Detail from Hesiod and the Muse by Gustave Moreau. French, 1891. Oil on panel. Musée d'Orsay.
Source: commons.wikimedia.org
μηκέτ᾽ ἔπειτ᾽ ὤφελλον ἐγὼ πέμπτοισι μετεῖναι
ἀνδράσιν, ἀλλ᾽ ἢ πρόσθε θανεῖν ἢ ἔπειτα γενέσθαι.
νῦν γὰρ δὴ γένος ἐστὶ σιδήρεον: οὐδέ ποτ᾽ ἦμαρ
παύονται καμάτου καὶ ὀιζύος, οὐδέ τι νύκτωρ
τειρόμενοι. χαλεπὰς δὲ θεοὶ δώσουσι μερίμνας:
ἀλλ᾽ ἔμπης καὶ τοῖσι μεμείξεται ἐσθλὰ κακοῖσιν.
Ζεὺς δ᾽ ὀλέσει καὶ τοῦτο γένος μερόπων ἀνθρώπων,
εὖτ᾽ ἂν γεινόμενοι πολιοκρόταφοι τελέθωσιν.
Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 174-181
“Therefore I wish that I were no longer among the men of the fifth generation, / but either that I had died before or that I was born afterwards. / For now indeed is the race of iron: neither sometime in the day / do they cease from toil and misery, nor at any time at night / do they stop being distressed. And the gods will give difficult anxieties to them: / but all the same for them some good things will have been mixed with the bad. / And Zeus will destroy also this race of men of mortal speech, / when they are being born with gray hair on their temples.”
Source: didoofcarthage
χαίρετε, τέκνα Διός, δότε δ᾽ ἱμερόεσσαν ἀοιδήν.
κλείετε δ᾽ ἀθανάτων ἱερὸν γένος αἰὲν ἐόντων,
οἳ Γῆς τ᾽ ἐξεγένοντο καὶ Οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος,
Νυκτός τε δνοφερῆς, οὕς θ᾽ ἁλμυρὸς ἔτρεφε Πόντος.
εἴπατε δ᾽, ὡς τὰ πρῶτα θεοὶ καὶ γαῖα γένοντο
καὶ ποταμοὶ καὶ πόντος ἀπείριτος, οἴδματι θυίων,
ἄστρα τε λαμπετόωντα καὶ οὐρανὸς εὐρὺς ὕπερθεν
οἵ τ᾽ ἐκ τῶν ἐγένοντο θεοί, δωτῆρες ἐάων
ὥς τ᾽ ἄφενος δάσσαντο καὶ ὡς τιμὰς διέλοντο
ἠδὲ καὶ ὡς τὰ πρῶτα πολύπτυχον ἔσχον Ὄλυμπον.
ταῦτά μοι ἔσπετε Μοῦσαι, Ὀλύμπια δώματ᾽ ἔχουσαι
ἐξ ἀρχῆς, καὶ εἴπαθ᾽, ὅ τι πρῶτον γένετ᾽ αὐτῶν.
Hesiod, Theogony, 104-115
“Rejoice, children of Zeus, and give a charming song. / And celebrate the divine race of the undying ones, being for ever, / who were born of both Earth and starry Heaven, / and from dark Night, and whom briny Sea produced. / And tell how in the first place the gods and the earth came to be / and the rivers and the immense sea, with raging swells, / and shining stars and the wide sky above, / from which the gods were born, givers of good things, / and how they divided the wealth among themselves / and how they divided the honors, / and also how in the first place they possessed Olympus of many folds. / Say these things to me, Muses, who dwell in Olympian houses, / from the beginning, and say, whoever of them was first to be born.”
Source: didoofcarthage
μουσάων Ἑλικωνιάδων ἀρχώμεθ᾽ ἀείδειν,
αἵθ᾽ Ἑλικῶνος ἔχουσιν ὄρος μέγα τε ζάθεόν τε
καί τε περὶ κρήνην ἰοειδέα πόσσ᾽ ἁπαλοῖσιν
ὀρχεῦνται καὶ βωμὸν ἐρισθενέος Κρονίωνος.
καί τε λοεσσάμεναι τέρενα χρόα Περμησσοῖο
ἢ Ἵππου κρήνης ἢ Ὀλμειοῦ ζαθέοιο
ἀκροτάτῳ Ἑλικῶνι χοροὺς ἐνεποιήσαντο
καλούς, ἱμερόεντας: ἐπερρώσαντο δὲ ποσσίν.
Hesiod, Theogony, 1-8
“With the Muses of Helicon, let us begin to sing, / who hold the mountain of Helicon, both great and sacred, / and around a violet-like spring and an altar of the mighty son of Cronus, they dance with gentle feet. / And after washing their delicate skin in the waters of the Permessus / or of the spring of the Horse or of the holy Olmeius, / on the highest point of Helicon, they make dances, / beautiful, charming: and they move on nimble feet.”
Source: didoofcarthage
Hesiod and the Muse by Gustave Moreau
1891
oil on wood
Musee d'Orsay
Source: wikipaintings.org