. (3 lines) (ll. 1-3) Queen Earth, all bounteous giver of
honey-hearted wealth, how kindly, it seems, you are to some, and how
intractable and rough for those with whom you are angry.
VIII. (4 lines) (ll. 1-4) Sailors, who rove the seas and whom a hateful
fate has made as the shy sea-fowl, living an unenviable life, observe
the reverence due to Zeus who rules on high, the god of strangers;
for terrible is the vengeance of this god afterwards for whosoever has
sinned.
IX. (2 lines) (ll. 1-2) Strangers, a contrary wind has caught you: but
even now take me aboard and you shall make your voyage.
X. (4 lines) (ll. 1-4) Another sort of pine shall bear a better fruit
[2604] than you upon the heights of furrowed, windy Ida. For there shall
mortal men get the iron that Ares loves so soon as the Cebrenians shall
hold the land.
XI. (4 lines) (ll. 1-4) Glaucus, watchman of flocks, a word will I put
in your heart. First give the dogs their dinner at the courtyard
gate, for this is well. The dog first hears a man approaching and the
wild-beast coming to the fence.
XII. (4 lines) (ll. 1-4) Goddess-nurse of the young [2605], give ear to my
prayer, and grant that this woman may reject the love-embraces of youth
and dote on grey-haired old men whose powers are dulled, but whose
hearts still desire.
XIII. (6 lines) (ll. 1-6) Children are a man's crown, towers of a city;
horses are the glory of a plain, and so are ships of the sea; wealth
will make a house great, and reverend princes seated in assembly are a
goodly sight for the folk to see. But a blazing fire makes a house look
more comely upon a winter's day, when the Son of Cronos sends down snow.
XIV. (23 lines) (ll. 1-23) Potters, if you will give me a reward, I will
sing for you. Come, then, Athena, with hand upraised [2606] over the kiln.
Let the pots and all the dishes turn out well and be well fired: let
them fetch good prices and be sold in plenty in the market, and plenty
in the streets. Grant that the potters may get great gain and grant me
so to sing to them. But if you turn shameless and make false promises,
then I call together the destroyers of kilns, Shatter and Smash and
Charr and Crash and Crudebake who can work this craft much mischief.
Come all of you and sack the kiln-yard and the buildings: let the whole
kiln be shaken up to the potter's loud lament. As a horse's jaw grinds,
so let the kiln grind to powder all the pots inside. And you, too
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