Friday, November 11, 2022
Eight Billion People
Cypria, fragment 1 (tr. Martin L. West)
Newer› ‹Older
There was a time when the countless races <of men> roaming <constantly> over the land were weighing down the <deep->breasted earth's expanse. Zeus took pity when he saw it, and in his complex mind he resolved to relieve the all-nurturing earth of mankind's weight by fanning the great conflict of the Trojan War, to void the burden through death. So the warriors at Troy kept being killed, and Zeus' plan was being fulfilled.Related posts:
ἦν ὅτε μυρία φῦλα κατὰ χθόνα πλαζομένων <αἰεὶ
ἀνθρώπων ἐ>βάρυ<νε βαθυ>στέρνου πλάτος αἴης.
Ζεὺς δὲ ἰδὼν ἐλέησε, καὶ ἐν πυκιναῖς πραπίδεσσιν
σύνθετο κουφίσαι ἀνθρώπων παμβώτορα γαῖαν,
ῥιπίσσας πολέμου μεγάλην ἔριν Ἰλιακοῖο,
ὄφρα κενώσειεν θανάτῳ βάρος. οἱ δ' ἐνὶ Τροίῃ
ἥρωες κτείνοντο, Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή.
- The Weight of Mankind
- Overpopulation (Ovid, Heroides 16.183-184)
- Overpopulation (Tertullian, On the Soul 30.4)
