Chapter 2: The Olympians
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♠ Homer, Iliad 1.577-79
And I give counsel to my mother, wise though she be herself, to do pleasure to our dear father Zeus, that the father upbraid her not again, and bring confusion upon our feast. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 14.338
thou hast a chamber, that thy dear son Hephaestus fashioned for thee. Greek Text
♠ Homer, Odyssey 8.312
I was born misshapen. Yet for this is none other to blame but my two parents. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod, Theogony 927-29
But Hera without union with Zeus—for she was very angry and quarrelled with her mate—bare famous Hephaestus, who is skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven. Greek Text
♠ Hesiod fr 343 MW – Fragmenta Hesiodea, pp. 171-72, ed. Merkelbach and M.L. West. Oxford 1967.
♠ Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.331-52
When she had so spoken, she went apart from the gods, being very angry. Then straightway large-eyed queenly Hera prayed, striking the ground flatwise with her hand, and speaking thus:
“Hear now, I pray, Earth and wide Heaven above and you Titan gods who dwell beneath the earth about great Tartarus, and from whom are sprung both gods and men! Harken you now to me, one and all, and grant that I may bear a child apart from Zeus, no wit lesser than him in strength —nay, let him be as much stronger than Zeus as all-seeing Zeus than Cronos.” Thus she cried and lashed the earth with her strong hand. Then the life-giving earth was moved: and when Hera saw it she was glad in heart, for she thought her prayer would be fulfilled. And thereafter she never came to the bed of wise Zeus for a full year, nor to sit in her carved chair as aforetime to plan wise counsel for him, but stayed in her temples where many pray, and delighted in her offerings, large-eyed queenly Hera. But when the months and days were fulfilled and the seasons duly came on as the earth moved round, she bare one neither like the gods nor mortal men, fell, cruel Typhaon, to be a plague to men. Greek Text
♠ Stesichoros 239 PMG – Poetae Melici Graeci, p. 125 ed. D. L. Page. Oxford 1962.
Typhoeus: Hesiod traces his origins back to Gaia, but Stesichors says that he is the son of Hera alone who bore him because of her resentment against Zeus. (Transl. E. Bianchelli)
♠ Scholia bT to Homer, Iliad 14.296 – Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem 6, pp. 84-85, ed. W. Dindorf and E. Maass. Oxford 1888.
♠ Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.316-21
But my son Hephaestus whom I bare was weakly among all the blessed gods and shrivelled of foot, a shame and a disgrace to me in heaven, whom I myself took in my hands and cast out so that he fell in the great sea. But silver-shod Thetis the daughter of Nereus took and cared for him with her sisters: would that she had done other service to the blessed gods! Greek Text
♠ Homer, Iliad 18.395-405
“Verily then a dread and honoured goddess is within my halls, even she that saved me when pain was come upon me after I had fallen afar through the will of my shameless mother, that was fain to hide me away by reason of my lameness. Then had I suffered woes in heart, had not Eurynome and Thetis received me into their bosom—Eurynome, daughter of backward-flowing Oceanus. With them then for nine years’ space I forged much cunning handiwork, brooches, and spiral arm-bands, and rosettes and necklaces, within their hollow cave; and round about me flowed, murmuring with foam, the stream of Oceanus, a flood unspeakable. Neither did any other know thereof, either of gods or of mortal men, but Thetis knew and Eurynome, even they that saved me. Greek Text
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Edited by Elena Bianchelli, Retired Senior Lecturer of Classical Languages and Culture, Univ. of Georgia, January 2021
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