Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns: Including Theogony and Works and Days

by Hesiod, Daryl Hine (Translation)

Winner of the 2005 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets.
 
In Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, highly acclaimed poet and translator Daryl Hine brings to life the words of Hesiod and the world of Archaic Greece. While most available versions of these early Greek writings are rendered in prose, Hine's illuminating translations represent these early classics as they originally appeared, in verse. Since prose was not invented as a literary medium until well after Hesiod's time, presenting these works as poems more closely approximates not only the mechanics but also the melody of the originals.

This volume includes Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony, two of the oldest non-Homeric poems to survive from antiquity. Works and Days is in part a farmer's almanac—filled with cautionary tales and advice for managing harvests and maintaining a good work ethic—and Theogony is the earliest comprehensive account of classical mythology—including the names and genealogies of the gods (and giants and monsters) of Olympus, the sea, and the underworld. Hine brings out Hesiod's unmistakable personality; Hesiod's tales of his escapades and his gritty and persuasive voice not only give us a sense of the author's own character but also offer up a rare glimpse of the everyday life of ordinary people in the eighth century BCE.

In contrast, the Homeric Hymns are more distant in that they depict aristocratic life in a polished tone that reveals nothing of the narrators' personalities. These hymns (so named because they address the deities in short invocations at the beginning and end of each) are some of the earliest examples of epyllia, or short stories in the epic manner in Greek.

This volume unites Hine's skillful translations of the Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns—along with Hine's rendering of the mock-Homeric epic The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice—in a stunning pairing of these masterful classics.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Mythology, Fiction, School, Philosophy, Historical

230 pages, Hardcover

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

[Spasa Vidljinović]

Knjiga je značajan izvor ne samo literarne, već istorijske i kulturne baštine antičke Evrope. Hesiod je najstariji evropski pesnik za koga istoriografija sa sigurnošću tvrdi da je postojao. Ovde moram da pohvalim izdavače jer su se potrudili da pored prevoda postave i original sa leve strane, dok je deo na hrvatskom stavljen sa desne. Dva se pripisuju Hesiodu – Poslovi i dani i Postanak bogova, a treći – Homerove himne, je nepoznatog autora. Sva tri su pisana u heksametru.

Poslovi i dani je program života starogrčkog čoveka, u sebi sadrži savete, zabrane od nekih najkorisinijih do nekih na prvi pogled bizarnih. Tu se provlače lepo vaspitanje, agrarne teme, neki vezani za sujeverje, široki spektar pravila od toga gde se ne sme mokriti (mada u predgovoru to napominju i kao fiziološku pristojnost, što stvarno i jeste), preko poljoprivrednih uputstava pa sve do poštovanja božanskih pravila. Ovaj epski zapis je poznat i po podeli doba u kojima su ljudi živeli: zlatno, srebrno, bronzano, junačko, gvozdeno. I svako sledeće počevši od zlatnog prati degradacija čoveka kao ljudskog bića i njegove civilizacije.

Postanak bogova je važan izvor starogrčke mitologije i moglo bi se reći neki oblik rodoslova tog panteona. Ono je najzanimljiviji segment ove knjige. Naravno, kao i svaki oblik religioznosti oslanja se na kosmogonijski mit.

Homerove himne, iako im naziv tako govori nisu autorski rad slavnog, slepog pesnika. Prva je himna Demetri, mislim da ovo nije slučajno, jer je kult ove boginje bio možda i najvažniji u helenskom svetu, ne samo zbog pretežno agrarne privrede njegovih stanovnika, nego i zbog najbitnijih misterija, Eleusinskih, neposredno vezanih za ovo božanstvo. Inače, Demetrina sveštenica je jedina žena koja je mogla prisustvovati antičkim Olimpijskim igrama. Od ostalih božanstava, pominju himne Apolonu, Hermesu, Areju, Afroditi, Hekati...

Ovi epovi i himne su svedočanstva jednog sveta, davnog nestalog, ali na čijim temeljima je nastala celokupna evropska civilizacija.

[Melanie Judd · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine collection of the works of Hesiod and of the Homeric Hymns. Hesiod’s Works and Days gives a good insight and perspective of the world of the eighth century Greek world – of their superstitions, lives, practices, social norms, etc. It’s a very interesting read. Probably one of the more interesting superstitions is not to pee facing the Sun, possibly it could be interpreted as an insult to Helios? Meanwhile, Theogony is a very good creation myth of the Greek pantheon, describing the creation of the world from chaos, the Muses, of the Giants rise and fall, of the fall of Cronus from his son Zeus, etc. It’s very enjoyable to read, and it’s entertaining to boot. The Homeric Hymns, meanwhile, while not actually written by “Homer” per-say, merely written in the same prose, is a neat collection of short hymns of stories of various gods. I think my favorites were of Aphrodite bearing Aeneas, Apollo creating his temples and cults, and of Hermes’ birth and infighting with Apollo. The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice is what could be called an “Aesop,” I suppose. It’s a short and mildly entertaining story if anything else. Overall, I don’t think Hesiod holds a candle to the works of Homer, despite his own humorous insistence otherwise, but they’re fine works of art that can stand on their own two feet and are invaluable resources and insights into early Greek myth and culture.

[Juniperus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was really not good, save for the Homeric Hymn to Demeter which is maybe one of my favorite poems now. It was so good I read it a few times and if not for that I would have put this book as 1 star. I'm interested in reading other translations of Demeter but the story was a very heartbreaking tale of female rage, so like my favorite genre lol.

The rest of this was profoundly boring. The rest of the homeric hymns require way too much context to be enjoyable, Works and Days is literally just a farming manual (highlights of this one are when he keeps calling his brother an idiot) and Theogony... more like the-agony am I right? lol it was painfully boring, and on top of everything really misogynist. Like yeah I know it's Ancient Greece I know that's to be expected but the only other Greek poetry I've read is Sappho so you can imagine it's extremely different.

I'm not one to complain about translations but this was really dry. I guess it's impressive that it's written in verse, but there was so little context I was lost the whole time through. Usually I think books have too many footnotes--here there were far too few for a layperson like me to enjoy this translation.

[CJ Bunge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared to the Oxford translation of Hesiod, it was more inaccurate because of the constraints of making it verse, but still very enjoyable. First time reading the Homeric Hymns and The Battle of the Frogs and Mice so I have nothing to compare them to.

[Bohdan Pechenyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of the works of Hesiod (Works and Days, Theogony) and other relevant ancient Greek poetry (Homeric hymns, The war between the frogs and the mice). It’s a classic, enough said.

[Matt Holloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty great. d

[Jayce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal translation of the Homeric hymns. It’s probably the most elegant and lovely translations I have thus read of these ancient odes to the gods, and the Battle of the Frogs and the Mice is a pretty hilarious micro-epic (mock epic?) about, well, frogs vs. mice. It’s fun and funny and a good cherry on top of a great compendium. One for the shelves.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual anthology of early Greek literature. I’d not read Hesiod before and having done so I doubt that I’ll read him again, seminal but not great reading. Bits of both Works and Days and Theogony are interesting but most of both are less accomplished and interesting than either Homer or Ovid. The Homeric Hymns were better and the real find was the spoof, The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice, a ten-page epic of a mini-Trojan War between a swamp’s populations of mice and frogs that begins when Crumbgrubber, finest of the mice, and Swellcheek, king of the frogs, have a tragic meeting that results in Crumbgrubber’s death and a retaliatory war that even brings the gods into it. Funny, compact, this poem is a great companion piece to The Iliad or The Aeniad.

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book while browsing around in a London bookstore and never regretted the extra weight in my suitcase. The rendering is just exceptional, and while other versions may contain much more true-to-text translations, this one is the most poetic and most suited to recitation that I have found. Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns just come alive on the page. It's definitely among one of the best books I picked up during my sixth months abroad.

[M.L. Rio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hesiod clearly thinks a lot of himself but this one of the most complete Greek 'creation stories' out there, not to mention another good translation of the Homeric hymns.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

One whole extra star for translating Homer into dactylic hexameter, really.