Collection of Hesiod, Homer and Homerica | Page 8

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.
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" (9), 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 (10): 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