He told glorious Hephaistos to make haste, and plaster

earth with water, and to infuse it with a human voice

and vigor, and make the face
like the immortal goddesses,

the bewitching features of a young girl;
meanwhile Athene

was to teach her her skills, and how
to do the intricate weaving,

while Aphrodite was to mist her head
in golden endearment

and the cruelty of desire and longings
that wear out the body,

but to Hermes, the guide, the slayer of Argos,
he gave instructions

to put in her the mind of a hussy,
and a treacherous nature.

So Zeus spoke. And all obeyed Lord Zeus,
the son of Kronos.

The renowned strong smith modeled her figure of earth,
in the likeness

of a decorous young girl, as the son of Kronos
had wished it.

The goddess gray-eyed Athene dressed and arrayed her;
the Graces,

who are goddesses, and hallowed Persuasion
put necklaces

of gold upon her body, while the Seasons,
with glorious tresses,

put upon her head a coronal of spring flowers,

[and Pallas Athene put all decor upon her body].

But into her heart Hermes, the guide,
the slayer of Argos,

put lies, and wheedling words
of falsehood, and a treacherous nature,

made her as Zeus of the deep thunder wished,
and he, the gods’ herald,

put a voice inside her, and gave her
the name of woman,

Pandora, because all the gods
who have their homes on Olympos

had given her each a gift, to be a sorrow to men

who eat bread. Now when he had done
with this sheer, impossible

deception, the Father sent the gods’ fleet messenger,
Hermes,

to Epimetheus, bringing her, a gift,
nor did Epimetheus

remember to think how Prometheus had told him never

to accept a gift from Olympian Zeus,
but always to send it

back, for fear it might prove
to be an evil for mankind.

He took the evil, and only perceived it
when he possessed her.
Since before this time the races of men
had been living on earth

free from all evils, free from laborious work,
and free from

all wearing sicknesses that bring
their fates down on men

[for men grow old suddenly
in the midst of misfortune];

but the woman, with her hands lifting away the lid
from the great jar,

scattered its contents, and her design
was sad troubles for mankind.

Hope was the only spirit that stayed there
in the unbreakable

closure of the jar, under its rim,
and could not fly forth

abroad, for the lid of the great jar
closed down first and contained her;

this was by the will of cloud-gathering Zeus
of the aegis;

Theogony

And in ineluctable, painful bonds
he fastened Prometheus

of the subtle mind, for he drove a stanchion
through his middle. Also

he let loose on him the wing-spread eagle,
and it was feeding

on his imperishable liver, which by night
would grow back

to size from what the spread-winged bird
had eaten in the daytime.

WHATEVER ONE LOVES

‘Fragment 16’

Sappho

Translated by Diane J. Rayor, 2014