If you will pay me for my song, O potters,
then come, Athena, and hold thy hand above the kiln!
May the kotyloi and all the kanastra turn a good black,
and may they be well fired and fetch the price asked,
many being sold in the marketplace and many on the roads,
and bring in much money, and may my song be pleasing.
But if you (potters) turn shameless and deceitful,
then do I summon the ravagers of the kilns,
both Syntrips (Smasher) and Smaragos (Crasher) and
Asbestos (Unquenchable) too, and Sabaktes (Shake to pieces)
and Omodamos (Conqueror of the un-baked), who makes
much trouble for this craft.
Stamp on stoking tunnel and chambers, and may the whole kiln
be thrown into confusion, while the potters loudly wail.
As grinds a horse's jaw so may the kiln grind
to powder all the pots within it.
[Come, too, daughter of the Sun, Circe of many spells,
cast cruel spells, do evil to them and their handiwork.
Here too let Cherion lead many Centaurs,
both to those who escaped the hands of Herakles and those that
perished.
May they hit these pots hard, and may the kiln collapse.
And may the potters wail as they see the mischief.
But I shall rejoice at the sight of their luckless craft.]
And if anyone bends over to look in the spy-hole,
May his whole face be scorched, so that all may learn to deal justly.