Theogony
Critique • Quotes
1980 translationAbout the book
First publication
c.700 BCE
Form
Poem
Genre
Mythology
Writing language
Ancient Greek
Author
Greece
Length
Approx. 1,260 lines
Notable lines
With the Heliconian muses let us start
Our song...
— First lines
The genitals, cut off with adamant
And thrown from land into the stormy sea,
Were carried for a long time on the waves.
White foam surrounded the foamy flesh,
And in it grew a girl.
— trans. Wender
The married man
Who gets a good wife, suited to his taste,
Gets good and evil mixed, but he who gets
One of the deadly sort, lives all his life
With never-ending pain inside his heart
And on his mind; the wound cannot be healed.
— trans. Wender
Last line
Now sing of women, Muses, you sweet-voiced
Olympian daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus.
— Last lines
Critique • Quotes
