Hesiod is coupled with Homer as the first great writers of Greek literature. Homer and Hesiod gave the Greeks their gods, according to the historian Herodotus. Hesiod is also the considered the creator of didactic (instructive and moralizing) poetry.
Hesiod probably lived around 700 B.C., shortly after Homer, in a Boeotian village called Ascra. This one of the few details of his life Hesiod reveals in his works.
Hesiod worked as a shepherd in the mountains, as a youth, and then, as a small peasant on a hard land when his father died.
While tending his flock on Mt. Helicon, the Muses appeared to Hesiod in a mist. This mystical experience impelled him to write epic poetry.
Hesiod's major works are Theogony, Works and Days, and Shield of Herakles (a variation on the Shield of Achilles theme from the Iliad, which is attributed to Hesiod, but was probably not actually written by him).
The Theogony is particularly important as an often confusing account of the evolution of the Greek gods. In the beginning was Chaos, a yawning chasm. Later Eros developed on its own. These figures were powers rather than anthropomorphic deities like Zeus who wins and becomes king of the gods in the third generation struggle against his father.
The occasion of Hesiod's writing of the Works and Days is a dispute between Hesiod and his brother Perses over the distribution of his father's land. The Works and Days is filled with moral precepts, myths, and fables (making it a didactic poem) for which reason, rather than its literary merit, it was highly valued by the ancients.
After Hesiod lost a lawsuit to his brother Perses, he left his homeland and moved to Naupactus. According to the legend about his death, he was murdered by the sons of his host in Oeneon, but at the command of the Delphic Oracle his bones were brought to Orchomenus where a monument to Hesiod was erected in the marketplace.
