So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.' `Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire - a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger: He hid fire but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men.
Cyme not trading poseidon full#
Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste. For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Fools! They know not how much more the half is than the whole, nor what great advantage there is in mallow and asphodel. But you shall have no second chance to deal so again: nay, let us settle our dispute here with true judgement divided our inheritance, but you seized the greater share and carried it off, greatly swelling the glory of our bribe-swallowing lords who love to judge such a cause as this. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and strive to get another's goods. Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year's victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter's grain. Perses, lay up these things in your heart, and do not let that Strife who delights in mischief hold your heart back from work, while you peep and peer and listen to the wrangles of the court-house. And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order and neighbour vies with is neighbour as he hurries after wealth. But the other is the elder daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to men.
For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. And I, Perses, would tell of true things. Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud, - Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high. Through him mortal men are famed or unfamed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise.
MISCELLANEOUS FRAGMENTS WORKS AND DAYS, TRANSLATED BY H.
0 kommentar(er)
