Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

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Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

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.

PREPARER'S NOTE:
In order to make this file more accessable 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 ommitted.

***

This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by
Douglas B. Killings (DeTroyes@AOL.COM), June 1995.

*****************************************************************

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.

Hugh G. Evelyn-White,
Rampton, NR. Cambridge.
Sept. 9th, 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 (1), 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 (2) 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 Magnum" (s.v. 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 (3) 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 (4), 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 (5), 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 (6) 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 (7) 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) (8) 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.

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