Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/98
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HESIOD.
The vaulted sky, the mount Olympian flashedWith his continual presence, for he passedIncessant forth, and scattered fires on fires.Hurled from his hardy grasp the lightnings flewReiterated swift: the whirling flashCast sacred splendour, and the thunderboltFell: roared around the nurture-yielding earthIn conflagration; for on every sideThe immensity of forests crackling blazed:Yea, the broad earth burned red, the streams that mixWith ocean and the deserts of the sea.Round and around the Titan brood of earthRolled the hot vapour on its fiery surge.The liquid heat air's pure expanse divineSuffused: the radiance keen of quivering flameThat shot from writhen lightnings, each dim orb,
Strong though they were, intolerable smote,And scorched their blasted vision: through the voidOf Erebus the preternatural glareSpread mingling fire with darkness. But to seeWith human eye and hear with the ear of manHad been as if midway the spacious heavenHurtling with earth shocked—e'en as nether earthCrashed from the centre, and the wreck of heaven
Fell ruinous from high. So vast the dinWhen, gods encountering gods, the clang of armsCommingled, and the tumult roared from heaven."—E. 908-939.
Strong though they were, intolerable smote,And scorched their blasted vision: through the voidOf Erebus the preternatural glareSpread mingling fire with darkness. But to seeWith human eye and hear with the ear of manHad been as if midway the spacious heavenHurtling with earth shocked—e'en as nether earthCrashed from the centre, and the wreck of heaven
Fell ruinous from high. So vast the dinWhen, gods encountering gods, the clang of armsCommingled, and the tumult roared from heaven."—E. 908-939.
To heighten the turmoil, the winds and elements fight on the side of Zeus. The tide of battle turns. Jove's huge auxiliaries overwhelm the Titans with a succession of great missiles, send them sheer beneath the earth, and consign them to a durance "as far beneath, under earth, as heaven is from earth, for equal is the