Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
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Title: Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
Author: Hesiod
Translator: Hugh G. Evelyn-White
Release date: July 5, 2008 [eBook #348]
Most recently updated: June 22, 2020
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/348
Credits: Produced by Douglas B. Killings, and David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HESIOD, THE HOMERIC HYMNS, AND HOMERICA ***
Produced by Douglas B. Killings, and David Widger
[Illustration]
Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica
by Homer and Hesiod
Contents
PREPARER’S NOTE
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
General
The Boeotian School
Life of Hesiod
The Hesiodic Poems
I. _The Works and Days_
II. The Genealogical Poems
Date of the Hesiodic Poems
Literary Value of Homer
The Ionic School
The Trojan Cycle
The Homeric Hymns
The Epigrams of Homer
The Burlesque Poems
The Contest of Homer and Hesiod
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HESIOD
HESIOD’S WORKS AND DAYS
THE DIVINATION BY BIRDS
THE ASTRONOMY
THE PRECEPTS OF CHIRON
THE GREAT WORKS
THE IDAEAN DACTYLS
THE THEOGONY
THE CATALOGUES OF WOMEN AND EOIAE
THE SHIELD OF HERACLES
THE MARRIAGE OF CEYX
THE GREAT EOIAE
THE MELAMPODIA
THE AEGIMIUS
FRAGMENTS OF UNKNOWN POSITION
DOUBTFUL FRAGMENTS
THE HOMERIC HYMNS
I. TO DIONYSUS
II. TO DEMETER
III. TO APOLLO
IV. TO HERMES
V. TO APHRODITE
VI. TO APHRODITE
VII. TO DIONYSUS
VIII. TO ARES
IX. TO ARTEMIS
X. TO APHRODITE
XI. TO ATHENA
XII. TO HERA
XIII. TO DEMETER
XIV. TO THE MOTHER OF THE GODS
XV. TO HERACLES THE LION-HEARTED
XVI. TO ASCLEPIUS
XVII. TO THE DIOSCURI
XVIII. TO HERMES
XIX. TO PAN
XX. TO HEPHAESTUS
XXI. TO APOLLO
XXII. TO POSEIDON
XXIII. TO THE SON OF CRONOS, MOST HIGH
XXIV. TO HESTIA
XXV. TO THE MUSES AND APOLLO
XXVI. TO DIONYSUS
XXVII. TO ARTEMIS
XXVIII. TO ATHENA
XXIX. TO HESTIA
XXX. TO EARTH THE MOTHER OF ALL
XXXI. TO HELIOS
XXXII. TO SELENE
XXXIII. TO THE DIOSCURI
THE EPIGRAMS OF HOMER
THE EPIC CYCLE
THE WAR OF THE TITANS
THE STORY OF OEDIPUS
THE THEBAID
THE EPIGONI
THE CYPRIA
THE AETHIOPIS
THE LITTLE ILIAD
THE SACK OF ILIUM
THE RETURNS
THE TELEGONY
HOMERICA
THE EXPEDITION OF AMPHIARAUS
THE TAKING OF OECHALIA
THE PHOCAIS
THE MARGITES
THE CERCOPES
THE BATTLE OF FROGS AND MICE
THE CONTEST OF HOMER AND HESIOD
ENDNOTES
This file contains translations of the following works: 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_.
This file contains only that portion of the book in English; Greek
texts are excluded. Where Greek characters appear in the original
English text, transcription in CAPITALS is substituted.
Project Gutenberg Editor’s Note: 262 footnotes notes previously
scattered through the text have been moved to the end of the file and
each given an unique number. There are links to and from each footnote.
PREPARER’S NOTE
In order to make this file more accessible to the average computer
user, the preparer has found it necessary to re-arrange some of the
material. The preparer takes full responsibility for his choice of
arrangement.
A few endnotes have been added by the preparer, and some additions have
been supplied to the original endnotes of Mr. Evelyn-White’s. Where
this occurs I have noted the addition with my initials “DBK”. Some
endnotes, particularly those concerning textual variations in the
ancient Greek text, are here omitted.
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.
Owing to the circumstances of the present time I have been prevented
from giving to the _Introduction_ that full revision which I should
have desired.
Hugh G. Evelyn-White,
Rampton, NR. Cambridge.
_Sept_. 9_th_, 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 1101, 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 1102 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 Magnu_
(_s.v._ {H}ESIODUS), to show how prejudiced and lacking even in
plausibility such efforts are. It seems certain that “Hesiod” stands as
a proper name in the fullest sense. Secondly, Hesiod claims that his
father—if not he himself—came from Aeolis and settled in Boeotia. There
is fairly definite evidence to warrant our acceptance of this: the
dialect of the _Works and Days_ is shown by Rzach 1103 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.
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 1104,
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, 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 1105, 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).
“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
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 1106 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 1107 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_.
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) 1108 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_ 1109, 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 1110: 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 1111 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 of 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 from 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.
The Trojan Cycle
Six epics with the _Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_ made up the Trojan
Cycle—The _Cyprian Lays_, the _Iliad_, the _Aethiopis_, the _Little
Iliad_, 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. 1112 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_ 1113 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 1114 (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
Telegonus, 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 Homeric Hymns
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. Conceivably
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 1115, 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 1116, 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 1117.
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
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.
The Burlesque Poems
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
Mausolus’, 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 1118. 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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.
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:—
Ωa = C
Ωb = F, G, H
Ψa = D
Ψb = I ,K, L, M
Φa = E
Φb = N, O, P, Q
_Theogony:_—
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:
Ωa = C,D
Ωb = E, F
Ωc = G, H, I
Ψ = K, L
_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 Museam 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:
Ωa = B, C, D, F
Ωb = G, H, I
Ψa = E
Ψb = 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.).
_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.
Schömann, 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
Littérature 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 Bruchstücke 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 1201 (2nd cent.).—Frag. 7.
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.
_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. 1202 are thus enumerated by Dr. T.W. Allen:—
A Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2763.
At Athos, Vatopedi 587.
B Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2765.
C Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2833.
Γ Brussels, Bibl. Royale 11377-11380 (16th cent.).
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.
Π Paris, Bibl. Nat. Suppl. graec. 1095.
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.
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, Π,(and more remotely) At, D, S, H, J, K.
y = E, L, Π, T (marginal readings).
p = A, B, C, Γ, G, L2, L3, N, O, P, Q, R1, R2, V, Mon.
_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).
Aldine Edition, Venice, 1504.
Juntine Edition, 1537.
Stephanus, Paris, 1566 and 1588.
More modern editions or critical works of value are:
Martin (Variarum Lectionum libb. iv), Paris, 1605.
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_), Göttingen, 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.
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.
Dindorff (Didot edition of Homer), Paris, 1837-56.
Kinkel (Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta i), Leipzig, 1877.
Allen (Homeri Opera v), Oxford, 1912.
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 Littérature 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-Encyclopädie_ 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, 19081203.
HESIOD
HESIOD’S WORKS AND DAYS
(ll. 1-10) Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither,
tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise. Through him mortal men
are famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. For
easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily
he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens
the crooked and blasts the proud,—Zeus who thunders aloft and has his
dwelling most high.
Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with
righteousness. And I, Perses, would tell of true things.
(ll. 11-24) So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but
all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise
her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and
they are wholly different in nature. For one fosters evil war and
battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce, through the will
of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the
other is the elder daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who
sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth:
and she is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil;
for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich
man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order;
and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This
Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is angry with potter, and
craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel
of minstrel.
(ll. 25-41) Perses, lay up these things in your heart, and do not let
that Strife who delights in mischief hold your heart back from work,
while you peep and peer and listen to the wrangles of the court-house.
Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year’s
victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter’s
grain. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and
strive to get another’s goods. But you shall have no second chance to
deal so again: nay, let us settle our dispute here with true judgement
divided our inheritance, but you seized the greater share and carried
it off, greatly swelling the glory of our bribe-swallowing lords who
love to judge such a cause as this. Fools! They know not how much more
the half is than the whole, nor what great advantage there is in mallow
and asphodel 1301.
(ll. 42-53) For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else
you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year
even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the
smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste.
But Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the
crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against
men. He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetus stole again for men
from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who
delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the
clouds said to him in anger:
(ll. 54-59) ‘Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad
that you have outwitted me and stolen fire—a great plague to you
yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for
fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they
embrace their own destruction.’
(ll. 60-68) So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And
he bade famous Hephaestus make haste and mix earth with water and to
put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet,
lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene
to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden
Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that
weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argus,
to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature.
(ll. 69-82) So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of
Cronos. Forthwith the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a
modest maid, as the son of Cronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed
Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Graces and queenly
Persuasion put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Hours
crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her
form with all manners of finery. Also the Guide, the Slayer of Argus,
contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at
the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech
in her. And he called this woman Pandora 1302, because all they who
dwelt on Olympus gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.
(ll. 83-89) But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the
Father sent glorious Argos-Slayer, the swift messenger of the gods, to
take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what
Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian
Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something
harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil
thing was already his, he understood.
(ll. 90-105) For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and
free from ills and hard toil and heavy sickness which bring the Fates
upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off
the great lid of the jar 1303 with her hands and scattered all these
and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained
there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and
did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped
her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the
rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils
and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases come upon men continually
by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise
Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will
of Zeus.
(ll. 106-108) Or if you will, I will sum you up another tale well and
skilfully—and do you lay it up in your heart,—how the gods and mortal
men sprang from one source.
(ll. 109-120) First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made
a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was
reigning in heaven. And they lived like gods without sorrow of heart,
remote and free from toil and grief: miserable age rested not on them;
but with legs and arms never failing they made merry with feasting
beyond the reach of all evils. When they died, it was as though they
were overcome with sleep, and they had all good things; for the
fruitful earth unforced bare them fruit abundantly and without stint.
They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things,
rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods.
(ll. 121-139) But after earth had covered this generation—they are
called pure spirits dwelling on the earth, and are kindly, delivering
from harm, and guardians of mortal men; for they roam everywhere over
the earth, clothed in mist and keep watch on judgements and cruel
deeds, givers of wealth; for this royal right also they received;—then
they who dwell on Olympus made a second generation which was of silver
and less noble by far. It was like the golden race neither in body nor
in spirit. A child was brought up at his good mother’s side an hundred
years, an utter simpleton, playing childishly in his own home. But when
they were full grown and were come to the full measure of their prime,
they lived only a little time in sorrow because of their foolishness,
for they could not keep from sinning and from wronging one another, nor
would they serve the immortals, nor sacrifice on the holy altars of the
blessed ones as it is right for men to do wherever they dwell. Then
Zeus the son of Cronos was angry and put them away, because they would
not give honour to the blessed gods who live on Olympus.
(ll. 140-155) But when earth had covered this generation also—they are
called blessed spirits of the underworld by men, and, though they are
of second order, yet honour attends them also—Zeus the Father made a
third generation of mortal men, a brazen race, sprung from ash-trees
1304; and it was in no way equal to the silver age, but was terrible
and strong. They loved the lamentable works of Ares and deeds of
violence; they ate no bread, but were hard of heart like adamant,
fearful men. Great was their strength and unconquerable the arms which
grew from their shoulders on their strong limbs. Their armour was of
bronze, and their houses of bronze, and of bronze were their
implements: there was no black iron. These were destroyed by their own
hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades, and left no name:
terrible though they were, black Death seized them, and they left the
bright light of the sun.
(ll. 156-169b) But when earth had covered this generation also, Zeus
the son of Cronos made yet another, the fourth, upon the fruitful
earth, which was nobler and more righteous, a god-like race of hero-men
who are called demi-gods, the race before our own, throughout the
boundless earth. Grim war and dread battle destroyed a part of them,
some in the land of Cadmus at seven-gated Thebe when they fought for
the flocks of Oedipus, and some, when it had brought them in ships over
the great sea gulf to Troy for rich-haired Helen’s sake: there death’s
end enshrouded a part of them. But to the others father Zeus the son of
Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell
at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands
of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for
whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice
a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them 1305;
for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds. And these
last equally have honour and glory.
(ll. 169c-169d) And again far-seeing Zeus made yet another generation,
the fifth, of men who are upon the bounteous earth.
(ll. 170-201) Thereafter, would that I were not among the men of the
fifth generation, but either had died before or been born afterwards.
For now truly is a race of iron, and men never rest from labour and
sorrow by day, and from perishing by night; and the gods shall lay sore
trouble upon them. But, notwithstanding, even these shall have some
good mingled with their evils. And Zeus will destroy this race of
mortal men also when they come to have grey hair on the temples at
their birth 1306. The father will not agree with his children, nor the
children with their father, nor guest with his host, nor comrade with
comrade; nor will brother be dear to brother as aforetime. Men will
dishonour their parents as they grow quickly old, and will carp at
them, chiding them with bitter words, hard-hearted they, not knowing
the fear of the gods. They will not repay their aged parents the cost
their nurture, for might shall be their right: and one man will sack
another’s city. There will be no favour for the man who keeps his oath
or for the just or for the good; but rather men will praise the
evil-doer and his violent dealing. Strength will be right and reverence
will cease to be; and the wicked will hurt the worthy man, speaking
false words against him, and will swear an oath upon them. Envy,
foul-mouthed, delighting in evil, with scowling face, will go along
with wretched men one and all. And then Aidos and Nemesis 1307, with
their sweet forms wrapped in white robes, will go from the wide-pathed
earth and forsake mankind to join the company of the deathless gods:
and bitter sorrows will be left for mortal men, and there will be no
help against evil.
(ll. 202-211) And now I will tell a fable for princes who themselves
understand. Thus said the hawk to the nightingale with speckled neck,
while he carried her high up among the clouds, gripped fast in his
talons, and she, pierced by his crooked talons, cried pitifully. To her
he spoke disdainfully: ‘Miserable thing, why do you cry out? One far
stronger than you now holds you fast, and you must go wherever I take
you, songstress as you are. And if I please I will make my meal of you,
or let you go. He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he
does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame.’ So said
the swiftly flying hawk, the long-winged bird.
(ll. 212-224) But you, Perses, listen to right and do not foster
violence; for violence is bad for a poor man. Even the prosperous
cannot easily bear its burden, but is weighed down under it when he has
fallen into delusion. The better path is to go by on the other side
towards justice; for Justice beats Outrage when she comes at length to
the end of the race. But only when he has suffered does the fool learn
this. For Oath keeps pace with wrong judgements. There is a noise when
Justice is being dragged in the way where those who devour bribes and
give sentence with crooked judgements, take her. And she, wrapped in
mist, follows to the city and haunts of the people, weeping, and
bringing mischief to men, even to such as have driven her forth in that
they did not deal straightly with her.
(ll. 225-237) But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to
the men of the land, and go not aside from what is just, their city
flourishes, and the people prosper in it: Peace, the nurse of children,
is abroad in their land, and all-seeing Zeus never decrees cruel war
against them. Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true
justice; but light-heartedly they tend the fields which are all their
care. The earth bears them victual in plenty, and on the mountains the
oak bears acorns upon the top and bees in the midst. Their woolly sheep
are laden with fleeces; their women bear children like their parents.
They flourish continually with good things, and do not travel on ships,
for the grain-giving earth bears them fruit.
(ll. 238-247) But for those who practise violence and cruel deeds
far-seeing Zeus, the son of Cronos, ordains a punishment. Often even a
whole city suffers for a bad man who sins and devises presumptuous
deeds, and the son of Cronos lays great trouble upon the people, famine
and plague together, so that the men perish away, and their women do
not bear children, and their houses become few, through the contriving
of Olympian Zeus. And again, at another time, the son of Cronos either
destroys their wide army, or their walls, or else makes an end of their
ships on the sea.
(ll. 248-264) You princes, mark well this punishment you also; for the
deathless gods are near among men and mark all those who oppress their
fellows with crooked judgements, and reck not the anger of the gods.
For upon the bounteous earth Zeus has thrice ten thousand spirits,
watchers of mortal men, and these keep watch on judgements and deeds of
wrong as they roam, clothed in mist, all over the earth. And there is
virgin Justice, the daughter of Zeus, who is honoured and reverenced
among the gods who dwell on Olympus, and whenever anyone hurts her with
lying slander, she sits beside her father, Zeus the son of Cronos, and
tells him of men’s wicked heart, until the people pay for the mad folly
of their princes who, evilly minded, pervert judgement and give
sentence crookedly. Keep watch against this, you princes, and make
straight your judgements, you who devour bribes; put crooked judgements
altogether from your thoughts.
(ll. 265-266) He does mischief to himself who does mischief to another,
and evil planned harms the plotter most.
(ll. 267-273) The eye of Zeus, seeing all and understanding all,
beholds these things too, if so he will, and fails not to mark what
sort of justice is this that the city keeps within it. Now, therefore,
may neither I myself be righteous among men, nor my son—for then it is
a bad thing to be righteous—if indeed the unrighteous shall have the
greater right. But I think that all-wise Zeus will not yet bring that
to pass.
(ll. 274-285) But you, Perses, lay up these things within your heart
and listen now to right, ceasing altogether to think of violence. For
the son of Cronos has ordained this law for men, that fishes and beasts
and winged fowls should devour one another, for right is not in them;
but to mankind he gave right which proves far the best. For whoever
knows the right and is ready to speak it, far-seeing Zeus gives him
prosperity; but whoever deliberately lies in his witness and forswears
himself, and so hurts Justice and sins beyond repair, that man’s
generation is left obscure thereafter. But the generation of the man
who swears truly is better thenceforward.
(ll. 286-292) To you, foolish Perses, I will speak good sense. Badness
can be got easily and in shoals: the road to her is smooth, and she
lives very near us. But between us and Goodness the gods have placed
the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her,
and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then
is she easy to reach, though before that she was hard.
(ll. 293-319) That man is altogether best who considers all things
himself and marks what will be better afterwards and at the end; and
he, again, is good who listens to a good adviser; but whoever neither
thinks for himself nor keeps in mind what another tells him, he is an
unprofitable man. But do you at any rate, always remembering my charge,
work, high-born Perses, that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter
richly crowned may love you and fill your barn with food; for Hunger is
altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard. Both gods and men are angry
with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless
drones who waste the labour of the bees, eating without working; but
let it be your care to order your work properly, that in the right
season your barns may be full of victual. Through work men grow rich in
flocks and substance, and working they are much better loved by the
immortals 1308. Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a
disgrace. But if you work, the idle will soon envy you as you grow
rich, for fame and renown attend on wealth. And whatever be your lot,
work is best for you, if you turn your misguided mind away from other
men’s property to your work and attend to your livelihood as I bid you.
An evil shame is the needy man’s companion, shame which both greatly
harms and prospers men: shame is with poverty, but confidence with
wealth.
(ll. 320-341) Wealth should not be seized: god-given wealth is much
better; for if a man take great wealth violently and perforce, or if he
steal it through his tongue, as often happens when gain deceives men’s
sense and dishonour tramples down honour, the gods soon blot him out
and make that man’s house low, and wealth attends him only for a little
time. Alike with him who does wrong to a suppliant or a guest, or who
goes up to his brother’s bed and commits unnatural sin in lying with
his wife, or who infatuately offends against fatherless children, or
who abuses his old father at the cheerless threshold of old age and
attacks him with harsh words, truly Zeus himself is angry, and at the
last lays on him a heavy requittal for his evil doing. But do you turn
your foolish heart altogether away from these things, and, as far as
you are able, sacrifice to the deathless gods purely and cleanly, and
burn rich meats also, and at other times propitiate them with libations
and incense, both when you go to bed and when the holy light has come
back, that they may be gracious to you in heart and spirit, and so you
may buy another’s holding and not another yours.
(ll. 342-351) Call your friend to a feast; but leave your enemy alone;
and especially call him who lives near you: for if any mischief happen
in the place, neighbours come ungirt, but kinsmen stay to gird
themselves 1309. A bad neighbour is as great a plague as a good one is
a great blessing; he who enjoys a good neighbour has a precious
possession. Not even an ox would die but for a bad neighbour. Take fair
measure from your neighbour and pay him back fairly with the same
measure, or better, if you can; so that if you are in need afterwards,
you may find him sure.
(ll. 352-369) Do not get base gain: base gain is as bad as ruin. Be
friends with the friendly, and visit him who visits you. Give to one
who gives, but do not give to one who does not give. A man gives to the
free-handed, but no one gives to the close-fisted. Give is a good girl,
but Take is bad and she brings death. For the man who gives willingly,
even though he gives a great thing, rejoices in his gift and is glad in
heart; but whoever gives way to shamelessness and takes something
himself, even though it be a small thing, it freezes his heart. He who
adds to what he has, will keep off bright-eyed hunger; for if you add
only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will
become great. What a man has by him at home does not trouble him: it is
better to have your stuff at home, for whatever is abroad may mean
loss. It is a good thing to draw on what you have; but it grieves your
heart to need something and not to have it, and I bid you mark this.
Take your fill when the cask is first opened and when it is nearly
spent, but midways be sparing: it is poor saving when you come to the
lees.
(ll. 370-372) Let the wage promised to a friend be fixed; even with
your brother smile—and get a witness; for trust and mistrust, alike
ruin men.
(ll. 373-375) Do not let a flaunting woman coax and cozen and deceive
you: she is after your barn. The man who trusts womankind trusts
deceivers.
(ll. 376-380) There should be an only son, to feed his father’s house,
for so wealth will increase in the home; but if you leave a second son
you should die old. Yet Zeus can easily give great wealth to a greater
number. More hands mean more work and more increase.
(ll. 381-382) If your heart within you desires wealth, do these things
and work with work upon work.
(ll. 383-404) When the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas, are rising 1310,
begin your harvest, and your ploughing when they are going to set 1311.
Forty nights and days they are hidden and appear again as the year
moves round, when first you sharpen your sickle. This is the law of the
plains, and of those who live near the sea, and who inhabit rich
country, the glens and dingles far from the tossing sea,—strip to sow
and strip to plough and strip to reap, if you wish to get in all
Demeter’s fruits in due season, and that each kind may grow in its
season. Else, afterwards, you may chance to be in want, and go begging
to other men’s houses, but without avail; as you have already come to
me. But I will give you no more nor give you further measure. Foolish
Perses! Work the work which the gods ordained for men, lest in bitter
anguish of spirit you with your wife and children seek your livelihood
amongst your neighbours, and they do not heed you. Two or three times,
may be, you will succeed, but if you trouble them further, it will not
avail you, and all your talk will be in vain, and your word-play
unprofitable. Nay, I bid you find a way to pay your debts and avoid
hunger.
(ll. 405-413) First of all, get a house, and a woman and an ox for the
plough—a slave woman and not a wife, to follow the oxen as well—and
make everything ready at home, so that you may not have to ask of
another, and he refuses you, and so, because you are in lack, the
season pass by and your work come to nothing. Do not put your work off
till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill
his barn, nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well,
but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin.
(ll. 414-447) When the piercing power and sultry heat of the sun abate,
and almighty Zeus sends the autumn rains 1312, and men’s flesh comes to
feel far easier,—for then the star Sirius passes over the heads of men,
who are born to misery, only a little while by day and takes greater
share of night,—then, when it showers its leaves to the ground and
stops sprouting, the wood you cut with your axe is least liable to
worm. Then remember to hew your timber: it is the season for that work.
Cut a mortar 1313 three feet wide and a pestle three cubits long, and
an axle of seven feet, for it will do very well so; but if you make it
eight feet long, you can cut a beetle 1314 from it as well. Cut a
felloe three spans across for a waggon of ten palms’ width. Hew also
many bent timbers, and bring home a plough-tree when you have found it,
and look out on the mountain or in the field for one of holm-oak; for
this is the strongest for oxen to plough with when one of Athena’s
handmen has fixed in the share-beam and fastened it to the pole with
dowels. Get two ploughs ready work on them at home, one all of a piece,
and the other jointed. It is far better to do this, for if you should
break one of them, you can put the oxen to the other. Poles of laurel
or elm are most free from worms, and a share-beam of oak and a
plough-tree of holm-oak. Get two oxen, bulls of nine years; for their
strength is unspent and they are in the prime of their age: they are
best for work. They will not fight in the furrow and break the plough
and then leave the work undone. Let a brisk fellow of forty years
follow them, with a loaf of four quarters 1315 and eight slices 1316
for his dinner, one who will attend to his work and drive a straight
furrow and is past the age for gaping after his fellows, but will keep
his mind on his work. No younger man will be better than he at
scattering the seed and avoiding double-sowing; for a man less staid
gets disturbed, hankering after his fellows.
(ll. 448-457) Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane 1317 who cries
year by year from the clouds above, for she give the signal for
ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter; but she vexes the heart
of the man who has no oxen. Then is the time to feed up your horned
oxen in the byre; for it is easy to say: ‘Give me a yoke of oxen and a
waggon,’ and it is easy to refuse: ‘I have work for my oxen.’ The man
who is rich in fancy thinks his waggon as good as built already—the
fool! He does not know that there are a hundred timbers to a waggon.
Take care to lay these up beforehand at home.
(ll. 458-464) So soon as the time for ploughing is proclaimed to men,
then make haste, you and your slaves alike, in wet and in dry, to
plough in the season for ploughing, and bestir yourself early in the
morning so that your fields may be full. Plough in the spring; but
fallow broken up in the summer will not belie your hopes. Sow fallow
land when the soil is still getting light: fallow land is a defender
from harm and a soother of children.
(ll. 465-478) Pray to Zeus of the Earth and to pure Demeter to make
Demeter’s holy grain sound and heavy, when first you begin ploughing,
when you hold in your hand the end of the plough-tail and bring down
your stick on the backs of the oxen as they draw on the pole-bar by the
yoke-straps. Let a slave follow a little behind with a mattock and make
trouble for the birds by hiding the seed; for good management is the
best for mortal men as bad management is the worst. In this way your
corn-ears will bow to the ground with fullness if the Olympian himself
gives a good result at the last, and you will sweep the cobwebs from
your bins and you will be glad, I ween, as you take of your garnered
substance. And so you will have plenty till you come to grey 1318
springtime, and will not look wistfully to others, but another shall be
in need of your help.
(ll. 479-492) But if you plough the good ground at the solstice 1319,
you will reap sitting, grasping a thin crop in your hand, binding the
sheaves awry, dust-covered, not glad at all; so you will bring all home
in a basket and not many will admire you. Yet the will of Zeus who
holds the aegis is different at different times; and it is hard for
mortal men to tell it; for if you should plough late, you may find this
remedy—when the cuckoo first calls 1320 in the leaves of the oak and
makes men glad all over the boundless earth, if Zeus should send rain
on the third day and not cease until it rises neither above an ox’s
hoof nor falls short of it, then the late-plougher will vie with the
early. Keep all this well in mind, and fail not to mark grey spring as
it comes and the season of rain.
(ll 493-501) Pass by the smithy and its crowded lounge in winter time
when the cold keeps men from field work,—for then an industrious man
can greatly prosper his house—lest bitter winter catch you helpless and
poor and you chafe a swollen foot with a shrunk hand. The idle man who
waits on empty hope, lacking a livelihood, lays to heart
mischief-making; it is not an wholesome hope that accompanies a need
man who lolls at ease while he has no sure livelihood.
(ll. 502-503) While it is yet midsummer command your slaves: ‘It will
not always be summer, build barns.’
(ll. 504-535) Avoid the month Lenaeon 1321, wretched days, all of them
fit to skin an ox, and the frosts which are cruel when Boreas blows
over the earth. He blows across horse-breeding Thrace upon the wide sea
and stirs it up, while earth and the forest howl. On many a high-leafed
oak and thick pine he falls and brings them to the bounteous earth in
mountain glens: then all the immense wood roars and the beasts shudder
and put their tails between their legs, even those whose hide is
covered with fur; for with his bitter blast he blows even through them
although they are shaggy-breasted. He goes even through an ox’s hide;
it does not stop him. Also he blows through the goat’s fine hair. But
through the fleeces of sheep, because their wool is abundant, the keen
wind Boreas pierces not at all; but it makes the old man curved as a
wheel. And it does not blow through the tender maiden who stays indoors
with her dear mother, unlearned as yet in the works of golden
Aphrodite, and who washes her soft body and anoints herself with oil
and lies down in an inner room within the house, on a winter’s day when
the Boneless One 1322 gnaws his foot in his fireless house and wretched
home; for the sun shows him no pastures to make for, but goes to and
fro over the land and city of dusky men 1323, and shines more
sluggishly upon the whole race of the Hellenes. Then the horned and
unhorned denizens of the wood, with teeth chattering pitifully, flee
through the copses and glades, and all, as they seek shelter, have this
one care, to gain thick coverts or some hollow rock. Then, like the
Three-legged One 1324 whose back is broken and whose head looks down
upon the ground, like him, I say, they wander to escape the white snow.
(ll. 536-563) Then put on, as I bid you, a soft coat and a tunic to the
feet to shield your body,—and you should weave thick woof on thin warp.
In this clothe yourself so that your hair may keep still and not
bristle and stand upon end all over your body.
Lace on your feet close-fitting boots of the hide of a slaughtered ox,
thickly lined with felt inside. And when the season of frost comes on,
stitch together skins of firstling kids with ox-sinew, to put over your
back and to keep off the rain. On your head above wear a shaped cap of
felt to keep your ears from getting wet, for the dawn is chill when
Boreas has once made his onslaught, and at dawn a fruitful mist is
spread over the earth from starry heaven upon the fields of blessed
men: it is drawn from the ever flowing rivers and is raised high above
the earth by windstorm, and sometimes it turns to rain towards evening,
and sometimes to wind when Thracian Boreas huddles the thick clouds.
Finish your work and return home ahead of him, and do not let the dark
cloud from heaven wrap round you and make your body clammy and soak
your clothes. Avoid it; for this is the hardest month, wintry, hard for
sheep and hard for men. In this season let your oxen have half their
usual food, but let your man have more; for the helpful nights are
long. Observe all this until the year is ended and you have nights and
days of equal length, and Earth, the mother of all, bears again her
various fruit.
(ll. 564-570) When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the
solstice, then the star Arcturus 1325 leaves the holy stream of Ocean
and first rises brilliant at dusk. After him the shrilly wailing
daughter of Pandion, the swallow, appears to men when spring is just
beginning. Before she comes, prune the vines, for it is best so.
(ll. 571-581) But when the House-carrier 1326 climbs up the plants from
the earth to escape the Pleiades, then it is no longer the season for
digging vineyards, but to whet your sickles and rouse up your slaves.
Avoid shady seats and sleeping until dawn in the harvest season, when
the sun scorches the body. Then be busy, and bring home your fruits,
getting up early to make your livelihood sure. For dawn takes away a
third part of your work, dawn advances a man on his journey and
advances him in his work,—dawn which appears and sets many men on their
road, and puts yokes on many oxen.
(ll. 582-596) But when the artichoke flowers 1327, and the chirping
grass-hopper sits in a tree and pours down his shrill song continually
from under his wings in the season of wearisome heat, then goats are
plumpest and wine sweetest; women are most wanton, but men are
feeblest, because Sirius parches head and knees and the skin is dry
through heat. But at that time let me have a shady rock and wine of
Biblis, a clot of curds and milk of drained goats with the flesh of an
heifer fed in the woods, that has never calved, and of firstling kids;
then also let me drink bright wine, sitting in the shade, when my heart
is satisfied with food, and so, turning my head to face the fresh
Zephyr, from the everflowing spring which pours down unfouled thrice
pour an offering of water, but make a fourth libation of wine.
(ll. 597-608) Set your slaves to winnow Demeter’s holy grain, when
strong Orion 1328 first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy
place. Then measure it and store it in jars. And so soon as you have
safely stored all your stuff indoors, I bid you put your bondman out of
doors and look out for a servant-girl with no children;—for a servant
with a child to nurse is troublesome. And look after the dog with
jagged teeth; do not grudge him his food, or some time the Day-sleeper
1329 may take your stuff. Bring in fodder and litter so as to have
enough for your oxen and mules. After that, let your men rest their
poor knees and unyoke your pair of oxen.
(ll. 609-617) But when Orion and Sirius are come into mid-heaven, and
rosy-fingered Dawn sees Arcturus 1330, then cut off all the
grape-clusters, Perses, and bring them home. Show them to the sun ten
days and ten nights: then cover them over for five, and on the sixth
day draw off into vessels the gifts of joyful Dionysus. But when the
Pleiades and Hyades and strong Orion begin to set 1331, then remember
to plough in season: and so the completed year 1332 will fitly pass
beneath the earth.
(ll. 618-640) But if desire for uncomfortable sea-faring seize you;
when the Pleiades plunge into the misty sea 1333 to escape Orion’s rude
strength, then truly gales of all kinds rage. Then keep ships no longer
on the sparkling sea, but bethink you to till the land as I bid you.
Haul up your ship upon the land and pack it closely with stones all
round to keep off the power of the winds which blow damply, and draw
out the bilge-plug so that the rain of heaven may not rot it. Put away
all the tackle and fittings in your house, and stow the wings of the
sea-going ship neatly, and hang up the well-shaped rudder over the
smoke. You yourself wait until the season for sailing is come, and then
haul your swift ship down to the sea and stow a convenient cargo in it,
so that you may bring home profit, even as your father and mine,
foolish Perses, used to sail on shipboard because he lacked sufficient
livelihood. And one day he came to this very place crossing over a
great stretch of sea; he left Aeolian Cyme and fled, not from riches
and substance, but from wretched poverty which Zeus lays upon men, and
he settled near Helicon in a miserable hamlet, Ascra, which is bad in
winter, sultry in summer, and good at no time.
(ll. 641-645) But you, Perses, remember all works in their season but
sailing especially. Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a
large one; for the greater the lading, the greater will be your piled
gain, if only the winds will keep back their harmful gales.
(ll. 646-662) If ever you turn your misguided heart to trading and with
to escape from debt and joyless hunger, I will show you the measures of
the loud-roaring sea, though I have no skill in sea-faring nor in
ships; for never yet have I sailed by ship over the wide sea, but only
to Euboea from Aulis where the Achaeans once stayed through much storm
when they had gathered a great host from divine Hellas for Troy, the
land of fair women. Then I crossed over to Chalcis, to the games of
wise Amphidamas where the sons of the great-hearted hero proclaimed and
appointed prizes. And there I boast that I gained the victory with a
song and carried off an handled tripod which I dedicated to the Muses
of Helicon, in the place where they first set me in the way of clear
song. Such is all my experience of many-pegged ships; nevertheless I
will tell you the will of Zeus who holds the aegis; for the Muses have
taught me to sing in marvellous song.
(ll. 663-677) Fifty days after the solstice 1334, when the season of
wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time for me to go
sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy
the sailors, unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus,
the king of the deathless gods, wish to slay them; for the issues of
good and evil alike are with them. At that time the winds are steady,
and the sea is harmless. Then trust in the winds without care, and haul
your swift ship down to the sea and put all the freight on board; but
make all haste you can to return home again and do not wait till the
time of the new wine and autumn rain and oncoming storms with the
fierce gales of Notus who accompanies the heavy autumn rain of Zeus and
stirs up the sea and makes the deep dangerous.
(ll. 678-694) Another time for men to go sailing is in spring when a
man first sees leaves on the topmost shoot of a fig-tree as large as
the foot-print that a cow makes; then the sea is passable, and this is
the spring sailing time. For my part I do not praise it, for my heart
does not like it. Such a sailing is snatched, and you will hardly avoid
mischief. Yet in their ignorance men do even this, for wealth means
life to poor mortals; but it is fearful to die among the waves. But I
bid you consider all these things in your heart as I say. Do not put
all your goods in hallow ships; leave the greater part behind, and put
the lesser part on board; for it is a bad business to meet with
disaster among the waves of the sea, as it is bad if you put too great
a load on your waggon and break the axle, and your goods are spoiled.
Observe due measure: and proportion is best in all things.
(ll. 695-705) Bring home a wife to your house when you are of the right
age, while you are not far short of thirty years nor much above; this
is the right age for marriage. Let your wife have been grown up four
years, and marry her in the fifth. Marry a maiden, so that you can
teach her careful ways, and especially marry one who lives near you,
but look well about you and see that your marriage will not be a joke
to your neighbours. For a man wins nothing better than a good wife,
and, again, nothing worse than a bad one, a greedy soul who roasts her
man without fire, strong though he may be, and brings him to a raw 1335
old age.
(ll. 706-714) Be careful to avoid the anger of the deathless gods. Do
not make a friend equal to a brother; but if you do, do not wrong him
first, and do not lie to please the tongue. But if he wrongs you first,
offending either in word or in deed, remember to repay him double; but
if he ask you to be his friend again and be ready to give you
satisfaction, welcome him. He is a worthless man who makes now one and
now another his friend; but as for you, do not let your face put your
heart to shame 1336.
(ll. 715-716) Do not get a name either as lavish or as churlish; as a
friend of rogues or as a slanderer of good men.
(ll. 717-721) Never dare to taunt a man with deadly poverty which eats
out the heart; it is sent by the deathless gods. The best treasure a
man can have is a sparing tongue, and the greatest pleasure, one that
moves orderly; for if you speak evil, you yourself will soon be worse
spoken of.
(ll. 722-723) Do not be boorish at a common feast where there are many
guests; the pleasure is greatest and the expense is least 1337.
(ll. 724-726) Never pour a libation of sparkling wine to Zeus after
dawn with unwashen hands, nor to others of the deathless gods; else
they do not hear your prayers but spit them back.
(ll. 727-732) Do not stand upright facing the sun when you make water,
but remember to do this when he has set towards his rising. And do not
make water as you go, whether on the road or off the road, and do not
uncover yourself: the nights belong to the blessed gods. A scrupulous
man who has a wise heart sits down or goes to the wall of an enclosed
court.
(ll. 733-736) Do not expose yourself befouled by the fireside in your
house, but avoid this. Do not beget children when you are come back
from ill-omened burial, but after a festival of the gods.
(ll. 737-741) Never cross the sweet-flowing water of ever-rolling
rivers afoot until you have prayed, gazing into the soft flood, and
washed your hands in the clear, lovely water. Whoever crosses a river
with hands unwashed of wickedness, the gods are angry with him and
bring trouble upon him afterwards.
(ll. 742-743) At a cheerful festival of the gods do not cut the
withered from the quick upon that which has five branches 1338 with
bright steel.
(ll. 744-745) Never put the ladle upon the mixing-bowl at a wine party,
for malignant ill-luck is attached to that.
(ll. 746-747) When you are building a house, do not leave it
rough-hewn, or a cawing crow may settle on it and croak.
(ll. 748-749) Take nothing to eat or to wash with from uncharmed pots,
for in them there is mischief.
(ll. 750-759) Do not let a boy of twelve years sit on things which may
not be moved 1339, for that is bad, and makes a man unmanly; nor yet a
child of twelve months, for that has the same effect. A man should not
clean his body with water in which a woman has washed, for there is
bitter mischief in that also for a time. When you come upon a burning
sacrifice, do not make a mock of mysteries, for Heaven is angry at this
also. Never make water in the mouths of rivers which flow to the sea,
nor yet in springs; but be careful to avoid this. And do not ease
yourself in them: it is not well to do this.
(ll. 760-763) So do: and avoid the talk of men. For Talk is
mischievous, light, and easily raised, but hard to bear and difficult
to be rid of. Talk never wholly dies away when many people voice her:
even Talk is in some ways divine.
(ll. 765-767) Mark the days which come from Zeus, duly telling your
slaves of them, and that the thirtieth day of the month is best for one
to look over the work and to deal out supplies.
(ll. 769-768) 1340 For these are days which come from Zeus the
all-wise, when men discern aright.
(ll. 770-779) To begin with, the first, the fourth, and the seventh—on
which Leto bare Apollo with the blade of gold—each is a holy day. The
eighth and the ninth, two days at least of the waxing month 1341, are
specially good for the works of man. Also the eleventh and twelfth are
both excellent, alike for shearing sheep and for reaping the kindly
fruits; but the twelfth is much better than the eleventh, for on it the
airy-swinging spider spins its web in full day, and then the Wise One
1342, gathers her pile. On that day woman should set up her loom and
get forward with her work.
(ll. 780-781) Avoid the thirteenth of the waxing month for beginning to
sow: yet it is the best day for setting plants.
(ll. 782-789) The sixth of the mid-month is very unfavourable for
plants, but is good for the birth of males, though unfavourable for a
girl either to be born at all or to be married. Nor is the first sixth
a fit day for a girl to be born, but a kindly for gelding kids and
sheep and for fencing in a sheep-cote. It is favourable for the birth
of a boy, but such will be fond of sharp speech, lies, and cunning
words, and stealthy converse.
(ll. 790-791) On the eighth of the month geld the boar and
loud-bellowing bull, but hard-working mules on the twelfth.
(ll. 792-799) On the great twentieth, in full day, a wise man should be
born. Such an one is very sound-witted. The tenth is favourable for a
male to be born; but, for a girl, the fourth day of the mid-month. On
that day tame sheep and shambling, horned oxen, and the sharp-fanged
dog and hardy mules to the touch of the hand. But take care to avoid
troubles which eat out the heart on the fourth of the beginning and
ending of the month; it is a day very fraught with fate.
(ll. 800-801) On the fourth of the month bring home your bride, but
choose the omens which are best for this business.
(ll. 802-804) Avoid fifth days: they are unkindly and terrible. On a
fifth day, they say, the Erinyes assisted at the birth of Horcus (Oath)
whom Eris (Strife) bare to trouble the forsworn. {[0-9]} (ll. 805-809)
Look about you very carefully and throw out Demeter’s holy grain upon
the well-rolled 1343 threshing floor on the seventh of the mid-month.
Let the woodman cut beams for house building and plenty of ships’
timbers, such as are suitable for ships. On the fourth day begin to
build narrow ships.
(ll. 810-813) The ninth of the mid-month improves towards evening; but
the first ninth of all is quite harmless for men. It is a good day on
which to beget or to be born both for a male and a female: it is never
an wholly evil day.
(ll. 814-818) Again, few know that the twenty-seventh of the month is
best for opening a wine-jar, and putting yokes on the necks of oxen and
mules and swift-footed horses, and for hauling a swift ship of many
thwarts down to the sparkling sea; few call it by its right name.
(ll. 819-821) On the fourth day open a jar. The fourth of the mid-month
is a day holy above all. And again, few men know that the fourth day
after the twentieth is best while it is morning: towards evening it is
less good.
(ll. 822-828) These days are a great blessing to men on earth; but the
rest are changeable, luckless, and bring nothing. Everyone praises a
different day but few know their nature. Sometimes a day is a
stepmother, sometimes a mother. That man is happy and lucky in them who
knows all these things and does his work without offending the
deathless gods, who discerns the omens of birds and avoids
transgressions.
THE DIVINATION BY BIRDS
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
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 1401,
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: 1402 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 bear and 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, he 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 1403, 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.
THE PRECEPTS OF CHIRON
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
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
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 1501.
THE THEOGONY
(ll. 1-25) From the Heliconian Muses let us begin to sing, who hold the
great and holy mount of Helicon, and dance on soft feet about the
deep-blue spring and the altar of the almighty son of Cronos, and, when
they have washed their tender bodies in Permessus or in the Horse’s
Spring or Olmeius, make their fair, lovely dances upon highest Helicon
and move with vigorous feet. Thence they arise and go abroad by night,
veiled in thick mist, and utter their song with lovely voice, praising
Zeus the aegis-holder and queenly Hera of Argos who walks on golden
sandals and the daughter of Zeus the aegis-holder bright-eyed Athene,
and Phoebus Apollo, and Artemis who delights in arrows, and Poseidon
the earth-holder who shakes the earth, and reverend Themis and
quick-glancing 1601 Aphrodite, and Hebe with the crown of gold, and
fair Dione, Leto, Iapetus, and Cronos the crafty counsellor, Eos and
great Helius and bright Selene, Earth too, and great Oceanus, and dark
Night, and the holy race of all the other deathless ones that are for
ever. And one day they taught Hesiod glorious song while he was
shepherding his lambs under holy Helicon, and this word first the
goddesses said to me—the Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds
the aegis:
(ll. 26-28) ‘Shepherds of the wilderness, wretched things of shame,
mere bellies, we know how to speak many false things as though they
were true; but we know, when we will, to utter true things.’
(ll. 29-35) So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they
plucked and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvellous
thing, and breathed into me a divine voice to celebrate things that
shall be and things there were aforetime; and they bade me sing of the
race of the blessed gods that are eternally, but ever to sing of
themselves both first and last. But why all this about oak or stone?
1602
(ll. 36-52) Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden the
great spirit of their father Zeus in Olympus with their songs, telling
of things that are and that shall be and that were aforetime with
consenting voice. Unwearying flows the sweet sound from their lips, and
the house of their father Zeus the loud-thunderer is glad at the
lily-like voice of the goddesses as it spread abroad, and the peaks of
snowy Olympus resound, and the homes of the immortals. And they
uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the
reverend race of the gods from the beginning, those whom Earth and wide
Heaven begot, and the gods sprung of these, givers of good things.
Then, next, the goddesses sing of Zeus, the father of gods and men, as
they begin and end their strain, how much he is the most excellent
among the gods and supreme in power. And again, they chant the race of
men and strong giants, and gladden the heart of Zeus within
Olympus,—the Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder.
(ll. 53-74) Them in Pieria did Mnemosyne (Memory), who reigns over the
hills of Eleuther, bear of union with the father, the son of Cronos, a
forgetting of ills and a rest from sorrow. For nine nights did wise
Zeus lie with her, entering her holy bed remote from the immortals. And
when a year was passed and the seasons came round as the months waned,
and many days were accomplished, she bare nine daughters, all of one
mind, whose hearts are set upon song and their spirit free from care, a
little way from the topmost peak of snowy Olympus. There are their
bright dancing-places and beautiful homes, and beside them the Graces
and Himerus (Desire) live in delight. And they, uttering through their
lips a lovely voice, sing the laws of all and the goodly ways of the
immortals, uttering their lovely voice. Then went they to Olympus,
delighting in their sweet voice, with heavenly song, and the dark earth
resounded about them as they chanted, and a lovely sound rose up
beneath their feet as they went to their father. And he was reigning in
heaven, himself holding the lightning and glowing thunderbolt, when he
had overcome by might his father Cronos; and he distributed fairly to
the immortals their portions and declared their privileges.
(ll. 75-103) These things, then, the Muses sang who dwell on Olympus,
nine daughters begotten by great Zeus, Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia,
Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Urania and
Calliope 1603, who is the chiefest of them all, for she attends on
worshipful princes: whomsoever of heaven-nourished princes the
daughters of great Zeus honour, and behold him at his birth, they pour
sweet dew upon his tongue, and from his lips flow gracious words. All
the people look towards him while he settles causes with true
judgements: and he, speaking surely, would soon make wise end even of a
great quarrel; for therefore are there princes wise in heart, because
when the people are being misguided in their assembly, they set right
the matter again with ease, persuading them with gentle words. And when
he passes through a gathering, they greet him as a god with gentle
reverence, and he is conspicuous amongst the assembled: such is the
holy gift of the Muses to men. For it is through the Muses and
far-shooting Apollo that there are singers and harpers upon the earth;
but princes are of Zeus, and happy is he whom the Muses love: sweet
flows speech from his mouth. For though a man have sorrow and grief in
his newly-troubled soul and live in dread because his heart is
distressed, yet, when a singer, the servant of the Muses, chants the
glorious deeds of men of old and the blessed gods who inhabit Olympus,
at once he forgets his heaviness and remembers not his sorrows at all;
but the gifts of the goddesses soon turn him away from these.
(ll. 104-115) Hail, children of Zeus! Grant lovely song and celebrate
the holy race of the deathless gods who are for ever, those that were
born of Earth and starry Heaven and gloomy Night and them that briny
Sea did rear. Tell how at the first gods and earth came to be, and
rivers, and the boundless sea with its raging swell, and the gleaming
stars, and the wide heaven above, and the gods who were born of them,
givers of good things, and how they divided their wealth, and how they
shared their honours amongst them, and also how at the first they took
many-folded Olympus. These things declare to me from the beginning, ye
Muses who dwell in the house of Olympus, and tell me which of them
first came to be.
(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next
wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all 1604 the deathless
ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth
of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless
gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels
of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and
black Night; but of Night were born Aether 1605 and Day, whom she
conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare
starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be
an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth
long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the
glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging
swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with
Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and
Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe
and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and
most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
(ll. 139-146) And again, she bare the Cyclopes, overbearing in spirit,
Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges 1606, who gave Zeus
the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the
gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their fore-heads. And
they were surnamed Cyclopes (Orb-eyed) because one orbed eye was set in
their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their works.
(ll. 147-163) And again, three other sons were born of Earth and
Heaven, great and doughty beyond telling, Cottus and Briareos and Gyes,
presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not
to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their
strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in
their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Earth and
Heaven, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own
father from the first.
And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Earth so soon as
each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and
Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Earth groaned within, being
straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great
sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons. And she spoke, cheering
them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:
(ll. 164-166) ‘My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you will obey
me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first
thought of doing shameful things.’
(ll. 167-169) So she said; but fear seized them all, and none of them
uttered a word. But great Cronos the wily took courage and answered his
dear mother:
(ll. 170-172) ‘Mother, I will undertake to do this deed, for I
reverence not our father of evil name, for he first thought of doing
shameful things.’
(ll. 173-175) So he said: and vast Earth rejoiced greatly in spirit,
and set and hid him in an ambush, and put in his hands a jagged sickle,
and revealed to him the whole plot.
(ll. 176-206) And Heaven came, bringing on night and longing for love,
and he lay about Earth spreading himself full upon her 1607.
Then the son from his ambush stretched forth his left hand and in his
right took the great long sickle with jagged teeth, and swiftly lopped
off his own father’s members and cast them away to fall behind him. And
not vainly did they fall from his hand; for all the bloody drops that
gushed forth Earth received, and as the seasons moved round she bare
the strong Erinyes and the great Giants with gleaming armour, holding
long spears in their hands and the Nymphs whom they call Meliae 1608
all over the boundless earth. And so soon as he had cut off the members
with flint and cast them from the land into the surging sea, they were
swept away over the main a long time: and a white foam spread around
them from the immortal flesh, and in it there grew a maiden. First she
drew near holy Cythera, and from there, afterwards, she came to
sea-girt Cyprus, and came forth an awful and lovely goddess, and grass
grew up about her beneath her shapely feet. Her gods and men call
Aphrodite, and the foam-born goddess and rich-crowned Cytherea, because
she grew amid the foam, and Cytherea because she reached Cythera, and
Cyprogenes because she was born in billowy Cyprus, and Philommedes 1609
because sprang from the members. And with her went Eros, and comely
Desire followed her at her birth at the first and as she went into the
assembly of the gods. This honour she has from the beginning, and this
is the portion allotted to her amongst men and undying gods,—the
whisperings of maidens and smiles and deceits with sweet delight and
love and graciousness.
(ll. 207-210) But these sons whom he begot himself great Heaven used to
call Titans (Strainers) in reproach, for he said that they strained and
did presumptuously a fearful deed, and that vengeance for it would come
afterwards.
(ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and
she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky
Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the
Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing
fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless
avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos 1610, who give men at
their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the
transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from
their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty.
Also deadly Night bare Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict mortal men, and
after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted
Strife.
(ll. 226-232) But abhorred Strife bare painful Toil and Forgetfulness
and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders,
Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin,
all of one nature, and Oath who most troubles men upon earth when
anyone wilfully swears a false oath.
(ll. 233-239) And Sea begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who is
true and lies not: and men call him the Old Man because he is trusty
and gentle and does not forget the laws of righteousness, but thinks
just and kindly thoughts. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud
Phorcys, being mated with Earth, and fair-cheeked Ceto and Eurybia who
has a heart of flint within her.
(ll. 240-264) And of Nereus and rich-haired Doris, daughter of Ocean
the perfect river, were born children 1611, passing lovely amongst
goddesses, Ploto, Eucrante, Sao, and Amphitrite, and Eudora, and
Thetis, Galene and Glauce, Cymothoe, Speo, Thoe and lovely Halie, and
Pasithea, and Erato, and rosy-armed Eunice, and gracious Melite, and
Eulimene, and Agaue, Doto, Proto, Pherusa, and Dynamene, and Nisaea,
and Actaea, and Protomedea, Doris, Panopea, and comely Galatea, and
lovely Hippothoe, and rosy-armed Hipponoe, and Cymodoce who with
Cymatolege 1612 and Amphitrite easily calms the waves upon the misty
sea and the blasts of raging winds, and Cymo, and Eione, and
rich-crowned Alimede, and Glauconome, fond of laughter, and Pontoporea,
Leagore, Euagore, and Laomedea, and Polynoe, and Autonoe, and
Lysianassa, and Euarne, lovely of shape and without blemish of form,
and Psamathe of charming figure and divine Menippe, Neso, Eupompe,
Themisto, Pronoe, and Nemertes 1613 who has the nature of her deathless
father. These fifty daughters sprang from blameless Nereus, skilled in
excellent crafts.
(ll. 265-269) And Thaumas wedded Electra the daughter of deep-flowing
Ocean, and she bare him swift Iris and the long-haired Harpies, Aello
(Storm-swift) and Ocypetes (Swift-flier) who on their swift wings keep
pace with the blasts of the winds and the birds; for quick as time they
dart along.
(ll 270-294) And again, Ceto bare to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae,
sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk
on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo,
and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land
towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and
Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the
two were undying and grew not old. With her lay the Dark-haired One
1614 in a soft meadow amid spring flowers. And when Perseus cut off her
head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so
called because he was born near the springs (_pegae_) of Ocean; and
that other, because he held a golden blade (_aor_) in his hands. Now
Pegasus flew away and left the earth, the mother of flocks, and came to
the deathless gods: and he dwells in the house of Zeus and brings to
wise Zeus the thunder and lightning. But Chrysaor was joined in love to
Callirrhoe, the daughter of glorious Ocean, and begot three-headed
Geryones. Him mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling
oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and
had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the
herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.
(ll. 295-305) And in a hollow cave she bare another monster,
irresistible, in no wise like either to mortal men or to the undying
gods, even the goddess fierce Echidna who is half a nymph with glancing
eyes and fair cheeks, and half again a huge snake, great and awful,
with speckled skin, eating raw flesh beneath the secret parts of the
holy earth. And there she has a cave deep down under a hollow rock far
from the deathless gods and mortal men. There, then, did the gods
appoint her a glorious house to dwell in: and she keeps guard in Arima
beneath the earth, grim Echidna, a nymph who dies not nor grows old all
her days.
(ll. 306-332) Men say that Typhaon the terrible, outrageous and
lawless, was joined in love to her, the maid with glancing eyes. So she
conceived and brought forth fierce offspring; first she bare Orthus the
hound of Geryones, and then again she bare a second, a monster not to
be overcome and that may not be described, Cerberus who eats raw flesh,
the brazen-voiced hound of Hades, fifty-headed, relentless and strong.
And again she bore a third, the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the
goddess, white-armed Hera nourished, being angry beyond measure with
the mighty Heracles. And her Heracles, the son of Zeus, of the house of
Amphitryon, together with warlike Iolaus, destroyed with the unpitying
sword through the plans of Athene the spoil-driver. She was the mother
of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great,
swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion;
in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth
a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon
slay; but Echidna was subject in love to Orthus and brought forth the
deadly Sphinx which destroyed the Cadmeans, and the Nemean lion, which
Hera, the good wife of Zeus, brought up and made to haunt the hills of
Nemea, a plague to men. There he preyed upon the tribes of her own
people and had power over Tretus of Nemea and Apesas: yet the strength
of stout Heracles overcame him.
(ll. 333-336) And Ceto was joined in love to Phorcys and bare her
youngest, the awful snake who guards the apples all of gold in the
secret places of the dark earth at its great bounds. This is the
offspring of Ceto and Phorcys.
(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and
Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair
stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of
Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and
Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair
stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and
divine Scamander.
(ll. 346-370) Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters 1615
who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers have youths in their keeping—to
this charge Zeus appointed them—Peitho, and Admete, and Ianthe, and
Electra, and Doris, and Prymno, and Urania divine in form, Hippo,
Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie, and Idyia, and
Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura, and lovely Dione, Melobosis and Thoe
and handsome Polydora, Cerceis lovely of form, and soft eyed Pluto,
Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and
Europa, Metis, and Eurynome, and Telesto saffron-clad, Chryseis and
Asia and charming Calypso, Eudora, and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe,
and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest
daughters that sprang from Ocean and Tethys; but there are many
besides. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean
who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the
earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses.
And as many other rivers are there, babbling as they flow, sons of
Ocean, whom queenly Tethys bare, but their names it is hard for a
mortal man to tell, but people know those by which they severally
dwell.
(ll. 371-374) And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bare great
Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn) who shines upon all
that are on earth and upon the deathless Gods who live in the wide
heaven.
(ll. 375-377) And Eurybia, bright goddess, was joined in love to Crius
and bare great Astraeus, and Pallas, and Perses who also was eminent
among all men in wisdom.
(ll. 378-382) And Eos bare to Astraeus the strong-hearted winds,
brightening Zephyrus, and Boreas, headlong in his course, and Notus,—a
goddess mating in love with a god. And after these Erigenia 1616 bare
the star Eosphorus (Dawn-bringer), and the gleaming stars with which
heaven is crowned.
(ll. 383-403) And Styx the daughter of Ocean was joined to Pallas and
bare Zelus (Emulation) and trim-ankled Nike (Victory) in the house.
Also she brought forth Cratos (Strength) and Bia (Force), wonderful
children. These have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor
path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with
Zeus the loud-thunderer. For so did Styx the deathless daughter of
Ocean plan on that day when the Olympian Lightener called all the
deathless gods to great Olympus, and said that whosoever of the gods
would fight with him against the Titans, he would not cast him out from
his rights, but each should have the office which he had before amongst
the deathless gods. And he declared that he who was without office and
rights under Cronos, should be raised to both office and rights as is
just. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through
the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honoured her, and gave her very
great gifts, for her he appointed to be the great oath of the gods, and
her children to live with him always. And as he promised, so he
performed fully unto them all. But he himself mightily reigns and
rules.
(ll. 404-452) Again, Phoebe came to the desired embrace of Coeus.
Then the goddess through the love of the god conceived and brought
forth dark-gowned Leto, always mild, kind to men and to the deathless
gods, mild from the beginning, gentlest in all Olympus. Also she bare
Asteria of happy name, whom Perses once led to his great house to be
called his dear wife. And she conceived and bare Hecate whom Zeus the
son of Cronos honoured above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a
share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honour also in
starry heaven, and is honoured exceedingly by the deathless gods. For
to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices
and prays for favour according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great
honour comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives
favourably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is
with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these
she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took
anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods:
but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning,
privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea. Also, because she
is an only child, the goddess receives not less honour, but much more
still, for Zeus honours her. Whom she will she greatly aids and
advances: she sits by worshipful kings in judgement, and in the
assembly whom she will is distinguished among the people. And when men
arm themselves for the battle that destroys men, then the goddess is at
hand to give victory and grant glory readily to whom she will. Good is
she also when men contend at the games, for there too the goddess is
with them and profits them: and he who by might and strength gets the
victory wins the rich prize easily with joy, and brings glory to his
parents. And she is good to stand by horsemen, whom she will: and to
those whose business is in the grey discomfortable sea, and who pray to
Hecate and the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, easily the glorious goddess
gives great catch, and easily she takes it away as soon as seen, if so
she will. She is good in the byre with Hermes to increase the stock.
The droves of kine and wide herds of goats and flocks of fleecy sheep,
if she will, she increases from a few, or makes many to be less. So,
then. albeit her mother’s only child 1617, she is honoured amongst all
the deathless gods. And the son of Cronos made her a nurse of the young
who after that day saw with their eyes the light of all-seeing Dawn. So
from the beginning she is a nurse of the young, and these are her
honours.
(ll. 453-491) But Rhea was subject in love to Cronos and bare splendid
children, Hestia 1618, Demeter, and gold-shod Hera and strong Hades,
pitiless in heart, who dwells under the earth, and the loud-crashing
Earth-Shaker, and wise Zeus, father of gods and men, by whose thunder
the wide earth is shaken. These great Cronos swallowed as each came
forth from the womb to his mother’s knees with this intent, that no
other of the proud sons of Heaven should hold the kingly office amongst
the deathless gods. For he learned from Earth and starry Heaven that he
was destined to be overcome by his own son, strong though he was,
through the contriving of great Zeus 1619. Therefore he kept no blind
outlook, but watched and swallowed down his children: and unceasing
grief seized Rhea. But when she was about to bear Zeus, the father of
gods and men, then she besought her own dear parents, Earth and starry
Heaven, to devise some plan with her that the birth of her dear child
might be concealed, and that retribution might overtake great, crafty
Cronos for his own father and also for the children whom he had
swallowed down. And they readily heard and obeyed their dear daughter,
and told her all that was destined to happen touching Cronos the king
and his stout-hearted son. So they sent her to Lyetus, to the rich land
of Crete, when she was ready to bear great Zeus, the youngest of her
children. Him did vast Earth receive from Rhea in wide Crete to nourish
and to bring up. Thither came Earth carrying him swiftly through the
black night to Lyctus first, and took him in her arms and hid him in a
remote cave beneath the secret places of the holy earth on thick-wooded
Mount Aegeum; but to the mightily ruling son of Heaven, the earlier
king of the gods, she gave a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Then he took it in his hands and thrust it down into his belly: wretch!
he knew not in his heart that in place of the stone his son was left
behind, unconquered and untroubled, and that he was soon to overcome
him by force and might and drive him from his honours, himself to reign
over the deathless gods.
(ll. 492-506) After that, the strength and glorious limbs of the prince
increased quickly, and as the years rolled on, great Cronos the wily
was beguiled by the deep suggestions of Earth, and brought up again his
offspring, vanquished by the arts and might of his own son, and he
vomited up first the stone which he had swallowed last. And Zeus set it
fast in the wide-pathed earth at goodly Pytho under the glens of
Parnassus, to be a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men 1620.
And he set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father,
sons of Heaven whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they
remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder
and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth
had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and
immortals.
(ll. 507-543) Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled mad Clymene,
daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him
a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and
clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained
Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for
it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had
formed. But Menoetius was outrageous, and far-seeing Zeus struck him
with a lurid thunderbolt and sent him down to Erebus because of his mad
presumption and exceeding pride. And Atlas through hard constraint
upholds the wide heaven with unwearying head and arms, standing at the
borders of the earth before the clear-voiced Hesperides; for this lot
wise Zeus assigned to him. And ready-witted Prometheus he bound with
inextricable bonds, cruel chains, and drove a shaft through his middle,
and set on him a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal
liver; but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as the
long-winged bird devoured in the whole day. That bird Heracles, the
valiant son of shapely-ankled Alcmene, slew; and delivered the son of
Iapetus from the cruel plague, and released him from his affliction—not
without the will of Olympian Zeus who reigns on high, that the glory of
Heracles the Theban-born might be yet greater than it was before over
the plenteous earth. This, then, he regarded, and honoured his famous
son; though he was angry, he ceased from the wrath which he had before
because Prometheus matched himself in wit with the almighty son of
Cronos. For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone, even
then Prometheus was forward to cut up a great ox and set portions
before them, trying to befool the mind of Zeus. Before the rest he set
flesh and inner parts thick with fat upon the hide, covering them with
an ox paunch; but for Zeus he put the white bones dressed up with
cunning art and covered with shining fat. Then the father of men and of
gods said to him:
(ll. 543-544) ‘Son of Iapetus, most glorious of all lords, good sir,
how unfairly you have divided the portions!’
(ll. 545-547) So said Zeus whose wisdom is everlasting, rebuking him.
But wily Prometheus answered him, smiling softly and not forgetting his
cunning trick:
(ll. 548-558) ‘Zeus, most glorious and greatest of the eternal gods,
take which ever of these portions your heart within you bids.’ So he
said, thinking trickery. But Zeus, whose wisdom is everlasting, saw and
failed not to perceive the trick, and in his heart he thought mischief
against mortal men which also was to be fulfilled. With both hands he
took up the white fat and was angry at heart, and wrath came to his
spirit when he saw the white ox-bones craftily tricked out: and because
of this the tribes of men upon earth burn white bones to the deathless
gods upon fragrant altars. But Zeus who drives the clouds was greatly
vexed and said to him:
(ll. 559-560) ‘Son of Iapetus, clever above all! So, sir, you have not
yet forgotten your cunning arts!’
(ll. 561-584) So spake Zeus in anger, whose wisdom is everlasting; and
from that time he was always mindful of the trick, and would not give
the power of unwearying fire to the Melian 1621 race of mortal men who
live on the earth. But the noble son of Iapetus outwitted him and stole
the far-seen gleam of unwearying fire in a hollow fennel stalk. And
Zeus who thunders on high was stung in spirit, and his dear heart was
angered when he saw amongst men the far-seen ray of fire. Forthwith he
made an evil thing for men as the price of fire; for the very famous
Limping God formed of earth the likeness of a shy maiden as the son of
Cronos willed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed
her with silvery raiment, and down from her head she spread with her
hands a broidered veil, a wonder to see; and she, Pallas Athene, put
about her head lovely garlands, flowers of new-grown herbs. Also she
put upon her head a crown of gold which the very famous Limping God
made himself and worked with his own hands as a favour to Zeus his
father. On it was much curious work, wonderful to see; for of the many
creatures which the land and sea rear up, he put most upon it,
wonderful things, like living beings with voices: and great beauty
shone out from it.
(ll. 585-589) But when he had made the beautiful evil to be the price
for the blessing, he brought her out, delighting in the finery which
the bright-eyed daughter of a mighty father had given her, to the place
where the other gods and men were. And wonder took hold of the
deathless gods and mortal men when they saw that which was sheer guile,
not to be withstood by men.
(ll. 590-612) For from her is the race of women and female kind: of her
is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to
their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in
wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is
to do mischief—by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down
the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at
home in the covered skeps and reap the toil of others into their own
bellies—even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to
mortal men, with a nature to do evil. And he gave them a second evil to
be the price for the good they had: whoever avoids marriage and the
sorrows that women cause, and will not wed, reaches deadly old age
without anyone to tend his years, and though he at least has no lack of
livelihood while he lives, yet, when he is dead, his kinsfolk divide
his possessions amongst them. And as for the man who chooses the lot of
marriage and takes a good wife suited to his mind, evil continually
contends with good; for whoever happens to have mischievous children,
lives always with unceasing grief in his spirit and heart within him;
and this evil cannot be healed.
(ll. 613-616) So it is not possible to deceive or go beyond the will of
Zeus; for not even the son of Iapetus, kindly Prometheus, escaped his
heavy anger, but of necessity strong bands confined him, although he
knew many a wile.
(ll. 617-643) But when first their father was vexed in his heart with
Obriareus and Cottus and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds, because he
was jealous of their exceeding manhood and comeliness and great size:
and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were
afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the end of the
earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with
great grief at heart. But the son of Cronos and the other deathless
gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare from union with Cronos, brought them up
again to the light at Earth’s advising. For she herself recounted all
things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory
and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as
many as sprang from Cronos had long been fighting together in stubborn
war with heart-grieving toil, the lordly Titans from high Othyrs, but
the gods, givers of good, whom rich-haired Rhea bare in union with
Cronos, from Olympus. So they, with bitter wrath, were fighting
continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the
hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the issue of the
war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three with all
things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and
when their proud spirit revived within them all after they had fed on
nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and
gods spoke amongst them:
(ll. 644-653) ‘Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven, that I may
say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are
sprung from Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day
to get victory and to prevail. But do you show your great might and
unconquerable strength, and face the Titans in bitter strife; for
remember our friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are come
back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our
counsels.’
(ll. 654-663) So he said. And blameless Cottus answered him again:
‘Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves
we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you
became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through
your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom and from our
merciless bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O lord, son of
Cronos. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will
aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the Titans in
hard battle.’
(ll. 664-686) So he said: and the gods, givers of good things,
applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for war
even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up
hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that were born of Cronos
together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom
Zeus brought up to the light from Erebus beneath the earth. An hundred
arms sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads
growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against
the Titans in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands.
And on the other part the Titans eagerly strengthened their ranks, and
both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might.
The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly:
wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its
foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking
reached dim Tartarus and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful
onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their
grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they
shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great
battle-cry.
(ll. 687-712) Then Zeus no longer held back his might; but straight his
heart was filled with fury and he showed forth all his strength. From
Heaven and from Olympus he came forthwith, hurling his lightning: the
bolts flew thick and fast from his strong hand together with thunder
and lightning, whirling an awesome flame. The life-giving earth crashed
around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about.
All the land seethed, and Ocean’s streams and the unfruitful sea. The
hot vapour lapped round the earthborn Titans: flame unspeakable rose to
the bright upper air: the flashing glare of the thunder-stone and
lightning blinded their eyes for all that there were strong. Astounding
heat seized Chaos: and to see with eyes and to hear the sound with ears
it seemed even as if Earth and wide Heaven above came together; for
such a mighty crash would have arisen if Earth were being hurled to
ruin, and Heaven from on high were hurling her down; so great a crash
was there while the gods were meeting together in strife. Also the
winds brought rumbling earthquake and duststorm, thunder and lightning
and the lurid thunderbolt, which are the shafts of great Zeus, and
carried the clangour and the warcry into the midst of the two hosts. An
horrible uproar of terrible strife arose: mighty deeds were shown and
the battle inclined. But until then, they kept at one another and
fought continually in cruel war.
(ll. 713-735) And amongst the foremost Cottus and Briareos and Gyes
insatiate for war raised fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one upon
another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the
Titans with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed
earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by
their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to
Tartarus. For a brazen anvil falling down from heaven nine nights and
days would reach the earth upon the tenth: and again, a brazen anvil
falling from earth nine nights and days would reach Tartarus upon the
tenth. Round it runs a fence of bronze, and night spreads in triple
line all about it like a neck-circlet, while above grow the roots of
the earth and unfruitful sea. There by the counsel of Zeus who drives
the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place
where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for
Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on
every side. There Gyes and Cottus and great-souled Obriareus live,
trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis.
(ll. 736-744) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends
of gloomy earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry
heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.
It is a great gulf, and if once a man were within the gates, he would
not reach the floor until a whole year had reached its end, but cruel
blast upon blast would carry him this way and that. And this marvel is
awful even to the deathless gods.
(ll. 744-757) There stands the awful home of murky Night wrapped in
dark clouds. In front of it the son of Iapetus 1622 stands immovably
upholding the wide heaven upon his head and unwearying hands, where
Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the great
threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the
house, the other comes out at the door.
And the house never holds them both within; but always one is without
the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and
waits until the time for her journeying come; and the one holds
all-seeing light for them on earth, but the other holds in her arms
Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous
cloud.
(ll. 758-766) And there the children of dark Night have their
dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks
upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he
comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over
the earth and the sea’s broad back and is kindly to men; but the other
has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze:
whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful
even to the deathless gods.
(ll. 767-774) There, in front, stand the echoing halls of the god of
the lower-world, strong Hades, and of awful Persephone. A fearful hound
guards the house in front, pitiless, and he has a cruel trick. On those
who go in he fawns with his tail and both his ears, but suffers them
not to go out back again, but keeps watch and devours whomsoever he
catches going out of the gates of strong Hades and awful Persephone.
(ll. 775-806) And there dwells the goddess loathed by the deathless
gods, terrible Styx, eldest daughter of back-flowing 1623 Ocean. She
lives apart from the gods in her glorious house vaulted over with great
rocks and propped up to heaven all round with silver pillars. Rarely
does the daughter of Thaumas, swift-footed Iris, come to her with a
message over the sea’s wide back.
But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when
any of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus sends Iris
to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods from far away, the
famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock.
Far under the wide-pathed earth a branch of Oceanus flows through the
dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is
allotted to her. With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the
earth and the sea’s wide back, and then falls into the main 1624; but
the tenth flows out from a rock, a sore trouble to the gods. For
whoever of the deathless gods that hold the peaks of snowy Olympus
pours a libation of her water is forsworn, lies breathless until a full
year is completed, and never comes near to taste ambrosia and nectar,
but lies spiritless and voiceless on a strewn bed: and a heavy trance
overshadows him. But when he has spent a long year in his sickness,
another penance and an harder follows after the first. For nine years
he is cut off from the eternal gods and never joins their councils of
their feasts, nine full years. But in the tenth year he comes again to
join the assemblies of the deathless gods who live in the house of
Olympus. Such an oath, then, did the gods appoint the eternal and
primaeval water of Styx to be: and it spouts through a rugged place.
(ll. 807-819) And there, all in their order, are the sources and ends
of the dark earth and misty Tartarus and the unfruitful sea and starry
heaven, loathsome and dank, which even the gods abhor.
And there are shining gates and an immoveable threshold of bronze
having unending roots and it is grown of itself 1625. And beyond, away
from all the gods, live the Titans, beyond gloomy Chaos. But the
glorious allies of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Ocean’s
foundations, even Cottus and Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the
deep-roaring Earth-Shaker made his son-in-law, giving him Cymopolea his
daughter to wed.
(ll. 820-868) But when Zeus had driven the Titans from heaven, huge
Earth bare her youngest child Typhoeus of the love of Tartarus, by the
aid of golden Aphrodite. Strength was with his hands in all that he did
and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew
an hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering
tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads
flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared. And there
were voices in all his dreadful heads which uttered every kind of sound
unspeakable; for at one time they made sounds such that the gods
understood, but at another, the noise of a bull bellowing aloud in
proud ungovernable fury; and at another, the sound of a lion,
relentless of heart; and at another, sounds like whelps, wonderful to
hear; and again, at another, he would hiss, so that the high mountains
re-echoed. And truly a thing past help would have happened on that day,
and he would have come to reign over mortals and immortals, had not the
father of men and gods been quick to perceive it. But he thundered hard
and mightily: and the earth around resounded terribly and the wide
heaven above, and the sea and Ocean’s streams and the nether parts of
the earth. Great Olympus reeled beneath the divine feet of the king as
he arose and earth groaned thereat. And through the two of them heat
took hold on the dark-blue sea, through the thunder and lightning, and
through the fire from the monster, and the scorching winds and blazing
thunderbolt. The whole earth seethed, and sky and sea: and the long
waves raged along the beaches round and about, at the rush of the
deathless gods: and there arose an endless shaking. Hades trembled
where he rules over the dead below, and the Titans under Tartarus who
live with Cronos, because of the unending clamour and the fearful
strife. So when Zeus had raised up his might and seized his arms,
thunder and lightning and lurid thunderbolt, he leaped from Olympus and
struck him, and burned all the marvellous heads of the monster about
him. But when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes,
Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth
groaned. And flame shot forth from the thunder-stricken lord in the dim
rugged glens of the mount 1626, when he was smitten. A great part of
huge earth was scorched by the terrible vapour and melted as tin melts
when heated by men’s art in channelled 1627 crucibles; or as iron,
which is hardest of all things, is softened by glowing fire in mountain
glens and melts in the divine earth through the strength of Hephaestus
1628. Even so, then, the earth melted in the glow of the blazing fire.
And in the bitterness of his anger Zeus cast him into wide Tartarus.
(ll. 869-880) And from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow
damply, except Notus and Boreas and clear Zephyr. These are a god-sent
kind, and a great blessing to men; but the others blow fitfully upon
the seas. Some rush upon the misty sea and work great havoc among men
with their evil, raging blasts; for varying with the season they blow,
scattering ships and destroying sailors. And men who meet these upon
the sea have no help against the mischief. Others again over the
boundless, flowering earth spoil the fair fields of men who dwell
below, filling them with dust and cruel uproar.
(ll. 881-885) But when the blessed gods had finished their toil, and
settled by force their struggle for honours with the Titans, they
pressed far-seeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them, by
Earth’s prompting. So he divided their dignities amongst them.
(ll. 886-900) Now Zeus, king of the gods, made Metis his wife first,
and she was wisest among gods and mortal men. But when she was about to
bring forth the goddess bright-eyed Athene, Zeus craftily deceived her
with cunning words and put her in his own belly, as Earth and starry
Heaven advised. For they advised him so, to the end that no other
should hold royal sway over the eternal gods in place of Zeus; for very
wise children were destined to be born of her, first the maiden
bright-eyed Tritogeneia, equal to her father in strength and in wise
understanding; but afterwards she was to bear a son of overbearing
spirit, king of gods and men. But Zeus put her into his own belly
first, that the goddess might devise for him both good and evil.
(ll. 901-906) Next he married bright Themis who bare the Horae (Hours),
and Eunomia (Order), Dike (Justice), and blooming Eirene (Peace), who
mind the works of mortal men, and the Moerae (Fates) to whom wise Zeus
gave the greatest honour, Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos who give
mortal men evil and good to have.
(ll. 907-911) And Eurynome, the daughter of Ocean, beautiful in form,
bare him three fair-cheeked Charites (Graces), Aglaea, and Euphrosyne,
and lovely Thaleia, from whose eyes as they glanced flowed love that
unnerves the limbs: and beautiful is their glance beneath their brows.
(ll. 912-914) Also he came to the bed of all-nourishing Demeter, and
she bare white-armed Persephone whom Aidoneus carried off from her
mother; but wise Zeus gave her to him.
(ll. 915-917) And again, he loved Mnemosyne with the beautiful hair:
and of her the nine gold-crowned Muses were born who delight in feasts
and the pleasures of song.
(ll. 918-920) And Leto was joined in love with Zeus who holds the
aegis, and bare Apollo and Artemis delighting in arrows, children
lovely above all the sons of Heaven.
(ll. 921-923) Lastly, he made Hera his blooming wife: and she was
joined in love with the king of gods and men, and brought forth Hebe
and Ares and Eileithyia.
(ll. 924-929) But Zeus himself gave birth from his own head to
bright-eyed Tritogeneia 1629, the awful, the strife-stirring, the
host-leader, the unwearying, the queen, who delights in tumults and
wars and battles. But Hera without union with Zeus—for she was very
angry and quarrelled with her mate—bare famous Hephaestus, who is
skilled in crafts more than all the sons of Heaven.
(ll. 929a-929t) 1630 But Hera was very angry and quarrelled with her
mate. And because of this strife she bare without union with Zeus who
holds the aegis a glorious son, Hephaestus, who excelled all the sons
of Heaven in crafts. But Zeus lay with the fair-cheeked daughter of
Ocean and Tethys apart from Hera.... ((LACUNA)) ....deceiving Metis
(Thought) although she was full wise. But he seized her with his hands
and put her in his belly, for fear that she might bring forth something
stronger than his thunderbolt: therefore did Zeus, who sits on high and
dwells in the aether, swallow her down suddenly. But she straightway
conceived Pallas Athene: and the father of men and gods gave her birth
by way of his head on the banks of the river Trito. And she remained
hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus, even Metis, Athena’s mother,
worker of righteousness, who was wiser than gods and mortal men. There
the goddess (Athena) received that 1631 whereby she excelled in
strength all the deathless ones who dwell in Olympus, she who made the
host-scaring weapon of Athena. And with it (Zeus) gave her birth,
arrayed in arms of war.
(ll. 930-933) And of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was
born great, wide-ruling Triton, and he owns the depths of the sea,
living with his dear mother and the lord his father in their golden
house, an awful god.
(ll. 933-937) Also Cytherea bare to Ares the shield-piercer Panic and
Fear, terrible gods who drive in disorder the close ranks of men in
numbing war, with the help of Ares, sacker of towns: and Harmonia whom
high-spirited Cadmus made his wife.
(ll. 938-939) And Maia, the daughter of Atlas, bare to Zeus glorious
Hermes, the herald of the deathless gods, for she went up into his holy
bed.
(ll. 940-942) And Semele, daughter of Cadmus was joined with him in
love and bare him a splendid son, joyous Dionysus,—a mortal woman an
immortal son. And now they both are gods.
(ll. 943-944) And Alcmena was joined in love with Zeus who drives the
clouds and bare mighty Heracles.
(ll. 945-946) And Hephaestus, the famous Lame One, made Aglaea,
youngest of the Graces, his buxom wife.
(ll. 947-949) And golden-haired Dionysus made brown-haired Ariadne, the
daughter of Minos, his buxom wife: and the son of Cronos made her
deathless and unageing for him.
(ll. 950-955) And mighty Heracles, the valiant son of neat-ankled
Alcmena, when he had finished his grievous toils, made Hebe the child
of great Zeus and gold-shod Hera his shy wife in snowy Olympus. Happy
he! For he has finished his great works and lives amongst the undying
gods, untroubled and unageing all his days.
(ll. 956-962) And Perseis, the daughter of Ocean, bare to unwearying
Helios Circe and Aeetes the king. And Aeetes, the son of Helios who
shows light to men, took to wife fair-cheeked Idyia, daughter of Ocean
the perfect stream, by the will of the gods: and she was subject to him
in love through golden Aphrodite and bare him neat-ankled Medea.
(ll. 963-968) And now farewell, you dwellers on Olympus and you islands
and continents and thou briny sea within. Now sing the company of
goddesses, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughter of Zeus who holds
the aegis,—even those deathless one who lay with mortal men and bare
children like unto gods.
(ll. 969-974) Demeter, bright goddess, was joined in sweet love with
the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed fallow in the rich land of Crete,
and bare Plutus, a kindly god who goes everywhere over land and the
sea’s wide back, and him who finds him and into whose hands he comes he
makes rich, bestowing great wealth upon him.
(ll. 975-978) And Harmonia, the daughter of golden Aphrodite, bare to
Cadmus Ino and Semele and fair-cheeked Agave and Autonoe whom long
haired Aristaeus wedded, and Polydorus also in rich-crowned Thebe.
(ll. 979-983) And the daughter of Ocean, Callirrhoe was joined in the
love of rich Aphrodite with stout hearted Chrysaor and bare a son who
was the strongest of all men, Geryones, whom mighty Heracles killed in
sea-girt Erythea for the sake of his shambling oxen.
(ll. 984-991) And Eos bare to Tithonus brazen-crested Memnon, king of
the Ethiopians, and the Lord Emathion. And to Cephalus she bare a
splendid son, strong Phaethon, a man like the gods, whom, when he was a
young boy in the tender flower of glorious youth with childish
thoughts, laughter-loving Aphrodite seized and caught up and made a
keeper of her shrine by night, a divine spirit.
(ll. 993-1002) And the son of Aeson by the will of the gods led away
from Aeetes the daughter of Aeetes the heaven-nurtured king, when he
had finished the many grievous labours which the great king, over
bearing Pelias, that outrageous and presumptuous doer of violence, put
upon him. But when the son of Aeson had finished them, he came to
Iolcus after long toil bringing the coy-eyed girl with him on his swift
ship, and made her his buxom wife. And she was subject to Iason,
shepherd of the people, and bare a son Medeus whom Cheiron the son of
Philyra brought up in the mountains. And the will of great Zeus was
fulfilled.
(ll. 1003-1007) But of the daughters of Nereus, the Old man of the Sea,
Psamathe the fair goddess, was loved by Aeacus through golden Aphrodite
and bare Phocus. And the silver-shod goddess Thetis was subject to
Peleus and brought forth lion-hearted Achilles, the destroyer of men.
(ll. 1008-1010) And Cytherea with the beautiful crown was joined in
sweet love with the hero Anchises and bare Aeneas on the peaks of Ida
with its many wooded glens.
(ll. 1011-1016) And Circe the daughter of Helius, Hyperion’s son, loved
steadfast Odysseus and bare Agrius and Latinus who was faultless and
strong: also she brought forth Telegonus by the will of golden
Aphrodite. And they ruled over the famous Tyrenians, very far off in a
recess of the holy islands.
(ll. 1017-1018) And the bright goddess Calypso was joined to Odysseus
in sweet love, and bare him Nausithous and Nausinous.
(ll. 1019-1020) These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal
men and bare them children like unto gods.
(ll. 1021-1022) But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of
Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.
THE CATALOGUES OF WOMEN AND EOIAE1701
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 1702, 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 1703, 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.’
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 1704: (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 1705 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 1706. 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....’
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 1707, 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.
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 be told, and these then ensnared him
through the devising of Athene.’
Fragment #11—Stephanus of Byzantium 1708, 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 1709, 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 1710.
Papiri greci e latini, ii. No. 130 (2nd-3rd century) 1711: (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)’ 1712
((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 1713: 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 1714, 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 1715 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—1716 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 1717 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.: 1718 ‘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—1719 Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 1 (3rd cent. A.D.): 1720
(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 men 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 1721. 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 1722, 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 1723, 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 1724 in Etymologicum Magnum, p. 60, 40: Tityos
the son of Elara.
Fragment #26—1725 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 1726. 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 1727 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 1728, 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’ 1729, 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 1730 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 1731 who have waggons for houses.’
Fragment #40A—(Cp. Fr. 43 and 44) Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358 fr. 2 (3rd
cent. A.D.): 1732 ((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 1733 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 1734 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 1735, 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 1736.
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 Ogygia lies over against Crete: ‘...the
Ogygian sea and......the island Ogygia.’
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 1737 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 lengt
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