A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

HESIODUS.. HtESIODUS. 441
of the two schools likewise differed; for while the tion of winter (504 —558). The first two of these
Homeric poems-were recited under the accompani- poems are not so much out of keeping with the
ment of the cithara, those of Hesiod were recited whole as the third, which is manifestly the most
without any musical instrument, the reciter holding recent production of all, and most foreign to the
in his hand only a laurel branch or staff (a'Sdos, spirit of Hesiod. That which remains, after the
rci77rrpov, Hesiod, T]keog. 30;' Paus. ix. 30, x. 7. deduction of these probable interpolations, consists
6 2; Pind. Isthm. iii. 55, with Dissen's note; Cal- of a collection of maxims, proverbs, and wise saylimach. Fragm. 138). As Boeotia, Phocis, and ings, containing a considerable amount of practical
Euboea were the principal parts of Greece where wisdom; and some of these yvc.caL or vroOraLthe Hesiodic poetry flourished, we cannot be sur- may be as old as the Greek nation itself. (Isocrat.
prised at finding that the Delphic oracle is a great c. Nicocl. p. 23, ed. Steph.; Lucian, Dial. de Hes:
subject of veneration with this school, and that 1, 8.) Now, admitting that the Epya originally
there exists a strong resemblance between the consisted only of such maxims and precepts, it is
hexameter oracles of the Pythia and the verses of difficult to understand how the author could deHesiod; nay, there is a verse in Hesiod (Op. et rive from his production a reputation like that
Dies, 283), which is also mentioned by Herodotus enjoyed by Hesiod, especially if we remember that
(vi. 86) as a Pythian oracle, and Hesiod himself is at Thespiae, to which the village of Ascra was subsaid to have possessed the gift of prophecy, and to ject, agriculture was held degrading to a freeman.
have acquired it in Acarnania. A great many alle- (Heraclid. Pont. 42.) In order to account for this
gorical expressions, such as we frequently find in phenomenon, it must be supposed that Hesiod was
the oracular language, are common also in the a poet of the people and peasantry rather than
poems of Hesiod. This circumstance, as well as of the ruling nobles, but that afterwards, when the
certain grammatical forms in the language of Hesiod, warlike spirit of the heroic ages subsided, and
constitute another point of difference between the peaceful pursuits began to be held in higher esteem,
Homeric and Hesiodic poetry, although the dialect the poet of the plough also rose from his obscurity,
in which the poems of both schools are composed and was looked upon as a sage; nay, the very conis, on the whole, the same,-that is, the Ionic-epic, trast with the Homeric poetry may have contributed
which had become established as the language of to raise his fame. At all events, the poem, notepic poetry through the influence of Homer. withstanding its want of unity and the incoherence
The ancients attributed to the one poet Hesiod a of its parts, gives to us an attractive picture of the
great variety of works; that is, all those which in simplicity of the early Greek mode of life, of their
form and substance answered to the spirit of the manners and their domestic relations. (Comp.
Hesiodic school, and thus seemed to be of a common Twesten, Commentat. Gritica de Hesiodi Carmine,
origin. We shall subjoin a list of them, beginning quod inscrib. Opera etDies, Kiel, 1815, 8vo.; F. L.
with those which are still extant. Hug, Hesiodi'Epa Iu-yaAa, Freiburg, 1835;
1. S'Epya or'Epya cgal 7jepai, commonly called Ranke, De Hesiodi Op. et Diebus, 1838, 4to;
Opera et Dies. In the time of Pausanias (ix. 31. Lehrs, Quaest. Epic. p. 180, &c.; G. Hermann,
~ 3, &c.), this was the only poem which the people in the Jahrbiicher fir Pdalol. vol. xxi. 2. p. 117,
about Mount Helicon considered to be a genuine &c.)
production of Hesiod, with the exception of the 2. Oeoayova. This poem was, as we remarked
first ten lines, which certainly appear to have been above, not considered by Hesiod's countrymen to
prefixed by a later hand. There are also several be a genuine production of the poet. It presents,
other parts of this poem which seem to be later indeed, great differences from the preceding one:
interpolations; but, on the whole, it bears the its very subject is apparently foreign to the homely
impress of a genuine production of very high an- author of the "Ep-ya; but the Alexandrian granmtiquity, though in its present form it may consist marians, especially Zenodotus and Aristarchus,
only of disjointed portions of the original. It is appear to have had no doubt about its genuineness
written in the most homely and simple style, with (Schol. Venet. ad 11. xviii. 39), though their
scarcely any poetical imagery or ornament, and opinion cannot be taken to mean anything else than
must be looked upon as the most ancient specimen that the poem contained nothing that was opposed
of didactic poetry. It contains ethical, political, to the character of the HIesiodic school; and thus
and economical precepts, the last of which constitute much we may therefore take for granted, that the
the -greater part of the work, consisting of rules Theogony is not the production of the same poet as
about choosing a wife, the education of children, the'Ep~ya, and that it probably belongs to a later
agriculture, commerce, and navigation. A poem date. In order to understand why the ancients,
on these subjects was not of course held in much nevertheless, regarded the Theogony as an Hesiodic
esteem by the powerful and ruling classes in Greece work, we must recollect the traditions of the poet's
at the time, and made the Spartan Cleomenes con- parentage, and the marvellous events of his life.
temptuously call Hesiod the poet of helots, in con- It was on mount Helicon, the ancient seat of thetrast with Homer, the delight of the warrior. (Plut. Thracian muses, that he was believed to have been
Apopht/s. Lao. Cleom. 1.) The conclusion of the born and bred, and his descent was traced to
poem, from v. 750 to 828 is a sort of calendar, and Apollo; the idea of his having composed a work
was probably appended to it in later times, and on the genealogies of the gods and heroes cannot
the addition Kcal rj4paL in the title of the poem therefore have appeared to the ancients as very
seems to have been added in consequence of this surprising. That the author of the Theogony was
appendage, for the poem is sometimes simply called a Boeotian is evident, from certain peculiarities of'Epya. It would further seem that three distinct the language. The Theogony gives an account of
poems have been inserted in it; viz. 1. The fable the origin of the world and the birth of the gods,
of Prometheus and Pandora (47-105); 2. On explaining the whole order of nature in a series of
the ages of the world, which are designated by the genealogies, for. every part of physical as well as
names of metals (109-201); and, 3. A descrip- moral nature there appears personified in the cha