Chapter 4: Prometheus and the First Men
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♠ Hesiod, Ehoiai (Catalogue of Women) fr 234 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, p. 114, ed. R. Merkelbach and M. L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Akousilaos FGrH 2F35 – Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker 1, p. 56, ed. F. Jacoby, 2d ed. Leiden 1957.
♠ Ol 9.42-46 – Pindar, Olympian
But lend your tongue to the city of Protogeneia, where, by the ordinance of Zeus with the flashing thunderbolt, Pyrrha and Deucalion came down from Parnassus and made their first home, and without the marriage-bed they founded a unified race of stone offspring, and the stones gave the people their name. Greek Text
♠ Ol 9.49-53 – Pindar, Olympian
They tell, indeed, how the strength of the waters overwhelmed the dark earth; but by the skills of Zeus the ebbing tide suddenly drained off the flood. Greek Text
♠ POxy 25.2427 fr 1 – Papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus, as published in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri series. 1957.
♠ POxy 25.2427 fr 27 – Papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus, as published in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri series. 1957.
♠ Met 1.163-312 – Ovid, Metamorphoses
When, from his throne
supreme, the Son of Saturn viewed their deeds,
he deeply groaned: and calling to his mind
the loathsome feast Lycaon had prepared,
a recent deed not common to report,
his soul conceived great anger —worthy Jove—
and he convened a council. No delay
detained the chosen Gods.
When skies are clear
a path is well defined on high, which men,
because so white, have named the Milky Way.
It makes a passage for the deities
and leads to mansions of the Thunder God,
to Jove’s imperial home. On either side
of its wide way the noble Gods are seen,
inferior Gods in other parts abide,
but there the potent and renowned of Heaven
have fixed their homes.—It is a glorious place,
our most audacious verse might designate
the “Palace of High Heaven.” When the Gods
were seated, therefore, in its marble halls
the King of all above the throng sat high,
and leaning on his ivory scepter, thrice,
and once again he shook his awful locks,
wherewith he moved the earth, and seas and stars,—
and thus indignantly began to speak;
“The time when serpent footed giants strove
to fix their hundred arms on captive Heaven,
not more than this event could cause alarm
for my dominion of the universe.
Although it was a savage enemy,
yet warred we with a single source derived
of one. Now must I utterly destroy
this mortal race wherever Nereus roars
around the world. Yea, by the Infernal Streams
that glide through Stygian groves beneath the world,
I swear it. Every method has been tried.
The knife must cut immedicable wounds,
lest maladies infect untainted parts. Continue reading Latin Text
♠ ApB 1.7.2 – Apollodoros, Bibliotheke (Library)
And when Zeus would destroy the men of the Bronze Age, Deucalion by the advice of Prometheus constructed a chest, and having stored it with provisions he embarked in it with Pyrrha. Greek Text
♠ Σ W&D 85a – Scholia to Hesiod, Works and Days – Scholia Vetera in Hesiodi Opera et Dies, ed. A. Pertusi. Milan 1955.
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2022
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