Theogony

Let us begin our singing with the Muses of Helicon, who hold Helicon, the great and holy mountain. On their soft feet they dance around the violet-dark spring and the altar of the mighty son of Cronus. When they have bathed their tender skin in the Permessus, or the Horse’s Spring, or holy Olmeius, they form their dances on the topmost heights of Helicon, beautiful and lovely dances, and their feet move nimbly.note

Come then, let us begin with the Muses, who with their hymns delight the great mind of father Zeus within Olympus, telling of what is and what will be and what was before, their voices in harmony. From their mouths the song flows sweet and tireless. The house of father Zeus, the loud-thundering, laughs as the goddesses’ lily-soft voice spreads abroad; the peaks of snowy Olympus echo, and the houses of the immortals. Sending out their immortal voice, they first celebrate in song the revered race of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth and wide Sky bore, and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things. Next they hymn Zeus, father of gods and of men, as they begin and as they end their song: how he is the mightiest of the gods and the greatest in power.note

There are their shining dancing-floors and their beautiful houses, and beside them the Graces and Desire have their homes, amid festivity. Sending a lovely voice from their mouths, they sing and celebrate the laws of all things and the good ways of the immortals, sending out their lovely voice. Then they went to Olympus, glorying in their beautiful voice, in immortal song; the black earth rang around them as they sang, and a lovely beat rose from under their feet as they went to their father. He is king in the sky, and he himself holds the thunder and the blazing thunderbolt, since he conquered his father Cronus by strength; and he has arranged everything well for the immortals alike and assigned them their honors.

These things, then, the Muses sang, who have their homes on Olympus, nine daughters born of great Zeus: Clio and Euterpe, Thalia and Melpomene, Terpsichore and Erato, Polyhymnia and Urania, and Calliope, who is the foremost of them all, for she also attends on revered kings. Whenever the daughters of great Zeus honor one of the kings nurtured by Zeus, and look on him at his birth, they pour sweet dew on his tongue, and gentle words flow from his mouth. All the people look to him as he settles disputes with straight judgments; speaking surely, he skillfully puts a quick end even to a great quarrel. For this is why kings are wise: when the people are being wronged in the assembly, they easily turn matters around, winning men over with gentle words.note

Hail, children of Zeus! Grant lovely song. Celebrate the holy race of the immortals who live forever, who were born of Earth and starry Sky, and of dark Night, and those whom salty Sea nourished. Tell how at first the gods and earth came to be, and the rivers and the boundless sea, surging with its swell, and the shining stars and the wide sky above, [and the gods who were born of them, givers of good things,] and how they divided their wealth and shared out their honors, and how they first took possession of many-ridged Olympus. Tell me these things, Muses who have your homes on Olympus, from the beginning, and tell which of them came to be first.

In all else they were like gods, but a single eye was set in the middle of the forehead. They were given the name Cyclopes because a single round eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and force and craft were in their works. Then there were others born of Earth and Sky, three sons, huge and mighty, not to be named: Cottus and Briareus and Gyes, overweening children. A hundred arms sprang from their shoulders, unapproachable, and on each of them fifty heads grew from the shoulders, above their sturdy limbs; and boundless, mighty strength was in their huge forms.note

“Children of mine and of a reckless father, if you are willing to obey me, we can avenge your father’s evil outrage; for he was the first to devise shameful deeds.” So she spoke; and fear seized them all, and not one of them uttered a word. But great Cronus of the crooked counsel took courage and answered his good mother: “Mother, I would undertake this deed and carry it out, since I care nothing for our father, hateful even in name; for he was the first to devise shameful deeds.” So he spoke; and huge Earth rejoiced greatly in her heart. She set him in hiding in an ambush, put the jagged-toothed sickle in his hands, and explained the whole plan to him.

Great Sky came, bringing night with him, and, longing for love, he spread himself over Earth and stretched out everywhere. Then from his ambush the son reached out with his left hand, and with his right he took the huge sickle, long and jagged-toothed, and swiftly cut off his own father’s genitals and threw them behind him to be carried away. Not in vain did they fly from his hand: all the drops of blood that spurted out, Earth received; and as the years went round she bore the mighty Furies and the great Giants, gleaming in armor, holding long spears in their hands, and the Nymphs whom men call Melian all over the boundless earth.note

Night bore hateful Doom and the black Death-Spirit and Death; she bore Sleep, she bore the tribe of Dreams. Next, dark Night, the goddess, bore Momus and painful Oizys, though she lay with no one, and the Hesperides, who tend the beautiful golden apples beyond glorious Ocean and the trees that bear the fruit. She bore the Fates and the pitilessly avenging Death-Spirits, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give mortals at their birth both good and evil to have, and who pursue the transgressions of men and gods; and the goddesses never cease from their terrible anger until they have paid back grim retribution to whoever offends.note

Sea fathered Nereus, who does not lie and speaks the truth, the eldest of his children. They call him the Old Man because he is unerring and kind, and does not forget what is right, but knows just and kindly counsels. And again, joining with Earth, he fathered great Thaumas and proud Phorcys, and fair-cheeked Ceto, and Eurybia, who has a heart of adamant in her breast.

And she bore another monster, irresistible, not at all like mortal men or immortal gods, in a hollow cave: divine Echidna, strong of heart, half a nymph with glancing eyes and fair cheeks, half a monstrous serpent, terrible and huge, speckled, eating raw flesh, in the depths of the holy earth. There she has her cave, down under a hollow rock, far from immortal gods and mortal men; there the gods allotted her a glorious house to live in. Grim Echidna keeps watch among the Arimi, under the earth, an immortal nymph, ageless all her days. With her, they say, Typhon joined in love, terrible, violent and lawless, with the glancing-eyed maiden; and she conceived and bore strong-hearted children.note

First she bore Orthus, the dog of Geryon. Second she bore an irresistible creature, not to be spoken of, Cerberus who eats raw flesh, the bronze-voiced dog of Hades, fifty-headed, shameless and strong. Third she bore the Hydra of Lerna, whose mind was set on grim things, whom the white-armed goddess Hera reared in her boundless anger against mighty Heracles. But the son of Zeus slew her with the pitiless bronze, Heracles, son of Amphitryon, with Iolaus dear to Ares, by the plans of Athena who drives the spoil. And she bore the Chimaera, who breathed raging fire, terrible and huge, swift-footed and strong. She had three heads: one of a fierce-eyed lion, one of a goat, one of a snake, a mighty serpent. [A lion in front, a serpent behind, a goat in the middle,] [she breathed out the terrible fury of blazing fire.]note

Tethys bore to Ocean the eddying Rivers: Nile, Alpheus, and deep-eddying Eridanus, Strymon, Maeander, and fair-flowing Ister, Phasis, Rhesus, and silver-eddying Achelous, Nessus, Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, Aesepus, and divine Simois, Peneus, Hermus, and fair-flowing Caicus, great Sangarius, Ladon, and Parthenius, Evenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander. She also bore a holy race of daughters, who throughout the earth bring young men to manhood, together with lord Apollo and the Rivers; this is the portion they have from Zeus.

Peitho, Admete, Ianthe, and Electra, Doris, Prymno, and godlike Urania, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirhoe, Zeuxo, Clytia, Idyia, and Pasithoe, Plexaura, Galaxaura, and lovely Dione, Melobosis, Thoe, and fair Polydora, Cerceis, lovely in form, and ox-eyed Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, and Xanthe, lovely Petraea, Menestho, and Europa, Metis, Eurynome, and saffron-robed Telesto, Chryseis, Asia, and desirable Calypso, Eudora, Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrhoe, and Styx, who is the greatest of them all.note

Theia, yielding to Hyperion in love, bore great Sun and bright Moon, and Dawn, who shines for all who live on earth and for the immortal gods who hold the wide sky. Eurybia, shining among goddesses, joined in love with Crius and bore great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses, who stood out among all for his knowledge. To Astraeus Dawn bore the strong-hearted winds, a goddess bedded in love with a god: clearing Zephyrus, Boreas swift on his way, and Notus. After them the Early-born bore the star Eosphorus, and the shining stars that crown the sky.note

Styx, daughter of Ocean, joined with Pallas and bore Rivalry and fair-ankled Victory in her halls. She also bore Power and Force, glorious children. Zeus has no house apart from them, no seat, no road on which the god does not lead them; they always sit beside deep-thundering Zeus. This was the plan of Styx, the immortal daughter of Ocean, on the day when the Olympian lightning-god called all the immortal gods to high Olympus. He said that whichever of the gods would fight beside him against the Titans, he would strip none of them of his privileges: each would keep the honor he had held before among the immortal gods. And whoever had been left without honor or privilege under Cronus, he said, he would raise to honor and privileges, as is right.

She also bore Asteria of the happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be called his dear wife. And she conceived and bore Hecate, whom Zeus, son of Cronus, honored above all. He gave her glorious gifts: a share of the earth and of the barren sea. From the starry sky, too, she has her share of honor, and she is honored above all by the immortal gods. For even now, whenever any man on earth offers fine sacrifices according to custom and prays for favor, he calls on Hecate. Great honor comes easily to the man whose prayers the goddess graciously receives, and she grants him prosperity, for the power is hers.note

Swiftly then the strength and glorious limbs of the young lord grew. As the years went round, great Cronus of the crooked counsel, tricked by the shrewd promptings of Earth, brought his offspring up again, [beaten by the skill and the force of his own son.] First he vomited up the stone he had swallowed last. Zeus set it firm in the wide-wayed earth at holy Pytho, in the hollows below Parnassus, to be a sign for times to come, a wonder to mortal men. And he freed from their cruel bonds his father’s brothers, the sons of Sky, whom their father had bound in his folly. They remembered to repay him with thanks for his kindness: they gave him the thunder, the blazing thunderbolt, and the lightning, which huge Earth had kept hidden until then. Trusting in these, he rules over mortals and immortals.note

Iapetus took as his wife Clymene, the fair-ankled daughter of Ocean, and went up into the same bed with her. She bore him a son, strong-hearted Atlas. She also bore glorious Menoetius, and Prometheus, subtle and quick-witted, and Epimetheus, whose mind went astray, who from the beginning was a bane to men who eat bread: he was the first to accept the woman Zeus had formed, a maiden. Violent Menoetius wide-seeing Zeus struck with a smoking thunderbolt and sent down to Erebus, for his recklessness and his overbearing strength. Atlas, under hard necessity, holds up the wide sky at the ends of the earth, in front of the clear-voiced Hesperides, standing, with his head and his tireless arms. This is the portion Zeus the wise counselor allotted him.note

“Zeus, most glorious, greatest of the gods who live forever, take whichever of these the heart in your breast bids you.” So he spoke, plotting deceit. But Zeus, whose counsels never fail, recognized the trick and was not fooled, and in his heart he foresaw evils for mortal men, evils that were to come true. With both hands he lifted the white fat, and he grew angry in his mind, and wrath came over his heart, when he saw the ox’s white bones arranged with crafty skill. Ever since then, the tribes of men on earth burn white bones for the immortals on fragrant altars. Deeply vexed, Zeus the cloud-gatherer said to him:

“Son of Iapetus, you who know counsels beyond all others, my good friend, so you have not forgotten your crafty skill yet!” So spoke Zeus in anger, Zeus whose counsels never fail. From then on, always remembering the trick, he would not give the strength of tireless fire to the ash-tree race, the mortal men who live on the earth. But the good son of Iapetus outwitted him: he stole the far-seen gleam of tireless fire in a hollow fennel stalk. It stung Zeus who thunders on high deep in his heart, and angered his dear heart, when he saw among men the far-seen gleam of fire.note

For from her comes the race of women, the female sex; [for from her comes the deadly race, the tribes of women,] a great woe to mortals. They live with men as partners not in cursed poverty but in plenty. As when, in roofed hives, the bees feed the drones, partners in evil works—the bees hurry about all day long until the sun goes down, every day, and build the white combs, while the drones stay inside the roofed hives and reap the toil of others into their own bellies—in just the same way Zeus who thunders on high made women an evil for mortal men, partners in troublesome works. And he gave a second evil in exchange for a good:

When their father first grew angry in his heart with Briareus, Cottus, and Gyes, he bound them in a mighty bond, resenting their overbearing strength, their looks, and their size, and he settled them beneath the wide-wayed earth. There they lived beneath the earth in pain, sitting at the edge, at the ends of the great earth, grieving long, with great sorrow in their hearts. But the son of Cronus and the other immortal gods, whom lovely-haired Rhea bore in love with Cronus, brought them up again into the light on the advice of Earth. For she had told them everything from beginning to end: that with these three they would win victory and splendid glory.note

“Hear me, glorious children of Earth and Sky, so that I may say what the heart in my breast bids me. For a very long time now, day after day, we have been fighting each other for victory and power, the Titan gods and all of us born of Cronus. Now you must show your great strength and your invincible hands against the Titans in grim battle. Remember our kind friendship, and all you suffered before you came back into the light, out of your cruel bondage beneath the misty gloom, through our counsels.” So he spoke, and noble Cottus answered him in turn: “Divine one, you tell us nothing we do not know. We know ourselves that your mind and your understanding surpass all others, and that you have been the immortals’ defender against chill destruction.

Through your shrewdness we have come back again from the misty gloom, out of our relentless bonds, lord son of Cronus—a thing we never hoped for. So now, with steadfast mind and prudent purpose, we will defend your power in the dreadful fray, fighting the Titans in mighty combats.” So he spoke, and the gods, givers of good things, approved when they heard his words. Their hearts longed for war still more than before, and they all stirred up battle, a battle no one could envy, on that day, female and male alike: the Titan gods and all who were born of Cronus, and those whom Zeus had brought up into the light from Erebus beneath the earth, terrible and mighty, with overbearing strength.

The whole earth was boiling, and the streams of Ocean, and the barren sea. Hot blasts engulfed the earthborn Titans, flame beyond telling reached the bright upper air, and the flashing glare of thunderbolt and lightning blinded their eyes, mighty as they were. Unearthly heat took hold of Chaos. To see it with the eyes and hear the sound with the ears, it seemed exactly as if Earth and wide Sky above were coming together. Such a crash would rise if she were being crushed and he were crashing down on her from on high: so great a crash arose as the gods clashed in strife.

In front of it the son of Iapetus stands holding up the wide sky on his head and tireless arms, unmoving, where Night and Day come close and greet each other as they cross the great bronze threshold. One is about to go down inside as the other goes out through the door, and the house never holds them both within. Always one of them is outside the house, traveling over the earth, while the other stays inside and waits until the hour of her own journey comes. One brings far-seeing light to those on earth; the other, deadly Night, wrapped in misty cloud, carries in her arms Sleep, the brother of Death.note

There the children of dark Night have their homes, Sleep and Death, fearful gods. The shining Sun never looks on them with his rays, either as he climbs into the sky or as he comes down from the sky. One of them roams the earth and the broad back of the sea, quiet and gentle to men. But the other has a heart of iron, and the spirit in his breast is bronze and pitiless: whatever man he catches first, he keeps. He is hateful even to the immortal gods.

There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god below, mighty Hades, and of dread Persephone. A fearful dog keeps guard before them, pitiless, and he has an evil trick: those who go in he fawns on with his tail and both his ears alike, but he does not let them go out again; he lies in wait and devours whoever he catches going out through the gates. [of mighty Hades and dread Persephone.] There lives a goddess hateful to the immortals, fearful Styx, eldest daughter of Ocean, who flows back into himself. She lives apart from the gods in a famous house roofed with great rocks, propped on every side to the sky by silver pillars.

Seldom does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-footed Iris, go with a message over the broad back of the sea. But whenever strife and quarrel arise among the immortals, and one of those who have homes on Olympus tells a lie, Zeus sends Iris to bring from far off, in a golden jug, the great oath of the gods: the famous water, cold, that trickles down from a high, sheer rock. Far beneath the wide-pathed earth it flows out of the holy river through the black night, a branch of Ocean, and a tenth part is allotted to it. Nine parts coil around the earth and the broad back of the sea in silver eddies and fall into the brine; this one part flows out from the rock, a great bane to the gods.

And there, one after another, are the sources and the ends of all things: of the dark earth and murky Tartarus, of the barren sea and the starry sky. They are grim and dank, and even the gods abhor them. There are gates of marble and a bronze threshold, unshakable, fixed on unending roots, grown of itself. And in front of it, outside all the gods, beyond gloomy Chaos, live the Titans. But the famous allies of loud-crashing Zeus, Cottus and Gyes, live in houses on the foundations of Ocean. Briareus, though, because he was brave, the deep-thundering Earth-shaker made his son-in-law, and gave him his own daughter Cymopolea to marry.

From Typhoeus comes the wet force of the blowing winds, except Notus and Boreas and Zephyrus who clears the sky; these are of the gods’ race, a great blessing to mortals. The others blow at random over the sea. They fall on the misty sea, a great bane to mortals, and rage in evil squalls. They blow now one way, now another, scattering ships and destroying sailors; and there is no defense against that harm for men who meet them on the sea. Over the boundless, flowering earth too they destroy the lovely works of men born on the ground, filling them with dust and grim uproar.note

But when the blessed gods had finished their toil and settled by force the dispute over honors with the Titans, then on Earth’s advice they urged wide-seeing Olympian Zeus to be king and lord of the immortals, and he divided their honors among them. Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his first wife, she who knew most among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to give birth to the goddess gray-eyed Athena, he tricked her mind with guile and wheedling words and put her away in his belly, on the advice of Earth and starry Sky. This is what they advised him, so that no other of the gods who live forever should hold the kingly honor in place of Zeus.

For it was fated that children of great wisdom would be born from her: first a girl, gray-eyed Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and wise counsel; and after her she was to bear a son, king of gods and men, with an overbearing heart. But Zeus put her away in his belly before that, so that the goddess might advise him of good and evil. Second, he married shining Themis, who bore the Seasons, Good Order and Justice and flourishing Peace, who watch over the works of mortal men; and the Fates, to whom Zeus the wise counselor gave the greatest honor, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give mortal men good and evil to have.note

And Eurynome, a daughter of Ocean, lovely in form, bore him three fair-cheeked Graces, Aglaea and Euphrosyne and lovely Thalia. From their eyelids, as they look, flows desire that loosens the limbs, and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows. Then he went to the bed of Demeter, who feeds many, and she bore white-armed Persephone, whom Aidoneus snatched away from her mother; and Zeus the wise counselor gave her to him. Next he fell in love with Mnemosyne of the lovely hair, and from her were born to him the nine Muses with golden headbands, who delight in feasts and the pleasure of song.note

And Leto, joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, bore Apollo and Artemis the archer, children lovelier than all the heavenly gods. Last of all he made Hera his blooming wife, and she bore Hebe and Ares and Eileithyia, joined in love with the king of gods and men. He himself, from his head, bore gray-eyed Tritogeneia, the fearful rouser of battle din, leader of armies, the Unwearied One, the lady who delights in din and wars and battles. And Hera, without joining in love, bore famous Hephaestus, who excels all the heavenly gods in craft; for she was furious and quarreling with her husband.note

And Hera was furious and quarreled with her husband. Out of this quarrel she bore a glorious son, Hephaestus, without love with Zeus who holds the aegis, who excels all the heavenly gods in skill of hand. But he lay, apart from Hera, with the fair-cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys of the lovely hair, … deceiving Metis, for all her many wiles. He seized her in his hands and put her away in his belly, afraid that she might bear something else stronger than the thunderbolt.note

From Amphitrite and the loud-thundering Earth-shaker was born great Triton, wide in strength, who holds the floor of the sea and lives in a golden house beside his dear mother and his lord father, a fearful god. And to Ares, piercer of shields, Cytherea bore Phobos and Deimos, fearful ones, who throw the close ranks of men into confusion in chilling war, together with Ares sacker of cities; and Harmonia, whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife. And to Zeus, Maia, daughter of Atlas, bore glorious Hermes, herald of the immortals, going up into his holy bed. And Cadmus’ daughter Semele, joined in love with him, bore him a glorious son, Dionysus of many joys, an immortal born of a mortal; and now both of them are gods. And Alcmene bore mighty Heracles, joined in love with Zeus the cloud-gatherer.note

And Hephaestus, the famous lame god, made Aglaea, the youngest of the Graces, his blooming wife. And golden-haired Dionysus made fair-haired Ariadne, daughter of Minos, his blooming wife, and the son of Cronus made her deathless and ageless for him. And the valiant son of fair-ankled Alcmene, mighty Heracles, when he had finished his groaning labors, made Hebe, child of great Zeus and golden-sandaled Hera, his respected wife on snowy Olympus. Happy man, who has accomplished a great work among the immortals and lives unharmed and ageless all his days! And to the tireless Sun the famous daughter of Ocean, Perseis, bore Circe and King Aeetes. And Aeetes, son of the Sun who brings light to mortals, by the will of the gods married fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean, the perfect river. And she, subdued in love through golden Aphrodite, bore him fair-ankled Medea.

Farewell now, you who have homes on Olympus, and you islands and continents and the salt sea within. And now, sweet-voiced Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the tribe of goddesses: all the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bore children like the gods. Demeter, bright among goddesses, joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion in a thrice-plowed fallow field in the rich land of Crete, bore Plutus, a kindly god, who goes everywhere over the earth and the broad back of the sea. Whoever meets him, whoever he comes into the hands of, that man he makes rich, and grants him great prosperity.note

And to Cadmus, Harmonia, daughter of golden Aphrodite, bore Ino and Semele and fair-cheeked Agave, and Autonoe, whom long-haired Aristaeus married, and Polydorus, in well-crowned Thebes. And a daughter of Ocean, Callirhoe, joined in the love of golden Aphrodite with strong-hearted Chrysaor, bore a son, the strongest of all mortals, Geryon, whom mighty Heracles killed for the sake of his shambling cattle on sea-girt Erytheia. And to Tithonus, Dawn bore bronze-helmeted Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and lord Emathion. And to Cephalus she bore a glorious son, mighty Phaethon, a man like the gods. While he was young and had the tender flower of glorious youth, a child with a child’s thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite snatched him up and carried him off, and made him the keeper of her holy temples by night, a divine spirit.

And the daughter of Aeetes, the king nurtured by Zeus, was led away from Aeetes by the son of Aeson, by the will of the gods who live forever, when he had finished the many groaning labors that the great king laid on him: overweening Pelias, insolent and reckless, a doer of violence. When he had finished them, after much toil, the son of Aeson came to Iolcus, bringing the bright-eyed girl on his swift ship, and made her his blooming wife. And she, subdued by Jason, shepherd of the people, bore a son, Medeus, whom Chiron, son of Philyra, reared in the mountains; and the purpose of great Zeus was fulfilled. And of the daughters of Nereus, the old man of the sea, Psamathe, bright among goddesses, bore Phocus in love with Aeacus, through golden Aphrodite; and the goddess Thetis of the silver feet, subdued by Peleus, bore Achilles, breaker of men, with the heart of a lion.note

And Cytherea of the lovely crown bore Aeneas, joined in sweet love with the hero Anchises on the peaks of Ida, with its many folds and woods. And Circe, daughter of the Sun, son of Hyperion, joined in love with Odysseus of the enduring heart, bore Agrius and Latinus, blameless and strong; [and she bore Telegonus through golden Aphrodite.] Far away, in the inmost recess of the holy islands, they ruled over all the famous Tyrrhenians. And Calypso, bright among goddesses, joined in sweet love with Odysseus, bore him Nausithous and Nausinous. These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bore children like the gods. And now, sweet-voiced Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the tribe of women.note