The whole circuit of the universe with its four sides was buffeted. The four winds, allied with Cronion, raised in the air columns of sombre dust; they swelled the arching waves, they flogged the sea until Sicily quaked: the Pelorid shores resounded) and the ridges of Aitna, the Lilybaian rocks bellowed prophetic of things to come, the Pachynian promontory crashed under the western wave. Near the Bear the nymph of Athos wailed about her Thracian glen, the forest of Macedon roared on the Pierian ridge ; the foundations of the east were shaken, there was crashing In the fragrant valleys of Assyrian Libanos,
Aye, and from Typhaon’s hands were showered volleys against the unwearied thunderbolts of Zeus. Some shots went past Selene’s ear, and scored through the invisible footprints of her moving bulls ; others whirling through the air with sharp whizz, the winds blew away by counterblasts. Many a stray shot from the invulnerable thunderbolts of Zeus fell into the welcoming hand of Poseidon, unsparing of his earth-piercing trident’s point ; old Nereus brought the brine-soaked bolts to the ford of the Cronian Sea and dedicated them as an offering to Zeus,
“Now Zeus armed the two grim sons of Enyalios, his own grandsons, Rout and Terror his servant. the inseparable guardsmen of the sky : Rout he set up with the lightning, Terror he made strong with the thunderbolt, terrifying Typhon. Victory lifted her shield and held it before Zeus : Enyo countered with a shout, and Ares made a din. Zeus breasting the tempests with his aegis-breastplate swooped down from the air on high, seated in Time’s chariot with four winged steeds, for the horses that drew Cronion were the team of the winds, Now he battled with lightnings, now with levin; now he attacked with thunders, now poured out petrified masses of frozen hail in volleying showers, Waterspouts burst thick upon the Giant’s heads with sharp blows, and hands were cut off from the monster by the frozen volley of the air as by a knife. One hand rolled in the dust, struck off by the icy cut of the hail ; it did not drop the crag which it held, but fought on even while it fell, and shot rolling over the ground in self-propelled leaps, a hand gone mad as if it still wished to strike the vault of Olympos.
Then the sovereign of the heavens brandished aloft his fiery bolt, and passing from the left wing of the battle to the right, fought manifest on high.) The many-armed monster hastened to the watery torrents ; he intertwined his row of fingers into a living mat, and hollowing his capacious, he lifted from the midst of the wintry rivers their water as it came pouring down from the mountains, and threw these detached parcels of the streams against the lightning. But the ethereal flame blazed with livelier sparks the water of the torrents which struck it; the thirsty water boiled and steamed, and its liquid essence dried up in the red hot mas. Yes—to quench the ethereal fire was the bold Giant’s plan, poor fool he knew not that, the fire-flaming thunderbolts and lightnings are the offspring of the clouds from whence the rain-showers come!
Again, he cut straight off sections of the torrent-beds, and designed to crush the breast of Zeus which no iron can wound ; the mass of rock came hurtling at Zeus, but Zeus blew a light puff from the edge of his lips, and that gentle breath turned the whirling rock aside with all its towering crags. The monster with his hand broke off a rounded promontory from an island, and rising for the attack circled it round his head again and again, and cast it at the invincible face of Zeus: then Zeus moved his head aside, and dodged the jagged rock which came at him: but Typhon hit the lightning as it passed on its hot zigzag path, and at once the rock was white-patched at the tip and blackened with smoke—there was no take about it. A third rock he cast: but Cronion caught it in full career with the flat of his infinite open hand, and by a playful turn of the wrist sent I it back like a bouncing ball, to Typhon. The crag returned with many an airy twist along its homeward path, and of itself shot the shooter. A fourth shot he sent, higher than before the rock touched the tassel-tips of the aegis-cape, and split asunder. Another he let fly : storm-swift the rock flew, but a thunderbolt struck it, and half-consumed, it blazed. The could not pierce the raincloud ; but the stricken hills were broken to pieces by the rainclouds.
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