Of Ouranos and Gaia, while I speak
As my heart tells me to. For many years
The sons of Kronos and the Titan gods
Have been at war, fighting for victory
And power. Come now, show them your great strength,
Your unapproachable hands, in painful war
Against the Titans, and do not forget
Our kindness and good will, how through our plans
You come back, having suffered, to the light
From gloomy darkness and from painful bonds.”
He spoke, and blameless Kottos answered him:
“You do not need to tell us what we know.
We know your mind and thoughts are excellent
And that you keep the gods from chilly harm.
O Lord and Son of Kronos, we came back
From gloomy darkness and from cruel bonds
Because of your intelligence; we find
An unexpected end to suffering.
Now, with our minds intent, and eager hearts,
We will preserve your power in dreadful war
Against the Titans, on the battlefield.”
He spoke, and all the gods, givers of gifts,
Applauded him, and lusted for the fight
Even more than before. And on that day
They joined in hateful battle, all of them,
Both male and female, Titan gods and those
Whom Kronos sired and those whom Zeus had brought
To light from Erebos, beneath the earth,
Strange, mighty ones, whose power was immense,
Each with a hundred arms, darting about,
And each had fifty heads standing upon
His shoulders, over the crowded mass of arms.
They stood against the Titans in the grim
Battle, with giant rocks in their strong hands,
While on their side the Titans eagerly
Strengthened their ranks, and both at once displayed
The mightiest efforts which their hands could make;
The boundless sea roared terribly around,
The great earth rumbled, and broad heaven groaned,
Shaken; and tall Olympus was disturbed
Down to its roots, when the immortals charged.
The heavy quaking from their footsteps reached
Down to dark Tartarus, and piercing sounds
Of awful battle, and their mighty shafts.
They hurled their wounding missiles, and the voice
Of both sides, shouting, reached the starry sky,
And when they met, their ALALE! was great.
Then Zeus no longer checked his rage, for now
His heart was filled with fury, and he showed
The full range of his strength. He came from heaven
And from Olympus, lightening as he came,
Continuously; from his mighty hand
The bolts kept flying, bringing thunder-claps
And lightning-flashes, while the holy flame
Rolled thickly all around. The fertile earth
Being burnt, roared out, the voiceless forest cried
And crackled with the fire; the whole earth boiled
And ocean’s streams, and the unfruitful sea.
The hot blast reached the earthborn Titans; flame
Unspeakable, rose to the upper air;
The flashing brightness of the thunderbolt
And lightning blinded all, however strong;
The awful heat reached Chaos. To the ear
It sounded, to the eye it looked as though
Broad Heaven were coming down upon the Earth:
For such a noise of crashing might arise
If she were falling, hurled down by his fall.
Just such a mighty crash rose from the gods
Meeting in strife. The howling winds brought on
Lightning and thunder and the blazing bolt,
And carried shouting and the battle-cry
into the armies, and a dreadful noise
Of hideous battle sounded, and their deeds
Were mighty, but the tide of war was turned:
Until that moment, they had kept it up
Continually, in the long, hard fight.
…
After Zeus drove the Titans out of heaven
Vast Earth loved Tartarus, and bore a child,
Her last, through golden Aphrodite’s work,
Typhoeus, mighty god, whose hands were strong
And feet untiring. On his shoulders grew
A hundred snaky heads, strange dragon heads
With black tongues darting out. His eyes flashed fire
Beneath the brows upon those heads, and fire
Blazed out from every head when he looked round.
Astounding voices came from those weird heads,
All kinds of voices: sometimes speech which gods
Would understand, and sometimes bellowings,
As of a bull let loose, enraged, and proud,
Sometimes that of a ruthless lion; then,
Sometimes the yelp of puppies, marvellous
To hear; and then sometimes he hissed,
And the tall mountains echoed underneath.
Surely that day a thing beyond all help
Might have occurred: he might have come to rule
Over the gods and mortal man, had not
The father of gods and men been quick to see
The danger; but he thundered mightily
And fiercely, and the earth rang terribly,
Broad heaven above, the sea, and Ocean’s streams
And Tartarus resounded. As the lord
Arose, mighty Olympus shook beneath
The immortal feet, and Earth gave out a groan.
The purple sea was seized by heat from both,
From thunder and from lightning, and from fire
The monster bore: the burning hurricane
And blazing thunderbolt. The whole earth boiled
And heaven and the sea. The great waves raged
Along the shore, at the immortal’s charge,
And endless quakes arose. Hades, the lord
Of dead men down below, trembled for fear,
And the Titans, they who live with Kronos, down
Under Tartarus, shook at the endless din
And fearful battle. Zeus raised up his strength
Seizing his arms, lightning, the blazing bolt,
And thunder, leaped down from Olympus, struck,
And burned the dreadful monster’s ghastly heads.
He lashed him with a whip and mastered him,
And threw him down, all maimed, and great Earth groaned.
A flame leaped from the lightning-blasted lord,
When he was struck, on the jagged mountainside.
Great earth was widely scorched by the awful blast
And melted, as tin melts when, skillfully,
Men heat it in the hollow crucibles
Of iron, which is strongest of all things,
But can be conquered by the blazing fire
In mountain hollows, in the holy earth,
And melts, under Hephaistos’ clever hands:
Thus earth was melted in the fire’s bright flash.
And, angry in his heart, Zeus hurled him down
(To Tartarus. And from Typhoeus come)
The fierce, rain-blowing winds—not Boreas
Or Notos or bright Zephyros, for these
Come from the gods, and they refresh mankind—
But others, reckless gusts, blow on the sea;
Some fall upon the misty sea and bring
They rage; each blows in season, scattering ships
And killing sailors. Men who meet with them
At sea have no defence against their power.
And sometimes over the vast and blooming earth
They blast the lovely fields of earthborn men
And fill the land with dust and dreadful noise.
But when the blessed gods had done their work
And forcibly put down the Titans’ claim
To honour, they fulfilled Earth’s plans and urged
Far-seeing Zeus, Olympian, to rule
And be the king of the immortals. Thus
He gave out rank and privilege to each.
—Hesiod. Theogony: Works and Days. And Theogonis. Elegies. Dorothy Wender (trans.). Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1973, pp. 622–65.
Hesiod: The Five Ages of Man Although it is largely an extended admonition to Hesiod’s younger brother Perses, Works and Days contains some illustrative mythological material. In this section, Hesiod portrays the gradual fall of man from a great and good being to the small-minded and short-lived creature who currently inhabits the earth.
Originally perfect, the first golden race devolved into the second, silver one of moon-and mother-oriented foolish “babies.” For their sins, Zeus hid them away in the underworld and produced in their stead the bronze race of warriors, who were mortal and violent, but nonetheless glorious in their strength and power. The fourth race of heroes, the Mycenaean kings, proved more acceptable to the gods and some achieved immortality, but the last and present race of men are a shameless lot, doomed to a harsh and terrible fate.
Behind these descriptions of the ages of man lies Hesiod’s faith in the supreme and creative powers of the Olympian deities, led by Kronos in the first and second ages and by Zeus thereafter.
THE GODS, who live on Mount Olympus, first
Fashioned a golden race of mortal men;
These lived in the reign of Kronos, king of heaven,
And like the gods they lived with happy hearts
Untouched by work or sorrow. Vile old age
Never appeared, but always lively-limbed,
Far from all ills, they feasted happily.
Death came to them as sleep, and all good things
Were theirs; ungrudgingly, the fertile land
Gave up her fruits unasked. Happy to be
At peace, they lived with every want supplied,
[Rich in their flocks, dear to the blessed gods.]
And then this race was hidden in the ground.
But still they live as spirits of the earth,
Holy and good, guardians who keep off harm,
Givers of wealth: this kingly right is theirs.
The gods, who live on Mount Olympus, next
Fashioned a lesser, silver race of men:
Unlike the gold in stature or in mind.
A child was raised at home a hundred years
And played, huge baby, by his mother’s side.
When they were grown and reached their prime, they lived
Brief, anguished lives, from foolishness, for they
Could not control themselves, but recklessly
Injured each other and forsook the gods;
They did not sacrifice, as all tribes must, but left
The holy altars bare. And, angry, Zeus
The son of Kronos, hid this race away,
For they dishonoured the Olympian gods.
The earth then hid this second race, and they
Are called the spirits of the underworld,
Inferior to the gold, but honoured, too.
And Zeus the father made a race of bronze,
Sprung from the ash tree, worse than the silver race,
But strange and full of power. And they loved
The groans and violence of war; they ate
No bread; their hearts were flinty-hard; they were
Terrible men; their strength was great, their arms
And shoulders and their limbs invincible.
Their weapons were of bronze, their houses bronze;
Their tools were of bronze: black iron was not known.
They died by their own hands, and nameless, went
To Hades’ chilly house. Although they were
Great soldiers, they were captured by black Death,
And left the shining brightness of the sun.
But when this race was covered by the earth,
The son of Kronos made another, fourth,
Upon the fruitful land, more just and good,
A god-like race of heroes, who are called
The demi-gods—the race before our own.
Foul wars and dreadful battles ruined some;
Some sought the flocks of Oedipus, and died
In Cadmus’ land, at seven-gated Thebes;
And some, who crossed the open sea in ships,
For fair-haired Helen’s sake, were killed at Troy.
These men were covered up in death, but Zeus
The son of Kronos gave the others life
And homes apart from mortals, at Earth’s edge.
And there they live a carefree life, beside
The whirling Ocean, on the Blessed Isles.
Three times a year the blooming, fertile earth
Bears honeyed fruits for them, the happy ones.
[And Kronos is their king, far from the gods,
For Zeus released him from his bonds, and these,
The race of heroes, well deserve their fame.
Far-seeing Zeus then made another race,
The fifth, who live now on the fertile earth.]
I wish I were not of this race, that I
Had died before, or had not yet been born.
This is the race of iron. Now, by day,
Men work and grieve unceasingly; by night,
They waste away and die. The gods will give
Harsh burdens, but will mingle in some good;
Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men,
When babies shall be born with greying hair.
Father will have no common bond with son,
Neither will guest with host, nor friend with friend;
The brother-love of past days will be gone.
Men will dishonour parents, who grow old
Too quickly, and will blame and criticize
With cruel words. Wretched and godless, they
Refusing to repay their bringing up,
Will cheat their aged parents of their due.
Men will destroy the towns of other men.
The just, the good, the man who keeps his word
Will be despised, but men will praise the bad
And insolent. Might will be Right, and shame
Will cease to be. Men will do injury
To better men by speaking crooked words
And adding lying oaths; and everywhere
Harsh-voiced and sullen-faced and loving harm,
Envy will walk along with wretched man.
Last, to Olympus from the broad-pathed Earth,
Hiding their loveliness in robes of white,
To join the gods, abandoning mankind,
Will go the spirits Righteousness and Shame.
And only grievous troubles will be left
For men, and no defence against our wrongs.
—Hesiod. Theogony: Works and Days. And Theoginis. Elegies. Dorothy Wenger (trans.). Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books. 1973, pp. 622–65.
The Orphic Creation Myth Orphism grew up in the seventh or sixth centuries B.C. and, in contrast to Homer’s Olympian religion, was primarily concerned with the destiny of the individual soul, an inner, essential, and immortal self. The concept of man’s dual nature—his pure soul entrapped in a material body—led the Orphics to rituals of purification and initiation in which adherents were helped to become free of their bodies and successive incarnations.
Parallels to Iranian religion, with its emphasis on Zurvan, the god of time, are evinced in this version of the Orphic myth where time creates the universal egg from which springs Phanes-Dionysus. The androgynous creator first makes Nyx (Night) and then with her begets Gaea (Earth), Uranus (Heaven), and Cronos.
IN THE BEGINNING time created the
silver egg of the cosmos. Out of this egg burst Phanes-Dionysus. For them (the Orphics) he was the first god to appear, the firstborn, whence he early became known as Protogonos. He was bisexual and bore within him the seeds of all gods and men. He was also the creator of heaven and earth, of the sun, the stars, and the dwelling of the gods. The sixth Orphic hymn, dated to be sure in the Christian era but preserving old elements, represented him in epic hexameters:
O mighty first-begotten, hear my prayer,
Twofold, egg-born, and wandering through the air;
Bull-roarer, glorying in thy golden wings,
From whom the race of Gods and mortals springs.
Ericapaeus, celebrated power,
Ineffable, occult, all-shining flower.
’Tis thine from darksome mists to purge the sight,
All-spreading splendor, pure and holy light;
Hence, Phanes, called the glory of the sky,
On waving pinions through the world you fly.
Phanes first created his daughter Nyx, the Night; in his bisexual quality, he was her father and mother at once. With Nyx, who alone was privileged to behold him, Phanes at vast intervals of time begat Gaea, Uranus, and Cronus, who after Uranus became lord of the world.
—Walter Will (trans. of fragments 21, 21a, and 168). “The Orphic Mysteries and the Greek Spirit.” Orphicorum Fragmenta. Berlin: 1922.-Quoted in Joseph Campbell (ed.). The Mysteries. Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks. Vol 2. New York: Pantheon Books, 1955, p. 73.
Ovid: From the Metamorphoses In Ovid’s (43 B.C.–18 A.D.) compendium of mythology, Chaos is depicted as shapeless and discordant, its elements indistinct and mixed. Everything within it is only potentially existent. Land, for instance, is there, “but land on which no man could stand.” And all the elements and forces, the polar opposites through whose tension the world is understood, war with each other in uncontrolled fashion.
The identity of the great organizer of this chaotic mass is somewhat uncertain. “God or kindlier Nature” appears unexplained: if it is a god, its origin is unknown and if it is Nature, the method whereby it manifested itself out of Chaos into a distinct power is unclear. But once that feat is accomplished, the divine force uses all the chaotic material to make the world. Sky, air, water, and earth are separated from one another, natural forces are put into operation, and each region of the universe is filled with its proper inhabitants. Finally man is born—either in God’s image or from the earth itself—unique among creatures in his ability to reflect back on the sacred world.
BEFORE the ocean was, or earth, or heaven,
Nature was all alike, a shapelessness,