![]() He had barely separated out everything within fixed limits when the constellations that had been hidden for a long time in dark fog began to blaze out throughout the whole sky. Above these he placed the transparent, weightless heavens free of the dross of earth. Chill Boreas, the north wind, seized Scythia and the seven stars of the Plough: while the south wind, Auster, drenches the lands opposite with incessant clouds and rain. Eurus, the east wind, drew back to the realms of Aurora, to Nabatea, Persia, and the heights under the morning light: Evening, and the coasts that cool in the setting sun, are close to Zephyrus, the west wind. The world’s maker did not allow these, either, to possess the air indiscriminately as it is they are scarcely prevented from tearing the world apart, each with its blasts steering a separate course: like the discord between brothers. There he ordered the clouds and vapours to exist, and thunder to shake the minds of human beings, and winds that create lightning-bolts and flashes. ![]() The equatorial zone is too hot to be habitable the two poles are covered by deep snow and he placed two regions between and gave them a temperate climate mixing heat and cold.Īir overhangs them, heavier than fire by as much as water’s weight is lighter than earth. He ordered the plains to extend, the valleys to subside, leaves to hide the trees, stony mountains to rise: and just as the heavens are divided into two zones to the north and two to the south, with a fifth and hotter between them, so the god carefully marked out the enclosed matter with the same number, and described as many regions on the earth. He added springs and standing pools and lakes, and contained in shelving banks the widely separated rivers, some of which are swallowed by the earth itself, others of which reach the sea and entering the expanse of open waters beat against coastlines instead of riverbanks. Then he ordered the seas to spread and rise in waves in the flowing winds and pour around the coasts of the encircled land. When whichever god it was had ordered and divided the mass, and collected it into separate parts, he first gathered the earth into a great ball so that it was uniform on all sides. The surrounding water took up the last space and enclosed the solid world.īk I: 32-51 The earth and sea. Earth, heavier than either of these, drew down the largest elements, and was compressed by its own weight. The weightless fire, that forms the heavens, darted upwards to make its home in the furthest heights. When he had disentangled the elements, and freed them from the obscure mass, he fixed them in separate spaces in harmonious peace. This conflict was ended by a god and a greater order of nature, since he split off the earth from the sky, and the sea from the land, and divided the transparent heavens from the dense air. Nothing retained its shape, one thing obstructed another, because in the one body, cold fought with heat, moist with dry, soft with hard, and weight with weightless things. Though there was land and sea and air, it was unstable land, unswimmable water, air needing light. ![]() There was no Titan yet, shining his light on the world, or waxing Phoebe renewing her white horns, or the earth hovering in surrounding air balanced by her own weight, or watery Amphitrite stretching out her arms along the vast shores of the world. You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own time.īefore there was earth or sea or the sky that covers everything, Nature appeared the same throughout the whole world: what we call chaos: a raw confused mass, nothing but inert matter, badly combined discordant atoms of things, confused in the one place. I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. Bk I:765-779 Phaethon sets out for the Palace of the Sun.Bk I:722-746 Io is returned to human form.Bk I:689-721 Mercury tells the story of Syrinx.Bk I:668-688 Jupiter sends Mercury to kill Argus.Bk I:642-667 Inachus finds Io and grieves for her.Bk I:622-641 Juno claims Io and Argus guards her.Bk I:601-621 Jupiter transforms Io to a heifer. ![]() Bk I:525-552 Daphne becomes the laurel bough.Bk I:504-524 Phoebus begs Daphne to yield to him.Bk I:438-472 Phoebus kills the Python and sees Daphne.Bk I:416-437 Other species are generated.Bk I:381-415 The human race is re-created.Bk I:313-347 Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha.Bk I:244-273 Jupiter invokes the floodwaters.Bk I:199-243 Lycaon is turned into a wolf.Bk I:177-198 Jupiter threatens to destroy humankind.This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |