To The Gates of Heaven and Hell

Part III: The Titans

“Long ago in bygone age,
The fires of chaos raged unchecked,
Humble servant to Titan’s rage,
Brought forth in fiery streams direct,
Loosed upon a virgin world.
Woe betides the rape of Gaia!
The oceans and the rivers churned,
The valleys shook, the mountains groaned
Beneath the raw, unstable power
That on and on relentless droned
And drowned the earth in a fiery shower.

Four there were, born of earth,
Nurtured deep in natures womb,
Mother Gaia, Elemental Queen, gave birth
And built the walls of her dark tomb.
Four broke free, four were born
One of fire, one of water, bitter rivals, raging brothers,
One of earth, one of air, solid substance, spirit form,
Upon the land they chaos spread,
Their rage erupting in mounting fury,
The sky grew dark and filled with dread,
The sun eclipsed and night fell cruelly.

Fire! Fire! Fire was born
And spread across the fertile lands,
Crimson plains met scarlet morn,
All was torched by his flaming hands,
The forests burned in reams of smoke,
Woe betides the fires that tainted Gaia!
Fires ancient anger, incensed, awoke,
Rushing along the brittle branches,
Wildly across the flaming fields,
Cascading o’er the world, fire’s avalanche
Swallowing all, it never yields.

Water! Water! Water bursts forth
In great torrents and geysers,
Shattering mountains and their rocky support,
Flooding rivers and their silent vespers,
Bursting banks with primeval force,
Woe betides the waters that pollute fair Gaia!
Drowning all on its rapid course,
Aeons destruction, wrought in hours,
Northern ice foes blasted free
From centuries imprisonment in icy showers,
Awesome power forcing earth to her knees.

Earth! Earth! Earth flexes his mighty limbs,
Mountains rise and fall as clouds
Of rock and dust climb
And do the whole world shroud,
The earth’s fair girth changed forever,
Woe betides the broken face of Gaia!
Great rifts are opened and never
Will those great wounds close,
Valleys deep and mountains tall
Were riven open and rose
High o’er great earth’s shawl.

Wind! Wind! Wind begins to blow,
The mighty mountain oak and ash
Bend beneath its relentless flow
Ripped up from roots and dashed
Against cliff face and mountain floor.
Woe betides the bitter wind that chilled sweet Gaia!
Icy northern blasts of air roar
Strike and tear the life from fertile plain,
Chill and freeze the swift flowing rivers,
Nurtures the seas frenzied refrain,
Striking and ripping shores to rocky slivers.

The young and pure virgin earth
Was illprepared and lost amidst
The violence and chaotic effort
Of the Titans, Gaia’s evil cyst,
The vile disease that surged o’er the land,
Woe betides the fate of Gaia!
The breaking waves clothed the sand
In thickest scum and cruellest froth,
Laced through with poisons dire
By the vicious Titan’s wrought,
Fuel to Gaia’s deathly pyre.

The race of man was crushed beneath
The unrelenting Titan’s rage,
Choking in their oppressive heat
Kingdom’s rise and fall to wage
Fierce battles against unending foe,
Woe betides the child of Gaia!
They fight in vain and they know
The overwhelming odds and power
Stacked against them in this fray,
Yet they stand and do not cower,
Not once does their courage sway.

Yet in vain they fought, in vain they died,
Matchless against the Titan’s slaughter,
Dashed aside by overwhelming tide,
Crushed beneath the roars of water,
Lost amidst the blazing fire,
Woe betides the dying mother Gaia!
Their rage engulfed the world entire,
Man fell before the quaking earth,
Tossed aside by fuming air
The charge of man was lain inert,
They stood by now, to look and stare.

Zeus glared down from ‘lympus mound,
Upon the torn and scarred façade
Of mother Gaia, his grief profound
At the raging giant’s tirade,
Anger rose and he strode forth,
Woe betides those who scarred sweet Gaia!
Calling out across his court
To gods and goddesses, from Eros to Mars,
The legions of the god’s rode out,
The very ground beneath them jarrs
As striding forward Zeus did shout.

“Hail ye Titans, of earth and fire,
Hail ye Titans, of wind and water,
Listen well for we do tire,
Listen well and cease thine slaughter,
Renounce thy folly, cease thy foolishness,
Woe betides those who wound sweet Gaia!
Cease right now thy blatant cowardice,
Leave sweet Gaia and her subjects to rest,
This world is not for thou to take,
Thou shalt not from its true heir wrest
This land of man and Gaia’s make.

But they the Titans, they ignored
All his orders and his warnings,
And then to him they directed toward
The products of their pride filled learnings,
Earth and fire, wind and water,
Woe betides the lost of Gaia!
Directed towards him in hate filled slaughter,
But, Godly Zeus, Heavenly King, brushed aside
Their vain and folly-filled assaults,
They broke against him like waxing tide,
Not finding in him crack or fault.

Zeus strode forward, anger high,
And lashed out with rising fury,
Followed close by his fuming allies
Bearing steel from ‘phestos’ brewery
And the Titan’s were forced to ground,
Woe betides those who harm pure Gaia!
The Gods did then the four impound
In chains wrought so long and hard
By the smithy god and his fire,
So infused that they could guard
Against the flame of Titan’s ire.

Then upon an island bleak,
Hidden away by divine decree,
He did entrust the Titans keep
To a race of giants and then, he
Wove his godly power all ‘round,
Woe betides those who maim sweet Gaia!
And deep beneath the island’s ground,
He sealed the four Titan’s deep,
Wrapped in chains of godly might
Infused such that the Titan’s power they keep
And bind their powerful limbs up tight.

No mortal could this island reach,
Long hidden away from mortal eyes,
And no mortal can their prison breach,
And so I end my lone soliloquies
And finish this tale of ancient sorrow.
Woe betides those who rape chaste Gaia!
Now thou art prepared for the morrow
When thou shalt journey to their prison
And see what no other man shall see
And lay eyes on what is granted none,
Fate alone grants this to thee.