Hesiodic Corpus

Hesiod (Greek: Ἡσίοδος, Hēsíodos) was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought (he is sometimes identified as the first economist), archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping.

Greeks in the late fifth and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus, Musaeus, Hesiod and Homer—in that order.

Three works attributed to Hesiod by ancient commentators have survived: Works and Days, Theogony and Shield of Heracles. Other works attributed to him are only found now in fragments.

(Greek: Θεογονία, Theogonía, pronounced [tʰeoɡonía], “the birth of the gods”)

The Theogony is commonly considered Hesiod's earliest work. Despite the different subject matter between this poem and the Works and Days, most scholars, with some notable exceptions (like Evelyn-White), believe that the two works were written by the same man. As M.L. West writes, “Both bear the marks of a distinct personality: a surly, conservative countryman, given to reflection, no lover of women or life, who felt the gods' presence heavy about him.”

The Theogony concerns the origins of the world (cosmogony) and of the gods (theogony), beginning with Chaos, Gaia, and Eros, and shows a special interest in genealogy. Embedded in Greek myth, there remain fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became, according to the fifth-century historian Herodotus, the accepted version that linked all Hellenes.

The creation myth in Hesiod has long been held to have Eastern influences, such as the Hittite Song of Kumarbi and the Babylonian Enuma Elis. This cultural crossover would have occurred in the eighth and ninth century Greek trading colonies such as Al Mina in North Syria. (For more discussion, read Robin Lane Fox's Travelling Heroes and Walcot's Hesiod and the Near East.)

(Ancient Greek: Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, Erga kai Hēmerai)

the_works_and_days is a poem of over 800 verses which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have interpreted this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece, which inspired a wave of documented colonisations in search of new land. This poem is one of the earliest known musings on economic thought.

This work lays out the five Ages of Man, as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges (like those who decided in favour of Perses) as well as the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice. The poem regards labor as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resemble drones in a hive.

In addition to the Theogony and Works and Days, numerous other poems were ascribed to Hesiod during antiquity. Modern scholarship has doubted their authenticity, and these works are generally referred to as forming part of the “Hesiodic Corpus” whether or not their authorship is accepted.[38] The situation is summed up in this formulation by Glenn Most:

“Hesiod” is the name of a person; “Hesiodic” is a designation for a kind of poetry, including but not limited to the poems of which the authorship may reasonably be assigned to Hesiod himself.[39]

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

Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod a lengthy genealogical poem known as Catalogue of Women or Ehoiai (because sections began with the Greek words ē hoiē, “Or like the one who …”). It was a mythological catalogue of the mortal women who had mated with gods, and of the offspring and descendants of these unions.

Several additional hexameter poems were ascribed to Hesiod:

• Megalai Ehoiai, a poem similar to the Catalogue of Women, but presumably longer.
• Wedding of Ceyx, a poem concerning Heracles' attendance at the wedding of a certain Ceyx—noted for its riddles.
• Melampodia, a genealogical poem that treats of the families of, and myths associated with, the great seers of mythology.
• Idaean Dactyls, a work concerning mythological smelters, the Idaean Dactyls.
• Descent of Perithous, about Theseus and Perithous' trip to Hades.
• Precepts of Chiron, a didactic work that presented the teaching of Chiron as delivered to the young Achilles.
• Megala Erga or Great Works, a poem similar to the Works and Days, but presumably longer
• Astronomia, an astronomical poem to which Callimachus (Ep. 27) apparently compared Aratus' Phaenomena.
• Aegimius, a heroic epic concerning the Dorian Aegimius (variously attributed to Hesiod or Cercops of Miletus).
• Kiln or Potters, a brief poem asking Athena to aid potters if they pay the poet. Also attributed to Homer.
• Ornithomantia, a work on bird omens that followed the Works and Days.

In addition to these works, the Suda lists an otherwise unknown “dirge for Batrachus, [Hesiod's] beloved”.