Lines 1–120

Muses of Pieria, who glorify with song, come sing of Zeus, your Father, and declare His praise, through whom are men famous and unfamed, sung or unsung, as Zeus Almighty will. Lightly He giveth strength and lightly He afflicteth the strong: lightly He bringeth low the mighty and lifteth up the humble: lightly He maketh the crooked to be straight and withereth the proud as chaff: Zeus, who thundereth in Heaven, who dwelleth in the height. Look down and hear and hearken, and deal the judgements of righteousness, Thou: and I to Perses will speak truth.

Not one breed of Strife is there on earth, but twain. One shall a man praise when he beholdeth her, but the other is a thing of reproach, and diverse altogether are their souls. The one increaseth evil war and contention, for frowardness. No man loveth her, albeit the will of the immortals constraineth men to worship grievous Strife. But the other is the elder child of black Night, and her the Son of Kronos, who dwelleth in the height of Heaven, both in the Earth’s foundations and among men made mightier far. She stirreth even the helpless to labour. For when he that hath no business looketh on him that is rich, he hasteth to plow and to plant and to array his house: and neighbour vieth with neighbour hasting to be rich: good is this Strife for men. So potter with potter contendeth: the hewer of wood with the hewer of wood: the beggar is jealous of the beggar, the minstrel jealous of the minstrel.

O Perses, lay thou this to heart, nor let Strife that exulteth in evil turn thy mind from work, to watch contention and to hearken in the market-place. Little time hath he for wrangling and contention, who hath not laid up at home store of food for the year, the seasonable fruits of the earth, Demeter’s grain. When thou hast gotten thee enough thereof, then be contentious for the goods of others. But no more mayst thou do thus. Let us straightway judge between us with just judgement, even of Zeus, which is best. Already had we divided our inheritance, and much besides didst thou seize and carry away, for the great glory of the bribe-devouring princes, who are fain to judge this suit. Fools! who know not how much more is the half than the whole, nor what blessedness there is in mallow and asphodel.

For the gods have hidden the livelihood of men. Lightly in a day mightst thou have won sufficient store even for a year of idleness, and soon mightst thou have hung the rudder in the smoke, and the work of oxen and of sturdy mules had perished. But Zeus in his anger hid the bread of life, for that Prometheus of crooked counsels had deceived him. Wherefore Zeus devised sorrow for men, and hid fire. But that the good son of Iapetos stole again for men from Zeus the Counsellor in a hollow fennel stalk, what time the Hurler of the Thunder knew not. But in wrath did the Gatherer of the Clouds say to him. ‘Son of Iapetos, cunning above men, thou joyest to have dealt deceitfully and stolen fire, great bane as it shall be to thyself and to the men of aftertime. For fire will I give them an evil thing wherein they shall rejoice, embracing their own doom.’

So spake the Father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And He bade glorious Hephaistos speedily to mingle earth with water, and put therein human speech and strength and make as the deathless goddesses to look upon the fair form of a lovely maiden. And Athene He bade teach her handiwork, to weave the embroidered web. And He bade golden Aphrodite shed grace about her head and grievous desire and wasting passion. And Hermes, the Messenger, the Slayer of Argos, He bade give her a shameless mind and a deceitful soul.

So Zeus bade and they hearkened unto Zeus the King, the Son of Kronos. Straightway of earth did the glorious Lame One fashion the likeness of a modest maiden, as the Son of Kronos willed. And the goddess grey-eyed Athene girdled and arrayed her: the goddess Graces and the Lady Persuasion hung chains of gold about her: the fair-tressed Hours crowned her with flowers of spring. All manner of adornment did Pallas Athene bestow about her body. And in her breast, the Messenger, the Slayer of Argos, put lies and cunning words and a deceitful soul, as Zeus the Thunderer willed. Also the Messenger of the gods gave her speech. And he named this woman Pandora, for that all the dwellers in Olympos had bestowed on her a gift: to be the bane of men that live by bread.

Now when He had wrought the sheer delusion unescapeable, the Father sent the glorious Slayer of Argos, the gods’ swift Messenger, unto Epimetheus with the gift. And Epimetheus took no thought how Prometheus had bidden him never take a gift from Olympian Zeus, but send it back, lest haply it become the bane of men. But he took it, and afterward in sorrow learned its meaning.

For of old the tribes of men lived on the earth apart from evil and grievous toil and sore diseases that bring the fates of death to men. For in the day of evil men speedily wax old. But the woman took off the great lid of the Jar with her hands and made a scattering thereof and devised baleful sorrows for men. Only Hope abode within in her unbreakable chamber under the lips of the Jar and flew not forth. For ere she could, the woman put on the lid of the Jar, as Zeus the Lord of the Aegis, the Gatherer of the Clouds, devised. But ten thousand other evils wander among men. For the earth is full of evil and the sea is full. By night and by day come diseases of their own motion, bringing evil unto mortal men, silently, since Zeus the Counsellor hath taken away their voice. So surely may none escape the will of Zeus.

And if thou wilt, yet another tale will I build for thee, well and cunningly, and do thou lay it to thy heart: how from one seed spring gods and mortal men. First of all, a golden race of mortal men did the Immortal Dwellers in Olympos fashion. These lived in the time of Kronos when he was king in Heaven. Like gods they lived, having a soul unknowing sorrow, apart from toil and travail. Neither were they subject to miserable eld, but ever the same in hand and foot, they took their pleasure in festival apart from all evil. And they died as overcome of sleep. All good things were theirs. The bounteous earth bare fruit for them of her own will, in plenty and without stint. And they in peace and quiet lived on their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and dear to the blessed gods.