希腊罗马神话英文版.docVIP

PAGE 第 PAGE 1 页 共 NUMPAGES 51 页 1 The Beginning of the world Before earth and sea and heavens became known the face of nature was one crude, formless mass. Land and sea and air were mingled together. The universe was a uniform darkness, without sun and moon, and the earth was no more than an embryo heap. In the middle of the pervading gloom sat Chaos and his wife, the goddess of Night (Nyx), who reigned but did not rule, for the whole space was lifeless. Centuries later, with the birth of Light and Day, earth and sea and air came into existence. Still later, the union of Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Heaven) gave birth to the Titans, the Cyclopes and the Centimani, all giants in stature and strength. Afraid that his own gigantic children might usurp his throne, Uranus drove them all back to the earth, and thus roused the resentment of the mother Gaea. At her instigation one of her sons, Kronus (Saturn), attacked and wounded Uranus with a sickle he had taken from his mother, and took over as supreme ruler of the universe. He married his own sister Rhea and entrusted the management of the sun to his brother Hyperion and the moon to his sister Phoebe. He ruled his realm peacefully until an oracle prophesied that he would one day be dethroned by one of his own children. To avert the disaster he took the excessive precaution of swallowing up all his five children one by one immediately after their birth. These were Hestia (Vesta), Demeter (Ceres), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune) and Hades (Pluto). When Rhea bore the last child, Zeus (Jupiter) by name, Kronus wanted to get rid of him in the same fashion. But the mother wrapped up a piece of stone in the infant’s swathes and handed it over to the unsuspecting father. Thus Zeus was saved, and sent to Mt Ida, where the mountain nymphs did all their power to protect him from any harm. By the time Kronus became aware of the deception it was too late, for young Zeus suddenly appeared before him and easily deposed him. With th