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Ancient[edit]

Hesiod[edit]

In truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, [120] and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night;

687 ff.

Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From Heaven and from Olympus [690] he came immediately, hurling his lightning: the bolts flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about. [695] All the land seethed, and Ocean's streams and the unfruitful sea. The hot vapor lapped round the earthborn Titans: flame unspeakable rose to the bright upper air: the flashing glare of the thunderstone and lightning blinded their eyes for all that they were strong. [700] Astounding heat seized Chaos:

814

And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos.

Ovid[edit]

Ovid, Metamorphoses

1.5 ff.

Before the ocean and the earth appeared—

before the skies had overspread them all—

the face of Nature in a vast expanse

was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.

It was a rude and undeveloped mass,

that nothing made except a ponderous weight;

and all discordant elements [semina] confused,

were there congested in a shapeless heap.

As yet the sun afforded earth no light,

nor did the moon renew her crescent horns;

the earth was not suspended in the air

exactly balanced by her heavy weight.

Not far along the margin of the shores

had Amphitrite stretched her lengthened arms,—

for all the land was mixed with sea and air.

The land was soft, the sea unfit to sail,

the atmosphere opaque, to naught was given

a proper form, in everything was strife,

and all was mingled in a seething mass—

with hot the cold parts strove, and wet with dry

and soft with hard, and weight with empty void.