Classic Poem

" THEOGONY . "

Resentment stung the Thunderer's inmost soul
And his heart chafed in anger, when he saw
The fire far-gleaming in the midst of men.
Straight for the flame bestowed devised he ill
To man. And now the crippled artist-god
Illustrious moulded from the yielding clay
A bashful virgin's image, as advised
Saturnian Zeus. Then Pallas azure-eyed
Bound with the zone her bosom and with rope
Of silvery whiteness deckt her folded limbs;
With her own hands a variegated veil
Placed on her head, all-marvellous to sight;
Twined with her tresses a delicious wreath
Of mingled verdure and fresh-blooming flowers;
And claspt her brows with diadem of gold:
Hephaistos with his glorious hands had framed it,
Elaborate, pleasing to the sire of gods.
Full many works of curious craft, to sight
Wondrous, he graved thereon; full many beasts
Of earth and fishes of the rolling main;
Of these innumerable he there had wrought —
And elegance of art there shone profuse,
And admirable — e'en as tho they moved
In very life and uttered animal sounds.
But now when this fair mischief, seeming-good,
His hand had perfected, he led her forth
Exulting in her graced attire, the gift
Of Pallas, in the midst of gods and men.
On men and gods in that same moment seized
The ravishment of wonder, when they saw
The deep deceit, the inextricable snare.
For lo! from her descend the tender sex
Of Woman — a pernicious kind; on earth
They dwell, destructive to the race of men.
With Luxury they, not life-consuming Want,
Fitly consorted. And as drones within
The close-rooft hive, cooperative in works
Slothful and base, are nurtured by the bees, —
These all the day till sinks the setting sun
Haste on the wing, their murmuring labours ply
And still cement the white and waxen comb;
Those lurk within the sheltering hive close-rooft
And gather in their greedy maw the spoils
Of others' labour, — such are womankind
They whom the Thunderer sent, a bane to man,
Ill helpmates of intolerable toils.