The story goes that the giants aspired
to the throne of heaven and built a path to the stars on high,
by piling mountain on mountain. Then it was that almighty
Jupiter launched his lightning bolts to shatter Olympus,
and shook Mount Pelion down from its base on the ridges of Ossa.
...
[Mother Earth] Unwilling that all the fruits of her womb should be lost and forgotten,
she turned their blood into human form; but the new race also
looked on the gods with contempt. Their passionate lust for ferocious
violence and slaughter prevailed. You'd have known they were born of blood. (查看原文)
He was now transformed into a wolf. But he kept some signs
of his former self: the grizzled hair and the wild expression,
the blazing eyes and the bestial image remained unaltered. (查看原文)
Sprawling over Parnassus, it horribly frightened the new-born
peoples, until it was killed by the deadly shafts of Apollo...
In order that time should never destroy the fame of this exploit,
Apollo established the sacred games, attended by huge crowds,
the Pythian Games, called after the serpent he vanquished, Python. (查看原文)
Phoebus, still in flush of his victory over the serpent,
had noticed the love-god bending his bow and drawing the string
to his shoulder, and asked him: 'What are you doing with grown-up weapons,
you mischievous boy? That bow would better be carried by me. ...
You be content with your torch and use it to kindle some passion
or other; but don't usurp any honours belonging to me!' (查看原文)
Argus was finished. The light that had glittered in all those stars
was extinguished; a hundred eyes were eclipsed in a single darkness.
Juno extracted those eyes and gave them a setting like a sparkling
jewels in the feathers displayed on the tail of the peacock, her own bird. (查看原文)
Your destiny's mortal; your wishes transcend your mortal limits.
Indeed your ignorant heart is pursuing what even immortals
can never attain....
Oh listen, my son! Don't force me to make you a gift that can only
prove fatal. Be warned and amend your prayer before it's too late.
I can understand that you need some indisputable proof
that my own blood runs in your veins. So here you have it: my fatherly
fears and misgivings prove me to be your fater. Look, boy,
look at my face. How I wish your eyes were able to pierce deep down to my eart and catch a glimpse of your father's anxiety. (查看原文)
What of his father? Wretchedly stricken and sick with grief,
he had covered his face with his robe. If we can believe what is said,
the Sun went into eclipse for a day (查看原文)
Picture a space at the heart of the world, between the earth,
the sea and the sky, on the frontiers of all three parts of the universe.
Here there are eyes for whatever goes on, no matter how distant; and here there are ears whose hollows no voice can fail to penetrate.
This is the kingdom of Rumour, who chose to live on a mountain, with numberless entrances into her house and a thousand additional
holes, though none of her thresholds are barred with a gate or a door.
Open by night and by day, constructed entirely of sounding
brass, the whole place hums and echoes, repeating whatever
it hears. Not one of the rooms is silent or quiet, but none
is disturbed by shouting. The noise is merely a murmuring babble,
low like the waves of the sea which you hear from afar, or the last faint
rumble o... (查看原文)
