wrapped in dark
 clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus Sc. Atlas, the Shu of
 Egyptian mythology: cp. note on line 177. stands immovably
 upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where
 Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great
 threshold of bronze: and
 while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out
 at the door. And the house never holds them both within; but always
 one is without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays
 at home and waits until the time for her journeying comes; and the one holds all-seeing light
 for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms Sleep the brother
 of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous cloud. And there the
 children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful
 gods. The glowing Sun never
 looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor
 as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully
 over the earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the
 other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomever of
 men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the
 deathless gods.
 

 
 There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of the lower-world,
 strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound guards the
 house in front,