Hesiod · Theogony Θεογονία

Hesiod, Theogony 480–504: Zeus hidden in Crete; Cronus vomits up his children (480-504)

Gaia takes the infant Zeus to a hidden cave on Mount Aegeum and gives Cronus a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallows. When Zeus is grown, Gaia's counsel tricks Cronus into vomiting up his children, the stone first, which Zeus sets up at Pytho. Zeus also frees his father's brothers, the Cyclopes, who give him thunder and the lightning bolt.

Lines 480–504 · 262 words · click a number to copy its link
480Κρήτῃ ἐν εὐρείῃ τραφέμεν ἀτιταλλέμεναί τε. ἔνθα μιν ἷκτο φέρουσα θοὴν διὰ νύκτα μέλαιναν πρώτην ἐς Λύκτον· κρύψεν δέ ἑ χερσὶ λαβοῦσα ἄντρῳ ἐν ἠλιβάτῳ, ζαθέης ὑπὸ κεύθεσι γαίης, Αἰγαίῳ ἐν ὄρει πεπυκασμένῳ ὑλήεντι. 485τῷ δὲ σπαργανίσασα μέγαν λίθον ἐγγυάλιξεν Οὐρανίδῃ μέγʼ ἄνακτι, θεῶν προτέρῳ βασιλῆι. τὸν τόθʼ ἑλὼν χείρεσσιν ἑὴν ἐσκάτθετο νηδὺν σχέτλιος· οὐδʼ ἐνόησε μετὰ φρεσίν, ὥς οἱ ὀπίσσω ἀντὶ λίθου ἑὸς υἱὸς ἀνίκητος καὶ ἀκηδὴς

To that place came Earth carrying him swiftly through the black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch! he knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome him by force and might and drive him from his honors, himself to reign over the deathless gods.

490λείπεθʼ, ὅ μιν τάχʼ ἔμελλε βίῃ καὶ χερσὶ δαμάσσας τιμῆς ἐξελάειν, ὃ δʼ ἐν ἀθανάτοισι ἀνάξειν. καρπαλίμως δʼ ἄρʼ ἔπειτα μένος καὶ φαίδιμα γυῖα ηὔξετο τοῖο ἄνακτος· ἐπιπλομένων δʼ ἐνιαυτῶν Γαίης ἐννεσίῃσι πολυφραδέεσσι δολωθεὶς 495ὃν γόνον ἄψ ἀνέηκε μέγας Κρόνος ἀγκυλομήτης πρῶτον δʼ ἐξέμεσεν λίθον, ὃν πύματον κατέπινεν· τὸν μὲν Ζεὺς στήριξε κατὰ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης Πυθοῖ ἐν ἠγαθέῃ γυάλοις ὕπο Παρνησοῖο 500σῆμʼ ἔμεν ἐξοπίσω, θαῦμα θνητοῖσι βροτοῖσιν. λῦσε δὲ πατροκασιγνήτους ὀλοῶν ὑπὸ δεσμῶν Οὐρανίδας, οὓς δῆσε πατὴρ ἀεσιφροσύνῃσιν· οἳ οἱ ἀπεμνήσαντο χάριν ἐυεργεσιάων, δῶκαν δὲ βροντὴν ἠδʼ αἰθαλόεντα κεραυνὸν

After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men. And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father, sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightning: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these.

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English translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914). Original text: Hugh G. Evelyn-White (ed.), Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica, Loeb Classical Library, London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1914 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.

Theogony 480–504: Zeus hidden in Crete | Hesiod