Theogony and Works and Days · Part 6 of 10
In short: Zeus‘s marriages, the birth of Athena, and gods who loved mortals.
Who is in it: Zeus, Metis, Athena, Themis, The Fates, Demeter, Persephone, Mnemosyne, The Muses, Leto
Chapter synopsis
Zeus‘s first wife was Metis, Wisdom. Warned that her son would overthrow him, he swallowed her while she was pregnant, and later Athena was born from his own head. He then married Themis, mother of the Seasons and the Fates; Eurynome, mother of the Graces; Demeter, mother of Persephone; and Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses. Leto bore Apollo and Artemis, and last of all Hera became his wife, mother of Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia. Hera, angry with Zeus, bore Hephaestus on her own.
Hesiod names other famous children: Triton, son of Poseidon; Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, who married Cadmus; Hermes, son of Maia; Dionysus, son of Semele; and mighty Heracles, son of Alcmene, who became a god and married Hebe.
The poem ends with goddesses who loved mortal men: Demeter and Iasion, Eos and Tithonus, parents of Memnon, Thetis and Peleus, parents of Achilles, Aphrodite and Anchises, parents of Aeneas, and Circe and Calypso, who both bore sons to Odysseus.
Full chapter text
Part 6 in full, in the classic translation by H. G. Evelyn-White (1914), out of copyright and free to read.
Good to know: Evelyn-White spells some names the Greek way, such as Cronos for Cronus, Athene for Athena and Helius for Helios, and calls Apollo Phoebus. The numbers in brackets, like (ll. 1-25), are the line numbers of the original Greek poem.
Hesiod, Theogony, lines 886 to 1022.
ll. 886-900 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 Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her 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, 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, that the goddess might devise for him both good and evil.
ll. 901-906 Next he married bright Themis who bare the Horae (Hours), and Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), and blooming Eirene (Peace), who mind the works of mortal men, and the Moerae (Fates) to whom wise Zeus gave the greatest honour, Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give mortal men evil and good to have.
ll. 907-911 And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form, bare him three fair-cheeked Charites (Graces), Aglaea, and Euphrosyne, and lovely Thaleia, from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows.
ll. 912-914 Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and she bare white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.
ll. 915-917 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.
ll. 918-920 And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the aegis, and bare Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
ll. 921-923 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.
ll. 924-929 But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to bright-eyed Tritogeneia, 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.
(ll. 929a-929t) But Hera was very angry and quarrelled with her mate. And because of this strife she bare without union with Zeus who holds the aegis a glorious son, Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons of Heaven in crafts. But Zeus lay with the fair-cheeked daughter of Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera…. ((LACUNA))….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: therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway conceived Pallas Athene: 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, even Metis, Athena’s mother, worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There the goddess (Athena) received that whereby she excelled in strength all the deathless ones who dwell in Olympus, she who made the host-scaring weapon of Athena. And with it (Zeus) gave her birth, arrayed in arms of war.
ll. 930-933 And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was born great, wide-ruling Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea, living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden house, an awful god.
ll. 933-937 Also Cytherea bare to Ares the shield-piercer Panic and Fear, terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.
ll. 938-939 And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy bed.
ll. 940-942 And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in love and bare him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus, – a mortal woman an immortal son. And now they both are gods.
ll. 943-944 And Alcmena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the clouds and bare mighty Heracles.
ll. 945-946 And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea, youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife.
ll. 947-949 And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos made her deathless and unageing for him.
ll. 950-955 And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled Alcmena, when he had finished his grievous toils, made Hebe the child of great Zeus and gold-shod Hera his shy wife in snowy Olympus. Happy he! For he has finished his great works and lives amongst the undying gods, untroubled and unageing all his days.
ll. 956-962 And Perseis, the daughter of Ocean, bare to unwearying Helios Circe and Aeetes the king. And Aeetes, the son of Helios who shows light to men, took to wife fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean the perfect stream, by the will of the gods: and she was subject to him in love through golden Aphrodite and bare him neat-ankled Medea.
ll. 963-968 And now farewell, you dwellers on Olympus and you islands and continents and thou briny sea within. Now sing the company of goddesses, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughter of Zeus who holds the aegis, – even those deathless one who lay with mortal men and bare children like unto gods.
ll. 969-974 Demeter, bright goddess, was joined in sweet love with the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land of Crete, and bare Plutus, a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and the sea’s wide back, and him who finds him and into whose hands he comes he makes rich, bestowing great wealth upon him.
ll. 975-978 And Harmonia, the daughter of golden Aphrodite, bare to Cadmus Ino and Semele and fair-cheeked Agave and Autonoe whom long haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus also in rich-crowned Thebe.
ll. 979-983 And the daughter of Ocean, Callirrhoe was joined in the love of rich Aphrodite with stout hearted Chrysaor and bare a son who was the strongest of all men, Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen.
ll. 984-991 And Eos bare to Tithonus brazen-crested Memnon, king of the Ethiopians, and the Lord Emathion. And to Cephalus she bare a splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit.
ll. 993-1002 And the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led away from Aeetes the daughter of Aeetes the heaven-nurtured king, when he had finished the many grievous labours which the great king, over bearing Pelias, that outrageous and presumptuous doer of violence, put upon him. But when the son of Aeson had finished them, he came to Iolcus after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl with him on his swift ship, and made her his buxom wife. And she was subject to Iason, shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of Philyra brought up in the mountains. And the will of great Zeus was fulfilled.
ll. 1003-1007 But of the daughters of Nereus, the Old man of the Sea, Psamathe the fair goddess, was loved by Aeacus through golden Aphrodite and bare Phocus. And the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men.
ll. 1008-1010 And Cytherea with the beautiful crown was joined in sweet love with the hero Anchises and bare Aeneas on the peaks of Ida with its many wooded glens.
ll. 1011-1016 And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden Aphrodite. And they ruled over the famous Tyrenians, very far off in a recess of the holy islands.
ll. 1017-1018 And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus in sweet love, and bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.
ll. 1019-1020 These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bare them children like unto gods.
ll. 1021-1022 But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.
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