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HESIOD

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 408 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HESIOD , the See also:

father of See also:Greek didactic See also:poetry, probably flourished during the 8th See also:century B.C. His father had migrated from the Aeolic Cyme in See also:Asia See also:Minor to See also:Boeotia; and Hesiod and his See also:brother Perses were See also:born at Ascra, near See also:mount See also:Helicon (See also:Works and Days, 635). Here, as he fed his father's flocks, he received his See also:commission from the See also:Muses to be their See also:prophet and poet—a commission which he recognized by dedicating to them a See also:tripod won by him in a contest of See also:song (see below) at some funeral See also:games at See also:Chalcis in See also:Euboea, still in existence at Helicon in the See also:age of See also:Pausanias (T'heogony, 20-34, W. and D., 656; Pausanias ix. 38. 3). After the See also:death of his father Hesiod is said to have See also:left his native See also:land in disgust at the result of a See also:law-suit with his brother and to have migrated to See also:Naupactus. There was a tradition that he was murdered by the sons of his See also:host in the sacred enclosure of the Nemean See also:Zeus at Oeneon In Locris (See also:Thucydides 96; Pausanias ix. 31); his remains were removed for See also:burial by command of the Delphic See also:oracle to See also:Orchomenus in Boeotia, where the Ascraeans settled after the destruction of their See also:town by the Thespians, and where, according to Pausanias, his See also:grave was to be seen. Hesiod's earliest poem, the famous Works and Days, and according to Boeotian testimony the only genuine one, embodies the experiences of his daily See also:life and See also:work, and, interwoven with episodes of See also:fable, See also:allegory, and See also:personal See also:history, forms a sort of Boeotian shepherd's See also:calendar. The first portion is an ethical enforcement of honest labour and dissuasive of strife and idleness (1-383); the second consists of hints and rules as to husbandry (384-764); and the third is a religious calendar of the months, with remarks on the days most lucky or the contrary for rural or nautical employments. The connecting See also:link of the whole poem is the author's See also:advice to his brother, who appears to have bribed the corrupt See also:judges to deprive Hesiod of his already scantier See also:inheritance, and to whom; as he wasted his substance lounging in the See also:agora, the poet more than once returned See also:good for evil, though he tells him there will be a limit to this unmerited kindness. In the Works and Days the episodes which rise above an even didactic level are the " Creation and Equipment of See also:Pandora," the " Five Ages of the See also:World " and the much-admired " Description of See also:Winter " (by some critics judged See also:post-Hesiodic).

The poem also contains the earliest known fable in Greek literature, that of " The See also:

Hawk and the See also:Nightingale." It is in the Works and Days especially that we glean indications of Hesiod's See also:rank and See also:condition in life, that of a stay-at-See also:home See also:farmer of the See also:lower class; whose See also:sole experience of the See also:sea was a single voyage of 40 yds. across the Euripus, and an old-fashioned See also:bachelor whose misogynic views and See also:prejudice against See also:matrimony have been conjecturally traced to his brother Perses having a wife as extravagant as himself. The other poem attributed to Hesiod or his school which has come down in See also:great See also:part to See also:modern times is The Theogony, a work of grander See also:scope, inspired alike by older traditions and abundant See also:local associations. It is an See also:attempt to work into See also:system, as none had essayed to do before, the floating legends of the gods and goddesses and their offspring. This task See also:Herodotus (ii. 53) attributes to Hesiod, and he is quoted by See also:Plato in the See also:Symposium (178 B) as the author of the Theogony. The first to question his claim to this distinction was Pausanias, the geographer (A.D. 200). The Alexandrian grammarians had no doubt on the subject; and, indications of the See also:hand See also:flat wrote the Works and Days may be found in the severe strictures on See also:women, in the high esteem for the See also:wealth-giver See also:Plutus and in coincidences of verbal expression. Although, no doubt, of Hesiodic origin, in its See also:present See also:form it is composed of different recensions and numerous later additions and interpolations. The Theogony consists of three divisions—(1) a See also:cosmogony, or creation; (2) a theogony proper, recounting the history of the dynasties of Zeus and Cronus; and (3) a brief and abruptly terminated heroogony, the starting-point not improbably of the supplementary poem, the tcaraToyos, or " Lists of Women n who wedded immortals, of which all but a few fragments are lost.' The proem (1-116) addressed to the Heliconian and Pierian muses, is considered to have been variously enlarged, altered and arranged by successive rhapsodists. The poet has inter-See also:woven several episodes of rare merit, such as the contest of Zeus and the Olympian gods with the See also:Titans, and the description of the See also:prison-See also:house in which the vanquished Titans are confined, with the Giants for keepers and See also:Day and See also:Night for janitors (735 seq.). The only other poem which has come down to us under Hesiod's name is the See also:Shield of Heracles, the opening verses of which are attributed by a nameless grammarian to the See also:fourth See also:book of Eoiai.

The theme of the piece is the expedition of Heracles and Iolaus against the robber Cycnus; but its See also:

main See also:object apparently is to describe the shield of Heracles (141-317)• It is clearly an See also:imitation of the Homeric See also:account of the shield of See also:Achilles (Iliad, xviii. 479) and is now generally considered See also:spurious. Titles and fragments of other lost poems of Hesiod have come down to us: didactic, as the See also:Maxims of Cheiron; genealogical, as the Aegimius, describing the contest of that mythical ancestor of the See also:Dorians with the See also:Lapithae; and mythical, as the See also:Marriage of Ceyx and the Descent of See also:Theseus to Hades. See also:Recent See also:editions of Hesiod include the 'A76v 'Oµilpov «ai 'Hvu bov, the contest of song between See also:Homer and Hesiod at the funeral games held in See also:honour of See also:King Amphidamas at Chalcis. This little See also:tract belongs to the See also:time of See also:Hadrian, who is actually mentioned as having been present during its recitation, but is founded on an earlier account by the sophist See also:Alcidamas (q.v.). Quotations (old and new) are made from the works of both poets, and, in spite of the sympathies of the See also:audience, the See also:judge decides in favour of Hesiod. Certain See also:biographical details of Homer and Hesiod are also given. A strong characteristic of Hesiod's See also:style is his sententious and proverbial See also:philosophy (as in Works and Days, 24-25, 40, 218, 345, 371). There is naturally less of this in the Theogony, yet there too not a few sentiments take the form of the saw or adage. He has undying fame as the first of didactic poets (see DIDACTIC POETRY), the accredited systematizer of Greek See also:mythology and the rough but not unpoetical sketcher of the lines on which See also:Virgil wrought out his exquisitely finished Georgics. On the subject generally, consult G. F.

See also:

Schumann, Opuscula, ii. (1857); H. See also:Flach, See also:Die Hesiodischen Gedichte (1874); A. Rzach, Der Dialekt See also:des Hesiodos (1876) ; P. O. Gruppe, Die griechischen Kulte and Mythen, i. (1887); O. See also:Friedel, Die See also:Sage vom rode Hesiods (1879), from Jahrbiicher See also:fur classische Philologie (loth suppl. See also:Band, 1879); J. See also:Adam, Religious Teachers of See also:Greece (1908). There is a full bibliography of the publications See also:relating to Hesiod (1884–1898) by A. Rzach in See also:Burma's Jahresbericht 'fiber die Fortschritte der assischen Altertumswissenschaft, See also:xxvii.

(,goo). ' Part of the poem was called Eoiai, because the description of each heroine began with i aid, " or like as." (Sec Bibliography.) There are See also:

translations of the Hesiodic poems in See also:English by See also:Cooke (1728), C. A. See also:Elton (1815), J. See also:Banks (1856), and specially by A. W. Mair, with introduction and appendices (See also:Oxford Library of Translations, 1908) ; in See also:German (metrical version) with valuable introductions and notes by R. Peppmuller (1896) and in other modern See also:languages. (J. DA.; J. H.

End of Article: HESIOD

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