Greek Final - Story Excerpts

Theogony

“Then came vast Sky bringing Night with him, and, eager for love, brooded around Earth, and lay stretched on all sides: but his son from out his ambush grasped at him with his left hand, while in his right he took the huge sickle, long and jagged-toothed, and hastily mowed off the genitals of his father, and threw them backwards to be carried away behind him.”

Theogony

“So kept drifting long time up and down the deep, and all around kept rising a white foam from the immortal flesh; and in it a maiden was nourished... gods and men name her Aphrodite, the foam-sprung goddess... And Eros accompanied her and fair Desire followed her, when first she was born, and came into the host of the gods.”

Theogony

“But when he had wrought a beauteous evil instead of good, he led her forth even where were the rest of gods and men... From her is the race of tender women. For from her is a pernicious race. Tribes of women, a great source of hurt, dwell with mortal men... Just as to mortal men high-thundering Zeus gave women as an evil, accomplices of painful toils...”

Hymn to Aphrodite

“But even upon her [Aphrodite] Zeus put sweet desire in her thûmos—desire to make love to a mortal man, so that not even she may go without mortal lovemaking and get a chance to gloat at all the other gods, with her sweet laughter, Aphrodite, lover of smiles...”

Hymn to Aphrodite

“Anchises, most glorious of mortal humans! Take heart, and do not be too afraid in your phrenes... You will have a philos son, who will be king among the Trojans. His name will be Aineias [Aeneas], since it was an unspeakable akhos that took hold of me—grief that I had fallen into the bed of a mortal man.”

Hymn to Aphrodite

“But now my mouth can never again boast about this among the immortals. I have gone very far off the track, in a wretched and inexcusable way. I have strayed from my noos. I got myself a child beneath my girdle, having slept with a male mortal.”

Hymn to Apollo

“And as soon as Eilithyia the goddess of sore travail set foot on Delos, the pains of birth seized Leto, and she longed to bring forth; so she cast her arms about a palm tree and kneeled on the soft meadow while the earth laughed for joy beneath. Then the child leaped forth to the light, and all the goddesses washed you purely and cleanly with sweet water…”

Hymn to Apollo

“The lyre and the curved bow shall ever be dear to me, and I will declare to men the unfailing will of Zeus.”

Hymn to Apollo

“Now rot here upon the soil that feeds man! You at least shall live no more to be a fell bane to men who eat the fruit of the all-nourishing earth... And the holy strength of Helios made her rot away there; wherefore the place is now called Pytho, and men call the lord Apollo by another name, Pythian.”

Hymn to Demeter

“She was filled with a sense of wonder, and she reached out with both hands to take hold of the pretty plaything. And the earth, full of roads leading every which way, opened up under her. It happened on the Plain of Nysa. There it was that the Lord who receives many guests made his lunge... He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, and drove away as she wept. She cried with a piercing voice, calling upon her father...”

Hymn to Demeter

“She made that year the most terrible one for mortals... The Earth did not send up any seed. Demeter... kept them [the seeds] covered underground. Many a curved plow was dragged... all in vain. Many a bright grain of wheat fell into the earth— all for naught.”

Hymn to Demeter

“She revealed to them the way to perform the sacred rites... the holy ritual, which it is not at all possible to ignore, to find out about, or to speak out. The great awe of the gods holds back any speaking out. Blessed is he among earthbound mortals who has seen these things.”

Odyssey

“As he finished speaking I handed him the bright wine. Three times I poured and gave it to him, and three times, foolishly, he drained it... When the wine had fuddled his wits I tried him with subtle words: ‘Cyclops, you asked my name, and I will tell it: give me afterwards a guest gift as you promised. My name is Nobody. Nobody, my father, mother, and friends call me.’ ... Then my men stood round me... They held the sharpened olivewood stake, and thrust it into his eye... We took the red-hot stake and twisted it round and round... the blood poured out... Then he screamed, terribly, and the rock echoed.”

Odyssey

“Then the ghost of Theban Teiresias appeared... “... the god will make it a bitter journey. I think you will not escape the Earth-Shaker... if you lay hands on the cattle of Helios, then I foresee shipwreck for you and your friends, and even if you yourself escape, you will come unlooked-for to your home, in sore distress, losing all comrades, in another’s vessel, to find great trouble in your house... And death will come to you far from the sea, the gentlest of deaths, taking you when you are bowed with comfortable old age...’”

Odyssey

“Achilles, son of Peleus... I came to find Teiresias... no man has been more blessed than you... But these words he answered, swiftly: ‘Glorious Odysseus: don’t try to reconcile me to my dying. I’d rather serve as another man’s labourer, as a poor peasant without land, and be alive on Earth, than be lord of all the lifeless dead...’”

Cupid and Psyche

“This extravagant bestowal of the honours due to heaven on a mere mortal girl roused Venus herself to violent anger... ‘Am I to suffer the vagaries of vicarious reverence, a share in the worship of my divinity? Is a girl, destined to die, to tread the earth in my likeness?... She’ll reap no joy from usurping my honours, whatever she may be: I’ll soon make her regret that illicit beauty of hers.’”

Cupid and Psyche

“She found her savage beast was the gentlest and sweetest creature of all, that handsome god Cupid, handsome now in sleep... She leaned over Cupid, desperate for him... Then as her wounded heart beat with the tremor of such bliss, the lamp... shed a drop of hot oil... Scalded like this the god leapt up... ‘I shot myself with my own arrow, and made you my wife, only for you to think me some savage monster.’”

Cupid and Psyche

“Now Psyche felt that this was indeed the end of everything... she saw she was being driven openly to imminent destruction... But the turret suddenly burst into speech: ‘You must go to the underworld, take barley-cakes and coins, give one to Charon, silence Cerberus with a cake, and resist all traps... Do not open the jar you return with.’”

Oedipus Rex

“By Apollo! Tell me, old shepherd, who gave me this shame? My mother or my father?” ...
“Polybus is not of your family. No relation at all!” ...
“You are a poor, poor man, Oedipus! A wretched man! That is all I can say to you!”

Oedipus Rex

“Which do you think is preferable? To rule in fear or to sleep in peace, having... equal access to power?... Me? I want neither the throne nor the chores that accompany it... I’m not so foolish as to choose things which bear no benefit.”

Oedipus Rex

“What then of the prophecies? Oedipus left his beloved home in trembling fear lest he kills this man, his father, yet this man, Polybus died a natural death! Oedipus’ hand has committed no murder!... Forget all this nonsense then. Cast it out of your mind.”

Medea

“Of all the living things, of all those that have a soul and a sense, we, yes we, the women, are the most pathetic! … We need to spend a fortune to buy us a man… We can only let our eyes fall upon one person and one person only, our husband… One birth alone is worse than three times in the battlefield behind a shield.”

Medea

“The order of things has changed… Old poets will stop singing our faithlessness… I, too, would be composing songs against men… Enough of us [women] have wisdom to say justifiably that a woman’s mind is not without thought.”

Medea

“Swear by the Earth and by the bright light of Helios… that you will not exile me from your land nor surrender me to my enemies… I shall suffer what all mortals who disrespect the gods suffer.