Name: Hesiod
Rating: 4 (4 reviews)

Hesiod

For this eagerly anticipated revised edition, Athanassakis has provided an expanded introduction on Hesiod and his work, subtly amended his faithful translations, significantly augmented the notes and index, and updated the bibliography. --Johns Hopkins University Press.

Theogony, Works and Days, Shield

Maria Flowers

"This volume, which completes the new Loeb Classical Library edition of Hesiod, contains The Shield and extant fragments of other poems, including the Catalogue of Women, that were attributed to Hesiod in antiquity. None of these is now thought to be by Hesiod himself, but all have considerable literary and historical interest. The Catalogue of Women is a systematic presentation in five books of a large number of Greek legendary heroes and episodes, organized according to the genealogy of the heroes' mortal mothers. The Shield provides a Hesiodic counterpoint to the shield of Achilles in the Iliad, with Heracles as the protagonist. The volume concludes with a comprehensive index to the complete edition." --Book jacket.

Infamous Millimetre

Alexander Lobov

Hesiodus

Hesiod (Hesiodus), an epic poet apparently of the eighth century BC, was born in Asia Minor but moved to Boeotia in central Greece. He was regarded by later Greeks as a contemporary of Homer. Three works survive under Hesiod's name: (1) "Works and Days," addressed to his brother. In it he gives us the allegories of the two Strifes, and the myth of Pandora; stresses that every man must work; describes the accepted Five Ages of the world; delivers moral advice; surveys in splendid style a year's work on a farm; gives precepts on navigation; and propounds lucky and unlucky days. (2) "Theogony," a religious work about the rise of the gods and the universe from Chaos to the triumph of Zeus, and about the progeny of Zeus and of goddesses in union with mortal men. (3) "The Shield" (not by Hesiod), an extract from a "Catalogue of Women," the subject being Alcmena and her son Heracles and his contest with Cycnus, with a description of Heracles' shield. All three works are of great literary interest.

Julia A.

Already a classic, Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield is now more valuable than ever for students of Greek mythology and literature.

Hesiod

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