HESIOD, the father of Greek didactic poetry, probably flour ished during the 8th century B.C. His father had migrated from the Aeolic Cyme in Asia Minor to Boeotia; and Hesiod and his brother Perses were born at Ascra, near Mount Helicon (Works and Days, 635). Here, as he fed his father's flocks, he received his commission from the Muses to be their prophet and poet, a com mission which he recognized by dedicating to them a tripod—still in existence at Helicon in the age of Pausanias (see Theogony, 2o-34, W. and D. 656; Pausanias ix. 38. 3 )—won by him in a con test of song (see below) at some funeral games at Chalcis in Eu boea. After the death of his father Hesiod is said to have left his native land in disgust at the result of a law-suit with his brother and to have migrated to Naupactus. There was a tradition that he was murdered by the sons of his host in the sacred enclosure of the Nemean Zeus at Oeneon in Locris (Thucydides iii. 96 ; Pau sanias ix. 31) ; his remains were removed for burial by command of the Delphic oracle to Orchomenus in Boeotia, where the Ascra cans settled after the destruction of their town by the Thespians, and where, according to Pausanias, his grave was to be seen.
Hesiod's earliest poem, the famous Works and Days, and accord ing to Boeotian testimony the only genuine one, embodies the experiences of his daily life and work, and, interwoven with epi sodes of fable, allegory, and personal history, forms a sort of Boeotian shepherd's calendar. The first portion is an ethical en forcement of honest labour and dissuasive of strife and idleness (1-383) ; the second consists of hints and rules as to husbandry ; and the third is a religious calendar of the months, with remarks on the days most lucky or the contrary for rural or nautical employments. The connecting link of the whole poem is the author's advice to his brother, who appears to have bribed the corrupt judges to deprive Hesiod of his inheritance. In the Works and Days the episodes which rise above an even didactic level are the "Creation and Equipment of Pandora," the "Five Ages of the World" and the much-admired "Description of Win ter" (by some critics judged post-Hesiodic). The poem also con tains the earliest known fable in Greek literature, that of "The Hawk and the Nightingale." It is in the Works and Days espe cially that we glean indications of Hesiod's rank and condition in life, that of a stay-at-home farmer of the lower class, whose sole experience of the sea was a single voyage of 4o yards across the Euripus, and an old-fashioned bachelor whose misogynic views and prejudice against matrimony have been conjecturally traced to his brother Perses having a wife as extravagant as himself. The other poem attributed to Hesiod or his school which has come down in great part to modern times is the Theogony, a work of grander scope, inspired alike by older traditions and abundant local associations. It is an attempt to work into system, as none had essayed to do before, the floating legends of the gods and goddesses and their offspring. This task Herodotus (ii. S3) at tributes to Hesiod, and he is quoted by Plato in the Symposium (178 B) as the author of the Theogony. The first to question his claim to this distinction was Pausanias, the geographer (A.D. 200). The Alexandrian grammarians had no doubt on the subject ; and indications of the hand that wrote the Works and Days may be found in the severe strictures on women, in the high esteem for the wealth-giver Plutus and in coincidences of verbal expression. Although, no doubt, of Hesiodic origin, in its present form it is composed of different recensions and numerous later additions and interpolations. The Theogony consists of three divisions: (I) a cosmogony, or creation; (2) a theogony proper, recounting the history of the dynasties of Zeus and Cronus; and (3) a brief and abruptly terminated heroogony, the starting-point not improbably of the supplementary poem, the KaraXo'yos or "List of Women" who wedded immortals, of which all but a few fragments are lost.' The proem (I–I16) addressed to the Heliconian and Pierian muses, is considered to have been variously enlarged, altered and arranged by successive rhapsodists. The poet has interwoven sev eral episodes of rare merit, such as the contest of Zeus and the Olympian gods with the Titans, and the description of the prison house in which the vanquished Titans are confined, with the Giants for keepers and Day and Night for janitors (735 sqq.).
The only other poem which has come down to us under Hesiod's name is the Shield of Heracles, the opening verses of which are attributed by a nameless grammarian to the fourth book of Eoiai. The theme of the piece is the expedition of Heracles and Iolaus against the robber Cycnus; but its main object apparently is to describe the shield of Heracles (141-317). It is clearly an imi tation of the Homeric account of the shield of Achilles (Iliad, xviii. 479) and is now generally considered spurious. Titles and frag ments of other lost poems of Hesiod have come down to us : di dactic, as the Maxims of Cheiron; genealogical, as the Aegimius, describing the contest of that mythical ancestor of the Dorians with the Lapithae ; and mythical, as the Marriage of Ceyx and the Descent of Theseus to Hades.
Recent editions of Hesiod include the 'Aydw `Oµipov Ka `HaioBov, the Contest (of song) between Homer and Hesiod, at the funeral games held in honour of King Amphidamas at Chalcis. This little tract belongs to the time of Hadrian, who is actually mentioned as having been present during its recitation, but is founded on an earlier account by the sophist Alcidamas (q.v.). Quotations (old and new) are made from the works of both poets, and, in spite of the sympathies of the audience, the judge decided in favour of Hesiod. Certain biographical details of Homer and Hesiod are also given.
A strong characteristic of Hesiod's style is his sententious and proverbial philosophy (as in Works and Days, 24-25, 4o, 218, 345, There is naturally less of this in the Theogony, yet there, too, not a few sentiments take the form of the saw or adage. He has undying fame as the first of didactic poets (see DIDACTIC POETRY), the accredited systematizer of Greek mythology and the rough but not unpoetical sketcher of the lines on which Virgil wrought out his exquisitely finished Georgics.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Complete works: Editio princeps (Milan, 1493) ; Bibliography.--Complete works: Editio princeps (Milan, 1493) ; Gottling-Flach (1878) , with full bibliography up to date of publica tion; C. Sittl 0880, with introduction and critical and explanatory notes in Greek; F. A. Paley (1883) ; A. Rzach 0902), including the fragments. Separate works: Works and Days—Van Lennep (1847) A. Steitz, Die Werke and Tage des Hesiodos 0869), dealing chiefly with the composition and arrangement of the poem ; G. Wlastoff, Promethee, Pandore, et la legende des siecles (1883) ; A. Kirchhoff (1889) ; Theogony—Van Lennep (1843) ; F. G. Welcker (1865), valuable edition; G. F. Schomann (1868) , with text, critical notes and exhaustive commentary; H. Flach, Die Hesiodische Theogonie (1873) , with prolegomena dealing chiefly with the digamma in System der Hesiodischen Kosmogonie (1874) , and Glossen and Scholien zur Theogonie (1876) ; Meyer, De compositione Theogoniae (1887). Shield of Heracles: Wolf-Ranke (184o) ; Van Lennep-Hullemann (1854) ; F. Stegemann, De Scuti Herculis Hesiodei poeta Homeri carminum imitatore (1904) ; the fragments were published by W. Marckscheffel in 184o; for the 'Ayeov `Oµnpov (ed. A. Rzach, 1908) see F. Nietzsche in Rheinisches Museum (new s..ries) , xxv. p. 528. For papyrus frag ments of the "Catalogue," some 5o lines on the wooing of Helen, and a shorter t in praise of Peleus, see Wilamowitz-Mollendorff in Sitzungsber. der konigl. preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaf ter, July 26, 'goo; for fragments relating to Meleager and the suitors of Helen, Berliner Klassikertexte (1907) v. ; of the Theogony, Oxyrh. Pap. vi. (1908).
On the subject generally, consult G. F. Schomann, Opuscula (1857) ii. ; H. Flach, Die Hesiodischen Gedichte (1874) ; A. Rzach Der Dialekt des Hesiodes (1876) ; O. Friedel, Die Sage vom Tode Hesiods (1879), from Jahrbucher fur classische Philologie (loth suppl. Band, 1879) ; P. O. Gruppe, Die griechischen Kulte and Mythen, i. (1887) ; J. Adam, Religious Teachers of Greece (1908). There is a full bibliog raphy of the publications relating to Hesiod (1884-98) by A. Rzach in Bursian's Jahresbericht caber die Fortschritte der klassischen Alter tumswissenschaft (190o) xxvii.
There are translations of the Hesiodic poems in English by Cooke (1728), C. A. Elton (1815), J. Banks (1856), and specially by A. W. Mair, with introduction and appendices (Oxford Library of Transla tions, 1908) ; in German (metrical version) with valuable introductions and notes by R. Peppmuller 0896), and in other modern languages.
On the date of Hesiod see T. W. Allen in J. H. S. (1915) , xxxv., who would place his floruit, on astronomical and other grounds, c. Soo B.c.
(J. DA.; J. H. F.)