Lines 226–336

And hateful Strife bare painful Toil, and Oblivion, and Famine, and tearful Griefs, and Wars, and Battles, and Murders, and Manslayings, and Quarrels, and False Speeches, and Disputes, and Lawlessness, and Ruin (Ate), of one character with one another, and Horkos, which most afflicteth men on Earth, when any of his will sweareth falsely.

And the Sea (Pontos) begat as the eldest of his children Nereus, who cannot lie and whose words are truth: and him men call the Old Man, for as much as he is soothspeaking, and is kind, and forgetteth not the judgements of righteousness, but knoweth counsels just and kind. Again mighty Thaumas did the Sea beget in union with Earth, and lordly Phorkys, and fair-cheeked Keto, and Eurybia, whose heart within her breast is of adamant.

And of Nereus and fair-tressed Doris, daughter of Okeanos, that perfect stream, were born in the unharvested sea Protho, and Eukrante, and Sao, and Amphitrite, and Eudora, and Thetis, and Galene, and Glauke, and Kymothea, and swift Speio, and lovely Thalia, and gracious Melite, and Eulimine, and Agave, and Pasithea, and Erato, and Eunike rosy-armed, and Doto, and Proto, and Pherusa, and Dynamene, and Nesaia, and Aktaia, and Protomedeia: Doris, and Panope, and fair Galatea, and lovely Hippothea, and rosy-armed Hipponoe, and Kymodoke, which, with Kymatolege and fair-ankled Amphitrite, lightly assuageth the waves upon the misty sea and the blasts of the raging winds; and Kymo, and Eione, and fair-crowned Halimede, and laughter-loving Glaukonome, and Pontoporea, and Leagore, and Evagore, and Laomedea, and Poulynoe, and Antonoe, and Lysianassa, and Evarne, lovely of form and fair of mien: and Psamathe, of gracious form, and divine Menippe, and Neso, and Eupompe, and Themisto, and Pronoe, and Nemertes, which hath the wisdom of her immortal sire. These were the fifty daughters of blameless Nereus, maidens skilled in noble handiwork.

And Thaumas wedded Elektra, daughter of deep-flowing Okeanos: and she bare swift Iris and the fair-tressed Harpies, Aello and Okypete, which follow on swift wings the winds and the birds: for swift as time they speed.

And unto Phorkys again fair-cheeked Keto bare the Graiai, grey from their birth, whom both the deathless gods and men who walk on earth call the Graiai. And she bare fair-robed Pemphredo, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Okeanos, on the borderland towards the night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Stheno, and Euryale, and Medusa of unhappy fate. She was mortal, but those other two were deathless and ageless. With her lay the Lord of the Dark Hair in a soft meadow and amid the flowers of spring. And when Perseus had cut off her head, forth from her sprang mighty Chrysaor (Golden Sword) and the horse Pegasos. And he was so named because he was born by the fountains (Pegai) of Okeanos, and that other was called Chrysaor (Golden Sword), because he had in his hands a golden sword. And Pegasus flew away and left Earth, the mother of sheep, and came unto the deathless gods; and he hath his dwelling in the halls of Zeus and bringeth the thunder and the lightning to Zeus the Counsellor.

And Chrysaor begat three-headed Geryoneus in union with Kallirrhoe, daughter of glorious Okeanos. And him did mighty Herakles slay beside his kine of trailing gait, in sea-girt Erytheia, on that day when he drave his broad-browed kine unto holy Tiryns, crossing the stream of Okeanos, and slew Orthos and the herdsman Eurytion in their misty steading beyond glorious Okeanos.

And she (Kallirrhoe) bare yet another birth, huge, monstrous, no wise like to mortal men or to the deathless gods, within a hollow cave, even the divine Echidna, stubborn-hearted: half a fair-cheeked nymph of glancing eyes, and half a monstrous serpent terrible and great, spotted, ravenous, beneath the coverts of the holy earth. And there is her cave beneath, under a hollow rock, afar from deathless gods and mortal men, where the gods appointed her a glorious habitation wherein to dwell: and under earth she hath Einarima in her keeping—dread Echidna, a nymph deathless and ageless for evermore.

With her they say Typhaon met in loving union, a dread and blustering Wind with a bright-eyed maid. And she conceived, and bare stout-hearted children. First Orthos she bare to be the dog of Geryoneus: and next again she bare a monster unspeakable, even the ravenous Kerberos, the brazen-tongued hound of Hades, with fifty heads, shameless and strong. And third she bare the baleful Lernaean Hydra, which the goddess Hera of the white arms nurtured, in wrath insatiable against mighty Herakles. And her did the Son of Zeus, even Herakles of the house of Amphitryon, slay with the pitiless bronze, aided by Iolaos dear to Ares, by the devising of Athene, driver of the spoil.

But Echidna bare Chimaira, whose breath was raging fire, terrible and mighty, swift of foot and strong. And she had three heads: one the head of a fierce-eyed lion, the other of a goat, the other of a snake, even a mighty dragon. In front she was a lion, behind a dragon, in the midst a goat, breathing the terrible might of blazing fire. Her did Pegasos with goodly Bellerophon slay; and she bare the deadly Sphinx to be the bane of the Kadmeans, in union with Orthos; also the Nemean lion which Hera, the glorious spouse of Zeus, nurtured and established on the hills of Nemea to be the bane of men. There he preyed on the tribes of her own people, lording it over Tretos in the land of Nemea and over Apesas. But the might of strong Herakles overcame him.

And Keto, in loving union with Phorkys, bare as her youngest child the dread serpent who in the secret places of the dark earth guards in his mighty coils the all golden apples. Such is the race sprung from Keto and Phorkys.