while she was vexed in her dear heart:

(ll. 164-166) 'My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will
obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first
thought of doing shameful things.'

(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them
uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his
dear mother:

(ll. 170-172) 'Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I reverence
not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing shameful
things.'

(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit, and
set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle, and
revealed to him the whole plot.

(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love,
and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her [1607].

Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his
right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped
off his own father's members and cast them away to fall behind him. And
not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that
gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare the
strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding long
spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae [1608] all
over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members with
flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were swept
away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around them from
the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she drew near
holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to sea-girt Cyprus,
and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass grew up about
her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call Aphrodite, and the
foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because she grew amid the
foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and Cyprogenes because
she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes [1609] because sprang
from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely Desire followed her
at her birth at the first and as she went into the assembly of the gods.
This honour she has from the beginning, and this is the portion allotted
to her amongst men and undying gods,--the whisperings of maidens and
smiles and deceits with sweet delight and love and graciousness.

(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom he begot himself great He