Background Image

...

The Holy Heaven Yearns To Wound The Earth, And Yearning Layeth Hold On The Earth To Join In Wedlock; The Rain, Fallen From The Amorous Heaven, Impregnates The Earth, And It Bringeth Forth For Mankind The Food Of Flocks And Herds And Demeter's Gifts; And From That Moist Marriage-rite The Woods Put On Their Bloom.

-Aeschylus

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

The Holy Heaven Yearns

Aeschylus

...

The Holy Heaven Yearns To Wound The Earth, And Yearning Layeth Hold On The Earth To Join In Wedlock; The Rain, Fallen From The Amorous Heaven, Impregnates The Earth, And It Bringeth Forth For Mankind The Food Of Flocks And Herds And Demeter's Gifts; And From That Moist Marriage-rite The Woods Put On Their Bloom.

Views: 78830

Topic

More From Aeschylus

For It Would Be Better To Die Once And For All Than To Suffer Pain For All One's Life.

To Learn Is To Be Young, However Old.

Thought Provoking

Truth Is Always The First Casualty Of War.

Obstinacy Standing Alone Is The Weakest Of All Things In One Whose Mind Is Not Possessed By Wisdom.

This Is The Law: Blood Spilt Upon The Ground Cries Out For More.

My Friends, Whoever Has Had Experience Of Evils Knows How Whenever A Flood Of Ills Comes Upon Mortals, A Man Fears Everything; But Whenever A Divine Force Cheers On Our Voyage, Then We Believe That The Same Fate Will Always Blow Fair.

Time, Waxing Old, Doth All Things Purify.

Number, The Most Excellent Of All Inventions.

From A Small Seed A Mighty Trunk May Grow.

Justice Turns The Scale, Bringing To Some Learning Through Suffering.

If A Man Should Wanton Walk With Crime ... He Shall Find In Death No Great Deliverance.

In The Lack Of Judgment Great Harm Arises, But One Vote Cast Can Set Right A House.

Time In His Aging Overtakes All Things Alike.

Death Is Easier Than A Wretched Life; And Better Never To Have Born Than To Live And Fare Badly.

Happiness Is A Choice That Requires Effort At Times.

If You Are Not Envied, You Are Not Enviable.

The Tongue Of Slander Is Too Prompt With Wanton Malice To Wound The Stranger.

But From The Good Health Of The Mind Comes That Which Is Dear To All And The Object Of Prayer-happiness.

For Hades Is Mighty In Calling Men To Account Below The Earth, And With A Mind That Records In Tablets He Surveys All Things.

This Is A Sickness Rooted And Inherent In The Nature Of A Tyranny: That He That Holds It Does Not Trust His Friends.

The Words Of Truth Are Simple.

I Pray The Gods Some Respite From The Weary Task Of This Long Year's Watch That Lying On The Atreidae's Roof On Bended Arm, Dog- Like, I Have Kept, Marking The Conclave Of All Night's Stars, Those Potentates Blazing In The Heavens That Bring Winter And Summer To Mortal Men, The Constellations, When They Wane, When They Rise.

Oh, It Is Easy For The One Who Stands Outside The Prison-wall Of Pain To Exhort And Teach The One Who Suffers.

We Must Pronounce Him Fortunate Who Has Ended His Life In Fair Prosperity.

O Death The Healer, Scorn Thou Not, I Pray, To Come To Me: Of Cureless Ills Thou Art The One Physician. Pain Lays Not Its Touch Upon A Corpse.

The Saying Goes That The Gods Leave A Town Once It Is Captured.

Few Men Have The Natural Strength To Honor A Friend's Success Without Envy.

It's A Man's Jobno Place For Women's Plans Here!what Lies Outside. Stay Home And Cause No Trouble.

In The Sinews Of The Dead There Is No Blood.

Old Men Are Children Once Again A Dream That Sways And Wavers Into The Hard Light Of Day.

Jars Neither Of Wine Nor Of Water Shall Fail In The Houses Of The Rich.

It Is Best For The Wise Man Not To Seem Wise.

From Him [death] Alone Of All The Powers Of Heaven Persuasion Holds Aloof.

No Man Looks With Love On Deeds That To The High Gods Hateful Prove.

The Evils Of Mortals Are Manifold; Nowhere Is Trouble Of The Same Wing Seen.

Memory Is The Mother Of All Wisdom.

For Mortal Kind Taketh Thought Only For The Day, And Hath No More Surety Than The Shadow Of Smoke.

Who, Except The Gods, Can Live Time Through Forever Without Any Pain?

For This Our Task Hath Fate Spun Without Fail To Last For Ever Sure, That We On Man Weighed Down With Deeds Of Hate Should Follow Till The Earth His Life Immure. Nor When He Dies Can He Boast Of Being Truly Free.

I Have Learned To Hate All Traitors, And There Is No Disease That I Spit On More Than Treachery.

Arrogance Is Truly The Child Of Impiety, But From Health Of Soul Comes Happiness, Dear To All, Much Prayed For.

There Is A Time When Fear Is Good And Ought To Remain Seated As A Guardian Of The Heart.

The Man Who Boldly Transgresses, Amassing A Great Heap Unjustly--by Force, In Time, He Will Strike His Sail, When Trouble Seizes Him As The Yardarm Is Splintered. He Calls On Those Who Hear Nothing And He Struggles In The Midst Of The Whirling Waters. The God Laughs At The Hot-headed Man, Seeing Him, Who Boasted That This Would Never Happen, Exhausted By Distress Without Remedy And Unable To Surmount The Cresting Wave. He Wrecks The Happiness Of His Earlier Life On The Reef Of Justice, And He Perishes Unwept, Unseen.

Time Cleanses What It Touches Over Time.

Art Is Far Feebler Than Necessity.

Chorus: Zeus, Who Guided Men To Think Who Laid It Down That Wisdom Comes Alone Through Suffering. Still There Drips In Sleep Against The Heart Grief Of Memory; Against Our Pleasure We Are Temperate.

There Is No Pain So Great As The Memory Of Joy In Present Grief.

By Suffering Comes Wisdom.

Alas, Poor Men, Their Destiny. When All Goes Well A Shadow Will Overthrow It. If It Be Unkind One Stroke Of A Wet Sponge Wipes All The Picture Out.

Human Prosperity Never Rests But Always Craves More, Till Blown Up With Pride It Totters And Falls. From The Opulent Mansions Pointed At By All Passers-by None Warns It Away, None Cries, 'let No More Riches Enter!'.

Even The Old Should Learn.

The Will Was Of Zeus, The Hand Of Hephaestus.

To Be Free From Evil Thoughts Is God's Best Gift.

It Is The Nature Of Mortals To Kick A Fallen Man.

The Seed Of Mortals Broods O'er Passing Things, And Hath Nought Surer Than The Smoke-cloud's Shadow.

Black Smoke, The Flickering Sister Of Fire.

Hungry Wailing Standeth Not Aloof.

The Best By Far Is To Marry In One's Own Rank.

Oaths Are Not The Credit Of Men But Men Of Oaths.

When A Match Has Equal Partners Then I Fear Not.

Courage! Suffering, When It Climbs Highest, Lasts Not Long.

The One Knowing What Is Profitable, And Not The Man Knowing Many Things, Is Wise.

Still To The Sufferer Comes, As Due From God, A Glory That To Suffering Owes Its Birth.

Misfortune Wandering The Same Track Lights Now Upon One And Now Upon Another.

Fear Hurries On My Tongue Through Want Of Courage.

For By The Will Of The Gods Fate Hath Held Sway Since Ancient Days.

The Laws Of A State Change With The Changing Times.

Base Men Who Prosper Are Unenviable.

Truly Even He Errs That Is Wiser Than The Wise.

In Visions Of The Night, Like Dropping Rain, Descend The Many Memories Of Pain.

The Anvil Of Justice Is Planted Firm, And Fate Who Makes The Sword Does The Forging In Advance.

For There Below Ground Sits The Dark God, Strong To Call Men To Judgment; He Sees All, And Writes It In His Memory.

For A Single Path Leads To The House Of Hades.

God's Most Lordly Gift To Man Is Decency Of Mind.

Everyone Is Ready To Speak Ill Of A Stranger.

There Is No Sickness Worse For Me Than Words That To Be Kind Must Lie.

Do Not Kick Against The Pricks.

Honor Modesty More Than Your Life.

It Is Like A Woman Indeed To Take Rapture Before The Fact Is Shown For True. They Believe Too Easily, Are Too Quick To Shift From Ground To Ground; And Swift Indeed The Rumor Voiced By A Woman Dies Again.

Making It A Valid Law To Learn By Suffering.

You'll See All Other Mortal Sinners, The Ones Who Flout The Honor Owed To Gods Or Guests, Or Loving Parents--you'll See Them Get The Justice They Deserve. For Hades Holds Men Mightily To A Strict Accounting Down Below The Earth; He Sees All Things, Inscribes Them Within The Book Of His Remembering.

Too Few Rejoice At A Friend's Good Fortune.

Out Of Respect, A Man Must Veil His Words When Talking With A Woman, But With A Man He Can Frankly Say Whatever's On His Mind.

Old Age Hath Stronger Sense Of Right Than Youth.

Neither A Life Of Anarchy Nor A Life Under A Despot Should You Praise. To All That Lies In The Middle Has A God Given Excellence.

Watchful Are The Gods Of All Hands With Slaughter Stained. The Black Furies Wait, And When A Man Has Grown By Luck, Not Justice, Great, With Sudden Overturn Of Chance They Wear Him To A Shade, And, Cast Down To Perdition, Who Shall Save Him?

Of Prosperity Mortals Can Never Have Enough.

Destiny Waits Alike For The Free Man As Well As For Him Enslaved By Another's Might.

For Hostile Word Let Hostile Word Be Paid.

A Great Ox Stands On My Tongue.

Let There Be Wealth Without Tears; Enough For The Wise Man Who Will Ask No Further.

The Wisest Of The Wise May Err.

The Man Whose Authority Is Recent Is Always Stern.

I, Schooled In Misery, Know Many Purifying Rites, And I Know Where Speech Is Proper And Where Silence.

Pain Lays Not Its Touch Upon A Corpse.

The Gods At Will Can Shape A Gladder Strain, And From The Lamentations At The Graveside, A Song Of Triumph May Arise.

But When Once The Earth Has Sucked Up A Dead Man's Blood, There Is No Way To Raise Him Up.

The Reward Of Suffering Is Experience

For The Marriage Bed Ordained By Fate For Men And Women Is Stronger Than An Oath And Guarded By Justice.

It Is Through Suffering That Learning Comes.

Know Yourself And Fit Yourself To New Fashions. For There Is A New Ruler Among The Gods.

For Know That No One Is Free, Except Zeus.

But I Will Place This Carefully Fed Pig Within The Crackling Oven; And, I Pray, What Nicer Dish Can E'er Be Given To Man.

Ask The Gods Nothing Excessive.

For The Impious Act Begets More After It, Like To The Parent Stock.

No One Can Count The Terrors That The Earth Spawns, Catastrophic, Gruesome, And The Vast Arms Of The Sea Swarm With Brute Monsters Bent On Harm, And Everywhere Between The Sky And Ground Lights Bloom By Day In Flares And Sudden Bolts; And Birds And Beasts Alike Can Tell Of The Whirlwind's Whirling Wrath.

We Spoil Ourselves With Scruples Long As Things Go Well.

Justice Shines In Very Smoky Homes, And Honors The Righteous; But The Gold-spangled Mansions Where The Hands Are Unclean She Leaves With Eyes Averted.

Ye Waves That O'er Th' Interminable Ocean Wreathe Your Crisped Smiles.

There Is No Disgrace In An Enemy Suffering Ill At An Enemy's Hand, When You Hate Mutually.

Mourn For Me Rather As Living Than As Dead.

A God Implants In Mortal Guilt Whenever He Wants Utterly To Confound A House.

If You Will Take Me As Your Teacher, You Will Not Kick Against The Pricks.

Nought Is There In Wealth That Serves As Bulwark 'gainst The Subtle Stealth Of Destiny And Doom.

Justice, Voiceless, Unseen, Seeth Thee When Thou Sleepest And When Thou Goest Forth And When Thou Liest Down. Continually Doth She Attend Thee, Now Aslant Thy Course, Now At A Later Time. These Lines Are From A Section Of Doubtful Or Spurious Fragments.

So In The Libyan Fable It Is Told That Once An Eagle, Stricken With A Dart, Said, When He Saw The Fashion Of The Shaft: With Our Own Feathers, Not By Others' Hands, Are We Now Smitten.

The Adulterer Dies. An Old Custom, Justice.

When The Black And Mortal Blood Of Man Has Fallen To The Ground ... Who Then Can Sing Spells To Call It Back Again?

We Shall Perish By Guile Just As We Slew.

As Long As There Are Men The Bulwark Is Safe.

Joy Steals Upon Me, Such Joy As Calls Forth Tears.

If You Pour Oil And Vinegar Into The Same Vessel, You Would Call Them Not Friends But Opponents.

It Is In The Character Of Very Few Men To Honor Without Envy A Friend Who Has Prospered.

Only Through Suffering Do We Learn

Don't Try To Make Intelligent Decisions When Your Brain Is Hyped

Ah, Lives Of Men! When Prosperous They Glitter - Like A Fair Picture; When Misfortune Comes - A Wet Sponge At One Blow Has Blurred The Painting.

God Loves To Help Him Who Strives To Help Himself.

The So-called Mother Of The Child Isn't The Child's Begetter, But Only A Sort Of Nursing Soil For The New-sown Seed. The Man, The One On Top, Is The True Parent, While She, A Stranger, Foster's A Stranger's Sprout.

Athena: You Wish To Be Called Righteous Rather Than Act Right. [...] I Say, Wrong Must Not Win By Technicalities.

The Holy Heaven Yearns To Wound The Earth, And Yearning Layeth Hold On The Earth To Join In Wedlock; The Rain, Fallen From The Amorous Heaven, Impregnates The Earth, And It Bringeth Forth For Mankind The Food Of Flocks And Herds And Demeter's Gifts; And From That Moist Marriage-rite The Woods Put On Their Bloom.

It Is Always In Season For Old Men To Learn.

And One Who Is Just Of His Own Free Will Shall Not Lack For Happiness; And He Will Never Come To Utter Ruin.

The Future You Shall Know When It Has Come; Before Then, Forget It.

But When The Dust Has Drunk The Blood Of Men, No Resurrection Comes For One Who's Dead.

Beyond Age, Leaf Withered, Man Goes Three Footed No Stronger Than A Child Is, A Dream That Falters In Daylight.

For The Mighty, Even To Give Away Is Grace.

Sweet Is A Grief Well Ended.

Ares Gives His Verdict Without Witnesses.

Learning Is Ever In The Freshness Of Its Youth, Even For The Old.

But I Must Bear My Destiny As Best I Can, Knowing Well That There Is No Resisting The Strength Of Necessity.

Be It Mine To Draw From Wisdom's Fount, Pure As It Flows, That Calm Of Soul Which Virtue Only Knows.

Those Who Would Learn Must Suffer. In Our Own Despair, Against Our Will, Wisdom Comes To Us.

Rumours Voiced By Women Come To Nothing.

Nothing Forces Us To Know What We Do Not Want To Know Except Pain

From A Just Fraud God Turneth Not Away.

. . . It Is Yours Women's To Be Silent And Stay Within Doors.

Who Holds A Power But Newly Gained Is Ever Stern Of Mood.

It Is Not The Oath That Makes Us Believe The Man, But The Man The Oath.

Keeping Promises

Obedience Is The Mother Of Success And Is Wedded To Safety.

The High Strength Of Men Knows No Content With Limitation.

The Force Of Necessity Is Irresistible.

Only When A Man's Life Comes To Its End In Prosperity Dare We Pronounce Him Happy.

He Who Learns Must Suffer. And Even In Our Sleep Pain That Cannot Forget Falls Drop By Drop Upon The Heart, And In Our Own Despair, Against Our Will, Comes Wisdom To Us By The Awful Grace Of God.

For In The Voyage Of The Heart, There Is A Freight Of Hatred, And The Wind Of Wrath Blows Shrill.

Fortune Is For All, Judgment Is Theirs Who Have Won It For Themselves.

Death Hath A Fairer Fame Than A Life Of Toil.

What Is There More Kindly Than The Feeling Between Host And Guest?

Wisdom Cometh By Suffering.

It Is Always The Season For The Old To Learn.

The Reward Of Pain Is Experience.

Delay Not To Seize The Hour!

Procrastination

Necessity Is Stronger Far Than Art.

Old Men Are Always Young Enough To Learn With Profit.

For Wherein Is Life Sweet To Him Who Suffers Grief?

For The Lips Of Zeus Do Not Know How To Lie, But Bring To Fulfilment Every Word.

Words Are The Physicians Of A Mind Diseased.

Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees.

It Is An Ill Thing To Be The First To Bring News Of Ill.

But Let The Good Prevail.

The Man Who Does Ill, Ill Must Suffer Too.

Words Are Healers Of The Sick Tempered.

For In Pure Maidens, Knowing Not The Marriage-bed, The Glance Of The Eyes Sinks From Shame.

In Few Men Is It Part Of Nature To Respect A Friend's Prosperity Without Begrudging Him.

Pleasantest Of All Ties Is The Tie Of Host And Guest.

Words Are The Parents Of A Causeless Wrath.

Whenever A Man Makes Haste, God Too Hastens With Him.

The Great And Amorous Sky Curved Over The Earth, And Lay Upon Her As A Pure Lover. The Rain, The Humid Flux Descending From Heaven For Both Man And Animal, For Both Thick And Strong, Germinated The Wheat, Swelled The Furrows With Fecund Mud And Brought Forth The Buds In The Orchards. And It Is I Who Empowered These Moist Espousals, I The Great Aphrodite.

To Many Mortals Silence Great Gain Brings.

Call No Man Happy Till He Is Dead.

Wisdom Comes Alone Through Suffering.

World Suffering

A People's Wrath Voiced Abroad Bringeth Grave Danger, No Less Than Public Curse Pronounced.

Simple Is The Speech Of Truth.

When Strength Is Yoked With Justice, Where Is A Mightier Pair Than They?

My Will Is Mine...i Shall Not Make It Soft For You.

When A Man Dies, Flesh Is Frayed And Broken In The Fire, But Not His Will.

Ares Ever Loves To Pluck All The Fairest Flower Of An Armed Host.

Unanimous Hatred Is The Greatest Medicine For A Human Community.

Remember To Be Submissive, Thou Art Analien, A Fugitive, And In Need.

Success Is Man's God.

Zeus, First Cause, Prime Mover; For What Thing Without Zeus Is Done Among Mortals?

Success! To Thee, As To A God, Men Bend The Knee.

God Is Not Averse To Deceit In A Holy Cause.

Bronze Is The Mirror Of Form, Wine Of The Heart.

You Have Been Trapped In The Inescapable Net Of Ruin By Your Own Want Of Sense.

Alas For The Affairs Of Men! When They Are Fortunate You Might Compare Them To A Shadow; And If They Are Unfortunate, A Wet Sponge With One Dash Wipes The Picture Away.

Overly Persuasive A Woman's Ordinance Spreads Far, Traveling Fast; But Fast Dying A Rumor Voiced By A Woman Perishes.

Time Brings All Things To Pass.

Time Management

It Is An Easy Thing For One Whose Foot Is On The Outside Of Calamity To Give Advice And To Rebuke The Sufferer.

Fear Is Stronger Than Arms.

Search Well And Be Wise, Nor Believe That Self-willed Pride Will Ever Be Better Than Good Counsel.

Trending Author

Category