Part V

When Heaven their sire ’gainst Cottus, Briareus,
And Gyges, felt his moody anger chafe
Within him, sore amazed with that their strength
Immeasurable, their aspect fierce, and bulk
Gigantic, with a chain of iron force
He bound them down; and fix’d their dwelling-place
Beneath the spacious ground: beneath the ground
They dwelt in pain and durance: in th’ abyss
There sitting, where earth’s utmost bound’ries end.
Full long oppress’d with mighty grief of heart
They brooded o’er their woes: but them did Jove
Saturnian, and those other deathless gods
Whom fair-hair’d Rhea bare to Saturn’s love,
By policy of Earth, lead forth again
To light. For she successive all things told:
How with the giant brethren they should win
Conquest and splendid glory. Long they fought
With toil soul-harrowing: they the deities
Titanic and Saturnian: each to each
Opposed, in valour of promiscuous war.
From Othrys’ lofty summit warr’d the host
Of glorious Titans: from Olympus they,
The band of gift-dispensing deities
Whom fair-hair’d Rhea bore to Saturn’s love.
So waged they war soul-harrowing: each with each
Ten years and more the furious battle join’d,
Unintermitted: nor to either host
Was issue of stern strife or end: alike
Did either stretch the limit of the war.

But now when Jove had set before his powers
All things befitting; the repast of gods;
The nectar and ambrosia, in each breast
Th’ heroic spirit kindled: and now all
With nectar and with sweet ambrosia fill’d,
Thus spake the father of the gods and men:
“Hear me! illustrious race of Earth and Heaven!
That what the spirit in my bosom prompts
I now may utter. Long, and day by day,
Confronting each the other, we have fought
For conquest and dominion: Titan gods,
And we the seed of Saturn. Still do ye,
Fronting the Titans in funereal war,
Show mighty strength: invulnerable hands:
Remembering that mild friendship, and those pangs
Remembering, when ye trod the upward way
Back to the light: and by our counsels broke
“The burthening chain, and left the murky gloom.”

He spake: and Cottus brave of soul replied:
“Oh Jove august! not darkly hast thou said:
Nor know we not how excellent thou art
In counsel and in knowledge: thou hast been
Deliverer of immortals from a curse
Of horror: by thy wisdom have we risen,
Oh kingly son of Saturn! from dark gloom
And bitter bonds, unhoping of relief.
Then with persisting spirit and device
Of prudent warfare, shall we still assert
Thy empire midst the fearful fray, and still
In hardy conflict brave the Titan foe.”

He said: the gods, the givers of all good,
Heard with acclaim: nor ever till that hour
So burn’d each breast with ardour to destroy.
All on that day stirr’d up the mighty strife,
Female and male: Titanic gods, and sons
And daughters of old Saturn; and that band
Of giant brethren, whom, from forth th’ abyss
Of darkness under earth, deliverer Jove
Sent up to light: grim forms and strong, with force
Gigantic: arms of hundred-handed gripe
Burst from their shoulders: fifty heads up-sprang,
Cresting their muscular limbs. They thus opposed
In dreadful conflict ’gainst the Titans stood,
In all their sinewy hands wielding aloft
Precipitous rocks. On th’ other side, alert
The Titan phalanx closed: then hands of strength
Join’d prowess, and show’d forth the works of war.
Th’ immeasurable sea tremendous dash’d
With roaring; earth re-echoed; the broad heaven
Groan’d shattering: vast Olympus reel’d throughout
Down to its rooted base beneath the rush
Of those immortals: the dark chasm of hell
Was shaken with the trembling, with the tramp
Of hollow footsteps and strong battle-strokes,
And measureless uproar of wild pursuit.
So they against each other through the air
Hurl’d intermix’d their weapons, scattering groans
Where’er they fell. The voice of armies rose
With rallying shout through the starr’d firmament,
And with a mighty war-cry both the hosts
Encountering closed. Nor longer then did Jove
Curb down his force; but sudden in his soul
There grew dilated strength, and it was fill’d
With his omnipotence: his whole of might
Broke from him, and the godhead rush’d abroad.
The vaulted sky, the mount Olympus, flash’d
With his continual presence; for he pass’d
Incessant forth, and lighten’d where he trod.
Thrown from his nervous grasp the lightnings flew
Reiterated swift; the whirling flash
Cast sacred splendour, and the thunderbolt
Fell. Then on every side the foodful earth
Roar’d in the burning flame, and far and near
The trackless depth of forests crash’d with fire.
Yea—the broad earth burn’d red, the floods of Nile
Glow’d, and the desert waters of the sea.
Round and around the Titans’ earthy forms
Roll’d the hot vapour, and on fiery surge
Stream’d upward, swathing in one boundless blaze
The purer air of heaven. Keen rush’d the light
In quivering splendour from the writhen flash:
Strong though they were, intolerable smote
Their orbs of sight, and with bedimming glare
Scorch’d up their blasted vision. Through the void
Of Erebus, the preternatural flame
Spread, mingling fire with darkness. But to see
With human eye and hear with ear of man
Had been, as on a time the heaven and earth
Met hurtling in mid-air: as nether earth
Crash’d from the centre, and the wreck of heaven
Fell ruining from high. Not less, when gods
Grappled with gods, the shout and clang of arms
Commingled, and the tumult roar’d from heaven.
Shrill rush’d the hollow winds, and roused throughout
A shaking and a gathering dark of dust;
Crushing the thunders from the clouds of air,
Hot thunderbolts and flames, the fiery darts
Of Jove: and in the midst of either host
They bore upon their blast the cry confused
Of battle, and the shouting. For the din
Tumultuous of that sight-appalling strife
Rose without bound. Stern strength of hardy proof
Wreak’d there its deeds, till weary sank the fight.
But first, array’d in battle, front to front,
Full long they stood, and bore the brunt of war.
Amid the foremost, towering in the van,
The war-unsated Gyges, Briareus,
And Cottus, bitterest conflict waged: for they
Successive thrice a hundred rocks in air
Hurl’d from their sinewy grasp: with missile storm
The Titan host o’ershadowing, them they drove,
Vain-glorious as they were, with hands of strength
O’ercoming them, beneath th’ expanse of earth
And bound with galling chains: so far beneath
This earth, as earth is distant from the sky:
So deep the space to darksome Tartarus.
A brazen anvil rushing from the sky
Through thrice three days would toss in airy whirl,
Nor touch this earth, till the tenth sun arose:
Or down earth’s chasm precipitate revolve,
Nor till the tenth sun rose attain the verge
Of Tartarus. A fence of massive brass
Is forged around: around the pass is roll’d
A night of triple darkness; and above
Impend the roots of earth and barren sea.
There the Titanic gods in murkiest gloom
Lie hidden: such the cloud-assembler’s will:
There in a place of darkness, where vast earth
Has end: from thence no egress open lies:
Neptune’s huge hand has closed with brazen gates
The mouth: a wall environs every side.
There Gyges, Cottus, high-souled Briareus,
Dwell vigilant: the faithful sentinels
Of Ægis-bearer Jove. Successive there
The dusky Earth, and darksome Tartarus,
The sterile Ocean, and the starry Heaven,
Arise and end, their source and boundary.
A drear and ghastly wilderness, abhorr’d
E’en by the gods; a vast vacuity:
Might none the space of one slow-circling year
Touch the firm soil, that portal enter’d once,
But him the whirls of vexing hurricanes
Toss to and fro. E’en by immortals loathed
This prodigy of horror. There too stand
The mansions drear of gloomy Night, o’erspread
With blackening vapours: and before the doors
Atlas upholding heaven his forehead rears,
And indefatigable hands. There Night
And Day, near passing, mutual greeting still
Exchange, alternate as they glide athwart
The brazen threshold vast. This enters, that
Forth issues; nor the two can one abode
At once constrain. This passes forth and roams
The round of earth; that in the mansion waits,
Till the due season of her travel come.
Lo! from the one the far-discerning light
Beams upon earthly dwellers; but a cloud
Of pitchy blackness veils the other round:
Pernicious Night: aye-leading in her hand
Sleep, Death’s half-brother: sons of gloomy Night
There hold they habitation, Death and Sleep;
Dread deities: nor them the shining Sun
E’er with his beam contemplates, when he climbs
The cope of heaven, or when from heaven descends.
Of these the one glides gentle o’er the space
Of earth and broad expanse of ocean waves,
Placid to man. The other has a heart
Of iron; yea, the heart within his breast
Is brass, unpitying: whom of men he grasps
Stern he retains: e’en to immortal gods
A foe. The hollow-sounding palaces
Of Pluto strong the subterranean god,
And stern Prosérpina, there full in front
Ascend: a grisly dog, implacable,
Holds watch before the gates: a stratagem
Is his, malicious: them who enter there,
With tail and bended ears he fawning soothes:
But suffers not that they with backward step
Repass: whoe’er would issue from the gates
Of Pluto strong and stern Prosérpina,
For them with marking eye he lurks; on them
Springs from his couch, and pitiless devours.