the immediately subsequent lines describe significant characteristics of the heroic age. the first allowed for the liaisons that are the poem's ostensible subject: gods and mortals freely interacted in those days. a further significant detail about the heroic condition is offered next in one of the most puzzling passages of the "catalogue". men and women are said to have been not "equally long-lived" (, "isaiōnes", a "hapax legomenon"), but it is unclear whether this refers to different lifespans among the heroes themselves, a difference between the lives of the heroes and "today's" man, or between the lifespans of the heroes and the gods. the differing fates of the heroes are then described: some appear to have lived a long life characterized by perpetual youth, while others were apparently condemned to an early death by the gods. the papyrus is damaged at this point, and the full implications of these comparisons are unknown. the muses are next addressed again, asked to sing of "however many [zeus] lay with, siring the race of glorious kings ... and poseidon [lay with] ... ares ... hermes ... [heph]aestus ... heracles"; here the papyrus ends.