Hesiod

This article is about the ancient Greek poet. For the computer application, seeHesiod (name service).For the crater on Mercury, seeHesiod (crater).

"Hesiodos" redirects here. For the asteroid, see8550 Hesiodos.

"Hesiodus" redirects here. For the crater on the Moon, seeHesiodus (crater).

Hesiod
Native name	Ἡσίοδος
Born	Cyme,Aeolis
Died	Ascra
Occupation	Poet philosopher farmer
Language	Ancient Greek
Notable works	Works and Days Theogony Shield of Heracles

Hesiod(⫽ˈhiːsiəd⫽HEE-see-ədor⫽ˈhɛsiəd⫽HEH-see-əd;Greek:ἩσίοδοςHēsíodos) was an ancientGreekpoetgenerally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time asHomer.

Several of Hesiod's works have survived in their entirety. Among these areTheogony,which tells the origins of the gods, their lineages, and the events that led toZeus's rise to power, andWorks and Days,a poem that describes the fiveAges of Man,offers advice and wisdom, and includes myths such asPandora'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 onGreek mythology,farming techniques, early economic thought,Archaic Greekastronomy,cosmology,andancient time-keeping.

Life

The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles (see§ Datingbelow).Epic narrativeallowed poets likeHomerno opportunity for personal revelations. However, Hesiod's extant work comprises severaldidactic poemsin which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three explicit references inWorks and Days,as well as some passages in hisTheogony,that support inferences made by scholars. The former poem says that his father came fromCymeinAeolis(on the coast ofAsia Minor,a little south of the islandLesbos) and crossed the sea to settle at a hamlet, nearThespiaeinBoeotia,namedAscra,"a cursed place, cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant" (Works640). Hesiod's patrimony(property inherited from one's father or male ancestor)in Ascra, a small piece of ground at the foot ofMount Helicon,occasionedlawsuitswith his brotherPerses,who seems, at first, to have cheated him of his rightful share thanks to corrupt authorities or "kings" but later became impoverished and ended up scrounging from the thrifty poet (Works35, 396).

Unlike his father Hesiod was averse to sea travel, but he once crossed the narrow strait between the Greek mainland andEuboeato participate in funeral celebrations for one Athamas ofChalcis,and there won atripodin a singing competition.He also describes a meeting between himself and theMusesonMount Helicon,where he had been pasturing sheep when the goddesses presented him with alaurelstaff, a symbol of poetic authority (Theogony22–35). Fanciful though the story might seem, the account has led ancient and modern scholars to infer that he was not a professionally trainedrhapsode,or he would have been presented with alyreinstead.

Hesiod and theMuse(1891), byGustave Moreau.The poet is presented with alyre,in contradiction to the account given by Hesiod himself in which the gift was a laurel staff.

Some scholars have seen Perses as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops inWorks and Days,but there are also arguments against that theory.For example, it is quite common for works of moral instruction to have an imaginative setting, as a means of getting the audience's attention,but it could be difficult to see how Hesiod could have traveled around the countryside entertaining people with a narrative about himself if the account was known to be fictitious.Gregory Nagy,on the other hand, sees bothPérsēs( "the destroyer" fromπέρθω,pérthō) andHēsíodos( "he who emits the voice" fromἵημι,híēmiandαὐδή,audḗ) as fictitious names for poeticalpersonae.

It might seem unusual that Hesiod's father migrated from Asia Minor westwards to mainland Greece, the opposite direction to most colonial movements at the time, and Hesiod himself gives no explanation for it. However around 750 BC or a little later, there was a migration of seagoing merchants from his original home in Cyme in Asia Minor toCumaeinCampania(a colony they shared with the Euboeans), and possibly his move west had something to do with that, sinceEuboeais not far fromBoeotia,where he eventually established himself and his family.The family association with Aeolian Cyme might explain his familiarity with Eastern myths, evident in his poems, though the Greek world might have already developed its own versions of them.

In spite of Hesiod's complaints about poverty, life on his father's farm could not have been too uncomfortable ifWorks and Daysis anything to judge by, since he describes the routines of prosperousyeomanryrather than peasants. His farmer employs a friend (Works and Days370) as well as servants (502, 573, 597, 608, 766), an energetic and responsible ploughman of mature years (469 ff.), a slave boy to cover the seed (441–6), a female servant to keep house (405, 602) and working teams of oxen and mules (405, 607f.).One modern scholar surmises that Hesiod may have learned about world geography, especially the catalogue of rivers inTheogony(337–45), listening to his father's accounts of his own sea voyages as a merchant.The father probably spoke in theAeolian dialectof Cyme but Hesiod probably grew up speaking the local Boeotian, belonging to the same dialect group. However, while his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian. His basic language was the main literary dialect of the time, Homer'sIonian.

It is probable that Hesiod wrote his poems down, or dictated them, rather than passed them on orally, asrhapsodesdid—otherwise, the pronounced personality that now emerges from the poems would surely have been diluted through oral transmission from one rhapsode to another.Pausaniasasserted thatBoeotiansshowed him an old tablet made of lead on which theWorkswere engraved.If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore, as trained rhapsodes could do. It certainly was not in a quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had probably no such notions for themselves. However, some scholars suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text and attribute this to oral transmission.Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm, in the spring before the May harvest or the dead of winter.

The Dance of the Muses at Mount HeliconbyBertel Thorvaldsen(1807). Hesiod cites inspiration from theMuseswhile on Mount Helicon.

The personality behind the poems is unsuited to the kind of "aristocratic withdrawal" typical of a rhapsode but is instead "argumentative, suspicious, ironically humorous, frugal, fond of proverbs, wary of women."He was in fact a "misogynist"of the same calibre as the later poetSemonides.He resemblesSolonin his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and "how a just and all-powerful god can allow the unjust to flourish in this life". He recallsAristophanesin his rejection of the idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealized view of the farmer.Yet the fact that he could eulogize kings inTheogony(80 ff., 430, 434) and denounce them as corrupt inWorks and Dayssuggests that he could resemble whichever audience he composed for.

Various legends accumulated about Hesiod and they are recorded in several sources:

• the story about theContest of Homer and Hesiod;
• avitaof Hesiod by theByzantinegrammarianJohn Tzetzes;
• the entry for Hesiod in theSuda;
• two passages and some scattered remarks inPausanias(IX, 31.3–6 and 38.3 f.);
• a passage inPlutarchMoralia(162b).

Death

Two different—yet early—traditions record the site of Hesiod's grave. One, as early asThucydides,reported in Plutarch, theSudaand John Tzetzes, states that theDelphic oraclewarned Hesiod that he would die inNemea,and so he fled toLocris,where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus, and buried there. This tradition follows a familiarironicconvention: theoraclepredicts accurately after all. The other tradition, first mentioned in anepigrambyChersiasofOrchomenuswritten in the 7th century BC (within a century or so of Hesiod's death) claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. According toAristotle'sConstitution of Orchomenus,when theThespiansravaged Ascra, the villagers sought refuge at Orchomenus, where, following the advice of an oracle, they collected the ashes of Hesiod and set them in a place of honour in theiragora,next to the tomb ofMinyas,their eponymous founder. Eventually, they came to regard Hesiod too as their "hearth-founder" (οἰκιστής,oikistēs). Later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Yet another account taken from classical sources, cited by authorCharles Abraham Eltonin hisThe Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules by Hesioddepicts Hesiod as being falsely accused of rape by a girl's brothers and murdered in reprisal despite his advanced age while the true culprit (hisMilesianfellow-traveler) managed to escape.

Dating

Modern Mount Helicon. Hesiod once described his nearby hometown,Ascra,as "cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant."

Greeks in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to beOrpheus,Musaeus,Hesiod andHomer—in that order.Thereafter, Greek writers began to consider Homer earlier than Hesiod. Devotees of Orpheus and Musaeus were probably responsible for precedence being given to their two cult heroes and maybe theHomeridaewere responsible in later antiquity for promoting Homer at Hesiod's expense.

The first known writers to locate Homer earlier than Hesiod wereXenophanesandHeraclides Ponticus,thoughAristarchus of Samothracewas the first actually to argue the case.Ephorusmade Homer a younger cousin of Hesiod, the 5th century BC historianHerodotus(HistoriesII, 53) evidently considered them near-contemporaries, and the 4th century BCsophistAlcidamasin his workMouseioneven brought them together for an imagined poeticágōn(ἄγών), which survives today as theContest of Homer and Hesiod.Most scholars today agree with Homer's priority but there are good arguments on either side.

Hesiod certainly predates thelyricandelegiacpoets whose work has come down to the modern era.Imitations of his work have been observed inAlcaeus,Epimenides,Mimnermus,Semonides,TyrtaeusandArchilochus,from which it has been inferred that the latest possible date for him is about 650 BC.

An upper limit of 750 BC is indicated by a number of considerations, such as the probability that his work was written down, the fact that he mentions a sanctuary atDelphithat was of little national significance before c. 750 BC (Theogony499), and he lists rivers that flow into theEuxine,a region explored and developed by Greek colonists beginning in the 8th century BC. (Theogony337–45).

Hesiod mentions a poetry contest atChalcisinEuboeawhere the sons of oneAmphidamasawarded him a tripod (Works and Days654–662).Plutarchidentified this Amphidamas with the hero of theLelantine Warbetween Chalcis andEretriaand he concluded that the passage must be an interpolation into Hesiod's original work, assuming that the Lelantine War was too late for Hesiod. Modern scholars have accepted his identification of Amphidamas but disagreed with his conclusion. The date of the war is not known precisely but estimates placing it around 730–705 BC fit the estimated chronology for Hesiod. In that case, the tripod that Hesiod won might have been awarded for his rendition ofTheogony,a poem that seems to presuppose the kind of aristocratic audience he would have met at Chalcis.

Works

VignetteforHesiodi Ascraei quaecumque exstant(1701)

Three works have survived which were attributed to Hesiod by ancient commentators:Works and Days,Theogony,andShield of Heracles.Only fragments exist of other works attributed to him. The surviving works and fragments were all written in theconventional metreand language of epic. However, theShield of Heraclesis now known to be spurious and probably was written in the sixth century BC. Many ancient critics also rejectedTheogony(e.g.,Pausanias9.31.3), even though Hesiod mentions himself by name in that poem.TheogonyandWorks and Daysmight be very different in subject matter, but they share a distinctive language, metre, andprosodythat subtly distinguish them from Homer's work and from theShield of Heracles(seeHesiod's Greekbelow). Moreover, they both refer to the same version of the Prometheus myth.Yet even these authentic poems may include interpolations. For example, the first ten verses of theWorks and Daysmay have been borrowed from anOrphichymn toZeus(they were recognised as not the work of Hesiod by critics as ancient as Pausanias).

Some scholars have detected a proto-historical perspective in Hesiod, a view rejected byPaul Cartledge,for example, on the grounds that Hesiod advocates a not-forgetting without any attempt at verification.Hesiod has also been considered the father ofgnomic verse.He had "a passion for systematizing and explaining things".Ancient Greek poetryin general had strong philosophical tendencies and Hesiod, like Homer, demonstrates a deep interest in a wide range of 'philosophical' issues, from the nature of divine justice to the beginnings of human society. Aristotle (Metaphysics983b–987a) believed that the question offirst causesmay even have started with Hesiod (Theogony116–53) and Homer (Iliad14.201, 246).

He viewed the world from outside the charmed circle of aristocratic rulers, protesting against their injustices in a tone of voice that has been described as having a "grumpy quality redeemed by a gaunt dignity"but, as stated in the biography section, he could also change to suit the audience. This ambivalence appears to underlie his presentation of human history inWorks and Days,where he depicts a golden period when life was easy and good, followed by a steady decline in behaviour and happiness through the silver, bronze, and Iron Ages – except that he inserts a heroic age between the last two, representing its warlike men as better than their bronze predecessors. He seems in this case to be catering to two different world-views, one epic and aristocratic, the other unsympathetic to the heroic traditions of the aristocracy.

Theogony

Main article:Theogony

TheTheogonyis commonly considered Hesiod's earliest work. Despite the different subject matter between this poem and theWorks and Days,most scholars, with some notable exceptions, believe that the two works were written by the same man. AsM. L. Westwrites, "Both bear the marks of a distinct personality: a surly, conservative countryman, given to reflection, no lover of women or life, who felt the gods' presence heavy about him."An example:

Hateful strife bore painful Toil,
Neglect, Starvation, and tearful Pain,
Battles, Combats...

TheTheogonyconcerns the origins of the world (cosmogony) and of the gods (theogony), beginning withChaos,Gaia,TartarusandEros,and shows a special interest ingenealogy.Embedded inGreek myth,there remain fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became, according toHerodotus,the accepted version that linked allHellenes.It's the earliest known source for the myths ofPandora,Prometheusand theGolden Age.

The creation myth in Hesiod has long been held to have Eastern influences, such as theHittiteSong of Kumarbiand theBabylonianEnuma Elis.This cultural crossover may have occurred in the eighth- and ninth-century Greek trading colonies such asAl Minain NorthSyria.(For more discussion, readRobin Lane Fox'sTravelling Heroesand Peter Walcot'sHesiod and the Near East.)

Works and Days

Main article:Works and Days

Opening lines ofWorks and Daysin a 16th-century manuscript

Works and Daysis a poem of over 800 lines which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have interpreted this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainlandGreece,which inspired a wave of documentedcolonisationsin search of new land.

Works and Daysmay have been influenced by an established tradition ofdidacticpoetry based on Sumerian, Hebrew, Babylonian and Egyptian wisdom literature.

This work lays out the fiveAges of Man,as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges (like those who decided in favour ofPerses) as well as the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice.The poem regards labor as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resembledronesin a hive.In the horror of the triumph of violence over hard work and honor, verses describing the "Golden Age" present the social character and practice ofnonviolent dietthrough agriculture and fruit-culture as a higher path of living sufficiently.

Hesiodic corpus

In addition to theTheogonyandWorks and Days,numerous other poems were ascribed to Hesiod during antiquity. Modern scholarship has doubted their authenticity, and these works are generally referred to as forming part of the "Hesiodic corpus" whether or not their authorship is accepted.The situation is summed up in this formulation byGlenn Most:

"Hesiod" is the name of a person; "Hesiodic" is a designation for a kind of poetry, including but not limited to the poems of which the authorship may reasonably be assigned to Hesiod himself.

Of these works forming the extended Hesiodic corpus, only theShield of Heracles(Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους,Aspis Hērakleous) is transmitted intact via a medieval manuscript tradition.

Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod a lengthy genealogical poem known asCatalogue of WomenorEhoiai(because sections began with the Greek wordsē hoiē,"Or like the one who..." ). It was a mythological catalogue of the mortal women who had mated with gods, and of the offspring and descendants of these unions.

Several additional hexameter poems were ascribed to Hesiod:

• Megalai Ehoiai,a poem similar to theCatalogue of Women,but presumably longer.
• Wedding of Ceyx,a poem concerning Heracles' attendance at the wedding of a certain Ceyx—noted for its riddles.
• Melampodia,a genealogical poem that treats of the families of, and myths associated with, the great seers of mythology.
• Idaean Dactyls,a work concerning mythological smelters, theIdaean Dactyls.
• Descent of Perithous,aboutTheseusandPerithous' trip to Hades.
• Precepts of Chiron,a didactic work that presented the teaching ofChironas delivered to the youngAchilles.
• Megala ErgaorGreat Works,a poem similar to theWorks and Days,but presumably longer
• Astronomia,an astronomical poem to which Callimachus (Ep.27) apparently comparedAratus'Phaenomena.
• Aegimius,a heroic epic concerning the DorianAegimius(variously attributed to Hesiod orCercops of Miletus).
• KilnorPotters,a brief poem asking Athena to aid potters if they pay the poet. Also attributed to Homer.
• Ornithomantia,a work on bird omens that followed theWorks and Days.

In addition to these works, theSudalists an otherwise unknown "dirge for Batrachus, [Hesiod's] beloved".

Reception

• Sappho's countryman and contemporary, the lyric poetAlcaeus,paraphrased a section ofWorks and Days(582–88), recasting it in lyric meter and Lesbian dialect. The paraphrase survives only as a fragment.

Ancient bronze bust, the so-calledPseudo-Seneca,now conjectured to be an imaginative portrait of Hesiod.

• The lyric poetBacchylidesquoted or paraphrased Hesiod in a victory ode addressed toHieron of Syracuse,commemorating the tyrant's victory in the chariot race at thePythian Games470 BC, the attribution made with these words: "A man of Boeotia, Hesiod, minister of the [sweet] Muses, spoke thus: 'He whom the immortals honour is attended also by the good report of men.'" However, the quoted words are not found in Hesiod's extant work.
• Hesiod'sCatalogue of Womencreated a vogue for catalogue poems in the Hellenistic period. Thus for exampleTheocrituspresents catalogues of heroines in two of his bucolic poems (3.40–51 and 20.34–41), where both passages are recited in character by lovelorn rustics.

Depictions

Monnus mosaic

Monnus mosaic from the end of the 3rd century AD. The figure is identified by the name ESIO-DVS (Hesiod).

Portrait of Hesiod from Augusta Treverorum (Trier), from the end of the 3rd century AD. The mosaic is signed in its central field by the maker, 'MONNUS FECIT' ('Monnus made this'). The figure is identified by name: 'ESIO-DVS' ('Hesiod'). It is the only known authenticated portrait of Hesiod.

Portrait bust

The Roman bronze bust, the so-calledPseudo-Seneca,of the late first century BC found atHerculaneumis now thought not to be ofSeneca the Younger.It has been identified byGisela Richteras an imagined portrait of Hesiod. In fact, it has been recognized since 1813 that the bust was not of Seneca when an inscribedhermaportrait of Seneca with quite different features was discovered. Most scholars now follow Richter's identification.

Hesiod's Greek

Title to an edition of Hesiod'sCarmina(1823)

Hesiod employed the conventional dialect of epic verse, which was Ionian. Comparisons with Homer, a native Ionian, can be unflattering. Hesiod's handling of thedactylic hexameterwas not as masterful or fluent as Homer's and one modern scholar refers to his "hobnailed hexameters".His use of language and meter inWorks and DaysandTheogonydistinguishes him also from the author of theShield of Heracles.All three poets, for example, employeddigammainconsistently, sometimes allowing it to affect syllable length and meter, sometimes not. The ratio of observance/neglect of digamma varies between them. The extent of variation depends on how the evidence is collected and interpreted but there is a clear trend, revealed for example in the following set of statistics.

Theogony	2.5/1
Works and Days	1.5/1
Shield	5.9/1
Homer	5.4/1

Hesiod does not observe digamma as often as the others do. That result is a bit counter-intuitive since digamma was still a feature of the Boeotian dialect that Hesiod probably spoke, whereas it had already vanished from the Ionic vernacular of Homer. This anomaly can be explained by the fact that Hesiod made a conscious effort to compose like an Ionian epic poet at a time when digamma was not heard in Ionian speech, while Homer tried to compose like an older generation of Ionian bards, when it was heard in Ionian speech. There is also a significant difference in the results forTheogonyandWorks and Days,but that is merely due to the fact that the former includes a catalog of divinities and therefore it makes frequent use of the definite article associated with digamma, oἱ.

Though typical of epic, his vocabulary features some significant differences from Homer's. One scholar has counted 278 un-Homeric words inWorks and Days,151 inTheogonyand 95 inShield of Heracles.The disproportionate number of un-Homeric words inW & Dis due to its un-Homeric subject matter.Hesiod's vocabulary also includes quite a lot of formulaic phrases that are not found in Homer, which indicates that he may have been writing within a different tradition.

References

• Allen, T. W. andArthur A. Rambaut,"The Date of Hesiod",The Journal of Hellenic Studies,35 (1915), pp. 85–99.
• Allen, William (2006), "Tragedy and the Early Greek Philosophical Tradition",A Companion to Greek Tragedy,Blackwell Publishing.
• Andrewes, Antony (1971),Greek Society,Pelican Books.
• Barron, J. P. and Easterling, P. E. (1985), "Hesiod",The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature,Cambridge University Press.
• Buckham, Philip Wentworth (1827),Theatre of the Greeks.
• Burn, A.R. (1978),The Pelican History of Greece,Penguin Books.
• Cingano, E., "The Hesiodic Corpus", inMontanari, Rengakos & Tsagalis (2009),pp. 91–130.
• Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (1964),Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica(=Loeb Classical Library,vol. 57), Harvard University Press, pp. xliii–xlvii.
• Lamberton, Robert(1988),Hesiod,New Haven:Yale University Press.ISBN0-300-04068-7.
• Marckscheffel, Johann Georg Wilhelm (1840),Hesiodi, Eumeli, Cinaethonis, Asii et Carminis Naupactii fragmenta,Leipzig: Sumtibus F.C.G. Vogelii.
• Montanari, Franco; Rengakos, Antonios; Tsagalis, Christos (2009),Brill's Companion to Hesiod,Leiden,ISBN978-90-04-17840-3{{citation}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
• Murray, Gilbert(1897),A History of Ancient Greek Literature,New York:D. Appleton and Company,pp. 53 ff.
• Griffin, Jasper (1986), "Greek Myth and Hesiod",The Oxford History of the Classical World,Oxford University Press.
• Peabody, Berkley (1975),The Winged Word: A Study in the Technique of Ancient Greek Oral Composition as Seen Principally Through Hesiod's Works and Days,State University of New York Press.ISBN0-87395-059-3.
• Pucci, Pietro (1977),Hesiod and the Language of Poetry,Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN0-8018-1787-0.
• Reinsch-Werner, Hannelore (1976),Callimachus Hesiodicus: Die Rezeption der hesiodischen Dichtung durch Kallimachos von Kyrene,Berlin: Mielke.
• Rohde, Erwin(1925),Psyche. The cult of the souls and belief in immortality among the Greeks,London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.
• Symonds, John Addington(1873),Studies of the Greek Poets,London: Smyth, Elder & Co.
• Taylor, Thomas(1891),A Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries,New York: J. W. Bouton.
• West, Martin L. (1966),Hesiod: Theogony,Oxford University Press

Further reading

• Athanassakis, A.N. (1992). "Cattle and Honour in Homer and Hesiod".Ramus.21(2): 156–186.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002617.S2CID163262958.
• Athanassakis, A.N. (1992)."Introduction to 'Essays on Hesiod I'".Ramus.21(1): 1–10.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002642.
• Athanassakis, A.N. (1992)."Introduction to 'Essays on Hesiod II'".Ramus.21(2): 117–118.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002587.
• Burn, Andrew Robert (1937).The World of Hesiod: A Study of the Greek Middle Ages, c. 900–700 BC.New York: Dutton.
• Clay, Diskin (1992). "The World of Hesiod".Ramus.21(2): 131–155.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002605.S2CID192778324.
• Debiasi, Andrea (2008).Esiodo e l'occidente(in Italian). Roma: L'Erma di Bretschneider.ISBN978-88-8265-487-0.
• DuBois, Page (1992). "Eros and the Woman".Ramus.21(1): 97–116.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002691.S2CID163277871.
• Gagarin, Michael (1992). "The Poetry of Justice: Hesiod and the Origins of Greek Law".Ramus.21(1): 61–78.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002678.S2CID159821254.
• Janko, Richard (2007).Homer, Hesiod and the Hymns: diachronic development in epic diction.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-03565-1.
• Kirby, John T. (1992). "Rhetoric and Poetics in Hesiod".Ramus.21(1): 34–60.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002666.S2CID192214724.
• Kõiv, Mait (2011). "A Note on the Dating of Hesiod".The Classical Quarterly.61(2): 355–377.doi:10.1017/s0009838811000127.S2CID171061196.
• Lucas, Frank Laurence(1934). "Two Poets of the Peasantry".Studies French and English.London: Cassell & Co. pp. 23–75.
• Luchte, James (2011).Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn.London: Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-0567353313.
• Martin, Richard P. (1992). "Hesiod's metanastic poetics".Ramus.21(1): 11–33.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002654.S2CID192780443.
• Nagler, Michael N. (1992). "Discourse and Conflict in Hesiod: Eris and the Erides".Ramus.21(1): 79–96.doi:10.1017/S0048671X0000268X.S2CID193362059.
• Nagy, Gregory (1992). "Authorisation and Authorship in the Hesiodic Theogony".Ramus.21(2): 119–130.doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002599.S2CID191714303.
• Thalmann, William G. (1984).Conventions of form and thought in early Greek epic poetry.Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.ISBN978-0-8018-3195-9.
• Walcot, P. (1966).Hesiod and the Near East.Cardiff: Wales University Press.
• West, M.L. (1985).The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: its nature, structure, and origins.Oxford: Clarendon.ISBN978-0-19-814034-4.
• Zeitlin, Froma (1996). 'Signifying difference: the case of Hesiod's Pandora', in Froma Zeitlin,Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 53–86.

Selected translations

• George Chapman,The Works of Hesiod,London, 1618, dedicated toSir Francis Bacon.
• Cooke, Hesiod,Works and Days,Translated from the Greek, London, 1728
• Sinclair, Thomas Alan (translator),Hesiodou Erga kai hemerai,London, Macmillan and co., 1932.
• West, Martin Litchfield(translator),Hesiod Works & Days,Oxford University Press,1978,ISBN0-19-814005-3.Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary.
• Athanassakis, Apostolos N.,Theogony; Works and days; Shield / Hesiod; introduction, translation, and notes,Baltimore:Johns Hopkins University Press,1983.ISBN0-8018-2998-4
• Frazer, R.M. (Richard McIlwaine),The Poems of Hesiod,Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,1983.ISBN0-8061-1837-7
• Tandy, David W., and Neale, Walter C. [translators],Works and Days: a translation and commentary for the social sciences,Berkeley:University of California Press,1996.ISBN0-520-20383-6
• Schlegel, Catherine M., and Henry Weinfield, translators,Theogony and Works and Days,Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2006
• Most, G.W.(2006),Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia,Loeb Classical Library, vol. 57, Cambridge, MA,ISBN978-0-674-99622-9{{citation}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
• Most, G.W. (2007),Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue, Other Fragments,Loeb Classical Library, vol. 503, Cambridge, MA,ISBN978-0-674-99623-6{{citation}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).

External links

• Works by HesiodatProject Gutenberg
• Works by HesiodatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
• Works by or about HesiodatInternet Archive
• Hesiod,Works and Days Book 1Works and Days Book 2Works and Days Book 3Translated from the Greek by Mr. Cooke (London, 1728). A youthful exercise in Augustan heroic couplets by Thomas Cooke (1703–1756), employing the Roman names for all the gods.
• Web texts taken fromHesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica,edited and translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, published asLoeb Classical LibraryNo. 57, 1914,ISBN0-674-99063-3:
  • Scanned text at the Internet Archive,inPDFandDjVuformat
  • Perseus Classics Collection: Greek and Roman Materials: Text: Hesiod(Greek texts and English translations forWorks and Days,Theogony,andShield of Heracleswith additional notes and cross links.)
  • Versions of the electronic edition of Evelyn-White's English translation edited by Douglas B. Killings, June 1995:
    • Project Gutenberg plain text.
    • The Medieval and Classical Literature Library: Hesiod
    • Sacred Texts: Classics: The Works of Hesiod(TheogonyandWorks and Daysonly)
  • Hesiod Poems and Fragmentsincluding Ps-Hesiod worksAstronomyandCatalogue of Womenatdemonax.info