HESIOD, Greek poet: b. Ascra, a village of Bceotia, at the foot of Mount Helicon, whence it is called the Ascrean. But little is known of Hesiod with certainty. Even the age in which he lived cannot be precisely deter mined. Herodotus calls him a contemporary of Homer, and says they lived 400 years before himself (about 900 a.c.). In his and Days' (172) Hesiod says that he belonged to the period immediately following the Trojan War; but there are many reasons for supposing that he lived at a later period. His father emir grated from Cuma to Ascra where the poet was born, and where he spent his early days in rural pursuits. On his father's death, a dispute arose between Hesiod and his brother Penes concern ing the father's property, which was decided in favor of the later. Hesiod then went to Orch omenos, where he remained for the rest of his life, and was buried according to tradition. A great number of anecdotes and stories have been handed down concerning his life. Among these is the tradition that there was• a contest between Hesiod and Homer in which the former came off victorious. This story owes its origin doubtless to the strife between the Boeotian and Ionic schools of poetry, of which Hesiod and Homer were the respective repre sentatives. Of the numerous works attributed to him three only remain. These are the 'Theogony,) a collection of the oldest fables concerning the birth and achievements of the gods, arranged so as to form a connected whole. It is the most important and difficult of all his works. With it was probably connected the lost 'Catalogues of Women' (or the Eoiai usegalai), to the fourth book of which the second frag ment (the (Shield of Hetacles') must have belonged. This is evidently composed of three distinct parts, only one of which is occupied with the real description of the shield. The third fragment is a didactic poem, 'Works and Days' (Ergo, or Erga kai Heinerati). It treats of agriculture, the choice of days, etc., with prudential precepts concerning education, do+ mestic economy, navigation. etc. Other works attributed to him are the epic story of 1.1Egi
mius) the ancestral hero of the Dorians ; the epic (Melampodia,' concerning the prophet Melampus, and 'Exegesis on Miracles.' Frag ments of these are to be found in GI:Raines edition of Hesiod. From a literary standpoint, the Hesiodic poems are far inferior to the Homeric. The former deal with the practical questions of actual labor, the bare genealogical account of the gods and the facts concerning the cosmogony of the universe. are un imaginative treatises in poetical form, and their purpose, unlike the heroic recitations of the Homeric legends, is purely didactic, informative, Contemporary as well as succeeding generations held these poems in high esteem as authoritative accounts, and many early scholars zealously wrote commentaries, explanations and criti cisms, of which only a few later fragments have survived. Whether or not the Hesiodic works as they have come down to us are the original work of one man, or the elaboration by suc cessive interpreters of a much shorter work, is difficult to determine, though there is much evi dence in favor of the latter viewpoint.
The first Greek text was printed at Milan (1493). The first edition with the Greek scholia appeared at Venice (1537), and later at Cologne (1542) and Frankfurt (1591). Other important editions are by ford, T. (in Poets: Graeae Min.) • lcH Gottling Flach (1878) ; Paley, F. A. (with Eng. trans., London 1883) ; and 'Reach, A. (1902). The 'Works and nays' has been edited by Van Lennep (1847) and Kirckhof (1889). The best English translations are by Thomas Cooke (London 1728) and A. W. Mair, (1908).
geSPERIDES (daughters of Hesperis), the guardians of the gold apples which Ge (the Earth) had given to Hera on her marriage. They were the daughters of Atlas and Hesperis, but their parentage is differently represented by other writers. They were four in number and their names were Agle, Arethusa, Erytheia, Hesperia, or Hesperarethusa. They were as sisted in the charge of their garden the sleepless dragon, Ladon. It was the twelfth labor of Heracles to bring the golden apples of the Hesperides to Lurystheus.