The Sibyl · a new plain-English translation from the original language
and they wished to climb up into the starry heaven;
but at once the Immortal One laid a great constraint
upon the winds; and then the winds hurled the great tower on high
down, and stirred up strife among mortals against one another;
for this cause mortals gave the city the name Babylon.
But when that tower toppled down, and the speech of mortals
was twisted into every kind of tongue, then the whole
earth was filled with mortals, and kingdoms were divided,
and then indeed came the tenth generation of speaking men,
counting from when the flood came upon the men before.
And Cronos reigned, and Titan, and Iapetos,
the mightiest offspring born of Gaia and Ouranos, called by mortals
Earth and Heaven, giving them these names,
because they were the very first of speaking men.
Threefold were the portions of earth, allotted to each by lot,
and each ruled holding his own share, and they did not fight;
for there were oaths, and the father's shares were just.
But then the appointed time of the father's old age came upon him,
and he died; and the sons, transgressing the oaths,
stirred up a terrible strife against one another,
over who should hold the royal honor over all mortals
and rule; so Cronos and Titan waged war on one another.
But Rhea and Gaia and garland-loving Aphrodite,
Demeter and Hestia and lovely-haired Dione,
brought them to friendship, gathering together the kings,
all the brothers of one blood, and also the other
men who were of their blood and lineage;
and they judged that Cronos should be king and rule over all,
because he was the eldest and best in form.
But Titan in turn laid great oaths upon Cronos,
not to raise up any male offspring, so that he himself might rule
when old age and fate should come upon Cronos.
And whenever Rhea gave birth, the Titans sat beside her
and tore apart all the male children,
but let the females live and be raised beside their mother.
But when queenly Rhea bore the third generation,
Hera was born first; and when with their own eyes
the Titans saw the female child, the savage men went away.
And then Rhea bore a male child,
whom she swiftly sent away in secret to be raised apart,
taking three sworn Cretan men, into Phrygia;
for this reason they named him Zeus, because he was sent away.
In the same way she sent Poseidon away in secret.
A third time Rhea, divine among women, bore Plouton,
passing by Dodona, whence flowed the watery paths
of the river Europos, and its water streamed into the sea,
mingled with the Peneios, and they call it the Stygian stream.
But when the Titans heard that sons existed,
secretly begotten, whom Cronos and his consort Rhea had sown,
then Titan gathered together sixty sons