820-929 [820] But when Zeus
had driven the Titans from heaven, huge Earth bore 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 [825] grew a 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
[830] 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
another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to hear; [835] 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 [840] 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, [845] 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. [850] Hades trembled where he rules over the dead below,
and the Titans under Tartarus who
live with Cronos, because of the unending clamor and the fearful strife.
So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms, thunder and lightning
and lurid thunderbolt, [855] he leaped from 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 thunderstricken lord
[860] in the dim rugged glens of the mount,1 when he was smitten. A great
part of huge earth was scorched by the
terrible vapor and melted as tin melts when heated by men's art in channelled2
crucibles; or as iron, which is hardest of all things, is shortened [865]
by glowing fire in mountain glens and melts in the divine earth through
the strength of Hephaestus.3 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.
And from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply, [870] 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 sea. Some rush upon
the misty sea and work great havoc
among men with their evil, raging blasts; [875] 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, [880] filling them with dust and cruel uproar.
But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and settled by force their struggle for honors 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.
1 According to Homer Typhoeus was overwhelmed by Zeus amongst the Arimi in Cilicia. Pindar represents him as buried under Aetna, and Tzetzes read Aetna in this passage.
2 The epithet (which means literallywell-bored ) seems to refer to the spout of the crucible.
3 The fire god. There is no reference to volcanic action: iron was smelted
on Mount Ida; cp.Epigrams of Homer,ix. 2-4.
[885] 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 Athena, Zeus craftily deceived her [890] 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, [895] 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, [900] that the goddess might devise for him both
good and evil.
Next he married bright Themis who bore the Horae (Hours ), and Eunomia
(Order ), Dikë (Justice ), and blooming Eirene (Peace ), who mind the
works of mortal men, and the Moerae (Fates ) to whom wise Zeus gave the
greatest honor, [905] Clotho, and Lachesis,
and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have.
And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bore him three
fair-cheeked Charites (Graces ), Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia,
[910] from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs:
and beautiful is their glance beneath
their brows.
Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bore white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.
[915] And again, he loved Mnemosyne with the beautiful hair: and of her the nine gold-crowned Muses were born who delight in feasts and the pleasures of song.
And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, [920] and bore Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
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.
But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia,1
[925] the awful, the strife-stirring, the host-leader, the unwearying,
the queen, who delights in tumults and wars and battles. But Hera without
union with Zeus--for she was very angry and
quarrelled with her mate--bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts
more than all the sons of Heaven.
[929a] But Hera was very angry and quarrelled with her mate. And because
of this strife she bore without union with Zeus who holds the aegis a glorious
son, Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons of Heaven in crafts. [929e]
But Zeus lay with the fair-cheeked
daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera . . . 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: [929j] therefore did
Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly.
But she straightway conceived Pallas Athena: 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, [929o] even Metis, Athena's mother, worker of righteousness,
who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There the goddess (Athena ) received
that2 whereby she excelled in strength all the deathless less ones who
dwell in Olympus, she who made the
host-scaring weapon of Athena. [929t] And with it (Zeus ) gave her birth,
arrayed in arms of war.
1 I.e.Athena, who was born “on the banks of the river Trito” (cp. l.
929l ).
2 Sc.the aegis. Line 929s is probably spurious, since it disagrees with 929q and contains a suspicious reference to Athens.