these lines, described by west as "the finest passage of poetry yet known from the "catalogue"", might parallel calchas' prophecy in "iliad" 2, which presages the first nine fruitless years of the trojan war via the image of a snake devouring nine sparrows. here the "hairless one," a kenning for a snake, gives birth to what appears to be the first of three sets of triplets, and as the remains of the papyrus become more meager, the snake sloughs its skin, representing the regeneration that will come once the heroic age comes to an end and the world is given over to mortals.