Theogonia, Opera et Dies, Scutum, Fragmenta Selecta

by Hesiod, Friedrich Solmsen (Editor), R. Merkelbach (Editor)

In this new and third edition, the additional fragments contained in the appendix of the second edition have been incorporated in the main text. Some further discoveries have been included, and reference has been made to the results of recent research on the relative placing of certain papyrus fragments. The index of names has been brought up to date.

Genres: Poetry, Philosophy, Mythology, Classics

288 pages, cloth

First published January 1, 801

About the author

Hesiod (Greek: Ησίοδος) was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.
Several of Hesiod's works have survived in their entirety. Among these are Theogony, which tells the origins of the gods, their lineages, and the events that led to Zeus's rise to power, and Works and Days, a poem that describes the five Ages of Man, offers advice and wisdom, and includes myths such as Pandora's box.
Hesiod is generally regarded by Western authors as 'the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject.' Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, Archaic Greek astronomy, cosmology, and ancient time-keeping.

Reviews

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for a book of Hesiod that covered the Theogony and initially came across the version of “Works and days” translated by A E Stallings. I was attracted to Stallings version because she had made the attempt to put the work into verse.....as it was originally composed. I knew that one was likely to lose something by forcing the original into English verse but thought it might be truer in form to the original. Anyway, with the current book, I’ve had the chance to compare versions. (Well of “Works and Days” only but the current book also includes “The Theogony”) ....and I’ve come to the conclusion, that for my purposes....as a casual reader......both versions are quite acceptable. I get the gist of the stories or messages and that’s about all I was looking for. I admire Stalling’s work in putting it into verse but I’m equally happy with the prose form in the current book.
Also, in the current book, I have The Theogony. And the following are extracts from the book itself....passages tht appealed to me......sometimes interspersed with commentary by me.
“Composed circa 700 BC in the epic dialect of Homeric Greek, The Theogony (‘ the birth of the gods’) describes the origins and genealogies of classical gods and goddesses. It provides an important synthesis of a vast variety of local traditions concerning the gods, organised as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. Interestingly, The Theogony of Hesiod is unique for establishing no historical royal line, instead choosing to affirm the kingship of Zeus over all the other gods and the cosmos....I must confess that I found it rather boring and skipped through it. I guess a serious student of Greek Mythology would find it extremely interesting...but I found it about as fascinating as reading Deuteronomy.
Hesiod was probably influenced by Near-Eastern traditions, such as the Babylonian Dynasty of Dunnum, which were mixed with local traditions, with lingering traces from Mycenaean traditions. Following the invocation to the muses in the opening, Hesiod declares that he has received their blessings and thanks them for the gift of inspiration.
....“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:
.....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;
These things declare to me from the beginning, ye Muses who dwell in the house
Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth,
From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night;
And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side,
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.......
Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled maid 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.
{There is certainly a lot of gods impregnating attractive mortals with the offspring sharing some of the characteristics of the gods and, maybe, securing extra protection from the gods. So the story of Jesus Christ being son of Mary (mortal) and God (well, God with a capital G) ...doesn’t seem all that out of the ordinary ...except Jesus came along 700 years later}.
....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.
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.
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.
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 when Zeus had conquered him and lashed him with strokes, Typhoeus was hurled down, a maimed wreck, so that the huge earth groaned.
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 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. [I found this fascinating when written about 700 BC...clearly there was knowledge about iron smelting ...which had developed in Greece over the previous 350 years].
And from Typhoeus come boisterous winds which blow damply, except Notus and Boreas and clear Zephyr.
These are the immortal goddesses who lay with mortal men and bare them children like unto gods. (1021-1022) .....[So here we have goddesses becoming pregnant to mortals with the offspring having some immortal characteristics]. But now, sweet-voiced Muses of Olympus, daughters of Zeus who holds the aegis, sing of the company of women.

Now we move onto “Works and days” The Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι where I can make some comparisons between the translations. This is a didactic poem of approximately 800 lines, composed around 700 BC. “Works and Days” is fundamentally a guide to agriculture, in which Hesiod instructs his brother Perses in farming techniques and traditions, as well as extensive advice on how he should live his life. It is believed the work was written during an agrarian crisis suffered in mainland Greece during seventh century BC, inspiring a wave of colonial expeditions in search of new land.
The work is also notable for first introducing the concept that toil and pain define the human condition and for telling the story of Prometheus and Pandora.
“......So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two.
nature. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves;
But the other....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.
[I thought that this was interesting pop-psychology...still as relevant today].
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.
And Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men also when they come to have grey hair on the temples at their birth. 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.
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.
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 they who give straight judgements to strangers and to the men of the land,
all-seeing Zeus never decrees cruel war against them. Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true justice;...[I’m not sure that this actually holds....there is the constant dilemma of a good person suffering from all sorts of issues....God bringing trouble on the just and the unjust...why?]
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;
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.
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
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. (502-503) While it is yet midsummer command your slaves: ‘It will not always be summer, build barns.’
But when the artichoke flowers, 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. [Here we have the bucolic rural dream...rarely lived in practice but rather lovely prose].
Obviously, I had the chance to compare the verse version translated by Stallings and this version. (I couldn’t find mention of a translator but this book also has the Greek texts.....and doesn’t even have mention of the author of the commentary etc. Maybe this is an aberration due to the Kindle version). But, actually, I found little to choose between them. I’d thought that the verse form might actually be easier to read...but that was not the case. Both were relatively easy reading.
So what’s my overall take on the book. I liked it. And think that having the Greek version would certainly make it a lot more relevant to scholars. (Must ask my son in law to comment on the Greek: he’s been studying ancient Greek but I don’t know enough to know it this is modern or ancient Greek. Four stars from me.

[Corey Levinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty boring i thought. I read the translation by catherine schlegel. It rhymed and did a good job. But the story is kind of boring. Lots of lists of names. It can be summarized in a few sentences. Ouranus got his balls cut off. Kronos ate his children and then vomited them all after eating a stone. It twlls the origin of all the gods and many monsters like Hydra, hundred armed people, Cyclops, etc. for that reason its an important piece of literature, but didnt capture my attention. For example the Prometheus myth is like 1 page long. Atlas carrying the world is a small sentence. Zeus swallowing his wife is half a sentence. But the praise to hecate is multiple pages

[Didotwite · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know what possessed me to begin the summer reading program with the Theogony. I hate Hesiod. 750 lines down, 250 to go.

Finished. Finally. Only took me 7 weeks to read 1020 lines of Greek.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

真是非三代以上不能啊~

[BeingTyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

前一部分是农业生产日程指导书，可以简单了解一下古希腊人的生产、生活；后一部分是神话人物关系梳理。总的来说可能历史价值比较大，但是普通读者读起来可能会觉得索然无味。

[Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the various epic fragments and miscellaneous bits of Homerica, I turned to the remains of Hesiod. I had been disappointed when I read Hesiod's major works (Theogony and Works and Days) earlier this year. But I really got into these lesser, and often perhaps spurious, works.

After the two major works, this volume includes one other complete poem, the Shield of Heracles. I had never heard of this poem, but I thought it provided interesting context for the passage in the Iliad that describes the shield of Achilles. Perhaps this was an established genre in epic poetry.

Then we proceed into the fragments. The vast majority are from the "Catalogue of Women," which seems to have been a huge poem, probably dwarfing the Theogony in scale. It seems to have been similar in approach to that poem, in that it tells various mythological stories through genealogy: Such-and-such woman, daughter of so-and-so, married so-and-so and had such-and-such children who had such-and-such adventures. Many of the fragments come from papyri where only partial lines survive but it was often possible to pick out the gist just from seeing the names and a few other words.

The other fragments were interesting as well. I'm really glad I read this volume, as I've now been able to revise my estimation of Hesiod upward.

Having completed my survey of the oldest Greek poetry in Homer and Hesiod, I am now planning to turn to the slightly later work of the lyric poets.

[Angharad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hesiod is a Hekate simp, so he and I can hang. On the other hand, he was a major misogynist who believed women existed to torment men, so he probably wouldn't like me anyway.

Joking aside, Hesiod's work is NECESSARY reading for any good Greek mythology course. The Theogony is the literal structure of the pantheon, and your understanding OF this structure is essential before moving on to other works. Yes, his opinions about women are awful, but the ancient world was just, awful period to women and non-citizens.

[he chow · Rating 4 out of 5]

摘錄：https://manjuorg.wordpress.com/2022/0...

害人者害己，被设计出的不幸，最受伤害的是设计者本人。

财富不可以暴力攫取，神赐的财富尤佳。

信任女人就是信赖骗子。

人类最宝贵的财富是一条慎言的舌头，最大的快乐是它的有分寸的活动。如果你说了什么坏话，你不久就将听到有关你的更大的坏话。