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THE THEOGONY.
85
space from earth to murky Tartarus." There, in the deeper chamber of an abyss from which there is no escape, the Titans are thenceforth imprisoned, with the hundred-handed giants set over them as keepers, and with Day and Night acting as sentries or janitors in front of the brazen threshold:—
"There Night
And Day, near passing, mutual greeting still
Exchange, alternate as they glide athwart
The brazen threshold vast. This enters, that
Forth issues, nor the two can one abode
At once constrain. This passes forth and roams
The round of earth, that in the mansion waits
Till the due season of her travel come.
Lo! from the one the far-discerning light
Beams upon earthly dwellers: but a cloud
Of pitchy darkness veils the other round:
Pernicious Night, aye leading in her hand
Sleep, Death's twin brother: sons of gloomy Night,
There hold they habitation, Death and Sleep,
Dread deities: nor them doth shining sun
E'er with his beam contemplate, when he climbs
The cope of heaven, or when from heaven descends.
Of these the one glides gentle o'er the space
Of earth and broad expanse of ocean waves,
Placid to man. The other has a heart
Of iron: yea, the heart within his breast
Is brass unpitying: whom of men he grasps,
Stern he retains: e'en to immortal gods
— E. 992-1014.A foe."
And Day, near passing, mutual greeting still
Exchange, alternate as they glide athwart
The brazen threshold vast. This enters, that
Forth issues, nor the two can one abode
At once constrain. This passes forth and roams
The round of earth, that in the mansion waits
Till the due season of her travel come.
Lo! from the one the far-discerning light
Beams upon earthly dwellers: but a cloud
Of pitchy darkness veils the other round:
Pernicious Night, aye leading in her hand
Sleep, Death's twin brother: sons of gloomy Night,
There hold they habitation, Death and Sleep,
Dread deities: nor them doth shining sun
E'er with his beam contemplate, when he climbs
The cope of heaven, or when from heaven descends.
Of these the one glides gentle o'er the space
Of earth and broad expanse of ocean waves,
Placid to man. The other has a heart
Of iron: yea, the heart within his breast
Is brass unpitying: whom of men he grasps,
Stern he retains: e'en to immortal gods
— E. 992-1014.A foe."
Of these sentries the readers of Milton's 'Paradise Lost' may recall the description at the opening of the sixth book; whilst the counterparts of the twin chil-
