Hesiod

Hesiod (Hesiodos) was an early Greek poet and rhapsode, believed to have lived around 700 BC. Greek historians debated the priority of Hesiod or of Homer, and even brought them together in an imagined poetic contest; most modern scholars agree that Homer lived before Hesiod.

Works

Hesiod wrote only one poem universally considered authentic: the Works and Days, which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have seen this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of documented colonizations in search of new land.

Related Topics:
Poem - Works and Days

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This work lays out the five Ages of Man, as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges (like those who decided in favour of Perses).

Related Topics:
Ages of Man - Judge

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The Theogony is traditionally attributed to Hesiod, although authorship is not certain. Theogony resembles Works and Days very closely in style and substance considering the purposely different subject-matter.

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The Theogony concerns the origins of the world and of the gods, beginning with Gaia, Nyx and Eros, and shows a special interest in genealogy. Embedded in Greek myth are fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became the accepted version that linked all Hellenes.

Related Topics:
Theogony - Origins of the world - Gaia - Nyx - Eros - Genealogy

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• Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod later genealogical poems -- known as Catalogues of Women or as Eoiae (because sections began with the Greek words e oie 'or like her'). Only small fragments of these have survived. They deal with the genealogies of kings and heroes of the legendary heroic period. Scholars generally classify them as later examples of the poetic tradition to which Hesiod belonged.
• A final poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles ( ????? ????????? / Aspis Hêrakleous ), apparently forms a late expansion of one of these genealogical poems, taking its cue from Homer's description of the Shield of Achilles.

Hesiod's works survive in Alexandrian papyri, some as early as the 1st century BCE. The first printing, editio princeps, of Works and Days, was by Demetrius Chalcondyles, possibly at Milan, probably 1493 "editio princeps". In 1495 Aldus Manutius published the complete works at Venice.

Related Topics:
Papyri - 1495 - Aldus Manutius

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