§ F1.1  Often the Telchines grumble at my poetry
(ignorant, they weren't born friends of the Muse)
because I did not complete a single continuous poem
in many thousands of lines either on kings ... or on heroes,

§ F1.5  but, like a child, I ... work (?) on a small scale
though the decades of my years are not few.
... and I (say) this to the Telchines: “tribe ...
... that know how to waste away in bile,
... of a few lines, but nourishing Demeter

§ F1.10  by far outweighs the long...
and of the two, the delicate ... showed that Mimnermos
is sweet but the large woman did not.
Let the crane, delighting in the blood of the Pygmies
...fly (far) from Egypt to the Thracians,

§ F1.15  and let the Massagetai shoot from a long distance at the
Mede. Poems are sweeter for being short.
Off with you, destructive race of Envy. And from now on
judge poetry by its art, not by the Persian schoenus.
Do not look for a loud sounding song

§ F1.20  from me; thundering (is) not my job, but that of Zeus.”
For, when I first placed a writing-tablet on my
knees, Lycian Apollo said to me
“... poet, raise your sacrificial victim as fat as possible,
but, good man, keep your Muse slender;

§ F1.25  and this too I ask (of you), walk a path unbeaten by wagons,
don't drive your chariot along the common ruts of others
nor upon a wide road, but (on) unworn
tracks, even if you will be driving more narrow (ones).”
I obeyed him; for we sing among those who love the clear sound

§ F1.30  of the cicada, and not the din of asses.
Let another bray just like the long-eared beast,
but let me be the little one, the winged one.
Oh, yes indeed! that I may sing living on dewdrops,
free sustenance from the divine air;

§ F1.35  that I may shed old age, which weighs on me
like the three-pointed island on destructive Enceladus.
For whomever the Muses did not look askance at as a child
they will not put aside as a friend when his head is grey.
... no longer to move its wing
... the most vivid

§ F2  When a swarm of Muses met with the shepherd
Hesiod, grazing his flocks by the footprint of the quick horse
. . . the birth of Chaos . . .
. . . at the water of the hoof . . .
that anyone causing evil to another, causes evil to his own liver...

§ F7.  naked, as from your mother's
10 womb you came, when Eileithyia was willing,
but in Paros, wearing rich and iridescent dresses ...
(you stood?), and oil always flows from your locks,
come now, and wipe your anointed hands
on my elegies, so that they may remain for many a year.

§ F7c.1  And how is it, O goddesses, that a man from Anaphe sacrifices
with shameful (words) and Lindos sacrifices with blasphemies
. . . honors Heracles?
. . . Calliope began;

§ F7c.5  First, fix in your memory the Radiant One (i.e., Apollo) and Anaphe, neighbor to
Laconian Thera and the Minyans,
beginning when the heroes sailed back from Cytaean Aeetes
to ancient Haemonia
. . . and when he saw his daughter's deeds
. . . he spoke the following . . . people, Ionians . . .

§ F7c.10  . . . all is overturned . . . they have made me . . .
. . . [the ship] that carries him
together with its men . . . Let the sun be my witness

§ F7c.15  and Phasis, the king of our rivers.

§ F10  but when (the Colchians) were tired from the wandering of their search

§ F11  Some, letting go of their oars by the Illyrian sea,
founded a small town by the snake-stone of fair-haired Harmonia.

§ F11.5  A Greek would call it Phygadon
but their language named it "Polae"
But some . . .

§ F12  . . . he founded a Corcyran settlement, and, stirred up again

§ F12.5  from there, they settled Orician Amantine.
And these things were to be fulfilled after a time.

§ F12.5  F17.1. . . then he did not know where...
Tiphys should guide (the ship) . . . the daughter of Nonacris,
Callisto (, i.e., the constellation of the Great Bear), unwetted by the streams of Ocean
. . . they were afraid
. . . . .

§ F17.14  Polydeuces' hand

§ F18  . . . the Tyndaridae. . .Zeus first they approached
. . . the other immortals as helpers. . .
5 but grieving in his heart, the son of Aeson
lifted his hands to you, Hieie (Apollo), and promised
to send many things to Pytho, and many to Ortygia
if you would drive away the thickening cloud from the ship
. . . that, Phoebus, according to your decree
they loosened the cables and sorted out the oars
. . . they beat the bitter water.
. . . name of Apollo the Embarker . . .
. . . at Pagasae . . .

§ F21  . . . Tito (Dawn) awoke to vex the neck of the ox (i.e., yoke it)
3 having lain with the son of Laomedon

§ F23  star, indeed, bravest at the tearing apart of horned oxen."
Thus he cursed there, but you, just as a Sellian in the Tmarian
mountains hears the sound of the Icarian Sea,
as the wanton ears of young men (hear) a penniless lover,
as unjust sons their fathers, as you (hear) a lyre

§ F23.1  5
— for you are not particularly mild, and these things Linus was unable to tell you (?) —
thus regarding not at all his baneful words
. . . . .

§ F23.21  Farewell, you with a heavy-club, who labored at the six times two prescribed
tasks, and often performed many more of your own free will.

§ F24.1  because a thorn stung the sole of his foot; but he,
mad with hunger, pulled the hair from your chest
grasping it; and your laughter, lord, was mixed with pain,
until Thiodamas, still a mighty man in early old age,

§ F24.5  while ploughing, met you crossing the thrice-turned fallow
land; and a he had a ten-foot stick which was
both a goad for oxen and a measure for the field
. . . . . .
. . . greatly prayed for . . . but quickly, I bid (you),

§ F24.10  if inside the bag on your shoulder there is
so much as to drive evil hunger away from my child
[give it to me]; and I will [always remember] your friendly gift.
But he laughed in a boorish and [implacable] way
. . . . . .

§ F24.17  . . . whoever goes hungry past my plow
. . . Lepargus
. . . . . .

§ F24.20  Peleus <. . .> heard, of which may none slip through my teeth...

§ F25  for the wretched Asineans...

§ F25e  Lambs, dear boy, were your playmates, lambs (your) companions
and (your) sleeping places were sheepfolds and pastures

§ F25f  you (Linus), Krotopos' son [i.e. grandson]

§ F26  the story, which is being woven while the singer is holding the
5 staff. . .
14. . . left the mothers empty-handed, and the nurse-maids were relieved (of their burdens)

§ F35  Locrian Maidens [Σ AD Il. 13.66 ]And of the two, swift Ajax son of Oeleus knew (him) first
Ajax was from the city of Naryx, a Locrian by birth, and his father was Oeleus. After the sack of Troy he was the cause of the destruction of the Greeks. For he raped Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, a suppliant of Athena in the godess' temple. Therefore, the goddess turned the statue's eyes toward the roof and raised fierce storms for the Greeks when they were returning and had reached the area of Euboea, so that many of them perished. Ajax swam to the rocks which are called Gyrades and said that he had been saved in spite of the gods' plan. Poseidon got angry and split the rock and handed Ajax over to the waves. When his corpse was washed ashore on Delos, Thetis pitied him and buried him. But not even then did Athena give up her anger, but she also forced the Locrians to send girls chosen by lot, to Troy for a thousand years. The story is found in Callimachus in book 1 of the Aetia and briefly in the poet in book 4 of the Odyssey.

§ F37  as, near by the waters of the Asbystian (river) Triton,
after Hephaestus whetted his obstetric axe,
you leapt, in armor, from the divine head of your father.

§ F43.1  Indeed, all the luxurious amber unguents and sweet-smelling
wreaths I put on my head at that time
swiftly breathed no more, and of all that passed my teeth

§ F43.15  and plunged into my ungrateful belly,
of these too nothing remained into the morning; but only this
do I still possess, what I put into my ears.
. . . . .

§ F43.36  Theocles, come to Naxos
... public
... Hieron
...Thapsus (?), the shout

§ F43.40  . . . the autumnal seasons . . .
always bring new gifts to placate the ghosts.
I shall also speak of Camarina, where the curving Hipparis goes...
. . . . .

§ F43.46  I know the town lying at the head of the river Gela
boasting of its ancient descent from Lindos,
and Cretan Minoa, where the daughters of Cocalus
poured boiling bath water upon the son of Europa [sc. Minos].

§ F43.50  I know Leontini. . .
and the Megarians, the others, whom the Megarians
from Nisaea sent out, and I can speak about Euboea
and Eryx, which the mistress of the charmed girdle loved;
For, in none of these towns does the man who once

§ F43.55  built the walls come to the customary feast anonymously."
Thus I spoke; and Clio, for the second time, began the story,
laying her hand upon her sister's shoulder,
"The people from Cumae, and others from Chalcis, whom
Perieres and the pride of mighty Crataemenes led out,

§ F43.60  set foot on Sicily, and fortified a city,
without guarding against the harpasos, the most hateful
of the ominous birds for those founding cities, unless a heron follows [it];
for it bewitches a rising tower when the surveyors lay out
the measuring cords in a continuous line,

§ F43.65  in order to mark off narrow alleys and level roads.
May you go... with the wings of a young hawk...
if ever you lead out your people as colonists into a strange land.
But when the founders built the wooden palisade
strengthened with battlements and placed around Cronos' sickle—

§ F43.70  for in that place the sickle with which he cut off his father's
genitals is hidden in a recess under the earth—
...about the town; one of them...
but the other was opposed and of a different opinion

§ F43.75  and they quarreled with each other; going to Apollo,
they asked to which the new colony should belong.
But he said that the town would have neither Perieres
nor Crataemenes as its founder.
The god spoke; and having heard, they departed, and ever since then
the land does not call its founder by name,

§ F43.80  but the magistrates call him to a sacrifice thus:
"May whoever built our city be gracious and
come to the feast, and he may also bring two
or more guests; not a little blood of an ox has been shed."

§ F43b.1  Thus she finished her story, but I wanted to know this
also—for truly my amazement was encouraged—
Why does Haliartus, the city of Cadmus near the water
of Cissusa, celebrate the Theodaesia, a Cretan festival,

§ F43b.5  and the earth produces styrax in only the towns ...
and in the great cities of Minos...
... the fountain of Rhadamanthys ...
... the remaining traces of his legislation ...
...and among them...this wise [law?]

§ F54.1  To Zeus and Nemea I owe some gift of thanksgiving,
young woman, the sacred offspring of the sibling gods,
our . . . victory-song about your horses
For recently there came from the land of cow-born Danaυs,

§ F54.5  to Helen's small island, and to the Pallenean seer,
the herder of seals, a golden message:
that near the tomb of Opheltes, the son of Euphetes
they ran, by no means . . . of charioteers in front
with their breath . . . but running

§ F54.10  like the winds, no one saw their traces(?).
. . .
Colchians or to the Nile?
delicate
women knowing how to mourn the bull with the white marking

§ F54b.23  in order that ... you again a meal for the fire ...
. . . nor with a miserable lack of wood . . .
25. . . for the young trees are ignorant of the scythe . . .
. . . . . .
. . . and the goat, eager to chew the moon-trefoil . . .
bleats, secured inside the gates . . .
the he-goat, who is unpleasant to meet

§ F54c.5  and when the evening-star was about to loosen the yoke of the oxen
who at the setting of the sun
. . . when he (the sun) shines for the descendants of Ophion . . .
. . . the older ones of the gods . . .
. . . at the door; and when he heard the noise . . .

§ F54c.10  . . . as when a lion's cub roars at the ear of a timid deer . . .
. . . he hesitated for a moment to listen, and then spoke softly
"Irksome creatures, why have you once more come like neighbors,
to destroy our home, since you will carry away absolutely nothing?
A god molded you as a source of woe for guests and hosts."

§ F54c.15  When he had spoken thus, he threw away the work . . .
. . . after that he was making ready a secret trap for the mice
and he put into two traps deadly bait
taking flour mixed with hellebore,
. . . and he concealed death. . .
. . . . . .

§ F54c.22  many times they licked the fat oil from the lamp
scooping it up with their tails, when the lid was not placed
on brine and bowls, or when
25 they forced (the lid) from another chest, and the things made by a poor man
. . . pressed from under a hard stone . . .
. . . they had danced . . .
on his head and driven sleep from his eyes
but this the ravening creatures had accomplished in one short night

§ F54c.30  the most shameless thing, about which that man was most furious:
the pests had eaten his clothes, his goatskin, and his bag.
For them he made ready two killers,
a crusher and a trap well able to jump over a long distance.

§ F54e  . . . having killed the monster. . .
. . . whether one ought to call it the bane of the Argives . . .

§ F54.4  . . . at the large pit of Danaus . . .
. . . . . .
. . . you will soon be rich in cattle . . .
. . . . . .
. . . I shall persuade (people) that Zeus really is my father . . .

§ F54h  he may find out for himself and cut short the length of the song,
but all that he said to him in answer to his questions I shall tell:
"Old father, you will hear the rest when you are at the meal,
but now you will hear what Pallas . . . me

§ F54i.5  and the sons of Aletes, celebrating games far more ancient
than this one at the Aegean god's place,
will make it a sign of an Isthmian victory,
in imitation of the victors from Nemea; they will despise the pine,
which previously crowned the competitors at Ephyra.
. . . . . .

§ F54i.17  . . . satisfying his heart.
He stayed the night there and left for Argos in the morning.
But he did not forget his promise to his host,

§ F54i.20  and sent him the mule and honored him like one of his kinsmen.
Even now a ritual which will never cease...

§ F55  Zeus' wife, in great anger, sent him
to destroy Argos, although it was her own territory, but so that
it would be a harsh task for the bastard son of Zeus

§ F60a  and the skin which became a covering for the man,
a protection from snowstorms and arrows

§ F60b  lifting the animal's skin to wear from his shoulders

§ F63.6  and at once the goddess's anger rose
. . . and much grieved in her heart
. . . the mighty goddess angered with the girl.
On account of this it is not possible for maidens to see with their own eyes

§ F63.10  the mysteries of Law-giving Demeter
before a husband comes to them and concludes a marriage
because of that affair . . . for Attic girls

§ F63.10  F64 Tomb of Simonides
Not even Camarina would threaten so much disaster for you, not as
much as the tomb of a pious man moved from its place. For
my grave too, which the people of Acragas built outside the town,
fearing Zeus the god of strangers,

§ F64.5  was once forcibly torn down by an evil man, if you have heard
of a certain Phoenix, the town's merciless leader.
He built my stone into the tower of the city walls and showed no regard
for the inscription which said that I, the son of Leoprepes,
was lying here, the holy man from Ceos, who first contrived

§ F64.10  the extra (letters)...and the art of mnemotechnics.
He did not shrink back from you, Polydeuces, who,
when the house was about to fall down, once set me outside,
the only one from among the guests, when— ah!— the Crannonian
house fell on the mighty sons of Scopas.
Lords...

§ F65  fair-flowing (water) named after Automate, but from you
they bathe a house slave who has given birth

§ F66  heroines . . . children of Iasus' daughter.
Watery bride of Poseidon, it is not right that
girls who must weave the sacred robe of Hera
stand by the loom before they pour your water

§ F66.5  on their heads, sitting on the sacred rock
around which you are flow on both sides.
Lady Amymone, and dear Physadeia,
Hippe, and Automate: Farewell, most ancient homes of the nymphs,
and flow on richly, Pelasgian girls.

§ F66.5  F67 Eros himself instructed Acontius in the art (of love), when the boy burned for the beautiful maiden Cydippe— for Acontius was not very cunning—so he could (win) the title of husband all through his life.

§ F67.5  He came, o lord of Cynthos, from Ioulis and she from Naxos to attend your sacrifice of oxen at Delos, he sprung from the family of Euxantius, she of Promethus, both of them shining stars among the islanders. Many mothers prayed that little Cydippe would a bride for their sons, to be paid for with dowry of horned oxen.

§ F67.10  For no other girl went to the watery spring of hairy old Silenus with a face more like the dawn, nor did [another girl] put down her graceful feet in the dance for the sleeping Ariadne...

§ F75.5  very lucky that you did not see the rites of the dread goddess, because otherwise you would have blurted out that information too. Much knowledge is truly a difficult evil for whoever does not have command of his tongue: this man, in truth, is a child with a knife. At break of (the next) day the oxen were going to rage

§ F75.10  seeing the sharp sacrificial knife in the water; but in the evening an evil pallor seized her, and the illness (epilepsy) came which we send off to the wild goats (as a magical treatment) and mistakenly call "holy"; that grievous illness wasted away the girl even to the doors of the house of Hades.

§ F75.15  A second time the marriage bed was spread; a second time the girl was sick for seven months with a quartan fever. A third time they turned their thoughts to marriage; a third time again a deadly chill settled on Cydippe. Her father did not wait a fourth time...

§ F75.20  Phoebus; and (Apollo) spoke this word at night; "A heavy oath sworn to Artemis frustrates the marriage for your child; for my sister was not troubling Lygdamis then, nor was she plaiting rushes in the temple at Amyclae, nor washing off the dirt after the hunt in the river Parthenius,

§ F75.25  but she was at home on Delos when your daughter swore to have Acontius—no other—as her bridegroom. But, Ceyx, if you wish to make me your counsellor ... you will fulfill your daughter's oath; for I tell you, in the person of Acontius you will not be mixing lead with silver

§ F75.30  but electrum with shining gold. You, the father of the bride, are a descendant of Codrus; he, the Cean bridegroom, springs from the priests of Zeus Aristaeus the Icmian, whose job it is to placate difficult Maera on the mountain tops when she rises

§ F75.35  and to ask from Zeus the wind by which numerous quails are driven into the linen nets." So spoke the god. Her father then went back to Naxos and asked the girl herself, and she revealed the whole story truthfully and was well again. And the rest, Acontius, it was your task

§ F75.40  ... to go to Dionysus' island [to fetch your wife?]. And the oath by the goddess was kept, and at once the girl's friends of like age sang the wedding songs without delay. I do not think, Acontius, that you would have traded that night in which you touched her maiden's girdle,

§ F75.45  not for the ankle of Iphicles who ran on the ears of corn, nor for the possessions of Midas of Celaenae. Witnesses of my judgement will be all those who are not ignorant of the stern god. From this marriage a great name was destined to come,

§ F75.50  for your tribe, the Acontiads, still dwells widely and is much honored in Iulis. Cean, we heard about this love of yours from ancient Xenomedes, who once set down a complete mythological history of the island,

§ F75.55  beginning with how it was inhabited by the Corycian nymphs, whom a big lion chased from Mt. Parnassus (and therefore they called it Hydroussa); and how Cyrene's ...lived in Caryae; and how the people settled on it whose offerings Zeus

§ F75.60  Alalaxios always accepts at the sound of the trumpets— the Carians together with the Leleges; and how Ceos, the son of Phoebus and Melia, caused it to change its name. In his tablets the old man put hubris and death by thunderbolt— those sorcerers, the Telchines and Demonax, who

§ F75.65  foolishly did not care about the blessed gods; and the old woman Macelo, the mother of Dexithea, the only ones whom the gods left unscathed, when they overthrew the island because of its sinful hubris. And (he told) how, of the four towns: Megacles built Carthaea,

§ F75.70  while Eupylus, the son of Chryso the demi-goddess, built the well-watered city of Iulis, and Acaeus built Poeessa, the shrine of the fairhaired Charites, and Aphrastus built the town of Coresus; and he told, Cean, amongst these matters, about your passionate love,

§ F75.75  the old man dedicated to the truth, and from there the story of the boy made its way into our poetry.

§ F80.5  But neither a headband nor earrings
nor a Lydian garment...nor Carian
handmaidens...
things in which you females take delight,
drove you from your wise judgement.

§ F80.10  While your cheeks reddened with shame as with purple (dye)
you spoke with your eyes looking away(?)...
. . . . .

§ F80.14  . . . he considered your purpose . . .

. . .those who lived at Myus and Miletus
. . . only to go to the temple of Neleid
. . . Artemis, but then you
made a treaty more trustworthy than that made by

§ F80.20  sacrifices of oxen, and showed that Cypris makes speakers
who are not a little better than that man from Pylos.
For many embassies, coming from both towns,
went home again without success.

§ F84  when you came from Pisa, Euthycles, having gotten the better of men

§ F85.1  . . . returning from there again
5 you came leading wagon-mules as a gift;
and when the demos—always choking (with envy) of the rich—
said that you recieved them through deals against your
country, they all secretly cast an evil vote. And your bronze statue
which the town of Locris itself set up . . .
. . . . .

§ F85.12  many things hateful to the blessed ones
for that reason a harsh (?) was sent to them
by that one they call Epopsios, who is unable to
15 view sinners with a cheerful eye . . .

§ F97  the earth held me as the Pelasgian wall of the Tyrrhenians...

§ F97  F100
not yet Scelmis' well-polished work, but in accordance with
ancient custom you were lumber, uncarved by chisels;
for thus they set up (statues) of the gods then; for even Danaos
set up a simple statue of Athena in Lindos

§ F97  F101
a vine creeps around Samian Hera's hair

§ F97  F102
You ruled over Ephesus, Pasicles, but after a feast

§ F97  F103
O hero at the stern, since the tablet sings this

§ F110  Lock of Berenice
Observing every dividing line in the (star) charts where move . . .

§ F110.7  Conon saw me also in the sky, me, Berenice's lock of hair
which she dedicated to all the gods
. . . . .

§ F110.14  a token of the contest at night . . .
40 I swore by your head and your life
. . . . .

§ F110.44  . . . the shining descendant of Theia carried over,
the obelisk of Arsinoe, your mother, and the deadly
ships of the Medes sailed through the middle of Mt. Athos.
What can we locks do, when such mountains yield to iron?
May the race of the Chalybes die,
who first brought it to light, bringing forth from the earth an evil growth,

§ F110.50  and showed the work of hammers.
My sister locks longed for me just newly cut,
and right away the brother of Memnon, the Ethiopian,
the gentle wind, was hastening, circling his swift wings,
the Locrian horse of purple-girdled Arsinoe,

§ F110.55  . . . me with his breath, through the moist air
placed me in the lap of Cypris,
Zephyritis herself had sent him forth
. . . inhabitant the Canopean shore
in order that not only. . . of the Minoan bride . . .

§ F110.60  . . . for men,
counted among the many stars, but I also would shine(?)
the fair lock of Berenice,
Cypris led(?) me, washed in the water(?), to the immortals
and placed(?) me as a new star among the ancient ones.
. . . . .

§ F110.75  These things do not bring me so much delight, as much as
I am grieved that I will no longer touch that head,
from which, when she was still a young girl, I drank many
simple (oils), but I did not enjoy the sweet oils of womanhood.

§ F112.1  . . . when my Muse
. . . and of the Graces and the nurse (?) of my mistress
. . . you not falsely?
. . . in all things good and in all things accomplished spoke of . . .

§ F112.5  to whom, while tending his many sheep, the Muses
told stories near the footprint of the fiery horse.
Fare well, and return with greater prosperity;
And hail greatly to you too, Zeus, and may you preserve the whole house of our masters.
But I shall go on to the pedestrian pasture of the Muses.

§ F178.1  He did not miss the day of the opening of the jars, nor thε day when
the pitchers of Orestes bring a happy day for slaves;
and while celebrating the yearly festival of the child of Ikarios—
your day, Erigone, who are most pitiable to Attic women—

§ F178.5  he invited congenial friends to the feast, and among them
now a new person, who was lately staying in Egypt,
having come on some personal business. He was by
birth an Ician, and with him I shared a couch—
not by pre-arrangement: rather the Homeric proverb

§ F178.10  is not false, that the god always leads like to like.
For he too hated to drink unmixed wine with his mouth wide
open in large Thracian gulps, but enjoyed the small cup.
To him I said these things, as the beaker was going around
for a third time, when I had learned his name and birth:

§ F178.15  "This saying is indeed very true that wine needs its
share not just of water, but also of conversation.
That is something not brought around in ladles,
and you won't ask for it by looking at the stern
brows of the cupbearers, at a time when the freeman fawns on the slave—

§ F178.20  so let us throw some into the harsh drink like a drug,
Theogenes: there are things that my heart longs to hear
from you. Tell me all, in response to my questions.
Why is it the custom of your country to worship Peleus, the king
of the Myrmidons? How much does Icus have in common with Thessaly?

§ F178.25  On account of what ... holding an onion . . .
the descent(?) of the hero . . .
. . . . .

§ F178.30  hold ears at the ready for those who want to tell a story
I myself having said these things. . ."
"Thrice-blessed one, truly you are blessed as few are
if you lead a life ignorant of seafaring; but my life
is more at home in the waves than that of a seagull ..."

§ F186.8  . . . the sons of the Hyperboreans
send them away from the Rhipaean mountain, where rich
10 sacrifices of asses most please Phoebus;
of the Greeks, the Pelasgian . . . first
received them from the Arimaspean conveyance

§ F190a  TEUTHIS
... instead of ploughing;
(like) Glaucus the Lycian, when he stupidly
(was persuaded) to take (armor) worth nine oxen in exchange for (armor) worth a hundred oxen ...
... (don't use) a forked digging tοol, an axe ...
... (which) bites (the earth) with both mouths ...
so you would work as a woodcutter instead of a digger,
because the soil of that country
is rough; you could neither throw seed in it nor (plant) a vine cutting
the two gifts of the Methymnaean, the one born in secret;
the soil (would yield) no other produce but wild oaks,
the primitive food of the Azanes
Once upon a time the ruler of this country (Teuthis) ... the Argives
13 ... and starting a quarrel with the sons of Atreus
he stirred up a big fight . . .
... but you, child of Zeus, stood ...