CCXI: Metamorphoses 1:2

Metamorphoses Bk I:32-61

When thus he, whoever of the Gods he was, had divided the mass so separated, and reduced it, so divided, into distinct members; in the first place, that it might not be unequal on any side, he gathered it up into the form of a vast globe; then he commanded the sea to be poured around it, and to grow boisterous with the raging winds, and to surround the shores of the Earth, encompassed by it; he added also springs, and numerous pools and lakes, and he bounded the rivers as they flowed downwards, with slanting banks. These, different in different places, are some of them swallowed up by the Earth itself; some of them reach the ocean, and, received in the expanse of waters that take a freer range, beat against shores instead of banks.

He commanded the plains too, to be extended, the valleys to sink down, the woods to be clothed with green leaves, the craggy mountains to arise; and, as on the right-hand side, two Zones intersect the heavens, and as many on the left; and as there is a fifth hotter than these, so did the care of the Deity distinguish this enclosed mass of the Earth by the same number, and as many climates are marked out upon the Earth. Of these, that which is the middle one is not habitable on account of the heat; deep snow covers two of them. Between either these he placed as many more, and gave them a temperate climate, heat being mingled with cold.

The Deity:

Whichever God it was must have been fine

to paint the mixture Chaos left Him so.

I would not have the patience to combine

that blend into the beauty that we know.

I might have thought of rivers—but not streams.

I may have made equators—but not poles.

For not my very lavishest of dreams

could reckon what He made for many scrolls.

But however He made it, I am pleased.

Or maybe pleased because it makes up me.

And glad, because He too was so appeased,

He left it without signature to see.

“Whoever of the Gods he was”, do look:

we write about Your work in every book.