Hesiodic Poetry Research Articles

„W lesie, w drewnianym domku": o cnocie radości i szczęścia w najnowszym tomie Michaela Krügera

Michael Krüger is one of the most important poets of contemporary Europe, combining in his works many traditions of the old continent’s literature, from ancient Greece to twentieth-century Poland. In addition, strong American influences surface in his verse. While Krüger’s early work was a search for his own mode of expression through more or less faithful imitations of very different Polish and American poets, in his mature poems from the 2021 volume In the Forrest, in the Wooden House the Munich poet finds a highly original solution to the seemingly insoluble dilemma faced by all prominent artists since the beginning of the twentieth century: whether to depict the world realistically or, on the contrary, by means of aporia and abstraction? Krüger skillfully combines the “scenic mode” rhetoric typical of post-symbolic literature and the “poetics of indeterminacy” characteristic of postmodernism to create the autonomous poem. It is a realist work that resists interpretation because it contains elements that cannot be read in the realist plane. This peculiar Krüger’s late style is combined with his ostentatious predilection for Epicureanism, references to the poetry of Hesiod and his resort to a broad phrase, reminiscent of hexameter.

От епос към етос с Хезиод: между митологията и моралистиката

The purpose of the article is to present the role and significance of Hesiod's poetry for the formation and development of the moral canon and the moral-philosophical thought of ancient Greece. For this purpose, the text traces and analyzes various biographical information, comments and evaluations about Hesiod's life and work. Special attention is given to the uses and meanings of the world ethos by Homer and Hesiod and their evolution under the influence of Hesiod's moral maxims (gnomes) in „Works and Days “. The main conclusion is that Hesiod's individualized, systematic and rational reading of archaic myths played a decisive role in the transition from myth to logos and the formation of the moral-philosophical views of ancient Greece about the happy life, the good person and the ideal state.

Resonances of greek-latin classics in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky: a critical analysis

This research aims to probe the classical elements in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and to show the author’s bent towards the classical authors and traditions. Dostoevsky is the giant literary figure of 19th-century Russian literature and he belongs not only to a particular time but to all times like many other great classic writers. The research is significant for exposing the author’s affiliation towards the epic poetry of Homer and Hesiod and the dramas of the preeminent Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Dostoevsky also becomes classic based on his dealings with the themes dealt by the classics like love, fight for honour, real-life presentation, the conflict between vice and virtue and the struggle of his tragic heroes to reach their goal. The research proves that Dostoevsky is a classic among the classics because of having close resonance with the classics in the art of characterization, the portrayal of tragic heroes, theme building and by including some elements of tragedy. The qualitative research is designed on the descriptive-analytic method by using the approach of Classicism presented by Mark Twain.

أثر السياق الأسطوري على نظرية الوجود عند سقراط وأفلاطون

شکلت الأسطورة أهمية کبرى عند سقراط وأفلاطون؛ فآراؤهما عن العالم الإنساني والطبيعي مستمدة من أشعار هوميروس وهزيود وأورفيوس من جهة، ومن أصول الأفکار الأسطورية في الميثولوجيات الشرقية من جهة أخرى؛ لذلک ترجع أهمية هذا الموضوع إلى توضيح مکانة الجانب الميثولوجي عندهما، ومدى تأثيره عليهما تجاه نظريتهما في الأخلاق والوجود. Abstract: The myth was of great importance to Socrates and Plato; Their views of the human and natural world derive from the poetry of Homer, Hesiod, and Orpheus, on the one hand, and from the mythological origins of ideas in Eastern mythology, on the other; Therefore, the importance of this topic is due to the clarification of the status of the mythological side with them, and the extent of its impact on them towards their theory of ethics and existence.

Picturing a Truth: Beast Fable, Early Iambos, and Semonides on the Creation of Women

Semonides’ poem on women (fr. 7W) is the longest surviving specimen of early ἴαµβος. Despite its length, however, the poem remains elusive, and its generic affiliations with the tradition associated with Archilochus and Hipponax are unclear. Invective has often been seen to stand near the heart of ἴαµβος, and in antiquity Semonides was regularly aligned with Archilochus and Hipponax as an ἰαµβοποιός—perhaps even as the πρῶτος εὑρετής of the genre, according to some (Suda σ 431 Adler = test. 7a Pellizer–Tedeschi)—but there is little in the surviving fragments that supports this view, and it is perhaps a telling point that the name of Semonides’ personal enemy, preserved by Lucian (Pseudol. 2 = test. 12 Pellizer–Tedeschi), cannot be made to fit an iambic line without emendation. While fr. 7 seems to lack specific personal targets, it nonetheless employs strategies of abuse and mockery familiar from ἴαµβος and comedy. Of particular interest are the poem’s affinities with beast fable, which were also prominent in the epodes of Archilochus. Semonides does not use any particular narrative, but the creation of different women from a variety of animals recalls fables such as 50 and 240 Perry. It is the purpose of this article to explore the use of such fables in early ἴαµβος, with particular emphasis on Semonides’ poem. It is shown to reflect the influence of a particular kind of creation story that is also found in Hesiodic poetry and Old Comedy.

Intertextuality and Ideological Shift in Hesiodic Poetry

Intertextuality and Ideological Shift in Hesiodic Poetry

Hesiod and Classical Greek Poetry: Reception and Transformation in the Fifth Century B.C.E by Zoe Stamatopoulou

Hesiod and Classical Greek Poetry: Reception and Transformation in the Fifth Century B.C.E by Zoe Stamatopoulou

Greek Connections: Genesis 1–11 and the Poetry of Hesiod

A comparison between Genesis 1–11 and the poetry of Hesiod reveals many interesting similarities that suggest the biblical authors, the Yahwist Historian and the Priestly Editors, were familiar with Hesiod's works in the fifth century BCE. Interesting similarities include the decline in the quality of human existence, the distancing of God/ gods from the world, creation of the world, woman and the “fall,” divine-human offspring, the descendants of the food hero, segmented genealogies, and other themes.

Ovid and Hesiod: The Metamorphosis of the Catalogue of Women by Ioannis Ziogas

Reviewed by: Ovid and Hesiod: The Metamorphosis of the Catalogue of Women by Ioannis Ziogas Dan Curley Ioannis Ziogas. Ovid and Hesiod: The Metamorphosis of the Catalogue of Women. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. xii + 247 pp. Cloth, $99.00. These days a book on Ovid, whose recuperation as an author of the first rank has long since been accomplished, ought to have something new to offer. Ovid and Hesiod is such a book, not least because it defamiliarizes the familiar Roman poet. Ziogas has the daunting task of tracking Ovid’s debt to the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women—not only its succession of stories about women taken by gods, but also its program of destabilizing the martial epic of Homer. Ziogas succeeds admirably, bringing to bear attentive readings of the Catalogue’s fragments as well as (primarily) the Metamorphoses, and broadening the Hesiodic-Ovidian dialogue to include other authors as needed, among them Homer, Callimachus, Apollonius, and Vergil. Ziogas’ introduction lays the critical foundation for the chapters that follow, the pillars of which are essentially (by this reviewer’s count) four. (A) Close attention to Hesiod, both the texts and the tradition, the latter encompassing the reception of Hesiod from Homer to the Hellenistic period and beyond. (B) Sustained engagement with Hesiod on Ovid’s part across his career. (C) Ovid’s engagement with Hesiod as an intersection of the textual (words, subject matter, themes) and the generic. (D) Hesiodic poetry as a gendered ēhoie-strain of epic—one concerned with “female excellence and renown” rather than “glorious deeds of men” (13)—which serves as a master or “host” genre (14) for the spacious and often erotic Ovidian epic that is the Metamorphoses. Ziogas shows these pillars functioning in various Ovidian passages, from the Heroides to the Amores to the Metamorphoses, and aptly suggests “how. . . interrelated texts influence each other” (2). Particularly striking is how the legendary contest between Homer and Hesiod has echoes in a similar rivalry between Vergil and Ovid (14–15). At times the introduction feels a little piecemeal, a mild critique that [End Page 382] applies to the book as a whole. For example, Ziogas dutifully gives Ēhoiai as the alternate title for the Catalogue of Women (1), but gets around to etymologizing the title five pages later (ἠ’ οἵη, 6, and even then without much context for the important but formulaic nature of these words). Ziogas discusses the Homeric/Hesiodic Certamen by way of a Dio Chrysostom anecdote about Alexander and Philip (11–12), but re-introduces the Certamen a little further on, almost as if it hadn’t been mentioned before, when discussing Vergil and Ovid (14–15). The alignment of intertextuality with questions of genre might have been handled more explicitly, as opposed to initially being relegated to a footnote (n. 49, p. 14). Admittedly, this is quibbling, and Ziogas’ ideal readers should already be well acquainted with Hesiodic reception and with strategies of reading ancient authors. On the whole, Ziogas demonstrates deep awareness of previous Hesiodic and Ovidian scholarship and sets up the rest of the book with intriguing case studies (some of which are expanded in later chapters). Chapter 1 makes various connections between the Catalogue and Heroides 16 (and 17). These include Paris’ phrase Venus aurea (16.35), which not only translates the Hesiodic formula χρυσῆς Ἀφροδίτης (fr. 196.5 M-W), but also recalls how Hesiod frames the wooing of Helen as a contest of wealth among her suitors; and Paris’ genealogy, which is problematic if Homer is taken as Ovid’s model, but patently unproblematic if Ovid has followed the Hesiodic stemma. Ziogas’ argumentation here is nuanced but convincing and avails itself of established intertextual theories (such as Ross’ Alexandrian footnote) that Ovidians have come to expect from their poet—nowhere more so than in the suggestion that Paris and Helen themselves are among Hesiod’s readership and cite his text to further their rhetorical claims (38–43 passim). Chapter 2, by far the longest in the book, lays out a case for the Theogony, Works and Days, and especially the Catalogue as thoroughgoing intertexts for the Metamorphoses—most obviously in book 1, which contains the cosmogony, the ages...

Jason’s Cloak and the Shield of Heracles

This article discusses the relationship between Apollonius Rhodius and pseudo-Hesiod. It argues that the ecphrasis on Jason’s cloak (Arg. 1.721-767) alludes extensively to the Shield of Heracles and to other Hesiodic poetry. Although some of the parallels in question have been noted before, many have been underplayed or overlooked. Apollonius’ references to ‘Hesiod’ should direct the audience’s reading of the Argonautica: the echoes of the Shield of Heracles focus attention on Heracles, who functions as a foil to Jason throughout the Argonautica, and invite comparison and contrast between the two heroes. The recognition of these allusions also has implications for certain problems in Hellenistic poetry.

De la prodigalité insouciante à la thésaurisation bien ordonnée : consommer et dépenser dans le corpus hésiodique

From Lavish Generosity to Well-Controlled Hoarding : Images of Consumption in Hesiodic Poetry. This paper about the Hesiodic poems explores the chain of metaphors and images which figure the notions of spending and consuming and represent wide movements of goods, whether conceived as generous prodigality or destructive loss which implies seizing, devouring or swallowing.

Hesiodic Poetry and Wisdom in Plutarch’s Symposium of the Seven Sages

This article examines the ambivalent treatment of Hesiod in Plutarch’s Symposium of the Seven Sages . A close examination of the relevant passages (153E–154C, 156D–E, 157E–158B) demonstrates that, while Hesiod’s authority, poetry, and wisdom are acknowledged, they are nonetheless marginalized and deemed of limited importance for the intellectual life of the Sages. The figure of Hesiod thus facilitates the self-definition of the Sages and their circle as an intellectual elite, a group that has appropriated and surpassed the great authoritative figures of the past in its pursuits and accomplishments.

On Symbolic Allegoresis of the First Pythagoreans

The present paper argues that the early Pythagoreans contributed significantly to the development of ancient hermeneutics. The article builds on the assumption that even if the thinkers did not deal with allegoresis directly, the very manner of articulating their thought was, nevertheless, quite conducive to the growth of allegorical interpretation. Thus, at least indirectly, Pythagoreanism must have played an important role in the development of allegoresis. The paper identifies two crucial aspects of Pythagorean influence on the allegorical tradition. Firstly, the Pythagoreans made a very specific use of the poetry of Homer and Hesiod as well as of the traditional mythology in general. Secondly, the teachings of Pythagoras were expressed in terms of various ambiguous symbols that required special exegesis. Both these factors must have contributed considerably to the development of allegoresis: the idiosyncratic use of conventional mythology, on the one hand, and the enigmatic nature of the Pythagorean symbols, on the other, must have provoked extensive search for the latent (i.e., “allegorical”) meaning of the “messages” in question.

Hesiod: The Other Poet: Ancient Reception of a Cultural Icon (review)

Reviewed by: Hesiod: The Other Poet: Ancient Reception of a Cultural Icon Lilah-Grace Canevaro Hugo H. Koning. Hesiod: The Other Poet: Ancient Reception of a Cultural Icon. Mnemosyne Supplements, 325. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010. Pp. ix, 439. $153.00. ISBN 978-90-04-18616-3. The primary concern of this book is how Homer defines the way in which Hesiod is received. Koning sets out to prove that “there is a dynamic interaction between their representations” (10) and that “Hesiod, it seems, is never really alone” (130). Koning considers Hesiodic reception in literary sources over a millennium (seventh century b.c. to 300 a.d.), consulting works of some 200 ancient writers as well as epigraphic material and papyri, and collating around 1200 references. The book does not claim to be exhaustive; indeed so broad a scope “has often led to abstraction and generalization” (370): what it aims to do, and succeeds in doing, is to identify general trends and draw out examples for in-depth analysis. The book’s theoretical framework is mostly derived from collective or cultural memory studies in the wake of Halbwachs and Assmann. It seems to me that, for Hesiodic poetry, these theories are most important in terms of canonization: “Canonical texts are central to the sense of identity and continuity of a mnemonic community” (9). Hesiod’s poems became canonized at an early stage in Greek history, and “the Greeks spent much interpretative labour on keeping the canonized works alive, bridging the gap between their moment of enshrinement and the present” (8). It was this interpretative effort that led to the need for specialist interpreters (schoolmasters, rhapsodes, sophists, philosophers; 96) and an armory of “exegetical weaponry” (103). The analysis begins with “commemograms” (18–21, the term is taken from Zerubavel 2003) showing which lines of Hesiod’s poetry are quoted and how often, and a table of distribution of references to Hesiod through time (21–22). This information provides a strong starting point: even when taken with the pinch of salt Koning recommends, surprising trends come to the fore such as the popularity of Works and Days over Theogony in antiquity (21), or the most quoted parts of Works and Days being neither the Works nor the Days. Koning later attempts to explain these trends by isolating mechanisms of memory which suggest why certain parts of the past are received and others rejected (130). The book is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three Hesiods Koning differentiates (handy summary at 380): Hesiod combined with Homer (“sacred” Hesiod); Hesiod alone (“modern” Hesiod); Hesiod opposed to Homer (“typical” Hesiod). Each part is then organized under categories of the poets’ σοφία: moral and educational integrity, knowledge and factual accuracy, technical skill, and aesthetic/emotional impact. The thematic divisions allow Koning to consider such mechanisms of reception as “lumping and splitting” (e.g., 10, 39), and to focus on the role Homer plays in Hesiod’s reception. It seems to me, however, that the book’s strong point is chapter 9, which follows a diachronic [End Page 131] framework: here we really get a sense of development, and how over time Hesiod went from being “The Other Poet” to another poet (299). The divisions are driven by the book’s primary concern. Koning notes (369), however, that Hesiod’s relationship with Homer is only one of the two key factors in the poet’s representation: the other being the poems themselves. Due consideration of this second factor seems to me less well considered in this book. By taking the reception of Hesiod as his starting point, Koning shows how reception influences the meaning of the text, but he pays little attention to how, or to what extent, the text governs its own reception. The idea of the “catchword factor” (144–48) is an important one, even if Koning does not develop it as a strategy which the text uses to shape its reception. Starting with the text may at times have produced a more nuanced analysis: for example, the Certamen tradition (245–66) was to a certain extent invited by Works and Days itself; interpreting the two kinds of Eris in Works and Days as a...

The Catalogue of Women and the End of the Heroic Age (Hesiod fr. 204.94-103 M-W)

The Catalogue of Women supplies the crucial link between Hesiodic poetry and heroic epic. The heroic world of archaic poetry cannot be fully understood without it. But the interpretation of fragment 204 M-W, which describes the end of the heroic age, has long been burdened with misleading and unnecessary assumptions. This article challenges three particularly influential ones: that the passage contrasts demigods to "ordinary" mortals; that Zeus only feigns to destroy the demigods; and that [βίοτον [inline-graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="01i" /] is an acceptable supplement to line 103. My analysis shows that the Catalogue does not represent a departure from, but a creative reappropriation of, traditional epic material.

Hesiod the cosmopolitan: utopian and dystopian discourse and ethico-political education

The modern tendency to treat all Greek Golden Age textuality as apolitical and escapist has contributed to the ongoing neglect of the first Western educational text, Hesiod's Works and days. Most commentators have missed the interplay of utopian and dystopian images in Hesiodic poetry for lack of the appropriate conceptual framework. Once the escapist prejudice is overcome, the Hesiodic text appears as the first extant Occidental coupling of political utopianism with emancipatory ethico-political education. Once freed of its dated metaphysical-theological resonances, Hesiodic utopianism is compatible with a renewed political and ethical education for cosmopolitanism and justice because the embarrassingly detailed and teleological element of temporal modern utopias and the equally embarrassing rigid architecture of spatial utopias are absent. There is no strict utopian prediction and the message for change is articulated for the whole of humanity.

Theogony; and, Works and days

Hesiod, who lived in Boetia in the late eighth century BC, is one of the oldest known, and possibly the oldest of Greek poets. His Theogony contains a systematic genealogy of the gods from the beginning of the world and an account of the struggles of the Titans. In contrast, Works and Days is a compendium of moral and practical advice on husbandry, and throws unique and fascinating light on archaic Greek society. As well as offering the earliest known sources for the myths of Pandora, Prometheus and the Golden Age, Hesiod's poetry provides a valuable account of the ethics and superstitions of the society in which he lived. Unlike Homer, Hesiod writes about himself and his family, and he stands out as the first personality in European literature. This new translation, by a leading expert on the Hesiodic poems combines accuracy with readability. It is accompanied by an introduction and explanatory notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Poetic Allusion in Plato’s 'Timaeus' and 'Phaedrus'

Plato’s deft and playful artistry in composing allusions can be seen in two very different dialogues, Timaeus and Phaedrus. In these works Plato alludes to poetry and signals his use of allusion: to Hesiod in Timaeus and to Sappho and Anacreon in Phaedrus. Stephen Hinds begins Allusion and Intertext by quoting Christopher Ricks’ perceptive insight on allusion: ‘it is characteristic of art to find energy and delight in an enacting of that which it is saying’. 1 Hinds’ important account of Roman poetry demonstrates how: ‘alluding poets exert themselves to draw attention to the fact that they are alluding, and to reflect upon the nature of their allusive activity.’ 2 Plato’s art shares this ‘energy and delight’ as it offers teasing disclosure of its allusive activities. In Timaeus the epic poetry of Hesiod’s Theogony becomes the model that Plato emulates in his own account of the creation of the universe. In Phaedrus the lyric poetry of Sappho and Anacreon provides important starting points for Plato’s exploration of madness and self-control in the soul of the lover. The texts point to this creative engagement with poetry by presenting two pertinent images for allusion: in Timaeus poetic tradition is imaged as genealogy, while in Phaedrus poetic influence is imaged as flowing streams. 3 In each case the image for allusive activity, positioned in the early parts of the dialogue, not only reflects the content of the poetic genres referenced but also gives notice of material to follow in the main body of the work. In the prologue of Timaeus the transmission of stories about origins is directly linked with family history and genealogy (21a-d). The emphasis on lineage recalls the content of Hesiod’s genealogy of the gods and anticipates the family line that will for Plato generate the birth of the universe. Similarly, in Phaedrus the streams of poetic influence early in the dialogue (235c) recall the flowing waters of eroticized meadows in lyric and anticipate the ‘stream of beauty’ that will in the later myth flow into the lover’s soul. In this way Plato’s echoes of his poetic predecessors become thematic within his own compositions.

When Literature Becomes Law: An Example From Ancient Greece

After a brief introduction to Solon and the Testamentary Law in the next section, Part III of this paper will examine the origin of the phrase "under the influence of a woman" by tracing the evolution of the concept of the "persuasive woman" in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. Part IV will then show that the mythological models of the female enchantress contained in these poems gave rise to a cultural fear of the "persuasive woman" in Greece, which was reflected both in the Testamentary Law as well as in the courtroom speeches of classical Athens. The final part of this paper will examine this unique intersection of law and literature and, in particular, the close connection between Hesiod's poetry and Solon's legislation.

Poetics before Plato: Interpretation and Authority in Early Greek Theories of Poetry

Combining literary and philosophical analysis, this study defends an utterly innovative reading of the early history of poetics. It is the first to argue that there is a distinctively Socratic view of poetry and the first to connect the Socratic view of poetry with earlier literary tradition. Literary theory is usually said to begin with Plato's famous critique of poetry in the Republic. Grace Ledbetter challenges this entrenched assumption by arguing that Plato's earlier dialogues Ion, Protagoras, and Apology introduce a distinctively Socratic theory of poetry that responds polemically to traditional poets as rival theorists. Ledbetter tracks the sources of this Socratic response by introducing separate readings of the poetics implicit in the poetry of Homer, Hesiod, and Pindar. Examining these poets' theories from a new angle that uncovers their literary, rhetorical, and political aims, she demonstrates their decisive influence on Socratic thinking about poetry. The Socratic poetics Ledbetter elucidates focuses not on censorship, but on the interpretation of poetry as a source of moral wisdom. This philosophical approach to interpreting poetry stands at odds with the poets' own theories--and with the Sophists' treatment of poetry. Unlike the Republic's focus on exposing and banishing poetry's irrational and unavoidably corrupting influence, Socrates' theory includes poetry as subject matter for philosophical inquiry within an examined life. Reaching back into what has too long been considered literary theory's prehistory, Ledbetter advances arguments that will redefine how classicists, philosophers, and literary theorists think about Plato's poetics.