| 1 | In the beginning Nyx, who is Night, hovered in the darkness. |
| 2 | An egg was laid by Nyx, the black-winged bird. |
| 3 | From the upper shell of that egg was formed Ouranos, who is Heaven, and from the lower shell, Gaia, who is Earth. |
| 4 | And Eros, who is Love, flew forth from the egg. |
| 5 | Drawn together by Eros, Ouranos and Gaia married, and they had for children the Titan Gods and Goddesses, Okeanos, Hyperion, Rhea, and Tethys. |
| 6 | And then Ouranos, who was father, and Gaia, who was mother, had for their child Kronos, the most cunning of all. |
| 7 | Kronos wedded Rhea, and from Kronos and Rhea were born the Gods who were different from the Titan Gods. |
| 8 | Kronos hated Ouranos, his father. |
| 9 | With a sickle given him by his mother, Kronos attacked his father and wounded him terribly. |
| 10 | Then were Ouranos and Gaia forever put apart from each other. |
| 11 | Kronos and Rhea had for children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus, and all these belonged to the company of the deathless Gods. |
| 12 | Kronos was fearful that one of his sons would treat him as he had treated his father. |
| 13 | So when another child was born to Rhea, he commanded that the child be given to him that he might swallow him. |
| 14 | But Rhea wrapped a great stone in swaddling-clothes and gave the stone to Kronos. |
| 15 | Kronos swallowed the stone, thinking to swallow his latest-born child. |
| 16 | That child was Zeus. |
| 17 | As a child he was hidden away in a deep cave, and those who minded and nursed him beat upon drums so that his cries might not be heard. |
| 18 | His nurse was Adrastia; when he was able to play she gave him a ball to play with. |
| 19 | All of gold was that ball, with a dark-blue spiral around it. |
| 20 | When the boy Zeus would play with this ball it would make a track across the sky, flaming like a star. |
| 21 | The Titan Gods born of Ouranos and Gaia went up to the Mountain Othrys, and there they had their thrones. |
| 22 | When Zeus had grown to be a youth he went up to the Mountain Olympos, and there he and Poseidon, |
| 23 | Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia built their shining palaces. |
| 24 | Now Kronos was warned that if Zeus married Hera his own reign would cease: he tried to slay Hera. |
| 25 | But Rhea took Hera into the realm of Okeanos and Tethys. |
| 26 | There she wedded Zeus. |
| 27 | The Moirai, who are the Fates, led the bride to her husband; |
| 28 | Eros himself drew the bridal car; |
| 29 | Okeanos fashioned for the pair the beautiful Garden of the Hesperides. |
| 30 | Then Zeus overthrew Kronos, his father. |
| 31 | But now the Titans upon Mount Othrys began a war upon the Olympians. |
| 32 | Neither side might prevail against the other. |
| 33 | At last Zeus thought of how he might help the Olympians to overthrow the Titans. |
| 34 | He went down to the deep parts of the earth where the Giants born of Ouranos and Gaia had been hidden by their father. |
| 35 | They had been bound; they were weighed down with chains. |
| 36 | Now Zeus loosed them, and the hundred-armed Giants in their gratitude gave him the lightning and showed him how to use the thunderbolt. |
| 37 | Zeus would have the Giants fight against the Titans. |
| 38 | But although they had mighty strength the Giants had no fire of courage in their hearts. |
| 39 | Zeus thought of a way to give them courage: he brought the food and drink of the Gods to them--ambrosia and nectar. |
| 40 | When they had eaten and drunk their spirits grew within the Giants, and they were ready to make war upon the Titans. |
| 41 | "Sons of Heaven and Earth," said Zeus to them, "a long time now have the dwellers on Olympos been striving with the Titans. |
| 42 | Do you lend your unconquerable might to the Olympians and help them to overthrow the elder children of Kronos." |
| 43 | "Divine One," said Kottos, the eldest of the Giants, "through your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom of the mid earth; |
| 44 | we have escaped from the hard bonds that Kronos laid upon us. |
| 45 | Our minds are fixed to aid you in the war against the Titans." |
| 46 | Then the Giants, with their fifty heads growing from their shoulders and with their hundred arms, went forth against the Titans. |
| 47 | The boundless sea rang terribly and the earth crashed loudly; high Olympos reeled on its foundations. |
| 48 | Holding huge rocks in their hands the Giants attacked the Titans. |
| 49 | Zeus entered the war. He hurled the lightning; the bolts flew thick and fast from his strong hand; there was thunder with lightning and flame. |
| 50 | The earth crashed, the forests crackled, the ocean seethed with fire. |
| 51 | The hot flames wrapped the Titans all around. |
| 52 | Three hundred rocks, one upon the other, did Kottos, Briareos, and Gyes hurl upon the Titans. |
| 53 | When their ranks were broken the Giants seized upon them and held them for Zeus. |
| 54 | Some of the Titans, seeing in the beginning that the strife for them would be in vain, went over to the side of Zeus. |
| 55 | These Zeus became friendly with. |
| 56 | But the other Titans he bound in chains and hurled down to Tartaros. |
| 57 | As far as Earth is from Heaven so is Tartaros from Earth. |
| 58 | A brazen anvil falling from Heaven to Earth nine days and nine nights would reach Earth on the tenth day. |
| 59 | And again, a brazen anvil falling from Earth nine nights and nine days would reach Tartaros upon the tenth night. |
| 60 | Around Tartaros runs a fence of bronze and Night spreads in a triple line all about it, as a necklace circles the neck. |
| 61 | Zeus imprisoned there the Titans who had fought against him; |
| 62 | they are hidden in the misty gloom in a dank place at the ends of the Earth. |
| 63 | They may not pass the imprisoning fence; Poseidon fixed gates of bronze to their prison. |
| 64 | And Kottos, Briareos, and Gyes are there, ever guarding them. |
| 65 | And there, too, is the home of Night. |
| 66 | Night and Day meet each other at that place, as they pass a threshold of bronze. |
| 67 | They draw near and they greet one another; the same house never holds them both together, |
| 68 | for while one is about to go into the house the other is leaving through the door. |
| 69 | One holds Light in her hand, the other holds in her arms Sleep. |
| 70 | There the children of the dark Night have their dwellings--Sleep and Death, his brother. |
| 71 | The sun never shines upon these two. |
| 72 | Sleep may roam over the wide earth, and come upon the sea, and he is kindly to men. |
| 73 | But Death is not kindly, and whoever he seizes upon, him he holds fast. |
| 74 | There, too, stands the hall of the Lord of the Under-world, Hades, the brother of Zeus. |
| 75 | Zeus gave him the Underworld to be his dominion when he shared amongst the Olympians the world that Kronos had ruled over. |
| 76 | A fearful hound keeps guard outside the hall of Hades: |
| 77 | Kerberos he is called; he has three heads. |
| 78 | On those who go within the hall Kerberos fawns; |
| 79 | on those who come out of it he springs and would devour them. |
| 80 | Not all the Titans did Zeus send down to Tartaros. |
| 81 | Those of them who joined with him stayed in the Upperworld. |
| 82 | Kronos, now made harmless, stayed with these friendly Titans. |
| 83 | And Zeus reigned over Olympos, becoming the ruler of Gods and men. |
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