Hesiod, the Poems and Fragments

Date: 1908

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Chapter IV Stories from Greek Mythology

1

18.

The Struggle between Zeus and the Titans

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And now they stood against the Titans in baleful strife, with sheer rocks in their stout hands. And the Titans on the other side eagerly strengthened their ranks. Then these and those together showed forth the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea roared terribly around them, and the earth crashed aloud, and the wide heaven groaned as it was shaken, and high Olympus was stirred from its foundations at the onset of the immortals, and a grievous convulsion came on misty Tartarus. . . . And the voices of either side came unto the starry heaven as they shouted. And they came together with a mighty din.

Nor did Zeus any longer restrain his soul, but straightway his mind was filled with fury and he showed forth all his might. From heaven and from Olympus he came to join them, lightening as he came. And his bolts flew near at hand with thunder and with lightning, thick bolts from his strong hand rolling a holy flame; and around the life-giving earth crashed as it burned, and the infinite wood cried aloud with fire. And the whole earth boiled, and the streams of Ocean, and the unharvested sea. Hot breath beset the Titans from under the earth, and infinite flame came unto the holy ether, and the flashing glare of thunderbolt and lightning robbed their eyes of sight, albeit they were strong. And a wondrous heat beset Chaos. And it seemed to see with the eyes and to hear the din with the ears, as if earth and the wide heaven above drew nigh to one another. For such a mighty din would have arisen if earth were ruining and heaven above hurling it to ruin. Such was the din when the gods met in strife.

And amid the foremost, Cottus and Briareus and Gyes, insatiate of war, awoke bitter battle. In quick succession they hurled three hundred rocks from their stout hands, and overshadowed the Titans with their shafts, and sent them beneath the wide-wayed earth to Tartarus. . . . As far beneath the earth as the heaven is high above the earth, even so far is it from earth to misty Tartarus.

1 , translated by A. W. Mair. Oxford, 1908. Clarendon Press.

2 Hesiod, Theogony, 674–721.

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Chicago: A. W. Mair., trans., Hesiod, the Poems and Fragments in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 47–48. Original Sources, accessed March 29, 2024, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DAT9ZUNS58Q57QF.

MLA: . Hesiod, the Poems and Fragments, translted by A. W. Mair., in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, pp. 47–48. Original Sources. 29 Mar. 2024. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DAT9ZUNS58Q57QF.

Harvard: (trans.), Hesiod, the Poems and Fragments. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.47–48. Original Sources, retrieved 29 March 2024, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=DAT9ZUNS58Q57QF.