The Golden Verses of Pythagoras · 85 of 122 · tr. Florence M. Firth
Section 13 (part 52)
580 Τῇ δ᾽ ἐνὶ δαίδαλα πολλὰ τετεύχατο, θαῦμα ἰδέσθαι, κνώδαλ᾽, ὅσ᾽ ἤπειρος πολλὰ τρέφει ἠδὲ θάλασσα· τῶν ὅ γε πόλλ᾽ ἐνέθηκε,—χάρις δ᾽ ἀπελάμπετο πολλή,— θαυμάσια, ζῴοισιν ἐοικότα φωνήεσσιν.
Αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ δὴ τεῦξε καλὸν κακὸν ἀντ᾽ ἀγαθοῖο, 585 ἐξάγαγ᾽, ἔνθα περ ἄλλοι ἔσαν θεοὶ ἠδ᾽ ἄνθρωποι, κόσμῳ ἀγαλλομένην γλαυκώπιδος ὀβριμοπάτρης.
θαῦμα δ᾽ ἔχ᾽ ἀθανάτους τε θεοὺς θνητούς τ᾽ ἀνθρώπους, ὡς ἔιδον δόλον αἰπύν, ἀμήχανον ἀνθρώποισιν.
[ἐκ τῆς γὰρ γένος ἐστὶ γυναικῶν θηλυτεράων,] 590 τῆς γὰρ ὀλώιόν ἐστι γένος καὶ φῦλα γυναικῶν, πῆμα μέγ᾽ αἳ θνητοῖσι μετ᾽ ἀνδράσι ναιετάουσιν οὐλομένης πενίης οὐ σύμφοροι, ἀλλὰ κόροιο.
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
The passage depicts gods like Athena and Hephaestus performing human actions such as dressing a maiden, crafting jewelry, and wearing crowns.
All passages →◆Demiurgecosmology
A secondary creator deity—often ignorant or malevolent—responsible for fashioning the material world, distinct from the supreme transcendent God.
Hephaestus acts as a secondary divine craftsman fashioning a being from earth under the direction of Zeus.
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