Collection of Hesiod, Homer and Homerica | Page 6

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