. For Themis and her noble daughter
Eunomia the Preserver have made her their own, and she flourisheth in
excellent deeds both at Kastalia and beside Alpheos' stream: whence
come the choicest of all crowns to glorify the mother city of
Lokrians, the city of beautiful trees.

I, to illuminate the city of my friends with eager blaze of song,
swifter than high-bred steed or winged ship will send everywhere these
tidings, so be it that my hand is blessed at all in labouring in the
choice garden of the Graces; for they give all pleasant things to men.

By fate divine receive men also valour and wisdom: how else[1] might
the hands of Herakles have wielded his club against the trident, when
at Pylos Poseidon took his stand and prest hard on him, ay, and there
prest him hard embattled Phoibos with his silver bow, neither would
Hades keep his staff unraised, wherewith he leadeth down to ways
beneath the hollow earth the bodies of men that die?

O my mouth, fling this tale from thee, for to speak evil of gods is
a hateful wisdom, and loud and unmeasured words strike a note that
trembleth upon madness. Of such things talk thou not; leave war of
immortals and all strife aside; and bring thy words to the city of
Protogeneia, where by decree of Zeus of the bickering lightning-flash
Pyrrha and Deukalion coming down from Parnassos first fixed their
home, and without bed of marriage made out of stones a race to be one
folk: and hence cometh the name of peoples[2]. Awake for them the
clear-toned gale of song, and if old wine be best, yet among songs
prefer the newer flowers.

Truly men say that once a mighty water swept over the dark earth, but
by the craft of Zeus an ebb suddenly drew off the flood. From these
first men came anciently your ancestors of the brazen shields, sons of
the women of the stock of Iapetos and of the mighty Kronidai, Kings
that dwelt in the land continually; until the Olympian Lord caught up
the daughter[3] of Opoeeis from the land of the Epeians, and lay with
her in a silent place among the ridges of Mainalos; and afterward
brought her unto Lokros, that age might not bring him[4] low beneath
the burden of childlessness. But the wife bare within her the seed of
the Mightiest, and the hero saw the bastard born and rejoiced, and
called him by the name of his mother's father, and he became a man
preeminent in beauty and great deeds: and his father gave unto him a
city and a people to rule over.

Then there cam