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Theogony

Critique • Quotes

Norman O. Brown translation1980 translation
Publication details ▽ Publication details △

First publication
c.700 BCE

Literature form
Poem

Genres
Mythology

Writing language
Ancient Greek

Author's country
Greece

Length
Approx. 1,260 lines

Notable lines

With the Heliconian muses let us start
Our song...

— First lines

The genitals, cut off with adamant
And thrown from land into the stormy sea,
Were carried for a long time on the waves.
White foam surrounded the foamy flesh,
And in it grew a girl.

— trans. Wender

The married man
Who gets a good wife, suited to his taste,
Gets good and evil mixed, but he who gets
One of the deadly sort, lives all his life
With never-ending pain inside his heart
And on his mind; the wound cannot be healed.

— trans. Wender

Last line

Now sing of women, Muses, you sweet-voiced
Olympian daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus.

— Last lines

 

Critique • Quotes