeks maintain, of Electra, daughter of Atlas, sailed to our Teucrian land: yes, Electra’s father was mighty Atlas who holds aloft on his shoulders the heavenly firmament. Now Mercurius [Hermes] is your father – Mercurius whom fair Maia conceived and bore upon the snowy peak of Cyllene. But Maia, if we believe at all the tales we have heard, was begotten by Atlas, the Atlas who props the starry sky.” –Aeneid 8.134

“You behold Atlas supporting the whole of heaven.” –Propertius 3.22

“These lands … lashed by the ocean, Neptunus’ [Poseidon’s] trident, and the slow workings of time the enemy sundered of yore, even as they did the shores of Sicily and Libya, when Janus [whose home was Italia] and Atlas, lord of the sunset mountains [in North Africa], were struck aghast at the crash.” –Valerius Flaccus 2.616

“There [depicted on the walls of the palace] iron Atlas stands in Oceano, the wave swelling and breaking on his knees; but the god himself [Helios the Sun] on high hurries his shining steeds across the old man’s body, and spreads light about the curving sky; behind with smaller wheel follows his sister [Selene the Moon] and the crowded Pleiades and the fires whose tresses are wet with dripping rain [the Hyades].” –Valerius Flaccus 5.408

"Towering Atlas shuddered and shifted the weight of heaven upon his trembling shoulders." –Thebaid 1.97

"With no effort carriest thyself [Gaia the Earth] star-bearing Atlas who staggers under the weight of the celestial realm." –Thebaid 8.315

“[Typhoeus to Zeus declaring his intentions when he seizes the throne of heaven:] ‘Break the bar of Olympos, self-turning, divine! Drag down to earth the heavenly pillar, let Atlas be shaken and flee away, let him throw down the starry vault of Olympos and fear no more its circling course – for I will not permit a son of Earth to be bowed down with chafed shoulders, while he underprops the revolving compulsion of the sky! No, let him leave his endless burden to the other gods, and battle against the Blessed Ones! Let him break off rocks, and volley with those hard shots the starry vault which he once carried! … Kronion [Zeus] also shall lift the spinning heavens of Atlas, and bear the load on weary shoulders” –Dionysiaca 2.259

“And away by the boundary of Libya my [the Pleiad Elektra’s] father still suffers hardship, old Atlas with chafing shoulders bowed, upholding the seven-zoned vault of the sky.” –Dionysiaca 3.349

“By the Tritonian Lake [in Libya], Kadmos the wanderer lay with rosycheek Harmonia, and the Nymphai Hesperides made a song for them, and Kypris [Aphrodite] together with the Erotes (Loves) decked out a fine bed for the wedding, hanging in the bridal chamber golden fruit from the Nymphai’s garden .... Her mother’s [ie Harmonia's stepmother Elektra] father the stooping Libyan Atlas awoke a tune of the heavenly harp to join the revels, and with tripping foot he twirled the heavens round like a ball, while he sang a stave of harmony himself not far away.” –Dionysiaca 13.333

“The waters of Khremetes [a river of North Africa] in the west, where that afflicted ancient, Libyan Atlas, wearily bends under the whirling heavens.” –Dionysiaca 31.103

"Atlas: He of whom myth tells that he holds up earth and heaven. 'And the iron shoulders of Atlas.' And a proverb: 'Atlas the heaven'; 'you lifted up' is omitted. [This is said] in reference to those who undertake great matters and encounter misfortune." -Suidas 'Atlas'

"According to the Judges of the Judaeans, Prometheus ... first discovered scholarly philosophy ... and Epimetheus, who discovered music; and Atlas, who interpreted astronomy, on account of which they say he holds up the heavens." -Suidas 'Prometheus'

Sources:

* Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th BC
* Homer, The Odyssey - Greek Epic C9th-8th BC
* Homerica The Astronomy, Fragments - Greek Epic BC
* Pindar, Odes - Greek Lyric C5th BC
* Greek Lyric III Simonides, Fragments - Greek Lyric C6th-5th BC
* Greek Lyric V Polyidus, Fragments - Greek Lyric BC
* Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd BC
* Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica - Greek Epic C3rd BC
* Lycophron, Alexandra
* Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy - Greek Epic C4th AD
* Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
* Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History - Greek History C1st BC
* Hyginus, Fabulae - Latin Mythography C2nd AD
* Ovid, Metamorphoses - Latin Epic C1st BC - C1st AD
* Ovid, Fasti - Latin Epic C1st BC - C1st AD
* Virgil, Aeneid - Latin Epic C1st BC
* Propertius, Elegies – Latin Elegy C1st BC
* Valerius Flaccus, The Argonautica – Latin Epic C1st AD
* Statius, Thebaid - Latin Epic C1st AD
* Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD
* Suidas - Byzantine Greek Lexicography C10th AD

Other references not currently quoted here: Diodorus Siculus 3.60; Servius on the Aeneid 1.745 & 4.247 & 8.134; Tzetzes on Lycophron 873
http://www.theoi.com/Ouranos/Atlas.html

"He [Solon] also spent some time in studies with Psenophis of Heliopolis [in Egypt] and Sonkhis of Sais, who were very learned priests. From these, as Plato says, he heard the story of the lost Atlantis, and tried to introduce it in a poetical form to the Greeks." -Plutarch Solon 26.1

"Plato, ambitious to elaborate and adorn the subject of the lost Atlantis, as if it were the soil of a fair estate unoccupied, but appropriately his by virtue of some kinship with Solon, began the work by laying out great porches, enclosures, and courtyards, such as no story, tale, or poesy ever had before.  But he was late in beginning, and ended his life before his work. Therefore the greater our delight in what he actually wrote, the greater is our distress in view of what he left undone. For as the Olympieion in the city of Athens, so the tale of the lost Atlantis in the wisdom of Plato is the only one among many beautiful works to remain unfinished." -Plutarch Solon 32.1

“Those who live on the shores of Okeanos tell a fable of how the ancient kings of Atlantis, sprung from the seed of Poseidon, wore upon their head the bands from the male Ram-fish, as an emblem of their authority, while their wives, the queens, wore the curls of the females as a proof of theirs.” –Aelian On Animals 15.2

"There is reported to be another island off [African] Mount Atlas [in the Atlantic], itself also called Atlantis, from which a two days’ voyage along the coast reaches the desert district in the neighbourhood of the Western Aethiopes and the cape mentioned above as the Horn of the West, the point at which the coastline begins to curve westward in the direction of the Atlantic." -Pliny Natural History 6.199

Sources:

* Plato, Critias - Greek Philosophy C4th BC
* Plutarch, Lives - Greek Historian C1st-2nd AD
* Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History C2nd - C3rd AD
* Pliny the Elder, Natural History - Latin Natural History C1st AD
http://www.theoi.com/Thaumasioi/Atlantes.html

But when first their father [=Ouranos, father of Chronos] was vexed in his heart with Briareus 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 [=Zeus] 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 [=Gea, the mother of Briareus and Cottus and Gyes]. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how that with these [three] they would gain victory and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods [on the one hand] and as many as sprang from Cronos [on the other] 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 [Briareus and Cottus and Gyes] 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 [Zeus] 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.'

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.'

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 [Briareus and Cottus and Gyes]. An hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of all [three] alike [therefore their appelation, hecatoncheires or hundred-handed], and each had fifty heads growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against the Titans [who were their brothers] 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.

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 bolt 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 their strength. 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.

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.
(Hesiod, Theogony, 617ff)

  Theogony of Hesiod
  Obscure Creation Myths

Hesiod was a Boeotian poet of either the 8th or 7th century BC, who is believed by many to flourish not long after Homer. Hesiod had written two poems, Works and Days and the Theogony. Both works can actually be combined to form an adequate Creation myth, though I had mostly relied on the Theogony.

The Theogony begins with Chaos and end with Zeus' reign, and it included the tale of Titanomachia, which is the war between the Titans and the Olympians. You will also find the about Prometheus and the Deluge.

It is in Works and Days, where you would find Hesiod's account of the Five Ages of Man, as well as the myth of Prometheus and Pandora. Prometheus stealing fire is also found in the other poem.

Below is the myth of Creation, where I have relied mainly on Hesiod's version, but my other sources included Apollodorus' Library and Ovid's Metamorphoses, to supplement Hesiod's myth.
  Beginning      
  War in Heaven and on Earth      
  Typhon      
  Rise of the Olympians      
  Underworld, see House of Hades
  Five Ages of Man      
  Saviour of Mankind      
  Deluge      
Beginning
 
Before the beginning of the universe, there was nothing in existence until Chaos came into being. Who or what was Chaos was, the Greeks not really made clear. The Greeks usually associated Chaos as a male entity. Chaos could be personification of the abyss or void, a formless confusion.

Out of the void, came Nyx ("Night") and Erebus ("Darkness"). Also from Chaos - Eros ("Love"), Gaea ("Earth") and Tartarus came into being. It was Eros that made it possible for propagation between two beings – to produce offspring.

By her brother Erebus, Nyx became mother of Aether ("Upper Air") and Hemera ("Day"). This was the first sexual union. By herself, Nyx became mother of several abstract personifications: Thanatos ("Death"), Moros ("Doom"), Hypnos ("Sleep"), the Fates or Moerae and Nemesis.

Gaea, by herself, bore Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea).

Gaea mated with her son Pontus and she became mother of two ancient sea-gods, Nereus and Phorcys, as well as Thaumas, Eurybia, and the sea monster Ceto.

Gaea married her other son, Uranus, and he became ruler of the universe. Gaea became the mother of the Titans, Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handed) and Cyclops ("Wheel-eyed"). The birth of their children resulted in a war by the gods that lasted for generation.
 
Works written by Hesiod:
   Theogony.
   Works and Days.
The Iliad was written by Homer.
Library was written by Apollodorus.

War in Heaven and on Earth
 
Uranus

Uranus became ruler of the universe after marrying his mother, Gaea. Uranus was the father of the three giant creatures with hundred hands and fifty heads, Briareus, Cottus and Gyges. These giants were known as the Hecatoncheires (Hundred-Handed). They were monstrous in size and strength. They were so ugly that Uranus hid them within their mother's body. Uranus probably did the same to his other three offspring known as the Cyclops. The Cyclopes were also giants, with a single eye in their foreheads. The three Cyclopes were named Arges, Brontes and Steropes. Imprisoning the six gigantic creatures within her body caused Gaea a great deal of pain.

The Titans were also his offspring, but they were smaller in size and fairer in looks. Unlike their ugly brethren they weren't imprisoned. Gaea was furious at the treatment of her earlier sons, so she appealed to her son, Cronus, youngest of the Titans, to overthrow her husband and his father.

At night, when Uranus was about to lay with his mother-wife (Gaea), Cronus castrated his father with an adamantine sickle and threw his father's genitals into the sea, near the island of Cythera. The Giants, Erinyes (Furies) and Meliae were born from the blood that fell on the ground, thereby impregnating her (Gaea). The Olympians would later fight the Giants, aided by the hero Heracles.

In the sea, the water began foaming around the severed genitals of Uranus. This foams drifted across vast distant of sea, before it reached the isle of Cyprus. From the foaming sea, Aphrodite, goddess of love, divinely beautiful and naked, sprang into being, already as fully grown young woman.

Waiting on the shore of Cyprus, Eros (Love) and Himerus (Desire) waited to greet her. The other gods paid honour to her. Aphrodite would later become the member of the Olympians, even though she was technically not an Olympian.
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Cronus and the Titans

Cronus succeeded his father as ruler of the universe, and became leader of the Titans. He shared the earth with his brothers and sisters. Cronus married his sister, Rhea, his consort. It was during his reign that he created mankind, and ruled during the Golden Age.

Cronus however did not release his brothers, the Hundred-Handed and the Cyclops, from Tartarus. The whole purpose that Gaea instructed Cronus and the Titans to revolt against Uranus' rule was to release her other sons from Tartarus. Instead, Cronus had the monster Campe to guard the Hundred Handed and the Cyclopes, to prevent their escape from Tartarus.

This caused his mother to become angry with her son that she announced that Cronus would be in turn, be overthrown by his own son, like when Cronus overthrew his father.

Cronus tried to avoid this fate, by swallowing each child that his sister-wife (Rhea) gave birth to. The usual story is that, he swallowed all his children except his youngest Zeus. Rhea realising she would lose all of her children, gave her husband a stone wrapped in swaddling cloth. The unsuspecting Cronus swallowed the stone.

Rhea hid the infant Zeus in Crete, where he was brought up by nymphs and the Curetes. According to some, Zeus was born in Crete, while others say that his birthplace was in Arcadia, but he was hidden from his father at Crete. His home was in the cave of either Mount Ida or Mount Dicte. The infant Zeus was fed from the milk of the goat Amalthea. The Curetes were Cretan spirits or daimones, and were usually described and depicted as youths. The Curetes danced war-dance, clashing their spears against their shields so that Zeus' cries were drowned out by their noise. This part of myth may actually be of pre-Hellenic origin from Minoan Crete.

When Zeus had grown, he married one of daughters of the Titans (the Oceanids), Oceanus and Tethys, named Metis. From Gaea, he received a drug that would make Cronus disgorged the five older children that Cronus had swallowed. Metis gave Cronus the emetic, where he vomited up Zeus' brothers and sisters.

War broke out between the Titans against the younger gods known as the Olympians, led by Zeus. This war was known as the Titanomachia.

Zeus and his brothers required aids, since they were outnumbered. None of the female Titans (Titanesses) took part in the war. Of all the sons of Uranus and Gaea, Oceanus had chosen to remain neutral. When Zeus calls upon the younger Titans to help him, the first to change side was the Styx, the eldest daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Styx came to Zeus with her children: Bia (violence), Cratus (strength), Nike (victory) and Zelus (emulation). For this reason, Zeus honoured her above the other gods, and gave special places to her children.

Prometheus and Epimetheus, the sons of Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clymene or Asia, had also defected to the Olympians, because Prometheus knew that the Zeus and his brothers would eventually win. Prometheus unsuccessfully tried to persuade his father Iapetus and his eldest brother, Atlas, to change side.

Gaea advise Zeus that her other children, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed would help him if he was to release them from their dungeons in Tartarus. So Zeus descended the netherworld and killed the guard, Campe, and released the prisoners.

The Cyclopes became known as master smiths and as master builders. The Cyclops was responsible for making several weapons for the younger gods: Thunderbolt for Zeus, the Trident for Poseidon, and the Cap of Invisibility for Hades.

Victory was ensured when Zeus also released the Hundred-Handed. Because there were three Hundred-Handed and each giant had a hundred hands, they could hurl 300 large boulders at the Titans.

The war last for ten years before the Olympians won, and most of the male Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest region in the Underworld. Zeus set the Hundred-Handed to guard the Titans. The Cyclopes or their descendants worked in the forge of Hephaestus.

There was a special punishment for Atlas. In Libya, the western part of North Africa, Atlas had carried the weight of the sky upon his shoulders, for countless centuries.
 

Theogony and Works and Days were written by Hesiod.
Titanomachy was part of the Epic Cycle.
The Iliad was written by Homer.
Library was written by Apollodorus.
Argonautica was written by Apollonius of Rhodes.

Contents
Uranus
Cronus and the Titans

Typhon
 
Although, Zeus and the Olympians defeated the Titans, they were faced with an even mightier foe, the Typhon. Gaea had conceived the new offspring from her brother Tartarus.

Apollodorus gave a wonderful description of Typhon, in his work called the Library. Typhon was a gigantic winged monster that was part man and part beast. Typhon was also taller than the tallest mountain. Under Typhon's arms there was a hundred dragon-heads. Below his thighs were the massive coils of vipers. Typhon was a terribly horrifying sight and was deadly since flame would gush from his mouth.

Typhon was father by Echidna (daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, or else, Gaea and Tartarus, which make it Typhon's sister) of many monstrous offspring: Cerberus, Chimaera, Orthus, the Hydra, Nemean Lion, Sphinx, the Caucasian Eagle, the Crommyonian Sow and vultures.

There are few different versions on how Zeus defeated the Typhon. Here, I will relate to the most popular version of the myth.

When Typhon came and attacked the heaven, all the Olympians fled south from Typhon, to Egypt. The Olympians had transformed themselves into various animals to escape from the monster. Apollo had disguised himself into a crow, his sister Artemis into a cat, while Dionysus had changed into a goat, Hera into a snowy cow, Hermes into ibis, Aphrodite and Eros into fishes.

Only Zeus dared to confront Typhon. Zeus hurled his deadly thunderbolts, but as the monster drew closer, Zeus would attack Typhon with the sickle of adamantine (note that this is the same sickle that Cronus had used against his father Uranus, see War in Heaven and Earth; and possibly the same sickle used by Perseus to decapitate Medusa). The Typhon fled to Mount Casion in Syria.

Zeus seeing that the monster had being seriously wounded, he became over-confident. Typhon trapped Zeus in his massive coils, and with Zeus' sickle, Typhon managed to cut the sinews and tendons of Zeus' hands and had the god imprisoned in the cave. According to Apollodorus, Typhon had set a she-dragon Delphyne to guard this cave. Without his sinews, Zeus was helpless and could not wield the thunderbolts.

Hermes and Aigipan had somehow retrieved the sinews and rescued Zeus. After Zeus was restored of his sinews, Zeus regained the use of the thunderbolts.

Zeus wielded his mighty thunderbolts against Typhon, pursuing the monster to Sicily. Zeus defeated Typhon, and buried the monster under Mount Etna or the entire island of Sicily. The volcanic eruptions of Mount Etna were the result of Typhon's spewing out his fire.
 
Sources
Theogony and Works and Days were written by Hesiod.
Titanomachy was part of the Epic Cycle.
The Iliad was written by Homer.
Library was written by Apollodorus.
Pythian I was written by Pindar.

Rise of the Olympians
 
Zeus, the leader of the Olympians, became the supreme ruler of the universe. He shared the world with his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Through casting the lot, Zeus receive the heaven and became the god of the sky, including the rain and storm, while Poseidon became god of the sea and Hades ruled the Underworld, the world of the dead.

The younger gods were called Olympians because they made their home on or in the sky above Mount Olympus. Olympus was a mountain almost 3000 metres high, in northern Thessaly.
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Zeus became the father of most of the younger Olympian gods.

Zeus learned from his grandparents, Gaea and Uranus, that if his first wife, Metis, bore a second child, that son would dethrone him as he had overthrown his father Cronus. Zeus wanted to avoid this fate, decided to swallow Metis, while she was still pregnant. When it was time for Metis to give birth, Zeus was suffering from a massive headache. Unable to bear the pain, Hephaestus or Prometheus split open Zeus' head with an axe. His daughter, Athena sprang out of the Zeus' head fully armed. This alarmed the other gods, until she took off her helmet, revealing a less warlike appearance.

Zeus married the Titaness Themis, before he married his own sister Hera. Hera became his consort, queen of heaven. She bore Zeus, Ares and two daughters – Eileithyia and Hebe. Some say that Hephaestus was also their son, but Hephaestus was more popularly known as the son of Hera, without a father.

Zeus had several love affairs with other goddesses. By the Titaness, Leto, he became the father of the twins, Apollo and Artemis. The Pleiade Maia, daughter of Atlas, was the mother of Hermes, the messenger of the gods.

According to some authors, Aphrodite was his daughter by Dione, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, while other earlier writers say she sprung out of the sea, from severed genitals of Uranus (I preferred this version, since aphros means "sea-foams").
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The other Olympian was Hestia, the eldest child of Cronus and Rhea. Some writers say that Dionysus, son of Zeus and a mortal, Semele, became an Olympian, when Hestia decided to step aside for the youngest god.

Though Zeus' other sister, Demeter, was the great earth goddess, she was not always recognised as an Olympian. Those who say that she was an Olympian, say that Hades was not, because Hades had never lived in Olympus.
 
Related Information
Sources
Homeric Hymns.
Theogony and Works and Days were written by Hesiod.
Library was written by Apollodorus.
Metamorphoses was written by Ovid.
Fabulae and the Poetica Astronomica by Hyginus.

Five Ages of Man
 
The creation of mankind can be divided into five ages.

Cronus created the Golden Age. It was the happiest erafor mankind, where people lived and died peacefully. There was no illness and no disease. They never suffer from hardship of war or toil of the earth. Foods were wild and plentiful. When they died they became spirits, becoming guardian of mankind.

But when the new gods arrived, they began experimenting on the creation of mankind, creating a new age. Each succeeding age would be inferior from the last, from excellent to worse.

The Silver Age was inferior to the Golden Age. It was time when the gods destroy them, because they refused to honour them.

The third period was the Bronze Age, which was populated with brazen men, who loved war for its own sake, until they destroyed themselves in continuous warfare.

This was followed by the Heroic Age. A race of demigods, heroes who would find themselves rewarded for their courage and heroic feats, at their death, in the Isles of the Blessed (Elysium).

The last age was the Iron Age. This was the worse age, where good will and decency would cease to exist. Men would suffer from great oppression by the wicked rulers. The rulers would only satisfy their own needs, because of their greed and thirst for power, until Zeus would destroy this race.
 
Related Information
Sources
Works and Days was written by Hesiod.
Library was written by Apollodorus.
Metamorphoses was written by Ovid.

Contents
Golden Age
Silver Age
Bronze Age
Heroic Age
Iron Age

Saviour of Mankind
 
Gift of the Fire

When Zeus became the supreme ruler of the universe, he was not interested with mortals, and began experimenting with the creation of mankind. The Titan, Prometheus, however, tried to protect mankind from the other gods. But in doing so Prometheus would bring about his own downfall.

Prometheus was one of the few males Titans to support the Olympians in the war against the Titans. Prometheus knew the Titans would lose the war, so he persuaded his brother to change side. Prometheus was an extremely intelligent and wise god, who was gifted with foresight. He failed to persuade his father Iapetus and his elder brother Atlas not to resist against Zeus, but without avail. Both Iapetus and Atlas were punished for opposing the Olympians.

Prometheus was guardian of mankind, often trying to aid them. Prometheus stole fire from the heaven, hiding the fire within a hollow fennel-stalk, and gave it to man (or he taught them how to make fire).

Prometheus had also tricked Zeus, to select the part of the sacrifice the gods and man will receive. He made sure that man receive the best part.

He cut a bull, and disguised the meat with its hide and entrails on top, while the bones were covered with fat. Zeus was angry with Prometheus, when he found out that he had selected the fat with only bones. The bones and fat were to be used to sacrifice to the gods, while man would keep the best meat for himself.
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Pandora

Zeus took his revenge upon mankind, by creating the first mortal woman, named Pandora. The gods gave her gifts before showing his creation to the rest of the world. Zeus gave Pandora to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, in marriage. Prometheus tried to warn his brother not to accept anything from Zeus, but Epimetheus did not listen to his wise brother.

One of the wedding gifts given to the new couple was a beautiful, large box. Pandora was told, to never open the box. But Pandora was curious; she wanted to know what was in the box.

One day, she opened the box. All sorts of misfortunes - sufferings and evils - had escaped, to plague mankind. In horror, Pandora quickly closed the lid, but it was too late. The only thing that did not escape was Hope. This was the only thing that provided comfort for mankind in their suffering.
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Prometheus' Punishment

Prometheus did not escape Zeus' punishment, for giving fire to mankind. He was taken to Caucasian Mountains, and chained to the highest peak. Each day, a giant eagle (Caucasian Eagle) would come and feed on Prometheus' liver and entrails, causing the Titan to suffer in great agony.

Prometheus appeared in Aeschylus' play, Prometheus Bound (mid 5th century BC), where the Titan encountered a suffering heifer. This cow was a maiden named Io, daughter of the Argive river god, Inachus. Unfortunately, she was a high priestess of Hera, who was loved by Hera's husband, Zeus. Zeus tried to hide Io from Hera, by transforming the girl into a beautiful white cow. Hera asked for the heifer (Io) as a gift, which Zeus couldn't refuse. Hera knew who the cow was, anyway. Hera set a herdsman, named Argus Panoptes with hundred eyes, to guard Io, so that Zeus couldn't rescue Io. After Hermes had killed Argus Panoptes, Hera sent a gadfly to torment Io. The gadfly stung her repeatedly that Io began to wander through many distant lands.

When Prometheus met her, the Titan informed her that she would have her natural form restored to her one day, when she reaches Egypt. She would have a son by Zeus, and she would have descendants that produce powerful rulers and great heroes. Prometheus also foretold his own freedom, and reconciliation with Zeus. See Io, in the Heroines page.

The irony of Prometheus' punishment was that Heracles, son of Zeus, would release the Titan from his bondage. In returned for his freedom, Prometheus informed Heracles how to win the apples of Hesperides from Prometheus' own brother, Atlas.

Once Prometheus gained his freedom, the Titan, once again, shared his wisdom to Zeus. Prometheus warned Zeus not to seduce the sea goddess Thetis, because she would bear a son who would be greater than his father. Zeus avoided this fate by marrying Thetis to the hero Peleus.

There was another reason, why Prometheus was released. According to Hesiod, it was simply that Zeus wished to increase the glories and fames of his son (Heracles).
 
Related Information
Name
Prometheus – "Forethought"
Epimetheus – "Afterthought"
Pandora – "The gift of all" or "All-endowed"

Sources
Theogony and Works and Days were written by Hesiod.
Prometheus Bound was written by Aeschylus.

Contents
Gift of the Fire
Pandora
Prometheus' Punishment

Deluge
 
Zeus decided to destroy the race of men with flood, for their wickedness and impiety. Zeus sending rain and storm while Poseidon send water from the sea, covering the land with water.

Prometheus managed to save his family, by warning them. Deucalion was his son by Pronoea. Deucalion had married Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. They built a chest stored with provision.

The flood lasted nine days and nights, when the chest landed at the peak of Mount Parnassus. Even though Zeus did not like Prometheus, the god was not angry that Deucalion and Pyrrha had survived the flood since they were pious couple.

However, Deucalion and Pyrrha were lonely, being the only survivors. They found a ruin temple and prayed to the goddess Themis. Themis told them to throw the bones of their mother over their shoulders.

At first they were outraged by such suggestion, until Deucalion correctly interpreted that the stones on the ground were the bone of mother earth (Gaea). As the two started throwing stones behind them, people sprung out of the earth. These people became known as the Stone People.

Deucalion and Pyrrha became parents of Hellen, Amphictyon, Protogeneia, Pandora and Thyia. Deucalion ruled in Phthia, and was succeeded by his son, Hellen.
 
Related Information
Sources
Library was written by Apollodorus.
Metamorphoses was written by Ovid.
Catalogues of Women was possibly written by Hesiod.
Olympian IX was written by Pindar.

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Obscure Creation Myths

Hesiod was the not the only Greek poet who wrote about the Creation and the origin of gods and mankind. Hesiod's account is just one kind. The world was created from Chaos first, and then by the World Parents – Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven).

There are several different versions about the Creation. An older poet, Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, alluded to a different cosmogony to Hesiod. And then there are yet, other different cosmogonies that are involved with the Cosmic Egg.

One source involved the goddess Eurynome and the World Serpent Ophion. This source comes from Apollonius of Rhodes, a Hellenistic poet who wrote the Argonautica in the 3rd century BC.

While another tradition about the Creation by the Cosmic Egg, involved the gods Phanes or Protogonus, and Dionysus/Zagreus. This other tradition had come from the poems of the so-called cult of the Orphic Mysteries.

What these two Creation myths have in common is the Cosmic Egg that usually came into existence from void (chaos) or the abyss. The Cosmic Egg, World Egg or whatever other names it may have, it is a common and universal theme in creation myths, not only in these obscure Greek myths, but also from other cultures and civilisations. However, the Cosmic Egg is noticeably absent in Hesiod's Theogony.
  Homeric Creation
  Eurynome and Ophion
  Orphic Creation      
  Cosmogony of Diodorus Siculus      
Homeric Creation
 
In the Iliad, Homer had only briefly alluded to the creation. Hera seduced Zeus at Mount Ida, in the hope of turning the tide against the Trojans, by lulling her husband to sleep. To seduce Zeus, Hera required aids from other gods.

First, she sought aid from Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Hera wanted to borrow Aphrodite's girdle, which would make irresistibly seductive. Hera lied to Aphrodite saying that she wish to the relationship between Oceanus and Tethys, who had raised her. In fact, she was using it in the hope to seduce Zeus. Hera says that "...to see Oceanus, from whom the gods arose, and Mother Tethys" (quoted from Robert Fitzgerald's translation, Book XIV 199).

She used Hypnos to lull Zeus to sleep. Hypnos boasted to Hera that he could even lull Oceanus to slumber, "...the primal source of all that lives" (Book XIV 258-61). However, Hypnos was reluctant to help Hera, because the first time he helped her, he was almost thrown into the deep sea. Fearing Zeus' rage, Hypnos had to take refuge with his mother, Nyx (Night). Powerful as Zeus was, he feared the "all-subduing Night (Nyx)".

When she meet Zeus, Hera lied to him, when she mentioned Oceanus and Tethys that she wanted to patch their relationship up, since they have not slept together in a single bed, since they had last quarrel. Hera was saying the same thing that she said to Aphrodite moment before. (Book XIV 301-304).

To Homer, Oceanus and Tethys were more than Titans; they were referred to as the World Parents (Creators), displacing Uranus and Gaea, or that of Cronus and Rhea. Oceanus have a stream that completely circumvented the earth, which was a flat round disk. And Tethys was the mother of the gods.

Homer was more interested about the war at Troy, than about the Creation, so much have been left unsaid.
 
Related Information
Sources
The Iliad was written by Homer.

Eurynome and Ophion
 
According to Apollonius Rhodius, who mentioned a creation myth that was very different from that of Hesiod's Theogony. Apollonius' account is very short and rather sketchy.

Apollonius begins the myth, as one of the songs sang by Orpheus after the departure of the Argonauts from Iolcus. Orpheus was the mythical bard who had joined Jason and the Argonauts in the Quest.

Orpheus sang a song about how the world was originally cast in one single mould; the earth, sky and sea was all mixed up in this mould, until the mould was tore sunder from some internal turmoil within the Cosmic Egg. All of the sudden, the earth, sea and heaven were separated; mountains rose from the sea, while the sun and moon and stars travelled followed their path through the sky (something like the Big Bang).

Two of the earliest beings came into existence, during the creation of the world. One was named Eurynome, daughter of the Ocean (Oceanus), while her consort was named Ophion. Together they ruled the entire universe from Olympus.

But one day, the Titans Cronus and Rhea had violently displaced Ophion and Eurynome from Olympus. They had flung Ophion and Eurynome into the Ocean (as opposed to being confined in Tartarus, like in Hesiod's Theogony).

While Cronus and Rhea ruled the world and the Titans, Zeus was living in the Dictaean cave (in Crete), as an infant, long before he received the mighty thunderbolt from the Cyclopes.

The account ended here.
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Apollonius did not give much detail at all. I had some difficulties in finding out if Apollonius had got this from another source or did he invent this little account, by himself. It was discovered that myth about Eurynome, as the creator-goddess, was said to be much older than the Theogony, which was written by Hesiod in the 7th century BC.

Apollonius had only mentioned Zeus as an infant in a cave in Crete, as well as a mention that one day he would wield the thunderbolt, forged by the Cyclopes, like in Hesiod's account. However, Apollonius doesn't complete his song told by Orpheus, where like in Hesiod's myth, Zeus displaced the Titans.

A more detail account was found on Eurynome and Ophion that was quite different from Apollonius' allusion on the creation. This is said to be the myth of the original race or inhabitants in Greece, who were known as the Pelasgians.
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(Before I end here, I would like to say that I have taken part of this article out, concerning the so-called Pelasgian Creation Myth, which is different to that of Apollonius' account. This myth was recreated by Robert Graves, a famous contemporary mythographer and author of a number of books, including The White Goddess (I haven't read this), and The Greek Myths, which is where I got the PCM (Pelasgian Creation Myth) from. He was the only person I know who wrote this version of Eurynome and the Cosmic Egg.

Although PCM was very interesting, I am rather dubious of Mr Graves' account, which he has said to reconstruct from various sources. What I am doubtful is his reconstruction, which was more of his elaboration and invention than genuine myths from the Pelasgians. Until I can find more authentic sources that resembled Graves' account, I am afraid that the Pelasgian Creation Myth will no longer posted here. I am sorry if I had caused any inconvenience.)
 
Related Information
Name
Eurynome – "wide-wandering".
Ophion – "snake" or "serpent".

Sources
Argonautica was written by Apollonius of Rhodes.
Theogony and Works and Days were written by Hesiod.

Orphic Creation
 
The Orphic Creation Myth is another scenario of the Cosmic Egg origin, but without the Creator Goddess, Eurynome (see Eurynome and Ophion).

Behind the myth, is the religion of salvation for the human's soul. This religion was named after the mythical singer, Orpheus, who was reputedly said to be the founder of the Orphic Mysteries.
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In the beginning, there was Time, which the Greeks called Chronus or Khronos. This was a period called the Unaging Time, when nothing existed and nothing grew old; indeterminate and (almost) limitless time, which some people would call Aeon. Existing at the same time as Chronus was Adrasteia, or Ananke, meaning "Necessity".

Chronus and Adrasteia combined to create primordial Spirit and Matter, which were called Aether and Chaos. (Hesiod had referred to Aether as the upper atmosphere, where the air was clean and pure; he referred to Aether as male entity, while in the Orphic myth, Aether was seen as female being. Chaos was fathomless void, abyss or the yawning gap. With Hesiod, Chaos was a male primordial being, whereas in Orphic myth, the role had changed.) A third primordial being came out of Time and Necessity, Erebus – "Darkness". Chronus then combined with Aether, or possibly with Chaos and Aether, so the primeval beings caused mists to form and solidify into a Cosmic Egg.

The Orphic myth was not the only one to use the Egg motif for their cosmogony. The World Egg can be found in many different Creation myths, such as from Egypt, Persia and India. After all the egg was the symbol of new birth and new life. That the god and the world were created from the Cosmic Egg. It wasn't even original idea in Greek myths. The Athenian comedy playwright, Aristophanes, wrote in the Birds that Nyx (Night) laid the egg, which Eros (Love) was born from. In Apollonius' epic, Argonautica, It was Eurynome who created the Egg, which the world as we know it, came into existence.

The Cosmic Egg was the first definable matter that was created out of infinity. The World Egg was gigantic and silver in colour. When the great resplendent, silver Egg hatched, out sprang Protogonus, which literally means First-born, the first god. According to one Neo-Platonist writer, the Egg shell split in two: the two shells forming heaven and earth.

Protogonus has known by several other names, such as Phanes, the god of light; Ericapaeus "Power", and Metis, which means "Intelligence". Writers often called him – Phanes. As Phanes, he was the primeval sun god with golden wings. He has four eyes, which allowed him to look in any direction. He was said to possess a number of heads in the shapes of various animals. He had a voice of bull and that of a lion. Though, he was said to be invisible, he radiated pure light.

Protogonus had been identified with Eros (Love); Hesiod's Eros was also an earlier god, born at the same time as Gaea and Tartarus. Sometimes, Phanes was called Dionysus; if this is the case, then he was the first of three incarnations of Dionysus.

Though people speak of him as a god, Protogonus/Phanes was in fact an androgynous being. Without a partner, he conceived and gave birth to Nyx (Night). (Different accounts say that it was Nyx, who laid the Cosmic Egg, therefore she was Protogonus' mother, not his daughter.)

Protogonus (Phanes) was the first supreme ruler of heaven. Either Nyx ruled with Protogonus or on her own. Some times later, he lay with his own daughter, and then he became the father of Earth and Heaven, which they were named Gaea and Uranus. So it was Protogonus who created the earth and heaven. It was also Protogonus who had created the Golden Age of Man.

Nyx ruled after Protogonus, before she abdicated in favour of her son, Uranus, who made Gaea as his consort.

What follow is similar to Hesiod's Theogony. Heaven and Earth were the parents of the three Hundred-Handed (Hecatoncheires) and the three Cyclopes. They were also the parents of the Titans; they had seven sons and seven daughters (see the tables for the list of the children of Uranus and Gaea, in the Titans page).

Among Uranus' children was Cronus, the evil Titan, who dethroned his father. In Hesiod's account, it was Gaea who conspired with his son, to rid of her husband, but in the Orphic myth, it was both Nyx and Gaea who brought about Uranus' downfall, using the Titans. Cronus castrated Uranus and threw his father's genitals into the sea. Foam formed in the sea, which drifted until it reach Cyprus and the love goddess Aphrodite sprung out of the sea.

Rhea was Cronus' consort, as well as his sister. In the Orphic myth, she was also confused with Demeter (Ceres), the corn goddess. Perhaps, Demeter was another aspect of Rhea. Cronus and Rhea had 6 children, including Zeus. Like Hesiod's Theogony, Cronus swallowed each child that Rhea bore him, except his youngest child, Zeus. Rhea hid the infant Zeus in a cave. Rhea wrapped a stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to her husband, which Cronus promptly swallowed, thinking he had swallowed his latest baby. Her name changed into Demeter, after Rhea gave birth to Zeus.

The Cretan nymphs Adrasteia and Idaea brought up Zeus, whom they fed milk of the goat Amaltheia. The Curetes had also assisted the nymphs.

How Zeus became the new supreme ruler of universe, which is a different variation to Hesiod's account. Zeus used honey to make Cronus drunk, disgorging Zeus' siblings, before Zeus dismembered his father, just as had Cronus done with his own father (Uranus).

It was Nyx (Night) who had advised Zeus to swallow her father/consort, Protogonus (Phanes), the first god and the original Creator. Zeus swallowed Protogonus and the entire universe that Protogonus had created, which included the other gods. With Protogonus in his belly, Zeus gained new power and knowledge, which he used to create a new universe. Whole new sun, planets, stars, mountains, land and seas were recreated. The other gods were also reborn.
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Zeus ruled supreme, but he shared the world with his brothers: Poseidon received the sea and Hades got the subterranean domain of the dead, the netherworld (Underworld). Zeus ruled the sky, but they all shared the earth.

Zeus had married many times. He had as many as seven wives, and three of them were his own sisters: Hestia, Demeter (or Rhea) and Hera. (Well, sometimes Demeter, as Rhea, was seen as Zeus' mother.)

Zeus had many children from various wives and mistresses. Some of these children became important deities; among them were Athena, Hermes, Apollo and Artemis, Ares and Hephaestus. See the Olympians page.

From Demeter, Zeus, became the father of Persephone (Kore). Demeter and Persephone were living in the Dictean cave of the island Crete, where they were guarded by snakes.

(According to other writers, after Zeus had overthrown his father Cronus, Rhea or Demeter tried to escape from nuptials with her own son, by assuming the form of snake. Zeus also turned himself into a snake and raped Rhea. So that Rhea (Demeter) became the mother of Persephone.)

Zeus wanted a son to one-day rule in his place, and decided that his own daughter, Kore or Persephone, would be the mother of that son. Zeus secretly transformed himself into a snake, and lay with his daughter. Persephone became pregnant and became the mother of Dionysus (Zagreus).

Earlier Orphic writers called him Dionysus, but the Neoplatonist writers, sometimes called him Zagreus. The Neoplatonists also believed that Dionysus/Zagreus was a reincarnation of Protogonus/Phanes, whom Zeus had swallowed earlier. For the sake of convenience I will call Dionysus, son of Persephone, as Zagreus, so we can distinguish one Dionysus from the other.

While Zagreus was still an infant, Zeus placed the sceptre in his son's tiny hand, and announced before all the gods that Zagreus will become their new ruler.

Zeus' other wife, Hera, was jealous that Zagreus would become the next ruler of the gods; so she incited the Titans to murder the infant Zagreus (Dionysus). The Titans, who were dispossessed, became Zeus' worse enemies, so they readily agreed.

The Titans painted their face white, and they lured the infant Zagreus from the safety of the cave, with toys, such as mirror, doll, knuckle bones, and spin-top called bull-roarer. Zagreus left the cave before he realised that he was in danger. Zagreus tried to escape, by assuming various transformations. When the Titans caught him, they tore him to pieces before they devoured him. Athena arrived in time to save the Zagreus' heart, which she brought to her father. Athena had managed to keep the heart alive and beating, by breathing life into it.

Enraged that the Titans had attacked his son, Zeus hurled his mighty thunderbolts, blasting the Titans to ashes. From the ashes of the Titans, mankind rose.

(The dual natures of the Orphic belief come from that all men have two different natures: good and evil, earthly and spiritual (immortal), Dionysiac and Titanic. Since the Titans had consumed Dionysus, the evil nature comes from the Titans, while good comes from the Dionysiac part. To gain entry to Elysium, the initiated of the Orphic Mysteries must live a good, ascetic life in three separate incarnations. See Orphic Mysteries.)

It was still Zeus' intention to leave the kingship of the universe to one of his sons, and that son would have been Zageus/Dionysus. Zeus swallowed Zagreus' heart, and visited a mortal woman, named Semele, daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes, whom he seduced and made pregnant. (According to Hyginus, Zeus created mead out of Zagreus' heart, which he gave to Semele to drink. This was how she became pregnant.)

The myth of Semele's death and the birth of Dionysus is the same with usual myth about Dionysus. The jealous Hera duped Semele into asking for a fatal boon from Zeus, which she died, but Zeus saved the unborn child, by sewing the baby into his thigh. When it was time, Dionysus was born again, from the thigh of Zeus. (Hyginus omitted about Dionysus being born from Zeus' thigh.)

Dionysus was a reincarnation of the god Zagreus, son of Persephone.

There is also an Orphic version, of the abduction and rape of Persephone (Kore) by Hades, and the myth of Demeter's wandering. Several aspects of the myth of Demeter and Persephone have also changed.

Since Dionysus' life in the Orphic myth is the same told elsewhere, the Orphic Creation ends here. But there is no doubt that when the time came, Zeus would step down from the throne; Dionysus would ascend, and be crowned.
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According to the Orphic myths, six rulers had reign in heaven: Protogonus/Phanes, Nyx, Uranus, Cronus, Zeus and Dionysus. Dionysus was the reincarnation of Zagreus/Dionysus, as well as the reincarnation of Protogonus.

In Hesiod's account about the creation, he only mentioned Cronus swallowing his children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon and Hades, and later on Zeus swallowing the pregnant Metis.

In the Orphic myths, the cannibalism of the gods is even more evident. Cronus swallowed his children; Zeus swallowed Phanes/Protogonus and the entire universe; Zeus swallowed Metis; the Titans devoured Dionysus/Zagreus and Zeus swallowing the heart of Dionysus/Zagreus. It seemed that birth follow by death, which in turn is then followed by rebirth.
 
Related Information
Sources
Library of History was written by Diodorus Siculus.
Fabulae was written by Hyginus.
Description of Greece was written by Pausanias.
Dionysiaca was written by Nonnus.
Platonic Theology was written by Proclus.
Orphic Fragments.
Orphic Hymns.
The Theogonies was written by Damascius.
Metamorphoses was written by Ovid.
Theogony and Works and Days were written by Hesiod.
Birds was written by Aristophanes.

Cosmogony of Diodorus Siculus
 
According to the 1st century BC historian, Diodorus Siculus, Oceanus and Tethys were the source of all gods.

To Diodorus, Uranus was the first king, and not really a god at all. Uranus was the first to gather people together into the first walled city, giving them laws, and teaching to how grow their crops and store food.

Uranus was also an astronomer and astrologer, who could foresee the future, and made many predictions.

Uranus was the father of forty-five sons from different wives, but it was from his consort Titaea, that eighteen of his sons became known as the Titans. She had also bore many daughters, including Basileia and Rhea. When Titaea died, she was deified as the goddess, whose name was Ge (Gaea).

Basileia was the eldest, and had reared her brothers, which was why she was known as the Great Mother. Basileia would be identified as Hesiod's Theia, because of her relationship with her brother and children, but Diodorus also identified her with the Phrygian goddess, Cybele. She ruled after her father's death and deification, also as a god. She had married her brother, Hyperion, and became the mother of Helius and Selene.

Her other brothers (Titans) were jealous and feared that Hyperion would keep the royal power to himself. The Titans conspired to remove Hyperion, so they killed him and threw Helius into Eridanus River, where her son drowned. In her grief, Selene threw herself off the high city wall.

Basileia sought along the Eridanus to find her son's body, until she dropped from exhaustion. Here, she had a vision of her son, telling her no to grieve for him or his sister, because they were transformed into the sun god and moon goddess. The Titans would also be punished for their crime.

When Basileia recovered from her swoon, she told her people about her vision, before she was seized by madness, wandering the land with her daughter's playthings, such as the kettledrums and cymbals. One day, in a thunderstorm, she vanished, and her people assumed that she had been transformed into a goddess. They erect an altar in her honour.

After the death of Hyperion and Basileia, the kingdom was divided between her brothers, Atlas and Cronus. Atlas became the ancestor of the Atlantides, the people in western Libya, giving the name to Mount Atlas. Because Atlas was a great astronomer and astrologer, he published the book on the doctrine of the sphere. It was for this reason, why Atlas was usually seen as a man holding the heaven on his shoulders. Atlas was the father of a son, named Hesperus, and of seven daughters, known as the Pleiades.

As to Atlas' brother, Cronus was a greedy and impious ruler, who married his sister Rhea. She bore him Zeus, one of the Olympian. Diodorus also mentioned another Zeus, who was brother of Uranus and king of Crete. Cronus was the king of Libya, Sicily and Italy.

Zeus won the kingdom in a war against his father and the Titans. Unlike his father, Zeus was virtuous ruler - wise and just, and when he died, the people claimed he became god and ruler of the universe.
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At this point, Diodorus then give us a brief summary on a few different myths about Dionysus (III 63. 3-5). They are different because Diodorus believed that there are three people with the name Dionysus.

The first Dionysus, he said was the eldest - Dionysus of India. Diodorus say it was here, where he taught the Indian the cultivation of vine and making of wine.

The second Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone (III 64. 1-2). It is this Dionysus that was murdered by the Titans, like in the Orphic myth. Dionysus was the first person to yoke a plough to an ox, as well as other skills needed for agriculture.

Though earlier in Book III 62. 3-7, Diodorus says that he called Dionysus the son of Demeter, instead of Persephone. The Titans had torn the young Dionysus to pieces, and boiled his flesh, but Demeter (his mother) gathered to pieces together and he was reborn. Zeus destroyed the Titans for the murder of his son. See the Orphic Creation.

The third Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, where he was born at Thebes. He was popularly known as Bacchus among the Greeks and Romans. See Semele about the birth of Dionysus.

Diodorus also give a brief description of Orpheus involvement in with Dionysus and founding of the new Orphic religion.
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As it can be seen in this article, Diodorus' myth is different from Hesiod's creation. Actually most of it was his invention. Diodorus tried to rationalize well-known myths, where made the gods mortal, who became deified only at their death, as gods or goddesses.

The most striking part is the death of Dionysus by the Titans, which is similar to the Orphic cosmogony. It is the earliest version we know of Dionysus in regarding to him being the son of Persephone and his death.
 
Related Information
Sources
Library of History was written by Diodorus Siculus.

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www.timelessmyths.com

Atalante, there is no question that Sicily plays a distinct role in Greek mythology as well as their history. Even in classical times, Alcabides incited the Greeks to invade Sicily, which eventually led to a most humiliating defeat at the hands of a Spartan general. Sicily was a fixation of the Greek civilization for nearly as long as it was a civilization.

Helios, you are correct when you "sensed" that I was in search of better material on Atlas, also that the information is straying slightly off course(of course I know the difference between the "Giants" and the "Titans"). If I stumble on something in search of something else with any relation to what we happen to be discussing, I would rather include it rather than leave it forgotten. Incidentally, I liked the material you just posted on Atlantis. To me, it gives Plato's account an added credibility. I am glad to discover someone else here as seemingly interested in Greek mythology as I am.

[ Titans & Titanesses | The Battle against the Titans (Titanomachy) ]

THE TITANS & TITANESSES: After the departure of Uranus from secular power, immediately after the execution of Earth's plans Cronus (Time), released his brothers and sisters, the Titans and the Titanesses from dark Tartarus. All of them acknowledged him immediately as the new ruler of the world in place of Uranus and helped him to establish his power. It is with their help that Cronus was able to get rid of the terrible Cyclopes (Ring eyed) and the gigantic Ekatoncheires (the Hundred Handed), despite the strong objections of his mother who wanted to have all her children around her.

Cronus took his sister Rhea (the one who flows) to be his wife, and thus, these two became the second divine couple after Uranus (King of the Mountains - Time) and Gaia (Earth) and they ruled the world together. Cronus, the most eminent of all the Titans, undertook to rule time, the seasons and to direct the movement of things. That is, he became the ruler of the whole universe, the almighty master. Rhea, at Cronus' side, first among her sisters, helped her husband in settling the flow of things. In the kingdom of Cronus she regulated movement and succession. Later she became goddess of fertility and gave birth to the first Olympian gods.

The other Titans and Titanesses sat on sumptuous thrones, next to the first couple and they helped Cronus to rule. They were all committed to taking care and protecting each other. Each one responsible for a different, lesser part of the world. Most of them became couples and gave birth to numerous smaller divinities. Oceanus, the eldest son of Uranus and Gaia, ruled over the liquid element. He was a large river flowing around the circular Earth and he laid his body over her, from one end to the other, that is, from the East to the West and from the North to the South. Oceanus was the personification of water and he coupled with Tethys (Disposer), the youngest of the Oceanids, who protected the liquid element and personified the fertile female divinity of the sea. Oceanus was dazzled by his sister's beauty and fascinated by her deep-blue eyes and her undulating hair. She wanted to spend all day and night in the waters. Innumerable children were born of their mating and thus, Oceanus is considered to be the father of all the rivers. Hesiod says that his sons were the rivers Nile, Alfius, Grackhus, Penius, Sangarius, Evinus, Heridanus, Strimon, Meandrus, Achelous, Aliakmon, Skamandrus, Nestus, Granikus, Rodius, Ladon and more than three thousand other rivers. Tethys also bore him fifty daughters, the Oceanids, among them being Styga, the eldest of all, Electra, Doris, Ianeira, Dione, Tyche, Prymno, Hippo, Callirrhoe, Zeuxo, Calypso, Xanthe, Petrea and Asia. They protected the streams and the springs and, in general, they were water-divinities, just as their respected parents.

Cottus, the second son of Uranus, had gigantic dimensions and was the first child that Uranus saw before starting to throw his children into Tartarus. He was virile, had a beautiful body and represented masculine strength and beauty. When Cronus had released his brothers and sisters from Tartarus, Cottus met the Titaness Phoebe (Bright), who represented light, and he was enchanted by her beauty. Phoebe also, responded to her brother's love. Leto and Asteria were born from their mating. That is to say that Phoebe and Cottus are the grandparents of Apollo whose mother was Leto.

Hyperion was also one of Uranus's victims. When he had escaped from Tartarus and come to the surface of Earth, all his majesty was revealed. A dazzling light flashed in all directions. His name means "the one who is going over". Some times he was identified with the sun. He symbolized eternal brilliance. He fell in love with his sister, the Titanness Theia (Divine). Theia was also fascinated by his splendid appearance and she surrendered to him. This beautiful couple begot three exquisite children: Helios (Sun) who traversed the sky by day from east to west, Selene (Moon), who shone in the darkness of Nyx (Night) and Eos (Dawn), the pink-fingered Dawn.

The Titan Iapetus married his niece Clymene (Famous Might), a daughter of Oceanus and Tythea who was not a Titaness. She gave birth to the immense Atlas who carried Uranus (Sky) on his shoulders, as well as Menoetius, Prometheus (forethought) and Epimetheus (afterthought). Iapetus, through Prometheus, is related to Deucalion, the founder of the human race, after Zeus had destroyed the world with a great flood. Others say that Iapetus was married an other Oceanid, Asia, the grand-daughter of Oceanus, or to Asopis or even to Libya.

Crius is one of the Titans whose exact duties in ruling the universe are not specifically known. Most probably, he was also a divinity of the Sky. He coupled with the Nymph Eurybia who gave him three sons: Astraeus, who symbolised the stars, Pallas and Perses. Astraeus mated with the daughter of Hyperion and Phoebe, the all-fresh Dawn and they had three sons, Zephyrus, Notus and Boreus, the strong west, south and north winds.

Themis and Mnemosyne are the two Titanesses who differed from their other brothers and sisters. They did not join the divine Titans, nor did they support them during the ten-year war they waged against Zeus and the other Olympian gods. Themis protected the Eternal Laws. She was the most serious and most humble of all the other Titanesses. She did not accept either Iapetus' or Crios' marriage proposals-Both of them had fallen in love with her. On the contrary, she fell in love with Zeus and she gave birth to several children. So she had the Seasons / Hours (Hores), the three Fates (Moirai), Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, the virgin Astarte and the Nymphs of Heridanus river. She helped her beloved during the Gigantomachy (the War of the Giants) and advised him to put on the awesome aegis (shield).

Themis was the only member of the Titan generation who was welcome on Mount Olympus, even after the total victory of the Olympian gods. She was honored by all, not only for her relationship with Zeus, but also because she had invented the oracles (divinations), the rituals and the laws. Mnemosyne was the personification of memory, of recollection. She was the wisest of all the Titanesses and the favourite sister of Themis. She violently rejected the love of her brother Crios and was on very good terms with the Olympian gods. It is also said that she fell in love with Zeus too. He joined with her into the woods of Pieria for nine consecutive nights. A year later, Mnemosyne had nine daughters, the Muses whose throne was situated on Mount Helicon.

The Titans represented the forces of nature and natural phenomena. These powers ruled the world during the early history creation. Only Themis and Mnemosyne represented more intellectual attributes, justice and memory, and therefore they continued their course next to the Olympian gods.

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THE BATTLE AGAINST THE TITANS: Zeus, before establishing his power and becoming the absolute ruler of the Universe, had to face many difficulties. Always, of course, he had by his side his brothers and sisters, whom he had released from the stomach of the child-eating Cronus.

In time, the Titans, embittered at the defeat of Cronus and not considering it right to be ruled by a younger god, proclaimed war against the Olympian gods. The immortals were divided into two rival camps: on one side, the Titans, headed by Cronus, using as their fortress mount Othre, and on the other side, Zeus with mount Olympus as his base of operations. Old and new gods, men and women, participated in this war. Not all the Titans supported Cronus. The abominable Oceanid, Styga, ("abomination") together with her four children, Cratos (Might), Bia (Force), Zelus (Zeal) and Nike (Victory) were the first to come to Zeus' aid. Her own father, Oceanus, the firstborn son of Uranus, is said to have either helped his nephew or remained neutral in this terrible war of gods. Prometheus, the son of the Titan Iapetus, became the first warrior and advisor of Zeus during this war. The most important thing, however, for the Olympian front was that Mother-Earth, this universal goddess of fertility, did not support her children, but stood by her grand-son, giving him valuable advice at each difficult moment. Furthermore, the Titanesses Themis and Mnemosyne did not participate in the war and, later, they became spouses of Zeus and were honored on Mount Olympus.

This terrible confrontation lasted for ten whole years, but the struggle was undecided with the balance some times tipping in favor of the Titans and some time of the Olympians. The whole universe was trembling, with no final result. At a very difficult moment for his side, Zeus ran to his grand-mother Gaia in anguish. He kissed her hands with respect and asked for her advise. Then, she, who very much liked her grand-son and had protected him in this great disturbance, gave him her wise omen: Zeus was destined to defeat the Titans only if he could get on his side those gods who were imprisoned in Tartarus. He thanked his divine grand-mother and made his way to Tartarus. He traveled for nine days into the profound depths of the earth, confronting huge bats and poisonous spiders en route. But with the magic herbs that his grand-mother had given him he was able to surmount all difficulties. When he reached the cells where the Cyclopes were kept, he first had to kill the dreadful Campi, a hideous monster appointed by the Titans to guard their giant brothers. This creature had green scaly skin and a lizard's tail. On its countless feet grew vipers. Zeus fought for long hours with it with no result. Then he remembered the magic herb Gaia had given him. He forced it into the mouth of the Campi and the abominable monster fell into deep lethargy. After that, Zeus released Bronte, Asteropes and Arges. He asked them to come to his aid in the war against the Titans and promised them that under his reign they would enjoy divine honors, just as his other allies, such as Styga and her children, Earth and his own brothers and sisters. The Cyclopes, were grateful that Zeus had freed them, and agreed to help him. They also wanted to avenge the Titans, for whom they felt implacable hatred because they were the ones who had flung them into Tartarus keeping the power for themselves.

Arriving on the surface where the battles were being fought, the Cyclopes gave Zeus and his brothers precious gifts that helped them in their struggle. To the leader of the Olympian gods, they offered, the lightning and the thunderbolt. Poseidon was given the trident which became his eternal symbol and Pluto received the "cynea", a cap of dog's hide that made him invisible. Then, the one-eyed Cyclopes, accomplished smiths, forged an iron curtain so that the Titans could not see the flash of the lightning and the thunderbolt. They also constructed a fine altar for their mother, Earth. There, the Olympian gods and their allies made a tremendous vow in the name of the Universal Mother. Reinforced with these new forces and new weapons they dashed into battle. The Titans used this brief respite to re-organize their forces and to forge new weapons. Their resistance was strong and a fierce struggle began which shook the whole Universe.

Hesiod dramatically describes the situation throughout the universe. The gods of both sides were grabbing huge rocks from the mountains where they sheltered, Othre and Olympus respectively, and threw them against their rivals. The whole earth trembled and wounds appeared on her immense body. Some times these huge rocks collided in the air and the bang was heard all over the Sky. Other times they would miss their course and fall into Pontos (the Sea) who moaned in pain and then they sank into the water and ended up in Nereus's palaces. Olympus and Othre were shaking up and down each time the terrible gods found their target. The tremors, the tremblings and the noise reached even remote Tartarus. This disorder became more and more intense when the two sides abandoned their permanent camps and made assaults on the enemy's positions. Then their immense feet left traces on the surface of the earth. During a very difficult moment for the Olympians, Zeus, who until then had been planning the strategy and giving instructions to his allies, felt that he couldn't bear the situation anymore and dashed raging into battle. Then he used the weapons the Cyclopes had given him. Uranus and Olympus shook by his thunderbolts. Zeus, projected his thunderbolts with rage in all directions. The flame was spread all over. A big blaze broke out that hungrily devoured the vast forests. The living flame covered the whole surface of the earth. High temperatures began to influence the liquid element. The blue waters of Oceanus and of Pontus were boiling. Enormous quantities of water began to evaporate. In the sky they merged with the black smoke released by the burning forests.

The blaze reached Chaos, the infinite, that, after so long now began to flash and glow in the tongues of flames. The babble and the mist were such, that if somebody heard and watched what was happening, they would recall the turbulences of Cosmogony (the beginning of creation) when Uranus mated with Earth to create the Universe. This time, it seemed that even Uranus himself would fall from his heights and that Earth would be uprooted from its mighty foundations. Everything turned upside down. The black smoke and the hot steam encircled the Titans, who could not breathe easily or see clearly. The thunderbolts, the lightning and the flames blinded the giant rivals of Zeus. They had already started to become exhausted and their camp was going through extreme difficulties.

Right at this crucial moment, when after ten years the struggle seemed as if it would be won by Zeus's side, he thought again of Gaia's omen. Apart from the Cyclopes, Cronus and his brothers he had imprisoned in Tartarus three more terrible giants, the Hundred-handed. So he rushed to their dark prison. Campi was awake and tried to stop him. But this time Zeus used his new weapons. He crushed Campi with a thunderbolt. He began to burn and scream. In the end all that was left of Campi was her burnt carcass. Zeus, using his grand-mother's magic herbs released Cottus, Aegaeon and Gyes (Gyges). The Hundred-handed, in great enthusiasm promised him eternal loyalty. They all rose to the surface where the terrible battle was still going on. The moment the Titans weakened from the battle and made their last stand to contain the Olympians, the Hundred-handed blinded by their hate for the ingratitude at their brothers, grabbed with their hundred hands three-hundred huge rocks and buried the Titans under them.

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Poseidon-Prehistoric Hellenes and the Sea

Poseidon was the Lord of the seas, the son of Cronus and Rhea. Cronus had swallowed him as well but then he brought him up again together with his brothers and sisters. After the Titanomachy and the defeat of Cronus, Poseidon became the King of the Sea and the Islands. He was the top-ranking among the sea-deities, to whom they were subjected.

They used to paint him as an old white-bearded man with fair-white hair and blue eyes, a peaceful look but sometimes a wrathful one, with a band round his head -like Zeus- sometimes naked and sometimes in clothes, carrying a trident in his hand which Cyclopes had given to him before the Titanomachy. The trident was said to symbolize the third kingdom of the Universe which was the Sea, i.e. Poseidon's Kingdom. A huge shell was his carriage drawn by two sea-horses and he was usually accompanied by Glaucus, Palaemon, Thetis, Nereides and Triton who was his "trumpeter".

However, Poseidon should not be strictly connected with the narrow sense of the "Sea" since he captures the driving-force of every phenomenon occurring either at the bottom of it or on its surface: earthquakes, volcanoes, typhoons etc. His ability to agitate the water indicates his connection with the sea-storms as well as with the seismic-waves which are usually caused after an earthquake tremor. Moreover, Poseidon's quarrels with other Olympian gods (Poseidon-Athena, Poseidon-Hera) take place in regions which are in or near seismic zones even today or were such in the past.

Poseidon's attributes and abilities are unfolded before the reader in the Orphic Hymn to Poseidon:

"I'm calling upon thee, Poseidon, the Lord of the Earth and the Sea,

thou who disturb the water and shake the Earth causing plenty of waves...."

In the same hymn Poseidon is said to be one of the oldest gods who dominates over the Earth, second after Zeus.

Apart from Poseidon there is a plethora of other sea-deities: Oceanus, Pontus, Thalassa (Sea) or Tethys, Forkys, Thaumas, Nereus, Nereides, Oceanides, Triton, Proteus, Glaucus etc. This plethora of sea-gods and goddesses indicates how much associated Prehistoric Hellenes were with Water which constituted one of the three fundamental forms of the Universe. We could even say that all these sea-deities were invented by ancient Hellenes in their effort to give a complete and detailed description of Poseidon's attributes i.e. Water-Sea properties.

In the hymn to Oceanus, on the other hand -where Orpheas is calling upon the immortal lord, the everlasting, the greatest among gods and mortal humans, the god who surrounds the Earth and causes the creation of rivers and seas- the separate use of the words "sea" and "oceanus" could mean nothing but the degree of connection between the Sea and Prehistoric Hellenes who seem to know quite well the difference between the sea and the ocean. But could this really have been possible if they had not experienced any voyages ( The Argonautic Expedition) not only across the sea which surrounded them, but also beyond it?

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After Plato relates his story, various scholars begin to study the possible connection between Atlantis and Greek mythology. The first analogy can be drawn when the Greeks discuss the great war between the Titans and the Gods "which bulks so largely in Greek mythi-history and art"(Spence 103). The story of Titanomachia, or divine war with Titans, relates that Uranus, the first ruler of the world, casts his sons (the Titans) into Tartarus (the Greek version of hell) along with one eyed Cyclopes. His wife Gaea, however, does not like his decision and urges the Titans to rise against their father and defeat him. They are successful in this endeavor and raise Cronus to the throne. It turns out to be a fatal mistake, for Cronus turns against the Cylops and throws them back into the Tartarus. Afterward, Cronus marries his sister Rhea, but fearing Uranus's and Gaea's prediction that he would be disposed by his own children, he swallows them as they are born. Only one child, Zeus, escapes Cronus. Later Zeus turns against his father, and together with other children (whom Cronus was forced to spit out) overthrows him.

Based on this account, a historian named Diodorus Siculus "applies the story and personnel of the war of the Gods and Titans to the history of Atlantis" (Spence 103). He does so on the grounds of an existing tradition of a great war in the Atlantic Ocean. It is Greek belief that their gods have their origin in the West, and therefore he speculates that a great war might have taken place there. The Titans and the Cyclops are also associated with the West. Another historian, Pomponius Mela, indicates that there was a distinct race of Titans connected with the Atlantic where Atlas was the ruler.
(Spence 103-104)


(Panada "Poseidon") However, the story of Atlantis and the gods does not end here. It continues with Critias' narrative related to us by Plato. According to Plato, after Zeus comes to the throne, he and his siblings divide the earth "into portions, both great and small, and to Poseidon or Neptune, god of the sea, had been awarded the isle of Atlantis, where he begat children by a mortal woman" (Spence 17). Poseidon later shapes the island to his liking, setting up two currents, one hot (presumably the Gulf stream) and one cold, around the island to assist its fertilization. There he has five pairs of twins to whom he gives control of Atlantis (Spence 17).

(Panada "Atlas") Atlas, the oldest child of Poseidon, becomes the ruler of the most precious part of the island, the house on the hill where his mother, Cleito, bore him and all of his siblings. From there he rules the whole island (or continent according to Plato) while his brothers are assigned to govern portions of Atlantis. Atlas himself has many children, including his seven daughters, Pleiades. However, the succession of the throne always passes to the eldest son. Atlas is considered a great ruler, and during his reign Atlantis experiences unprecedented prosperity. To this day the Atlantic Ocean bears his name (Spence 17).

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He was the son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Pluto, one of the 12 gods of Olympus. At the share of the universal power after Cronus was dethroned, he got the kingdom of the sea. This god had many palaces. One was built by Hephaestus placed on the top of the holly mountain Olympus as well as the other Olympians'. A second one made of stunning gold waited for him in the depth of the sea, where he spent his days and nights with Amphitrite. This palace was placed according to Homer near Aeges, without telling us in which corner of the Aegean Sea he imagines this city. A third one was in the island of Atlantis in the Atlantic Ocean where Cleito was his company. This palace was luxurious and Plato describes it in amazing details. There are many myths about his birth and raise. In Arcadia it was said that Rhea delivered Poseidon, hid him in a rack among animals and presented to Cronus a newborn horse as their child. So Cronus swallowed the horse and Poseidon was saved from his father. In Rhodes it was said that Rhea gave the newborn to the Telchines to protect it. They were the first citizens of Rhodes and along with Caphira, daughter of the Ocean raised the sea "god". Another version refers to Herodotus' Theogony. Cronus who swallowed his children swallowed newborn Poseidon. Later Zeus who was the only one who got away beating his father made him puke his children. So Poseidon and his other brothers were released.

The name of Poseidon seems to be etymologically related with the words potos (feast), pontos (open sea) and potamos (river). The adjectives attributed to him were "cyanochetis" (bluemoped) from the color of the sea, "gaeiochus" (surrounding earth) because seawater surrounds earth, "evricrion" that is powerful. Moreover: "anax" (king), "enalios" (marine), "thalassios" (marine), "evrithalassos" (of wide sea). He was the master of all sea deities. He caused all sea phenomena. He caused storms and brought back peace. He was also named "enosigeos", "enosixthon" (earthquake) and "kinaktor geas" (shaking earth), because he caused earthquakes and destroyed rocks with his trident. So in Thessaly for example when Peneus flooded the country the god hit Tempi with his trident and opened a canyon to pour water into the sea. That is why the Thessalians called him "Petreus". His anger was dashing and impetuous, like the element he ruled, to those who expressed disrespect to him. So made Odysseus, since he blinded his son Cyclop Polyphemus, wander in the sea and removed him from his country, until Zeus during the absence of his brother and the other gods helped the miserable hero return home. He hated Troy since when king Laomedotus refused to pay him as he had promised when he built with Apollo the walls of the city. This is why he sent a sea monster against the city and during the siege he supported the Greeks in every way.

Being the "god" of the sea Poseidon could travel by his gold chariot on the waves that open happily as he passes by. At the same time dolphins emerge from the bottom of the sea jumping around their god's chariot. The "god" had given to his son giant Orion the grace to walk on the sea without sinking. A present of his was the fact that the boats of the Faeaks flew above the waves as quickly as the mind of man can think.

The ancient Pelasgians considered Poseidon not only the god of the sea but also generally god of all water on the surface or depths of earth, that is lakes, sources and rivers. He was also called "Ippios" (horsy) because it was said that he created the horse and taught riding. That is why he was considered to be the protector of horse races.

Poseidon and Cleito gave birth to Atlas and other nine sons who made kings dividing the kingdom of the islands of the sea.

The legal wife of Poseidon was the daughter of Oceanus Amphitrite. A dolphin helped him take her by storm. When Poseidon approached her full of desire she got afraid of him and run away to disappear in the sea kingdom of Atlas. Then Poseidon sent many friends of his look for her and one of them was a dolphin who found her in the islands of Atlas, assured her of Poseidon's serious intentions and persuaded her to follow it to meet the sea god. That is why people said Poseidon honored the dolphin since then making it a holly animal and named after it the constellation of Dolphin. He had three children with Amphitrite; Triton with the scaly body and fish tail, Rode who married Sun and gave birth to Phaeton, and Venthesikime. In ancient documents a group of other children has been recorded, whom he had with other goddesses, nymphs and even mortal women who became leaders, warriors, sailors, builders and heroes. We mention some of these children who are relevant to our subject:

He and mortal Tyro had Nileus, king of Pilos and Peleus, king of Iolkos. He and Amimone gave birth to Nauplius, founder of Nauplia, which he surrounded with cyclopean walls. Palaestinus, king of Thrace. He and Oceanid Melivia, who went to Thessaly where he built and named a city after her, gave birth to Pelasgus, founder of the Pelasgians (one of the tribes of the Pregreeks), He and "goddess" Aphrodite gave birth to Rhodes, leader of Rhodes, who survived the cataclysm. ****s, the first builder of Chios. Lelex, leader of the race of Lelegon (one of the tribes of the Pregreeks). He and amazon Evriale gave birth to Orion, hunter of the Pleiades. He is usually mentioned as the father of savages and tough men or monsters (Adeus, Polyphemus, Swan, Vousiridus, Amicus, Coercion and others) or even horses. For example he and mermaid Medusa gave birth to Pegasus, the winged horse and Chrisaorus, father of the three-bodied giant Geryon with the famous oxen whom Hercules killed. The worship of Poseidon was spread all over Greece, south Italy and the ionic islands. To his name they sacrificed white and black bulls, wild boars and rams. They also organized horse races in the Isthmus of Corinth. In south Italy the Romans identified him with the sea god Neptunus.

Historic analysis and comments

Your link mentioned a variant in which Poseidon spent his childhood on the island of Rhodes, being raised by the metalworking Telchines, after being hidden from Cronos.

And it is said that Zeus spent his childhood on Crete after being smuggled away from his father Cronos.

In connection to these two variant stories for how the Elder Olympians came into being, the mythical Titan background has been structured by Philo, who claimed (in his History of the Uranides) that Cronos was a reference to the early cultures (7000-2700 BC) in Syria and the Levant: near the regions which would become known as Phoenicia after 1200 BC. Philo equated Cronos with the Semitic god El.

So a substantial part of the Titan themes is that the Titans were living on (and being imprisoned under) the mainland. Whereas Zeus and Poseidon (i.e. the Elder Olympians) were being "liberated" by traveling to offshore islands. I have previously mentioned that Zeus's sister Demeter was assumed to have gone to the island of Sicily.

The island theme continues, in regard to the first two of the Younger Olympians: Artemis and Apollo were born in the Cyclades group, on the island of Delos.

Then Hermes was born on the Peloponnese
(= the "near-island" of Pelops).

Aphrodite was born on the island of Cyprus, from sea-foam.

Hesiod

He is one of the oldest Greek poets born in Askra of Boeotia in the 8th century. He wrote two great poems: "Works and Days" and "Theogony". In "Works and Days" he speaks about justice and hard work, which is the only way to success, and he gives advice about agriculture, commerce, navigation as well as about marriage, bringing-up children and other moral and useful precepts. "Theogony" is an Epic which consists of 1022 lines and his author treats the birth and the history of the Greek gods as well as the creation of the Universe.

According to him Chaos was out there first, then Earth, Tartarus - in the depth of Earth -, and last of all Eros (Love). Eros is the natural power which caused the union of the identical parts of matter resulting in the formation of several bodies, and by keeping them united it kept the whole Universe in order. These four elements are mentioned as self made elements and not as coming from each other. By "chaos" Hesiod means the dark which dominated everywhere (or water). From Chaos came forth Erebus and Night and then night bare Aether and Day. And Earth first gave birth to Uranos (Heaven), then Mountains and Pontus. After laying with Uranos she begat six sons: Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, Cronus (they were called Titans), and six daughters: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys (called Titanides). According to Hesiod, then, Earth could be said to be the centre of the Universe and the matter by which the other bodies were formed.

And again the Earth gave birth to Cyclopes -they had only one eye in the middle of their forehead- and then the Hundred-handed were born, Cottus and Briarus and Gyes, with a hundred arms springing from their shoulders. Uranus hid them all away in the depths of the earth to the great sorrow of his wife Earth who tried to rouse Titans against their father. Cronus, of all the Titans, hated his father most and undertook to punish him. After he punished his father he became the King but because he learnt from Earth that he was destined to be overthrown by his own son he swallowed down his children at birth. He swallowed Hestia, then Demeter and Hera and after them Pluto and Poseidon. His wife Rhea was in deep grief and when she was about to give birth to the youngest of her children, Zeus, she left for Crete.

Hesiod lived in the 8th century BCE, probably about the same time or shortly after Homer. He refers to himself as a farmer in Boeotia, a region of central Greece, but other than that we know little. His poetry codified the chronology and genealogy of the Greek myths. Works and Days and the Theogony are the only two complete works we have of Hesiod, other than the first few lines of a poem called the Shield of Heracles.

In Works and Days Hesiod divided time into five ages:--the Golden age, ruled by Cronos, when people lived extremely long lives 'without sorrow of heart'; the Silver age, ruled by Zeus; the Bronze age, an epoch of war; the Heroic age, the time of the Trojan war; and lastly the Iron age, the corrupt present. This is similar to Hindu and Buddhist concepts of the Kali Yuga. The idea of a Golden Age has likewise had a profound impact on western thought. Works and Days also discusses pagan ethics, extols hard work, and lists lucky and unlucky days of the month for various activities.

The Theogony of Hesiod
translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White
[1914]
(ll. 1-25) 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-glancing (1) 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:

(ll. 26-28) `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.'

(ll. 29-35) 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)

(ll. 36-52) 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.

(ll. 53-74) 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.

(ll. 75-103) 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.

(ll. 104-115) 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.

(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all (4) 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 Aether (5) 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. 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.

(ll. 139-146) 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.

(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and Heaven, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and Gyes, presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first.

And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:

(ll. 164-166) `My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things.'

(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his dear mother:

(ll. 170-172) `Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful things.'

(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot.

(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her (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 Meliae (8) all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes (9) because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods, -- the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.

(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom 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.

(ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos (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.

(ll. 226-232) But abhorred Strife bare painful Toil and Forgetfulness and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin, all of one nature, and Oath who most troubles men upon earth when anyone wilfully swears a false oath.

(ll. 233-239) And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who is true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he is trusty and gentle and does not forget the laws of righteousness, but thinks just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phoreys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who has a heart of flint within her.

(ll. 240-264) And of Nereus and rich-haired Doris, daughter of Ocean the perfect river, were born children (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 Cymatolege (12) and Amphitrite easily calms the waves upon the misty sea and the blasts of raging winds, and Cymo, and Eione, and rich-crowned Alimede, and Glauconome, fond of laughter, and Pontoporea, Leagore, Euagore, and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe, and Lysianassa, and Euarne, lovely of shape and without blemish of form, and Psamathe of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso, Eupompe, Themisto, Pronoe, and Nemertes (13) who has the nature of her deathless father. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus, skilled in excellent crafts.

(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep- flowing Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired Harpies, Aello (Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they dart along.

(ll 270-294) And again, Ceto bare to Phoreys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear- voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One (14) in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade (aor) in his hands. Now Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, and came to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of Zeus and brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.

(ll. 295-305) And in a hollow cave she bare another monster, irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.

(ll. 306-332) Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bare Orthus the hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying sword through the plans of Athene the spoil-driver. She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay; but Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of Nemea, a plague to men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength of stout Heracles overcame him.

(ll. 333-336) And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bare her youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the offspring of Ceto and Phoreys.

(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander.

(ll. 346-370) Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters (15) 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.

(ll. 371-374) And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bare great Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide heaven.

(ll. 375-377) And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent among all men in wisdom.

(ll. 378-382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds, brightening Zephyrus, and Boreas, headlong in his course, and Notus, -- a goddess mating in love with a god. And after these Erigenia (16) bare the star Eosphorus (Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.

(ll. 383-403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx the deathless daughter of Ocean plan on that day when the Olympian Lightener called all the deathless gods to great Olympus, and said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the Titans, he would not cast him out from his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless gods. And he declared that he who was without office and rights as is just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honoured her, and gave her very great gifts, for her he appointed to be the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always. And as he promised, so he performed fully unto them all.

But he himself mightily reigns and rules.

(ll. 404-452) Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus.

Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bare Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honoured above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea. Also, because she is an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more still, for Zeus honours her. Whom she will she greatly aids and advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will. Good is she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So, then. albeit her mother's only child (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.

(ll. 453-491) 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.

(ll. 492-506) After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men (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.

(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready- witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a long- winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction -- not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honoured his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of Cronos. For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of gods said to him:

(ll. 543-544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!'

(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his cunning trick:

(ll. 548-558) `Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods, take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids.' So he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief against mortal men which also was to be fulfilled. With both hands he took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly vexed and said to him:

(ll. 559-560) `Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!'

(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the Melian (21) 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.

(ll. 585-589) But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men.

(ll. 590-612) For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies -- even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be healed.

(ll. 613-616) So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped his heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he knew many a wile.

(ll. 617-643) But when first their father was vexed in his heart with Obriareus and Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds, because he was jealous of their exceeding manhood and comeliness and great size: and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with great grief at heart. But the son of Cronos and the other deathless gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare from union with Cronos, brought them up again to the light at Earth's advising. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as many as sprang from Cronos had long been fighting together in stubborn war with heart-grieving toil, the lordly Titans from high Othyrs, but the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea bare in union with Cronos, from Olympus. So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the issue of the war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three with all things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and when their proud spirit revived within them all after they had fed on nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and gods spoke amongst them:

(ll. 644-653) `Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven, that I may say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are sprung from Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day to get victory and to prevail. But do you show your great might and unconquerable strength, and face the Titans in bitter strife; for remember our friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are come back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our counsels.'

(ll. 654-663) So he said. And blameless Cottus answered him again: `Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom and from our merciless bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O lord, son of Cronos. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the Titans in hard battle.'

(ll. 664-686) So he said: and the gods, givers of good things, applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for war even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that were born of Cronos together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom Zeus brought up to the light from Erebus beneath the earth. An hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands. And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry.

(ll. 687-712) Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the 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.

(ll. 713-735) And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareos and Gyes insatiate for war raised fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartarus. For a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple line all about it like a neck-circlet, while above grow the roots of the earth and unfruitful sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who drives the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled Obriareus live, trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis.

(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.

It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods.

(ll. 744-757) There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus (22) stands immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door.

And the house never holds them both within; but always one is without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and waits until the time for her journeying come; and the one holds all-seeing light for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous cloud.

(ll. 758-766) And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods.

(ll. 767-774) There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both 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.

(ll. 775-806) And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of back-flowing (23) Ocean. She lives apart from the gods in her glorious house vaulted over with great rocks and propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars. Rarely does the daughter of Thaumas, swift- footed Iris, come to her with a message over the sea's wide back.

But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when any of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea's wide back, and then falls into the main (24); 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.

(ll. 807-819) 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.

(ll. 820-868) 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 channelled (27) 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.

(ll. 869-880) 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.

(ll. 881-885) 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.

(ll. 886-900) 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.

(ll. 901-906) 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.

(ll. 907-911) 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.

(ll. 912-914) 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.

(ll. 915-917) 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.

(ll. 918-920) 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.

(ll. 921-923) 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.

(ll. 924-929) 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.

(ll. 929a-929t) (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 that (31) 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.

(ll. 930-933) 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.

(ll. 933-937) 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.

(ll. 938-939) 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.

(ll. 940-942) 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.

(ll. 943-944) And Alemena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare mighty Heracles.

(ll. 945-946) And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife.

(ll. 947-949) 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.

(ll. 950-955) And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled Alemena, 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.

(ll. 956-962) 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.

(ll. 963-968) 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.

(ll. 969-974) 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.

(ll. 975-978) 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.

(ll. 979-983) 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.

(ll. 984-991) 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.

(ll. 993-1002) And the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led away from Aeetes 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.

(ll. 1003-1007) 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.

(ll. 1008-1010) 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.

(ll. 1011-1016) 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.

(ll. 1017-1018) And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.

(ll. 1019-1020) These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bare them children like unto gods.

(ll. 1021-1022) But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.

ENDNOTES:
(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.

poimenes agrauloi, kak' elenchea, gasteres oion,
idmen pseudea polla legein etumoisin homoia,
idmen d', eut' ethelômen, alêthea gêrusasthai.

Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica
THE THEOGONY (1,041 lines)
Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #8

(ll. 1-25) 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-glancing (1) 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:

(ll. 26-28) `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.'

(ll. 29-35) 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)

(ll. 36-52) 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.

(ll. 53-74) 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.

(ll. 75-103) 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.

(ll. 104-115) 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.

(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next
wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all (4) 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 Aether (5) 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. 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.

(ll. 139-146) 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.

(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and
Heaven, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and
Gyes, presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an
hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon
his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the
stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of all the
children that were born of Earth and Heaven, these were the most
terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first.

And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so
soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into
the light: and Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth
groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of
grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her
dear sons. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in
her dear heart:

(ll. 164-166) `My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you
will obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father;
for he first thought of doing shameful things.'

(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of
them uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and
answered his dear mother:

(ll. 170-172) `Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I
reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of
doing shameful things.'

(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in
spirit, and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a
jagged sickle, and revealed to him the whole plot.

(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for
love, and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her (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 Meliae (8) all over the boundless
earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with flint and
cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept
away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around
them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden.
First she drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she
came to sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely
goddess, and grass grew up about her beneath her shapely feet.
Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and
rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the foam, and
Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because she
was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes (9) because sprang
from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire
followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the
assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning,
and this is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying
gods, -- the whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with
sweet delight and love and graciousness.

(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom 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.

(ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and
Death, and she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the
goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and
painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples
and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare
the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis
and Atropos (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.

(ll. 226-232) But abhorred Strife bare painful Toil and
Forgetfulness and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also,
Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes,
Lawlessness and Ruin, all of one nature, and Oath who most
troubles men upon earth when anyone wilfully swears a false oath.

(ll. 233-239) And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children,
who is true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he
is trusty and gentle and does not forget the laws of
righteousness, but thinks just and kindly thoughts. And yet
again he got great Thaumas and proud Phoreys, being mated with
Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who has a heart of flint
within her.

(ll. 240-264) And of Nereus and rich-haired Doris, daughter of
Ocean the perfect river, were born children (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 Cymatolege (12) and Amphitrite
easily calms the waves upon the misty sea and the blasts of
raging winds, and Cymo, and Eione, and rich-crowned Alimede, and
Glauconome, fond of laughter, and Pontoporea, Leagore, Euagore,
and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe, and Lysianassa, and
Euarne, lovely of shape and without blemish of form, and Psamathe
of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso, Eupompe, Themisto,
Pronoe, and Nemertes (13) who has the nature of her deathless
father. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus,
skilled in excellent crafts.

(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep-
flowing Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired
Harpies, Aello (Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on
their swift wings keep pace with the blasts of the winds and the
birds; for quick as time they dart along.

(ll 270-294) And again, Ceto bare to Phoreys the fair-cheeked
Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods
and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad,
and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious
Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-
voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered
a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew
not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One (14) in a soft meadow
amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her head, there
sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so
called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and
that other, because he held a golden blade (aor) in his hands.
Now Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks,
and came to the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of
Zeus and brings to wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But
Chrysaor was joined in love to Callirrhoe, the daughter of
glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed Geryones. Him mighty
Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that
day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had
crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the
herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.

(ll. 295-305) And in a hollow cave she bare another monster,
irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the
undying gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph
with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake,
great and awful, with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the
secret parts of the holy earth. And there she has a cave deep
down under a hollow rock far from the deathless gods and mortal
men. There, then, did the gods appoint her a glorious house to
dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima beneath the earth, grim
Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all her days.

(ll. 306-332) Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and
lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes.
So she conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she
bare Orthus the hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a
second, a monster not to be overcome and that may not be
described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound
of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong. And again she
bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess,
white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with the
mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house
of Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the
unpitying sword through the plans of Athene the spoil-driver.
She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a
creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three
heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and
in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing
fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay; but Echidna
was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the deadly Sphinx
which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which Hera,
the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of
Nemea, a plague to men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her
own people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the
strength of stout Heracles overcame him.

(ll. 333-336) And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bare her
youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in
the secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is
the offspring of Ceto and Phoreys.

(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and
Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and
the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver
eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and
Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus,
and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon,
Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander.

(ll. 346-370) Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters
(15) 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.

(ll. 371-374) And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bare
great Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who
shines upon all that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who
live in the wide heaven.

(ll. 375-377) And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to
Crius and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also
was eminent among all men in wisdom.

(ll. 378-382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds,
brightening Zephyrus, and Boreas, headlong in his course, and
Notus, -- a goddess mating in love with a god. And after these
Erigenia (16) bare the star Eosphorus (Dawn-bringer), and the
gleaming stars with which heaven is crowned.

(ll. 383-403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas
and bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the
house. Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force),
wonderful children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any
dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they
dwell always with Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx the
deathless daughter of Ocean plan on that day when the Olympian
Lightener called all the deathless gods to great Olympus, and
said that whosoever of the gods would fight with him against the
Titans, he would not cast him out from his rights, but each
should have the office which he had before amongst the deathless
gods. And he declared that he who was without office and rights
as is just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her
children through the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honoured
her, and gave her very great gifts, for her he appointed to be
the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him
always. And as he promised, so he performed fully unto them all.

But he himself mightily reigns and rules.

(ll. 404-452) Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus.

Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and
brought forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to
the deathless gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all
Olympus. Also she bare Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once
led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she
conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honoured
above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the
earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in starry
heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For
to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich
sacrifices and prays for favour according to custom, he calls
upon Hecate. Great honour comes full easily to him whose prayers
the goddess receives favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him;
for the power surely is with her. For as many as were born of
Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. The
son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that
was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as
the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both
in earth, and in heaven, and in sea. Also, because she is an
only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more
still, for Zeus honours her. Whom she will she greatly aids and
advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the
assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And
when men arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then
the goddess is at hand to give victory and grant glory readily to
whom she will. Good is she also when men contend at the games,
for there too the goddess is with them and profits them: and he
who by might and strength gets the victory wins the rich prize
easily with joy, and brings glory to his parents. And she is
good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to those whose
business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to
Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious
goddess gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon
as seen, if so she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to
increase the stock. The droves of kine and wide herds of goats
and flocks of fleecy sheep, if she will, she increases from a
few, or makes many to be less. So, then. albeit her mother's
only child (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.

(ll. 453-491) 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.

(ll. 492-506) After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the
prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great
Cronos the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth,
and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and
might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he
had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast in the wide-pathed
earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign
thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men (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.

(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad
Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed.
And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very
glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles,
and scatter-brained Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief
to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the
woman, the maiden whom he had formed. But Menoetius was
outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him with a lurid
thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad
presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard
constraint upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms,
standing at the borders of the earth before the clear-voiced
Hesperides; for this lot wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready-
witted Prometheus he bound with inextricable bonds, cruel chains,
and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him a long-
winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver; but by night
the liver grew as much again everyway as the long-winged bird
devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the valiant son
of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of Iapetus
from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction --
not without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that
the glory of Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than
it was before over the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded,
and honoured his famous son; though he was angry, he ceased from
the wrath which he had before because Prometheus matched himself
in wit with the almighty son of Cronos. For when the gods and
mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even then Prometheus was
forward to cut up a great ox and set portions before them, trying
to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set flesh and
inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with an
ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with
cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men
and of gods said to him:

(ll. 543-544) `Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good
sir, how unfairly you have divided the portions!'

(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking
him. But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not
forgetting his cunning trick:

(ll. 548-558) `Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal
gods, take which ever of these portions your heart within you
bids.' So he said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is
everlasting, saw and failed not to perceive the trick, and in his
heart he thought mischief against mortal men which also was to be
fulfilled. With both hands he took up the white fat and was
angry at heart, and wrath came to his spirit when he saw the
white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because of this the
tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless gods
upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly
vexed and said to him:

(ll. 559-560) `Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you
have not yet forgotten your cunning arts!'

(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is
everlasting; and from that time he was always mindful of the
trick, and would not give the power of unwearying fire to the
Melian (21) 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.

(ll. 585-589) But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the
price for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the
finery which the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had
given her, to the place where the other gods and men were. And
wonder took hold of the deathless gods and mortal men when they
saw that which was sheer guile, not to be withstood by men.

(ll. 590-612) For from her is the race of women and female kind:
of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst
mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful
poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed
the drones whose nature is to do mischief -- by day and
throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and
lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered
skeps and reap the toil of others into their own bellies -- even
so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal
men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to
be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and
the sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly
old age without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least
has no lack of livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead,
his kinsfolk divide his possessions amongst them. And as for the
man who chooses the lot of marriage and takes a good wife suited
to his mind, evil continually contends with good; for whoever
happens to have mischievous children, lives always with unceasing
grief in his spirit and heart within him; and this evil cannot be
healed.

(ll. 613-616) So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the
will of Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus,
escaped his heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined
him, although he knew many a wile.

(ll. 617-643) But when first their father was vexed in his heart
with Obriareus and Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds,
because he was jealous of their exceeding manhood and comeliness
and great size: and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed
earth, where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the
ground, at the end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter
anguish for a long time and with great grief at heart. But the
son of Cronos and the other deathless gods whom rich-haired Rhea
bare from union with Cronos, brought them up again to the light
at Earth's advising. For she herself recounted all things to the
gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory and a
glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as
many as sprang from Cronos had long been fighting together in
stubborn war with heart-grieving toil, the lordly Titans from
high Othyrs, but the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea
bare in union with Cronos, from Olympus. So they, with bitter
wrath, were fighting continually with one another at that time
for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for
either side, and the issue of the war hung evenly balanced. But
when he had provided those three with all things fitting, nectar
and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and when their proud
spirit revived within them all after they had fed on nectar and
delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and gods
spoke amongst them:

(ll. 644-653) `Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven, that
I may say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have
we, who are sprung from Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with
each other every day to get victory and to prevail. But do you
show your great might and unconquerable strength, and face the
Titans in bitter strife; for remember our friendly kindness, and
from what sufferings you are come back to the light from your
cruel bondage under misty gloom through our counsels.'

(ll. 654-663) So he said. And blameless Cottus answered him
again: `Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even
of ourselves we know that your wisdom and understanding is
exceeding, and that you became a defender of the deathless ones
from chill doom. And through your devising we are come back
again from the murky gloom and from our merciless bonds, enjoying
what we looked not for, O lord, son of Cronos. And so now with
fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid your power in
dreadful strife and will fight against the Titans in hard
battle.'

(ll. 664-686) So he said: and the gods, givers of good things,
applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for
war even more than before, and they all, both male and female,
stirred up hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that
were born of Cronos together with those dread, mighty ones of
overwhelming strength whom Zeus brought up to the light from
Erebus beneath the earth. An hundred arms sprang from the
shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads growing upon his
shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against the
Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands.
And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their
ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands
and their might. The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the
earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and
high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of the
undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartarus and the
deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard
missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one
another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to
starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry.

(ll. 687-712) Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but
straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all
his strength. From Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith,
hurling his lightning: the 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.

(ll. 713-735) And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareos and
Gyes insatiate for war raised fierce fighting: three hundred
rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands
and overshadowed the Titans with their missiles, and buried them
beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains
when they had conquered them by their strength for all their
great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartarus. For a brazen
anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and days would reach
the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil falling from
earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the tenth.
Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple line
all about it like a neck-circlet, while above grow the roots of
the earth and unfruitful sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who
drives the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in
a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may
not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a
wall runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Cottus and
great-souled Obriareus live, trusty warders of Zeus who holds the
aegis.

(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order, are the sources and
ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea
and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.

It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he
would not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end,
but cruel blast upon blast would carry him this way and that.
And this marvel is awful even to the deathless gods.

(ll. 744-757) There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped
in dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus (22) stands
immovably upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying
hands, where Night and Day draw near and greet one another as
they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is
about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door.

And the house never holds them both within; but always one is
without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays
at home and waits until the time for her journeying come; and the
one holds all-seeing light for them on earth, but the other holds
in her arms Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped
in a vaporous cloud.

(ll. 758-766) And there the children of dark Night have their
dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never
looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into
heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them
roams peacefully over the earth and the sea's broad back and is
kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit
within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once
seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless
gods.

(ll. 767-774) There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god
of the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A
fearful hound guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a
cruel trick. On those who go in he fawns with his tail and both
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.

(ll. 775-806) And there dwells the goddess loathed by the
deathless gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of back-flowing
(23) Ocean. She lives apart from the gods in her glorious house
vaulted over with great rocks and propped up to heaven all round
with silver pillars. Rarely does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-
footed Iris, come to her with a message over the sea's wide back.

But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and
when any of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus
sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods
from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a
high and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch
of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream,
and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. With nine
silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea's
wide back, and then falls into the main (24); 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.

(ll. 807-819) 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.

(ll. 820-868) 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 channelled (27) 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.

(ll. 869-880) 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.

(ll. 881-885) 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.

(ll. 886-900) 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.

(ll. 901-906) 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.

(ll. 907-911) 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.

(ll. 912-914) 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.

(ll. 915-917) 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.

(ll. 918-920) 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.

(ll. 921-923) 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.

(ll. 924-929) 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.

(ll. 929a-929t) (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 that (31)
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.

(ll. 930-933) 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.

(ll. 933-937) 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.

(ll. 938-939) 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.

(ll. 940-942) 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.

(ll. 943-944) And Alemena was joined in love with Zeus who drives
the clouds and bare mighty Heracles.

(ll. 945-946) And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea,
youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife.

(ll. 947-949) 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.

(ll. 950-955) And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled
Alemena, 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.

(ll. 956-962) 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.

(ll. 963-968) 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.

(ll. 969-974) 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.

(ll. 975-978) 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.

(ll. 979-983) 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.

(ll. 984-991) 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.

(ll. 993-1002) And the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led
away from Aeetes 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.

(ll. 1003-1007) 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.

(ll. 1008-1010) 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.

(ll. 1011-1016) 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.

(ll. 1017-1018) And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to
Odysseus in sweet love, and bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.

(ll. 1019-1020) These are the immortal goddesses who lay with
mortal men and bare them children like unto gods.

(ll. 1021-1022) But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters
of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.

ENDNOTES:

(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.

quote from: http://phoenicia.org/theomythology.html

'For it is not without cause that we have explained these things in many ways, but in view of the later misinterpretations of the names in the history, which the Greeks in ignorance took in a wrong sense, being deceived by the ambiguity of the translation.'

Afterwards he says:

'From Genos, son of Aeon and Protogonus, were begotten again mortal children, whose names are Light, and Fire, and Flame. These, says he, discovered fire from rubbing pieces of wood together, and taught the use of it. And they begat sons of surpassing size and stature, whose names were applied to the mountains which they occupied: so that from them were named mount Cassius, and Libanus, and Antilibanus, and Brathy. From these, he says, were begotten Memrumus and Hypsuranius; and they got their names, he says, from their mothers, as the women in those days had free intercourse with any whom they met.'

Then he says:

'Hypsuranius inhabited Tyre, and contrived huts out of reeds and rushes and papyrus: and he quarrelled with his brother Ousous, who first invented a covering for the body from skins of wild beasts which he was strong enough to capture. And when furious rains and winds occurred, the trees in Tyre were rubbed against each other and caught fire, and burnt down the wood that was there. And Ousous took a tree, and, having stripped off the branches, was the first who ventured to embark on the sea; and be consecrated two pillars to fire and wind, and worshipped them, and poured libations of blood upon them from the wild beasts which he took in hunting.

'But when Hypsuranius and Ousous were dead, those who were left, he says, consecrated staves to them, and year by year worshipped their pillars and kept festivals in their honour. But many years afterwards from the race of llypsuranius were born Agreus and Halieus, the inventors of hunting and fishing, from whom were named huntsmen and fishermen: and from them were bom two brethren, discoverers of iron and the mode of working it; the one of whom, Chrysor, practised oratory, and incantations, and divinations: and that he was Hephaestus, and invented the hook, and bait, and line, and raft, and was the first of all men to make a voyage: wherefore they reverenced him also as a god after his death. And he was also called Zeus Meilichios. And some say that his brothers invented walls of brick. Afterwards there sprang from their race two youths, one of whom was called Technites (Artificer), and the other Geinos Autochthon (Earth-born Aboriginal). These devised the mixing of straw with the clay of bricks, and drying them in the sun, and moreover invented roofs. From them others were born, one of whom was called Agros, and the other Agrueros or Agrotes; and of the latter there is in Phoenicia a much venerated statue, and a shrine drawn by yokes of oxen; and among the people of Byblos he is named pre-eminently the greatest of the gods.

'These two devised the addition to houses of courts, and enclosures, and caves. From them came husbandmen and huntsmen. They are also called Aletae and Titans. From these were born Amynos and Magus, who established villages and sheepfolds. From them came Misor and Suduc, that is to say "Straight " and "Just": these discovered the use of salt.

'From Misor was born Taautus, who invented the first written alphabet; the Egyptians called him Thoyth, the Alexandrians Thoth, and the Greeks Hermes.

'From Suduc came the Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothraces: these, he says, first invented a ship. From them have sprung others, who discovered herbs, and the healing of venomous bites, and charms. In their time is born a certain Elioun called "the Most High," and a female named Beruth, and these dwelt in the neighbourhood of Byblos.

'And from them is born Epigeius or Autochthon, whom they afterwards called Uranus; so that from him they named the element above us Uranus because of the excellence of its beauty. And he has a sister born of the aforesaid parents, who was called Ge (earth), and from her, he says, because of her beauty, they called the earth by the same name. And their father, the Most High, died in an encounter with wild beasts, and was deified, and his children offered to him libations and sacrifices.

'And Uranus, having succeeded to his father's rule, takes to himself in marriage his sister Ge, and gets by her four sons, Elus who is also Kronos, and Baetylus, and Dagon who is Siton, and Atlas. Also by other wives Uranus begat a numerous progeny; on which account Ge was angry, and from jealousy began to reproach Uranus, so that they even separated from each other.

'But Uranus, after he had left her, used to come upon her with violence, whenever he chose, and consort with her, and go away again; he used to try also to destroy his children by her; but Ge repelled him many times, having gathered to herself allies. And when Kronos had advanced to manhood, he, with the counsel and help of Hermes Trismegistus (who was his secretary), repels his father Uranus, and avenges his mother.

'To Kronos are born children, Persephone and Athena. The former died a virgin: but by the advice of Athena and Hermes Kronos made a sickle and a spear of iron. Then Hermes talked magical words to the allies of Kronos, and inspired them with a desire of fighting against Uranus on behalf of Ge. And thus Kronos engaged in war, and drove Uranus from his government, and succeeded to the kingdom. Also there was taken in the battle the beloved concubine of Uranus, being great with child, whom Kronos gave in marriage to Dagon. And in his house she gave birth to the child begotten of Uranus, which she named Demarus.

' After this Kronos builds a wall round his own dwelling, and founds the first city, Byblos in Phoenicia.

'Soon after this he became suspicious of his own brother Atlas, and, with the advice of Hermes, threw him into a deep pit and buried him. At about this time the descendants of the Dioscuri put together rafts and ships, and made voyages; and, being cast ashore near Mount Cassius, consecrated a temple there. And the allies of Elus, who is Kronos, were surnamed Eloim, as these same, who were surnamed after Kronos, would have been called Kronii.

'And Kronos, having a son Sadidus, dispatched him with his own sword, because he regarded him with suspicion, and deprived him of life, thus becoming the murderer of his son. In like manner he cut off the head of a daughter of his own; so that all the gods were dismayed at the disposition of Kronos.

'But as time went on Uranus, being in banishment, secretly sends his maiden daughter Astarte with two others her sisters, Ehea and Dione, to slay Kronos by craft. But Kronos caught them, and though they were his sisters, made them his wedded wives. And when Uranus knew it, he sent Eimarmene and Hora with other allies on an expedition against Kronos. and these Kronos won over to his side and kept with him.

'Further, he says, the god Uranus devised the Baetylia, having contrived to put life into stones. And to Kronos there were born of Astarte seven daughters, Titanides or Artemides: and again to the same there were born of Rhea seven sons, of whom the youngest was deified at his birth; and of Dione females, and of Astarte again two males, Desire and Love. And Dagon, after he discovered corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios.

'And one of the Titanides united to Suduc, who is named the Just, gives birth to Asclepius.

'In Peraea also there were born to Kronos three sons, Kronos of the same name with his father, and Zeus Belus, and Apollo. In their time are born Pontus, and Typhon, and Nereus father of Pontus and son of Belus.

'And from Pontus is born Sidon (who from the exceeding sweetness of her voice was the first to invent musical song) and Poseidon. And to Demarus is born Melcathrus, who is also called Hercules.

'Then again Uranus makes war against Pontus, and after revolting attaches himself to Demarus, and Demarus attacks Pontus, but Pontus puts him to flight; and Demarus vowed an offering if he should escape.

'And in the thirty-second year of his power and kingdom Elus, that is Kronos, having waylaid his father Uranus in an inland spot, and got him into his hands, emasculates him near some fountains and rivers. There Uranus was deified: and as he breathed his last, the blood from his wounds dropped into the fountains and into the waters of the rivers, and the spot is pointed out to this day.'

This, then, is the story of Kronos, and such are the glories of the mode of life, so vaunted among the Greeks, of men in the days of Kronos, whom they also affirm to have been the first and 'golden race of articulate speaking men,' 15 that blessed happiness of the olden time!

Again, the historian adds to this, after other matters:

'But Astarte, the greatest goddess, and Zeus Demarus, and Adodus king of gods, reigned over the country with the consent of Kronos. And Astarte set the head of a bull upon her own head as a mark of royalty; and in travelling round the world she found a star that had fallen from the sky, which she took up and consecrated in the holy island Tyre. And the Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite.

'Kronos also, in going round the world, gives the kingdom of Attica to his own daughter Athena. But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality Kronos offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father Uranus, and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same. And not long after another of his sons by Rhea, named Muth, having died, he deifies him, and the Phoenicians call him Thanatos and Pluto. And after this Kronos gives the city Byblos to the goddess Baaltis, who is also called Dione, and Berytus to Poseidon and to the Cabeiri and Agrotae and Halieis, who also consecrated the remains of Pontus at Berytus.

'But before this the god Tauthus imitated the features of the gods who were his companions, Kronos, and Dagon, and the rest, and gave form to the sacred characters of the letters. He also devised for Kronos as insignia of royalty four eyes in front and behind . . . but two of them quietly closed, and upon his shoulders four wings, two as spread for flying, and two as folded.

'And the symbol meant that Kronos could see when asleep, and sleep while waking: and similarly in the case of the wings, that he flew while at rest, and was at rest when flying. But to each of the other gods he gave two wings upon the shoulders, as meaning that they accompanied Kronos in his flight. And to Kronos himself again he gave two wings upon his head, one representing the all-ruling mind, and one sensation.

'And when Kronos came into the South country he gave all Egypt to the god Tauthus, that it might be his royal dwelling-place. And these things, he says, were recorded first by Suduc's seven sons the Cabeiri, and their eighth brother Asclepius, as the god Tauthus commanded them.

'All these stories Thabion, who was the very first hierophant of all the Phoenicians from the beginning, allegorized and mixed up with the physical and cosmical phenomena, and delivered to the prophets who celebrated the orgies and inaugurated the mysteries: and they, purposing to increase their vain pretensions from every source, handed them on to their successors and to their foreign visitors: one of these was Eisirius the inventor of the three letters, brother of Chna the first who had his name changed to Phoenix.'

Then again afterwards he adds:

'But the Greeks, surpassing all in genius, appropriated most of the earliest stories, and then variously decked them out with ornaments of tragic phrase, and adorned them in every way, with the purpose of charming by the pleasant fables. Hence Hesiod and the celebrated Cyclic poets framed theogonies of their own, and battles of the giants, and battles of Titans, and castrations; and with these fables, as they travelled about, they conquered and drove out the truth.

'But our ears having grown up in familiarity with their fictions, and being for long ages pre-occupied, guard as a trust the mythology which they received, just as I said at the beginning; and this mythology, being aided by time, has made its hold difficult for us to escape from, so that the truth is thought to be nonsense, and the spurious narrative truth.'

Let these suffice as quotations from the writings of Sanchuniathon, translated by Philo of Byblos, and approved as true by the testimony of Porphyry the philosopher.

The same author, in his History of the Jews, further writes thus concerning Kronos:

'Tauthus, whom the Egyptians call Thoyth, excelled in wisdom among the Phoenicians, and was the first to rescue the worship of the gods from the ignorance of the vulgar, and arrange it in the order of intelligent experience. Many generations after him a god Sourmoubelos and Thuro, whose name was changed to Eusarthis, brought to light the theology of Tauthus which had been hidden and overshadowed, by allegories.'

And soon after he says:

'It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Kronos then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star Saturn, had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called ledud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him.'

In the following webpage, the author is commenting about an ancestral group which is named ditanu/tidnum, and is claimed to have been an ancestral group by both the Amorites in general, and by the people of Ugarit.

https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2002-February/000944.html

In the above-cited webpage, the author goes on to suggest that the people called ditanu/tidnum lived in a hostile era reminiscent of the Greek mythological Titans.

Here is a followup email, which supported the suggestion that the Egyptians originally used the name retenu to mean ditanu.
https://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2002-February/000964.html

And here is a very detailed research effort which covers with the way ditanu/tidnum/retenu fits into the geography of ancient Amorite lands. http://listhost.uchicago.edu/pipermail/ane/2002-March/001077.html

Here is a very brief extract from that link.
quote:
"Kitchen calculates that the eponym Ditanu belongs to the 22nd c.[BC], long before the time of Yaqaru, founder of the Ugaritic
dynasty." Note Finkelstein's comment in JCS 20, 1966 article on the
Genealogy of the Hammurabi dynasty, p 101: "Ditanu, ultimately going
back to Tidnum or Tednum of the pre-Sargonic inscriptions of Lagash
and thus probably the earliest West Semitic tribal name known to
Mesopotamia, ...was synonymous with the name Amurru itself."
endquote

With this background in mind, it is highly suggestive that Greek mythology claimed the "titan" Prometheus had been chained to a mountain near the land which ancient Semites had identified by a cognate name, "Ditanu".

And, although there is always a possibility that it is mere coincidence, the notion that Zeus "banished" titans to the "west" could easily have originated as wordplay derived from the semitic names Amuru ("west") and Amorites (westerners").

Ras Shamra means literally the "promontory of fennel", and fennel was a spice. Greek myth suggests that Prometheus brought a coal of fire to earth, wrapped in a fennel stalk.

quote from: http://www.theology.edu/ugarit.htm
"The next question was: where was the royal city of which this cemetary had been the necropolis? The obvious candidate for investigation was a nearby tell, a few hundred yards east of the cemetary. The sixty-five foot hill was covered with aromatic fennel (a preennial or biennial aromatic herb of the family apiacae [Umbelliferae], used as a flavoring agent and formerly as a medicine. According to a Greek myth, knowledge came to man from Olympus in the form of a fiery coal contained in a fennel stalk.), and therefore the name of this tel was "Fennel Promontory", but we know it by its Arabic form, "Rash Shamra."
endquote

The issue will probably never be proven with certainty. But perhaps the titan Prometheus brought fire (=incense) to mankind at Ras Shamra, wrapped in a fennel stalk. (In the Epic of Keret, there is an incense deity named Ditanu, who seems functionally similar to the Greek "titan" Prometheus.)

It is generally regarded that, before colonizing Ras Shamra in the "west", an eastern branch of the Phoenicians had operated the spice route to Punt for the ancient Egyptians.

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The Age of Gods

140.000.000 years ago when the whole planet of the Earth was a vast sea, a giant mountain range - Macedonia, Olympus, Thessaly, N.Eboea - emerged out of the waves. An extension to that range was Attica, S.Eboea and most of the Cyclades Islands. 35,000,000 years ago new cosmogonic tectonic activities occurred in the depths of the earth. It is the time for the Pindus range (Hellas)to uprise as well as for the Alps, the Pyrenaea and the Himalayas. 30.000.000 years ago new intense tectonic activities caused the appearance of the west part of Hellas.

This is how Aegis emerged from the depths of the sea as one piece of land covering almost all the Hellenic space of today from the Ionion Sea (Pelagos) up to Minor Asia to the east and as far as Crete to the south. Aegis, which was the state of the Hellenic gods with Olympus as its centre, was the birthplace of the human civilization since it was the first emerging geological region about 100.000.000 years ago. Palaeolithic tools as well as fossilized bones of rhinoceroses, hippos and other big mammals found by the Greek archaeologist D.Theocharis in 1969-1970 on the island of Alonnesos (N.Sporades, Aegean) prove that once the Aegean Sea was a wild land before it submerged during Deucalion's Cataclysm.

During an indefinite era in those inconceivable times the humans who appeared on that land started to abandon the semi-wild way of living and under the leadership of some capable and clever men they gathered in communities and laid the foundations of the first embryonic civilization which gradually flourished and reached the zenith of its acme with the Hellenic gods at the top of it. The archaeological spade has come to testify the very old appearance of humans in Aegis (Hellas) by digging out the first traces of human settlements in Thessaly (Milojcic Vlad. - German archaeological mission) which date back to 100.000 B.C. and the human skull and skeleton ("Archanthropus") found in Petralona cave by the anthropologist Aris Poulianos in Halkidiki which dates back to 700.000 B.C. The "Archanthropus" as well as the chopping tool found near Corissia lake in Corfu and which dates back to 700.000, too, are an evidence for the appearance of humans in Hellas in pre-prehistoric times.

Of the Hellenic gods those who had great influence on humans and were worshipped in Temples were the Olympians: Zeus, Ares, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia, Aphrodite, Athena, Demeter, Artemis. Each of them had his own influence on one thing or more and therefore, they were believed to be protectors and defenders of people.

Some writers and historians - Evemerus was one of them, (4th-3rd century B.C )- claim that the gods of the Hellenic Mythology were real persons, leaders or kings who were glorified after their death and were worshipped as gods because they had ruled with wisdom and benefited humans in some way. However, some others believe that Zeus was The God, The Power, The Spirit while the other gods merely symbolized Zeus' attributes or other abstract meanings. For example, Athena symbolized Wisdom, Aphrodite symbolized Eros i.e. the power of attraction and creation, Ares was connected with War, Apollo symbolized the Sun and the Harmony of the Universe, Hermes symbolized Logos (=Speech), Poseidon symbolized the Sea, and so on.

Ancient poets and priests, on the other hand, invented natural and ethical allegories and attributed natural phenomena and human frailties to gods. For example, while you have Homer the Historian before you, suddenly you lose him and then you see gods fighting or crying, vulnerable gods, gods with any human weaknesses, gods who get furious and cause rough seas or put other obstacles in humans' way. One has to use the allegory as a tracer to find out Homer the Historian again.

The first King (or god) of that indefinite era (certainly before 10,000 B.C.) was Uranus (Heaven), Cronus' father and Zeus' grandfather. According to the Hellenic and Atlantic Tradition as it was saved by Diodorus Sikeliotis, it was Uranus first who gathered people together in a settlement surrounded by walls and made them abandon the unlawful and beastly life they used to lead. He discovered how to use the cultivated seeds and taught people how to store them. He conquered a big part of the world particularly the countries to the North and West. He became an expert on observing the stars and could foresee many things that were about to occur. He introduced the year, the months and the seasons based on his observations regarding the movements of the Sun and the Moon. People, being completely ignorant of the world of celestial bodies, were stunned by the verification of his predictions and thinking that he was god, after his death they honoured him as god for his many benefactions and his astronomical knowledge. They also named the vault of the heaven after him and they declared him the King of the Universe.

Uranus, according to the tradition, had many wives and therefore many sons most of whom were born by Titaea (Earth) and were called Titans. Of his daughters (Titanides) the most famous were Vasileia and Rhea. Vasileia got married to Hyperion who ruled with wisdom.

After Hyperion's death Uranus' Kingdom was divided between his sons Cronus and Atlas (Hesiod says that Atlas was Iapetus' son). Atlas ruled over the Atlantic regions and because of his astronomical knowledge, the legend wanted him to uphold the sky on his shoulders. Cronus left bad impression in human memory after his death because of his actions which were characterised by disrespect and greed. The Atlantic tradition mentions that people rose up against Cronus' tyranny under the leadership of his son Zeus (Dias). Then a wild war broke out between Cronus and Zeus which remained engraved in people's memory as "Titanomachy" (fighting of Titans).

Cronus was succeeded by Zeus, the Aegis Holder, who was the great victor in that war. He was a great civilizer of the world. He benefited humans and introduced the institution of justice. He was the inventor of courts, laws and peace. So much was he respected and so grateful were people to him that he was declared "Pater" (Father). The years rolled on and the big disasters which took place after the recession of glaciers weakened the human memory which placed King Zeus on Olympus and humans worshipped him as the "Father of gods and humans".

This worship was not only a kind of Hellenic gratitude to Zeus. People in India honoured Dyans-Pitar (Pater Dias), Latins honoured Jupiter (Zeus - Pater) and Hyperboreans worshipped Odin (Dias). In the tradition of most peoples was preserved the glorious memory of Zeus' Politeia (=State) in which both ethics and just governing as well as technological civilization reached high standards. With Zeus' reign the Age of Gods comes to its end giving way to the age of Heroes (Argonauts, Theseus, Heracles, Perseus etc.).

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Before and After Deucalion's Cataclysm

Hellenes started observing and speculating about the origin of things and the order of the Universe since the time of Telchines who lived during the Age of Gods. According to Strabo they first came from Crete to Cyprus and then to Rhodes, they were excellent craftsmen and they fabricated the scythe for Cronos. Diodorus Sikeliotis says that it was to them that Rhea gave Poseidon to be brought up and the Knowledge they possessed was very useful to humans because they had got involved in Astronomy and taught it before Deucalion's Cataclysm. Apollodorus, on the other hand, says that the civilization before Deucalion's Cataclysm (certainly before 10.000 B.C.) was similar to that of the Bronze Age. According to the Egyptian Tradition, the Greek Actis, Helius' son -who lived in those inconceivable times- came to Egypt where he built a town and gave it the name of Helioupolis after his father's name (Helius=Sun) and Polis (=town). While he was there he taught Egyptians everything he knew about Astronomy (Diodorus Sikeliotis Book V, p.57). However, most of the information about the Pre-cataclysm civilization can be derived from "Critias" and "Timaeus" by Plato.

The Age of Heroes which succeeded the Age of Gods was marked by a retrogression of the civilization to Neolithic conditions caused by Deucalion's Cataclysm. After that devastating catastrophe - before that other big floods ( Ogygius' Flood ) and earthquakes had also stricken the region where Hellenes lived ("Critias", "Timaeus") - many people moved to other places taking with them their high knowledge, too. One of these new places was Egypt where part of the pre-cataclysm (before Deucalion's Cataclysm) civilization was preserved mainly among Egyptian priests ("Timaeus"). In Hellas, on the other hand, not all memories of the pre-cataclysm civilization were lost. Sparks of that Light were preserved in the Mysteries (Orpheas-Orphism) and among priests or certain people who were charged with the task of carrying the torch of that immemorial civilization to the later generations.

Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus

HESIOD:
THEOGONY

"Theogony" means "birth of the gods." This thousand-line poem comes from the end of the 8th century bce. Most generally it is a hymn to Zeus, king of gods and men, but it encompasses the origin of the world (cosmogony) and of the other gods.

I

As will be conventional in epic poetry hereafter, the work begins with honor to the Muses -- the sources of inspiration for the arts and branches of learning, and "daughters of Zeus" (56). Because Hesiod is introduced as having been visited by the Muses at the foot of Mount Helicon, Helicon becomes synonymous with poetic inspiration in the Western literary tradition forever after. Hesiod presents himself as a shepherd, always a pleasant symbol of benevolent and unpretentious leadership. The Muses make Hesiod aware that "we know how to tell many falsehoods that seem real: but we also know how to speak truth when we wish to" (53). So how much truth do myths contain? (That's the first question, embedded here, in the history of literary criticism.) Because the Greeks had no authorized "sacred" text, there was no fixed myth but rather a host of variations.

II

"Chaos" or a "yawning void" comes into being and then female and male principles and aspects of nature. At first things generate spontaneously but soon a more abstract sexuality takes over. Gaea and Uranus produce twelve Titans -- six male and six female -- and then incest is responsible for more beings. For much more detail concerning the generations of the Greek gods, click here.

III

Uranus attempts to repress creation and the story certainly gives Freud material for theorizing about the castration complex. Culturally the story reflects patriarchal paranoia. We hear one version of the birth of Aphrodite, goddess of love and sex, laughter and hoaxes, beauty, and the whisperings of maidens. Here's a case of birth from the father.

IV

The birth of grim personifications includes mention of Medusa and Pegasus. The snake-goddess is cast as a monster now in patriarchal, male-deity worshipping Greek culture. Cerberus and the Hydra are mentioned.

V

Lots of nymphs are listed.

VI

Zeus makes campaign promises.
VII

Hecate will later be identified with Artemis.

VIII

Here's another next-generation attempt at repression: Cronus swallowing his kids. Rhea was originally a fertility goddess, probably identical to Cybele, the eastern goddess whose worship involved mystical frenzies, drums and cymbals, her young lover Attis, animals, and so on. Perhaps this din associated with her worship is etiologically related to the noise made so that the cries of the baby Zeus would not be heard by Cronus.

The stone taking the place of Zeus and then later vomited up by Cronus became a tourist site in ancient Greece. It was exhibited at Delphi and oiled daily by the priests.

IX

Prometheus is a trickster figure and here pulls the old meat switch on Zeus, who in this version is omniscient. Prometheus' further adventures are related at length in Hesiod's Works and Days.

X

Ten years is the standard length of war in epics. Zeus and the Olympians are not more good or moral; they just outdo the Titans, who are somewhat imprisoned afterwards.

XI

Tartarus is an early stage in the development of Hell.

XII

Zeus is an archetypal dragon-slayer (like Marduk vs. Tiamat in Babylonian myth; Yahweh vs. Leviathan in the remnants of Hebrew myth). His sexploits probably reflect the subjugation of previous goddess religions by the conquering male-god worshipping religion brought by the invading Indo-Europeans.

Zeus has the same impulse but doesn't fall into the mistakes of the previous generations of male rulers. He suppresses the woman, not the child. He forestalls opposition by disposing of the mothers and usurps the female reproductive role, particularly with the Olympians Athena and Dionysus.

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Works Consulted

Hesiod's Theogony. Trans. Norman O. Brown. NY: The Liberal Arts Press, 1953.

The Theogony of Hesiod. Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White. 1914. http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm.

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Orpheus: Greek Mythology

Secretum secretorum - Aspects of Greek Mythology

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Theogony

When considering the ancient tales of the predecessors of the Greek gods we would do well to first consider our ancient sources known or assumed to contain information on the earliest stages in the world and the Greek gods who peopled it. We have first of all the authority the Greeks themselves most revered, Hesiod, whose Theogony (not necessarily Hesiod's title) offers a brief account of the origins of the cosmos as preface to the extolling of Zeus' rule. Since the purpose of the poem is largely to contrast Zeus' organization of the world with the absence of such order in previous times, the lack of any great detail in this account is not surprising. Whether Greek storytelling had developed further details by the seventh century B.C. is a more difficult question. Homer speaks only rarely of the period before Zeus; references to Kronos and the other Titans in Tartaros (where Zeus put them), to Okeanos as the genesis of all the gods (whatever that means), to Tethys as caring for Hera, and to the first union of Zeus and Hera unknown to their parents, are about the extent of the information that the Iliad and the Odyssey offer. Such brief glimpses guarantee at least that Homer knew of an era before the reign of Zeus, and of Zeus' seizure of power from his father. Nevertheless, we cannot be sure that the poet possessed anything like complete stories of these topics or, if he did, that they were the same as Hesiod's.

Of other works to be considered in this context, the most important was probably the lost epic Titanomachia with its account of the battle between the Olympians and the Titans, and presumably what led up to that battle. As always, discussion of such a source inevitably involves us in the problems connected with the antiquity of the Epic Cycle: we simply do not know if the events recounted in those poems were concocted in a post-Homeric/Hesiodic period to flesh out earlier references, or drawn from a genuine pre-Homeric tradition, or combined from both. Photios does tell us that the Epic Cycle began with the union of Gaia and Ouranos and the birth of the Hundred-Handers and Kyklopes (as in Hesiod), but it is not absolutely certain that he is referring to the Titanomachia.On the other hand, definitely from that work is the information that Ouranos is a son of Aither (Tit frr 1,2 PEG), that Helios sailed in a cauldron (fr 8 PEG), and that Aigaion, son of Gaia and Pontos, fought on the side of the Titans (fr 3 PEG). These points suggest that the Titanomachia, like Hesiod's poem, contained some description of the beginning of things as preface to the account of the battle. On the other hand, the first and last items are in direct contrast to Hesiod (if, as in Homer, Aigaion and Briareos are the same figure), so that the author of the Titanomachia may have used a version not simply fuller than what Hesiod has left us but in some respects different. In all, we really know very little of the extent to which the work may have resembled, influenced or copied Hesiod's account.

Still other sources dealing with first causes bring us a variety of details, not always consistent with what we have seen above. In the sixth century, there surface (in fragments) the versions of early mythographers and philosophers such as Akousilaos of Argos and Pherekydes of Syros, and an entire Theogony was credited to the Kretan Epimenides, with Aer and Nyx as the two first principles. Akousilaos would be extremely valuable if only we had more of him (as in Hesiod, everything began from Chaos); Pherekydes of Syros seems for his part more interested in the possibilities of new philosophic beliefs than in preserving traditions.

As for Epimenides, the Theogony recorded under his name is probably a product of the fifth century; with its novel ideas (Aphrodite as daughter of Kronos) it is no less interesting for that, but very little survives. Definitely of the fifth century is Pherekydes of Athens, who like Hesiod produced an account (or section thereof) referred to as a "Theogony"; Typhoeus and Tityos were included, and we hear of a few other minor gods, but we cannot assess the scope of the work. Perhaps a bit later is the Eumolpia ascribed to "Mousaios," where all things began from a union of Tartaros and Nyx, although the poem seems to have focused primarily on Zeus.

Of post-Archaic sources the most obviously relevant is the first section of Apollodoros' Bibliotheke, where we find an account mirroring for the most part that of Hesiod. There are, however, several differences, notably that the Titans released the Kyklopes and Hundred-Handers before Kronos reimprisons them, Gaia and Ouranos predict to Kronos his overthrow by an offspring, Zeus on Krete is cared for by Adrasteia and Ida (daughters of Melisseus) and guarded by the Kouretes, and Zeus defeats Kronos with the aid of Metis and an emetic. On the other hand, Briareos here fulfills the same role as in Hesiod (i.e., supporter of Zeus). Thus (again, if Briareos and Aigaion are the same figure), we might well conclude that while Apollodoros did not use Hesiod exclusively for his account, neither can he have drawn exclusively from the Titanomachia, since there Aigaion aids the Titans. He might, of course, have fused the two works together, but similarities with Orphic versions have prompted the suggestion that an Orphic Theogony (as part of the Epic Cycle) was his source.

Primal Elements

In the beginning, according to the Theogony, there was (or came into being, since the Greek will allow both) Chaos, a neuter noun meaning "yawning" or "gap" (Th 116). Between what objects, previously, Chaos might have been a gap, Hesiod does not say, and perhaps did not know; since this entity comes first, there is logically nothing to frame it. Later references in the poem suggest a place beneath the earth but not beyond Tartaros, one capable of feeling the heat of Zeus' thunderbolts (Th 813-14, 700; cf. 740, where a chasma is located at the roots of Tartaros and Earth). If this is right, then Chaos is a kind of foundation. Chaos is followed by the appearance of Gaia, the Earth, broad-bosomed and a secure seat for the gods yet to come (Th 117-18). Next is Tartaros (here in the neuter plural form Tartara), mistily dark in the recesses of the earth, and then Eros, the limb-loosener who conquers the hearts of mortals and gods (Th 119-22). Tartaros is elsewhere in the poem the lowest part of the cosmos (even lower than Chaos: Th 814) and the place of imprisonment for certain figures. On one occasion, however, he is sufficiently personified to father a child (Typhoeus) on Gaia (Th 821-22).

As for Eros, the third of these primal forces, the remainder of Hesiod's poem mentions him on one occasion only, as attendant at Aphrodite's birth (Th 201); thus his chief function here seems to be as symbol of the process of sexual union and procreation that will populate the world. As a god he does not appear in Homer at all (note, however, the impact of love at Od 18.208-13). Plato quotes a dactylic couplet, possibly from a Homeric Hymn, in which he is called Pteros because of his wings (Phaidros 252b). In Simonides we first find his familiar role as the offspring of Aphrodite and Ares, but this was not as commonly agreed upon as we might suppose: Sappho makes him the child of Ouranos and Gaia according to one source, of Ouranos and Aphrodite according to another, while Alkaios calls him the offspring of Zephyros and Iris, Akousilaos that of Erebos and Nyx or Aither and Nyx, and the undatable "Olen" the child of Eileithuia (Paus. 9.27.2). Such variation is obviously due to the appeal of allegory in the case of this particular figure, and perhaps inability to pin down his identity. His most common parentage in later times - that of Aphrodite and Ares - is probably no more than a by-product of their own popularity as a couple. In Anakreon, Eros comports himself as the playful tempter to love, the role that later becomes his stock-in-trade. Yet the bow and arrows with which we are so familiar do not appear in literature until the late fifth century, when Euripides speaks of them as the god's weapons of love in the Medeia (530-31), and in the Iphigeneia at Aulis as producing good and bad effects (543-51); previously, Sappho has used the notion of being shaken when she discusses his power.

Next, and definitely born from Chaos, arise Erebos (Darkness) and black Nyx (Night) (Th 123-25). Erebos has virtually no character of his own; in both the Iliad and Odyssey, the word is used to indicate the Underworld (Il 8.368, 16.326-27; Od 10.528, 11.37), while later in the Theogony it becomes the place below the earth into which Menoitios is thrown down and from which the Hundred-Handers are brought up (Th 514-15, 669). This Erebos does, however, mate with Nyx (the first sexual union) to produce Aither (Brightness) and Hemere (Day), figures who constitute in the remainder of the poem strictly physical aspects of the cosmos (compare the description of their alternate forays out into the world at Th 748-57).

Nyx's other children, produced without the aid of Erebos or any other partner, are detailed subsequently in the poem: Moros (Doom, Destiny), Ker (Destruction, Death), Thanatos (Death), Hypnos (sleep), the Oneiroi (Dreams), Momos (Blame), Oizus (Pain, Distress), the Hesperides who care for the golden apples and fruit trees beyond the streams of Okeanos, the Moirai (fates), here named as Klotho, Lachesis and Atropos, the Keres who punish the transgressions of gods and men (unless these lines refer to the Moirai: see below), Nemesis (Indignation and Retribution), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Love, here probably sexual), Geras (Old Age) and Eris (Strife) (Th 211-25).

Some of these figures are strictly allegorized personifications, but others do have occasional functions to serve in the myths. The scholia minora to Iliad 1.5-6 tell us, for example, that Momos advised Zeus to marry Thetis to a mortal and himself beget a daughter (Helen) in order to precipitate the Trojan War; the scholiast adds that the story is found in the Kypria, though the lines he then quotes from that poem would seem to preclude Momos' role. Apollo sends Thanatos and Hypnos (at the command of Zeus) to carry the body of Sarpedon back to Lykia in book 16 of the Iliad (681-83). Homer specifically calls them twins, although he does not name the mother. Hypnos also appears in Iliad 14, when Hera approaches him with a proposal to lull Zeus to sleep (Il 14.231-91). In reply, he reminds her that once before he performed this service, when Herakles was leaving Troy, and that Zeus, upon awakening, would have thrown him into the sea had he not fled to Nyx, whom Zeus feared to anger. Nonetheless, the bargain is concluded upon Hera's promise of Pasithea, one of the Charites, to wife, and Hypnos awaits his task in the nighest fir on Ida, disguised as a bird. Subsequently, he even exceeds his commission by reporting events to Poseidon, so that the latter might stir up the Achaians (Il 14.354-60).

Elsewhere, Hypnos and Thanatos are mentioned together again in the Theogony's description of the ends of the earth, where Nyx and these two of her children have their homes (Th 756-66). Here Hypnos is described as roaming the earth with calm and benevolence for men, but Thanatos as having an iron pitiless heart, which makes him hated even by the gods. In fact, Thanatos is a curious divinity; Hades' role as lord of the dead, and Hermes' as conductor of souls, leaves this personification of death very little to do in most myths. Nor is he always impossible to defeat: Pherekydes relates how, sent by Zeus to claim Sisyphos, the god is instead held in strong bonds by his intended victim, so that no one can die; finally, Ares contrives some way to release him. Thanatos also had a role in Phrynichos' lost Alkestis, apparently appearing on stage (as in Euripides' play) and cutting off a lock of his victim's hair to consecrate her. Whether he, like Euripides' Thanatos, wrestled with Herakles and lost we do not know, although it seems likely. Last, he is mentioned in Aischylos' Niobe as a god who loves not gifts, and from whom persuasion stands apart; probably this is for the most part poetic personification of an abstract concept. On literature Hypnos has little to do after the Iliad, but we encounter him frequently in artistic versions of Herakles' slaying of Alkyoneus, where as a small Eros-like figure, he hovers overhead or actually sits on the sleeping giant.

Of Nyx's other children, the Oneiroi as a race of dreams form part of the landscape to the far west (beyond Okeanos) on the suitor's journey to the Underworld at Odyssey 24.12, while a single destructive Oneiros is Zeus' instrument to deceive Agamemnon at Iliad 2.5-6. The Hesperides are apparently included in the same family by virtue of their association with evening and the West, although one might have expected their name to indicate descent from a god of evening, Hesperos (so Paus. 5.17.2). Elsewhere in the Theogony they are called "shrill-voiced" (Th 275: several post-Archaic sources make them singers) and located near Atlas and the Gorgons at the limit of Okeanos, toward the edge of night (Th 517-18). Hesiod will later describe as well the snake offspring of Phorkys and Keto who guards similar apples in the hollows of dark earth at its limits (a difficult geographical concept: Th 333-35).

The initial reference to the Hesperides in the Theogony is the only mention in Archaic literature to their role as tenders of the golden apples (the next preserved allusion is Euripides' Hipp 742). Pherekydes tells us that Gaia brought apple trees bearing golden fruit to Hera as a gift on the occasion of her wedding, and that Hera promised to plant them in the garden of the gods near Atlas, with a snake (Apollonios is the first to call him Ladon: AR 4.1396-98) to guard the apples from the depredations of Atlas' daughters; another source adds in this connection that Pherekydes made the Hesperides daughters of Zeus and Themis (Jacoby argues confusion with the Eridanos Nymphai here). Akousilaos instead makes the Harpuiai the guardians if Philodemos is to be trusted. From the latter writer we learn that the author of the epic Titanomachia also discussed the matter, but Philodemos' text breaks off just as the guardians are about to be named.

Of Archaic poets, Mimneros too places the Hesperides in the West, and a fragment of Stesichoros describes their golden homes on a lovely island, presumably in connection with Herakles' acquisition of the apples as part of his Labors. For Apollonios they are three in number (Hespere, Erytheis, Aigle) and located in Libya, where the Argonautaika encounter them mourning the recent death of the snake, guardian of the apples, at the hands of Herakles (AR 4.1396-1449). The later account of Apollodoros locates garden and Hesperides, instead, near the Hyperboreans (thus presumably in the far north), and names them Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia, and Arethousa. The Hellenistic historian Agroitas and Diodoros Siculus both discuss the possibility that what the Hesperides guarded were after all sheep, not apples (since the Greek word méla can mean both); Diodoros also adds an unlikely tale about one Hesperis, daughter of Atlas' brother Hesperos, who lay with Atlas and became the mother of seven Hesperides.

Next are the Moirai. Homer mentions them just once by their collective name, at Iliad 24.49, when they are described as a singular Moira who spins with her thread a particular fate for Hektor at his birth, and Aisa substitutes for Moira in a similar phrase at Iliad 18.20.127-28. For its part, Odyssey 7.197-98 speaks of both Aisa and the stern Klothes (spinners) jointly in the same role; these later are surely the Moirai under a descriptive epithet (the form Klothes is elsewhere unattested). Finally, even Zeus (Od 4.207-8), or the gods as a whole (Od 1.17-18), can do the spinning at times. Moira as a singular noun is quite common in both epics, but except for the above instances never clearly personified.

In Hesiod we first find the goddesses' number and individual names: Klotho (the Spinner), Lachesis (the Apportioner), and Atropos (the Unavoidable), who give good and evil to men at their birth (Th 217-19, 904-6). In the earlier of these two passages, where they and the Keres are children of Nyx, these individual names follow awkwardly in 218 after the mention of the Keres, as does the subsequent task of pursuing wrongdoers in 219; very likely both these lines (West brackets them) are in fact intruders, with the wrongdoers originally hunted down by the Keres. The later passage at 904 revises their genealogy in accordance with the new order and makes them the offspring of Themis and Zeus, who is the source of their power. In the Hesiodic Aspis, the three resurface (on the shield itself), with Atropos the shortest and oldest (258-63), but these lines too are probably interpolated; certainly the following reference to a role in battle, if genuine, indicates again the preceding Keres. Elsewhere the Moirai are not much in evidence. Klotho appears in Pindar's Olympian 1 as the goddess supervising the rebirth of Pelops (1.26: a rare story of bringing the dead to life, in seeming violation of moira, and perhaps invented by Pindar), and Lachesis is present in the same author's Paian 12 at the birth of Artemis and Apollo to Leto, as well as at the allotment of honors to the Olympians in Olympian 7. In Olympian 6 all three attend (with Eileithuia) the birth of Iamos, and likewise in Olympian 10 they are present at Herakles' founding of the Olympian games. More unusually, in a fragment of Pindar they bring Themis as wife to Zeus, thus suggesting that they cannot here be his children by her. Another fragment, which may be simply poetic recasting, calls Tyche the most powerful Moira. In this connection we may also note an unassigned lyric fragment with a prayer to Aisa, Klotho, and Lachesis, the daughters of Nyx (1018 PMG).

Turning to Aischylos, we find Apollo accused of deceiving and persuading the Moirai (in the matter of Admetos) with the help of wine -- a most surprising notion of which no other trace exists (Eum 723-28: one wonders what Pyrynichos' Alkestis might have said on the matter). The Prometheus Desmotes mentions them in a more respectful vein, as helmsmen (with the Erinyes) of necessity (PD 515-16); to Io's query whether they are stronger than Zeus there is, alas, no direct answer. One other story in which we might expect to encounter them is that of Althaia and the brand given to her at Meleagros' birth. Bakchylides tells this tale in his Ode 5 (140-44), but names simply moira as weaving such a fate for Meleagros; how Althaia learned of the brand's significance, or who created such a situation, we are not told. Phrynichos dramatized the myth in his Pleuroniaia, and there the Moirai may have played a greater role, though presumably not on stage, since the action surely revolved around Meleagros' death years later. As matters stand we must turn to Ovid, Apollodoros and Hyginus for accounts of their involvement in this tale (Met 8.451-57; ApB 1.8.1; Fab 171). Of the three, Hyginus has the most interestung feature, that when they appeared to Althaia Klotho promised that the child would be magnanimous (or noble?), Lachesis that he would be strong, and Atropos that he would love as long as the brand on the heart lasted, conceivably a gift rather than a curse. Whatever the details, it is an odd story -- not fully in accord with other early accounts of Meleagros' fate, and the only preserved suggestion that the Moirai ever communicate directly with mortals regarding their lot. In art they are virtually unknown, but they do appear (as four women, inscribed "Moirai") among the guests at Thetis' wedding on both the François Krater (Florence 4209) and the Erskine Dinos(London 1971.11-1.1).

Closely linked to the Moirai, it seems, are the Keres. Homer knows this word, which means "death" or "destruction," in the plural, but in both poems it appears simply as a synonum for death or divinities brining death (e.g., Il 2.302, 18.535-38; Od 17.547). Of these, the Iliad 18 passage (from the description of Achilleus' shield) is especially noteworthy for its picture of a Ker in bloodstained garment on the battlefield, dragging away a victim by the foot. In hesiod, on the other hand, if Theogony 218-19 is indeed an interpolation, the Keres pursue wrongdoing of men and gods, never ceasing from their anger until they have brought evil to the transgressor; such a role sounds far more like the task usually assigned to the Erinyes. Subsequently, Keres appear in Mimnermos as twin bearers of evils to men, the one of old age, the other of death (2.5-7 W), while on the shield in the Hesiodic Aspis they fight with each other to drink the blood of the newly dead or dying, gnashing their white teeth and snatching up bodies with their claws (Aspis 248-57), and on the chest of Kypselos a single Ker stands behind Polyneikes, displaying teeth like those of a wild beast and long hooked nails (Paus 5.19.6). These last examples again remind us of Aischylos' Erinyes, who may have taken over some of the functions and character of the Keres. Hesiod's own Erinyes are the offspring of Ouranos' blood, as we shall see shortly.

Last of Nyx's children among those requiring comment are Nemesis and Eris. Nemesis (Indignation or Retribution), although she had a cult at Rhamnous in Attika, would scarcely qualify as a mythological figure, were it not for a fragment cited from the Kypria. There we are told that Zeus pursued Nemesis with amorous intent, that she fled over land and sea, changing into every form of animal (including fish) to avoid him, and that, finally captured, she bore to the god a daughter, Helen. Philodemos adds that in the same poem Zeus too in the form of a goose pursued her (implying that she had herself become one), and that their mating resulted in an egg from which Helen was born. Later sources confirm this union of birds (whether geese or swans), with the egg thus produced brought to or found by Leda so that she might raise Helen just as she does when (as in the Iliad) the child is hers; the story was in some way parodied in Kratinos' lost comedy Nemesis.

By contrast, Eris (Strife) is largely just a personification of her name, but Zeus does send her to rouse the Achaians (by shouting) in a memorable passage in Iliad 11 where she comes holding the teras of battle (Il 11.3-14). She also plays one crucial role in Greek mythology as instigator of the Judgment of Paris. Homer knows of this event but just barely alludes to it in the Iliad (24.27-30), with no direct mention of Eris. Our epitome of the Kypria, however, clearly makes her the guilty party (though as part of the plan of Zeus and Themis), and adds that she stirred up the quarrel among the three goddesses at the wedding feast for Peleus and Thetis. That she was not invited to the feast, or used an apple marked "for the fairest," are details that may or may not have been in the Kypria; we find them first in Loukianos, Hyginus and apple only in Apollodoros, although the apple probably goes back to the fifth century in art. Sophokles wrote a play entitled Eris, but nothing survives to indicate even the plot.

In art we find Eris first on the Chest of Kypselos, where she stands between Aias and Hektor, having the most base (aischiste) appearance (Paus 5.19.2), and then named on the tondo of a mid-sixth-century Black-Figure cup, where she is portrayed as quite normal in appearance apart from her wings and winged sandals (Berlin: CH F1775). The later fifth century (c 430 B.C.) Adds to this a Red-Figure calyx krater confirming the narrative of the Kypria: while the lower section presents the Judgment of Paris in its usual form, the upper shows Eris with her hand on the shoulder of Themis (both named) as the two lean toward each other in animated discussion. Hesiod's account goes on to list Eris' own children, born with no father mentioned and virtually all allegories: Ponos (Labor), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), Algea (Pains), Hysminai (Combats), Machai (Battles), Phonoi (slaughterings), Androktasiai (Slayings of Men), Neikea (Quarrels), Pseudea (Falsehoods), Logoi (Words), Amphillogiai (Unclear Words), Dysnomia (Bad Government), Horkos (Oath), and Ate (Folly) (Th 226-32). Of this list, only the last has any identity, and she, when she appears in the Iliad to deceive Zeus (in the matter of Herakles' birthright: Il 19.91-133), is a daughter of Zeus himself (no mother is mentioned). With regard to that story it may be noted that Hera is the one who actually carries out the deception by rearranging the order of births; Ate merely clouds Zeus' mind so that he does not notice the trick.

Gaia and Ouranos

From Nyx and her children we return in Hesiod to Gaia, who brings into being (1) Ouranos (Sky) to enclose her and be home for the gods (does this mean she foresees the coming of the Olympians?), (2) The Oureau (Mountains), and (3) Pontos (Sea), all expressly without sexual congress (Th 126-32). The Ourea are clearly just a feature of the landscape, but Gaia mates with both Ouranos and Pontos to produce further offspring. To Ouranos she bears first twelve relatively normal children, six male and six female, whom Hesiod will later call "Titans": Okeanos, Koios, Kreios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Kronos, Theia, Rheia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe, and Tethys (Th 132-38). Of these, Kronos is named expressly as the youngest and "crooked-planning" (probably the sense Hesiod gave to the word, even if originally it referred rather to Kronos' sickle), the most terrible of the group, who hated his father.

Next born are the Kyklopes, three in number, and like to the gods in all things save for the single round eye in their foreheads (Th 139-46). Their names - Brontes, Steropes, and Arges - are connected with lightning and thunder, and indeed they will be the ones to forge the thunderbolt for Zeus.

Last come three more brothers, the Hundred-Handers, the most monstrous of all with their fifty heads and hundred hands, Kottos, Briareos (or Obriareos), and Gyges (Th 147-53). What follows in Hesiod is not entirely clear -- Ouranos hates his children, perhaps just the last six but more likely all eighteen, and as soon as they are born imprisons them deep within the earth, that is, both underground and in the womb of their mother. The reason for his hatred may be their terrible appearance, though Hesiod does not quite say this (Th 155 comes close to implying it as the reason). In any event, he delights in the deed, and Gaia in her anger and distress fiashions a sickle of adamant, after which she asks her children to take revenge on their father. Only Kronos has the courage to volunteer, and is placed by his mother in ambush (inside her body, we will understand, if he too is a prisoner) to await Ouranos. When the latter comes to lie with Gaia, bringing with him night, and stretches out beside her, his son reaches out with the sickle and castrates him. The severed testicles are then thrown behind Kronos into the sea, while Gaia receives the drops of blood that fall from them, and thus produces in time the Erinyes, the Gigantes, and the Melian Nymphai. The testicles themselves float past the island of Kythera to Cyprus, where Aphrodite is born and, accompanied from the very beginning by Eros and Himeros (Desire), assumes her role as goddess of erotic encounters (Th 154-206). In passing, Hesiod makes explicit the deriviation of her cult titles ("Kytherea" and "Kyprogeneia") from Kythera and Cyprus, as well as the supposed formation of her name from the foam (aphros) surrounding the testicles. This section of the Theogony then concludes with Ouranos' prediction that retribution will come to the Titans for their deed (Th 207-10).

Homer relates none of this; indeed, in Iliad 14, Okeanos and Tethys seem elevated to the status accorded Ouranos and Gaia in Hesiod (Il 14.200-210, 245-46), while Aphrodite is throughout the poem clearly the daughter of Zeus (by the Okeanid Dione, Il 5.370-71). The first of these points is especially difficult to assess: Hera tells Zeus as part of her Trugrede that she is on her way to the ends of the earth to visit "Okeanos the genesis of gods and mother Tethys, they who raised me well in their home, receiving me from Rheia when Zeus cast Kronos down beneath the earth and the barren sea." Mother Tethys here need be no more than a stepmother to Hera herself, and the phrase "genesis of gods" might be simply a formulaic epithet indicating the numberless rivers and springs descended from Okeanos; so, for example, at Iliad 21.195-97 he is that from which all rivers and springs and the whole sea derive. But in Hera's subsequent interview tih Hypnos, the latter describes the great river as the "genesis for all," leaving us to wonder whether Homer could have supposed Okeanos and Tethys the parents of the Titans (Kronos' father is never specified), for how else can they fit this description? The second part of Hera's statement also seems problematic, for in the Theogony she is swallowed by her father and presumably emerges from his belly full grown, ready to aid her brother; even if she is not in that poem swallowed, as might be argued following Hyginus (Fab 139), she should be full grown by the time of the overthrow, and have no need of a nurse. Just possibly Homer, in contrast to Hesiod, did think of her as still an infant on re-emerging, and thus needing to be cared for, though if he believed this true of all five siblings he probably did not believe in a general battle between Olympians and Titans. Elsewhere, for what it is worth, the Iliad on several occasions calls the Olympians "Ouraniones," presumably meaning "descendants of Ouranos" (Il 1.570: cf. Il 5.898, where the same term clearly applies to the Titans). "Ouraniones" is also used twice at the end of the Theogony, both times of the Olympians (Th 919, 929). In Akousilaos, Ouranos certainly seems to hold his Hesiodic position, since he is said to have thrown the Hundred-Handers down into Tartaros, lest they be greater than he.

From a later time we have Plato's Timaios, where the genealogy offered looks very much like an attempt to bridge a presumed Homer/Hesiod divergence in Iliad 14: Ouranos and Gaia here beget Okeanos and Tethys who in their turn beget Kronos, Rheia, and the others, plus Phorkys (Tim 40d-e). Just possibly, of course, it is instead an early tradition, and the basis for Homer's description of Keanos. Also puzzling are the scattered references to Ouranos as Akmonides, or son of Akmon. A comment that this genealogy appeared in Hesiod is probably a mistake based on manuscript corruption; it first appears for certain in the Hellenistic Simias' Pteruges (c. 290 B.C.: Eros succeeds Akmonides as ruler of the world) and in Eustathios, who ascribes it to Alkman (with "Akmon" derived from the Greek for "unwearying": 61 PMG). Perhaps the word was not in the beginning intended as a proper name. As a matter of strict accuracy, we should also in passing observe that neither Iliad nor Odyssey ever uses the term "Titan: to denote anuthing except those Titans under the earth with Kronos; as a result we cannot say with certainity, however likely it may seem, that Homer thought of figures such as Hyperion, Themis, Mnemosyne, Leto and Atlas as related to Kronos, or indeed that he thought of their parentage at all.

The second difference between Homer and Hesiod here, that of the otherwise unpretentious Dione (Domer says nothing about her parents either) as Aphrodite's mother, is at least in keeping with the Iliad's general tendency to avoid the magical and fantastic, at any rate in comparison with lost epics (for more details see Griffin, J. 1977. "The Epic Cycle and the Uniqueness of Homer." JHS 97:39-53). Yet we have no basis on which to insist that Homer invented rather than selected a version. The beginning of the Theogony lists a Dione (together with Hebe) among those divinities whom the poem will celebrate (Th 17), as if Hesiod involuntarily recognized the Homeric version (or a line was interpolated here); later on in the poem a Dione will appear as one of the Okeanides (Th 353). Apollodoros follows Homer, but with Dione given the rank of a thirteenth offspring of Ouranos and Gaia (ApB 1.1.3). This is probably an attempt to elevate her status after the fact, since later in the same work a Dione is one of the Nereides (ApB 1.2.7), but we cannot be certain that Apollodoros did not find it in early sources. The usual interpretation of Dione's name as a feminine form of Zeus, if correct, may also indicate a greater early importance than Hesiod allows. The epic Titanomachia, with its presumed beginnings from Gaia and Ouranos (the latter sprung from Aither), might have contributed much in this regard. Different altogether is the view if Epimenides Theogony: a two-line fragment quoted by a scholiast makes Aphrodite, the Moirai, and the Erinyes all offspring of the same father, whom the scholiast identifies as Kronos. One other point of interest comes to us from Proklos' comments on the Timaios: he cites seven lines of a hexameter poem, probably of Orphic origin, in which Okeanos ponders whether to join Kronos and his other brothers in the attack on their ather, as their mother desires, or to remain safely at home. As the fragment breaks off we leave Okeanos in his halls, brooding and angry with his mother and especially his brothers; Proklos tells us that he did not in fact join them.

As for other details in Hesiod's account, the Kyklopes of this early period could scarcely be more different from those encountered by Odysseus in Book 9 of the Odyssey. The latter are expressly described as uncultured shepherds, sons of Poseidon (actually Homer says only that Polyphemos is a son of Poseidon) who have little use for the gods and share with their Hesiodic namesakes just the features of the single eye (if in fact they are all so equipped, and not just Polyphemos: the general description at Od 9.106-15 says nothing on the subject). In the later sections of the Theogony, the Ouranian Kyklopes recede into the background as the Hundred-Handers become more prominent. We will certainly expect them to be immortal, and yet the Ehoiai presents them as slain by Apollo, presumably in anger over the killing of his son Asklepios by Zeus' thunderbolt. Pherekydes confirms this story and motive but makes Apollo's victims the sons of the Kyklopes. And a fragment of Pindar suggests that Zeus himself killed them, lest they forge weapons for anyone else. The Catalogue Poet's version of their fate reappears in the prologue to Euripides' Alkestis as motive for Apollo's exile; the latter history of the Hundred-Handers will be considered in connection with the battle of the Olympians and Titans.

Of the birth of the Erinyes, later authors say little, save for the Epimenides Theogony and Aischylos, who makes them daughters of Nyx in his Eumenides Such a descent is logical enough, yet Hesiod's version, in which they are sprung from an act of violence by son against father, seems highly consistent with their general character in Homer. In the Iliad, Amyntor calls upon them to curse Phoinix after the son has taken his father's concubine (Il 9.453-56); Althaua's prayers are heard by them when her son Meleagros kills her brother(s) (Il 15.204); and Athena suggests to Ares that his defeat is caused by them because he abandoned his mother's side in the Trojan War (Il 21.412-14). Likewise in the Odyssey, Telamachos speaks of the potential curses of Penelope if he should expel her from his house, and Odysseus describes the Erinyes of Epikaste working against her son Oidipous (Od 2.134-36; 11.279-80). In all the above instances an intrafamilial offense, usually child against parent, is involved. At other moments, however, a broader range of functions seems indicated. In Iliad 19, the Erinyes are described as punishing under the earth those who have sworn false oaths, and at the end of the same book they, rather than the Moirai, check the voice of the horse Xanthos, while at Odyssey 17.475 we hear of the Erinyes of beggars. Several other references remain uncertain, including the complaint of the Erinyes against Melampous (Od 15.233-34), and the handing over to them of the daughters of Pandareos (to be attendants?: Od 20.77-78), though in this last case one of the daughters (not necessarily one of those handed over) seems to have by mistake killed her own son (Od 19.518-23 and scholia ad loc.).

In most of these passages the actual chastisement imposed by the Erinyes remains lamentably unclear. True, Phoinix is afflicted with childlessness as the curse of his father requested, but Meleagros suffers nothing like the death Althaia prayed for (unless we are to understand that this happens subsequently), nor does Ares' humiliation at the hands of Athena seem very substantial. Again, in the Odyssey, Melampous' quest suffers some obstacles but is ultimately quite successful, and it is difficult to say how the Erinyes might punish Oidipous if he neither blinds himself nor loses his kingdom. Only in the cases of the hypothetical oath-breaker and the daughters of Pandareos do they seem to act directly, and even then we do not learn exactly what they do.

Post-Homeric sources add to this picture some new ideas on their activites. Theogony 472-73 suggests that Kronos' overthrow will be in part aided by the Erinus of Ouranos, although Zeus seems to do all the work; line 473 apparently makes the Erinys concerned about Kronos' treatment of his children, but this is a difficult verse grammatically and may well be an explanatory interpolation. In the Works & Days Erinyes assist at the birth of Horkos (Oath) from Eris, thus confirming their interest in falsely sworn statements (W&D 803-4), and Herekleitos remarks that if the sun should stray from its course the Erinyes, helpers of Dike, would track it down (22B94: thisreassertion of natural law on their part seems of a piece with the halting of Xanthos' speech in Iliad 19). Moreover, an unassigned lyric fragment appears to make them responsible for the changing of Hekabe into a dog (965 PMG).

But the Erinyes' best-known roles in Greek myth are their pursuit of the matricides Orestes and Alkmaion, and their involvement with the family of Oidipous. Of the harassment of Orestes Homer knows nothing, but since his Orestes serves as a model for the punishment of faithless wives, such a silence is hardly surprising. Stesichoros at least told the story, if a papyrus commentary on his value as a source may be trusted; apparently he had Apollo give Orestes a bow with which the latter might ward off the goddesses. Subsequently, of course, the tale appears in Aischylos' Eumenides, where the Erinyes are given full stage exposure as disgusting, loathsome creatures, dripping with blood and crawling around on all fours to scent their prey. Yet even here their exact function remains obscure: we are told that they want to drink Orestes' blood (like the Keres of the Aspis) and drag him down to the Underworld, but with no indication of the order or consequences of these torments (Eum 264-69). In the same way, their stated purpose of avenging kindred bloodshed seems especially tailored to the needs of the play, and even then that purpose will not explain why they did not punish Agamemnon for the slaying of his daughter, or Atreus for that of his nephews. At one point, too, they appear to claim responsibility for the protection of strangers, much as was suggested for beggars in the Odyssey (Eum 545-49). Ultimately, they reveal fertility connections in their prayers for and against the welfare of Athens, a detail that may or may notarise strictly from the poet's dramatic purposes. Earlier in the same trilogy, Kassandra has suggested that they have brought about disaster to the house of Atreus in response to Thyestes' adultery with his brother's wife (Ag 1188-93), and the chorus has involved an Erinys in the destruction of Troy, possibly in the guise of or at least by using Helen (Ag 744-49). The story of Alkmaion's killing of Eriphyle is largely a blank in early sources; Homer mentions her crime in the Nekuia, but says nothing of her fate (Od 11.326-27). And though Stesichoros obviously dealt with the tale in his lost Eriphyle, the few preserved fragments do not cover this part; the same is true of the shadowy epic Alkmaionis mentioned by Apollodoros ApB 1.8.5). Later accounts of the Alkmaion myth indicate that he secured relief from the Erinyes through long travel and purification, much as Orestes does in the Eumenides (ApB 3.7.5). If this was also the early version, it might suggest that their function was ordeal by pursuit, rather than s specific punishment. But possibly, too, Alkmaion's harassment is simply modeled on that of Orestes, or vice versa.

From matricides we turn to the house of Oidipous. We have seen that in Homer the Erinyes of Epikaste cause trouble of some sort for her son; presumably his offense was marrying his mother, though Homer might know of other deeds that we do not. In Pindar's Olympian 2, on the other hand, the Erinys destroys the sons of Oidipous with mutual slaughter, having seen their father slay his father as Delphi has predicted (Ol 2.38-42). This notion, that the Erinys might punish anyone but the transgressor himself for his crime, appears here for the first time in preserved literature. Subsequently, we find the goddesses exercising an important role in Seven against Thebes, the last play of Aischylos' trilogy on the legend. But the loss of the first two plays, Laios and Oidipous, leaves us very uncertain as to the goddesses' significance. Clearly Eteokles believes, and Aischylos probably meant the audience to agree, that an Erinys brings about his fatal meeting with his brother Polyneikes. But we do not know whether such intervention was caused by an offense of Laios, Oidipous, or Eteokles himself. Here again, however, it may be noted that the Erinyes operate through manipulation of mortals, as often in Homer, rather than by direct intervention. The name "Eumenides," which forms the title of Aischylos' play on the fate of Orestes (but does not actually appear in the preserved drama), represents perhaps Aischylos' own fusion of the Erinyes with these divinities of Kolonos and elsewhere, as well as with the Semnai Theai of the Areopagos. The individual names -- Alekto, Tisiphone and Megaira -- first occur in the Aeneid (although it is not clear whether Vergil thought of them all as Erinyes: Aen 6.570-72; 7.324-26 [Alekto as daughter of Plouton]; 12.845-48 [Megaira and the twin Dirae]). Subsequently, Apollodoros confirms these names as those of the three Erinyes born from the blood of Ouranos (ApB 1.1.4).

The other major offspring of Ouranos' blood, the Gigantes, do not share the same obvious rationale for birth in this unusual fashion, and indeed there is little mention of them in Archaic sources. Homer notes a people of this name ruled by one Eurymedon, and adds that he and his atê-possessed subjects perished, but we are not told how (Od 7.58-60; possibly this is the same Eurymedon guilty of the rape of Hera). Bakchylides confirms what the name "Gigantes" implies, that they were children of the earth; he speaks of the hubris that destroyed them, but he too does not offer details. The equally sparse tradition of the Gigantes' battle with the Olympians needs to be discussed later. As for the Melian Nymphai, the final product of Ouranos' castration, they too shall be dealt with in more detail latter. We should, however, note that Alkaios and Akousilaos both add another set of offspring, the Phaiacians, as resulting from the castration.

Turning to Aphrodite's birth, we find that sources after Homer and Hesiod have little to add. The opening of Homeric Hymn 6, the only other Archaic evidence, rather supports Hesiod's view of the matter, since it makes the goddess arise from the sea foam near Cyprus (though with no direct mention of Ouranos). One notable change here is that, after the birth, the Horai, rather than Hesiod's Eros and Himeros, come to adorn her and accompany her to Olympos; in Hesiod's account the Horai, as daughters of Zeus, have not yet been born. Oddly enough, nothing we have from Pindar, Bakchylides, or Aischylos commits itself on the subject of Aphrodite's father. In later literature, she is almost universally the daughter of Zeus, though the Epimendies Theogony as noted before does make her spring from Kronos. Artistic representations of her rising up from the sea (in presumably a birth scene) do not begin before the mid-fifth century.

Gaia and Pontos

Next in Hesiod's account are the children sprung from Gaia and her other offspring/consort, Pontos. These are five in number (though the first is not actually called a child of Gaia): Nereus, Thaumas, Phorkys, Keto and Eurybia (Th 233-39). For Nereus, Hesiod offers a brief description - honest and unlying, knower of laws and just counsels, gentle and unerring -- but his primary function, like that of his siblings, is to produce further offspring. His one real appearance in myth occurs when Herakles seizes and holds him in a successful attempt to extract information necessary to his labors (the way to the Cattle of Geryoneus or to the Hesperides). According to Pherekydes, the sea god turns himself into fire and water in an effort to escape, but to no avail. Prior to the fifth century, Attic Black-Figure shows this tale, with Triton unaccountably the wrestler while Nereus watches.

Nereus marries Doris, a convenient daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, and their children - all female - are the fifty Nereides, for whom Hesiod gives a complete set of names (Th 240-64). Of these daughters, only four - Amphitrite, Thetis, Galateia and Psamathe - will have any further role to play in Greek myth as individuals, though as a group the fifty appear with Thetis in the Iliad to lament the death of Patroklos, rising up together from the depths of the sea and their cave where they live with their father (Il 18.35-51). Homer, on this occasion, names thirty-four Nereides (thirteen on his list do not appear on Hesiod's), although he specifies that all the others came as well. The same mourning of Patroklos was dramatized by Aischylos in his Nereides, where the daughters were presumably the chorus, as they may have been also in the Hoplon Krisis, if in that play Thetis actually came in response to the request that she judge the contest for her dead son's arms. In any case, the Odyssey certainly presents the Nereides as attending also the funeral of Achilleus (Od 24.47-59), and this is repeated in Proklos' summary of the Aithiopis (in both sources they are accompanied by the Mousai). Aischylos and Pindar (Is 6.6) further agree that they were fifty in number.

Pontos' second son, Thaumas, also marries an Okeanid, Elektra, by whom he fathers Iris and the two Harpuiai, Aello and Okypetes (Th 265-69). For Iris we must look to the Iliad, for she is never mentioned in the Odyssey, and only rarely in subsequent literature (despite her popularity in vase-painting). Oddly enough, Homer never discusses her parentage (although Il 11.201 comes close to calling Zeus her father); the epithets applied to her focus rather on her speed and her function as the messenger of the gods. In this latter capacity she plays a variety of roles. On three occasions she is sent by Zeus to bear his commands to other gods (Hera and Athena, Poseidon, Thetis: Il 8.398-425; 15:55, 144-200; 24.77-99), while on two others he sends her to mortals (Hektor, Priam, both times in her own form: Il 11.185-210; 24.143-88). For her part, Hera sends the goddess to Achilleus (again in her own form) to advise him, in secret from Zeus (Il 18.165-202). On two further occasions Iris appears to mortals (Priam, Helen) disguised as a human; here we are not specifically told that she has been sent by anyone, and what she offers is basically information combined with practical advice (Il 2.786-807, where she comes "from the side of Zeus"; 3.125-40). Finally there are two points at which she clearly acts of her own accord, first in helping Aphrodite to leave the battlefield (by chariot) after her wounding by Diomedes (Il 5.353-69 [note that she also unhitches the chariot and feeds the horses]), and second in conveying Achilleus' prayer to Zephyros and Boreas by flying to the former's home (Il 23.198-212). In this last instance she stresses that, upon completion of her errand, she will return to the land of the Aithiopes to share in the sacrifices they are preparing for the gods. To be fair, we should add that the Odyssey certainly knows of her, even if she is not mentioned, since the beggar Arnaios is nicknamed "Iros" after her (Od 18.6-7).

In Hesiod, she makers only one real appearance, as the divinity who journeys to the Styx and brings back water when one of the gods who wishes to take an oath (Th 780-86). Proklos' summary of the Kypria shows her revealing to Menealos the departure of Helen with Paris, and in two of the Homeric Hymns she also functions as a messenger: in that to Apollo she is sent by the other goddesses to fetch Eileithuia for Leto's lying-in (HAp 102-14), while in the Hymn to Demeter Zeus sends her (unsuccessfully) to summon Demeter to Olympos after the famine has arisen (HDem 314-24). In this instance we should note that, after Iris has failed, Zeus sends Hermes to Hades; thus, both gods serve as messengers in the same work. The only other early mention of Iris is from a fragment of Alkaios where she becomes by Zephyros the mother of Eros. She is almost always represented with wings (the Iliad, in fact, twice calls her chrysopteros, "golden-winged": Il 8.938; 11.185).

The Harpuiai would appear to share parentage with Iris on the basis of their tremendous speed; the Epimenides Theogony, however, calls them daughters of Okeanos and Gaia, while Pherekydes of Syros assigns as their father Boreas (and as sister Thyella). In a separate fragment the Epimenides Theogony also equates them with the Hesperides, andin this same connection both that work and Akousilaos put them in charge of the apples; Pherekydes has them guard Tartaros. In the Iliad there is mention of a single Harpuia, Podarge, who mates in the form of a mare with Zephyros and produces Xanthos and Balios, the horses of Achilleus (Il 16.150-51). The Odyssey offers the more familiar plural "Harpuiai" for windspirits whom Telemachos and Eumaios describe, perhaps figuratively, as carrying off Odysseus, and to whome Penelope refers as the abductors of the daughters of Pandareos (Od 1.241; 14.371; 20.77-78); their role in this last event seems to be as agents of the Erinyes, to whom they hand over the daughters. In the same context, Penelope calls them thuellai (storm-winds), and that may have been another name for them. We see the two of them illustrated in flight on a spouted bowl by the Nessos Painter with the word "Arepuia" inscribed; the artist has depicted them as normal-looking women marked out only by their large wings. Their tormenting of Phineus and their flight from the sons of Boreas is not a story for which we have early sources (although it was recounted in the Ehoiai.

Pontos and Gaia's third son, Phorkys, marries his own sister Keto, and the resulting offspring are the most monstrous of all Pontos' progeny - the two Graia, three Gorgons, Echidna, and the snake Ophis (Th 270-336). As for Phorkys himself, the Odyssey calls him "old man of the sea" like his brother Nereus (Od 13.96, 345), and makes him the grandfather of Polyphemos through a daughter, Thoosa (Od 1.72). Elsewhere in Archaic literature he appears only as progenitor of the Graiai, a role he serves in Akousilaos, Pherekydes, Pindar and Aischylos, as well as in Hesiod.

The Graiai are described in the Theogony simply as gray from birth (Th 270-73). Aischylos gives them one eye among them and one tooth at Prometheus Desmotes 792-97; it is not clear whether the tooth is also shared, or whether they have one each. The same play makes them three in number, long-lived and "swan-shaped"; whether this should be taken literally, or simply refers to their white hair, is a difficult point. Whatever Aischylos intended, they live near their sisters, the Gorgons, somewhere far to the east (and apparently on dry land, where Io could reach them). Aischylos' lost Perseus trilogy included a play entitled Phorkides in which Perseus stole the eye (and threw it away) so as to thwart their task; unfortunately, we cannot be certain that they appeared in the play (though it seems very likely), and if so, whether they were chorus or actors. Neither does there survive from the play any indication of where the sisters are located (save that the eye is thrown into the Tritonian lake). The same is true of Pherekydes' account, where the sisters are named Pemphredo, Enyo and Deino. Here they clearly have one eye and one tooth among them, and Perseus steals both in order to obtain information needed for his task. The information acquired, he returns both items and continues on his journey. Pindar's brief mention, with is use of the word "darkened" for Perseus' treatment of the Graiai (Py 12.13), rather suggests agreement with Aischylos' version.

Unlike the Graiai, the Gorgons are from the beginning (in Hesiod) three in number (Th 274-83). Hesiod names them as Sthenno, Euryale, and Medousa, and places them toward the edge of night, beyond Okeanos, near the Hesperides, in other words to the far west (he does not say whether the Graiai lived near them). Of the three, Sthenno and Euryale and immortal and ageless, but Medousa is mortal (Hesiod offers no explanation of this odd situation). She alone mates with Poseidon (assuming that Kyanochaites is here, as elsewhere, an epithet of the sea god), and after her beheading by Perseus, Chrysaor and the horse Pegasos spring forth from her neck. Hesiod simply says that Pegasos flew up to Olympos to carry the lightning and thunderbolts for Zeus. Chrysaor marries another convenient Okeanid, Kallirhoe, who bears the three-headed Geryoneus later to be slain by Herakles (Th 287-94; 979-83).

In contrast to the Theogony, Homer, although he describes several Gorgon heads on bucklers (e.g., Il 11.36-37) and conjured up yet another to frighten Odysseus in the Nekuia (Od 11.633-35), never directly alludes to the tale of Medousa, save perhaps in Iliad 5, where the description of Zeus' aigis worn by Athena includes the Gorgon head customarily donated by Perseus (Il 5.738-42). In the Kypria (context not clear, although the point of reference seems to be Phorkys and Keto), the Gorgons are pictured as living on a rocky island named Sarpedon in the stream of Okeanos. Pherekydes also puts them somewhere in Okeanos; the summary of his account says little about their physical appearance, but does note that Medousa's face turned men to stone, and adds that the head was ultimately given to Athena for the aigis. The Aspis offers a typically garish portrait: Gorgons with twin snakes - glaring and gnashing their teeth -- wrapped around their waists, and possibly a vague reference to snakes for hair (Aspis 229-37). Snaky locks are in any case well attested by Pindar (Py 10.46-48; 12.9-12), and here again Medousa's head lithifies, while Euryale's lament becomes the model for the song of the flute. In Pythian 10, we also see Perseus journeying to the land of the Hyperboreans in the far north on his quest for the head; the Gorgons may or may not have been located there. For Aischylos, we must again be content with the description in Prometheus Desmotes, since there are no relevant fragments from the Phorkides. As noted above, his Gorgons live near their sister Graiai to the far east; they have wings and snaky hair, and no mortal can look upon them and live. This last detail suggests that Aischylos believed all three sisters could turn men to stone, but he may be exaggerating for effect, or perhaps he refers to their generally ferocious character. The tale that Medousa was once beautiful, and fell prey to Athena's anger by mating with Poseidon in the goddess' temple, first appears in Ovid (Met 4.790-803); something of the same sort also surfaces in Apollodoros, who says that Medousa wished to rival Athena in beauty (ApB 2.4.3). Such an idea may have been developed at some later point in time to dignify Poseidon's union with the Gorgon; certianly it will not explain the equally hideous condition of her two sisters. Euripides' surprsing statement in Ion that Athena herself slew a Gorgon (not actually called Medousa) at Phlegra, where the gods fought the Gigantes, might be relevant to a tale of rivalry, though the text's implication is that Gaia spawned the monster especially for that battle (Ion 989-96).

After the Graiai and Gorgons, Phorkys and Keto produce Echnida, half fair maiden (presumably the upper half) and half terrible snake, a monster who lives alone in a cave under the earth, far from men and gods. The one variant of her parentage comes from the Epimenides Theogony, where she is the offspring of Styx and one Peiras. Echidna mates with Typhoeus, the challenger of Zeus, and the results are all animals: Orthos, the watchdog of Geryoneus, Kerberos, the fifty-headed watchdog of Hades, the snaky Hydra of Lerna, and possibly the fire-breathing Chmaira with its three heads, one of a lion, one of a goat and one of a snake, arranged respectively at the front, middle and back (Th 304-25). Alternatively, the mother of the Chimaira could be the Hydra (by an unnamed father) depending on the pronoun referent at 319. To this list, Akousilaos and Pherekydes agree in adding the eagle who devoured Prometheus' liver; Hesiod gives it no parentage.

About Orthos we find nothing more than that he was killed by Herakles during the raid on Geryoneus' cattle. Artistic representations sometimes include him (always dead, usually with arrows protruding from his body) in scenes of the combat; on several occasions (including the earliest), he has two heads. Kereberos' duties as watchdog (and devourer of any who try to leave Hades) are described later in the Theogony (769-74). He is mentioned in connection with Herakles' task in both the Iliad and the Odyssey (Il 8.367-68; Od 11.620-26), but without any further details of his appearance, and the same is true in Bakcyhlides, where his parentage from Echidna is repeated (5.60-62). Pindar's lost dithyramb on Herakles in the Underworld seems, however, to have given the creature one hundred heads, if the scholia minora to the Iliad can be trusted. The earliest artistic portrayal, a Middle Corinthian kotyle from Argos, shows only one head, but has snakes growing out all over his body. A Lakonian cup from the middle of the sixth century increases the number of heads to three and adds a snake for tail as well, and this (with sometimes only two heads) becomes the standard representation in both art and literature. On the Corinthian kotyle mentioned above, Kereberos appears to run from Herakles, but on all subsequent examples it is Herakles (and even his divine helpers) who display caution. Presumably the frequent variant of two heads arose from logistical problems in draftsmanship.

As for the Hydra, Hesiod says simply that Hera raised her to be a danger to Herakles, and that he slew her with the aid of Iolaos, but a scholion adds that Alkaios gave her nine heads, and Simonides fifty. Pausanias adds that, in his opinion, she had originally just one, and that the epic poet Peisandros added additional heads in order to make her more fearsome; whether he is right to suppose Peisandros the first in this respect we cannot, of course, say. The representations in vase-paintings usually show a multitude of snaky heads and bodies (joined together towards the tail), often as many as ten. For the actual detail that two heads grew from each severed neck, or that one head was immortal, we must await Ovid (Met 9.69-74: two heads only) and Apollodoros (ApB 2.5.2); nevertheless the sickle (usually for Iolaos) is a standard element in early representations of the battle (together with a sword or club for Herakles). As for the searing of the necks to prevent regrowth, the first evidence is a late sixth-century Black-Figure amphora on which Iolaos holds a torch; Euripides in the Herakles Mainomenos adds that Herakles "burnt out" the Hydra, which may well confirm this idea. Sophokles' Tracinai together with the Herakles appear to be our earliest firm sources for the idea that the blood of the Hydra was poisonous and could be applied to Herakles' arrows.

The Chimaira is the offspring of either Echidna or the Hydra.. Hesiod's description (heads of lion, goat, snake, fire-breathing capacity) is paralleled word for word in the Iliad's accounts of Bellerophontes' exploits (Il 6.179-82); later in the poem a certain Amisodaros of Lykia is named as the one who raised the monster (Il 16.328-29), and in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, Apollo boasts that neither Typhoeus nor Chimaira will avail the dead Python (Hap 367-68). Typhoeus (earlier in the poem the Python's fosterling) is reasonable here, but the Chimaira remains unexplained. Her capacity for breathing fire recurs in an extremely fragmentary remnant of the Ehoiai. The artistic tradition, beginning with the Protocorinthian vessels of the early seventh century, interprets the creature as a lion with the goat's head growing out of the back (not from the same neck as the lion's) and the snake serving in place of the tail (in one early Black-Figure example, the whole rear of the body may end in a snake: Kerameikos 154). Whether the goat's head was responsible for the name "Chimaira" or vice versa is an open question. In any case, she (or just possibly Echidna) mates with the dog Orthos (her brother, if she is descended from Echidna, and uncle, if from the Hydra), and the results here are both lion types, the Phix (elsewhere Sphinx) and the Nemean Lion (Th 326-32).

Hesiod calls the Phix a bringer of destruction to the Thebans, but says nothing about physical appearance or method of operation. Sphinxes as a type, with the canonical lion's body, women's head and wings, are well known in sculpture and metalwork from the Near East and Crete, and in painting from Protocorinthian vase designs; in the Greek world the Sphinx also becomes a popular corwning device on columns and grave stelae. The name "Sphinx" (or "Sphix") is assured for the type from its use on an Attic Black-Figure band cup of about 540 B.C. (Munich 2243). But in all these representations, the creature is employed without mythological context. Our earliest portrayal in which she actually does something is probably the architectural relief from Mycenae of about 630 B.C. on which two sphinxes are reconstructed as standing over a nude male body. Subsequently, a Siana cup by the C Painter shows a Spinx pursuing a number of men (one of whom she seems to have caught: Syracuse 25418), and several other Black_Figure pots of the sixth century repeat that pattern. The first recorded association of Sphinx with Oidipous dates to about 530 B.C., a Chalkidian amphora on which Oidipous sits before the Sphinx, as he does on the famous Red-Figure cup in the Vatican. Here the solving of her riddle (first attested in literature in Sophokles' Oidipous Tyrannos) is obviously the primary consideration. The epic Oidipodeia (where she kills Kreon's son Haimon) might have told us much about these matters, and likewise Aischylos' lost satyr play Sphinx. As to appearance, both Aischylos and Sophokles call her a dog, and while this might be figurative language, it might also reflect a variant tradition: the bodies of lions and dogs, minus the heads, are not so very different. No early author gives any motive for her assault on the Thebans, although as a monster perhaps she did not need one; later writers will at times make her an agent of various gods who visit disaster on Thebes for one reason or another.

The Chimaira's other child, the Lion of Nemea, presents no special features, save for his invulnerable hide. Hesiod, who does not mention this characteristic, says simply that Hera raised him, as she did the Hydra (but here without reference to Herakles), and that Herakles overcame him (Th 328-32). Bakcylides makes the same two points and adds that this was the first of Herakles' Labors, but he too does not tell us whether Hera's tendency had her enemy's destruction as a goal (9.6-9). Elsewhere he and Pindar are the first to describe the skin as impenetrable (Bak 13.46-54; Is 6.47-48). The scene of combat between the Lion and Herakles, one of the most popular in Greek vase-painting, shows the hero usually wrestling with the Lion. The resulting lionskin adorns Herakles as his trademark in much of Archaic art, beginning about 570 B.C., and seems to be as early as the epic account of Peisandros (fr 1 PEG; Athen 12.512f attributes the idea rather to Stesichoros). One final reference of an odd sort comes from the Epimendies Theogony, where the Lion is said to be sprung from (or shaken off by) Selene probably in her role as the moon rather than as a goddess (3B2).

Of Ophis, fourth and last of Phorkys and Keto's brood, we have already spoken in the discussion of the Hesperides. Hesiod makes him guard the apples (though the location -- under the earth? -- is difficult), Theokles carves him in wood at Olympia (together with fruit tree, Hesperides and Atlas: Paus 6.19.8), and Pherekydes gives him the same task at the behest of Hera (in fear of illicit apple-munching by the daughters of Atlas: 3F16, where he also has ninety heads). A Black-Figure lekythos of about 500 B.C. shows him (with two heads) wrapped around his tree and menacing Herakles (Berlin: PM VI 3261). No Archaic source describes his combat with the hero, though the vase illustrations suggest discretion on Herakles' part; Sophokles probably and Euipides definitely say that the hero killed him to get the apples (Tr 1099-1100; HF 397-99).

Finally we come to the fifth and last child of Pontos and Gaia, Eurybia, the second daughter. She marries Kreios, one of the twelve Titans, and thus joins together the lines of descent from Gaia through Pontos and Ouranos (Th 375-77). This union is to some extent the result of the fact that four of the other Titan males marry their sisters, while the two remaining sisters, Themis and Mnemosyne, are reserved for the subsequent attentions of Zeus. Thus, the two remaining brothers must find spouses outside their immediate family. Iapetos will adopt the same solution as did Nereus and Thaumas, his half-brothers, by wedding an Okeanid (in his case, Klymene), while Kreios here takes his half-sister. The children of Kreios and Eyrybia are three: Astraios, Pallas and Perses. Astraios weds his cousin Eos, the dawn (daughter of Hyperion and Theia), and produces three winds, Boreas, Zephyros and Notos, plus the morning star Heosphoros and the stars in general (Th 378-82). Zephyros is at his house with Boreas when Iris comes to summon them to Achilleus in Iliad 23, and appears as the sire of Achilleus' horses in Iliad 16; he later is a contender with Apollo for the affections of Hyakinthos. Boreas is best known for his abduction of Oreithuia, daughter of Erechtheus, a tale dramatized by Aischylos in his lost Oreithuia. Pausanias found him depicted on the Chest of Kypselos, with snake's tails instead of feet, as he carried off his love (5.19.1). The children of the union, as both Simonides (534 PMG) and Akousilaos (2F30) tell us, are Zetes and Kalais, who sail with the Argo. Pherekydes of Syros makes Boreas the father of the Harpuiai as well (7B5).

The second son, Pallas, marries his cousin Styx (daughter of Okeanos and Tethys); their children are Zelos (glory), Nike (Victory), Kratos (Power) and Bia (Force) (Th 383-85). These last two appear briefly in the Prometheus Desmotes, but basically all four are personifications.

The third son, Perses (oddly noted for his wisdom), then marries his cousin Asterie (daughter of Koios and Phoibe and sister of Leto), and their one child is Hekate (Th 409-13). In his long discourse on the powers of this figure, Hesiod makes her a general helper of men, bringing victory and success to their various endeavors if she wishes, and honored by Zeus as she was by the Titans, but with no chthonic or lunar associations mentioned.

In the book titled Myth and Law among the Indo-Europeans (published 1970, edited by Jaan Puhvel) there is a very competent article by C. Scott Littleton which uses comparative mythology to elucidate where we get these stories (and where the ancient Greeks got these stories) about the Titans. So I am borrowing comments from C. Scott Littleton's article.

First lets acknowledge where the experts of comparative mythology tell us the
successive-kingship-revolutions theme was NOT preserved. Not in Indian mythology. Not in Roman or Celtic mythology. Not in Sumerian mythology. Not in Egyptian mythology. And not in west African mythology.

That is a pretty impressive collection of have-nots.

Next let's notice that the group of peoples which DO TELL solid variants of the Kingship in Heaven theme were all located geographically CLOSE TO EACH OTHER.

Babylonian myths have the story, Hurrian-Hittite myths have the story. Phoenician myths have the story. Greek myths have the story. And Germanic-Norse myths have a partial version of the story.

Geographically speaking these comparable Uranos/Kronos/Zeus themes seem to be centered around the Hurrian region; extending as far east as Babylon, as far southwest as Phoenicia; as far northwest as Greece; as far north as the Hittites (and to a lesser degree the Germanic tribes).

Scott Littleton's conclusion was that the Kingship in Heaven theme is probably not an Indo-European theme.

My own conclusion is that comparative mythology reinforces my comments posted yesterday: about the Titans being a reference to the ancient Amorite region (and to an Amorite people) called Ditanu/Tidnum.

At this point, I would like to stay with the Titans, yet also "brighten" the topic a little by adding to it, the discussion of ancient sun gods. Our friend Helios should appreciate that. It is worth noting that, in most of the religions of the world, the sun god was always one of the most powerful and important of the pantheons. Ra, with the Egyptians, later to become Amon-Ra, then the Aton. The basis for Akhenaton's monotheism religion was sun worship, the disc in the sky. Of course, the Greeks had two sun gods, Helios first, Apollo later, three if one also counts Hyperion.

There is some debate, largely academic, as to whether the emblem on the gold chests found in the royal tomb at Vergina (the "Sunburst" itself), represents a star or the sun. The Perdikkas legend discussed in the previous chapter, together with evidence which will be briefly outlined in this chapter, strongly point to the latter.

The god Helios (=Sun) riding his solar chariot which is drawn by four winged horses. From an ancient Greek vase.

Helios, the sun god of the ancient Greeks, was usually represented riding a chariot which was drawn by four, often winged, horses (see picture below). His chariot rose daily into the heavens from the east and after blazing across the sky plunged into the western sea, thus bringing on the night. The sun's brilliant light emanated from the fiery crown that adorned Helios's head.

The sun god made the frits of the earth ripen - fertility being a common and obvious symbol logical association of the sun. When swearing an oath Greeks would often call upon Helios as a witness, as they believed he "saw and heard everything".

Although originally distinct deities, Helios was confused, as early as the fifth century BC, with Apollo (originally the god of music, the arts, archery, healing and prophecy - and later of light), so that Apollo frequently took on the function of the sun god himself. The epithets Phoebus 'the brilliant", Xanthos "the fair" and Chrysokomes "of the golden locks" used to describe Apollo, point to this solar connection.

The liveliest cult of Helios in the ancient Greek world existed on the island of Rhodes. Each year during the Halieia festival which was celebrated with much splendor and with athletic contests, the Rhodians threw a team of four horses into the sea as a sacrifice to him. In honor of what was effectively their national deity and to commemorate their heroic defense against Demetrius Poliorcetes's array, the people of Rhodes commissioned the celebrated sculptor Chares of Lindos to create a huge statue of Helios.

This statue, which is known to us as the 'Colossus of Rhodes", was one of the wonders of the ancient world. It was completed in 292 BC, twelve years after work began on it. It stood at the entrance of Rhodes's harbor and was over 35 meters tall. Helios was represented with a crown of sun-rays, a spear in his left hand and a flaming torch held aloft in his right, as depicted in the illustration by Roger Payne (below). Descriptions of this ancient statue inspired the design of France's gift to the people of the USA in 1884 - the Statue of Liberty as the inscription at the base of this New York landmark acknowledges.

Less than a century after its completion (in 224 BC), an earthquake destroyed the statue and it was never again erected. The metal was finally sold for scrap in 653 AD.

The rays emanating from the sun god's head, as they must have appeared on the Rhodian statue's crown, and as we know them to actually be depicted on surviving works of art, reinforce the conviction that the inspiration for the Sunburst derives from the traditional representation of the Greek sun god Helios. It is not difficult to see that stylized rays emanating from a fiery core is in fact a shorthand reference to this solar deity rather than to a star.

Back to the Stolen Sun
Back to Macedonian Historical Pages

TABLE OF CORRESPONDENCES

FATHER
NANNA/SIN

MOTHER
NINGAL

SISTER
INANNA/ISHTAR

BROTHER
ISHKUR/ADAD

CITIES
SIPPAR, LARSA

TEMPLE
E-BABBAR (WHITE HOUSE)

CONSORT
SHERIDA/AYA

SYMBOL
SUN DISK. PRUNING SAW

GIFTS
CLARITY, INSIGHT

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Utu is the Sumerian Sun God, whose Akkadian name is Shamash. He represents the brilliant light of the sun, which returns every day to illuminate the life of mankind, as well as the heavenly Force that brings the warmth which causes plants to grow. Utu´s pictographic sign appears already in the earliest written cuneiform records.

Several Old Sumerian kings speak of Utu as their king, and this can be attested by the kings´ name forms, which may include the name of the god or his epithets in it. In the Sumerian tradition, Utu is the son of Nanna, the Moon Lord and his consort Ningal, and twin brother of Inanna, the Great Goddess of Love and War, showing therefore that the Light of the Day came from the Torch of the Night and the Lady of Dreams. Nanna and Ningal had another son, the patron god of weather changes and holder of thunderbolts, Ishkur or Adad, Utu´s younger brother. In Akkadian tradition, Utu/Shamash is sometimes the son of Anu, the Skyfather, or Enlil, the Air Lord. Utu´s consort is Sherida (Sumer) or Aya (Akkadian for dawn). The two principal temples of Utu were both called E-babbar, or White House, and were located in Sippar (in the North) and Larsa in Southern Sumer. Thorkild Jacobsen mentions in The Treasures of Darkness that Utu´s/Shamash´s main characteristics is Righteousness, for He is the power in the light that reveals all that is to be seen, and the foe of darkness and deeds of darkness. Thus, in the social plane, Utu becomes a power for justice and equity.

Utu´s social role is therefore as guardian of justice, as judge of gods and men. In such position, he presides in the morning in cournts such as the one we know from the Bathhouse Ritual, where demons and other evildoers are sued by their human victims. At night, Utu/Shamash judges disputes among the dead of the Underworld. He is the last appeal of the wronged, who can obtain no justice from their fellow men, and their cry of despair to him, i-Utu, was feared as possessing supernatural power.

Basically, each morning Utu rises from the 'interior of heaven' with rays out of his shoulders in the East and crosses the firmament and all heavenly luminaries before finally reentering through the corresponding set of gates in the west. This means the Sun god travels to the Underworld everyday, becoming one of its Luminaries of the Land of No Return during nightime. Thus, Utu/Shamash is one of the Ever-Returning Deities of Mesopotamia, who travel to the Depths Below entering its Gates at Sunset and returning to brighten up the Heights Above at dawn every single day. The West Gates where the Sun sets in the Epic of Gilgamesh are said to be guarded by the Scorpion People, beings half human, half scorpion, the first Otherworld challengers Gilgamesh had to meet and win over in his search for immortality. Utu/Shamash travels the skies either on foot or in a chariot, pulled by fiery mules. His domain is called in The Phoenician Letters (by Wilfrid Davies and G. Zur, Mowat Publishing, Manchester, UK, 1979) the High Country, the heavenly sphere where the stars can be found.

In terms of character, Utu/Shamash is the Light that All Sees, and thus regarded as a god of truth, justice, and right. Thus his association to law and order, as well as a provider of clarity for oracles. I guess we could very much express the law-giving powers of Utu/Shamash as being the Spirit or Soul of the Law, i.e. He rules over the facts and acts which should guide righteous living, the standards for truthful action and deeds in the world, thus being the god for omens and oracles, because His is also the Will of the Ensouled Universe. Marduk, on the other hand, can be associated with the Law in the sense of being the Letter of the Law, the power that should be applied to Perfection to ensure the prosperity of the land. What the Spirit of the Law dictates (Utu/Shamsh) is accomplished by the coding of Harmonious Living, or the Power of Marduk. Utu/Shamash together with the storm-god Adad, he was often invoked in extispicy rituals.

THE SUN GOD IN MYTH

In Mesopotamian myths, Utu/Shamash is mentioned as follows:

a) The Brother and Best Friend - As the brother Inanna/Ishtar, the young goddess of Love and War, Utu appears as friend and initiator, the emblematic representative of the opposite Sex in the peer group, or the brother closer to the age of his younger sister, who loves her and challenges her as well so that she has to find within her own self in all worlds the guts to equal him in all levels and spheres. Utu in this context is the Best Friend and Beloved Challenger, whose otherness help us to define ourselves better in opposition to what he is. This .

Thus, in a passage called The Huluppu Tree, the first in the Cycle of Inanna, Utu refuses to help his kid sister to defeat the treacherous bird and the demoness who had searched for shelter in the Tree Inanna had planted in her garden for her people. Utu/Shamash by refusing to help his divine sister acts in her best interests, because in Mesopotamia a young goddess should be initiated by the hero, as well as young prince is initiated by goddess. He appears therefore as the Contender who wants Inanna/us to succeed by her/our own means and initiative, the brother that will not give us an easy time, but who will also stand by us, in case he feels we cannot handle the situation, but only then...

We also meet Utu again in a second lovely passage of the Cycle of Inanna called "The Bridal Sheets". In it, Utu/Shamash comes to his sister and tells her that he will bring her a piece of linen, "which is always needed". In actual fact, Utu is not talking about linen, but referring to his pet sister, who like the piece of cloth which was once flax and then was retted, spun, dyed, woven, etc. has become a lovely girl, ready to meet her beloved. In this myth, Utu/Shamash represents the peer group, the acknowledgement and acceptance all teenagers crave from the opposite Sex that helps to encourage confidence in the Lover Within ourselves. In this passage, we can feel in the exchanges the intimacy and closeness between brother and sister.

b) The Protector of Dumuzi - We meet Utu/Shamash still in the Cycle of Inanna in a passage when Dumuzi, Inanna´s consort, is terrified by the fact that Inanna sentenced him to the Underworld for being neglectful of her. Thus, two Underworld demons called galla are after him. In order to escape his fate, Dumuzi appeals to Utu for help to escape the demons by remembering the God of Justice that by marriage to Inanna, Utu is Dumuzi´s brother-in-law, thus kin to Dumuzi as well. Utu comes for the rescue of the selfish shepherd-king.

Why does Utu help Dumuzi, one may ask? Firstly, Dumuzi did not hurt the Spirit of any Law and did not disrupt the balance of society, i.e. Dumuzi is neither a criminal nor has committed any offense to the people of Mesopotamia. Utu as the Sun God stands for Solar or Rational Consciousness. Solar Consciousness is about absolute justice, moral force and integrity.

Thus, Dumuzi did not fail Utu/Shamash designs and the land of Mesopotamia, but he did fail Inanna, Utu´s sister, and Dumuzi´s wife. He failed Inanna by not missing Her for the three days She had descended to the Underworld, Dumuzi did not say a word expressing concern for the safety of Inanna or a best wish for Her return to the Heights Above. In this sense, Dumuzi was totally neglectful to his consort and wife. Dumuzi failed the test of empathy, trust, responsibility towards those we captivate, in other words, he failed Love and His Beloved.

Utu helps Dumuzi escape twice the gala demons by shapeshifting the young shepherd-king first into a slow, lowly snake, meaning that Dumuzi should learn to master the wisdom of the low earth and physical plane, and not to feel above it as the young king behaved in the absence of Inanna. The second transformation Utu grants Dumuzi is the one of a swift, high climbing mountain gazelle, or the gifts of speed and understanding of the world and existence from a higher standpoint. Dumuzi is thus given the opportunity to experience his earthly kingdom in two different guises and be transformed by both.

c) As the Personal God of Gilgamesh - In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utu/Shamash is Gilgamesh´s personal god. The king of Uruk prays to Shamash when he and Enkidu decide to defeat Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest. It is to Him that Enkidu and Gilgamesh offer sacrifices in thanksgiving for the defeat of the Bull of Heaven Inanna/Ishtar sent to battle them in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

d) In the myth of Etana, the eagle and the snake break an oath of friendship celebrated between them in the presence of Utu/Shamash. An oath to the God who represented The Spirit of the Law was a serious undertaking. Once broken, the guilty part should suffer strong punishment, and The eagle betrays the snake in the most fundamental way by slaughtering the snake´s offspring and destroying the snake´s nest. Thus, the eagle ihas to pay for his wrondoing by having to endure enormous suffering emprisioned in a deep pit, and then can only find redemption by having to help Etana, the king, to fly to the Heights Above and capture the Plant of Life to accomplish his dream of an heir and son. Etana in this context stands for the king and solar consciousness, the solar disc being a symbol of sacred kingship especially in Assyria.

I have interpreted the metaphor of the eagle and the snake as the understanding a monarch must have of the meaning of power and the exercise of justice between irreconcilable oppositions within a nation that is being built. In other words, eagle and the snake can be seen as the warring factions of the land a monarch should keep close watch upon. Difficult to unite, for they are different species, although a truce can be established and maintained by the application of justice. However, the greedy eagle is the one that poses the hardest trial for the king. By betraying the snake and killing its offspring it needed more healing and more attonement. Etana the king can be seen as both the snake, who had its offspring killed by the eagle, thus Etana also grieved for the offspring of his blood he wanted to father so much. The snake was the beast in the king, raw energy and grief. Etana also mean that the monarch should be the embodiment of Shamash/Utu and be the Spirit of the Law and Light that all Sees and Zeals for his domains.

Professor Simo Parpola says the following about the relationship of snake and serpent presented in this myth (extracted from his article The Assyrian Tree of Life, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, volume 52, January-October 1993)

"The eagle and the serpent are conflicting aspects of man´s soul, the one capable of carrying him to heaven, the other pulling him down to sin and death. Ignoring the voice of his conscience (the small fledgling), he becomes guilty of perfidy, greed and murder; for this, he is punished. This is an allegory for spiritual death; the same idea is expressed by the childlessness of Etana, to whom the narrative returns (Etana´s barren wife being the equivalent to his barren soul, and the desired son/fruit an allegory by which Etana will be judged)."
Etana´s realization of his condition is the beginning of his salvation; from now on, he appears as a person, referred to by his own name. Admitting his guilt and shame, he prays for a plant of birth, that is a chance for spiritual rebirth, and is guided to the path that will take him there. Solar consciousness, the prerogative of Shamash/Utu, is the crowning achievement for the monarch, who, having healed himself, returns to form his own blood family to head his kingdom for a few more generations in Mesopotamia.

e) Last but surely not least, in the myth Enki and the World Order, where civilisation is established and organised by Enki, the God of Sweet Waters, Magick, Crafts and Wisdom, Enki places Utu in charge of the entire universe, and states that:

"The valiant Utu [is] the herald of the holy Anu the judge, the decision-maker of the gods, who wears a lapis lazuli beard, who comes from the holy heaven, born of Ningal, Enki placed in charge of the entire universe" (lines374-379).

THE GREAT HYMN TO UTU

One of the most beautiful hymns that came to us from Ancient Mesopotamia is a composition called the Great Hymn to Utu, which is present in its entirely in the section of Hymns and Poems here in Gateways taken from "Babylonian Wisdom Literature" by Lambert. Amongst the many epithets the god is referred to, we have "shepherd without exception", master of the upper and lower regions (stressing also Shamash´s as the All-Seeing Light of the Underworld), "so that all monsters of the deep behold Shamash´s light".
The following points should be stressed about this beautiful and long hymn:
1. Shamash as the Divine Stern Judge to whom the gods and humanity bow. The universe in particular longs for Shamash´s light, which regulates what we would call Civil Legislation, or the one involving relatives, familiar and busines ties, code of conduct and righteous living for all.
2. Shamash as the Power of the Highest Discernment, thus the Divine Manager of omens and oracular divination. The hymn says that Shamash makes what is perplexing plain.
3. Shamash as the Power of Truth, because He grants Revelation to the families of men as the Seer god, the foremost: "Brightener of gloom, illuminator of darkness, Dispeller of darkness, illuminator of the broad earth. "
UTU AND ASTROLOGY

Finally, the first point raised about Utu/Shamash in "The Phoenician Letters" is that the realm of Utu/Shamash is the realm of science and of the astrologers. Following suit, the master warns the crown prince and acolyte to be very careful when considering the matter of forecasts, especially the ones involving doom and defeat, because "the same signs which are in the heavens have opposite results" (page 84) and that :

"there are twelve signs of lominions through which the god Shamash travels as he goes about His dominions, and in each, so it is said, a peril is overcome, a quality developed. ... Therefore, a quality of a sign is to be sought, bearing in mind what sort of will and country the matter being examined is placed within" (page 85)

Basically, some fundamental points are spelled out here. First, Astrology/Astronomy as a science, and this issue was raised by the eminent French Assyriologist Jean Bottéro this century: the observation of the skies, stars and planets show in Mesopotamia the roots of scientific thought and reasoning way ahead other civilisations in antiquity. In his groundbreaking chapter on "Divination and the Scientific Spirit", Professor Jean Bottéro proves that our soul ancestors studied the stars and their routes upon the skies within a framework that involved observation, careful notetaking, the making of assumptions/hypothesis, consideration of all possible variables interferring with events and the drawing of conclusions based on facts previously attested (in: Mesopotamia: writing, reasoning and the Gods, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, London, 1987). To illustrate this point:

"A typical diary entry begins with a statement on the length of the previous month. It might have been 29 or 30 days. Then, the present month's first observation - the time between sunset and moonset on the day of the first waxing crescent - is given, followed by similar information on the times between moonsets and sunrises and between moonrises and sunsets, at full moon. At the end of the month, the interval between the rising of the last waning crescent moon and sunrise is recorded. " From Echoes of the Ancient Skies: The Astronomy of Lost Civilizations by E. C. Krupp. Full article in Shem´s Babyloniaca (caution: this site is down at the moment...)

The second and final point I would like to draw your attention to relates to the stern warnings for the crown prince to use his judgement and not to believe in forecasts of doom, or in foolish men who state that a planet is a bad influence or that a god is dangerous show that clarity and discernment are chief qualities of Utu/Shamash that should be cultivated by the ruler, because "the nature of Shamash is to shine upon all". The gifts Utu/Shamash bring to us are therefore radiance, energy, warmth, clarity, discernment and above all, equality. Because the Phoenician Letters also say that that we all "must handle the task of creation , the chariot of the sun fearlessly and with humility, only thus can the man be a real king: from which it follows that all men are kings by creation" pg. 94

Manulis was a sun god of Lower (northern) Nubia. He is usually depicted wearing a crown of ram horns surmounted by high plumes, sun disks and cobras. His name in Egyptian inscriptions is "Merwel" but the Greek version, as found in the text known as the "Vision of Mandulis" is used almost universally.

Left: The Ba of Mandulis; Right: Mandulis from Kalabsha

In the year 307 A.D. Emperor Diocletian, a sun worshipper, was involved in the dedication of a temple to Mithra and was responsible for the burning of scripture which made it possible for later emperors to formulate their own version of "Christianity."

After the rein of Diocletian, Emperor Constantine, while claiming to be a Christian maintained the title "Pontifus Maximus" the high priest of paganism. His coins were inscribed: "SOL INVICTO COMITI" (COMMITTED TO THE INVINCIBLE SUN).

During his reign pagan sun worship was blended with the worship of the Creator, and officially entitled "Christianity."

Cybele the Phrygian goddess, known to her followers as "the mother of god", was closely related to the worship of Mithra. As Mithraism was a man’s religion, the worship of Cybele was practiced by the women. The priests of Mithra were known as "Fathers" and the Priestesses of Cybele as "Mothers."

After baptism into the Mysteries of Mithra, the initiate was marked on the forehead. The sign of the cross formed by the elliptic and the celestial equator was one of the signs of Mithra.

Sunday (Deis Solis), the day of the sun, was considered by Mithraist a sacred day of rest.

December 25th was celebrated as the birth of the sun, given birth by the "Queen of Heaven" - "Mother of god."

The Mithraists celebrated a mithraic love feast. This feast consisted of loaves of bread decorated with crosses with wine over which the priest pronounced a mystic formula.

Mithra was considered mediator between god and man.

Mithraists also believed in eternal life in heaven and in the torture of the wicked after death. Many of these beliefs and rituals were exclusive to Mithraism and up until the fourth century were not a part of the Christian faith. Only those in accordance with the commandments of God could possibly be in honor of Christ.

In the 4th century, through confusion and manipulation, rituals of "sun worship" were pronounced, by the followers of Satan to be "Christian" in nature.

There is no Biblical support for the inclusion of Mithraic ritual, which is the worship of Satan, in the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Creator of heaven and earth. It is a Satanic scheme to disguise the transgression of God’s laws under the title of "Christianity".

This same system, characterized by the shrouding of truth in secrecy and the manipulation of the truth in order to achieve its ends, has been working for two millennia to combine paganism with Christianity.

The Sun (Surya Deva), is one of the five chief tantrik deities, the others being Ganesha, Shiva, Shakti and Vishnu.

According to Alain Danielou in Hindu Polytheism, the Sun is one of the three chief deities of the vedas but he also receives worship in tantrik literature. He is leader of the nine planets (graha) and, in later times, worship of the Sun by the Saura division of the tantriks became worship of his son, Saturn or Shani, and took on something of a dark colour.

Surya and his band of wanderers circle the sacred Mount Meru 6 1 8
7 5 3
2 9 4
constantly and each has a yantra similar in form to the well-known Western "magic squares". This, for example, is Surya's. Various mantras are ascribed to Surya, including Om Hrim Hraum Suraya Namah, to be recited 7,500 times in his puja and Om Hram Hraum Suryaya Namah. The Surya Panchanga, or five limbs of the Sun, a part of the voluminous Devirahasyatantra, describes the puja to Surya in full.

The yantra for his daily puja (above left) consists of a bindu, a triangle, an octagon, a circle, eight petals, 10 petals, three circles and an earthsquare or bhupura. Beloved of the goddess Gayatri, he is the very self of time and the lord of awakeness. He is gold in colour, with a face as bright as the fire at the end of time. He wears a jewelled golden crown, and is seated in the middle of a white lotus, with two (rather than three) eyes. He is adorned with various gems, wears red clothes and has a smiling face. This image varies from the conventional one here, which has Suryadeva as a form of Vishnu. When performing his puja, there are 12 separate nyasas which may be performed. These include planet nyasa, gayatri nyasa, seven horse nyasa, pitha nyasa, veda nyasa and tattva nyasa. He has his own form of tantrik Gayatri, even though he is the self of the vedik Gayatri. This runs: Om hrim suryarupaya vidmahe hrimsah jyotirupaya dhimahe tanno hamsah prachodayat.

When worshipping Surya Deva in the above yantra, it proceeds from the circumference to the centre. The first group are the 10 dikpalas, or guardians of the directions; in the earthsquare, worshipped in the vama direction, are Ganesha, Chandavetala, Lolaksha and Vikarala; in the circles are the different lines of gurus.

In other tantras, the Sun receives worship as Martanda Bhairava, and is pictured here in an Ardhanareshvari form, half of his body being male, the other being female. His shakti is Prakasha Shakti, that is his energy of Light.

The translation that follows is of the Sun's amulet or armour, drawn from the Devirahasya.

Suryakavacha
shriibhairava uvaacha
yo devadevo bhagavaan.h bhaaskaro mahasaaM nidhiH.
gayatriinaayako bhaasvaan.h saviteti pragiiyate.. 1..
Shri Bhairava said -
To he who is the god of gods, the lord Sun, the effulgent gem, the Lord of the Gayatri, the source of light, sung of as Savita (1)

tasyaahaM kavachaM divyaM vajrapa~njarakaabhidham.h.
sarvamantramayaM guhyaM muulavidyaarahasyakam.h.. 2..

(I speak) of his celestial armour (kavacha) called the Vajrapanjara (diamond refuge), consisting of all mantra, secret, the essential secret of the root vidya (2)

sarvapaapaapahaM devi duHkhadaaridryanaashanam.h.
mahaakuShThaharaM puNyaM sarvaroganivarhaNam.h.. 3..

Destroying all sin, Devi, destroying sadness and poverty, destroying great ailments, meritorious, dispelling all disease (3)

sarvashatrusamuuhaghnaM samgraame vijayapradam.h.
sarvatejomayaM sarvadevadaanavapuujitam.h.. 4..

Killing all enemies, giving victory over hosts of enemies, full of all effulgence, giving the fruit of worshipping all gods (4)

raNe raajabhaye ghore sarvopadravanaashanam.h.
maatR^ikaaveShTitaM varma bhairavaanananirgatam.h.. 5..

In war, in fear of the king, in terrible (times) destroying all poisons, on a skin encircled by the letters of the alphabet (matrikas), various faces of Bhairava surrounded (?) (5)

grahapiiDaaharaM devi sarvasa~NkaTanaashanam.h.
dhaaraNaadasya deveshi brahmaa lokapitaamahaH.. 6..

Destroying grahas, poisonous things, O Devi, destroying all difficult situations, if worn, Deveshi, he is like Brahma, the grandfather of the universe (6)

viSNurnaaraayaNo devi raNe daityaa~njioShyati.
sha~NkaraH sarvalokesho vaasavo.api divaspatiH.. 7..

(Like) Vishnu-Narayana Devi, in war, conquering the Daityas, like Shankara, the Lord of all the Worlds, and like Vasu also, the Lord of the Day (7)

oShadhiishaH shashii devi shivo.ahaM bhairaveshvaraH.
mantraatmakaM paraM varma savituH saaramuttamam.h.. 8..

Like the Moon, the Lord of Herbs, Devi, like I, Shiva, the Lord Bhairava, this mantra-body is the supreme armour, the highest essence of Savita (8)

yo dhaarayed.h bhuje muurdhni ravivaare maheshvari.
sa raajavallabho loke tejasvii vairimardanaH.. 9..

Whoever should wear it on his shoulder, or on his head, Maheshvari, on a Sunday, he becomes the beloved of kings here on earth, shining brightly, killing his enemies. (9)

bahunoktena kiM devi kavachasyaasya dhaaraNaat.h.
iha laxmiidhanaarogya-vR^iddhirbhavati naanyathaa.. 10..

What point is there of many words, Devi, relating to the wearing of this kavacha? Here (on this earth), it bestows wealth like Lakshmi and is health giving. (10)

paratra paramaa muktirdevaanaaamapi durlabhaa.
kavachasyaasya deveshi muulavidyaamayasya cha.. 11..

Elsewhere (in other worlds), Deveshi, this kavacha of the root mantra, gives supreme liberation and is very hard to get. (11)

vajrapa~njarakaakhyasya munirbrahmaa samiiritaH.
gaayatryaM Chanda ityuktaM devataa savitaa smR^itaH.. 12..

The seer (rishi) of the Vajrapanjara is Brahma, it is said. Gayatri is the metre, it is declared, while the devata is Savita. (12)

maayaa biijaM sharat.h shaktirnamaH kiilakamiishvari.
sarvaarthasaadhane devi viniyogaH prakiirtitaH.. 13..

Maya is the bija, Sarat is the shakti, Namah is the linchpin, Ishvari. The renowned application is that it gives the results of all sadhana. (13)

oM aM aaM iM iiM shiraH paatu oM suuryo mantravigrahaH.
uM uuM R^iM R^IM lalaaTaM me hraaM raviH paatu chinmayaH.. 14..

oM aM aaM iM iiM must protect my head; oM suuryo my body, uM uuM R^iM R^IM my forehead, hraaM Ravi must protect my consciousness. (14)

L^iM L^IM eM aiM paatu netre hriiM mamaaruNasaarathiH.
oM auM aM aH shrutii paatu saH sarvajagadiishvaraH.. 15..

L^iM L^IM eM aiM must protect in the eye; hriiM the Red Charioteer (?); oM auM aM aH the Lord of all the World saH must protect my ears. (15)

kaM khaM gaM ghaM paatu gaNDau suuM suuraH surapuujitaH.
chaM ChaM jaM jhaM cha naasaaM me paatu yaa^rM aryamaa prabhuH.. 16..

kaM khaM gaM ghaM must protect my cheeks, suuM the God worshipped by other gods; chaM ChaM jaM jhaM must protect my nose, yaa^rM (the aditya) Lord Aryama. (16)

TaM ThaM DaM DhaM mukhaM paayaad.h yaM yogiishvarapuujitaH.
taM thaM daM dhaM galaM paatu naM naaraayaNavallabhaH.. 17..

TaM ThaM DaM DhaM (must protect) my mouth, yaM he who is worshipped by Lords of Yoga; taM thaM daM dhaM must protect my throat, naM he who is beloved of Narayana. (17)

paM phaM baM bhaM mama skandhau paatu maM mahasaaM nidhiH.
yaM raM laM vaM bhujau paatu muulaM sakanaayakaH.. 18..

paM phaM baM bhaM must protect my shoulders, maM the embodiment of light; yaM raM laM vaM must protect my arms, and the root mantra Sakanayaka. (18)

shaM ShaM saM haM paatu vaxo muulamantramayoi dhruvaH.
LaM xaH kuxsiM sadaa paatu grahaatho dineshvaraH.. 19..

shaM ShaM saM haM must protect my chest, Dhruva, consisting of the root mantra; LaM xaH must always protect my belly, lord of the day and the planets. (19)

~NaM ~naM NaM naM maM me paatu pR^iShThaM divasanaayakaH.
aM aaM iM iiM uM uuM R^iM R^IM naabhiM paatu tamopahaH.. 20..

~NaM ~naM NaM naM maM must protect my front, the lord of the day; aM aaM iM iiM uM uuM R^iM R^IM protect my navel, the dispeller of darkness. (20)

L^iM L^IM eM aiM oM auM aM aH li~NgaM me.avyaad.h graheshvaraH.
kaM khaM gaM ghaM chaM ChaM jaM jhaM kaTiM bhaanurmamaavatu.. 21..

L^iM L^IM eM aiM oM auM aM aH protect my penis, lord of the planets; kaM khaM gaM ghaM chaM ChaM jaM jhaM protect my waist, O Sun. (21)

TaM ThaM DaM DhaM taM thaM daM dhaM jaanuu bhaasvaan.h mamaavatu.
paM phaM baM bhaM yaM raM laM vaM ja~Nghe me.aavyaad.h vibhaakaraH.. 22..

TaM ThaM DaM DhaM taM thaM daM dhaM protect my knees, o spreader of rays; paM phaM baM bhaM yaM raM laM vaM protect my legs, shining one. (22)

shaM ShaM saM haM LaM xaH paatu muulaM paadau trayitanuH.
~NaM ~naM NaM naM maM me paatu savitaa sakalaM vapuH.. 23..

shaM ShaM saM haM LaM xaH protect my feet, three rayed one, with the root mantra; ~NaM ~naM NaM naM maM Savita, protect all of my body. (23)

somaH puurve cha maaM paatu bhaumo.agnau maaM sadaavatu.
budho maaM daxiNe paatu nai{R^i}tyaa gurareva maam.h.. 24..

May the moon protect me in the east, and may Mars protect me always in the south-east; Mercury protect me in the south, and Jupiter in the south-west. (24)

pashchime maaM sitaH paatu vaayavyaaM maaM shanaishcharaH.
uttare maaM tamaH paayaadaishaanyaaM maaM shikhii tathaa.. 25..

Venus, protect me in the west, and may Saturn protect me in the north west. Rahu, protect me in the north, and Ketu in the north-east. (25)

uurdhvaM maaM paatu mihiro maamadhastaa~njagatpatiH.
prabhaate bhaaskaraH paatu madhyaahne maaM dineshvaraH.. 26..

Mihira, protect me above and Anjagatpati(?) below; at dawn Bhaskara protect, and at midday Dineshvara (lord of the day). (26)

saayaM vedapriyaH paatu ni*****he visphuraapatiH.
sarvatra sarvadaa suuryaH paatu maaM chakranaayakaH.. 27..

In the evening, Vedapriya protect me, and at night Visphurapati; Surya protect me everywhere and Lord of the Chakra protect me always. (27)

raNe raajakule dyuute vidaade shatrusa~NkaTe.
sa~Ngaame cha jvare roge paatu maaM savitaa prabhuH .. 28..

In war, with the king's clan, in litigation, in sexual union, in fever, in disease, protect me Lord Savita. (28)

oM oM oM uta oM{u}{OM} ha sa ma yaH suuro.avataanmaaM bhayaad.h.
hraaM hriiM hruM hahahaa hasauH hasahasauH haMso.avataat.h sarvataH.
saH saH saH sasasaa nR^ipaadvanacharaachchauraadraNaat.h saMkaTaat.h.
paayaanmaaM kulanaayako.api savitaa oM hriiM ha sauH sarvadaa.. 29..

oM oM oM uta oM{u}{OM} ha sa ma yaH Oh Sun, protect me from fear. hraaM hriiM hruM hahahaa hasauH hasahasauH haMso. protect me always. saH saH saH sasasaa protect me from kings, from animals in the forests, from thieves and from wars. oM hriiM ha sauH Lord of the Kulas, Savita, protect me always. (29)

draaM driiM druuM dadhanaM tathaa cha taraNirbhaaMbhairbhayaad.h bhaaskaro raaM riiM ruuM rururuuM ravirjvarabhayaat.h kuShThaachcha shuulaamayaat.h. aM aM aaM viviviiM mahaamayabhayaM maaM paatu maartaNDako muulavyaaptatanuH sadaavatu paraM haMsaH sahasraaMshumaan.h.. 30..

draaM driiM druuM dadhanaM Bhaskara, protect me from fear of the Tarani (the Sun) and Mars (?). raaM riiM ruuM rururuuM from fear of fever, leprosy and acute pain, (protect me) Ravi. Martanda, protect me from great delusion with aM aM aaM viviviiM paraM haMsaH One with a thousand rays, may the root mantra over the body always protect me. (30)

iti shriikavacchaM divyaM vajrapa~njarakaabhidham.h.
sarvadevarahasyaM cha maatR^ikaamantraveShTitam.h.. 31..

Thus is revealed the celestial auspicious kavacha called the Vajrapanjaraka, which is the secret of all the devas and strewn with the the matrika mantras. (31)

mahaarogabhayaghnaM cha paapaghnaM manmukhoditam.h.
guhyaM yashaskaraM puNyaM sarvashreyaskaraM shive.. 32..

Shive! It is the destroyer of great diseases and ills, revealed by me. It is secret, splendid, good, and the refuge of all. (32)

likhitvaa ravivaare tu tiShye vaa janmabhe priye.
aSTagandhena divyena sudhaaxiireNa paarvati.. 33..

Dearest One, Parvati! Having written it on a Sunday in (the month) Tishya, in the birth constellation, smearing it with the eight celestial scents and with milky nectar. (33)

arkaxiireNa puNyena bhuurjatvachi maheshvari.
kanakiikaaShThalekhanyaa kavachaM bhaaskarodaye.. 34..

One should write the kavacha on bhurja (birch bark), using good sunflower milk, Maheshvari, or on thorn apple wood, as the Sun rises. (34)

shvetasuutreNa raktena shyaamenaaveShTayed.h guTiim.h.
sauvarNenaatha saMveShThya dhaarayenmuurdhni vaa bhuje.. 35..

One should wrap it into a ball shape using white, red and dark threads, and in gold should enclose it, then wearing it one's head or one's arm. (35)

raNe ripuu~njayed.h devi vaade sadasi jeShyati.
raajamaanyo bhavennityaM sarvatejomayo bhavet.h.. 36..

In war, one conquers enemies Devi, in debates one triumphs, one becomes always brilliant and full of all effulgence. (36)

kaNThasthaa putradaa devi kuxisthaa roganaashinii.
shiraHsthaa guTikaa divyaa raakalokavasha~Nkarii.. 37..

Wearing it on the throat gives a son, wearing it on the hips destroys disease, wearing it in a ball, on one's head, makes one the the subduer of a gathering of kings. (37)

bhujasthaa dhanadaa nityaM tejobuddhivivardhinii.
vandhyaa vaa kaakavandhyaa vaa mR^itavatsaa cha yaa~Nganaa.. 38..

(Worn) on the arm, it gives wealth always, and promotes understanding. A barren woman, or a woman having only one child, or a woman whose new-born dies early, (38)

kaNThe saa dhaarayennityaM bahuputraa prajaayaye.
yasya dehe bhavennityaM guTikaiShaa maheshvari.. 39..

if she should wear it always on the throat, gives birth to many sons. Maheshvari, on whoever's body this is worn in a ball, (39)

mahaastraaNiindramuktaani brahmaastraadiini paarvati.
taddehaM praapya vyarthaani bhaviShyanti na saMshayaH.. 40..

Parvati, obtaining that body one becomes impervious to the great missiles of Indra and Brahma, there is no doubt (?) (40)

trikaalaM yaH paThennityaM kavachaM vajrapa~njaram.h.
tasya sadyo mahaadevi savitaa varado bhavet.h.. 41..

Savita immediately gives boons to whoever reads this Vajrapanjara kavacha at the twilights, Mahadevi, (41)

aGYaatvaa kavachaM devi puujayed yastrayiitanum.h.
tasya puujaarjitaM puNyaM janmakoTiShu niShphalam.h.. 42..

Devi, those ignorant of this kavacha who do puja to the three-bodied one (the Sun), for him puja is empty of merit, and even in ten million births it is fruitless. (42)

shataavartaM paThedvarma saptamyaaM ravivaasare.
mahaakuShThaardito devi muchyate naatra saMshayaH.. 43..

Whoever recites this armour 100 times on a Sunday, seven times, is alleviated from great illnesses and is liberated, there is no doubt. (43)

nirogo yaH paThedvarma daridro vajrapa~njaram.h .
laxmiivaa~njaayate devi sadyaH suuryaprasaadataH.. 44..

Whoever reads this Vajrapanjara armour is healthy and free from poverty, Devi. By grace of Surya, he immediately becomes like Lakshmi, goddess of wealth. (44)

bhaktyaa yaH prapaThed.h devi kavachaM pratyahaM priye.
iha loke shriyaM bhuktvaa dehaante muktimaapnuyaat.h.. 45..

Whoever reads this kavacha daily, with devotion, dear Devi, becomes wealthy in this world, and on dying obtains liberation. (45)

iti shriirudrayaamale tantre shriidevirahasye vajrapa~njaraakhyasuuryakavachaniruupaNaM trayastriMshaH paTalaH .. 33 ..

So in the Shrirudrayamala Tantra, Devirahasya, 33rd patala, the Sun kavacha known as Vajrapanjara.