Zeus Versus the Titans (English) in: Europe – Greek
Father Zeus, by the smiting
of this Dionysus, first learned
the treachery of a mirror’s reflection.
He sealed the slayers of horned Zagreus
in Tartarus’ prison,
then he unleashed his anger
with punishing fires
against the Titans’ mother—
Earth.
Trees burned
as the word’s hair caught flame.
The East was reduced to embers.
Bactria crackled in an inferno
of blazing thunderbolts
as Assyrian waves ignited India’s mountains
and boiled the Caspian Sea
and the Red Sea sparked bonfires
that almost scorched Arabian Nereus.
In the West,
wherever Zephyr stepped,
half-burnt oceans burst
like geysers and violent fumaroles.
Even the frozen North
bubbled and burned.
Even the distant South,
under snowy Capricorn.
* * *
Now Father Ocean poured rivers of tears
as libations from watery eyes.
Zeus calmed his anger
at the sight of a wretched Earth.
He pitied the world
and wished to rinse away
the ashes from her wounds.
He covered the sky with clouds
and readied a deluge.
Cosmic trumpets blared with thunder,
and the planets took
their places among the stars.
The Sun guided his chariot
over the Lion’s back,
as the three-faced Moon
transverse the eighth-leg Crab.
Aphrodite abandoned the Ram
and moved to her springtime home
beside the Bull, where Ares
leered and Scorpio promised
to carry forth the Plow
Zeus bestrode the heavenly Fish,
Moon to right in trine,
as Cronus was bathed in city light,
and Hermes hovered,
like a judge administering justice,
as Virgo’s side.
The floodgates of sevenfold heaven
opened wide
and Zeus unleashed his rain.
Mountain torrents thundered
beyond their banks,
loudly flooding gulfs,
as Ocean’s daughter-lakes
filled their basins to bursting,
and fountains jetted
sprays of water
to the skies.
Cliffs were drenched.
Dry hilltops were drowned.
Sea levels rose
forcing nereids to change abodes
with mountain nymphs.
Wretched Echo swam
with untrained arms.
She’d once avoided Pan,
but now feared pursuit by Poseidon.
Sea lions splashed in the very caves
where lions had once lain.
Boars met face-to-face
with dolphins.
Beasts and fish commingled
in mountains streams,
as squids prowled towering summits
hunting rabbits,
and dripping
scale-tailed Tritons
haunted wooded dells,
and traded in conch shell chariots
to sail the winds.
Even Nereus
took to the hills
and abandoned the sea
(passing Pan underwater on the way)
and made his home in the flooded cave
that Echo once called her own.
* * *
Now the wretched dead
were buried
beneath the waves
Bloated corpses bobbed
like corks and logs
carried on swollen tides.
Here a lion choked,
here a boar swallowed
open-throat
the whole torrential flood
that poured
over every mountain face.
Now all streams
and rivers and lakes
and rains and seas combined,
and the Four Winds blew
as one
in a single unceasing inundation.
* * *
When Poseidon
waw everything drawing
from the depth
in Zeus’ world-shaking deluge
he threw aside his trident
in a fit of rage—
How could even a giant fork
compete with such terrifying waves?
An entire army of nereids swam
atop the flood.
Thetis cruised the waters
on the arm of a bearded Triton
while Agavê plowed
on fishback
thru the open air
and Doris was carried
on the neck
of an exiled dolphin.
A whale from the deepest sea
flopped in the hills
and searched for a lion’s cave.
* * *
Then, Pan saw Galatea
beside a nearby rock and exclaimed:
“Where are you going, Galatea?
To the mountains instead of the sea?
A love you’re seeking
a love song from Polyphemus?
By Aphrodite, don’t keep it from me,
if you’ve seen my Echo
among the raging swells.
Does she swim like you?
Does my Echo sail like Thetis
astride a dolphin across the waves?
I’m afraid: this flood has scared her.
I’m afraid: she’s been dragged down.
O, wretched thing,
so restless and aimless!
Now my maiden of the rocks
is made a mistress of the sea!
Why not, Galatea,
abandon your dull Polyphemus?
Climb upon my shoulders,
if you want, and I will save you.
This flood is nothing to me.
If I want, I can scale the heavens
on my goat-like feet.”
And Galatea replied:
“Dear Pan,
your Echo doesn’t swim—
Go and bear her thru the waves.
And don’t bother to ask
where I go today.
For Zeus has found for me
a higher purpose.
And forget about the Cyclops.
Tho his song is sweet,
I’m done for good with Sicily’s sea.
For this flood, it terrifies me,
and I couldn’t care less
for Polyphemus.”
So she spoke, and soon was gone.
* * *
But the uncontainable tide raged on.
Every city and every nation
was now a flood.
Every corner of the world
was drenched.
Not a single hilltop remained—
Not the heights of Ossa,
nor the summit of lofty Pelion.
The seas encircling Sicily
clashed beneath its triple peaks.
Tyrrhenian breakers screamed
and lashed their fury
on Adriatic cliffs
that painted the heavens
with a briny spray.
Phaëthon’s radiant reins
grew faded and soft,
and the Moon’s light dimmed
in low orbit
as her cattle were quenched
under rising waves.
Rainwater mixed its mist
amid the legions of the stars
and whitened the Milky Way.
* * *
Even the seven-mounted Nile,
while coursing wild, met Alpheus.
He wished to move through thirsty soil
and kiss his bride.
Alpheus had lost his way
and was churring in sadness.
That is, until Pyramus slid by
and Alpheus suddenly cried:
“O, Nile, what ought I do
about missing Arethusa?
O, Pyramus, where are you rushing,
and where is your Thisbe?
Euphrates has been lucky
to not have known Love’s spurs!
But I am pierced by jealousy —
and afraid.
What if Zeus has had his way
with Arethusa?
No doubt, he’s also had
your Thisbe in his bed.
Yet, seeing you, Pyramus,
consoles me.
Zeus’ rains don’t rouse us
more than bolts
flung by foam-born Aphrodite.
As a lover, now, I track Arethusa!
Take my lead
and find your Thisbe.
But you will say
that everything shakes
that heaven threatens
that seas rage
that skies are unsailable
and sealed in a frothy spray—
But I am not afraid!
My heart holds something
amazing.
The burning earth,
the boiling rivers,
the flaming sea—
all have been swept clean
by the hurricane of rainy Zeus.
Yet one fire is yet unquenched:
the fire of Love in Alpheus!
And even if floods overwhelm me,
if I suffer from the flame,
one small medicine
still lessens my pain—
That Adonis, too, wanders
and breaks the heart of Aphrodite.”
His speech had not yet finished
when fear overtook his voice.
* * *
Then, Deucalion crossed
the surging flood and sailed
thru untouched regions
of the outer-darkened sky.
No canvass propelled
nor harbor held his bark
as it stirred its solo course
and plowed a furrow
atop the raging swell.
* * *
Now, the cosmos
had almost collapsed into chaos,
and Father Time
was about to erase and fray
entire generations
of unborn men,
when mighty Zeus
commanded Poseidon
to strike the earth
with his world-breaking trident
and split the peaks
of Thessaly
down the middle
and gouge a trench
for the water to drain down.
Now, the Earth
was unburdened
of the towering flood
and stood revealed again.
Now, streams
were gulped down
by deep caverns
and cliffs were laid bare.
Now, the sun’s thirsty rays
drank the surface dry.
And where water was evaporated,
mud grew harder as before.
And cities were rebuilt
better on better stones,
where palaces were raised,
and streets laid out
for later ages of all mankind.
And Nature laughed again,
as the air was stirred
by the wings of birds on the wind.
(d.b.i) Greek — (d.b.ii) Levitan and Lombardo (2022) — (d.b.ii) Rouse (1940) — (d.b.iv) Ebener (1985) (German) — (d.b.v) Chuvin (1992) (French) — (d.b.vi) Marcellus (1856) (French) — (d.b.vii) Piccardi (2003) (Italian) — (d.b.viii) Secondary sources
– Levitan, William and Lombardo, Stanley (eds.), Tales of Dionysus: The Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2022), pp. 149-159.
Flood Stories 