The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, by Charles Abraham Elton.

Rich-labour’d figures, marvellous to sight,

Enchased the border: forms of beasts that range

The earth, and fishes of the rolling deep:

Of these innumerable he there had graven;

And exquisite the beauty of his art

Shone in these wonders, like to animals

Moving in breath, with vocal sounds of life.

Now when his plastic hand instead of good

Had framed this beauteous bane, he led her forth

Where were the other gods and mingled men.

She went exulting in her graced array,

Which Pallas, daughter of a mighty sire,

Known by her eyes of azure, had bestow’d.

On gods and men in that same moment seiz’d

The ravishment of wonder, when they saw

The deep deceit, th’ inextricable snare.

From her the sex of tender woman springs:

[204]Pernicious is the race: the woman tribe

Dwell upon earth, a mighty bane to men:

No mates for wasting want, but luxury:

And as within the close-roof’d hive, the drones,

Helpers of sloth, are pamper’d by the bees;

These all the day, till sinks the ruddy sun,

Haste on the wing, “their murmuring labours ply,”

And still cement the white and waxen comb:

Those lurk within the cover’d hive, and reap

With glutted maw the fruits of others’ toil;

Such evil did the Thunderer send to man

In woman’s form, and so he gave the sex,

Ill helpmates of intolerable toils.

Yet more of ill instead of good he gave:

The man who shunning wedlock thinks to shun

The vexing cares that haunt the woman-state,

And lonely waxes old, shall feel the want

Of one to foster his declining years:

Though not his life be needy, yet his death

Shall scatter his possessions to strange heirs,

And aliens from his blood. Or if his lot

Be marriage, and his spouse of modest fame,

Congenial to his heart, e’en then shall ill

For ever struggle with the partial good,

And cling to his condition. But the man,

Who gains the woman of injurious kind,

Lives bearing in his secret soul and heart

Inevitable sorrow: ills so deep

As all the balms of medicine cannot cure.

Therefore it is not lawful to elude

The eye of Heaven, nor mock th’ Omniscient Mind.

For not Prometheus, the benevolent,

Could shun Heaven’s heavy wrath: and vain were all

His arts of various wisdom: vain to ’scape

Necessity, or loose the mighty chain.

When Heaven their sire ’gainst Cottus, Briareus,

And Gyges, felt his moody anger chafe

Within him, sore amazed with that their strength

Immeasurable, their aspect fierce, and bulk

Gigantic, with a chain of iron force

He bound them down; and fix’d their dwelling-place

Beneath the spacious ground: beneath the ground

They dwelt in pain and durance: in th’ abyss

There sitting, where earth’s utmost bound’ries end.

Full long oppress’d with mighty grief of heart

They brooded o’er their woes: but them did Jove

Saturnian, and those other deathless gods

Whom fair-hair’d Rhea bare to Saturn’s love,

By policy of Earth, lead forth again

To light. For she successive all things told:

How with the giant brethren they should win

Conquest and splendid glory. Long they fought

With toil soul-harrowing: they the deities

Titanic and Saturnian: each to each

Opposed, in valour of promiscuous war.

From Othrys’ lofty summit warr’d [205]the host

Of glorious Titans: from Olympus they,

The band of gift-dispensing deities

Whom fair-hair’d Rhea bore to Saturn’s love.

So waged they war soul-harrowing: each with each

Ten years and more the furious battle join’d,

Unintermitted: nor to either host

Was issue of stern strife or end: alike

Did either stretch the limit of the war.

But now when Jove had set before his powers

All things befitting; the repast of gods;

The nectar and ambrosia, in each breast

Th’ heroic spirit kindled: and now all

With nectar and with sweet ambrosia fill’d,

Thus spake the father of the gods and men:

“Hear me! illustrious race of Earth and Heaven!

That what the spirit in my bosom prompts

I now may utter. Long, and day by day,

Confronting each the other, we have fought

For conquest and dominion: Titan gods,

And we the seed of Saturn. Still do ye,

Fronting the Titans in funereal war,

Show mighty strength: invulnerable hands:

Remembering that mild friendship, and those pangs

Remembering, when ye trod the upward way

Back to the light: and by our counsels broke

“The burthening chain, and left the murky gloom.”

He spake: and Cottus brave of soul replied:

“Oh Jove august! not darkly hast thou said:

Nor know we not how excellent thou art

In counsel and in knowledge: thou hast been

Deliverer of immortals from a curse

Of horror: by thy wisdom have we risen,

Oh kingly son of Saturn! from dark gloom

And bitter bonds, unhoping of relief.

Then with persisting spirit and device

Of prudent warfare, shall we still assert

Thy empire midst the fearful fray, and still

In hardy conflict brave the Titan foe.”

He said: the gods, the givers of all good,

Heard with acclaim: nor ever till that hour

So burn’d each breast with ardour to destroy.

All on that day stirr’d up the mighty strife,

Female and male: Titanic gods, and sons

And daughters of old Saturn; and that band

Of giant brethren, whom, from forth th’ abyss

Of darkness under earth, deliverer Jove

Sent up to light: grim forms and strong, with force

Gigantic: arms of hundred-handed gripe

Burst from their shoulders: fifty heads up-sprang,

Cresting their muscular limbs. They thus opposed

In dreadful conflict ’gainst the Titans stood,

In all their sinewy hands [206]wielding aloft

Precipitous rocks. On th’ other side, alert

The Titan phalanx closed: then hands of strength

Join’d prowess, and show’d forth the works of war.

Th’ immeasurable sea tremendous dash’d

With roaring; earth re-echoed; the broad heaven

Groan’d shattering: vast Olympus reel’d throughout

Down to its rooted base beneath the rush

Of those immortals: the [207]dark chasm of hell

Was shaken with the trembling, with the tramp

Of hollow footsteps and strong battle-strokes,

And measureless uproar of wild pursuit.

So they against each other through the air

Hurl’d intermix’d their weapons, scattering groans

Where’er they fell. The voice of armies rose

With rallying shout through the starr’d firmament,

And with a mighty war-cry both the hosts

Encountering closed. Nor longer then did Jove

Curb down his force; but sudden in his soul

There grew dilated strength, and it was fill’d

With his omnipotence: [208]his whole of might

Broke from him, and the godhead rush’d abroad.

The vaulted sky, the mount Olympus, flash’d

With his continual presence; for he pass’d

Incessant forth, and lighten’d where he trod.

Thrown from his nervous grasp the lightnings flew

Reiterated swift; the whirling flash

Cast sacred splendour, and the thunderbolt

Fell. Then on every side the foodful earth

Roar’d in the burning flame, and far and near

The trackless depth of forests crash’d with fire.

Yea—the broad earth burn’d red, the floods of Nile

Glow’d, and the desert waters of the sea.

Round and around the Titans’ earthy forms

Roll’d the hot vapour, and on fiery surge

Stream’d upward, swathing in one boundless blaze

The purer air of heaven. Keen rush’d the light

In quivering splendour from the writhen flash:

Strong though they were, intolerable smote

Their orbs of sight, and with bedimming glare

Scorch’d up their blasted vision. [209]Through the void

Of Erebus, the preternatural flame

Spread, mingling fire with darkness. But to see

With human eye and hear with ear of man

Had been, as on a time [210]the heaven and earth

Met hurtling in mid-air: as nether earth

Crash’d from the centre, and the wreck of heaven

Fell ruining from high. Not less, when gods

Grappled with gods, the shout and clang of arms

Commingled, and the tumult roar’d from heaven.

Shrill rush’d the hollow winds, and roused throughout

A shaking and a gathering dark of dust;

Crushing the thunders from the clouds of air,

Hot thunderbolts and flames, the fiery darts

Of Jove: and in the midst of either host

They bore upon their blast the cry confused

Of battle, and the shouting. For the din

Tumultuous of that sight-appalling strife

Rose without bound. Stern strength of hardy proof

Wreak’d there its deeds, till weary sank the fight.

But first, array’d in battle, front to front,

Full long they stood, and bore the brunt of war.

Amid the foremost, towering in the van,

[211]The war-unsated Gyges, Briareus,

And Cottus, bitterest conflict waged: for they

Successive thrice a hundred rocks in air

Hurl’d from their sinewy grasp: with missile storm

[212]The Titan host o’ershadowing, them they drove,

Vain-glorious as they were, with hands of strength

O’ercoming them, beneath th’ expanse of earth

And bound with galling chains: [213]so far beneath

This earth, as earth is distant from the sky:

So deep the space to darksome Tartarus.

A brazen anvil rushing from the sky

Through thrice three days would toss in airy whirl,

Nor touch this earth, till the tenth sun arose:

Or down earth’s chasm precipitate revolve,

Nor till the tenth sun rose attain [214]the verge

Of Tartarus. A fence of massive brass

Is forged around: around the pass is roll’d

A night of triple darkness; and above

Impend the roots of earth and barren sea.

There the Titanic gods in murkiest gloom

Lie hidden: such the cloud-assembler’s will:

There in a place of darkness, where vast earth

Has end: from thence no egress open lies:

Neptune’s huge hand has closed with brazen gates

The mouth: a wall environs every side.

There Gyges, Cottus, high-souled Briareus,

Dwell vigilant: the faithful sentinels

Of Ægis-bearer Jove. Successive there

The dusky Earth, and darksome Tartarus,

The sterile Ocean, and the starry Heaven,

[215]Arise and end, their source and boundary.

[216]A drear and ghastly wilderness, abhorr’d

E’en by the gods; a vast vacuity:

Might none the space of one slow-circling year

Touch the firm soil, that portal enter’d once,

[217]But him the whirls of vexing hurricanes

Toss to and fro. E’en by immortals loathed

This prodigy of horror. There too stand

The mansions drear of gloomy Night, o’erspread

With blackening vapours: and before the doors

Atlas upholding heaven his forehead rears,

And indefatigable hands. There Night

And Day, near passing, mutual greeting still

Exchange, [218]alternate as they glide athwart

The brazen threshold vast. This enters, that

Forth issues; nor the two can one abode

At once constrain. This passes forth and roams

The round of earth; that in the mansion waits,

Till the due season of her travel come.

Lo! from the one the far-discerning light

Beams upon earthly dwellers; but a cloud

Of pitchy blackness veils the other round:

Pernicious Night: aye-leading in her hand

[219]Sleep, Death’s half-brother: sons of gloomy Night

There hold they habitation, Death and Sleep;

Dread deities: [220]nor them the shining Sun

E’er with his beam contemplates, when he climbs

The cope of heaven, or when from heaven descends.

Of these the one glides gentle o’er the space

Of earth and broad expanse of ocean waves,

Placid to man. The other has a heart

Of iron; yea, the heart within his breast

Is brass, unpitying: whom of men he grasps

Stern he retains: e’en [221]to immortal gods

A foe. The hollow-sounding palaces

Of Pluto strong the subterranean god,

[222]And stern Prosérpina, there full in front

Ascend: a grisly dog, implacable,

Holds watch before the gates: a stratagem

Is his, malicious: them who enter there,

With tail and bended ears he fawning soothes:

But suffers not that they with backward step

Repass: whoe’er would issue from the gates

Of Pluto strong and stern Prosérpina,

For them with marking eye he lurks; on them

Springs from his couch, and pitiless devours.

There, odious to immortals, dreadful Styx

Inhabits: refluent Ocean’s eldest-born:

She from the gods apart for ever dwells

In far-re-echoing mansions, [223]with arch’d roofs

Of loftiest rock o’erhung: and all around

The silver columns lean upon the skies.

Swift-footed Iris, nymph of Thaumas born,

Takes with no frequent embassy her way

O’er the broad main’s expanse, when haply strife

Be risen, and midst the gods dissension sown:

And if there be among th’ Olympian race

Who falsehood utters, [224]Jove sends Iris down

To bring the great oath in a golden ewer:

The far-famed water, from steep, sky-capt rock

Distilling in cold stream. Beneath wide Earth

Abundant from [225]the sacred river-head,

Through shades of blackest night, the Stygian horn

Of ocean flows: a tenth of all the streams

To the dread oath allotted. In nine streams

Circling the round of earth and the broad seas,

With silver whirlpools twined in many a maze,

It falls into the deep: one stream alone

Flows from the rock; a mighty bane to gods.

Who of immortals, that inhabit still

Olympus top’d with snow, [226]libation pours

And is forsworn, he one whole year entire

Lies reft of breath: nor yet approaches once

The nectar’d and ambrosial sweet repast:

But still reclines on the spread festive couch

Mute, breathless; and a mortal lethargy

O’erwhelms him: but, his malady absolved

With the great round of the revolving year,

More ills on ills afflictive seize: nine years

From ever-living deities remote

His lot is cast: in council nor in feast

Once joins he, till nine years entire are full:

The tenth again he mingles with the blest

Societies, who fill th’ Olympian courts.

So great an oath the deities of heaven

Decreed the water of eternal Styx,

The ancient stream; that sweeps with wandering waves

A rugged region: where of dusky Earth,

And darksome Tartarus, and Ocean waste,

And starry Heaven, the source and boundary

Successive rise and end: a dreary wild

And ghastly: e’en by deities abhorr’d.

There gates resplendent rise; the threshold brass;

Immoveable; on deep foundations fix’d;

Self-framed. Before them the Titanic gods

Abide, without th’ assembly of the Blest,

Beyond the gulf of darkness. There beneath

The ocean-roots, th’ auxiliaries renown’d

Of Jove who rolls the hollow-pealing thunder,

Cottus and Gyges in near mansions dwell:

But He that shakes the shores with dashing surge

Hailing him son, gave Briareus as bride

Cymopolía; prize of brave desert.

But now when Jupiter from all the heaven

Had cast the Titans forth, huge Earth embraced

By Tartarus, through balmy Venus’ aid,

[227]Her youngest-born Typhœus bore; whose hands

Of strength are fitted to stupendous deeds:

And indefatigable are the feet

Of the strong god: and from his shoulders rise

A hundred snaky heads of dragon growth,

Horrible, quivering with their blackening tongues:

In each amazing head, from eyes that roll’d

Within their sockets, fire shone sparkling: fire

Blazed from each head, the whilst he roll’d his glance

Glaring around him. In those fearful heads

Were voices of all sound, miraculous:

Now utter’d they distinguishable tones

Meet for the ear of gods: now the deep cry

Of a wild-bellowing bull untamed in strength:

And now the roaring of a lion, fierce

In spirit: and anon the yell of whelps

Strange to the ear: and now the monster hiss’d,

That the high mountains echoed back the sound.

Then had a dread event that fatal day

Inevitable fall’n, and he had ruled

O’er mortals and immortals; but the Sire

Of gods and men the peril instant knew

Intuitive; and vehement and strong

He thunder’d: instantaneous all around

Earth reel’d with horrible crash: the firmament

Of high heaven roar’d: the streams of Nile, the sea,

And uttermost caverns. While the king in wrath

Uprose, [228]beneath his everlasting feet

The great Olympus trembled, and earth groan’d.

From either god a burning radiance caught

The darkly azured ocean: from the flash

Of lightnings, and that monster’s darted flame,

Hot thunderbolts, and blasts of fiery winds.

Earth, air, sea, glow’d: the billows, heaved on high,

Foam’d round the shores, and dash’d on every side

Beneath the rush of gods. Concussion wild

And unappeasable uprose: aghast

The gloomy monarch of th’ infernal dead

Shudder’d: the sub-tartarean Titans heard

E’en where they stood, with Saturn in the midst:

They heard appall’d the unextinguish’d rage

Of tumult, and the din of dreadful war.

But now when Jove had gather’d all his strength,

And grasp’d his weapons, bolts, and bickering flames,

He from the mount Olympus’ topmost ridge

Leap’d at a bound, and smote him: hiss’d at once

The horrible monster’s heads enormous, scorch’d

In one conflagrant blaze. When thus the god

Had quell’d him, thunder-smitten, mangled, prone,

He fell: earth groan’d and shook beneath his weight.

Flame from [229]the lightning-stricken deity

Flash’d, midst the mountain-hollows, rugged, dark,

Where he fell smitten. Broad earth glow’d intense

From that unbounded vapour, and dissolv’d:

As fusile tin by art of youths above

The wide-brimm’d vase up-bubbling foams with heat;

Or iron, hardest of the mine, subdued

By burning flame amidst [230]the woody dales

Melts in the sacred caves beneath the hands