| Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica |
| Translated by Evelyn-White - Introduction |
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Hesiod: "Works and Days", "The Theogony", fragments of "The Catalogues of Women and the Eoiae", "The Shield of Heracles" (attributed to Hesiod), and fragments of various works attributed to Hesiod.
Homer: "The Homeric Hymns", "The Epigrams of Homer" (both attributed to Homer).
Various: Fragments of the Epic Cycle (parts of which are sometimes attributed to Homer), fragments of other epic poems attributed to Homer, "The Battle of Frogs and Mice", and "The Contest of Homer and Hesiod".
PREFACE
This volume contains practically all that remains of the post- Homeric and pre-academic epic poetry.
I have for the most part formed my own text. In the case of Hesiod I have been able to use independent collations of several MSS. by Dr. W.H.D. Rouse; otherwise I have depended on the apparatus criticus of the several editions, especially that of Rzach (1902). The arrangement adopted in this edition, by which the complete and fragmentary poems are restored to the order in which they would probably have appeared had the Hesiodic corpus survived intact, is unusual, but should not need apology; the true place for the "Catalogues" (for example), fragmentary as they are, is certainly after the "Theogony".
In preparing the text of the "Homeric Hymns" my chief debt -- and it is a heavy one -- is to the edition of Allen and Sikes (1904) and to the series of articles in the "Journal of Hellenic Studies" (vols. xv.sqq.) by T.W. Allen. To the same scholar and to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press I am greatly indebted for permission to use the restorations of the "Hymn to Demeter", lines 387-401 and 462-470, printed in the Oxford Text of 1912.
Of the fragments of the Epic Cycle I have given only such as seemed to possess distinct importance or interest, and in doing so have relied mostly upon Kinkel's collection and on the fifth volume of the Oxford Homer (1912).
The texts of the "Batrachomyomachia" and of the "Contest of Homer and Hesiod" are those of Baumeister and Flach respectively: where I have diverged from these, the fact has been noted.
Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Rampton, NR. Cambridge. Sept. 9th, 1914.
INTRODUCTION
General
The early Greek epic -- that is, poetry as a natural and popular, and not (as it became later) an artificial and academic literary form -- passed through the usual three phases, of development, of maturity, and of decline.
No fragments which can be identified as belonging to the first period survive to give us even a general idea of the history of the earliest epic, and we are therefore thrown back upon the evidence of analogy from other forms of literature and of inference from the two great epics which have come down to us. So reconstructed, the earliest period appears to us as a time of slow development in which the characteristic epic metre, diction, and structure grew up slowly from crude elements and were improved until the verge of maturity was reached.
The second period, which produced the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", needs no description here: but it is very important to observe the effect of these poems on the course of post-Homeric epic. As the supreme perfection and universality of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" cast into oblivion whatever pre-Homeric poets had essayed, so these same qualities exercised a paralysing influence over the successors of Homer. If they continued to sing like their great predecessor of romantic themes, they were drawn as by a kind of magnetic attraction into the Homeric style and manner of treatment, and became mere echoes of the Homeric voice: in a word, Homer had so completely exhausted the epic genre, that after him further efforts were doomed to be merely conventional. Only the rare and exceptional genius of Vergil and Milton could use the Homeric medium without loss of individuality: and this quality none of the later epic poets seem to have possessed. Freedom from the domination of the great tradition could only be found by seeking new subjects, and such freedom was really only illusionary, since romantic subjects alone are suitable for epic treatment.
In its third period, therefore, epic poetry shows two divergent tendencies. In Ionia and the islands the epic poets followed the Homeric tradition, singing of romantic subjects in the now stereotyped heroic style, and showing originality only in their choice of legends hitherto neglected or summarily and imperfectly treated. In continental Greece (1), on the other hand, but especially in Boeotia, a new form of epic sprang up, which for the romance and PATHOS of the Ionian School substituted the practical and matter-of-fact. It dealt in moral and practical maxims, in information on technical subjects which are of service in daily life -- agriculture, astronomy, augury, and the calendar -- in matters of religion and in tracing the genealogies of men. Its attitude is summed up in the words of the Muses to the writer of the "Theogony": `We can tell many a feigned tale to look like truth, but we can, when we will, utter the truth' ("Theogony" 26-27). Such a poetry could not be permanently successful, because the subjects of which it treats -- if susceptible of poetic treatment at all -- were certainly not suited for epic treatment, where unity of action which will sustain interest, and to which each part should contribute, is absolutely necessary. While, therefore, an epic like the "Odyssey" is an organism and dramatic in structure, a work such as the "Theogony" is a merely artificial collocation of facts, and, at best, a pageant. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that from the first the Boeotian school is forced to season its matter with romantic episodes, and that later it tends more and more to revert (as in the "Shield of Heracles") to the Homeric tradition.
The Boeotian School
How did the continental school of epic poetry arise? There is little definite material for an answer to this question, but the probability is that there were at least three contributory causes. First, it is likely that before the rise of the Ionian epos there existed in Boeotia a purely popular and indigenous poetry of a crude form: it comprised, we may suppose, versified proverbs and precepts relating to life in general, agricultural maxims, weather-lore, and the like. In this sense the Boeotian poetry may be taken to have its germ in maxims similar to our English `Till May be out, ne'er cast a clout,'
or
`A rainbow in the morning Is the Shepherd's warning.'
Secondly and thirdly we may ascribe the rise of the new epic to the nature of the Boeotian people and, as already remarked, to a spirit of revolt against the old epic. The Boeotians, people of the class of which Hesiod represents himself to be the type, were essentially unromantic; their daily needs marked the general limit of their ideals, and, as a class, they cared little for works of fancy, for pathos, or for fine thought as such. To a people of this nature the Homeric epos would be inacceptable, and the post-Homeric epic, with its conventional atmosphere, its trite and hackneyed diction, and its insincere sentiment, would be anathema. We can imagine, therefore, that among such folk a settler, of Aeolic origin like Hesiod, who clearly was well acquainted with the Ionian epos, would naturally see that the only outlet for his gifts lay in applying epic poetry to new themes acceptable to his hearers.
Though the poems of the Boeotian school (2) were unanimously assigned to Hesiod down to the age of Alexandrian criticism, they were clearly neither the work of one man nor even of one period: some, doubtless, were fraudulently fathered on him in order to gain currency; but it is probable that most came to be regarded as his partly because of their general character, and partly because the names of their real authors were lost. One fact in this attribution is remarkable -- the veneration paid to Hesiod.
Life of Hesiod
Our information respecting Hesiod is derived in the main from notices and allusions in the works attributed to him, and to these must be added traditions concerning his death and burial gathered from later writers.
Hesiod's father (whose name, by a perversion of "Works and Days", 299 PERSE DION GENOS to PERSE, DION GENOS, was thought to have been Dius) was a native of Cyme in Aeolis, where he was a seafaring trader and, perhaps, also a farmer. He was forced by poverty to leave his native place, and returned to continental Greece, where he settled at Ascra near Thespiae in Boeotia ("Works and Days", 636 ff.). Either in Cyme or Ascra, two sons, Hesiod and Perses, were born to the settler, and these, after his death, divided the farm between them. Perses, however, who is represented as an idler and spendthrift, obtained and kept the larger share by bribing the corrupt `lords' who ruled from Thespiae ("Works and Days", 37-39). While his brother wasted his patrimony and ultimately came to want ("Works and Days", 34 ff.), Hesiod lived a farmer's life until, according to the very early tradition preserved by the author of the "Theogony" (22-23), the Muses met him as he was tending sheep on Mt. Helicon and `taught him a glorious song' -- doubtless the "Works and Days". The only other personal reference is to his victory in a poetical contest at the funeral games of Amphidamas at Chalcis in Euboea, where he won the prize, a tripod, which he dedicated to the Muses of Helicon ("Works and Days", 651-9).
Before we go on to the story of Hesiod's death, it will be well
to inquire how far the "autobiographical" notices can be treated
as historical, especially as many critics treat some, or all of
them, as spurious. In the first place attempts have been made to
show that "Hesiod" is a significant name and therefore
fictitious: it is only necessary to mention Goettling's
derivation from IEMI to ODOS (which would make `Hesiod' mean the
`guide' in virtues and technical arts), and to refer to the
pitiful attempts in the "Etymologicum Magnum" (s.v. Again, Hesiod's story of his relations with his brother Perses
have been treated with scepticism (see Murray, "Anc. Gk.
Literature", pp. 53-54): Perses, it is urged, is clearly a mere
dummy, set up to be the target for the poet's exhortations. On
such a matter precise evidence is naturally not forthcoming; but
all probability is against the sceptical view. For 1) if the
quarrel between the brothers were a fiction, we should expect it
to be detailed at length and not noticed allusively and rather
obscurely -- as we find it; 2) as MM. Croiset remark, if the poet
needed a lay-figure the ordinary practice was to introduce some
mythological person -- as, in fact, is done in the "Precepts of
Chiron". In a word, there is no more solid ground for treating
Perses and his quarrel with Hesiod as fictitious than there would
be for treating Cyrnus, the friend of Theognis, as mythical.
Thirdly, there is the passage in the "Theogony" relating to
Hesiod and the Muses. It is surely an error to suppose that
lines 22-35 all refer to Hesiod: rather, the author of the
"Theogony" tells the story of his own inspiration by the same
Muses who once taught Hesiod glorious song. The lines 22-3 are
therefore a very early piece of tradition about Hesiod, and
though the appearance of Muses must be treated as a graceful
fiction, we find that a writer, later than the "Works and Days"
by perhaps no more than three-quarters of a century, believed in
the actuality of Hesiod and in his life as a farmer or shepherd.
Lastly, there is the famous story of the contest in song at
Chalcis. In later times the modest version in the "Works and
Days" was elaborated, first by making Homer the opponent whom
Hesiod conquered, while a later period exercised its ingenuity in
working up the story of the contest into the elaborate form in
which it still survives. Finally the contest, in which the two
poets contended with hymns to Apollo
nor to have sung in any but an impromptu, local festival, so that
the supposed interpolation lacks a sufficient motive. And there
is nothing in the context to show that Hesiod's Amphidamas is to
be identified with that Amphidamas whom Plutarch alone connects
with the Lelantine War: the name may have been borne by an
earlier Chalcidian, an ancestor, perhaps, of the person to whom
Plutarch refers.
The story of the end of Hesiod may be told in outline. After the
contest at Chalcis, Hesiod went to Delphi and there was warned
that the `issue of death should overtake him in the fair grove of
Nemean Zeus.' Avoiding therefore Nemea on the Isthmus of
Corinth, to which he supposed the oracle to refer, Hesiod retired
to Oenoe in Locris where he was entertained by Amphiphanes and
Ganyetor, sons of a certain Phegeus. This place, however, was
also sacred to Nemean Zeus, and the poet, suspected by his hosts
of having seduced their sister
"When in the shady Locrian grove Hesiod lay dead, the Nymphs
washed his body with water from their own springs, and
heaped high his grave; and thereon the goat-herds sprinkled
offerings of milk mingled with yellow-honey: such was the
utterance of the nine Muses that he breathed forth, that old
man who had tasted of their pure springs."
The Hesiodic poems fall into two groups according as they are
didactic (technical or gnomic) or genealogical: the first group
centres round the "Works and Days", the second round the
"Theogony".
I. "The Works and Days":
The poem consists of four main sections. a) After the prelude,
which Pausanias failed to find in the ancient copy engraved on
lead seen by him on Mt. Helicon, comes a general exhortation to
industry. It begins with the allegory of the two Strifes, who
stand for wholesome Emulation and Quarrelsomeness respectively.
Then by means of the Myth of Pandora the poet shows how evil and
the need for work first arose, and goes on to describe the Five
Ages of the World, tracing the gradual increase in evil, and
emphasizing the present miserable condition of the world, a
condition in which struggle is inevitable. Next, after the Fable
of the Hawk and Nightingale, which serves as a condemnation of
violence and injustice, the poet passes on to contrast the
blessing which Righteousness brings to a nation, and the
punishment which Heaven sends down upon the violent, and the
section concludes with a series of precepts on industry and
prudent conduct generally. b) The second section shows how a man
may escape want and misery by industry and care both in
agriculture and in trading by sea. Neither subject, it should be
carefully noted, is treated in any way comprehensively. c) The
third part is occupied with miscellaneous precepts relating
mostly to actions of domestic and everyday life and conduct which
have little or no connection with one another. d) The final
section is taken up with a series of notices on the days of the
month which are favourable or unfavourable for agricultural and
other operations.
It is from the second and fourth sections that the poem takes its
name. At first sight such a work seems to be a miscellany of
myths, technical advice, moral precepts, and folklore maxims
without any unifying principle; and critics have readily taken
the view that the whole is a canto of fragments or short poems
worked up by a redactor. Very probably Hesiod used much material
of a far older date, just as Shakespeare used the "Gesta
Romanorum", old chronicles, and old plays; but close inspection
will show that the "Works and Days" has a real unity and that the
picturesque title is somewhat misleading. The poem has properly
no technical object at all, but is moral: its real aim is to show
men how best to live in a difficult world. So viewed the four
seemingly independent sections will be found to be linked
together in a real bond of unity. Such a connection between the
first and second sections is easily seen, but the links between
these and the third and fourth are no less real: to make life go
tolerably smoothly it is most important to be just and to know
how to win a livelihood; but happiness also largely depends on
prudence and care both in social and home life as well, and not
least on avoidance of actions which offend supernatural powers
and bring ill-luck. And finally, if your industry is to be
fruitful, you must know what days are suitable for various kinds
of work. This moral aim -- as opposed to the currently accepted
technical aim of the poem -- explains the otherwise puzzling
incompleteness of the instructions on farming and seafaring.
Of the Hesiodic poems similar in character to the "Works and
Days", only the scantiest fragments survive. One at least of
these, the "Divination by Birds", was, as we know from Proclus,
attached to the end of the "Works" until it was rejected by
Apollonius Rhodius: doubtless it continued the same theme of how
to live, showing how man can avoid disasters by attending to the
omens to be drawn from birds. It is possible that the
"Astronomy" or "Astrology" (as Plutarch calls it) was in turn
appended to the "Divination". It certainly gave some account of
the principal constellations, their dates of rising and setting,
and the legends connected with them, and probably showed how
these influenced human affairs or might be used as guides. The
"Precepts of Chiron" was a didactic poem made up of moral and
practical precepts, resembling the gnomic sections of the "Works
and Days", addressed by the Centaur Chiron to his pupil Achilles.
Even less is known of the poem called the "Great Works": the
title implies that it was similar in subject to the second
section of the "Works and Days", but longer. Possible references
in Roman writers
II. The Genealogical Poems:
The only complete poem of the genealogical group is the
"Theogony", which traces from the beginning of things the descent
and vicissitudes of the families of the gods. Like the "Works
and Days" this poem has no dramatic plot; but its unifying
principle is clear and simple. The gods are classified
chronologically: as soon as one generation is catalogued, the
poet goes on to detail the offspring of each member of that
generation. Exceptions are only made in special cases, as the
Sons of Iapetus (ll. 507-616) whose place is accounted for by
their treatment by Zeus. The chief landmarks in the poem are as
follows: after the first 103 lines, which contain at least three
distinct preludes, three primeval beings are introduced, Chaos,
Earth, and Eros -- here an indefinite reproductive influence. Of
these three, Earth produces Heaven to whom she bears the Titans,
the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants. The Titans,
oppressed by their father, revolt at the instigation of Earth,
under the leadership of Cronos, and as a result Heaven and Earth
are separated, and Cronos reigns over the universe. Cronos
knowing that he is destined to be overcome by one of his
children, swallows each one of them as they are born, until Zeus,
saved by Rhea, grows up and overcomes Cronos in some struggle
which is not described. Cronos is forced to vomit up the
children he had swallowed, and these with Zeus divide the
universe between them, like a human estate. Two events mark the
early reign of Zeus, the war with the Titans and the overthrow of
Typhoeus, and as Zeus is still reigning the poet can only go on
to give a list of gods born to Zeus by various goddesses. After
this he formally bids farewell to the cosmic and Olympian deities
and enumerates the sons born of goddess to mortals. The poem
closes with an invocation of the Muses to sing of the `tribe of
women'.
This conclusion served to link the "Theogony" to what must have
been a distinct poem, the "Catalogues of Women". This work was
divided into four (Suidas says five) books, the last one (or two)
of which was known as the "Eoiae" and may have been again a
distinct poem: the curious title will be explained presently.
The "Catalogues" proper were a series of genealogies which traced
the Hellenic race (or its more important peoples and families)
from a common ancestor. The reason why women are so prominent is
obvious: since most families and tribes claimed to be descended
from a god, the only safe clue to their origin was through a
mortal woman beloved by that god; and it has also been pointed
out that `mutterrecht' still left its traces in northern Greece
in historical times.
The following analysis (after Marckscheffel) (8) will show the
principle of its composition. From Prometheus and Pronoia sprang
Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only survivors of the deluge, who had a
son Hellen (frag. 1), the reputed ancestor of the whole Hellenic
race. From the daughters of Deucalion sprang Magnes and Macedon,
ancestors of the Magnesians and Macedonians, who are thus
represented as cousins to the true Hellenic stock. Hellen had
three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus, parents of the Dorian,
Ionic and Aeolian races, and the offspring of these was then
detailed. In one instance a considerable and characteristic
section can be traced from extant fragments and notices:
Salmoneus, son of Aeolus, had a daughter Tyro who bore to
Poseidon two sons, Pelias and Neleus; the latter of these, king
of Pylos, refused Heracles purification for the murder of
Iphitus, whereupon Heracles attacked and sacked Pylos, killing
amongst the other sons of Neleus Periclymenus, who had the power
of changing himself into all manner of shapes. From this
slaughter Neleus alone escaped (frags. 13, and 10-12). This
summary shows the general principle of arrangement of the
"Catalogues": each line seems to have been dealt with in turn,
and the monotony was relieved as far as possible by a brief
relation of famous adventures connected with any of the
personages -- as in the case of Atalanta and Hippomenes (frag.
14). Similarly the story of the Argonauts appears from the
fragments (37-42) to have been told in some detail.
This tendency to introduce romantic episodes led to an important
development. Several poems are ascribed to Hesiod, such as the
"Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis", the "Descent of Theseus into
Hades", or the "Circuit of the Earth" (which must have been
connected with the story of Phineus and the Harpies, and so with
the Argonaut-legend), which yet seem to have belonged to the
"Catalogues". It is highly probable that these poems were
interpolations into the "Catalogues" expanded by later poets from
more summary notices in the genuine Hesiodic work and
subsequently detached from their contexts and treated as
independent. This is definitely known to be true of the "Shield
of Heracles", the first 53 lines of which belong to the fourth
book of the "Catalogues", and almost certainly applies to other
episodes, such as the "Suitors of Helen" (9), the "Daughters of
Leucippus", and the "Marriage of Ceyx", which last Plutarch
mentions as `interpolated in the works of Hesiod.'
To the "Catalogues", as we have said, was appended another work,
the "Eoiae". The title seems to have arisen in the following way
(10): the "Catalogues" probably ended (ep. "Theogony" 963 ff.)
with some such passage as this: `But now, ye Muses, sing of the
tribes of women with whom the Sons of Heaven were joined in love,
women pre-eminent above their fellows in beauty, such as was
Niobe (?).' Each succeeding heroine was then introduced by the
formula `Or such as was...' (cp. frags. 88, 92, etc.). A large
fragment of the "Eoiae" is extant at the beginning of the "Shield
of Heracles", which may be mentioned here. The "supplement" (ll.
57-480) is nominally Heracles and Cycnus, but the greater part is
taken up with an inferior description of the shield of Heracles,
in imitation of the Homeric shield of Achilles ("Iliad" xviii.
478 ff.). Nothing shows more clearly the collapse of the
principles of the Hesiodic school than this ultimate servile
dependence upon Homeric models.
At the close of the "Shield" Heracles goes on to Trachis to the
house of Ceyx, and this warning suggests that the "Marriage of
Ceyx" may have come immediately after the `Or such as was' of
Alcmena in the "Eoiae": possibly Halcyone, the wife of Ceyx, was
one of the heroines sung in the poem, and the original section
was `developed' into the "Marriage", although what form the poem
took is unknown.
Next to the "Eoiae" and the poems which seemed to have been
developed from it, it is natural to place the "Great Eoiae".
This, again, as we know from fragments, was a list of heroines
who bare children to the gods: from the title we must suppose it
to have been much longer that the simple "Eoiae", but its extent
is unknown. Lehmann, remarking that the heroines are all
Boeotian and Thessalian (while the heroines of the "Catalogues"
belong to all parts of the Greek world), believes the author to
have been either a Boeotian or Thessalian.
Two other poems are ascribed to Hesiod. Of these the "Aegimius"
(also ascribed by Athenaeus to Cercops of Miletus), is thought by
Valckenaer to deal with the war of Aegimus against the Lapithae
and the aid furnished to him by Heracles, and with the history of
Aegimius and his sons. Otto Muller suggests that the
introduction of Thetis and of Phrixus (frags. 1-2) is to be
connected with notices of the allies of the Lapithae from
Phthiotis and Iolchus, and that the story of Io was incidental to
a narrative of Heracles' expedition against Euboea. The
remaining poem, the "Melampodia", was a work in three books,
whose plan it is impossible to recover. Its subject, however,
seems to have been the histories of famous seers like Mopsus,
Calchas, and Teiresias, and it probably took its name from
Melampus, the most famous of them all.
Date of the Hesiodic Poems
There is no doubt that the "Works and Days" is the oldest, as it
is the most original, of the Hesiodic poems. It seems to be
distinctly earlier than the "Theogony", which refers to it,
apparently, as a poem already renowned. Two considerations help
us to fix a relative date for the "Works". 1) In diction,
dialect and style it is obviously dependent upon Homer, and is
therefore considerably later than the "Iliad" and "Odyssey":
moreover, as we have seen, it is in revolt against the romantic
school, already grown decadent, and while the digamma is still
living, it is obviously growing weak, and is by no means
uniformly effective.
2) On the other hand while tradition steadily puts the Cyclic
poets at various dates from 776 B.C. downwards, it is equally
consistent in regarding Homer and Hesiod as `prehistoric'.
Herodotus indeed puts both poets 400 years before his own time;
that is, at about 830-820 B.C., and the evidence stated above
points to the middle of the ninth century as the probable date
for the "Works and Days". The "Theogony" might be tentatively
placed a century later; and the "Catalogues" and "Eoiae" are
again later, but not greatly later, than the "Theogony": the
"Shield of Heracles" may be ascribed to the later half of the
seventh century, but there is not evidence enough to show whether
the other `developed' poems are to be regarded as of a date so
low as this.
Literary Value of Homer
Quintillian's (11) judgment on Hesiod that `he rarely rises to
great heights... and to him is given the palm in the middle-class
of speech' is just, but is liable to give a wrong impression.
Hesiod has nothing that remotely approaches such scenes as that
between Priam and Achilles, or the pathos of Andromache's
preparations for Hector's return, even as he was falling before
the walls of Troy; but in matters that come within the range or
ordinary experience, he rarely fails to rise to the appropriate
level. Take, for instance, the description of the Iron Age
("Works and Days", 182 ff.) with its catalogue of wrongdoings and
violence ever increasing until Aidos and Nemesis are forced to
leave mankind who thenceforward shall have `no remedy against
evil'. Such occasions, however, rarely occur and are perhaps not
characteristic of Hesiod's genius: if we would see Hesiod at his
best, in his most natural vein, we must turn to such a passage as
that which he himself -- according to the compiler of the
"Contest of Hesiod and Homer" -- selected as best in all his
work, `When the Pleiades, Atlas' daughters, begin to rise...'
("Works and Days, 383 ff.). The value of such a passage cannot
be analysed: it can only be said that given such a subject, this
alone is the right method of treatment.
Hesiod's diction is in the main Homeric, but one of his charms is
the use of quaint allusive phrases derived, perhaps, from a pre-
Hesiodic peasant poetry: thus the season when Boreas blows is the
time when `the Boneless One gnaws his foot by his fireless hearth
in his cheerless house'; to cut one's nails is `to sever the
withered from the quick upon that which has five branches';
similarly the burglar is the `day-sleeper', and the serpent is
the `hairless one'. Very similar is his reference to seasons
through what happens or is done in that season: `when the House-
carrier, fleeing the Pleiades, climbs up the plants from the
earth', is the season for harvesting; or `when the artichoke
flowers and the clicking grass-hopper, seated in a tree, pours
down his shrill song', is the time for rest.
Hesiod's charm lies in his child-like and sincere naivete, in his
unaffected interest in and picturesque view of nature and all
that happens in nature. These qualities, it is true, are those
pre-eminently of the "Works and Days": the literary values of the
"Theogony" are of a more technical character, skill in ordering
and disposing long lists of names, sure judgment in seasoning a
monotonous subject with marvellous incidents or episodes, and no
mean imagination in depicting the awful, as is shown in the
description of Tartarus (ll. 736-745). Yet it remains true that
Hesiod's distinctive title to a high place in Greek literature
lies in the very fact of his freedom form classic form, and his
grave, and yet child-like, outlook upon his world.
The Ionic School
The Ionic School of Epic poetry was, as we have seen, dominated
by the Homeric tradition, and while the style and method of
treatment are Homeric, it is natural that the Ionic poets
refrained from cultivating the ground tilled by Homer, and chose
for treatment legends which lay beyond the range of the "Iliad"
and "Odyssey". Equally natural it is that they should have
particularly selected various phases of the tale of Troy which
preceded or followed the action of the "Iliad" or "Odyssey". In
this way, without any preconceived intention, a body of epic
poetry was built up by various writers which covered the whole
Trojan story. But the entire range of heroic legend was open to
these poets, and other clusters of epics grew up dealing
particularly with the famous story of Thebes, while others dealt
with the beginnings of the world and the wars of heaven. In the
end there existed a kind of epic history of the world, as known
to the Greeks, down to the death of Odysseus, when the heroic age
ended. In the Alexandrian Age these poems were arranged in
chronological order, apparently by Zenodotus of Ephesus, at the
beginning of the 3rd century B.C. At a later time the term
"Cycle", `round' or `course', was given to this collection.
Of all this mass of epic poetry only the scantiest fragments
survive; but happily Photius has preserved to us an abridgment of
the synopsis made of each poem of the "Trojan Cycle" by Proclus,
i.e. Eutychius Proclus of Sicca.
The pre-Trojan poems of the Cycle may be noticed first. The
"Titanomachy", ascribed both to Eumelus of Corinth and to
Arctinus of Miletus, began with a kind of Theogony which told of
the union of Heaven and Earth and of their offspring the Cyclopes
and the Hundred-handed Giants. How the poem proceeded we have no
means of knowing, but we may suppose that in character it was not
unlike the short account of the Titan War found in the Hesiodic
"Theogony" (617 ff.).
What links bound the "Titanomachy" to the Theben Cycle is not
clear. This latter group was formed of three poems, the "Story
of Oedipus", the "Thebais", and the "Epigoni". Of the
"Oedipodea" practically nothing is known, though on the assurance
of Athenaeus (vii. 277 E) that Sophocles followed the Epic Cycle
closely in the plots of his plays, we may suppose that in outline
the story corresponded closely to the history of Oedipus as it is
found in the "Oedipus Tyrannus". The "Thebais" seems to have
begun with the origin of the fatal quarrel between Eteocles and
Polyneices in the curse called down upon them by their father in
his misery. The story was thence carried down to the end of the
expedition under Polyneices, Adrastus and Amphiarus against
Thebes. The "Epigoni" (ascribed to Antimachus of Teos) recounted
the expedition of the `After-Born' against Thebes, and the sack
of the city.
Six epics with the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" made up the Trojan
Cycle -- The "Cyprian Lays", the "Iliad", the "Aethiopis", the
"Little Illiad", the "Sack of Troy", the "Returns", the
"Odyssey", and the "Telegony".
It has been assumed in the foregoing pages that the poems of the
Trojan Cycle are later than the Homeric poems; but, as the
opposite view has been held, the reasons for this assumption must
now be given. 1) Tradition puts Homer and the Homeric poems
proper back in the ages before chronological history began, and
at the same time assigns the purely Cyclic poems to definite
authors who are dated from the first Olympiad (776 B.C.)
downwards. This tradition cannot be purely arbitrary. 2) The
Cyclic poets (as we can see from the abstract of Proclus) were
careful not to trespass upon ground already occupied by Homer.
Thus, when we find that in the "Returns" all the prominent Greek
heroes except Odysseus are accounted for, we are forced to
believe that the author of this poem knew the "Odyssey" and
judged it unnecessary to deal in full with that hero's
adventures. (12) In a word, the Cyclic poems are `written round'
the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". 3) The general structure of these
epics is clearly imitative. As M.M. Croiset remark, the abusive
Thersites in the "Aethiopis" is clearly copied from the Thersites
of the "Iliad"; in the same poem Antilochus, slain by Memnon and
avenged by Achilles, is obviously modelled on Patroclus. 4) The
geographical knowledge of a poem like the "Returns" is far wider
and more precise than that of the "Odyssey". 5) Moreover, in the
Cyclic poems epic is clearly degenerating morally -- if the
expression may be used. The chief greatness of the "Iliad" is in
the character of the heroes Achilles and Hector rather than in
the actual events which take place: in the Cyclic writers facts
rather than character are the objects of interest, and events are
so packed together as to leave no space for any exhibition of the
play of moral forces. All these reasons justify the view that
the poems with which we now have to deal were later than the
"Iliad" and "Odyssey", and if we must recognize the possibility
of some conventionality in the received dating, we may feel
confident that it is at least approximately just.
The earliest of the post-Homeric epics of Troy are apparently the
"Aethiopis" and the "Sack of Ilium", both ascribed to Arctinus of
Miletus who is said to have flourished in the first Olympiad (776
B.C.). He set himself to finish the tale of Troy, which, so far
as events were concerned, had been left half-told by Homer, by
tracing the course of events after the close of the "Iliad". The
"Aethiopis" thus included the coming of the Amazon Penthesilea to
help the Trojans after the fall of Hector and her death, the
similar arrival and fall of the Aethiopian Memnon, the death of
Achilles under the arrow of Paris, and the dispute between
Odysseus and Aias for the arms of Achilles. The "Sack of Ilium"
(13) as analysed by Proclus was very similar to Vergil's version
in "Aeneid" ii, comprising the episodes of the wooden horse, of
Laocoon, of Sinon, the return of the Achaeans from Tenedos, the
actual Sack of Troy, the division of spoils and the burning of
the city.
Lesches or Lescheos (as Pausanias calls him) of Pyrrha or
Mitylene is dated at about 660 B.C. In his "Little Iliad" he
undertook to elaborate the "Sack" as related by Arctinus. His
work included the adjudgment of the arms of Achilles to Odysseus,
the madness of Aias, the bringing of Philoctetes from Lemnos and
his cure, the coming to the war of Neoptolemus who slays
Eurypylus, son of Telephus, the making of the wooden horse, the
spying of Odysseus and his theft, along with Diomedes, of the
Palladium: the analysis concludes with the admission of the
wooden horse into Troy by the Trojans. It is known, however
(Aristotle, "Poetics", xxiii; Pausanias, x, 25-27), that the
"Little Iliad" also contained a description of the sack of Troy.
It is probable that this and other superfluous incidents
disappeared after the Alexandrian arrangement of the poems in the
Cycle, either as the result of some later recension, or merely
through disuse. Or Proclus may have thought it unnecessary to
give the accounts by Lesches and Arctinus of the same incident.
The "Cyprian Lays", ascribed to Stasinus of Cyprus (14) (but also
to Hegesinus of Salamis) was designed to do for the events
preceding the action of the "Iliad" what Arctinus had done for
the later phases of the Trojan War. The "Cypria" begins with the
first causes of the war, the purpose of Zeus to relieve the
overburdened earth, the apple of discord, the rape of Helen.
Then follow the incidents connected with the gathering of the
Achaeans and their ultimate landing in Troy; and the story of the
war is detailed up to the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon
with which the "Iliad" begins.
These four poems rounded off the story of the "Iliad", and it
only remained to connect this enlarged version with the
"Odyssey". This was done by means of the "Returns", a poem in
five books ascribed to Agias or Hegias of Troezen, which begins
where the "Sack of Troy" ends. It told of the dispute between
Agamemnon and Menelaus, the departure from Troy of Menelaus, the
fortunes of the lesser heroes, the return and tragic death of
Agamemnon, and the vengeance of Orestes on Aegisthus. The story
ends with the return home of Menelaus, which brings the general
narrative up to the beginning of the "Odyssey".
But the "Odyssey" itself left much untold: what, for example,
happened in Ithaca after the slaying of the suitors, and what was
the ultimate fate of Odysseus? The answer to these questions was
supplied by the "Telegony", a poem in two books by Eugammon of
Cyrene (fl. 568 B.C.). It told of the adventures of Odysseus in
Thesprotis after the killing of the Suitors, of his return to
Ithaca, and his death at the hands of Telegonis, his son by
Circe. The epic ended by disposing of the surviving personages
in a double marriage, Telemachus wedding Circe, and Telegonus
Penelope.
The end of the Cycle marks also the end of the Heroic Age.
The collection of thirty-three Hymns, ascribed to Homer, is the
last considerable work of the Epic School, and seems, on the
whole, to be later than the Cyclic poems. It cannot be
definitely assigned either to the Ionian or Continental schools,
for while the romantic element is very strong, there is a
distinct genealogical interest; and in matters of diction and
style the influences of both Hesiod and Homer are well-marked.
The date of the formation of the collection as such is unknown.
Diodorus Siculus (temp. Augustus) is the first to mention such a
body of poetry, and it is likely enough that this is, at least
substantially, the one which has come down to us. Thucydides
quotes the Delian "Hymn to Apollo", and it is possible that the
Homeric corpus of his day also contained other of the more
important hymns. Conceivable the collection was arranged in the
Alexandrine period.
Thucydides, in quoting the "Hymn to Apollo", calls it PROOIMION,
which ordinarily means a `prelude' chanted by a rhapsode before
recitation of a lay from Homer, and such hymns as Nos. vi, xxxi,
xxxii, are clearly preludes in the strict sense; in No. xxxi, for
example, after celebrating Helios, the poet declares he will next
sing of the `race of mortal men, the demi-gods'. But it may
fairly be doubted whether such Hymns as those to "Demeter" (ii),
"Apollo" (iii), "Hermes" (iv), "Aphrodite" (v), can have been
real preludes, in spite of the closing formula `and now I will
pass on to another hymn'. The view taken by Allen and Sikes,
amongst other scholars, is doubtless right, that these longer
hymns are only technically preludes and show to what
disproportionate lengths a simple literacy form can be developed.
The Hymns to "Pan" (xix), to "Dionysus" (xxvi), to "Hestia and
Hermes" (xxix), seem to have been designed for use at definite
religious festivals, apart from recitations. With the exception
perhaps of the "Hymn to Ares" (viii), no item in the collection
can be regarded as either devotional or liturgical.
The Hymn is doubtless a very ancient form; but if no example of
extreme antiquity survive this must be put down to the fact that
until the age of literary consciousness, such things are not
preserved.
First, apparently, in the collection stood the "Hymn to
Dionysus", of which only two fragments now survive. While it
appears to have been a hymn of the longer type (15), we have no
evidence to show either its scope or date.
The "Hymn to Demeter", extant only in the MS. discovered by
Matthiae at Moscow, describes the seizure of Persephone by Hades,
the grief of Demeter, her stay at Eleusis, and her vengeance on
gods and men by causing famine. In the end Zeus is forced to
bring Persephone back from the lower world; but the goddess, by
the contriving of Hades, still remains partly a deity of the
lower world. In memory of her sorrows Demeter establishes the
Eleusinian mysteries (which, however, were purely agrarian in
origin).
This hymn, as a literary work, is one of the finest in the
collection. It is surely Attic or Eleusinian in origin. Can we
in any way fix its date? Firstly, it is certainly not later than
the beginning of the sixth century, for it makes no mention of
Iacchus, and the Dionysiac element was introduced at Eleusis at
about that period. Further, the insignificance of Triptolemus
and Eumolpus point to considerable antiquity, and the digamma is
still active. All these considerations point to the seventh
century as the probable date of the hymn.
The "Hymn to Apollo" consists of two parts, which beyond any
doubt were originally distinct, a Delian hymn and a Pythian hymn.
The Delian hymn describes how Leto, in travail with Apollo,
sought out a place in which to bear her son, and how Apollo, born
in Delos, at once claimed for himself the lyre, the bow, and
prophecy. This part of the existing hymn ends with an encomium
of the Delian festival of Apollo and of the Delian choirs. The
second part celebrates the founding of Pytho (Delphi) as the
oracular seat of Apollo. After various wanderings the god comes
to Telphus, near Haliartus, but is dissuaded by the nymph of the
place from settling there and urged to go on to Pytho where,
after slaying the she-dragon who nursed Typhaon, he builds his
temple. After the punishment of Telphusa for her deceit in
giving him no warning of the dragoness at Pytho, Apollo, in the
form of a dolphin, brings certain Cretan shipmen to Delphi to be
his priests; and the hymn ends with a charge to these men to
behave orderly and righteously.
The Delian part is exclusively Ionian and insular both in style
and sympathy; Delos and no other is Apollo's chosen seat: but the
second part is as definitely continental; Delos is ignored and
Delphi alone is the important centre of Apollo's worship. From
this it is clear that the two parts need not be of one date --
The first, indeed, is ascribed (Scholiast on Pindar "Nem". ii, 2)
to Cynaethus of Chios (fl. 504 B.C.), a date which is obviously
far too low; general considerations point rather to the eighth
century. The second part is not later than 600 B.C.; for 1) the
chariot-races at Pytho, which commenced in 586 B.C., are unknown
to the writer of the hymn, 2) the temple built by Trophonius and
Agamedes for Apollo (ll. 294-299) seems to have been still
standing when the hymn was written, and this temple was burned in
548. We may at least be sure that the first part is a Chian
work, and that the second was composed by a continental poet
familiar with Delphi.
The "Hymn to Hermes" differs from others in its burlesque, quasi-
comic character, and it is also the best-known of the Hymns to
English readers in consequence of Shelley's translation.
After a brief narrative of the birth of Hermes, the author goes
on to show how he won a place among the gods. First the new-born
child found a tortoise and from its shell contrived the lyre;
next, with much cunning circumstance, he stole Apollo's cattle
and, when charged with the theft by Apollo, forced that god to
appear in undignified guise before the tribunal of Zeus. Zeus
seeks to reconcile the pair, and Hermes by the gift of the lyre
wins Apollo's friendship and purchases various prerogatives, a
share in divination, the lordship of herds and animals, and the
office of messenger from the gods to Hades.
The Hymn is hard to date. Hermes' lyre has seven strings and the
invention of the seven-stringed lyre is ascribed to Terpander
(flor. 676 B.C.). The hymn must therefore be later than that
date, though Terpander, according to Weir Smyth (16), may have
only modified the scale of the lyre; yet while the burlesque
character precludes an early date, this feature is far removed,
as Allen and Sikes remark, from the silliness of the "Battle of
the Frogs and Mice", so that a date in the earlier part of the
sixth century is most probable.
The "Hymn to Aphrodite" is not the least remarkable, from a
literary point of view, of the whole collection, exhibiting as it
does in a masterly manner a divine being as the unwilling victim
of an irresistible force. It tells how all creatures, and even
the gods themselves, are subject to the will of Aphrodite, saving
only Artemis, Athena, and Hestia; how Zeus to humble her pride of
power caused her to love a mortal, Anchises; and how the goddess
visited the hero upon Mt. Ida. A comparison of this work with
the Lay of Demodocus ("Odyssey" viii, 266 ff.), which is
superficially similar, will show how far superior is the former
in which the goddess is but a victim to forces stronger than
herself. The lines (247-255) in which Aphrodite tells of her
humiliation and grief are specially noteworthy.
There are only general indications of date. The influence of
Hesiod is clear, and the hymn has almost certainly been used by
the author of the "Hymn to Demeter", so that the date must lie
between these two periods, and the seventh century seems to be
the latest date possible.
The "Hymn to Dionysus" relates how the god was seized by pirates
and how with many manifestations of power he avenged himself on
them by turning them into dolphins. The date is widely disputed,
for while Ludwich believes it to be a work of the fourth or third
century, Allen and Sikes consider a sixth or seventh century date
to be possible. The story is figured in a different form on the
reliefs from the choragic monument of Lysicrates, now in the
British Museum (17).
Very different in character is the "Hymn to Ares", which is
Orphic in character. The writer, after lauding the god by
detailing his attributes, prays to be delivered from feebleness
and weakness of soul, as also from impulses to wanton and brutal
violence.
The only other considerable hymn is that to "Pan", which
describes how he roams hunting among the mountains and thickets
and streams, how he makes music at dusk while returning from the
chase, and how he joins in dancing with the nymphs who sing the
story of his birth. This, beyond most works of Greek literature,
is remarkable for its fresh and spontaneous love of wild natural
scenes.
The remaining hymns are mostly of the briefest compass, merely
hailing the god to be celebrated and mentioning his chief
attributes. The Hymns to "Hermes" (xviii), to the "Dioscuri"
(xvii), and to "Demeter" (xiii) are mere abstracts of the longer
hymns iv, xxxiii, and ii.
The "Epigrams of Homer" are derived from the pseudo-Herodotean
"Life of Homer", but many of them occur in other documents such
as the "Contest of Homer and Hesiod", or are quoted by various
ancient authors. These poetic fragments clearly antedate the
"Life" itself, which seems to have been so written round them as
to supply appropriate occasions for their composition. Epigram
iii on Midas of Larissa was otherwise attributed to Cleobulus of
Lindus, one of the Seven Sages; the address to Glaucus (xi) is
purely Hesiodic; xiii, according to MM. Croiset, is a fragment
from a gnomic poem. Epigram xiv is a curious poem attributed on
no very obvious grounds to Hesiod by Julius Pollox. In it the
poet invokes Athena to protect certain potters and their craft,
if they will, according to promise, give him a reward for his
song; if they prove false, malignant gnomes are invoked to wreck
the kiln and hurt the potters.
To Homer were popularly ascribed certain burlesque poems in which
Aristotle ("Poetics" iv) saw the germ of comedy. Most
interesting of these, were it extant, would be the "Margites".
The hero of the epic is at once sciolist and simpleton, `knowing
many things, but knowing them all badly'. It is unfortunately
impossible to trace the plan of the poem, which presumably
detailed the adventures of this unheroic character: the metre
used was a curious mixture of hexametric and iambic lines. The
date of such a work cannot be high: Croiset thinks it may belong
to the period of Archilochus (c. 650 B.C.), but it may well be
somewhat later.
Another poem, of which we know even less, is the "Cercopes".
These Cercopes (`Monkey-Men') were a pair of malignant dwarfs who
went about the world mischief-making. Their punishment by
Heracles is represented on one of the earlier metopes from
Selinus. It would be idle to speculate as to the date of this
work.
Finally there is the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice". Here is
told the story of the quarrel which arose between the two tribes,
and how they fought, until Zeus sent crabs to break up the
battle. It is a parody of the warlike epic, but has little in it
that is really comic or of literary merit, except perhaps the
list of quaint arms assumed by the warriors. The text of the
poem is in a chaotic condition, and there are many
interpolations, some of Byzantine date.
Though popularly ascribed to Homer, its real author is said by
Suidas to have been Pigres, a Carian, brother of Artemisia, `wife
of Mausonis', who distinguished herself at the battle of Salamis.
Suidas is confusing the two Artemisias, but he may be right in
attributing the poem to about 480 B.C.
The Contest of Homer and Hesiod
This curious work dates in its present form from the lifetime or
shortly after the death of Hadrian, but seems to be based in part
on an earlier version by the sophist Alcidamas (c. 400 B.C.).
Plutarch ("Conviv. Sept. Sap.", 40) uses an earlier (or at least
a shorter) version than that which we possess (18). The extant
"Contest", however, has clearly combined with the original
document much other ill-digested matter on the life and descent
of Homer, probably drawing on the same general sources as does
the Herodotean "Life of Homer". Its scope is as follows: 1) the
descent (as variously reported) and relative dates of Homer and
Hesiod; 2) their poetical contest at Chalcis; 3) the death of
Hesiod; 4) the wanderings and fortunes of Homer, with brief
notices of the circumstances under which his reputed works were
composed, down to the time of his death.
The whole tract is, of course, mere romance; its only values are
1) the insight it give into ancient speculations about Homer; 2)
a certain amount of definite information about the Cyclic poems;
and 3) the epic fragments included in the stichomythia of the
"Contest" proper, many of which -- did we possess the clue --
would have to be referred to poems of the Epic Cycle.
(1) sc. in Boeotia, Locris and Thessaly: elsewhere the movement
was forced and unfruitful. HESIOD. -- The classification and numerations of MSS. here
followed is that of Rzach (1913). It is only necessary to add
that on the whole the recovery of Hesiodic papyri goes to confirm
the authority of the mediaeval MSS. At the same time these
fragments have produced much that is interesting and valuable,
such as the new lines, "Works and Days" 169 a-d, and the improved
readings ib. 278, "Theogony" 91, 93. Our chief gains from
papyri are the numerous and excellent fragments of the
Catalogues which have been recovered.
"Works and Days": --
S Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1090.
These MSS. are divided by Rzach into the following families,
issuing from a common original: --
"Theogony": --
N Manchester, Rylands GK. Papyri No. 54 (1st cent. B.C. - 1st
These MSS. are divided into two families:
"Shield of Heracles": --
P Oxyrhynchus Papyri 689 (2nd cent.).
A Vienna, Rainer Papyri L.P. 21-29 (4th cent.).
Q Berlin Papyri, 9774 (1st cent.).
B Paris, Bibl. Nat., Suppl. Graec. 663 (12th cent.).
C Paris, Bibl. Nat., Suppl. Graec. 663 (12th cent.).
D Milan, Ambros. C 222 (13th cent.).
E Florence, Laur. xxxii 16 (13th cent.).
F Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2773 (14th cent.).
G Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2772 (14th cent.).
H Florence, Laur. xxxi 32 (15th cent.).
I London, British Museaum Harleianus (14th cent.).
K Rome, Bibl. Casanat. 356 (14th cent.)
L Florence, Laur. Conv. suppr. 158 (14th cent.).
M Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2833 (15th cent.).
These MSS. belong to two families:
To these must be added two MSS. of mixed family:
N Venice, Marc. ix 6 (14th cent.).
O Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2708 (15th cent.).
Editions of Hesiod: --
Demetrius Chalcondyles, Milan (?) 1493 (?) ("editio princeps",
containing, however, only the "Works and Days").
Aldus Manutius (Aldine edition), Venice, 1495 (complete works).
Juntine Editions, 1515 and 1540.
Trincavelli, Venice, 1537 (with scholia).
Of modern editions, the following may be noticed: --
Gaisford, Oxford, 1814-1820; Leipzig, 1823 (with scholia: in
Poett. Graec. Minn II).
Goettling, Gotha, 1831 (3rd edition. Leipzig, 1878).
Didot Edition, Paris, 1840.
Schomann, 1869.
Koechly and Kinkel, Leipzig, 1870.
Flach, Leipzig, 1874-8.
Rzach, Leipzig, 1902 (larger edition), 1913 (smaller edition).
On the Hesiodic poems generally the ordinary Histories of Greek
Literature may be consulted, but especially the "Hist. de la
Litterature Grecque" I pp. 459 ff. of MM. Croiset. The summary
account in Prof. Murray's "Anc. Gk. Lit." is written with a
strong sceptical bias. Very valuable is the appendix to Mair's
translation (Oxford, 1908) on "The Farmer's Year in Hesiod".
Recent work on the Hesiodic poems is reviewed in full by Rzach in
Bursian's "Jahresberichte" vols. 100 (1899) and 152 (1911).
For the "Fragments" of Hesiodic poems the work of Markscheffel,
"Hesiodi Fragmenta" (Leipzig, 1840), is most valuable: important
also is Kinkel's "Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta" I (Leipzig, 1877)
and the editions of Rzach noticed above. For recently discovered
papyrus fragments see Wilamowitz, "Neue Bruchstucke d. Hesiod
Katalog" (Sitzungsb. der k. preuss. Akad. fur Wissenschaft, 1900,
pp. 839-851). A list of papyri belonging to lost Hesiodic works
may here be added: all are the "Catalogues".
1) Berlin Papyri 7497 (1) (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 7. The Homeric Hymns: --
The text of the Homeric hymns is distinctly bad in condition, a
fact which may be attributed to the general neglect under which
they seem to have laboured at all periods previously to the
Revival of Learning. Very many defects have been corrected by
the various editions of the Hymns, but a considerable number
still defy all efforts; and especially an abnormal number of
undoubted lacuna disfigure the text. Unfortunately no papyrus
fragment of the Hymns has yet emerged, though one such fragment
("Berl. Klassikertexte" v.1. pp. 7 ff.) contains a paraphrase of
a poem very closely parallel to the "Hymn to Demeter".
The mediaeval MSS. (2) are thus enumerated by Dr. T.W. Allen: --
A Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2763.
The same scholar has traced all the MSS. back to a common parent
from which three main families are derived (M had a separate
descent and is not included in any family): --
x1 = E,T
x2 = L, Editions of the Homeric Hymns, & c.: --
Demetrius Chalcondyles, Florence, 1488 (with the "Epigrams" and
the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice" in the "ed. pr." of
Homer).
More modern editions or critical works of value are:
Martin (Variarum Lectionum libb. iv), Paris, 1605.
Of these editions that of Messrs Allen and Sikes is by far the
best: not only is the text purged of the load of conjectures for
which the frequent obscurities of the Hymns offer a special
opening, but the Introduction and the Notes throughout are of the
highest value. For a full discussion of the MSS. and textual
problems, reference must be made to this edition, as also to Dr.
T.W. Allen's series of articles in the "Journal of Hellenic
Studies" vols. xv ff. Among translations those of J. Edgar
(Edinburgh), 1891) and of Andrew Lang (London, 1899) may be
mentioned.
The Epic Cycle: --
The fragments of the Epic Cycle, being drawn from a variety of
authors, no list of MSS. can be given. The following collections
and editions may be mentioned: --
Muller, Leipzig, 1829. The fullest discussion of the problems and fragments of the epic
cycle is F.G. Welcker's "der epische Cyclus" (Bonn, vol. i, 1835:
vol. ii, 1849: vol. i, 2nd edition, 1865). The Appendix to
Monro's "Homer's Odyssey" xii-xxiv (pp. 340 ff.) deals with the
Cyclic poets in relation to Homer, and a clear and reasonable
discussion of the subject is to be found in Croiset's "Hist. de
la Litterature Grecque", vol. i.
On Hesiod, the Hesiodic poems and the problems which these offer
see Rzach's most important article "Hesiodos" in Pauly-Wissowa,
"Real-Encyclopadie" xv (1912).
A discussion of the evidence for the date of Hesiod is to be
found in "Journ. Hell. Stud." xxxv, 85 ff. (T.W. Allen).
Of translations of Hesiod the following may be noticed: -- "The
Georgicks of Hesiod", by George Chapman, London, 1618; "The Works
of Hesiod translated from the Greek", by Thomas Coocke, London,
1728; "The Remains of Hesiod translated from the Greek into
English Verse", by Charles Abraham Elton; "The Works of Hesiod,
Callimachus, and Theognis", by the Rev. J. Banks, M.A.; "Hesiod",
by Prof. James Mair, Oxford, 1908
ENDNOTES:
(1) See Schubert, "Berl. Klassikertexte" v. 1.22 ff.; the other
papyri may be found in the publications whose name they
bear.
THE DIVINATION BY BIRDS (fragments)
Proclus on Works and Days, 828:
Some make the "Divination by Birds", which Apollonius of Rhodes
rejects as spurious, follow this verse ("Works and Days", 828).
THE ASTRONOMY (fragments)
Fragment #1 --
Athenaeus xi, p. 491 d:
And the author of "The Astronomy", which is attributed forsooth
to Hesiod, always calls them (the Pleiades) Peleiades: `but
mortals call them Peleiades'; and again, `the stormy Peleiades go
down'; and again, `then the Peleiades hide away....'
Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. ii. 16:
The Pleiades.... whose stars are these: -- `Lovely Teygata, and
dark-faced Electra, and Alcyone, and bright Asterope, and
Celaeno, and Maia, and Merope, whom glorious Atlas begot....'
((LACUNA))
`In the mountains of Cyllene she (Maia) bare Hermes, the herald
of the gods.'
Fragment #2 --
Scholiast on Aratus 254:
But Zeus made them (the sisters of Hyas) into the stars which are
called Hyades. Hesiod in his Book about Stars tells us their
names as follows: `Nymphs like the Graces (1), Phaesyle and
Coronis and rich-crowned Cleeia and lovely Phaco and long-robed
Eudora, whom the tribes of men upon the earth call Hyades.'
Fragment #3 --
Pseudo-Eratosthenes Catast. frag. 1: (2)
The Great Bear.] -- Hesiod says she (Callisto) was the daughter
of Lycaon and lived in Arcadia. She chose to occupy herself with
wild-beasts in the mountains together with Artemis, and, when she
was seduced by Zeus, continued some time undetected by the
goddess, but afterwards, when she was already with child, was
seen by her bathing and so discovered. Upon this, the goddess
was enraged and changed her into a beast. Thus she became a bearand gave birth to a son called Arcas. But while she was in the
mountains, she was hunted by some goat-herds and given up with
her babe to Lycaon. Some while after, she thought fit to go into
the forbidden precinct of Zeus, not knowing the law, and being
pursued by her own son and the Arcadians, was about to be killed
because of the said law; but Zeus delivered her because of her
connection with him and put her among the stars, giving her the
name Bear because of the misfortune which had befallen her.
Comm. Supplem. on Aratus, p. 547 M. 8:
Of Bootes, also called the Bear-warden. The story goes that he
is Arcas the son of Callisto and Zeus, and he lived in the
country about Lycaeum. After Zeus had seduced Callisto, Lycaon,
pretending not to know of the matter, entertained Zeus, as Hesiod
says, and set before him on the table the babe which he had cut
up.
Fragment #4 --
Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catast. fr. xxxii:
Orion.] -- Hesiod says that he was the son of Euryale, the
daughter of Minos, and of Poseidon, and that there was given him
as a gift the power of walking upon the waves as though upon
land. When he was come to Chios, be outraged Merope, the
daughter of Oenopion, being drunken; but Oenopion when he learned
of it was greatly vexed at the outrage and blinded him and cast
him out of the country. Then he came to Lemnos as a beggar and
there met Hephaestus who took pity on him and gave him Cedalion
his own servant to guide him. So Orion took Cedalion upon his
shoulders and used to carry him about while he pointed out the
roads. Then he came to the east and appears to have met Helius
(the Sun) and to have been healed, and so returned back again to
Oenopion to punish him; but Oenopion was hidden away by his
people underground. Being disappointed, then, in his search for
the king, Orion went away to Crete and spent his time hunting in
company with Artemis and Leto. It seems that he threatened to
kill every beast there was on earth; whereupon, in her anger,
Earth sent up against him a scorpion of very great size by which
he was stung and so perished. After this Zeus, at one prayer of
Artemis and Leto, put him among the stars, because of his
manliness, and the scorpion also as a memorial of him and of what
had occurred.
Fragment #5 --
Diodorus iv. 85:
Some say that great earthquakes occurred, which broke through the
neck of land and formed the straits
ENDNOTES:
(1) This halt verse is added by the Scholiast on Aratus, 172.
THE PRECEPTS OF CHIRON (fragments)
Fragment #1 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. vi. 19:
`And now, pray, mark all these things well in a wise heart.
First, whenever you come to your house, offer good sacrifices to
the eternal gods.'
Fragment #2 --
Plutarch Mor. 1034 E:
`Decide no suit until you have heard both sides speak.'
Fragment #3 --
Plutarch de Orac. defectu ii. 415 C:
`A chattering crow lives out nine generations of aged men, but a
stag's life is four times a crow's, and a raven's life makes
three stags old, while the phoenix outlives nine ravens, but we,
the rich-haired Nymphs, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder,
outlive ten phoenixes.'
Fragment #4 --
Quintilian, i. 15:
Some consider that children under the age of seven should not
receive a literary education... That Hesiod was of this opinion
very many writers affirm who were earlier than the critic
Aristophanes; for he was the first to reject the "Precepts", in
which book this maxim occurs, as a work of that poet.
THE GREAT WORKS (fragments)
Fragment #1 --
Comm. on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. v. 8:
The verse, however (the slaying of Rhadamanthys), is in Hesiod in
the "Great Works" and is as follows: `If a man sow evil, he shall
reap evil increase; if men do to him as he has done, it will be
true justice.'
Fragment #2 --
Proclus on Hesiod, Works and Days, 126:
Some believe that the Silver Race (is to be attributed to) the
earth, declaring that in the "Great Works" Hesiod makes silver to
be of the family of Earth.
THE IDAEAN DACTYLS (fragments)
Fragment #1 --
Pliny, Natural History vii. 56, 197:
Hesiod says that those who are called the Idaean Dactyls taught
the smelting and tempering of iron in Crete.
Fragment #2 --
Clement, Stromateis i. 16. 75:
Celmis, again, and Damnameneus, the first of the Idaean Dactyls,
discovered iron in Cyprus; but bronze smelting was discovered by
Delas, another Idaean, though Hesiod calls him Scythes (1).
ENDNOTES:
(1) Or perhaps `a Scythian'.
THE CATALOGUES OF WOMEN AND EOIAE (fragments) (1)
Fragment #1 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iii. 1086:
That Deucalion was the son of Prometheus and Pronoea, Hesiod
states in the first "Catalogue", as also that Hellen was the son
of Deucalion and Pyrrha.
Fragment #2 --
Ioannes Lydus (2), de Mens. i. 13:
They came to call those who followed local manners Latins, but
those who followed Hellenic customs Greeks, after the brothers
Latinus and Graecus; as Hesiod says: `And in the palace Pandora
the daughter of noble Deucalion was joined in love with father
Zeus, leader of all the gods, and bare Graecus, staunch in
battle.'
Fragment #3 --
Constantinus Porphyrogenitus
Fragment #4 --
Plutarch, Mor. p. 747; Schol. on Pindar Pyth. iv. 263:
`And from Hellen the war-loving king sprang Dorus and Xuthus and
Aeolus delighting in horses. And the sons of Aeolus, kings
dealing justice, were Cretheus, and Athamas, and clever Sisyphus,
and wicked Salmoneus and overbold Perieres.'
Fragment #5 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 266:
Those who were descended from Deucalion used to rule over
Thessaly as Hecataeus and Hesiod say.
Fragment #6 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 482:
Aloiadae. Hesiod said that they were sons of Aloeus, -- called
so after him, -- and of Iphimedea, but in reality sons of
Poseidon and Iphimedea, and that Alus a city of Aetolia was
founded by their father.
Fragment #7 --
Berlin Papyri, No. 7497; Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 421
Fragment #8 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodes, Arg. iv. 57:
Hesiod says that Endymion was the son of Aethlius the son of Zeus
and Calyee, and received the gift from Zeus: `(To be) keeper of
death for his own self when he was ready to die.'
Fragment #9 --
Scholiast Ven. on Homer, Il. xi. 750:
The two sons of Actor and Molione... Hesiod has given their
descent by calling them after Actor and Molione; but their father
was Poseidon.
Porphyrius
Fragment #10 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 156:
But Hesiod says that he changed himself in one of his wonted
shapes and perched on the yoke-boss of Heracles' horses, meaning
to fight with the hero; but that Heracles, secretly instructed by
Athena, wounded him mortally with an arrow. And he says as
follows: `...and lordly Periclymenus. Happy he! For
earth-shaking Poseidon gave him all manner of gifts. At one time
he would appear among birds, an eagle; and again at another he
would be an ant, a marvel to see; and then a shining swarm of
bees; and again at another time a dread relentless snake. And he
possessed all manner of gifts which cannot he told, and these
then ensnared him through the devising of Athene.'
Fragment #11 --
Stephanus of Byzantium (8), s.v.:
`(Heracles) slew the noble sons of steadfast Neleus, eleven of
them; but the twelfth, the horsemen Gerenian Nestor chanced to be
staying with the horse-taming Gerenians.
((LACUNA))
Nestor alone escaped in flowery Gerenon.'
Fragment #12 --
Eustathius (9), Hom. 1796.39:
`So well-girded Polycaste, the youngest daughter of Nestor,
Neleus' son, was joined in love with Telemachus through golden
Aphrodite and bare Persepolis.'
Fragment #13 --
Scholiast on Homer, Od. xii. 69:
Tyro the daughter of Salmoneus, having two sons by Poseidon,
Neleus and Pelias, married Cretheus, and had by him three sons,
Aeson, Pheres and Amythaon. And of Aeson and Polymede, according
to Hesiod, Iason was born: `Aeson, who begot a son Iason,
shepherd of the people, whom Chiron brought up in woody Pelion.'
Fragment #14 --
Petrie Papyri (ed. Mahaffy), Pl. III. 3:
`....of the glorious lord
....fair Atalanta, swift of foot, the daughter of Schoeneus, who
had the beaming eyes of the Graces, though she was ripe for
wedlock rejected the company of her equals and sought to avoid
marriage with men who eat bread.'
Scholiast on Homer, Iliad xxiii. 683:
Hesiod is therefore later in date than Homer since he represents
Hippomenes as stripped when contending with Atalanta (10).
Papiri greci e latini, ii. No. 130 (2nd-3rd century) (11):
(ll. 1-7) `Then straightway there rose up against him the trim-
ankled maiden (Atalanta), peerless in beauty: a great throng
stood round about her as she gazed fiercely, and wonder held all
men as they looked upon her. As she moved, the breath of the
west wind stirred the shining garment about her tender bosom; but
Hippomenes stood where he was: and much people was gathered
together. All these kept silence; but Schoeneus cried and said:
(ll. 8-20) `"Hear me all, both young and old, while I speak as my
spirit within my breast bids me. Hippomenes seeks my coy-eyed
daughter to wife; but let him now hear my wholesome speech. He
shall not win her without contest; yet, if he be victorious and
escape death, and if the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus
grant him to win renown, verily he shall return to his dear
native land, and I will give him my dear child and strong, swift-
footed horses besides which he shall lead home to be cherished
possessions; and may he rejoice in heart possessing these, and
ever remember with gladness the painful contest. May the father
of men and of gods (grant that splendid children may be born to
him)' (12)
((LACUNA))
(ll. 21-27) `on the right....
and he, rushing upon her,....
drawing back slightly towards the left. And on them was laid an
unenviable struggle: for she, even fair, swift-footed Atalanta,
ran scorning the gifts of golden Aphrodite; but with him the race
was for his life, either to find his doom, or to escape it.
Therefore with thoughts of guile he said to her:
(ll. 28-29) `"O daughter of Schoeneus, pitiless in heart, receive
these glorious gifts of the goddess, golden Aphrodite...'
((LACUNA))
(ll. 30-36) `But he, following lightly on his feet, cast the
first apple (13): and, swiftly as a Harpy, she turned back and
snatched it. Then he cast the second to the ground with his
hand. And now fair, swift-footed Atalanta had two apples and was
near the goal; but Hippomenes cast the third apple to the ground,
and therewith escaped death and black fate. And he stood panting
and...'
Fragment #15 --
Strabo (14), i. p. 42:
`And the daughter of Arabus, whom worthy Hermaon begat with
Thronia, daughter of the lord Belus.'
Fragment #16 --
Eustathius, Hom. 461. 2:
`Argos which was waterless Danaus made well-watered.'
Fragment #17 --
Hecataeus (15) in Scholiast on Euripides, Orestes, 872:
Aegyptus himself did not go to Argos, but sent his sons, fifty in
number, as Hesiod represented.
Fragment #18 -- (16)
Strabo, viii. p. 370:
And Apollodorus says that Hesiod already knew that the whole
people were called both Hellenes and Panhellenes, as when he says
of the daughters of Proetus that the Panhellenes sought them in
marriage.
Apollodorus, ii. 2.1.4:
Acrisius was king of Argos and Proetus of Tiryns. And Acrisius
had by Eurydice the daughter of Lacedemon, Danae; and Proetus by
Stheneboea `Lysippe and Iphinoe and Iphianassa'. And these fell
mad, as Hesiod states, because they would not receive the rites
of Dionysus.
Probus (17) on Vergil, Eclogue vi. 48:
These (the daughters of Proetus), because they had scorned the
divinity of Juno, were overcome with madness, such that they
believed they had been turned into cows, and left Argos their own
country. Afterwards they were cured by Melampus, the son of
Amythaon.
Suidas, s.v.: (18)
`Because of their hideous wantonness they lost their tender
beauty....'
Eustathius, Hom. 1746.7:
`....For he shed upon their heads a fearful itch: and leprosy
covered all their flesh, and their hair dropped from their heads,
and their fair scalps were made bare.'
Fragment #19A -- (19)
Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 1 (3rd cent. A.D.): (20)
(ll. 1-32) `....So she (Europa) crossed the briny water from afar
to Crete, beguiled by the wiles of Zeus. Secretly did the Father
snatch her away and gave her a gift, the golden necklace, the toy
which Hephaestus the famed craftsman once made by his cunning
skill and brought and gave it to his father for a possession.
And Zeus received the gift, and gave it in turn to the daughter
of proud Phoenix. But when the Father of men and of gods had
mated so far off with trim-ankled Europa, then he departed back
again from the rich-haired girl. So she bare sons to the
almighty Son of Cronos, glorious leaders of wealthy men -- Minos
the ruler, and just Rhadamanthys and noble Sarpedon the blameless
and strong. To these did wise Zeus give each a share of his
honour. Verily Sarpedon reigned mightily over wide Lycia and
ruled very many cities filled with people, wielding the sceptre
of Zeus: and great honour followed him, which his father gave
him, the great-hearted shepherd of the people. For wise Zeus
ordained that he should live for three generations of mortal men
and not waste away with old age. He sent him to Troy; and
Sarpedon gathered a great host, men chosen out of Lycia to be
allies to the Trojans. These med did Sarpedon lead, skilled in
bitter war. And Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, sent him
forth from heaven a star, showing tokens for the return of his
dear son.... ....for well he (Sarpedon) knew in his heart that
the sign was indeed from Zeus. Very greatly did he excel in war
together with man-slaying Hector and brake down the wall,
bringing woes upon the Danaans. But so soon as Patroclus had
inspired the Argives with hard courage....'
Fragment #19 --
Scholiast on Homer, Il. xii. 292:
Zeus saw Europa the daughter of Phoenix gathering flowers in a
meadow with some nymphs and fell in love with her. So he came
down and changed himself into a bull and breathed from his mouth
a crocus (21). In this way he deceived Europa, carried her off
and crossed the sea to Crete where he had intercourse with her.
Then in this condition he made her live with Asterion the king of
the Cretans. There she conceived and bore three sons, Minos,
Sarpedon and Rhadamanthys. The tale is in Hesiod and
Bacchylides.
Fragment #20 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 178:
But according to Hesiod (Phineus) was the son of Phoenix,
Agenor's son and Cassiopea.
Fragment #21 --
Apollodorus (22), iii. 14.4.1:
But Hesiod says that he (Adonis) was the son of Phoenix and
Alphesiboea.
Fragment #22 --
Porphyrius, Quaest. Hom. ad Iliad. pert. p. 189:
As it is said in Hesiod in the "Catalogue of Women" concerning
Demodoce the daughter of Agenor: `Demodoce whom very many of men
on earth, mighty princes, wooed, promising splendid gifts,
because of her exceeding beauty.'
Fragment #23 --
Apollodorus, iii. 5.6.2:
Hesiod says that (the children of Amphion and Niobe) were ten
sons and ten daughters.
Aelian (23), Var. Hist. xii. 36:
But Hesiod says they were nine boys and ten girls; -- unless
after all the verses are not Hesiod but are falsely ascribed to
him as are many others.
Fragment #24 --
Scholiast on Homer, Il. xxiii. 679:
And Hesiod says that when Oedipus had died at Thebes, Argea the
daughter of Adrastus came with others to the funeral of Oedipus.
Fragment #25 --
Herodian (24) in Etymologicum Magnum, p. 60, 40:
Tityos the son of Elara.
Fragment #26 -- (25)
Argument: Pindar, Ol. xiv:
Cephisus is a river in Orchomenus where also the Graces are
worshipped. Eteoclus the son of the river Cephisus first
sacrificed to them, as Hesiod says.
Scholiast on Homer, Il. ii. 522:
`which from Lilaea spouts forth its sweet flowing water....'
Strabo, ix. 424:
`....And which flows on by Panopeus and through fenced Glechon
and through Orchomenus, winding like a snake.'
Fragment #27 --
Scholiast on Homer, Il. vii. 9:
For the father of Menesthius, Areithous was a Boeotian living at
Arnae; and this is in Boeotia, as also Hesiod says.
Fragment #28 --
Stephanus of Byzantium:
Onchestus: a grove (26). It is situate in the country of
Haliartus and was founded by Onchestus the Boeotian, as Hesiod
says.
Fragment #29 --
Stephanus of Byzantium:
There is also a plain of Aega bordering on Cirrha, according to
Hesiod.
Fragment #30 --
Apollodorus, ii. 1.1.5:
But Hesiod says that Pelasgus was autochthonous.
Fragment #31 --
Strabo, v. p. 221:
That this tribe (the Pelasgi) were from Arcadia, Ephorus states
on the authority of Hesiod; for he says: `Sons were born to god-
like Lycaon whom Pelasgus once begot.'
Fragment #32 --
Stephanus of Byzantium:
Pallantium. A city of Arcadia, so named after Pallas, one of
Lycaon's sons, according to Hesiod.
Fragment #33 --
(Unknown):
`Famous Meliboea bare Phellus the good spear-man.'
Fragment #34 --
Herodian, On Peculiar Diction, p. 18:
In Hesiod in the second Catalogue: `Who once hid the torch (27)
within.'
Fragment #35 --
Herodian, On Peculiar Diction, p. 42:
Hesiod in the third Catalogue writes: `And a resounding thud of
feet rose up.'
Fragment #36 --
Apollonius Dyscolus (28), On the Pronoun, p. 125:
`And a great trouble to themselves.'
Fragment #37 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 45:
Neither Homer nor Hesiod speak of Iphiclus as amongst the
Argonauts.
Fragment #38 --
`Eratosthenes' (29), Catast. xix. p. 124:
The Ram.] -- This it was that transported Phrixus and Helle. It
was immortal and was given them by their mother Nephele, and had
a golden fleece, as Hesiod and Pherecydes say.
Fragment #39 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 181:
Hesiod in the "Great Eoiae" says that Phineus was blinded because
he revealed to Phrixus the road; but in the third "Catalogue",
because he preferred long life to sight.
Hesiod says he had two sons, Thynus and Mariandynus.
Ephorus (30) in Strabo, vii. 302:
Hesiod, in the so-called Journey round the Earth, says that
Phineus was brought by the Harpies `to the land of milk-feeders
(31) who have waggons for houses.'
Fragment #40A -- (Cp. Fr. 43 and 44)
Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 2 (3rd cent. A.D.): (32)
((LACUNA -- Slight remains of 7 lines))
(ll. 8-35) `(The Sons of Boreas pursued the Harpies) to the lands
of the Massagetae and of the proud Half-Dog men, of the
Underground-folk and of the feeble Pygmies; and to the tribes of
the boundless Black-skins and the Libyans. Huge Earth bare these
to Epaphus -- soothsaying people, knowing seercraft by the will
of Zeus the lord of oracles, but deceivers, to the end that men
whose thought passes their utterance (33) might be subject to the
gods and suffer harm -- Aethiopians and Libyans and mare-milking
Scythians. For verily Epaphus was the child of the almighty Son
of Cronos, and from him sprang the dark Libyans, and high-souled
Aethiopians, and the Underground-folk and feeble Pygmies. All
these are the offspring of the lord, the Loud-thunderer. Round
about all these (the Sons of Boreas) sped in darting flight....
....of the well-horsed Hyperboreans -- whom Earth the all-
nourishing bare far off by the tumbling streams of deep-flowing
Eridanus.... ....of amber, feeding her wide-scattered offspring
-- and about the steep Fawn mountain and rugged Etna to the isle
Ortygia and the people sprung from Laestrygon who was the son of
wide-reigning Poseidon. Twice ranged the Sons of Boreas along
this coast and wheeled round and about yearning to catch the
Harpies, while they strove to escape and avoid them. And they
sped to the tribe of the haughty Cephallenians, the people of
patient-souled Odysseus whom in aftertime Calypso the queenly
nymph detained for Poseidon. Then they came to the land of the
lord the son of Ares.... ....they heard. Yet still (the Sons of
Boreas) ever pursued them with instant feet. So they (the
Harpies) sped over the sea and through the fruitless air...'
Fragment #40 --
Strabo, vii. p. 300:
`The Aethiopians and Ligurians and mare-milking Scythians.'
Fragment #41 --
Apollodorus, i. 9.21.6:
As they were being pursued, one of the Harpies fell into the
river Tigris, in Peloponnesus which is now called Harpys after
her. Some call this one Nicothoe, and others Aellopus. The
other who was called Ocypete, or as some say Ocythoe (though
Hesiod calls her Ocypus), fled down the Propontis and reached as
far as to the Echinades islands which are now called because of
her, Strophades (Turning Islands).
Fragment #42 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 297:
Hesiod also says that those with Zetes (34) turned and prayed to
Zeus: `There they prayed to the lord of Aenos who reigns on
high.'
Apollonius indeed says it was Iris who made Zetes and his
following turn away, but Hesiod says Hermes.
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. ii. 296:
Others say (the islands) were called Strophades, because they
turned there and prayed Zeus to seize the Harpies. But according
to Hesiod... they were not killed.
Fragment #43 --
Philodemus (35), On Piety, 10:
Nor let anyone mock at Hesiod who mentions.... or even the
Troglodytes and the Pygmies.
Fragment #44 --
Strabo, i. p. 43:
No one would accuse Hesiod of ignorance though he speaks of the
Half-dog people and the Great-Headed people and the Pygmies.
Fragment #45 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 284:
But Hesiod says they (the Argonauts) had sailed in through the
Phasis.
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 259:
But Hesiod (says).... they came through the Ocean to Libya, and
so, carrying the Argo, reached our sea.
Fragment #46 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iii. 311:
Apollonius, following Hesiod, says that Circe came to the island
over against Tyrrhenia on the chariot of the Sun. And he called
it Hesperian, because it lies toward the west.
Fragment #47 --
Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 892:
He (Apollonius) followed Hesiod who thus names the island of the
Sirens: `To the island Anthemoessa (Flowery) which the son of
Cronos gave them.'
And their names are Thelxiope or Thelxinoe, Molpe and Aglaophonus
(36).
Scholiast on Homer, Od. xii. 168:
Hence Hesiod said that they charmed even the winds.
Fragment #48 --
Scholiast on Homer, Od. i. 85:
Hesiod says that Ogygia is within towards the west, but Ogylia
lies over against Crete: `...the Ogylian sea and... ...the island
Ogylia.'
Fragment #49 --
Scholiast on Homer, Od. vii. 54:
Hesiod regarded Arete as the sister of Alcinous.
Fragment #50 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Ol. x. 46:
Her Hippostratus (did wed), a scion of Ares, the splendid son of
Phyetes, of the line of Amarynces, leader of the Epeians.
Fragment #51 --
Apollodorus, i. 8.4.1:
When Althea was dead, Oeneus married Periboea, the daughter of
Hipponous. Hesiod says that she was seduced by Hippostratus the
son of Amarynces and that her father Hipponous sent her from
Olenus in Achaea to Oeneus because he was far away from Hellas,
bidding him kill her.
`She used to dwell on the cliff of Olenus by the banks of wide
Peirus.'
Fragment #52 --
Diodorus (37) v. 81:
Macareus was a son of Crinacus the son of Zeus as Hesiod says...
and dwelt in Olenus in the country then called Ionian, but now
Achaean.
Fragment #53 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. ii. 21:
Concerning the Myrmidons Hesiod speaks thus: `And she conceived
and bare Aeacus, delighting in horses. Now when he came to the
full measure of desired youth, he chafed at being alone. And the
father of men and gods made all the ants that were in the lovely
isle into men and wide-girdled women. These were the first who
fitted with thwarts ships with curved sides, and the first who
used sails, the wings of a sea-going ship.'
Fragment #54 --
Polybius, v. 2:
`The sons of Aeacus who rejoiced in battle as though a feast.'
Fragment #55 --
Porphyrius, Quaest. Hom. ad Iliad. pertin. p. 93:
He has indicated the shameful deed briefly by the phrase `to lie
with her against her will', and not like Hesiod who recounts at
length the story of Peleus and the wife of Acastus.
Fragment #56 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. iv. 95:
`And this seemed to him (Acastus) in his mind the best plan; to
keep back himself, but to hide beyond guessing the beautiful
knife which the very famous Lame One had made for him, that in
seeking it alone over steep Pelion, he (Peleus) might be slain
forthwith by the mountain-bred Centaurs.'
Fragment #57 --
Voll. Herculan. (Papyri from Herculaneum), 2nd Collection, viii.
105:
The author of the "Cypria" (38) says that Thetis avoided wedlock
with Zeus to please Hera; but that Zeus was angry and swore that
she should mate with a mortal. Hesiod also has the like account.
Fragment #58 --
Strassburg Greek Papyri 55 (2nd century A.D.):
(ll. 1-13) `Peleus the son of Aeacus, dear to the deathless
gods, came to Phthia the mother of flocks, bringing great
possessions from spacious Iolcus. And all the people envied him
in their hearts seeing how he had sacked the well-built city, and
accomplished his joyous marriage; and they all spake this word:
"Thrice, yea, four times blessed son of Aeacus, happy Peleus!
For far-seeing Olympian Zeus has given you a wife with many gifts
and the blessed gods have brought your marriage fully to pass,
and in these halls you go up to the holy bed of a daughter of
Nereus. Truly the father, the son of Cronos, made you very pre-
eminent among heroes and honoured above other men who eat bread
and consume the fruit of the ground."'
Fragment #59 -- (39)
Origen, Against Celsus, iv. 79:
`For in common then were the banquets, and in common the seats of
deathless gods and mortal men.'
Fragment #60 --
Scholiast on Homer, Il. xvi. 175:
...whereas Hesiod and the rest call her (Peleus' daughter)
Polydora.
Fragment #61 --
Eustathius, Hom. 112. 44 sq:
It should be observed that the ancient narrative hands down the
account that Patroclus was even a kinsman of Achilles; for Hesiod
says that Menoethius the father of Patroclus, was a brother of
Peleus, so that in that case they were first cousins.
Fragment #62 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Ol. x. 83:
Some write `Serus the son of Halirrhothius', whom Hesiod
mentions: `He (begot) Serus and Alazygus, goodly sons.' And
Serus was the son of Halirrhothius Perieres' son, and of Alcyone.
Fragment #63 --
Pausanias (40), ii. 26. 7:
This oracle most clearly proves that Asclepius was not the son of
Arsinoe, but that Hesiod or one of Hesiod's interpolators
composed the verses to please the Messenians.
Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. iii. 14:
Some say (Asclepius) was the son of Arsinoe, others of Coronis.
But Asclepiades says that Arsinoe was the daughter of Leucippus,
Perieres' son, and that to her and Apollo Asclepius and a
daughter, Eriopis, were born: `And she bare in the palace
Asclepius, leader of men, and Eriopis with the lovely hair, being
subject in love to Phoebus.'
And of Arsinoe likewise: `And Arsinoe was joined with the son of
Zeus and Leto and bare a son Asclepius, blameless and strong.'
(41)
Fragment #67 --
Scholiast on Euripides, Orestes 249:
Steischorus says that while sacrificing to the gods Tyndareus
forgot Aphrodite and that the goddess was angry and made his
daughters twice and thrice wed and deserters of their
husbands.... And Hesiod also says:
(ll. 1-7) `And laughter-loving Aphrodite felt jealous when she
looked on them and cast them into evil report. Then Timandra
deserted Echemus and went and came to Phyleus, dear to the
deathless gods; and even so Clytaemnestra deserted god-like
Agamemnon and lay with Aegisthus and chose a worse mate; and even
so Helen dishonoured the couch of golden-haired Menelaus.'
Fragment #68 -- (42)
Berlin Papyri, No. 9739:
(ll. 1-10) `....Philoctetes sought her, a leader of spearmen,
.... most famous of all men at shooting from afar and with the
sharp spear. And he came to Tyndareus' bright city for the sake
of the Argive maid who had the beauty of golden Aphrodite, and
the sparkling eyes of the Graces; and the dark-faced daughter of
Ocean, very lovely of form, bare her when she had shared the
embraces of Zeus and the king Tyndareus in the bright palace....
(And.... sought her to wife offering as gifts)
((LACUNA))
(ll. 11-15) ....and as many women skilled in blameless arts, each
holding a golden bowl in her hands. And truly Castor and strong
Polydeuces would have made him (43) their brother perforce, but
Agamemnon, being son-in-law to Tyndareus, wooed her for his
brother Menelaus.
(ll. 16-19) And the two sons of Amphiaraus the lord, Oecleus'
son, sought her to wife from Argos very near at hand; yet....
fear of the blessed gods and the indignation of men caused them
also to fail.
((LACUNA))
(l. 20) ...but there was no deceitful dealing in the sons of
Tyndareus.
(ll. 21-27) And from Ithaca the sacred might of Odysseus, Laertes
son, who knew many-fashioned wiles, sought her to wife. He never
sent gifts for the sake of the neat-ankled maid, for he knew in
his heart that golden-haired Menelaus would win, since he was
greatest of the Achaeans in possessions and was ever sending
messages (44) to horse-taming Castor and prize-winning
Polydeuces.
(ll. 28-30) And....on's son sought her to wife (and brought)
....bridal-gifts....
....cauldrons....
((LACUNA))
(ll. 31-33) ...to horse-taming Castor and prize-winning
Polydeuces, desiring to be the husband of rich-haired Helen,
though he had never seen her beauty, but because he heard the
report of others.
(ll. 34-41) And from Phylace two men of exceeding worth sought
her to wife, Podarces son of Iphiclus, Phylacus' son, and Actor's
noble son, overbearing Protesilaus. Both of them kept sending
messages to Lacedaemon, to the house of wise Tyndareus, Oebalus'
son, and they offered many bridal-gifts, for great was the girl's
renown, brazen....
....golden....
((LACUNA))
(l. 42) ...(desiring) to be the husband of rich-haired Helen.
(ll. 43-49) From Athens the son of Peteous, Menestheus, sought
her to wife, and offered many bridal-gifts; for he possessed very
many stored treasures, gold and cauldrons and tripods, fine
things which lay hid in the house of the lord Peteous, and with
them his heart urged him to win his bride by giving more gifts
than any other; for he thought that no one of all the heroes
would surpass him in possessions and gifts.
(ll. 50-51) There came also by ship from Crete to the house of
the son of Oebalus strong Lycomedes for rich-haired Helen's sake.
Berlin Papyri, No. 10560:
(ll. 52-54) ...sought her to wife. And after golden-haired
Menelaus he offered the greatest gifts of all the suitors, and
very much he desired in his heart to be the husband of Argive
Helen with the rich hair.
(ll. 55-62) And from Salamis Aias, blameless warrior, sought her
to wife, and offered fitting gifts, even wonderful deeds; for he
said that he would drive together and give the shambling oxen and
strong sheep of all those who lived in Troezen and Epidaurus near
the sea, and in the island of Aegina and in Mases, sons of the
Achaeans, and shadowy Megara and frowning Corinthus, and Hermione
and Asine which lie along the sea; for he was famous with the
long spear.
(ll. 63-66) But from Euboea Elephenor, leader of men, the son of
Chalcodon, prince of the bold Abantes, sought her to wife. And
he offered very many gifts, and greatly he desired in his heart
to be the husband of rich-haired Helen.
(ll. 67-74) And from Crete the mighty Idomeneus sought her to
wife, Deucalion's son, offspring of renowned Minos. He sent no
one to woo her in his place, but came himself in his black ship
of many thwarts over the Ogylian sea across the dark wave to the
home of wise Tyndareus, to see Argive Helen and that no one else
should bring back for him the girl whose renown spread all over
the holy earth.
(l. 75) And at the prompting of Zeus the all-wise came.
((LACUNA -- Thirteen lines lost.))
(ll. 89-100) But of all who came for the maid's sake, the lord
Tyndareus sent none away, nor yet received the gift of any, but
asked of all the suitors sure oaths, and bade them swear and vow
with unmixed libations that no one else henceforth should do
aught apart from him as touching the marriage of the maid with
shapely arms; but if any man should cast off fear and reverence
and take her by force, he bade all the others together follow
after and make him pay the penalty. And they, each of them
hoping to accomplish his marriage, obeyed him without wavering.
But warlike Menelaus, the son of Atreus, prevailed against them
all together, because he gave the greatest gifts.
(ll. 100-106) But Chiron was tending the son of Peleus, swift-
footed Achilles, pre-eminent among men, on woody Pelion; for he
was still a boy. For neither warlike Menelaus nor any other of
men on earth would have prevailed in suit for Helen, if fleet
Achilles had found her unwed. But, as it was, warlike Menelaus
won her before.
II. (45)
(ll. 1-2) And she (Helen) bare neat-ankled Hermione in the
palace, a child unlooked for.
(ll. 2-13) Now all the gods were divided through strife; for at
that very time Zeus who thunders on high was meditating
marvellous deeds, even to mingle storm and tempest over the
boundless earth, and already he was hastening to make an utter
end of the race of mortal men, declaring that he would destroy
the lives of the demi-gods, that the children of the gods should
not mate with wretched mortals, seeing their fate with their own
eyes; but that the blessed gods henceforth even as aforetime
should have their living and their habitations apart from men.
But on those who were born of immortals and of mankind verily
Zeus laid toil and sorrow upon sorrow.
((LACUNA -- Two lines missing.))
(ll. 16-30) ....nor any one of men....
....should go upon black ships....
....to be strongest in the might of his hands....
....of mortal men declaring to all those things that were, and
those that are, and those that shall be, he brings to pass and
glorifies the counsels of his father Zeus who drives the clouds.
For no one, either of the blessed gods or of mortal men, knew
surely that he would contrive through the sword to send to Hades
full many a one of heroes fallen in strife. But at that time he
know not as yet the intent of his father's mind, and how men
delight in protecting their children from doom. And he delighted
in the desire of his mighty father's heart who rules powerfully
over men.
(ll. 31-43) From stately trees the fair leaves fell in abundance
fluttering down to the ground, and the fruit fell to the ground
because Boreas blew very fiercely at the behest of Zeus; the deep
seethed and all things trembled at his blast: the strength of
mankind consumed away and the fruit failed in the season consumed
away and the fruit failed in the season of spring, at that time
when the Hairless One (46) in a secret place in the mountains
gets three young every three years. In spring he dwells upon the
mountain among tangled thickets and brushwood, keeping afar from
and hating the path of men, in the glens and wooded glades. But
when winter comes on, he lies in a close cave beneath the earth
and covers himself with piles of luxuriant leaves, a dread
serpent whose back is speckled with awful spots.
(ll. 44-50) But when he becomes violent and fierce unspeakably,
the arrows of Zeus lay him low.... Only his soul is left on the
holy earth, and that fits gibbering about a small unformed den.
And it comes enfeebled to sacrifices beneath the broad-pathed
earth....
and it lies....'
((LACUNA -- Traces of 37 following lines.))
Fragment #69 --
Tzetzes (47), Exeg. Iliad. 68. 19H:
Agamemnon and Menelaus likewise according to Hesiod and Aeschylus
are regarded as the sons of Pleisthenes, Atreus' son. And
according to Hesiod, Pleisthenes was a son of Atreus and Aerope,
and Agamemnon, Menelaus and Anaxibia were the children of
Pleisthenes and Cleolla the daughter of Dias.
Fragment #70 --
Laurentian Scholiast on Sophocles' Electra, 539:
`And she (Helen) bare to Menelaus, famous with the spear,
Hermione and her youngest-born, Nicostratus, a scion of Ares.'
Fragment #71 --
Pausanias, i. 43. 1:
I know that Hesiod in the "Catalogue of Women" represented that
Iphigeneia was not killed but, by the will of Artemis, became
Hecate (48).
Fragment #72 --
Eustathius, Hom. 13. 44. sq:
Butes, it is said, was a son of Poseidon: so Hesiod in the
"Catalogue".
Fragment #73 --
Pausanias, ii. 6. 5:
Hesiod represented Sicyon as the son of Erechtheus.
Fragment #74 --
Plato, Minos, p. 320. D:
`(Minos) who was most kingly of mortal kings and reigned over
very many people dwelling round about, holding the sceptre of
Zeus wherewith he ruled many.'
Fragment #75 --
Hesychius (49):
The athletic contest in memory of Eurygyes Melesagorus says that
Androgeos the son of Minos was called Eurygyes, and that a
contest in his honour is held near his tomb at Athens in the
Ceramicus. And Hesiod writes: `And Eurygyes (50), while yet a
lad in holy Athens...'
Fragment #76 --
Plutarch, Theseus 20:
There are many tales.... about Ariadne...., how that she was
deserted by Theseua for love of another woman: `For strong love
for Aegle the daughter of Panopeus overpowered him.' For Hereas
of Megara says that Peisistratus removed this verse from the
works of Hesiod.
Athenaeus (51), xiii. 557 A:
But Hesiod says that Theseus wedded both Hippe and Aegle
lawfully.
Fragment #77 --
Strabo, ix. p. 393:
The snake of Cychreus: Hesiod says that it was brought up by
Cychreus, and was driven out by Eurylochus as defiling the
island, but that Demeter received it into Eleusis, and that it
became her attendant.
Fragment #78 --
Argument I. to the Shield of Heracles:
But Apollonius of Rhodes says that it (the "Shield of Heracles")
is Hesiod's both from the general character of the work and from
the fact that in the "Catalogue" we again find Iolaus as
charioteer of Heracles.
Fragment #79 --
Scholiast on Soph. Trach., 266:
(ll. 1-6) `And fair-girdled Stratonica conceived and bare in the
palace Eurytus her well-loved son. Of him sprang sons, Didaeon
and Clytius and god-like Toxeus and Iphitus, a scion of Ares.
And after these Antiope the queen, daughter of the aged son of
Nauboius, bare her youngest child, golden-haired Iolea.'
Fragment #80 --
Herodian in Etymologicum Magnum:
`Who bare Autolyeus and Philammon, famous in speech.... All
things that he (Autolyeus) took in his hands, he made to
disappear.'
Fragment #81 --
Apollonius, Hom. Lexicon:
`Aepytus again, begot Tlesenor and Peirithous.'
Fragment #82 --
Strabo, vii. p. 322:
`For Locrus truly was leader of the Lelegian people, whom Zeus
the Son of Cronos, whose wisdom is unfailing, gave to Deucalion,
stones gathered out of the earth. So out of stones mortal men
were made, and they were called people.' (52)
Fragment #83 --
Tzetzes, Schol. in Exeg. Iliad. 126:
`...Ileus whom the lord Apollo, son of Zeus, loved. And he named
him by his name, because he found a nymph complaisant (53) and
was joined with her in sweet love, on that day when Poseidon and
Apollo raised high the wall of the well-built city.'
Fragment #84 --
Scholiast on Homer, Od. xi. 326:
Clymene the daughter of Minyas the son of Poseidon and of
Euryanassa, Hyperphas' daughter, was wedded to Phylacus the son
of Deion, and bare Iphiclus, a boy fleet of foot. It is said of
him that through his power of running he could race the winds and
could move along upon the ears of corn (54).... The tale is in
Hesiod: `He would run over the fruit of the asphodel and not
break it; nay, he would run with his feet upon wheaten ears and
not hurt the fruit.'
Fragment #85 --
Choeroboscus (55), i. 123, 22H:
`And she bare a son Thoas.'
Fragment #86 --
Eustathius, Hom. 1623. 44:
Maro (56), whose father, it is said, Hesiod relates to have been
Euanthes the son of Oenopion, the son of Dionysus.
Fragment #87 --
Athenaeus, x. 428 B, C:
`Such gifts as Dionysus gave to men, a joy and a sorrow both.
Who ever drinks to fullness, in him wine becomes violent and
binds together his hands and feet, his tongue also and his wits
with fetters unspeakable: and soft sleep embraces him.'
Fragment #88 --
Strabo, ix. p. 442:
`Or like her (Coronis) who lived by the holy Twin Hills in the
plain of Dotium over against Amyrus rich in grapes, and washed
her feet in the Boebian lake, a maid unwed.'
Fragment #89 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. iii. 48:
`To him, then, there came a messenger from the sacred feast to
goodly Pytho, a crow (57), and he told unshorn Phoebus of secret
deeds, that Ischys son of Elatus had wedded Coronis the daughter
of Phlegyas of birth divine.
Fragment #90 --
Athenagoras (58), Petition for the Christians, 29:
Concerning Asclepius Hesiod says: `And the father of men and gods
was wrath, and from Olympus he smote the son of Leto with a lurid
thunderbolt and killed him, arousing the anger of Phoebus.'
Fragment #91 --
Philodemus, On Piety, 34:
But Hesiod (says that Apollo) would have been cast by Zeus into
Tartarus (59); but Leto interceded for him, and he became bondman
to a mortal.
Fragment #92 --
Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. ix. 6:
`Or like her, beautiful Cyrene, who dwelt in Phthia by the water
of Peneus and had the beauty of the Graces.'
Fragment #93 --
Servius on Vergil, Georg. i. 14:
He invoked Aristaeus, that is, the son of Apollo and Cyrene, whom
Hesiod calls `the shepherd Apollo.' (60)
Fragment #94 --
Scholiast on Vergil, Georg. iv. 361:
`But the water stood all round him, bowed into the semblance of a
mountain.' This verse he has taken over from Hesiod's "Catalogue
of Women".
Fragment #95 --
Scholiast on Homer, Iliad ii. 469:
`Or like her (Antiope) whom Boeotian Hyria nurtured as a maid.'
Fragment #96 --
Palaephatus (61), c. 42:
Of Zethus and Amphion. Hesiod and some others relate that they
built the walls of Thebes by playing on the lyre.
Fragment #97 --
Scholiast on Soph. Trach., 1167:
(ll. 1-11) `There is a land Ellopia with much glebe and rich
meadows, and rich in flocks and shambling kine. There dwell men
who have many sheep and many oxen, and they are in number past
telling, tribes of mortal men. And there upon its border is
built a city, Dodona (62); and Zeus loved it and (appointed) it
to be his oracle, reverenced by men.... ....And they (the doves)
lived in the hollow of an oak. From them men of earth carry away
all kinds of prophecy, -- whosoever fares to that spot and
questions the deathless god, and comes bringing gifts with good
omens.'
Fragment #98 --
Berlin Papyri, No. 9777: (63)
(ll. 1-22) `....strife.... Of mortals who would have dared to
fight him with the spear and charge against him, save only
Heracles, the great-hearted offspring of Alcaeus? Such an one
was (?) strong Meleager loved of Ares, the golden-haired, dear
son of Oeneus and Althaea. From his fierce eyes there shone
forth portentous fire: and once in high Calydon he slew the
destroying beast, the fierce wild boar with gleaming tusks. In
war and in dread strife no man of the heroes dared to face him
and to approach and fight with him when he appeared in the
forefront. But he was slain by the hands and arrows of Apollo
(64), while he was fighting with the Curetes for pleasant
Calydon. And these others (Althaea) bare to Oeneus, Porthaon's
son; horse-taming Pheres, and Agelaus surpassing all others,
Toxeus and Clymenus and godlike Periphas, and rich-haired Gorga
and wise Deianeira, who was subject in love to mighty Heracles
and bare him Hyllus and Glenus and Ctesippus and Odites. These
she bare and in ignorance she did a fearful thing: when (she had
received)....
the poisoned robe that held black doom....'
Fragment #99A --
Scholiast on Homer, Iliad. xxiii. 679:
And yet Hesiod says that after he had died in Thebes, Argeia the
daughter of Adrastus together with others (cp. frag. 99) came to
the lamentation over Oedipus.
Fragment #99 -- (65)
Papyri greci e latine, No. 131 (2nd-3rd century): (66)
(ll. 1-10) `And (Eriphyle) bare in the palace Alcmaon (67),
shepherd of the people, to Amphiaraus. Him (Amphiaraus) did the
Cadmean (Theban) women with trailing robes admire when they saw
face to face his eyes and well-grown frame, as he was busied
about the burying of Oedipus, the man of many woes. ....Once the
Danai, servants of Ares, followed him to Thebes, to win
renown.... ....for Polynices. But, though well he knew from Zeus
all things ordained, the earth yawned and swallowed him up with
his horses and jointed chariot, far from deep-eddying Alpheus.
(ll. 11-20) But Electyron married the all-beauteous daughter of
Pelops and, going up into one bed with her, the son of Perses
begat.... ....and Phylonomus and Celaeneus and Amphimachus
and.... ....and Eurybius and famous.... All these the Taphians,
famous shipmen, slew in fight for oxen with shambling hoofs,....
....in ships across the sea's wide back. So Alcmena alone was
left to delight her parents.... ....and the daughter of
Electryon....
((LACUNA))
(l. 21) ....who was subject in love to the dark-clouded son of
Cronos and bare (famous Heracles).'
Fragment #100 --
Argument to the Shield of Heracles, i:
The beginning of the "Shield" as far as the 56th verse is current
in th
(3) to contain distinct Aeolisms apart from those which
formed part of the general stock of epic poetry. And that this
Aeolic speaking poet was a Boeotian of Ascra seems even more
certain, since the tradition is never once disputed,
insignificant though the place was, even before its destruction
by the Thespians.
(4), was transferred to
Delos. These developments certainly need no consideration: are
we to say the same of the passage in the "Works and Days"?
Critics from Plutarch downwards have almost unanimously rejected
the lines 654-662, on the ground that Hesiod's Amphidamas is the
hero of the Lelantine Wars between Chalcis and Eretria, whose
death may be placed circa 705 B.C. -- a date which is obviously
too low for the genuine Hesiod. Nevertheless, there is much to
be said in defence of the passage. Hesiod's claim in the "Works
and Days" is modest, since he neither pretends to have met Homer,
(5), was murdered there. His
body, cast into the sea, was brought to shore by dolphins and
buried at Oenoe (or, according to Plutarch, at Ascra): at a later
time his bones were removed to Orchomenus. The whole story is
full of miraculous elements, and the various authorities disagree
on numerous points of detail. The tradition seems, however, to
be constant in declaring that Hesiod was murdered and buried at
Oenoe, and in this respect it is at least as old as the time of
Thucydides. In conclusion it may be worth while to add the
graceful epigram of Alcaeus of Messene ("Palatine Anthology", vii
55).
(6) indicate that among the subjects dealt with
were the cultivation of the vine and olive and various herbs.
The inclusion of the judgment of Rhadamanthys (frag. 1): `If a
man sow evil, he shall reap evil,' indicates a gnomic element,
and the note by Proclus
(7) on "Works and Days" 126 makes it
likely that metals also were dealt with. It is therefore
possible that another lost poem, the "Idaean Dactyls", which
dealt with the discovery of metals and their working, was
appended to, or even was a part of the "Great Works", just as the
"Divination by Birds" was appended to the "Works and Days".
(2) The extant collection of three poems, "Works and Days",
"Theogony", and "Shield of Heracles", which alone have come
down to us complete, dates at least from the 4th century
A.D.: the title of the Paris Papyrus (Bibl. Nat. Suppl. Gr.
1099) names only these three works.
(3) "Der Dialekt des Hesiodes", p. 464: examples are AENEMI (W.
and D. 683) and AROMENAI (ib. 22).
(4) T.W. Allen suggests that the conjured Delian and Pythian
hymns to Apollo ("Homeric Hymns" III) may have suggested
this version of the story, the Pythian hymn showing strong
continental influence.
(5) She is said to have given birth to the lyrist Stesichorus.
(6) See Kinkel "Epic. Graec. Frag." i. 158 ff.
(7) See "Great Works", frag. 2.
(8) "Hesiodi Fragmenta", pp. 119 f.
(9) Possibly the division of this poem into two books is a
division belonging solely to this `developed poem', which
may have included in its second part a summary of the Tale
of Troy.
(10) Goettling's explanation.
(11) x. 1. 52
(12) Odysseus appears to have been mentioned once only -- and
that casually -- in the "Returns".
(13) M.M. Croiset note that the "Aethiopis" and the "Sack" were
originally merely parts of one work containing lays (the
Amazoneia, Aethiopis, Persis, etc.), just as the "Iliad"
contained various lays such as the Diomedeia.
(14) No date is assigned to him, but it seems likely that he was
either contemporary or slightly earlier than Lesches.
(15) Cp. Allen and Sikes, "Homeric Hymns" p. xv. In the text I
have followed the arrangement of these scholars, numbering
the Hymns to Dionysus and to Demeter, I and II respectively:
to place "Demeter" after "Hermes", and the Hymn to Dionysus
at the end of the collection seems to be merely perverse.
(16) "Greek Melic Poets", p. 165.
(17) This monument was returned to Greece in the 1980's. -- DBK.
(18) Cp. Marckscheffel, "Hesiodi fragmenta", p. 35. The papyrus
fragment recovered by Petrie ("Petrie Papyri", ed. Mahaffy,
p. 70, No. xxv.) agrees essentially with the extant
document, but differs in numerous minor textual points.
A Vienna, Rainer Papyri L.P. 21-9 (4th cent.).
B Geneva, Naville Papyri Pap. 94 (6th cent.).
C Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2771 (11th cent.).
D Florence, Laur. xxxi 39 (12th cent.).
E Messina, Univ. Lib. Preexistens 11 (12th-13th cent.).
F Rome, Vatican 38 (14th cent.).
G Venice, Marc. ix 6 (14th cent.).
H Florence, Laur. xxxi 37 (14th cent.).
I Florence, Laur. xxxii 16 (13th cent.).
K Florence, Laur. xxxii 2 (14th cent.).
L Milan, Ambros. G 32 sup. (14th cent.).
M Florence, Bibl. Riccardiana 71 (15th cent.).
N Milan, Ambros. J 15 sup. (15th cent.).
O Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2773 (14th cent.).
P Cambridge, Trinity College (Gale MS.), O.9.27 (13th-14th
cent.).
Q Rome, Vatican 1332 (14th cent.).
cent. A.D.).
O Oxyrhynchus Papyri 873 (3rd cent.).
A Paris, Bibl. Nat. Suppl. Graec. (papyrus) 1099 (4th-5th
cent.).
B London, British Museam clix (4th cent.).
R Vienna, Rainer Papyri L.P. 21-9 (4th cent.).
C Paris, Bibl. Nat. Suppl. Graec. 663 (12th cent.).
D Florence, Laur. xxxii 16 (13th cent.).
E Florence, Laur., Conv. suppr. 158 (14th cent.).
F Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2833 (15th cent.).
G Rome, Vatican 915 (14th cent.).
H Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2772 (14th cent.).
I Florence, Laur. xxxi 32 (15th cent.).
K Venice, Marc. ix 6 (15th cent.).
L Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2708 (15th cent.).
2) Oxyrhynchus Papyri 421 (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 7.
3) "Petrie Papyri" iii 3. -- Frag. 14.
4) "Papiri greci e latine", No. 130 (2nd-3rd cent.). -- Frag.
14.
5) Strassburg Papyri, 55 (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 58.
6) Berlin Papyri 9739 (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 58.
7) Berlin Papyri 10560 (3rd cent.). -- Frag. 58.
8) Berlin Papyri 9777 (4th cent.). -- Frag. 98.
9) "Papiri greci e latine", No. 131 (2nd-3rd cent.). -- Frag.
99.
10) Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358-9.
At Athos, Vatopedi 587.
B Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2765.
C Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2833.
D Milan, Amrbos. B 98 sup.
E Modena, Estense iii E 11.
G Rome, Vatican, Regina 91 (16th cent.).
H London, British Mus. Harley 1752.
J Modena, Estense, ii B 14.
K Florence, Laur. 31, 32.
L Florence, Laur. 32, 45.
L2 Florence, Laur. 70, 35.
L3 Florence, Laur. 32, 4.
M Leyden (the Moscow MS.) 33 H (14th cent.).
Mon. Munich, Royal Lib. 333 c.
N Leyden, 74 c.
O Milan, Ambros. C 10 inf.
P Rome, Vatican Pal. graec. 179.
Q Milan, Ambros. S 31 sup.
R1 Florence, Bibl. Riccard. 53 K ii 13.
R2 Florence, Bibl. Riccard. 52 K ii 14.
S Rome, Vatican, Vaticani graec. 1880.
T Madrid, Public Library 24.
V Venice, Marc. 456.
Aldine Edition, Venice, 1504.
Juntine Edition, 1537.
Stephanus, Paris, 1566 and 1588.
Barnes, Cambridge, 1711.
Ruhnken, Leyden, 1782 (Epist. Crit. and "Hymn to Demeter").
Ilgen, Halle, 1796 (with "Epigrams" and the "Battle of the Frogs
and Mice").
Matthiae, Leipzig, 1806 (with the "Battle of the Frogs and
Mice").
Hermann, Berling, 1806 (with "Epigrams").
Franke, Leipzig, 1828 (with "Epigrams" and the "Battle of the
Frogs and Mice").
Dindorff (Didot edition), Paris, 1837.
Baumeister ("Battle of the Frogs and Mice"), Gottingen, 1852.
Baumeister ("Hymns"), Leipzig, 1860.
Gemoll, Leipzig, 1886.
Goodwin, Oxford, 1893.
Ludwich ("Battle of the Frogs and Mice"), 1896.
Allen and Sikes, London, 1904.
Allen (Homeri Opera v), Oxford, 1912.
Dindorff (Didot edition of Homer), Paris, 1837-56.
Kinkel (Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta i), Leipzig, 1877.
Allen (Homeri Opera v), Oxford, 1912.
(3).
(2) Unless otherwise noted, all MSS. are of the 15th century.
(3) To this list I would also add the following: "Hesiod and
Theognis", translated by Dorothea Wender (Penguin Classics,
London, 1973). -- DBK.
THE WORKS OF HESIOD
(3), the sea parting the
mainland from the island. But Hesiod, the poet, says just the
opposite: that the sea was open, but Orion piled up the
promontory by Peloris, and founded the close of Poseidon which is
especially esteemed by the people thereabouts. When he had
finished this, he went away to Euboea and settled there, and
because of his renown was taken into the number of the stars in
heaven, and won undying remembrance.
(2) The "Catasterismi" ("Placings among the Stars") is a
collection of legends relating to the various
constellations.
(3) The Straits of Messina.
(3), de Them. 2 p. 48B:
The district Macedonia took its name from Macedon the son of Zeus
and Thyia, Deucalion's daughter, as Hesiod says:
`And she conceived and bare to Zeus who delights in the
thunderbolt two sons, Magnes and Macedon, rejoicing in horses,
who dwell round about Pieria and Olympus....
((LACUNA))
....And Magnes again (begot) Dictys and godlike Polydectes.'
(4):
(ll. 1-24) `....Eurynome the daughter of Nisus, Pandion's son, to
whom Pallas Athene taught all her art, both wit and wisdom too;
for she was as wise as the gods. A marvellous scent rose from
her silvern raiment as she moved, and beauty was wafted from her
eyes. Her, then, Glaucus sought to win by Athena's advising, and
he drove oxen
(5) for her. But he knew not at all the intent of
Zeus who holds the aegis. So Glaucus came seeking her to wife
with gifts; but cloud-driving Zeus, king of the deathless gods,
bent his head in oath that the.... son of Sisyphus should never
have children born of one father
(6). So she lay in the arms of
Poseidon and bare in the house of Glaucus blameless Bellerophon,
surpassing all men in.... over the boundless sea. And when he
began to roam, his father gave him Pegasus who would bear him
most swiftly on his wings, and flew unwearying everywhere over
the earth, for like the gales he would course along. With him
Bellerophon caught and slew the fire-breathing Chimera. And he
wedded the dear child of the great-hearted Iobates, the
worshipful king....
lord (of)....
and she bare....'
(7), Quaest. Hom. ad Iliad. pert., 265:
But Aristarchus is informed that they were twins, not.... such as
were the Dioscuri, but, on Hesiod's testimony, double in form and
with two bodies and joined to one another.