The following fragment of Hesiod (343 MW) is preserved by Galen and appears to come out of a tradition presenting a catalog of Zeus’ wives. In this is overlaps in content with Hesiod’s Theogony (806-901 and following) which has a similar order. Some of the details, however, are a bit different. Of special notice is the description of Metis’ hanging out in Zeus’ entrails or the creation of the Aegis.
“Because of that rivalry, [Hera] bore a famous son,
Hephaistos, on her own without aegis-bearing Zeus,
A son who surpassed all of the gods with his hands.
But [Zeus] stretched out next to the daughter of
Ocean and well-tressed Tethys apart from fair-cheeked Hera,
As he surprised Metis, even though she knows much.
He grabbed her with his hands and put her in his belly,
Because he feared that she might bear something stronger than lightning.
This is the reason that Kronos’ royal son who lives in the sky
Suddenly swallowed her whole. She was immediately pregnant
With Pallas Athena, whom the father of men and gods produced
Through his head near the banks of the river Tritôn.
Mêtis sat hidden beneath Zeus’ entrails,
That mother of Athena, creator of just affairs,
The one who knows most of gods and mortal men.
Then the goddess Themis stretched out beside him,
She surpassed all gods who have Olympian homes with her skilled handsl
She made the aegis, that army-routing armor of Athena,
Alongside the one who bore her, Athena dressed in warrior’s arms.”
Galenus, De placitis Hippocr. et Plat. iii. 8 p. 318 Müller
(=Chrysippus fr. 908, Stoic. Vet. Fr. 11. 256 v. Arnim)
ἐκ ταύτης ἔριδος ἣ μὲν τέκε φαίδιμον υἱὸν
῞Ηφαιστον †τέχνηισιν ἄνευ Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο
ἐκ πάντων παλάμηισι κεκασμένον Οὐρανιώνων·
αὐτὰρ ὅ γ’ ᾿Ωκεανοῦ καὶ Τηθύος ἠυκόμοιο
κούρηι νόσφ’ ῞Ηρης παρελέξατο καλλιπαρήου
ἐξαπαφὼν Μῆτιν καίπερ πολύιδριν ἐοῦσαν·
συμμάρψας δ’ ὅ γε χερσὶν ἑὴν ἐγκάτθετο νηδύν,
δείσας μὴ τέξηι κρατερώτερον ἄλλο κεραυνοῦ·
τούνεκά μιν Κρονίδης ὑψίζυγος αἰθέρι ναίων
κάππιεν ἐξαπίνης. ἣ δ’ αὐτίκα Παλλάδ’ ᾿Αθήνην
κύσατο· τὴν μὲν ἔτικτε πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε
πὰρ κορυφήν, Τρίτωνος ἐπ’ ὄχθηισιν ποταμοῖο.
Μῆτις δ’ αὖτε Ζηνὸς ὑπὸ σπλάγχνοις λελαθυῖα
ἧστο, ᾿Αθηναίης μήτηρ, τέκταινα δικαίων,
πλεῖστα θεῶν εἰδυῖα καταθνητῶν τ’ ἀνθρώπων.
†ἔνθα θεὰ παρέλεκτο Θέμις† παλάμαις περὶ πάντων
ἀθανάτων ἐκέκασθ’ οἳ ᾿Ολύμπια δώματ’ ἔχουσιν,
αἰγίδα ποιήσασα φοβέστρατον ἔντος ᾿Αθήνης·
σὺν τῆι ἐγείνατό μιν, πολεμήϊα τεύχε’ ἔχουσαν.
