Metis in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Metis

5 passages from 3 ancient authors that tell of Metis, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. Metis was one of the Titans, a daughter of Oceanus and Tethys; therefore, she was considered an Oceanid. She was the first wife of Zeus, and became th... For the story in one place, read our article on Metis.

Hesiod (2)

Hesiod, Theogony 900–929tZeus's marriages and children; the birth of Athena (900-929)Zeus marries Themis (the Hours and the Fates), Eurynome (the Graces), Demeter (Persephone), Mnemosyne (the Muses), Leto (Apollo and Artemis) and lastly Hera, whose children are Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia. Zeus bears Athena from his own head, and Hera bears Hephaestus without Zeus. The section recounts again how Zeus swallowed Metis, who conceived Athena, and how she was born by the river Trito.
Hesiod, Theogony 870–899The winds of Typhoeus; Zeus becomes king and swallows Metis (870-899)Hesiod describes the destructive winds that spring from Typhoeus and wreck ships and fields. When the gods have settled their struggle with the Titans, they press Zeus to reign, and he divides their honours. Zeus's first wife is Metis, the wisest of gods and men; to prevent her bearing a son who would rule over him, he deceives her and puts her inside his own belly.

Apollodorus (2)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.2.1–7Zeus and the Titanomachy; the children of the TitansZeus takes Metis as his ally, and she gives Cronus a drug that makes him disgorge the stone and his swallowed children. In the ten-year war the gods win once Zeus frees the prisoners in Tartarus and the Cyclopes give him thunder and lightning, Pluto a helmet and Poseidon a trident; the Titans are shut in Tartarus and the three brothers draw lots for sky, sea and the underworld. The rest of the section lists the offspring of the Titans, of Styx, and of Sea and Earth, ending with the Nereids.
Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.3.1–6Zeus's children, the Muses, Orpheus and the birth of AthenaZeus marries Hera and has children by many goddesses, among them the Seasons, the Fates, the Graces, Persephone and, by Mnemosyne, the nine Muses. The Muses' sons include Linus and Orpheus, who goes down to Hades for Eurydice and loses her by looking back, as well as Hyacinth (loved by Thamyris and by Apollo), Rhesus and the Corybantes; Thamyris is blinded by the Muses and the Sirens are born of Melpomene. Hephaestus is born to Hera (alone, or by Zeus, in Homer's version) and thrown out of heaven, and Athena springs from the head of Zeus after he swallows Metis.

Plato (1)

Plato, Symposium 202a–204eDiotima: Love as a spirit between gods and men; the birth of Love from Poros and PeniaDiotima tells Socrates that Love is neither good nor beautiful, but neither is he foul or evil, as there is a mean between wisdom and ignorance in right opinion. He is not a god but a great spirit (daimon), intermediate between the divine and the mortal, who interprets and conveys prayers and sacrifices to the gods and the gods' commands to men, so that all divination and mysteries pass through him. She tells the tale of his birth on the birthday of Aphrodite, when Poros (Plenty), son of Metis (Discretion), drunk with nectar, lay down in the garden of Zeus and Penia (Poverty), who had come to beg, conceived Love by him. Love is therefore always poor, but full of schemes for getting what is good, a philosopher, between ignorance and wisdom, and Diotima concludes that the beloved is beautiful and the lover is of the opposite kind.