⁵Zeus caused oaths* to be sworn by the waters of Styx, which flow from a rock in Hades. He bestowed this honour on Styx in return for the help that she and her children had brought to him in his war against the Titans.

Descendants of Pontos and Ge

⁶To Pontos* and Ge were born Phorcos, Thaumas, Nereus, Eurybia, and Ceto. To Thaumas and Electra were born Iris and the Harpies, Aello and Ocypete; and to Phorcos and Ceto, the Phorcides and the Gorgons, who will be considered below when we tell the story of Perseus. ⁷To Nereus and Doris were born the Nereids,* whose names are Cymothoe, Speio, Glauconome, Nausithoe, Halie, Erato, Sao, Amphitrite, Eunice, Thetis, Eulimene, Agave, Eudore, Doto, Pherousa, Galatea, Actaie, Pontomedousa, Hippothoe, Lysianassa, Cymo, Eione, Halimede, Plexaure, Eucrante, Proto, Calypso, Panope, Cranto, Neomeris, Hipponoe, Ianeira, Polynome, Autonoe, Melite, Dione, Nesaie, Dero, Evagore, Psamathe, Eumolpe, lone, Dynamene, Ceto, and Limnoreia.

Various children of Zeus and Hera; children of the Muses

¹Zeus married Hera and fathered Hebe, Eileithuia, and Ares;*

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but he had intercourse with many other women, both mortal and immortal. By Themis, daughter of Ouranos he had some daughters, the Seasons, namely, Eirene, Eunomia, and Dice,* and the Fates, namely, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos; by Dione he had Aphrodite;* by Eurynome, daughter of Oceanos, the Graces, namely, Aglaie, Euphrosyne, and Thaleia; by Styx,Persephone;* and by Mnemosyne the Muses, firstly Calliope, and then Cleio, Melpomene, Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Ourania, Thaleia, and Polymnia.

²Calliope bore to Oiagros—or really, it is said, to Apollo— a son, Linos,* who was killed by Heracles, and Orpheus, who practised the art of singing to the lyre, and set rocks and trees in motion by his singing. When his wife, Eurydice, died from a snake-bite, he went down to Hades in the hope of bringing her up, and persuaded Pluto* to send her back to earth. Pluto promised to do so, provided that on the way up Orpheus never looked round until he had arrived back at his house. But Orpheus failed to obey him, and turning round, he caught sight of his wife, and she had to return below. Orpheus also in vented the mysteries of Dionysos. He was torn apart by the Maenads,* and is buried in Pieria.

³Cleio fell in love with Pieros, son of Magnes, through the anger of Aphrodite (for Cleio had reproached her for her love of Adonis*); and she had intercourse with him and bore him a son, Hyacinthos, who aroused the passion of Thamyris, son of Philammon and a nymph Argiope, the first man to love other males.* But Hyacinthos later died at the hand of Apollo, who became his lover and killed him accidentally when throwing a discus.* And Thamyris, who was exceptional for his beauty and his skill in singing to the lyre, challenged the Muses* to a contest in music, on the agreement that if he proved to be the better, he could have intercourse with them all, but if he were defeated, they could deprive him of anything they wished. The Muses proved to be superior, and deprived him both of his eyes and his skill in singing to the lyre.

⁴Euterpe bore to the River Strymon a son Rhesos, who was killed by Diomedes at Troy;* but according to some accounts, his mother was Calliope. To Thaleia and Apollo were born the Corybantes;* and to Melpomene and Acheloos, the Sirens, who will be considered below in our account of Odysseus.

The births of Hephaistos and Athene

⁵Hera gave birth to Hephaistos without prior intercourse (though Homer describes him as another of her children by Zeus).* Zeus threw him down from heaven for coming to the aid of his mother when she was put in chains; for Zeus had suspended Hera from Olympos for sending a storm against Heracles when he was sailing home after capturing Troy. Hephaistos fell to earth on Lemnos and was lamed in both his legs, but Thetis came to his rescue.*

⁶Zeus had intercourse with Metis, although she changed into many different forms in the hope of escaping it. While she was pregnant, Zeus forestalled future developments by swallowing her; for [Ge]* declared that after having the girl who was due to be born to her, Metis would give birth to a son who would become the ruler of heaven. It was for fear of this that he swallowed her down. When the time arrived for the child to be born, Prometheus, or according to others, Hephaistos, struck the head of Zeus with an axe and from the top of his head, near the River Triton,* leapt Athene, fully armed.

Artemis and Apollo

¹One of Coios’ daughters, Asteria, took the form of a quail

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and threw herself into the sea to escape the embraces of Zeus; and a city was named Asteria after her, for this was the former name of what was later called Delos.* His other daughter, Leto, had intercourse with Zeus, and was chased all over the earth by Hera until she arrived at Delos, where she gave birth first to Artemis, and then, with the aid of Artemis as a midwife, to Apollo.

Artemis devoted herself to hunting and remained a virgin, while Apollo learned the art of divination from Pan, son of Zeus and Hybris, and went to Delphi where, at that time, the oracles were delivered by Themis;* and when the guardian of the oracle, the serpent Python, tried to prevent him from approaching the chasm,* he killed it and took possession of the oracle.

Not long afterwards, he killed Tityos also, who was the son of Zeus and Elare, daughter of Orchomenos; for after making love with Elare, Zeus had hidden her under the earth for fear of Hera, and had brought up to light the child that she was carrying in her womb, the enormous Tityos. Now when Leto came to Pytho,* she was seen by Tityos, who was overcome by desire and seized her in his arms; but she called her children to her aid, and they shot him down with their arrows. Tityos suffers punishment* even after his death, for vultures feed on his heart in Hades.

²Apollo also killed Marsyas, the son of Olympos; for Marsyas had discovered the flute that Athene had thrown away because it disfigured her face,* and he challenged Apollo to a musical contest. They agreed that the victor should do what he wished with the loser, and when the test was under way, Apollo played his lyre upside down and told Marsyas to do the same;* and when he was unable to, Apollo was recognized as the victor, and killed Marsyas by suspending him from a lofty pine tree and flaying him.

³Artemis, for her part, killed Orion on Delos. They say that he was born from the earth, with a body of gigantic pro portions; but according to Pherecydes, he was a son of Poseidon and Euryale. Poseidon had granted him the power to walk across the sea. His first wife was Side, who was thrown into Hades by Hera because she had claimed to rival the god dess in beauty; and afterwards he went to Chios, and sought the hand of Merope, daughter of Oinopion. But Oinopion made him drunk, blinded him* as he slept, and threw him out by the seashore. Orion made his way to the forge [of Hephaistos],* where he snatched up a boy, and setting him on his shoulders, told him to guide him towards the sunrise. When he arrived there, his sight was rekindled by the rays of the sun, and he was able to see again. ⁴He returned with all haste to attack Oinopion; but Poseidon had provided him with an underground dwelling constructed by Hephaistos. Dawn fell in love with Orion and carried him off to Delos (for Aphrodite caused her to be continually in love because she had gone to bed with Ares).* ⁵According to some accounts, Orion was killed because he challenged Artemis to a contest in throwing the discus, while according to others, he was shot by Artemis* because he tried to rape Opis,* one of the virgins who had arrived from the Hyperboreans.