Hesiod

Lore & Background

Several of Hesiod's works have survived in their entirety. Among these are Theogony, which tells the origins of the gods, their lineages, and the events that led to Zeus's rise to power, and Works and Days, a poem that describes the five Ages of Man, offers advice and wisdom, and includes myths such as Pandora's jar. 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 on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, Archaic Greek astronomy, cosmology, and ancient time-keeping.

Reader's Guide

The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles. Works and Days says that his father came from Cyme in Aeolis and crossed the sea to settle at a hamlet near Thespiae in Boeotia named Ascra. Hesiod's patrimony in Ascra occasioned lawsuits with his brother Perses, who at first seems to have cheated him of his rightful share thanks to corrupt authorities or ‘kings’. Unlike his father, Hesiod was averse to sea travel, but he once crossed the narrow strait between the Greek mainland and Euboea to participate in funeral celebrations for one Amphidamas of Chalcis and there won a tripod in a singing competition. He also describes meeting the Muses on Mount Helicon, where he had been pasturing sheep, when the goddesses presented him with a laurel staff, a symbol of poetic authority. Some scholars have seen Perses as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days, but there are also arguments against that theory. Gregory Nagy sees both Pérsēs and Hēsíodos as fictitious names for poetical personae. It is probable that Hesiod wrote his poems down, or dictated them, rather than passing them on orally. Various legends accumulated about Hesiod and are recorded in several sources: the story about the Contest of Homer and Hesiod; a vita of Hesiod by John Tzetzes; the entry for Hesiod in the Suda; two passages and some scattered remarks in Pausanias; a passage in Plutarch Moralia.

Did You Know?

• The etymology of Ἡσίοδος is uncertain; Robert S. P. Beekes classifies it as of unknown origin.
• Hesiod's father migrated from Anatolia westwards to mainland Greece, the opposite direction to most colonial movements at the time.
• Two different early traditions record the site of Hesiod's grave; one states that the Delphic oracle warned Hesiod he would die in Nemea, and so he fled to Locris, where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus,

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"ἴδμεν ψεύδεα πολλὰ λέγειν ἐτύμοισιν ὁμοῖα,ἴδμεν δ᾿, εὖτ᾿ ἐθέλωμεν, ἀληθέα γηρύσασθαι." — Hesiod "We know how to speak many falsehoods which resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things." — Hesiod "Perhaps we know to tell many fictions like to truths, and we know, when we will, to speak what is true." — Hesiod "We know how to tell many lies that pass for truth, and we know, when we wish, to tell the truth itself." — Hesiod