Page:Hesiod, and Theognis.djvu/99

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THE THEOGONY.
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space from earth to murky Tartarus." There, in the deeper chamber of an abyss from which there is no escape, the Titans are thenceforth imprisoned, with the hundred-handed giants set over them as keepers, and with Day and Night acting as sentries or janitors in front of the brazen threshold:—

"There NightAnd Day, near passing, mutual greeting stillExchange, alternate as they glide athwartThe brazen threshold vast. This enters, thatForth issues, nor the two can one abodeAt once constrain. This passes forth and roamsThe round of earth, that in the mansion waitsTill the due season of her travel come.Lo! from the one the far-discerning lightBeams upon earthly dwellers: but a cloudOf pitchy darkness veils the other round:Pernicious Night, aye leading in her handSleep, Death's twin brother: sons of gloomy Night,There hold they habitation, Death and Sleep,Dread deities: nor them doth shining sunE'er with his beam contemplate, when he climbsThe cope of heaven, or when from heaven descends.Of these the one glides gentle o'er the spaceOf earth and broad expanse of ocean waves,Placid to man. The other has a heartOf iron: yea, the heart within his breastIs brass unpitying: whom of men he grasps,Stern he retains: e'en to immortal gods— E. 992-1014.A foe."

Of these sentries the readers of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' may recall the description at the opening of the sixth book; whilst the counterparts of the twin chil-

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