IIESIOD (In Greek, Ithionos) was a native of Ascra, a village at the foot of Helicon, whither his father bad migrated from Coma iu Thenco he went to Orchornenos, according to his editor Galling, who thinks that by the line, "Aura, foul in the cold, oppressive in heat, bad at all times," he expresses resentment at the iniquitous conduct of the Alterman judges with respect to the division of his patrimony. Thirlwall doubts the truth of the interpretation, although Gottling quotes a passage of Paterculue (L 7), which might by possibility refer to it. These facts are collected from the ' Works and Days,' a poem which there is no reason not to ascribe partially, although only partially, to Heeiod. Plutarch tells us that ho met his death in consequenco of the suspicions of somo young men regarding their sister's honour, and we learn front Pausanias that he was revered in later times as a hero.
The only works that remain under the name of Hesiod are, The Theogony," The Shield of Hercules,' and the Works and Days.' The Bceotians themselves are said to have considered the last as Hesiod's, although they doubted the authenticity of the other works ascribed to him ; but the ingenuity of modern times professes to dis cover Interpolations even in this poem, which consists of advice given by Healed to his brother Pcrses, on subjects relatiog for the most part to agriculture and the general oonduct of life. Whatever may be the decision which is arrived at regarding the authorship, we think one thing must bo very evident to all who read the poem, that in its present state it shows want of purpose and of unity too great to be accounted for otherwise than on the supposition of its fragmentary nature. Ulrici considers the moral and the agricultural instruction as genuine, the story of Prometheus and that of the Five Ages as much altered from their original Ilesiodic form, and the description of Winter as latest of all.
The Theogouy ' is perhaps the work which, whether genuine or not, moat emphatically expresses the feeling which is supposed to have given rise to the Hieratic school, or that school of epic poetry which is convected with the religious life of the Greeks in the same way as Homer and the heroic poets were with the political. It con
sists, as its name expresses, of an account of the origin of the world, including the birth of the gods, and making use of numerous personi fications. This has giveu rise to a theory that the old histories of creation, from which Heeled drew without understanding them, were in fact philosophical and not mythological speculations; so that the names which in after-times were applied to persons, had originally belonged only to qualities, attributes, &c..; and that their inventor bad carefully excluded all personal agency from his system. This much we may safely assort respectiog the ' Theogouy,' that it points out ono important feature in the Greek character, and one which, when that character arrived at maturity, produced results of which the ' Theogony' is at best but a feeble promise; we mean that speculative tendency which lies at the root of Greek philosophy.
The 'Shield of Hercules' is a fragment, or rather a cluster of frag ments; some of them by very late Rhapsodists who copied, according to Aristophanes the grammarian, from Homer's description of the shield of Achilles.
Those who are desirous to pursue the subject of the ' Thcogooy,' will do well to consult Ulrici, Geschichte der Mellen. Dichtkunst,' 1, 360, 199; Hermann and Creuzer's 'Briefe fiber Homer uud Ilesiod ; Creuzer, 'Symbolik ; ' and especially Thirlwalra ' History of Greece,' and Iiiiller's ' Prolegomena.' The best modern editions of Heeded are (Milling's (in 1 voL 8vo, published in the 'Bibliotheca armee '), second edition, with notes, 1843; and Dindorra, Leipzig, 1825, 8vo ; the Scholia ou 1 lesiod are printed in the third volume of Gaisford's 'Foetal Grieci Aliuores.'