are hidden under misty
gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they
may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall
runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Cottus and
great-souled Obriareuslive,
trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis. And there, all in their
order, are the sources and ends of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and
the unfruitful sea and starry heaven, loathsome and dank, which even
the gods abhor.It is a great
gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would not reach the
floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel blast upon
blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is awful even
to the deathless gods. There stands the awful home of murky
Nightwrapped in dark
clouds. In front of it the son of IapetusSc.Atlas, the Shu of
Egyptian mythology: cp. note on line 177.stands immovably
upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where
Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great
thresholdof bronze: and
while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out
at the door. And the house never holds them both within; but always
one is without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays
at home and waits until the time for her journeying comes;and the one holds all-seeing light
for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms Sleep the brother
of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous cloud. And there the
children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful
gods.The glowing Sun never
looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor
as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully
over the earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the
other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within himis pitiless as bronze: whomever of
men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the
deathless gods.
There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world,
strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the
house in front,