Metamorphoses - Book I:20

He severed the earth from the sky and he parted the sea from the land;

he separated translucent space from the cloudier atmosphere.

He disentangled the elements, so as to set them free

from the heap of darkness, then gave them their

separate places and tied them

down in a peaceful concordat: fire flashed out as a weightless force in the

vaulted heaven and found its rightful place

at the height of the firmament; air came next in position

and lightness;