Hesiod (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
:
Hēsíodos) was a
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
oral poet. His date is uncertain but leading scholars , agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the eighth century BCE. Since at least
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
's time (
Histories, 2.53), Hesiod and
HomerHomer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
have generally been considered the earliest Greek poets whose work has survived, and they are often paired. Scholars disagree about who lived first, and the fourth-century BCE sophist
AlcidamasAlcidamas, of Elaea, in Aeolis, Greek sophist and rhetorician, flourished in the 4th century BC.He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at Athens at the same time as Isocrates, whose rival and opponent he was...
'
Mouseion even brought them together in an imagined poetic
agon, the
Contest of Homer and HesiodThe Contest of Homer and Hesiod is a Greek narrative that expands a remark made in Hesiod's Works and Days to recount an imagined poetical agon between Homer and Hesiod, in which Hesiod bears away the prize, a bronze tripod, which he dedicates to the Muses of Mount Helicon...
.
AristarchusAristarchus or Aristarch of Samothrace was a grammarian noted as the most influential of all scholars of Homeric poetry...
first argued for Homer's priority, a claim that was generally accepted by later antiquity.
Hesiod's writings serve as a major source on
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, farming techniques, archaic Greek
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
and ancient
timeTime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
-keeping.
Life
J. A. SymondsJohn Addington Symonds was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as l'amour de l'impossible.-Early life:Symonds was born at Bristol...
writes that "Hesiod is also the immediate parent of gnomic verse, and the ancestor of those deep thinkers who speculated in the Attic Age upon the mysteries of human life."
Some scholars have doubted whether Hesiod alone conceived and wrote the poems attributed to him. For example, Symonds writes that "the first ten verses of the Works and Days are spurious—borrowed probably from some Orphic hymn to Zeus and recognised as not the work of Hesiod by critics as ancient as
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
."
As with Homer, legendary traditions have accumulated around Hesiod. Unlike Homer's case, however, some biographical details have survived: a few details of Hesiod's life come from three references in
Works and Days; some further inferences derive from his
Theogony. His father came from
CymeCyme was an ancient Greek city in Aeolis close to the kingdom of Lydia. The Aeolians regarded Cyme as the largest and most important of their twelve cities, which were located on the coastline of Asia Minor...
in
AeolisAeolis or Aeolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands , where the Aeolian Greek city-states were located...
, which lay between
IoniaIonia is an ancient region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey, the region nearest İzmir, which was historically Smyrna. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements...
and the Troad in Northwestern
AnatoliaAnatolia is a geographic region of Western Asia, comprising most of the modern Republic of Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Caucasus to the northeast, the Iranian plateau to the southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to the south and the Aegean Sea to the west...
, but crossed the sea to settle at a hamlet near
ThespiaeThespiae was an ancient Greek city in Boeotia. It stood on level ground commanded by the low range of hills which runs eastward from the foot of Mount Helicon to Thebes. According to Pausanias, the deity most worshipped at Thespiae was Eros, whose primitive image was an unwrought stone...
in
BoeotiaBoeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , formerly Cadmeis, was a region of ancient Greece, north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It was bounded on the south by Megaris and the Kithairon mountain range that forms a natural barrier with Attica, on the north by Opuntian Locris and the...
named Ascra, "a cursed place, cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant" (
Works, l. 640). Hesiod's patrimony there, a small piece of ground at the foot of Mount Helicon, occasioned a pair of lawsuits with his brother
PersesPerses is an ancient Greek name given to:* Mythological people:* Perses * Perses * Perses * Real people:* Perses * Perses, Theban or Macedonian epigrammatic poet...
, who won both under the same judges.
Some scholars have seen
PersesPerses is an ancient Greek name given to:* Mythological people:* Perses * Perses * Perses * Real people:* Perses * Perses, Theban or Macedonian epigrammatic poet...
as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod directed to him in
Works and Days, but in the introduction to his translation of Hesiod's works, Hugh G. Evelyn-White provides several arguments against this theory.
Gregory NagyGregory Nagy , born in Budapest Hungary, is an American professor of Classics at Harvard University, specializing in Homer and archaic Greek poetry. Nagy is known for extending Milman Parry and Albert Lord's theories about the oral composition-in-performance of the Iliad and Odyssey...
, on the other hand, sees both
Persēs ("the destroyer": /
perthō) and
Hēsiodos ("he who emits the voice:" /
hiēmi + /
audē) as fictitious names for poetical
personaA persona, in the word everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. This is an Italian word that derives from the Latin for "mask" or "character", derived from the Etruscan word "phersu", with the same meaning...
e.
The Muses traditionally lived on Helicon, and, according to the account in
Theogony (ll. 22-35), gave Hesiod the gift of poetic inspiration one day while he tended sheep (compare the legend of
CædmonCædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known. An Anglo-Saxon herdsman attached to the double monastery of Streonæshalch during the abbacy of St. Hilda , he was originally ignorant of "the art of song" but according to Bede learned to compose one night in the course of a dream...
). Hesiod later mentions a poetry contest at
ChalcisChalcis or Chalkida, Halkida, Halkis or Chalkis , the chief town of the island of Euboea in Greece, is situated on the strait of the Evripos at its narrowest point...
in
EuboeaFor the mythological figure, see Euboea Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. It is separated from the mainland of Greece by the narrow Euripus Strait...
where the sons of one Amiphidamas awarded him a tripod (ll.654-662).
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
first cited this passage as an interpolation into Hesiod's original work, based on his identification of Amiphidamas with the hero of the
Lelantine WarThe Lelantine War was a long military conflict between the two ancient Greek city states Chalkis and Eretria that took place in the early Archaic period, between circa 710 and 650 BC. The reason for war was, according to tradition, the struggle for the fertile Lelantine Plain on the island of Euboea...
between Chalcis and
EretriaEretria was a polis in Ancient Greece, located on the western coast of the island of Euboea , south of Chalcis , facing the coast of Attica across the narrow Euboian Gulf. Eretria was an important Greek polis in the 6th/5th century BC. However, it lost its importance already in antiquity...
, which occurred around 705 BCE. Plutarch assumed this date much too late for a contemporary of Homer, but most Homeric students would now accept it. The account of this contest, followed by an allusion to the
Trojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
, inspired the later tales of a competition between Hesiod and Homer.
Two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiod's grave. One, as early as
ThucydidesThucydides was a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century B.C. war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 B.C...
, reported in Plutarch, the
SudaThe Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century historical encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly wrongfully attributed to an author called Suidas. The text belongs to the Byzantine Empire and was written in Greek...
and
John TzetzesJohn Tzetzes , was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgian on his mother's side...
, states that the
Delphic oracleDelphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis...
warned Hesiod that he would die in Nemea, and so he fled to
LocrisLocris was a region of ancient Greece, the homeland of the Locrians, made up of two districts...
, where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus, and buried there. This tradition follows a familiar
ironicIrony is a situation, literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity, discordance or unintended connection that goes beyond the most evident meaning....
convention: the oracle that predicts accurately after all.
The other tradition, first mentioned in an
epigramAn Epigram is a brief, clever, and usually memorable statement. Derived from the "to write on - inscribe", the literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
of
Chersios of OrchomenusChersios of Orchomenus was written in the 7th century BC and contains an epigram which mentions the burial place of Hesiod at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia.-References:Hesiod. Crystlinks. ....
written in the 7th century BCE (within a century or so of Hesiod's death) claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. According to
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
's
Constitution of Orchomenus, when the
ThespianThespiae was an ancient Greek city in Boeotia. It stood on level ground commanded by the low range of hills which runs eastward from the foot of Mount Helicon to Thebes. According to Pausanias, the deity most worshipped at Thespiae was Eros, whose primitive image was an unwrought stone...
s ravaged Ascra, the villagers sought refuge at Orchomenus, where, following the advice of an oracle, they collected the ashes of Hesiod and placed them in a place of honour in their
agoraThe Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history , free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the agora also served as a marketplace where...
, beside the tomb of
MinyasIn Greek mythology, Minyas was the founder of Orchomenus or son of King Orchomenus. As the ancestor of the Minyans, a number of Boeotian genealogies lead back to him, according to the classicist H.J. Rose. His children include Clymene, mother of Phaethon, Cyparissus, the founder of Anticyra, and...
, their eponymous founder, and in the end came to regard Hesiod too as their "hearth-founder" ( /
oikistēs).
Later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts.
The legends that accumulated about Hesiod are recorded in several sources: the story "The poetic contest ( / Agōn) of Homer and Hesiod;" a
vitaA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
of Hesiod by the Byzantine grammarian
John TzetzesJohn Tzetzes , was a Byzantine poet and grammarian, known to have lived at Constantinople during the 12th century.Tzetzes was Georgian on his mother's side...
; the entry for Hesiod in the
SudaThe Suda or Souda is a massive 10th century historical encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly wrongfully attributed to an author called Suidas. The text belongs to the Byzantine Empire and was written in Greek...
; two passages and some scattered remarks in
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between...
(IX, 31.3–6 and 38.3–4); a passage in
PlutarchPlutarch, born Plutarchos then, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. AD 46 – 120, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
Moralia (162b).
Works
Of the many works attributed to Hesiod, three survive complete and many more in fragmentary state. Our witnesses include
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
n
papyriPapyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
, some dating from as early as the 1st century BCE, and manuscripts written from the eleventh century forward.
Demetrius ChalcondylesDemetricocondyles or Demetrios Chalcocondylis or Chalcocondylas or Chalcondyles , was a Greek humanist, scholar and Professor who taught the Greek language in Italy for over forty years; at Padua, Perugia, Milan and Florence...
issued the first printed edition (
editio princepsIn classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which were therefore circulated only after being copied by hand.For example, the editio princeps of Homer is that of Demetrius...
) of
Works and Days, possibly at Milan, probably in 1493. In 1495
Aldus ManutiusAldus Pius Manutius , the Latinized name of Teobaldo Mannucci, sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder, to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger, was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice.His publishing legacy...
published the complete works at Venice.
Hesiod's works, especially
Works and Days, are from the view of the small independent farmer, while Homer's view is from nobility or the rich. Even with these differences, they share some beliefs regarding work ethic, justice, and consideration of material items.
Works and Days
Hesiod wrote a poem of some 800 verses, the
Works and Days, which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have interpreted this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
, which inspired a wave of documented colonisations in search of new land.
This work lays out the five
Ages of ManThe Ages of Man are the stages of human existence on the Earth according to Classical mythology. Two classical authors in particular offer accounts of the successive ages of mankind, which tend to progress from an original, long-gone age in which humans enjoyed a nearly divine existence to the...
, as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust
judgeA judge, or arbiter of justice, is a lead official who presides over a court of law, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is like an umpire in a game and...
s (like those who decided in favour of
PersesPerses is an ancient Greek name given to:* Mythological people:* Perses * Perses * Perses * Real people:* Perses * Perses, Theban or Macedonian epigrammatic poet...
) as well as the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice. The poem regards labor as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resemble drones in a hive.
Theogony
"Theogony," a poem which uses the same epic verse-form as the "Works and Days", is also attributed to Hesiod. Despite the different subject matter, most scholars, with some notable exceptions (like Evelyn-White), believe that the two works were written by the same man. As M.L. West writes, "Both bear the marks of a distinct personality: a surly, conservative countryman, given to reflection, no lover of women or life, who felt the gods' presence heavy about him."
The
Theogony concerns the origins of the world (
cosmogonyCosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...
) and of the gods (
theogonyThe Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC.-Descriptions:...
), beginning with
GaiaGaia Gaia Gaia ( or ; "land" or "earth", from the Ancient Greek Γαῖα; also Gæa or Gea (Koine and Modern Greek Γῆ) is the primal Greek goddess personifying the Earth....
,
ChaosIn Greek myth, Chaos or Khaos is the first of the Protogenoi and the god of the air. Later on Chaos was described as an original state of existence from which the first gods appeared. In other words, the dark void of space. It is made from a mixture of what the Ancient Greeks considered the four...
and Eros, and shows a special interest in
genealogyGenealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
. Embedded in
Greek mythGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, there remain fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became, according to the fifth-century historian
HerodotusHerodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
, the accepted version that linked all
HellenesThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
.
The creation myth in Hesiod has long been held to have Eastern influences, such as the
HittiteHittite may refer to:*Hittites, ancient Anatolian people*Neo-Hittite states, Iron Age successors to the Hittite people located in modern Turkey and Syria*Hittite language, ancient Indo-European language...
Song of KumarbiThe Song of Kumarbi is the title given to a Hittite version of the Hurrian Kumarbi myth, dating to the 14th or 13th century BC. It is preserved in three tablets, but only a small fraction of the text is legible.Upon hearing this Kumarbi spit the semen upon the ground and it became impregnated with...
and the
BabylonBabylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ian Enuma Elis. This cultural crossover would have occurred in the eight and ninth century Greek trading colonies such as
Al MinaAl Mina is the modern name given by Leonard Woolley to an ancient trading post on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria, in the estuary of the Orontes, near present-day Samandag in Turkey's province of Hatay....
in North Syria. (For more discussion, read Robin Lane Fox's
Travelling Heroes and Walcot's
Hesiod and the Near East.)
Other writings
A short poem traditionally no longer attributed to Hesiod is
The Shield of HeraclesThe Shield of Heracles is a fragment of Greek epic, of 481 lines of hexameters. The theme of the episode is the expedition of Heracles and Iolaus against Cycnus, the son of Ares, who challenged Heracles to combat as Heracles was passing near Itonus, told in a turgid and laboured diction; the...
( / Aspis Hērakleous). This survives complete; the other works discussed in this section survive only in quotations or papyri copies which are often damaged.
Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod a lengthy genealogical poem known as
Catalogue of WomenThe Catalogue of Women is an Ancient Greek poem. Ancient writers sometimes attributed it to Hesiod, although the poem contains a few references to events and things after Hesiod's time that could suggest that they were later added or that the epic is of a completely different author...
or
Ehoiae (because sections began with the Greek words
ē hoiē, "Or like the one who ..."). It was a mythological catalogue of the mortal women who had mated with gods, and of the offspring and descendants of these unions.
Several additional poems were sometimes ascribed to Hesiod:
- Aegimius
- Astrice
- Chironis Hypothecae
- Idaei Dactyli
- Wedding of Ceyx
- Great Works (presumably an expanded Works and Days)
- Great Eoiae (presumably an expanded Catalogue of Women)
- Melampodia
- Ornithomantia
Scholars generally classify all these as later examples of the poetic tradition to which Hesiod belonged, not as the work of Hesiod himself. The
Shield, in particular, appears to be an expansion of one of the genealogical poems, taking its cue from Homer's description of the
Shield of AchillesThe Shield of Achilles is the shield that Achilles uses to fight Hector, famously described in a passage in Book 18, lines 478-608 of Homer's Iliad....
.
"Portrait" Bust
The Roman bronze bust of the late first century BCE found at
Herculaneumthumb|240px|The towns and villages under the likely pyroclastic cloud of the [[Mt Vesuvius]] 79 AD eruption. Herculaneum is visible along the northwestern edge of the shadowed area...
, the so-called
Pseudo-SenecaThe so-called Pseudo-Seneca is a Roman bronze bust of the late first century BCE that was discovered at Herculaneum in 1754, the finest example of about two dozen examples depicting the same face. It was originally believed to depict Seneca the Younger[why?], the notable Roman philosopher; however,...
, was first reidentified as a fictitious portrait meant for Hesiod by
Gisela RichterGisela Marie Augusta Richter , was a classical archaeologist and art historian.Gisela Richter was born in London, England; the daughter of Jean Paul and Louise Richter. Both of her parents and her sister, Irma, were historians of Italian Renaissance art...
, though it had been recognized that the bust was not in fact Seneca since 1813, when an inscribed herm portrait with quite different features was discovered. Most scholars now follow her identification.
Manuscripts of Hesiod
Mss. of
Works and DaysWorks and Days is a Greek poem of some 800 verses written by Hesiod . The poem revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by...
:
- S Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1090
- 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.).
These MSS. are divided by Rzach into the following families,
issuing from a common original: --
a = C
b = F,G,H
Mss. of
TheogonyThe Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC.-Descriptions:...
:
- N Manchester, Rylands GK. Papyri No. 54 (1st cent. B.C. - 1st 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.).
These MSS. are divided into two families:
- a = C,D
- b = E,F
- c = G,H,I
Mss. of 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.).
- B 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:
- a = B,C,D,F
- b = G,H,I
- a = E
- b = K,L,M
To these must be added two MSS. of mixed family:
- N Venice, Marc. ix 6 (14th cent.).
- O Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2708 (15th cent.).
Mss. of the fragments of
Catalogue of WomenThe Catalogue of Women is an Ancient Greek poem. Ancient writers sometimes attributed it to Hesiod, although the poem contains a few references to events and things after Hesiod's time that could suggest that they were later added or that the epic is of a completely different author...
:
- Berlin Papyri 7497 (1) (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 7.
- Oxyrhynchus Papyri 421 (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 7.
- "Petrie Papyri" iii 3. -- Frag. 14.
- "Papiri greci e latine", No. 130 (2nd-3rd cent.). -- Frag. 14.
- Strassburg Papyri, 55 (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 58.
- Berlin Papyri 9739 (2nd cent.). -- Frag. 58.
- Berlin Papyri 10560 (3rd cent.). -- Frag. 58.
- Berlin Papyri 9777 (4th cent.). -- Frag. 98.
- "Papiri greci e latine", No. 131 (2nd-3rd cent.). -- Frag.99.
- Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358-9.
Selected translations
- Athanassakis, Apostolos N.
Apostolos N. Athanassakis is a classical scholar and Argyropoulos Chair in Hellenic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara . Professor Athanassakis, or "Professor A" as he is often referred to by students, currently serves as the faculty in residence in Manzanita Village....
, Theogony ; Works and days ; Shield / Hesiod; introduction, translation, and notes, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University PressThe Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The Press publishes books, journals, and electronic databases...
, 1983. ISBN 0801829984
- Cooke, Hesiod, Works and Days, Translated from the Greek, London, 1728
- Frazer, R.M. (Richard McIlwaine), The Poems of Hesiod, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
The University of Oklahoma Press is the publishing arm of the University of Oklahoma. It has been in operation for over seventy-five years, and was the first university press established in the American Southwest. It was founded by William Bennett Bizzell, the fifth president of the University of...
, 1983. ISBN 0806118377
- Most, Glenn, translator, Hesiod, 2 vols., Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2006-07.
- Schlegel, Catherine M., and Henry Weinfield, translators, Theogony and Works and Days, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2006
- Sinclair, Thomas Alan (translator), Hesiodou Erga kai hemerai, London, Macmillan and co., 1932.
- Tandy, David W., and Neale, Walter C. [translators], Works and Days: a translation and commentary for the social sciences, Berkeley: University of California Press
University of California Press, also known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish books and papers for the faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868...
, 1996. ISBN 0520203836
- West, Martin Litchfield
Martin Litchfield West is an internationally recognised scholar in classics, classical antiquity and philology...
(translator), Hesiod Works & Days, Oxford University PressOxford house Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. they are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's...
, 1978, ISBN 0-19-814005-3. Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary.
Further reading
- Athanassakis, Apostolos N., [guest editor], Essays on Hesiod I, Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature, Vol. 21, no 1 (1992), and Essays on Hesiod II, Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature, Vol. 21, no 2 (1992), La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 as Victoria’s third university by an Act of Parliament. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are located in the Victorian city of...
and Aureal Publications, Australia. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/arts/ramus/special.html
- Athanassakis, A.N., Cattle and Honour in Homer and Hesiod, Ramus, v.21, n.2 (1992), pp. 156-186.
- Martin, Richard P., (1992) Hesiod's metanastic poetics, Ramus 21: 11-33
External links
- Hesiod, Works and Days Translated from the Greek by Mr. Cooke (London, 1728). A youthful exercise in Augustan heroic couplets by Thomas Cooke (1703–1756), employing the Roman names for all the gods.
- Web texts taken from Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica, edited and translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, published as Loeb Classical Library
The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each...
#57, 1914, ISBN 0-674-99063-3:
- Scanned text at the Internet Archive, in PDF
Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system....
and DjVuDjVu is a computer file format designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy...
format
- Perseus Classics Collection: Greek and Roman Materials: Text: Hesiod (Greek texts and English translations for Works and Days, Theogony
The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins and genealogies of the gods of the ancient Greeks, composed circa 700 BC.-Descriptions:...
, and Shield of Heracles with additional notes and cross links.)
- Versions of the electronic edition of Evelyn-White's English translation edited by Douglas B. Killings, June 1995: