This
tradition
cannot be purely
arbitrary.
arbitrary.
Hesiod
To a people of this nature the Homeric epos would
be inacceptable, and the post-Homeric epic, with its conventional
atmosphere, its trite and hackneyed diction, and its insincere
sentiment, would be anathema. We can imagine, therefore, that among
such folk a settler, of Aeolic origin like Hesiod, who clearly was
well acquainted with the Ionian epos, would naturally see that the
only outlet for his gifts lay in applying epic poetry to new themes
acceptable to his hearers.
Though the poems of the Boeotian school [1102] were unanimously assigned
to Hesiod down to the age of Alexandrian criticism, they were clearly
neither the work of one man nor even of one period: some, doubtless,
were fraudulently fathered on him in order to gain currency; but it is
probable that most came to be regarded as his partly because of their
general character, and partly because the names of their real authors
were lost. One fact in this attribution is remarkable--the veneration
paid to Hesiod.
Life of Hesiod
Our information respecting Hesiod is derived in the main from notices
and allusions in the works attributed to him, and to these must be added
traditions concerning his death and burial gathered from later writers.
Hesiod's father (whose name, by a perversion of "Works and Days", 299
PERSE DION GENOS to PERSE, DION GENOS, was thought to have been Dius)
was a native of Cyme in Aeolis, where he was a seafaring trader and,
perhaps, also a farmer. He was forced by poverty to leave his native
place, and returned to continental Greece, where he settled at Ascra
near Thespiae in Boeotia ("Works and Days", 636 ff. ). Either in Cyme or
Ascra, two sons, Hesiod and Perses, were born to the settler, and these,
after his death, divided the farm between them. Perses, however, who is
represented as an idler and spendthrift, obtained and kept the larger
share by bribing the corrupt 'lords' who ruled from Thespiae ("Works
and Days", 37-39). While his brother wasted his patrimony and ultimately
came to want ("Works and Days", 34 ff. ), Hesiod lived a farmer's life
until, according to the very early tradition preserved by the author of
the "Theogony" (22-23), the Muses met him as he was tending sheep on
Mt. Helicon and 'taught him a glorious song'--doubtless the "Works and
Days". The only other personal reference is to his victory in a poetical
contest at the funeral games of Amphidamas at Chalcis in Euboea, where
he won the prize, a tripod, which he dedicated to the Muses of Helicon
("Works and Days", 651-9).
Before we go on to the story of Hesiod's death, it will be well to
inquire how far the "autobiographical" notices can be treated as
historical, especially as many critics treat some, or all of them,
as spurious. In the first place attempts have been made to show that
"Hesiod" is a significant name and therefore fictitious: it is only
necessary to mention Goettling's derivation from IEMI to ODOS (which
would make 'Hesiod' mean the 'guide' in virtues and technical arts),
and to refer to the pitiful attempts in the "Etymologicum Magnum" (s. v.
{H}ESIODUS), to show how prejudiced and lacking even in plausibility
such efforts are. It seems certain that 'Hesiod' stands as a proper name
in the fullest sense. Secondly, Hesiod claims that his father--if not
he himself--came from Aeolis and settled in Boeotia. There is fairly
definite evidence to warrant our acceptance of this: the dialect of the
"Works and Days" is shown by Rzach [1103] to contain distinct Aeolisms
apart from those which formed part of the general stock of epic poetry.
And that this Aeolic speaking poet was a Boeotian of Ascra seems even
more certain, since the tradition is never once disputed, insignificant
though the place was, even before its destruction by the Thespians.
Again, Hesiod's story of his relations with his brother Perses have been
treated with scepticism (see Murray, "Anc. Gk. Literature", pp. 53-54):
Perses, it is urged, is clearly a mere dummy, set up to be the target
for the poet's exhortations. On such a matter precise evidence is
naturally not forthcoming; but all probability is against the sceptical
view. For 1) if the quarrel between the brothers were a fiction, we
should expect it to be detailed at length and not noticed allusively and
rather obscurely--as we find it; 2) as MM. Croiset remark, if the
poet needed a lay-figure the ordinary practice was to introduce some
mythological person--as, in fact, is done in the "Precepts of Chiron".
In a word, there is no more solid ground for treating Perses and his
quarrel with Hesiod as fictitious than there would be for treating
Cyrnus, the friend of Theognis, as mythical.
Thirdly, there is the passage in the "Theogony" relating to Hesiod and
the Muses. It is surely an error to suppose that lines 22-35 all refer
to Hesiod: rather, the author of the "Theogony" tells the story of his
own inspiration by the same Muses who once taught Hesiod glorious song.
The lines 22-3 are therefore a very early piece of tradition about
Hesiod, and though the appearance of Muses must be treated as a graceful
fiction, we find that a writer, later than the "Works and Days" by
perhaps no more than three-quarters of a century, believed in the
actuality of Hesiod and in his life as a farmer or shepherd.
Lastly, there is the famous story of the contest in song at Chalcis. In
later times the modest version in the "Works and Days" was elaborated,
first by making Homer the opponent whom Hesiod conquered, while a later
period exercised its ingenuity in working up the story of the contest
into the elaborate form in which it still survives. Finally the contest,
in which the two poets contended with hymns to Apollo [1104],
was transferred to Delos. These developments certainly need no
consideration: are we to say the same of the passage in the "Works and
Days"? Critics from Plutarch downwards have almost unanimously rejected
the lines 654-662, on the ground that Hesiod's Amphidamas is the hero
of the Lelantine Wars between Chalcis and Eretria, whose death may be
placed circa 705 B. C. --a date which is obviously too low for the
genuine Hesiod. Nevertheless, there is much to be said in defence of
the passage. Hesiod's claim in the "Works and Days" is modest, since
he neither pretends to have met Homer, nor to have sung in any but an
impromptu, local festival, so that the supposed interpolation lacks
a sufficient motive. And there is nothing in the context to show that
Hesiod's Amphidamas is to be identified with that Amphidamas whom
Plutarch alone connects with the Lelantine War: the name may have been
borne by an earlier Chalcidian, an ancestor, perhaps, of the person to
whom Plutarch refers.
The story of the end of Hesiod may be told in outline. After the contest
at Chalcis, Hesiod went to Delphi and there was warned that the 'issue
of death should overtake him in the fair grove of Nemean Zeus. ' Avoiding
therefore Nemea on the Isthmus of Corinth, to which he supposed
the oracle to refer, Hesiod retired to Oenoe in Locris where he was
entertained by Amphiphanes and Ganyetor, sons of a certain Phegeus. This
place, however, was also sacred to Nemean Zeus, and the poet, suspected
by his hosts of having seduced their sister [1105], was murdered there.
His body, cast into the sea, was brought to shore by dolphins and buried
at Oenoe (or, according to Plutarch, at Ascra): at a later time his
bones were removed to Orchomenus. The whole story is full of miraculous
elements, and the various authorities disagree on numerous points of
detail. The tradition seems, however, to be constant in declaring that
Hesiod was murdered and buried at Oenoe, and in this respect it is at
least as old as the time of Thucydides. In conclusion it may be worth
while to add the graceful epigram of Alcaeus of Messene ("Palatine
Anthology", vii 55).
"When in the shady Locrian grove Hesiod lay dead, the Nymphs
washed his body with water from their own springs, and
heaped high his grave; and thereon the goat-herds sprinkled
offerings of milk mingled with yellow-honey: such was the
utterance of the nine Muses that he breathed forth, that old
man who had tasted of their pure springs. "
The Hesiodic Poems
The Hesiodic poems fall into two groups according as they are didactic
(technical or gnomic) or genealogical: the first group centres round the
"Works and Days", the second round the "Theogony".
I. "The Works and Days":
The poem consists of four main sections. a) After the prelude, which
Pausanias failed to find in the ancient copy engraved on lead seen by
him on Mt. Helicon, comes a general exhortation to industry. It begins
with the allegory of the two Strifes, who stand for wholesome Emulation
and Quarrelsomeness respectively. Then by means of the Myth of Pandora
the poet shows how evil and the need for work first arose, and goes on
to describe the Five Ages of the World, tracing the gradual increase in
evil, and emphasizing the present miserable condition of the world, a
condition in which struggle is inevitable. Next, after the Fable of the
Hawk and Nightingale, which serves as a condemnation of violence
and injustice, the poet passes on to contrast the blessing which
Righteousness brings to a nation, and the punishment which Heaven
sends down upon the violent, and the section concludes with a series
of precepts on industry and prudent conduct generally. b) The second
section shows how a man may escape want and misery by industry and care
both in agriculture and in trading by sea. Neither subject, it should
be carefully noted, is treated in any way comprehensively. c) The third
part is occupied with miscellaneous precepts relating mostly to actions
of domestic and everyday life and conduct which have little or no
connection with one another. d) The final section is taken up with
a series of notices on the days of the month which are favourable or
unfavourable for agricultural and other operations.
It is from the second and fourth sections that the poem takes its name.
At first sight such a work seems to be a miscellany of myths, technical
advice, moral precepts, and folklore maxims without any unifying
principle; and critics have readily taken the view that the whole is a
canto of fragments or short poems worked up by a redactor. Very probably
Hesiod used much material of a far older date, just as Shakespeare
used the "Gesta Romanorum", old chronicles, and old plays; but close
inspection will show that the "Works and Days" has a real unity and that
the picturesque title is somewhat misleading. The poem has properly no
technical object at all, but is moral: its real aim is to show men
how best to live in a difficult world. So viewed the four seemingly
independent sections will be found to be linked together in a real bond
of unity. Such a connection between the first and second sections is
easily seen, but the links between these and the third and fourth are no
less real: to make life go tolerably smoothly it is most important to
be just and to know how to win a livelihood; but happiness also largely
depends on prudence and care both in social and home life as well, and
not least on avoidance of actions which offend supernatural powers and
bring ill-luck. And finally, if your industry is to be fruitful, you
must know what days are suitable for various kinds of work. This
moral aim--as opposed to the currently accepted technical aim of the
poem--explains the otherwise puzzling incompleteness of the instructions
on farming and seafaring.
Of the Hesiodic poems similar in character to the "Works and Days", only
the scantiest fragments survive. One at least of these, the "Divination
by Birds", was, as we know from Proclus, attached to the end of the
"Works" until it was rejected by Apollonius Rhodius: doubtless it
continued the same theme of how to live, showing how man can avoid
disasters by attending to the omens to be drawn from birds. It is
possible that the "Astronomy" or "Astrology" (as Plutarch calls it) was
in turn appended to the "Divination". It certainly gave some account of
the principal constellations, their dates of rising and setting, and the
legends connected with them, and probably showed how these influenced
human affairs or might be used as guides. The "Precepts of Chiron" was
a didactic poem made up of moral and practical precepts, resembling the
gnomic sections of the "Works and Days", addressed by the Centaur Chiron
to his pupil Achilles.
Even less is known of the poem called the "Great Works": the title
implies that it was similar in subject to the second section of the
"Works and Days", but longer. Possible references in Roman writers
[1106] indicate that among the subjects dealt with were the cultivation
of the vine and olive and various herbs. The inclusion of the judgment
of Rhadamanthys (frag. 1): 'If a man sow evil, he shall reap evil,'
indicates a gnomic element, and the note by Proclus [1107] on "Works
and Days" 126 makes it likely that metals also were dealt with. It is
therefore possible that another lost poem, the "Idaean Dactyls", which
dealt with the discovery of metals and their working, was appended to,
or even was a part of the "Great Works", just as the "Divination by
Birds" was appended to the "Works and Days".
II. The Genealogical Poems:
The only complete poem of the genealogical group is the "Theogony",
which traces from the beginning of things the descent and vicissitudes
of the families of the gods. Like the "Works and Days" this poem has no
dramatic plot; but its unifying principle is clear and simple. The gods
are classified chronologically: as soon as one generation is catalogued,
the poet goes on to detail the offspring of each member of that
generation. Exceptions are only made in special cases, as the Sons of
Iapetus (ll. 507-616) whose place is accounted for by their treatment
by Zeus. The chief landmarks in the poem are as follows: after the
first 103 lines, which contain at least three distinct preludes,
three primeval beings are introduced, Chaos, Earth, and Eros--here an
indefinite reproductive influence. Of these three, Earth produces
Heaven to whom she bears the Titans, the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed
giants. The Titans, oppressed by their father, revolt at the instigation
of Earth, under the leadership of Cronos, and as a result Heaven and
Earth are separated, and Cronos reigns over the universe. Cronos knowing
that he is destined to be overcome by one of his children, swallows each
one of them as they are born, until Zeus, saved by Rhea, grows up and
overcomes Cronos in some struggle which is not described. Cronos is
forced to vomit up the children he had swallowed, and these with Zeus
divide the universe between them, like a human estate. Two events mark
the early reign of Zeus, the war with the Titans and the overthrow of
Typhoeus, and as Zeus is still reigning the poet can only go on to give
a list of gods born to Zeus by various goddesses. After this he formally
bids farewell to the cosmic and Olympian deities and enumerates the sons
born of goddess to mortals. The poem closes with an invocation of the
Muses to sing of the 'tribe of women'.
This conclusion served to link the "Theogony" to what must have been
a distinct poem, the "Catalogues of Women". This work was divided into
four (Suidas says five) books, the last one (or two) of which was known
as the "Eoiae" and may have been again a distinct poem: the curious
title will be explained presently. The "Catalogues" proper were a series
of genealogies which traced the Hellenic race (or its more important
peoples and families) from a common ancestor. The reason why women are
so prominent is obvious: since most families and tribes claimed to be
descended from a god, the only safe clue to their origin was through a
mortal woman beloved by that god; and it has also been pointed out that
'mutterrecht' still left its traces in northern Greece in historical
times.
The following analysis (after Marckscheffel) [1108] will show the
principle of its composition. From Prometheus and Pronoia sprang
Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only survivors of the deluge, who had a son
Hellen (frag. 1), the reputed ancestor of the whole Hellenic race. From
the daughters of Deucalion sprang Magnes and Macedon, ancestors of the
Magnesians and Macedonians, who are thus represented as cousins to the
true Hellenic stock. Hellen had three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus,
parents of the Dorian, Ionic and Aeolian races, and the offspring
of these was then detailed. In one instance a considerable and
characteristic section can be traced from extant fragments and notices:
Salmoneus, son of Aeolus, had a daughter Tyro who bore to Poseidon two
sons, Pelias and Neleus; the latter of these, king of Pylos, refused
Heracles purification for the murder of Iphitus, whereupon Heracles
attacked and sacked Pylos, killing amongst the other sons of Neleus
Periclymenus, who had the power of changing himself into all manner of
shapes. From this slaughter Neleus alone escaped (frags. 13, and
10-12). This summary shows the general principle of arrangement of the
"Catalogues": each line seems to have been dealt with in turn, and the
monotony was relieved as far as possible by a brief relation of famous
adventures connected with any of the personages--as in the case of
Atalanta and Hippomenes (frag. 14). Similarly the story of the Argonauts
appears from the fragments (37-42) to have been told in some detail.
This tendency to introduce romantic episodes led to an important
development. Several poems are ascribed to Hesiod, such as the
"Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis", the "Descent of Theseus into
Hades", or the "Circuit of the Earth" (which must have been
connected with the story of Phineus and the Harpies, and so with the
Argonaut-legend), which yet seem to have belonged to the "Catalogues".
It is highly probable that these poems were interpolations into the
"Catalogues" expanded by later poets from more summary notices in the
genuine Hesiodic work and subsequently detached from their contexts
and treated as independent. This is definitely known to be true of the
"Shield of Heracles", the first 53 lines of which belong to the
fourth book of the "Catalogues", and almost certainly applies to other
episodes, such as the "Suitors of Helen" [1109], the "Daughters of
Leucippus", and the "Marriage of Ceyx", which last Plutarch mentions as
'interpolated in the works of Hesiod. '
To the "Catalogues", as we have said, was appended another work, the
"Eoiae". The title seems to have arisen in the following way [1110]:
the "Catalogues" probably ended (ep. "Theogony" 963 ff. ) with some such
passage as this: 'But now, ye Muses, sing of the tribes of women with
whom the Sons of Heaven were joined in love, women pre-eminent above
their fellows in beauty, such as was Niobe (? ). ' Each succeeding heroine
was then introduced by the formula 'Or such as was. . . ' (cp. frags. 88,
92, etc. ). A large fragment of the "Eoiae" is extant at the beginning of
the "Shield of Heracles", which may be mentioned here. The "supplement"
(ll. 57-480) is nominally Heracles and Cycnus, but the greater part
is taken up with an inferior description of the shield of Heracles, in
imitation of the Homeric shield of Achilles ("Iliad" xviii. 478 ff. ).
Nothing shows more clearly the collapse of the principles of the
Hesiodic school than this ultimate servile dependence upon Homeric
models.
At the close of the "Shield" Heracles goes on to Trachis to the house
of Ceyx, and this warning suggests that the "Marriage of Ceyx" may have
come immediately after the 'Or such as was' of Alcmena in the "Eoiae":
possibly Halcyone, the wife of Ceyx, was one of the heroines sung in
the poem, and the original section was 'developed' into the "Marriage",
although what form the poem took is unknown.
Next to the "Eoiae" and the poems which seemed to have been developed
from it, it is natural to place the "Great Eoiae". This, again, as we
know from fragments, was a list of heroines who bare children to the
gods: from the title we must suppose it to have been much longer that
the simple "Eoiae", but its extent is unknown. Lehmann, remarking that
the heroines are all Boeotian and Thessalian (while the heroines of
the "Catalogues" belong to all parts of the Greek world), believes the
author to have been either a Boeotian or Thessalian.
Two other poems are ascribed to Hesiod. Of these the "Aegimius" (also
ascribed by Athenaeus to Cercops of Miletus), is thought by Valckenaer
to deal with the war of Aegimus against the Lapithae and the aid
furnished to him by Heracles, and with the history of Aegimius and
his sons. Otto Muller suggests that the introduction of Thetis and of
Phrixus (frags. 1-2) is to be connected with notices of the allies of
the Lapithae from Phthiotis and Iolchus, and that the story of Io was
incidental to a narrative of Heracles' expedition against Euboea. The
remaining poem, the "Melampodia", was a work in three books, whose plan
it is impossible to recover. Its subject, however, seems to have been
the histories of famous seers like Mopsus, Calchas, and Teiresias, and
it probably took its name from Melampus, the most famous of them all.
Date of the Hesiodic Poems
There is no doubt that the "Works and Days" is the oldest, as it is the
most original, of the Hesiodic poems. It seems to be distinctly earlier
than the "Theogony", which refers to it, apparently, as a poem already
renowned. Two considerations help us to fix a relative date for the
"Works". 1) In diction, dialect and style it is obviously dependent
upon Homer, and is therefore considerably later than the "Iliad" and
"Odyssey": moreover, as we have seen, it is in revolt against the
romantic school, already grown decadent, and while the digamma is still
living, it is obviously growing weak, and is by no means uniformly
effective.
2) On the other hand while tradition steadily puts the Cyclic poets
at various dates from 776 B. C. downwards, it is equally consistent in
regarding Homer and Hesiod as 'prehistoric'. Herodotus indeed puts both
poets 400 years before his own time; that is, at about 830-820 B. C. , and
the evidence stated above points to the middle of the ninth century
as the probable date for the "Works and Days". The "Theogony" might be
tentatively placed a century later; and the "Catalogues" and "Eoiae" are
again later, but not greatly later, than the "Theogony": the "Shield of
Heracles" may be ascribed to the later half of the seventh century, but
there is not evidence enough to show whether the other 'developed' poems
are to be regarded as of a date so low as this.
Literary Value of Homer
Quintillian's [1111] judgment on Hesiod that 'he rarely rises to great
heights. . . and to him is given the palm in the middle-class of speech'
is just, but is liable to give a wrong impression. Hesiod has nothing
that remotely approaches such scenes as that between Priam and Achilles,
or the pathos of Andromache's preparations for Hector's return, even as
he was falling before the walls of Troy; but in matters that come
within the range of ordinary experience, he rarely fails to rise to the
appropriate level. Take, for instance, the description of the Iron
Age ("Works and Days", 182 ff. ) with its catalogue of wrongdoings and
violence ever increasing until Aidos and Nemesis are forced to leave
mankind who thenceforward shall have 'no remedy against evil'. Such
occasions, however, rarely occur and are perhaps not characteristic of
Hesiod's genius: if we would see Hesiod at his best, in his most natural
vein, we must turn to such a passage as that which he himself--according
to the compiler of the "Contest of Hesiod and Homer"--selected as best
in all his work, 'When the Pleiades, Atlas' daughters, begin to rise. . . '
("Works and Days," 383 ff. ). The value of such a passage cannot be
analysed: it can only be said that given such a subject, this alone is
the right method of treatment.
Hesiod's diction is in the main Homeric, but one of his charms is the
use of quaint allusive phrases derived, perhaps, from a pre-Hesiodic
peasant poetry: thus the season when Boreas blows is the time when 'the
Boneless One gnaws his foot by his fireless hearth in his cheerless
house'; to cut one's nails is 'to sever the withered from the quick
upon that which has five branches'; similarly the burglar is the
'day-sleeper', and the serpent is the 'hairless one'. Very similar is
his reference to seasons through what happens or is done in that season:
'when the House-carrier, fleeing the Pleiades, climbs up the plants from
the earth', is the season for harvesting; or 'when the artichoke flowers
and the clicking grass-hopper, seated in a tree, pours down his shrill
song', is the time for rest.
Hesiod's charm lies in his child-like and sincere naivete, in his
unaffected interest in and picturesque view of nature and all that
happens in nature. These qualities, it is true, are those pre-eminently
of the "Works and Days": the literary values of the "Theogony" are of a
more technical character, skill in ordering and disposing long lists of
names, sure judgment in seasoning a monotonous subject with marvellous
incidents or episodes, and no mean imagination in depicting the awful,
as is shown in the description of Tartarus (ll. 736-745). Yet it remains
true that Hesiod's distinctive title to a high place in Greek literature
lies in the very fact of his freedom from classic form, and his grave,
and yet child-like, outlook upon his world.
The Ionic School
The Ionic School of Epic poetry was, as we have seen, dominated by
the Homeric tradition, and while the style and method of treatment are
Homeric, it is natural that the Ionic poets refrained from cultivating
the ground tilled by Homer, and chose for treatment legends which lay
beyond the range of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Equally natural it is
that they should have particularly selected various phases of the
tale of Troy which preceded or followed the action of the "Iliad" or
"Odyssey". In this way, without any preconceived intention, a body of
epic poetry was built up by various writers which covered the whole
Trojan story. But the entire range of heroic legend was open to these
poets, and other clusters of epics grew up dealing particularly with the
famous story of Thebes, while others dealt with the beginnings of the
world and the wars of heaven. In the end there existed a kind of epic
history of the world, as known to the Greeks, down to the death of
Odysseus, when the heroic age ended. In the Alexandrian Age these
poems were arranged in chronological order, apparently by Zenodotus of
Ephesus, at the beginning of the 3rd century B. C. At a later time the
term "Cycle", 'round' or 'course', was given to this collection.
Of all this mass of epic poetry only the scantiest fragments survive;
but happily Photius has preserved to us an abridgment of the synopsis
made of each poem of the "Trojan Cycle" by Proclus, i. e. Eutychius
Proclus of Sicca.
The pre-Trojan poems of the Cycle may be noticed first. The
"Titanomachy", ascribed both to Eumelus of Corinth and to Arctinus of
Miletus, began with a kind of Theogony which told of the union of Heaven
and Earth and of their offspring the Cyclopes and the Hundred-handed
Giants. How the poem proceeded we have no means of knowing, but we may
suppose that in character it was not unlike the short account of the
Titan War found in the Hesiodic "Theogony" (617 ff. ).
What links bound the "Titanomachy" to the Theben Cycle is not clear.
This latter group was formed of three poems, the "Story of Oedipus", the
"Thebais", and the "Epigoni". Of the "Oedipodea" practically nothing is
known, though on the assurance of Athenaeus (vii. 277 E) that Sophocles
followed the Epic Cycle closely in the plots of his plays, we may
suppose that in outline the story corresponded closely to the history of
Oedipus as it is found in the "Oedipus Tyrannus". The "Thebais" seems
to have begun with the origin of the fatal quarrel between Eteocles and
Polyneices in the curse called down upon them by their father in his
misery. The story was thence carried down to the end of the expedition
under Polyneices, Adrastus and Amphiarus against Thebes. The "Epigoni"
(ascribed to Antimachus of Teos) recounted the expedition of the
'After-Born' against Thebes, and the sack of the city.
The Trojan Cycle
Six epics with the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" made up the Trojan
Cycle--The "Cyprian Lays", the "Iliad", the "Aethiopis", the "Little
Iliad", the "Sack of Troy", the "Returns", the "Odyssey", and the
"Telegony".
It has been assumed in the foregoing pages that the poems of the Trojan
Cycle are later than the Homeric poems; but, as the opposite view
has been held, the reasons for this assumption must now be given. 1)
Tradition puts Homer and the Homeric poems proper back in the ages
before chronological history began, and at the same time assigns the
purely Cyclic poems to definite authors who are dated from the
first Olympiad (776 B. C. ) downwards.
This tradition cannot be purely
arbitrary. 2) The Cyclic poets (as we can see from the abstract of
Proclus) were careful not to trespass upon ground already occupied by
Homer. Thus, when we find that in the "Returns" all the prominent Greek
heroes except Odysseus are accounted for, we are forced to believe that
the author of this poem knew the "Odyssey" and judged it unnecessary to
deal in full with that hero's adventures. [1112] In a word, the Cyclic
poems are 'written round' the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". 3) The general
structure of these epics is clearly imitative. As M. M. Croiset remark,
the abusive Thersites in the "Aethiopis" is clearly copied from the
Thersites of the "Iliad"; in the same poem Antilochus, slain by Memnon
and avenged by Achilles, is obviously modelled on Patroclus. 4) The
geographical knowledge of a poem like the "Returns" is far wider and
more precise than that of the "Odyssey". 5) Moreover, in the Cyclic
poems epic is clearly degenerating morally--if the expression may be
used. The chief greatness of the "Iliad" is in the character of the
heroes Achilles and Hector rather than in the actual events which take
place: in the Cyclic writers facts rather than character are the objects
of interest, and events are so packed together as to leave no space for
any exhibition of the play of moral forces. All these reasons justify
the view that the poems with which we now have to deal were later than
the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", and if we must recognize the possibility of
some conventionality in the received dating, we may feel confident that
it is at least approximately just.
The earliest of the post-Homeric epics of Troy are apparently the
"Aethiopis" and the "Sack of Ilium", both ascribed to Arctinus of
Miletus who is said to have flourished in the first Olympiad (776 B. C. ).
He set himself to finish the tale of Troy, which, so far as events were
concerned, had been left half-told by Homer, by tracing the course of
events after the close of the "Iliad". The "Aethiopis" thus included the
coming of the Amazon Penthesilea to help the Trojans after the fall of
Hector and her death, the similar arrival and fall of the Aethiopian
Memnon, the death of Achilles under the arrow of Paris, and the dispute
between Odysseus and Aias for the arms of Achilles. The "Sack of Ilium"
[1113] as analysed by Proclus was very similar to Vergil's version in
"Aeneid" ii, comprising the episodes of the wooden horse, of Laocoon, of
Sinon, the return of the Achaeans from Tenedos, the actual Sack of Troy,
the division of spoils and the burning of the city.
Lesches or Lescheos (as Pausanias calls him) of Pyrrha or Mitylene is
dated at about 660 B. C. In his "Little Iliad" he undertook to elaborate
the "Sack" as related by Arctinus. His work included the adjudgment of
the arms of Achilles to Odysseus, the madness of Aias, the bringing
of Philoctetes from Lemnos and his cure, the coming to the war of
Neoptolemus who slays Eurypylus, son of Telephus, the making of the
wooden horse, the spying of Odysseus and his theft, along with Diomedes,
of the Palladium: the analysis concludes with the admission of the
wooden horse into Troy by the Trojans. It is known, however (Aristotle,
"Poetics", xxiii; Pausanias, x, 25-27), that the "Little Iliad" also
contained a description of the sack of Troy. It is probable that this
and other superfluous incidents disappeared after the Alexandrian
arrangement of the poems in the Cycle, either as the result of some
later recension, or merely through disuse. Or Proclus may have thought
it unnecessary to give the accounts by Lesches and Arctinus of the same
incident.
The "Cyprian Lays", ascribed to Stasinus of Cyprus [1114] (but also to
Hegesinus of Salamis) was designed to do for the events preceding the
action of the "Iliad" what Arctinus had done for the later phases of the
Trojan War. The "Cypria" begins with the first causes of the war, the
purpose of Zeus to relieve the overburdened earth, the apple of
discord, the rape of Helen. Then follow the incidents connected with the
gathering of the Achaeans and their ultimate landing in Troy; and the
story of the war is detailed up to the quarrel between Achilles and
Agamemnon with which the "Iliad" begins.
These four poems rounded off the story of the "Iliad", and it only
remained to connect this enlarged version with the "Odyssey". This was
done by means of the "Returns", a poem in five books ascribed to Agias
or Hegias of Troezen, which begins where the "Sack of Troy" ends. It
told of the dispute between Agamemnon and Menelaus, the departure from
Troy of Menelaus, the fortunes of the lesser heroes, the return and
tragic death of Agamemnon, and the vengeance of Orestes on Aegisthus.
The story ends with the return home of Menelaus, which brings the
general narrative up to the beginning of the "Odyssey".
But the "Odyssey" itself left much untold: what, for example, happened
in Ithaca after the slaying of the suitors, and what was the ultimate
fate of Odysseus? The answer to these questions was supplied by the
"Telegony", a poem in two books by Eugammon of Cyrene (fl. 568 B. C. ).
It told of the adventures of Odysseus in Thesprotis after the killing
of the Suitors, of his return to Ithaca, and his death at the hands
of Telegonus, his son by Circe. The epic ended by disposing of the
surviving personages in a double marriage, Telemachus wedding Circe, and
Telegonus Penelope.
The end of the Cycle marks also the end of the Heroic Age.
The Homeric Hymns
The collection of thirty-three Hymns, ascribed to Homer, is the last
considerable work of the Epic School, and seems, on the whole, to be
later than the Cyclic poems. It cannot be definitely assigned either
to the Ionian or Continental schools, for while the romantic element is
very strong, there is a distinct genealogical interest; and in matters
of diction and style the influences of both Hesiod and Homer are
well-marked. The date of the formation of the collection as such is
unknown. Diodorus Siculus (temp. Augustus) is the first to mention
such a body of poetry, and it is likely enough that this is, at least
substantially, the one which has come down to us. Thucydides quotes the
Delian "Hymn to Apollo", and it is possible that the Homeric corpus of
his day also contained other of the more important hymns. Conceivably
the collection was arranged in the Alexandrine period.
Thucydides, in quoting the "Hymn to Apollo", calls it PROOIMION, which
ordinarily means a 'prelude' chanted by a rhapsode before recitation of
a lay from Homer, and such hymns as Nos. vi, xxxi, xxxii, are
clearly preludes in the strict sense; in No. xxxi, for example, after
celebrating Helios, the poet declares he will next sing of the 'race of
mortal men, the demi-gods'. But it may fairly be doubted whether
such Hymns as those to "Demeter" (ii), "Apollo" (iii), "Hermes" (iv),
"Aphrodite" (v), can have been real preludes, in spite of the closing
formula 'and now I will pass on to another hymn'. The view taken by
Allen and Sikes, amongst other scholars, is doubtless right, that
these longer hymns are only technically preludes and show to what
disproportionate lengths a simple literacy form can be developed.
The Hymns to "Pan" (xix), to "Dionysus" (xxvi), to "Hestia and Hermes"
(xxix), seem to have been designed for use at definite religious
festivals, apart from recitations. With the exception perhaps of the
"Hymn to Ares" (viii), no item in the collection can be regarded as
either devotional or liturgical.
The Hymn is doubtless a very ancient form; but if no example of extreme
antiquity survive this must be put down to the fact that until the age
of literary consciousness, such things are not preserved.
First, apparently, in the collection stood the "Hymn to Dionysus", of
which only two fragments now survive. While it appears to have been a
hymn of the longer type [1115], we have no evidence to show either its
scope or date.
The "Hymn to Demeter", extant only in the MS. discovered by Matthiae
at Moscow, describes the seizure of Persephone by Hades, the grief
of Demeter, her stay at Eleusis, and her vengeance on gods and men by
causing famine. In the end Zeus is forced to bring Persephone back from
the lower world; but the goddess, by the contriving of Hades, still
remains partly a deity of the lower world. In memory of her sorrows
Demeter establishes the Eleusinian mysteries (which, however, were
purely agrarian in origin).
This hymn, as a literary work, is one of the finest in the collection.
It is surely Attic or Eleusinian in origin. Can we in any way fix its
date? Firstly, it is certainly not later than the beginning of the sixth
century, for it makes no mention of Iacchus, and the Dionysiac
element was introduced at Eleusis at about that period. Further,
the insignificance of Triptolemus and Eumolpus point to considerable
antiquity, and the digamma is still active. All these considerations
point to the seventh century as the probable date of the hymn.
The "Hymn to Apollo" consists of two parts, which beyond any doubt were
originally distinct, a Delian hymn and a Pythian hymn.
The Delian hymn describes how Leto, in travail with Apollo, sought out
a place in which to bear her son, and how Apollo, born in Delos, at once
claimed for himself the lyre, the bow, and prophecy. This part of the
existing hymn ends with an encomium of the Delian festival of Apollo and
of the Delian choirs. The second part celebrates the founding of Pytho
(Delphi) as the oracular seat of Apollo. After various wanderings the
god comes to Telphus, near Haliartus, but is dissuaded by the nymph of
the place from settling there and urged to go on to Pytho where, after
slaying the she-dragon who nursed Typhaon, he builds his temple. After
the punishment of Telphusa for her deceit in giving him no warning of
the dragoness at Pytho, Apollo, in the form of a dolphin, brings certain
Cretan shipmen to Delphi to be his priests; and the hymn ends with a
charge to these men to behave orderly and righteously.
The Delian part is exclusively Ionian and insular both in style and
sympathy; Delos and no other is Apollo's chosen seat: but the second
part is as definitely continental; Delos is ignored and Delphi alone is
the important centre of Apollo's worship. From this it is clear that
the two parts need not be of one date--The first, indeed, is ascribed
(Scholiast on Pindar "Nem". ii, 2) to Cynaethus of Chios (fl. 504 B. C. ),
a date which is obviously far too low; general considerations point
rather to the eighth century. The second part is not later than 600
B. C. ; for 1) the chariot-races at Pytho, which commenced in 586 B. C. ,
are unknown to the writer of the hymn, 2) the temple built by Trophonius
and Agamedes for Apollo (ll. 294-299) seems to have been still standing
when the hymn was written, and this temple was burned in 548. We may at
least be sure that the first part is a Chian work, and that the second
was composed by a continental poet familiar with Delphi.
The "Hymn to Hermes" differs from others in its burlesque, quasi-comic
character, and it is also the best-known of the Hymns to English readers
in consequence of Shelley's translation.
After a brief narrative of the birth of Hermes, the author goes on to
show how he won a place among the gods. First the new-born child found a
tortoise and from its shell contrived the lyre; next, with much cunning
circumstance, he stole Apollo's cattle and, when charged with the theft
by Apollo, forced that god to appear in undignified guise before the
tribunal of Zeus. Zeus seeks to reconcile the pair, and Hermes by
the gift of the lyre wins Apollo's friendship and purchases various
prerogatives, a share in divination, the lordship of herds and animals,
and the office of messenger from the gods to Hades.
The Hymn is hard to date. Hermes' lyre has seven strings and the
invention of the seven-stringed lyre is ascribed to Terpander (flor.
676 B. C. ). The hymn must therefore be later than that date, though
Terpander, according to Weir Smyth [1116], may have only modified the
scale of the lyre; yet while the burlesque character precludes an early
date, this feature is far removed, as Allen and Sikes remark, from the
silliness of the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice", so that a date in the
earlier part of the sixth century is most probable.
The "Hymn to Aphrodite" is not the least remarkable, from a literary
point of view, of the whole collection, exhibiting as it does in
a masterly manner a divine being as the unwilling victim of an
irresistible force. It tells how all creatures, and even the gods
themselves, are subject to the will of Aphrodite, saving only Artemis,
Athena, and Hestia; how Zeus to humble her pride of power caused her to
love a mortal, Anchises; and how the goddess visited the hero upon Mt.
Ida. A comparison of this work with the Lay of Demodocus ("Odyssey"
viii, 266 ff. ), which is superficially similar, will show how far
superior is the former in which the goddess is but a victim to forces
stronger than herself. The lines (247-255) in which Aphrodite tells of
her humiliation and grief are specially noteworthy.
There are only general indications of date. The influence of Hesiod is
clear, and the hymn has almost certainly been used by the author of the
"Hymn to Demeter", so that the date must lie between these two periods,
and the seventh century seems to be the latest date possible.
The "Hymn to Dionysus" relates how the god was seized by pirates and how
with many manifestations of power he avenged himself on them by turning
them into dolphins. The date is widely disputed, for while Ludwich
believes it to be a work of the fourth or third century, Allen and Sikes
consider a sixth or seventh century date to be possible. The story is
figured in a different form on the reliefs from the choragic monument of
Lysicrates, now in the British Museum [1117].
Very different in character is the "Hymn to Ares", which is Orphic
in character. The writer, after lauding the god by detailing his
attributes, prays to be delivered from feebleness and weakness of soul,
as also from impulses to wanton and brutal violence.
The only other considerable hymn is that to "Pan", which describes how
he roams hunting among the mountains and thickets and streams, how he
makes music at dusk while returning from the chase, and how he joins in
dancing with the nymphs who sing the story of his birth. This, beyond
most works of Greek literature, is remarkable for its fresh and
spontaneous love of wild natural scenes.
The remaining hymns are mostly of the briefest compass, merely hailing
the god to be celebrated and mentioning his chief attributes. The Hymns
to "Hermes" (xviii), to the "Dioscuri" (xvii), and to "Demeter" (xiii)
are mere abstracts of the longer hymns iv, xxxiii, and ii.
The Epigrams of Homer
The "Epigrams of Homer" are derived from the pseudo-Herodotean "Life of
Homer", but many of them occur in other documents such as the "Contest
of Homer and Hesiod", or are quoted by various ancient authors. These
poetic fragments clearly antedate the "Life" itself, which seems to have
been so written round them as to supply appropriate occasions for their
composition. Epigram iii on Midas of Larissa was otherwise attributed to
Cleobulus of Lindus, one of the Seven Sages; the address to Glaucus (xi)
is purely Hesiodic; xiii, according to MM. Croiset, is a fragment from a
gnomic poem. Epigram xiv is a curious poem attributed on no very obvious
grounds to Hesiod by Julius Pollox. In it the poet invokes Athena to
protect certain potters and their craft, if they will, according to
promise, give him a reward for his song; if they prove false, malignant
gnomes are invoked to wreck the kiln and hurt the potters.
The Burlesque Poems
To Homer were popularly ascribed certain burlesque poems in which
Aristotle ("Poetics" iv) saw the germ of comedy. Most interesting of
these, were it extant, would be the "Margites". The hero of the epic is
at once sciolist and simpleton, 'knowing many things, but knowing them
all badly'. It is unfortunately impossible to trace the plan of
the poem, which presumably detailed the adventures of this unheroic
character: the metre used was a curious mixture of hexametric and iambic
lines. The date of such a work cannot be high: Croiset thinks it may
belong to the period of Archilochus (c. 650 B. C. ), but it may well be
somewhat later.
Another poem, of which we know even less, is the "Cercopes". These
Cercopes ('Monkey-Men') were a pair of malignant dwarfs who went about
the world mischief-making. Their punishment by Heracles is represented
on one of the earlier metopes from Selinus. It would be idle to
speculate as to the date of this work.
Finally there is the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice". Here is told the
story of the quarrel which arose between the two tribes, and how they
fought, until Zeus sent crabs to break up the battle. It is a parody
of the warlike epic, but has little in it that is really comic or of
literary merit, except perhaps the list of quaint arms assumed by the
warriors. The text of the poem is in a chaotic condition, and there are
many interpolations, some of Byzantine date.
Though popularly ascribed to Homer, its real author is said by Suidas
to have been Pigres, a Carian, brother of Artemisia, 'wife of Mausonis',
who distinguished herself at the battle of Salamis.
Suidas is confusing the two Artemisias, but he may be right in
attributing the poem to about 480 B. C.
The Contest of Homer and Hesiod
This curious work dates in its present form from the lifetime or shortly
after the death of Hadrian, but seems to be based in part on an earlier
version by the sophist Alcidamas (c. 400 B. C. ). Plutarch ("Conviv. Sept.
Sap. ", 40) uses an earlier (or at least a shorter) version than that
which we possess [1118]. The extant "Contest", however, has clearly
combined with the original document much other ill-digested matter on
the life and descent of Homer, probably drawing on the same general
sources as does the Herodotean "Life of Homer". Its scope is as follows:
1) the descent (as variously reported) and relative dates of Homer and
Hesiod; 2) their poetical contest at Chalcis; 3) the death of Hesiod;
4) the wanderings and fortunes of Homer, with brief notices of the
circumstances under which his reputed works were composed, down to the
time of his death.
The whole tract is, of course, mere romance; its only values are 1)
the insight it give into ancient speculations about Homer; 2) a certain
amount of definite information about the Cyclic poems; and 3) the epic
fragments included in the stichomythia of the "Contest" proper, many of
which--did we possess the clue--would have to be referred to poems of
the Epic Cycle.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HESIOD. --The classification and numerations of MSS. here followed is
that of Rzach (1913). It is only necessary to add that on the whole
the recovery of Hesiodic papyri goes to confirm the authority of the
mediaeval MSS. At the same time these fragments have produced much that
is interesting and valuable, such as the new lines, "Works and Days"
169 a-d, and the improved readings ib. 278, "Theogony" 91, 93. Our
chief gains from papyri are the numerous and excellent fragments of the
Catalogues which have been recovered.
"Works and Days":--
S Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1090.
A Vienna, Rainer Papyri L. P. 21-9 (4th cent. ).
B Geneva, Naville Papyri Pap. 94 (6th cent. ).
C Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2771 (11th cent. ).
D Florence, Laur. xxxi 39 (12th cent. ).
E Messina, Univ. Lib. Preexistens 11 (12th-13th cent. ).
F Rome, Vatican 38 (14th cent. ).
G Venice, Marc. ix 6 (14th cent. ).
H Florence, Laur. xxxi 37 (14th cent. ).
I Florence, Laur. xxxii 16 (13th cent. ).
K Florence, Laur. xxxii 2 (14th cent. ).
L Milan, Ambros. G 32 sup. (14th cent. ).
M Florence, Bibl. Riccardiana 71 (15th cent. ).
N Milan, Ambros. J 15 sup. (15th cent. ).
O Paris, Bibl.
be inacceptable, and the post-Homeric epic, with its conventional
atmosphere, its trite and hackneyed diction, and its insincere
sentiment, would be anathema. We can imagine, therefore, that among
such folk a settler, of Aeolic origin like Hesiod, who clearly was
well acquainted with the Ionian epos, would naturally see that the
only outlet for his gifts lay in applying epic poetry to new themes
acceptable to his hearers.
Though the poems of the Boeotian school [1102] were unanimously assigned
to Hesiod down to the age of Alexandrian criticism, they were clearly
neither the work of one man nor even of one period: some, doubtless,
were fraudulently fathered on him in order to gain currency; but it is
probable that most came to be regarded as his partly because of their
general character, and partly because the names of their real authors
were lost. One fact in this attribution is remarkable--the veneration
paid to Hesiod.
Life of Hesiod
Our information respecting Hesiod is derived in the main from notices
and allusions in the works attributed to him, and to these must be added
traditions concerning his death and burial gathered from later writers.
Hesiod's father (whose name, by a perversion of "Works and Days", 299
PERSE DION GENOS to PERSE, DION GENOS, was thought to have been Dius)
was a native of Cyme in Aeolis, where he was a seafaring trader and,
perhaps, also a farmer. He was forced by poverty to leave his native
place, and returned to continental Greece, where he settled at Ascra
near Thespiae in Boeotia ("Works and Days", 636 ff. ). Either in Cyme or
Ascra, two sons, Hesiod and Perses, were born to the settler, and these,
after his death, divided the farm between them. Perses, however, who is
represented as an idler and spendthrift, obtained and kept the larger
share by bribing the corrupt 'lords' who ruled from Thespiae ("Works
and Days", 37-39). While his brother wasted his patrimony and ultimately
came to want ("Works and Days", 34 ff. ), Hesiod lived a farmer's life
until, according to the very early tradition preserved by the author of
the "Theogony" (22-23), the Muses met him as he was tending sheep on
Mt. Helicon and 'taught him a glorious song'--doubtless the "Works and
Days". The only other personal reference is to his victory in a poetical
contest at the funeral games of Amphidamas at Chalcis in Euboea, where
he won the prize, a tripod, which he dedicated to the Muses of Helicon
("Works and Days", 651-9).
Before we go on to the story of Hesiod's death, it will be well to
inquire how far the "autobiographical" notices can be treated as
historical, especially as many critics treat some, or all of them,
as spurious. In the first place attempts have been made to show that
"Hesiod" is a significant name and therefore fictitious: it is only
necessary to mention Goettling's derivation from IEMI to ODOS (which
would make 'Hesiod' mean the 'guide' in virtues and technical arts),
and to refer to the pitiful attempts in the "Etymologicum Magnum" (s. v.
{H}ESIODUS), to show how prejudiced and lacking even in plausibility
such efforts are. It seems certain that 'Hesiod' stands as a proper name
in the fullest sense. Secondly, Hesiod claims that his father--if not
he himself--came from Aeolis and settled in Boeotia. There is fairly
definite evidence to warrant our acceptance of this: the dialect of the
"Works and Days" is shown by Rzach [1103] to contain distinct Aeolisms
apart from those which formed part of the general stock of epic poetry.
And that this Aeolic speaking poet was a Boeotian of Ascra seems even
more certain, since the tradition is never once disputed, insignificant
though the place was, even before its destruction by the Thespians.
Again, Hesiod's story of his relations with his brother Perses have been
treated with scepticism (see Murray, "Anc. Gk. Literature", pp. 53-54):
Perses, it is urged, is clearly a mere dummy, set up to be the target
for the poet's exhortations. On such a matter precise evidence is
naturally not forthcoming; but all probability is against the sceptical
view. For 1) if the quarrel between the brothers were a fiction, we
should expect it to be detailed at length and not noticed allusively and
rather obscurely--as we find it; 2) as MM. Croiset remark, if the
poet needed a lay-figure the ordinary practice was to introduce some
mythological person--as, in fact, is done in the "Precepts of Chiron".
In a word, there is no more solid ground for treating Perses and his
quarrel with Hesiod as fictitious than there would be for treating
Cyrnus, the friend of Theognis, as mythical.
Thirdly, there is the passage in the "Theogony" relating to Hesiod and
the Muses. It is surely an error to suppose that lines 22-35 all refer
to Hesiod: rather, the author of the "Theogony" tells the story of his
own inspiration by the same Muses who once taught Hesiod glorious song.
The lines 22-3 are therefore a very early piece of tradition about
Hesiod, and though the appearance of Muses must be treated as a graceful
fiction, we find that a writer, later than the "Works and Days" by
perhaps no more than three-quarters of a century, believed in the
actuality of Hesiod and in his life as a farmer or shepherd.
Lastly, there is the famous story of the contest in song at Chalcis. In
later times the modest version in the "Works and Days" was elaborated,
first by making Homer the opponent whom Hesiod conquered, while a later
period exercised its ingenuity in working up the story of the contest
into the elaborate form in which it still survives. Finally the contest,
in which the two poets contended with hymns to Apollo [1104],
was transferred to Delos. These developments certainly need no
consideration: are we to say the same of the passage in the "Works and
Days"? Critics from Plutarch downwards have almost unanimously rejected
the lines 654-662, on the ground that Hesiod's Amphidamas is the hero
of the Lelantine Wars between Chalcis and Eretria, whose death may be
placed circa 705 B. C. --a date which is obviously too low for the
genuine Hesiod. Nevertheless, there is much to be said in defence of
the passage. Hesiod's claim in the "Works and Days" is modest, since
he neither pretends to have met Homer, nor to have sung in any but an
impromptu, local festival, so that the supposed interpolation lacks
a sufficient motive. And there is nothing in the context to show that
Hesiod's Amphidamas is to be identified with that Amphidamas whom
Plutarch alone connects with the Lelantine War: the name may have been
borne by an earlier Chalcidian, an ancestor, perhaps, of the person to
whom Plutarch refers.
The story of the end of Hesiod may be told in outline. After the contest
at Chalcis, Hesiod went to Delphi and there was warned that the 'issue
of death should overtake him in the fair grove of Nemean Zeus. ' Avoiding
therefore Nemea on the Isthmus of Corinth, to which he supposed
the oracle to refer, Hesiod retired to Oenoe in Locris where he was
entertained by Amphiphanes and Ganyetor, sons of a certain Phegeus. This
place, however, was also sacred to Nemean Zeus, and the poet, suspected
by his hosts of having seduced their sister [1105], was murdered there.
His body, cast into the sea, was brought to shore by dolphins and buried
at Oenoe (or, according to Plutarch, at Ascra): at a later time his
bones were removed to Orchomenus. The whole story is full of miraculous
elements, and the various authorities disagree on numerous points of
detail. The tradition seems, however, to be constant in declaring that
Hesiod was murdered and buried at Oenoe, and in this respect it is at
least as old as the time of Thucydides. In conclusion it may be worth
while to add the graceful epigram of Alcaeus of Messene ("Palatine
Anthology", vii 55).
"When in the shady Locrian grove Hesiod lay dead, the Nymphs
washed his body with water from their own springs, and
heaped high his grave; and thereon the goat-herds sprinkled
offerings of milk mingled with yellow-honey: such was the
utterance of the nine Muses that he breathed forth, that old
man who had tasted of their pure springs. "
The Hesiodic Poems
The Hesiodic poems fall into two groups according as they are didactic
(technical or gnomic) or genealogical: the first group centres round the
"Works and Days", the second round the "Theogony".
I. "The Works and Days":
The poem consists of four main sections. a) After the prelude, which
Pausanias failed to find in the ancient copy engraved on lead seen by
him on Mt. Helicon, comes a general exhortation to industry. It begins
with the allegory of the two Strifes, who stand for wholesome Emulation
and Quarrelsomeness respectively. Then by means of the Myth of Pandora
the poet shows how evil and the need for work first arose, and goes on
to describe the Five Ages of the World, tracing the gradual increase in
evil, and emphasizing the present miserable condition of the world, a
condition in which struggle is inevitable. Next, after the Fable of the
Hawk and Nightingale, which serves as a condemnation of violence
and injustice, the poet passes on to contrast the blessing which
Righteousness brings to a nation, and the punishment which Heaven
sends down upon the violent, and the section concludes with a series
of precepts on industry and prudent conduct generally. b) The second
section shows how a man may escape want and misery by industry and care
both in agriculture and in trading by sea. Neither subject, it should
be carefully noted, is treated in any way comprehensively. c) The third
part is occupied with miscellaneous precepts relating mostly to actions
of domestic and everyday life and conduct which have little or no
connection with one another. d) The final section is taken up with
a series of notices on the days of the month which are favourable or
unfavourable for agricultural and other operations.
It is from the second and fourth sections that the poem takes its name.
At first sight such a work seems to be a miscellany of myths, technical
advice, moral precepts, and folklore maxims without any unifying
principle; and critics have readily taken the view that the whole is a
canto of fragments or short poems worked up by a redactor. Very probably
Hesiod used much material of a far older date, just as Shakespeare
used the "Gesta Romanorum", old chronicles, and old plays; but close
inspection will show that the "Works and Days" has a real unity and that
the picturesque title is somewhat misleading. The poem has properly no
technical object at all, but is moral: its real aim is to show men
how best to live in a difficult world. So viewed the four seemingly
independent sections will be found to be linked together in a real bond
of unity. Such a connection between the first and second sections is
easily seen, but the links between these and the third and fourth are no
less real: to make life go tolerably smoothly it is most important to
be just and to know how to win a livelihood; but happiness also largely
depends on prudence and care both in social and home life as well, and
not least on avoidance of actions which offend supernatural powers and
bring ill-luck. And finally, if your industry is to be fruitful, you
must know what days are suitable for various kinds of work. This
moral aim--as opposed to the currently accepted technical aim of the
poem--explains the otherwise puzzling incompleteness of the instructions
on farming and seafaring.
Of the Hesiodic poems similar in character to the "Works and Days", only
the scantiest fragments survive. One at least of these, the "Divination
by Birds", was, as we know from Proclus, attached to the end of the
"Works" until it was rejected by Apollonius Rhodius: doubtless it
continued the same theme of how to live, showing how man can avoid
disasters by attending to the omens to be drawn from birds. It is
possible that the "Astronomy" or "Astrology" (as Plutarch calls it) was
in turn appended to the "Divination". It certainly gave some account of
the principal constellations, their dates of rising and setting, and the
legends connected with them, and probably showed how these influenced
human affairs or might be used as guides. The "Precepts of Chiron" was
a didactic poem made up of moral and practical precepts, resembling the
gnomic sections of the "Works and Days", addressed by the Centaur Chiron
to his pupil Achilles.
Even less is known of the poem called the "Great Works": the title
implies that it was similar in subject to the second section of the
"Works and Days", but longer. Possible references in Roman writers
[1106] indicate that among the subjects dealt with were the cultivation
of the vine and olive and various herbs. The inclusion of the judgment
of Rhadamanthys (frag. 1): 'If a man sow evil, he shall reap evil,'
indicates a gnomic element, and the note by Proclus [1107] on "Works
and Days" 126 makes it likely that metals also were dealt with. It is
therefore possible that another lost poem, the "Idaean Dactyls", which
dealt with the discovery of metals and their working, was appended to,
or even was a part of the "Great Works", just as the "Divination by
Birds" was appended to the "Works and Days".
II. The Genealogical Poems:
The only complete poem of the genealogical group is the "Theogony",
which traces from the beginning of things the descent and vicissitudes
of the families of the gods. Like the "Works and Days" this poem has no
dramatic plot; but its unifying principle is clear and simple. The gods
are classified chronologically: as soon as one generation is catalogued,
the poet goes on to detail the offspring of each member of that
generation. Exceptions are only made in special cases, as the Sons of
Iapetus (ll. 507-616) whose place is accounted for by their treatment
by Zeus. The chief landmarks in the poem are as follows: after the
first 103 lines, which contain at least three distinct preludes,
three primeval beings are introduced, Chaos, Earth, and Eros--here an
indefinite reproductive influence. Of these three, Earth produces
Heaven to whom she bears the Titans, the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed
giants. The Titans, oppressed by their father, revolt at the instigation
of Earth, under the leadership of Cronos, and as a result Heaven and
Earth are separated, and Cronos reigns over the universe. Cronos knowing
that he is destined to be overcome by one of his children, swallows each
one of them as they are born, until Zeus, saved by Rhea, grows up and
overcomes Cronos in some struggle which is not described. Cronos is
forced to vomit up the children he had swallowed, and these with Zeus
divide the universe between them, like a human estate. Two events mark
the early reign of Zeus, the war with the Titans and the overthrow of
Typhoeus, and as Zeus is still reigning the poet can only go on to give
a list of gods born to Zeus by various goddesses. After this he formally
bids farewell to the cosmic and Olympian deities and enumerates the sons
born of goddess to mortals. The poem closes with an invocation of the
Muses to sing of the 'tribe of women'.
This conclusion served to link the "Theogony" to what must have been
a distinct poem, the "Catalogues of Women". This work was divided into
four (Suidas says five) books, the last one (or two) of which was known
as the "Eoiae" and may have been again a distinct poem: the curious
title will be explained presently. The "Catalogues" proper were a series
of genealogies which traced the Hellenic race (or its more important
peoples and families) from a common ancestor. The reason why women are
so prominent is obvious: since most families and tribes claimed to be
descended from a god, the only safe clue to their origin was through a
mortal woman beloved by that god; and it has also been pointed out that
'mutterrecht' still left its traces in northern Greece in historical
times.
The following analysis (after Marckscheffel) [1108] will show the
principle of its composition. From Prometheus and Pronoia sprang
Deucalion and Pyrrha, the only survivors of the deluge, who had a son
Hellen (frag. 1), the reputed ancestor of the whole Hellenic race. From
the daughters of Deucalion sprang Magnes and Macedon, ancestors of the
Magnesians and Macedonians, who are thus represented as cousins to the
true Hellenic stock. Hellen had three sons, Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus,
parents of the Dorian, Ionic and Aeolian races, and the offspring
of these was then detailed. In one instance a considerable and
characteristic section can be traced from extant fragments and notices:
Salmoneus, son of Aeolus, had a daughter Tyro who bore to Poseidon two
sons, Pelias and Neleus; the latter of these, king of Pylos, refused
Heracles purification for the murder of Iphitus, whereupon Heracles
attacked and sacked Pylos, killing amongst the other sons of Neleus
Periclymenus, who had the power of changing himself into all manner of
shapes. From this slaughter Neleus alone escaped (frags. 13, and
10-12). This summary shows the general principle of arrangement of the
"Catalogues": each line seems to have been dealt with in turn, and the
monotony was relieved as far as possible by a brief relation of famous
adventures connected with any of the personages--as in the case of
Atalanta and Hippomenes (frag. 14). Similarly the story of the Argonauts
appears from the fragments (37-42) to have been told in some detail.
This tendency to introduce romantic episodes led to an important
development. Several poems are ascribed to Hesiod, such as the
"Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis", the "Descent of Theseus into
Hades", or the "Circuit of the Earth" (which must have been
connected with the story of Phineus and the Harpies, and so with the
Argonaut-legend), which yet seem to have belonged to the "Catalogues".
It is highly probable that these poems were interpolations into the
"Catalogues" expanded by later poets from more summary notices in the
genuine Hesiodic work and subsequently detached from their contexts
and treated as independent. This is definitely known to be true of the
"Shield of Heracles", the first 53 lines of which belong to the
fourth book of the "Catalogues", and almost certainly applies to other
episodes, such as the "Suitors of Helen" [1109], the "Daughters of
Leucippus", and the "Marriage of Ceyx", which last Plutarch mentions as
'interpolated in the works of Hesiod. '
To the "Catalogues", as we have said, was appended another work, the
"Eoiae". The title seems to have arisen in the following way [1110]:
the "Catalogues" probably ended (ep. "Theogony" 963 ff. ) with some such
passage as this: 'But now, ye Muses, sing of the tribes of women with
whom the Sons of Heaven were joined in love, women pre-eminent above
their fellows in beauty, such as was Niobe (? ). ' Each succeeding heroine
was then introduced by the formula 'Or such as was. . . ' (cp. frags. 88,
92, etc. ). A large fragment of the "Eoiae" is extant at the beginning of
the "Shield of Heracles", which may be mentioned here. The "supplement"
(ll. 57-480) is nominally Heracles and Cycnus, but the greater part
is taken up with an inferior description of the shield of Heracles, in
imitation of the Homeric shield of Achilles ("Iliad" xviii. 478 ff. ).
Nothing shows more clearly the collapse of the principles of the
Hesiodic school than this ultimate servile dependence upon Homeric
models.
At the close of the "Shield" Heracles goes on to Trachis to the house
of Ceyx, and this warning suggests that the "Marriage of Ceyx" may have
come immediately after the 'Or such as was' of Alcmena in the "Eoiae":
possibly Halcyone, the wife of Ceyx, was one of the heroines sung in
the poem, and the original section was 'developed' into the "Marriage",
although what form the poem took is unknown.
Next to the "Eoiae" and the poems which seemed to have been developed
from it, it is natural to place the "Great Eoiae". This, again, as we
know from fragments, was a list of heroines who bare children to the
gods: from the title we must suppose it to have been much longer that
the simple "Eoiae", but its extent is unknown. Lehmann, remarking that
the heroines are all Boeotian and Thessalian (while the heroines of
the "Catalogues" belong to all parts of the Greek world), believes the
author to have been either a Boeotian or Thessalian.
Two other poems are ascribed to Hesiod. Of these the "Aegimius" (also
ascribed by Athenaeus to Cercops of Miletus), is thought by Valckenaer
to deal with the war of Aegimus against the Lapithae and the aid
furnished to him by Heracles, and with the history of Aegimius and
his sons. Otto Muller suggests that the introduction of Thetis and of
Phrixus (frags. 1-2) is to be connected with notices of the allies of
the Lapithae from Phthiotis and Iolchus, and that the story of Io was
incidental to a narrative of Heracles' expedition against Euboea. The
remaining poem, the "Melampodia", was a work in three books, whose plan
it is impossible to recover. Its subject, however, seems to have been
the histories of famous seers like Mopsus, Calchas, and Teiresias, and
it probably took its name from Melampus, the most famous of them all.
Date of the Hesiodic Poems
There is no doubt that the "Works and Days" is the oldest, as it is the
most original, of the Hesiodic poems. It seems to be distinctly earlier
than the "Theogony", which refers to it, apparently, as a poem already
renowned. Two considerations help us to fix a relative date for the
"Works". 1) In diction, dialect and style it is obviously dependent
upon Homer, and is therefore considerably later than the "Iliad" and
"Odyssey": moreover, as we have seen, it is in revolt against the
romantic school, already grown decadent, and while the digamma is still
living, it is obviously growing weak, and is by no means uniformly
effective.
2) On the other hand while tradition steadily puts the Cyclic poets
at various dates from 776 B. C. downwards, it is equally consistent in
regarding Homer and Hesiod as 'prehistoric'. Herodotus indeed puts both
poets 400 years before his own time; that is, at about 830-820 B. C. , and
the evidence stated above points to the middle of the ninth century
as the probable date for the "Works and Days". The "Theogony" might be
tentatively placed a century later; and the "Catalogues" and "Eoiae" are
again later, but not greatly later, than the "Theogony": the "Shield of
Heracles" may be ascribed to the later half of the seventh century, but
there is not evidence enough to show whether the other 'developed' poems
are to be regarded as of a date so low as this.
Literary Value of Homer
Quintillian's [1111] judgment on Hesiod that 'he rarely rises to great
heights. . . and to him is given the palm in the middle-class of speech'
is just, but is liable to give a wrong impression. Hesiod has nothing
that remotely approaches such scenes as that between Priam and Achilles,
or the pathos of Andromache's preparations for Hector's return, even as
he was falling before the walls of Troy; but in matters that come
within the range of ordinary experience, he rarely fails to rise to the
appropriate level. Take, for instance, the description of the Iron
Age ("Works and Days", 182 ff. ) with its catalogue of wrongdoings and
violence ever increasing until Aidos and Nemesis are forced to leave
mankind who thenceforward shall have 'no remedy against evil'. Such
occasions, however, rarely occur and are perhaps not characteristic of
Hesiod's genius: if we would see Hesiod at his best, in his most natural
vein, we must turn to such a passage as that which he himself--according
to the compiler of the "Contest of Hesiod and Homer"--selected as best
in all his work, 'When the Pleiades, Atlas' daughters, begin to rise. . . '
("Works and Days," 383 ff. ). The value of such a passage cannot be
analysed: it can only be said that given such a subject, this alone is
the right method of treatment.
Hesiod's diction is in the main Homeric, but one of his charms is the
use of quaint allusive phrases derived, perhaps, from a pre-Hesiodic
peasant poetry: thus the season when Boreas blows is the time when 'the
Boneless One gnaws his foot by his fireless hearth in his cheerless
house'; to cut one's nails is 'to sever the withered from the quick
upon that which has five branches'; similarly the burglar is the
'day-sleeper', and the serpent is the 'hairless one'. Very similar is
his reference to seasons through what happens or is done in that season:
'when the House-carrier, fleeing the Pleiades, climbs up the plants from
the earth', is the season for harvesting; or 'when the artichoke flowers
and the clicking grass-hopper, seated in a tree, pours down his shrill
song', is the time for rest.
Hesiod's charm lies in his child-like and sincere naivete, in his
unaffected interest in and picturesque view of nature and all that
happens in nature. These qualities, it is true, are those pre-eminently
of the "Works and Days": the literary values of the "Theogony" are of a
more technical character, skill in ordering and disposing long lists of
names, sure judgment in seasoning a monotonous subject with marvellous
incidents or episodes, and no mean imagination in depicting the awful,
as is shown in the description of Tartarus (ll. 736-745). Yet it remains
true that Hesiod's distinctive title to a high place in Greek literature
lies in the very fact of his freedom from classic form, and his grave,
and yet child-like, outlook upon his world.
The Ionic School
The Ionic School of Epic poetry was, as we have seen, dominated by
the Homeric tradition, and while the style and method of treatment are
Homeric, it is natural that the Ionic poets refrained from cultivating
the ground tilled by Homer, and chose for treatment legends which lay
beyond the range of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Equally natural it is
that they should have particularly selected various phases of the
tale of Troy which preceded or followed the action of the "Iliad" or
"Odyssey". In this way, without any preconceived intention, a body of
epic poetry was built up by various writers which covered the whole
Trojan story. But the entire range of heroic legend was open to these
poets, and other clusters of epics grew up dealing particularly with the
famous story of Thebes, while others dealt with the beginnings of the
world and the wars of heaven. In the end there existed a kind of epic
history of the world, as known to the Greeks, down to the death of
Odysseus, when the heroic age ended. In the Alexandrian Age these
poems were arranged in chronological order, apparently by Zenodotus of
Ephesus, at the beginning of the 3rd century B. C. At a later time the
term "Cycle", 'round' or 'course', was given to this collection.
Of all this mass of epic poetry only the scantiest fragments survive;
but happily Photius has preserved to us an abridgment of the synopsis
made of each poem of the "Trojan Cycle" by Proclus, i. e. Eutychius
Proclus of Sicca.
The pre-Trojan poems of the Cycle may be noticed first. The
"Titanomachy", ascribed both to Eumelus of Corinth and to Arctinus of
Miletus, began with a kind of Theogony which told of the union of Heaven
and Earth and of their offspring the Cyclopes and the Hundred-handed
Giants. How the poem proceeded we have no means of knowing, but we may
suppose that in character it was not unlike the short account of the
Titan War found in the Hesiodic "Theogony" (617 ff. ).
What links bound the "Titanomachy" to the Theben Cycle is not clear.
This latter group was formed of three poems, the "Story of Oedipus", the
"Thebais", and the "Epigoni". Of the "Oedipodea" practically nothing is
known, though on the assurance of Athenaeus (vii. 277 E) that Sophocles
followed the Epic Cycle closely in the plots of his plays, we may
suppose that in outline the story corresponded closely to the history of
Oedipus as it is found in the "Oedipus Tyrannus". The "Thebais" seems
to have begun with the origin of the fatal quarrel between Eteocles and
Polyneices in the curse called down upon them by their father in his
misery. The story was thence carried down to the end of the expedition
under Polyneices, Adrastus and Amphiarus against Thebes. The "Epigoni"
(ascribed to Antimachus of Teos) recounted the expedition of the
'After-Born' against Thebes, and the sack of the city.
The Trojan Cycle
Six epics with the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey" made up the Trojan
Cycle--The "Cyprian Lays", the "Iliad", the "Aethiopis", the "Little
Iliad", the "Sack of Troy", the "Returns", the "Odyssey", and the
"Telegony".
It has been assumed in the foregoing pages that the poems of the Trojan
Cycle are later than the Homeric poems; but, as the opposite view
has been held, the reasons for this assumption must now be given. 1)
Tradition puts Homer and the Homeric poems proper back in the ages
before chronological history began, and at the same time assigns the
purely Cyclic poems to definite authors who are dated from the
first Olympiad (776 B. C. ) downwards.
This tradition cannot be purely
arbitrary. 2) The Cyclic poets (as we can see from the abstract of
Proclus) were careful not to trespass upon ground already occupied by
Homer. Thus, when we find that in the "Returns" all the prominent Greek
heroes except Odysseus are accounted for, we are forced to believe that
the author of this poem knew the "Odyssey" and judged it unnecessary to
deal in full with that hero's adventures. [1112] In a word, the Cyclic
poems are 'written round' the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey". 3) The general
structure of these epics is clearly imitative. As M. M. Croiset remark,
the abusive Thersites in the "Aethiopis" is clearly copied from the
Thersites of the "Iliad"; in the same poem Antilochus, slain by Memnon
and avenged by Achilles, is obviously modelled on Patroclus. 4) The
geographical knowledge of a poem like the "Returns" is far wider and
more precise than that of the "Odyssey". 5) Moreover, in the Cyclic
poems epic is clearly degenerating morally--if the expression may be
used. The chief greatness of the "Iliad" is in the character of the
heroes Achilles and Hector rather than in the actual events which take
place: in the Cyclic writers facts rather than character are the objects
of interest, and events are so packed together as to leave no space for
any exhibition of the play of moral forces. All these reasons justify
the view that the poems with which we now have to deal were later than
the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", and if we must recognize the possibility of
some conventionality in the received dating, we may feel confident that
it is at least approximately just.
The earliest of the post-Homeric epics of Troy are apparently the
"Aethiopis" and the "Sack of Ilium", both ascribed to Arctinus of
Miletus who is said to have flourished in the first Olympiad (776 B. C. ).
He set himself to finish the tale of Troy, which, so far as events were
concerned, had been left half-told by Homer, by tracing the course of
events after the close of the "Iliad". The "Aethiopis" thus included the
coming of the Amazon Penthesilea to help the Trojans after the fall of
Hector and her death, the similar arrival and fall of the Aethiopian
Memnon, the death of Achilles under the arrow of Paris, and the dispute
between Odysseus and Aias for the arms of Achilles. The "Sack of Ilium"
[1113] as analysed by Proclus was very similar to Vergil's version in
"Aeneid" ii, comprising the episodes of the wooden horse, of Laocoon, of
Sinon, the return of the Achaeans from Tenedos, the actual Sack of Troy,
the division of spoils and the burning of the city.
Lesches or Lescheos (as Pausanias calls him) of Pyrrha or Mitylene is
dated at about 660 B. C. In his "Little Iliad" he undertook to elaborate
the "Sack" as related by Arctinus. His work included the adjudgment of
the arms of Achilles to Odysseus, the madness of Aias, the bringing
of Philoctetes from Lemnos and his cure, the coming to the war of
Neoptolemus who slays Eurypylus, son of Telephus, the making of the
wooden horse, the spying of Odysseus and his theft, along with Diomedes,
of the Palladium: the analysis concludes with the admission of the
wooden horse into Troy by the Trojans. It is known, however (Aristotle,
"Poetics", xxiii; Pausanias, x, 25-27), that the "Little Iliad" also
contained a description of the sack of Troy. It is probable that this
and other superfluous incidents disappeared after the Alexandrian
arrangement of the poems in the Cycle, either as the result of some
later recension, or merely through disuse. Or Proclus may have thought
it unnecessary to give the accounts by Lesches and Arctinus of the same
incident.
The "Cyprian Lays", ascribed to Stasinus of Cyprus [1114] (but also to
Hegesinus of Salamis) was designed to do for the events preceding the
action of the "Iliad" what Arctinus had done for the later phases of the
Trojan War. The "Cypria" begins with the first causes of the war, the
purpose of Zeus to relieve the overburdened earth, the apple of
discord, the rape of Helen. Then follow the incidents connected with the
gathering of the Achaeans and their ultimate landing in Troy; and the
story of the war is detailed up to the quarrel between Achilles and
Agamemnon with which the "Iliad" begins.
These four poems rounded off the story of the "Iliad", and it only
remained to connect this enlarged version with the "Odyssey". This was
done by means of the "Returns", a poem in five books ascribed to Agias
or Hegias of Troezen, which begins where the "Sack of Troy" ends. It
told of the dispute between Agamemnon and Menelaus, the departure from
Troy of Menelaus, the fortunes of the lesser heroes, the return and
tragic death of Agamemnon, and the vengeance of Orestes on Aegisthus.
The story ends with the return home of Menelaus, which brings the
general narrative up to the beginning of the "Odyssey".
But the "Odyssey" itself left much untold: what, for example, happened
in Ithaca after the slaying of the suitors, and what was the ultimate
fate of Odysseus? The answer to these questions was supplied by the
"Telegony", a poem in two books by Eugammon of Cyrene (fl. 568 B. C. ).
It told of the adventures of Odysseus in Thesprotis after the killing
of the Suitors, of his return to Ithaca, and his death at the hands
of Telegonus, his son by Circe. The epic ended by disposing of the
surviving personages in a double marriage, Telemachus wedding Circe, and
Telegonus Penelope.
The end of the Cycle marks also the end of the Heroic Age.
The Homeric Hymns
The collection of thirty-three Hymns, ascribed to Homer, is the last
considerable work of the Epic School, and seems, on the whole, to be
later than the Cyclic poems. It cannot be definitely assigned either
to the Ionian or Continental schools, for while the romantic element is
very strong, there is a distinct genealogical interest; and in matters
of diction and style the influences of both Hesiod and Homer are
well-marked. The date of the formation of the collection as such is
unknown. Diodorus Siculus (temp. Augustus) is the first to mention
such a body of poetry, and it is likely enough that this is, at least
substantially, the one which has come down to us. Thucydides quotes the
Delian "Hymn to Apollo", and it is possible that the Homeric corpus of
his day also contained other of the more important hymns. Conceivably
the collection was arranged in the Alexandrine period.
Thucydides, in quoting the "Hymn to Apollo", calls it PROOIMION, which
ordinarily means a 'prelude' chanted by a rhapsode before recitation of
a lay from Homer, and such hymns as Nos. vi, xxxi, xxxii, are
clearly preludes in the strict sense; in No. xxxi, for example, after
celebrating Helios, the poet declares he will next sing of the 'race of
mortal men, the demi-gods'. But it may fairly be doubted whether
such Hymns as those to "Demeter" (ii), "Apollo" (iii), "Hermes" (iv),
"Aphrodite" (v), can have been real preludes, in spite of the closing
formula 'and now I will pass on to another hymn'. The view taken by
Allen and Sikes, amongst other scholars, is doubtless right, that
these longer hymns are only technically preludes and show to what
disproportionate lengths a simple literacy form can be developed.
The Hymns to "Pan" (xix), to "Dionysus" (xxvi), to "Hestia and Hermes"
(xxix), seem to have been designed for use at definite religious
festivals, apart from recitations. With the exception perhaps of the
"Hymn to Ares" (viii), no item in the collection can be regarded as
either devotional or liturgical.
The Hymn is doubtless a very ancient form; but if no example of extreme
antiquity survive this must be put down to the fact that until the age
of literary consciousness, such things are not preserved.
First, apparently, in the collection stood the "Hymn to Dionysus", of
which only two fragments now survive. While it appears to have been a
hymn of the longer type [1115], we have no evidence to show either its
scope or date.
The "Hymn to Demeter", extant only in the MS. discovered by Matthiae
at Moscow, describes the seizure of Persephone by Hades, the grief
of Demeter, her stay at Eleusis, and her vengeance on gods and men by
causing famine. In the end Zeus is forced to bring Persephone back from
the lower world; but the goddess, by the contriving of Hades, still
remains partly a deity of the lower world. In memory of her sorrows
Demeter establishes the Eleusinian mysteries (which, however, were
purely agrarian in origin).
This hymn, as a literary work, is one of the finest in the collection.
It is surely Attic or Eleusinian in origin. Can we in any way fix its
date? Firstly, it is certainly not later than the beginning of the sixth
century, for it makes no mention of Iacchus, and the Dionysiac
element was introduced at Eleusis at about that period. Further,
the insignificance of Triptolemus and Eumolpus point to considerable
antiquity, and the digamma is still active. All these considerations
point to the seventh century as the probable date of the hymn.
The "Hymn to Apollo" consists of two parts, which beyond any doubt were
originally distinct, a Delian hymn and a Pythian hymn.
The Delian hymn describes how Leto, in travail with Apollo, sought out
a place in which to bear her son, and how Apollo, born in Delos, at once
claimed for himself the lyre, the bow, and prophecy. This part of the
existing hymn ends with an encomium of the Delian festival of Apollo and
of the Delian choirs. The second part celebrates the founding of Pytho
(Delphi) as the oracular seat of Apollo. After various wanderings the
god comes to Telphus, near Haliartus, but is dissuaded by the nymph of
the place from settling there and urged to go on to Pytho where, after
slaying the she-dragon who nursed Typhaon, he builds his temple. After
the punishment of Telphusa for her deceit in giving him no warning of
the dragoness at Pytho, Apollo, in the form of a dolphin, brings certain
Cretan shipmen to Delphi to be his priests; and the hymn ends with a
charge to these men to behave orderly and righteously.
The Delian part is exclusively Ionian and insular both in style and
sympathy; Delos and no other is Apollo's chosen seat: but the second
part is as definitely continental; Delos is ignored and Delphi alone is
the important centre of Apollo's worship. From this it is clear that
the two parts need not be of one date--The first, indeed, is ascribed
(Scholiast on Pindar "Nem". ii, 2) to Cynaethus of Chios (fl. 504 B. C. ),
a date which is obviously far too low; general considerations point
rather to the eighth century. The second part is not later than 600
B. C. ; for 1) the chariot-races at Pytho, which commenced in 586 B. C. ,
are unknown to the writer of the hymn, 2) the temple built by Trophonius
and Agamedes for Apollo (ll. 294-299) seems to have been still standing
when the hymn was written, and this temple was burned in 548. We may at
least be sure that the first part is a Chian work, and that the second
was composed by a continental poet familiar with Delphi.
The "Hymn to Hermes" differs from others in its burlesque, quasi-comic
character, and it is also the best-known of the Hymns to English readers
in consequence of Shelley's translation.
After a brief narrative of the birth of Hermes, the author goes on to
show how he won a place among the gods. First the new-born child found a
tortoise and from its shell contrived the lyre; next, with much cunning
circumstance, he stole Apollo's cattle and, when charged with the theft
by Apollo, forced that god to appear in undignified guise before the
tribunal of Zeus. Zeus seeks to reconcile the pair, and Hermes by
the gift of the lyre wins Apollo's friendship and purchases various
prerogatives, a share in divination, the lordship of herds and animals,
and the office of messenger from the gods to Hades.
The Hymn is hard to date. Hermes' lyre has seven strings and the
invention of the seven-stringed lyre is ascribed to Terpander (flor.
676 B. C. ). The hymn must therefore be later than that date, though
Terpander, according to Weir Smyth [1116], may have only modified the
scale of the lyre; yet while the burlesque character precludes an early
date, this feature is far removed, as Allen and Sikes remark, from the
silliness of the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice", so that a date in the
earlier part of the sixth century is most probable.
The "Hymn to Aphrodite" is not the least remarkable, from a literary
point of view, of the whole collection, exhibiting as it does in
a masterly manner a divine being as the unwilling victim of an
irresistible force. It tells how all creatures, and even the gods
themselves, are subject to the will of Aphrodite, saving only Artemis,
Athena, and Hestia; how Zeus to humble her pride of power caused her to
love a mortal, Anchises; and how the goddess visited the hero upon Mt.
Ida. A comparison of this work with the Lay of Demodocus ("Odyssey"
viii, 266 ff. ), which is superficially similar, will show how far
superior is the former in which the goddess is but a victim to forces
stronger than herself. The lines (247-255) in which Aphrodite tells of
her humiliation and grief are specially noteworthy.
There are only general indications of date. The influence of Hesiod is
clear, and the hymn has almost certainly been used by the author of the
"Hymn to Demeter", so that the date must lie between these two periods,
and the seventh century seems to be the latest date possible.
The "Hymn to Dionysus" relates how the god was seized by pirates and how
with many manifestations of power he avenged himself on them by turning
them into dolphins. The date is widely disputed, for while Ludwich
believes it to be a work of the fourth or third century, Allen and Sikes
consider a sixth or seventh century date to be possible. The story is
figured in a different form on the reliefs from the choragic monument of
Lysicrates, now in the British Museum [1117].
Very different in character is the "Hymn to Ares", which is Orphic
in character. The writer, after lauding the god by detailing his
attributes, prays to be delivered from feebleness and weakness of soul,
as also from impulses to wanton and brutal violence.
The only other considerable hymn is that to "Pan", which describes how
he roams hunting among the mountains and thickets and streams, how he
makes music at dusk while returning from the chase, and how he joins in
dancing with the nymphs who sing the story of his birth. This, beyond
most works of Greek literature, is remarkable for its fresh and
spontaneous love of wild natural scenes.
The remaining hymns are mostly of the briefest compass, merely hailing
the god to be celebrated and mentioning his chief attributes. The Hymns
to "Hermes" (xviii), to the "Dioscuri" (xvii), and to "Demeter" (xiii)
are mere abstracts of the longer hymns iv, xxxiii, and ii.
The Epigrams of Homer
The "Epigrams of Homer" are derived from the pseudo-Herodotean "Life of
Homer", but many of them occur in other documents such as the "Contest
of Homer and Hesiod", or are quoted by various ancient authors. These
poetic fragments clearly antedate the "Life" itself, which seems to have
been so written round them as to supply appropriate occasions for their
composition. Epigram iii on Midas of Larissa was otherwise attributed to
Cleobulus of Lindus, one of the Seven Sages; the address to Glaucus (xi)
is purely Hesiodic; xiii, according to MM. Croiset, is a fragment from a
gnomic poem. Epigram xiv is a curious poem attributed on no very obvious
grounds to Hesiod by Julius Pollox. In it the poet invokes Athena to
protect certain potters and their craft, if they will, according to
promise, give him a reward for his song; if they prove false, malignant
gnomes are invoked to wreck the kiln and hurt the potters.
The Burlesque Poems
To Homer were popularly ascribed certain burlesque poems in which
Aristotle ("Poetics" iv) saw the germ of comedy. Most interesting of
these, were it extant, would be the "Margites". The hero of the epic is
at once sciolist and simpleton, 'knowing many things, but knowing them
all badly'. It is unfortunately impossible to trace the plan of
the poem, which presumably detailed the adventures of this unheroic
character: the metre used was a curious mixture of hexametric and iambic
lines. The date of such a work cannot be high: Croiset thinks it may
belong to the period of Archilochus (c. 650 B. C. ), but it may well be
somewhat later.
Another poem, of which we know even less, is the "Cercopes". These
Cercopes ('Monkey-Men') were a pair of malignant dwarfs who went about
the world mischief-making. Their punishment by Heracles is represented
on one of the earlier metopes from Selinus. It would be idle to
speculate as to the date of this work.
Finally there is the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice". Here is told the
story of the quarrel which arose between the two tribes, and how they
fought, until Zeus sent crabs to break up the battle. It is a parody
of the warlike epic, but has little in it that is really comic or of
literary merit, except perhaps the list of quaint arms assumed by the
warriors. The text of the poem is in a chaotic condition, and there are
many interpolations, some of Byzantine date.
Though popularly ascribed to Homer, its real author is said by Suidas
to have been Pigres, a Carian, brother of Artemisia, 'wife of Mausonis',
who distinguished herself at the battle of Salamis.
Suidas is confusing the two Artemisias, but he may be right in
attributing the poem to about 480 B. C.
The Contest of Homer and Hesiod
This curious work dates in its present form from the lifetime or shortly
after the death of Hadrian, but seems to be based in part on an earlier
version by the sophist Alcidamas (c. 400 B. C. ). Plutarch ("Conviv. Sept.
Sap. ", 40) uses an earlier (or at least a shorter) version than that
which we possess [1118]. The extant "Contest", however, has clearly
combined with the original document much other ill-digested matter on
the life and descent of Homer, probably drawing on the same general
sources as does the Herodotean "Life of Homer". Its scope is as follows:
1) the descent (as variously reported) and relative dates of Homer and
Hesiod; 2) their poetical contest at Chalcis; 3) the death of Hesiod;
4) the wanderings and fortunes of Homer, with brief notices of the
circumstances under which his reputed works were composed, down to the
time of his death.
The whole tract is, of course, mere romance; its only values are 1)
the insight it give into ancient speculations about Homer; 2) a certain
amount of definite information about the Cyclic poems; and 3) the epic
fragments included in the stichomythia of the "Contest" proper, many of
which--did we possess the clue--would have to be referred to poems of
the Epic Cycle.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HESIOD. --The classification and numerations of MSS. here followed is
that of Rzach (1913). It is only necessary to add that on the whole
the recovery of Hesiodic papyri goes to confirm the authority of the
mediaeval MSS. At the same time these fragments have produced much that
is interesting and valuable, such as the new lines, "Works and Days"
169 a-d, and the improved readings ib. 278, "Theogony" 91, 93. Our
chief gains from papyri are the numerous and excellent fragments of the
Catalogues which have been recovered.
"Works and Days":--
S Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1090.
A Vienna, Rainer Papyri L. P. 21-9 (4th cent. ).
B Geneva, Naville Papyri Pap. 94 (6th cent. ).
C Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2771 (11th cent. ).
D Florence, Laur. xxxi 39 (12th cent. ).
E Messina, Univ. Lib. Preexistens 11 (12th-13th cent. ).
F Rome, Vatican 38 (14th cent. ).
G Venice, Marc. ix 6 (14th cent. ).
H Florence, Laur. xxxi 37 (14th cent. ).
I Florence, Laur. xxxii 16 (13th cent. ).
K Florence, Laur. xxxii 2 (14th cent. ).
L Milan, Ambros. G 32 sup. (14th cent. ).
M Florence, Bibl. Riccardiana 71 (15th cent. ).
N Milan, Ambros. J 15 sup. (15th cent. ).
O Paris, Bibl.
