Eclogue V. — On the Ages of Living Things : a Fragment from Hesiod

Three times two and nine times ten complete the tale of years whereto the life of men who live to fulness of old age attains. Nine times the chattering crow passes this limit in her span of life, while the stag passes through four times the lifetime of the crow. Thrice the raven outstrips the swift-footed stag in length of years; while that bird which renews its life, the Phoenix, multiplies ninefold the raven's years.

But we the Hamadryad Nymphs the longest-lived of living things pass through ten lifetimes of the Phoenix in continuous span.

This limit bounds the lives of living creatures. As for the rest God, the disposer of all hidden time, knows what periods Stilbon and what ages Phaenon ' have to roll, what orbits Pyrois and the benignant fires of Jupiter must yet fulfil, or in what revolutions kindly Venus hastens on her way, or how long are the toils that yet await Phoebe (the Moon) and Titan (the Sun), before that which they call the Great Year' reaches its close, and the wandering stars come back again in their ancient courses as they stood at the beginning of the ordered universe.