Theogony; Works and Days; [and] Shield

by Hesiod, Apostolos N. Athanassakis (Translator)

Hesiod belongs to the transitional period in Greek civilization.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Mythology, Fiction, Literature, Philosophy, Greece

168 pages, paper

First published January 1, 701

About the author

Hesiod (Greek: Ησίοδος) was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.
Several of Hesiod's works have survived in their entirety. Among these are Theogony, which tells the origins of the gods, their lineages, and the events that led to Zeus's rise to power, and Works and Days, a poem that describes the five Ages of Man, offers advice and wisdom, and includes myths such as Pandora's box.
Hesiod is generally regarded by Western authors as 'the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject.' Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, Archaic Greek astronomy, cosmology, and ancient time-keeping.

Reviews

[Ali Ahmadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

شب را با هومر بخواب و روز را با هزیود شروع کن

— اولین تمدن دریای اژه یعنی تمدن مینوسی (Minoan) حدود سه هزار سال قبل از میلاد در کرت شکل گرفت و به مرور جایش را به تمدن میسنی (Mycenean) به عنوان مهم‌ترین نیروی تمدنی ناحیه داد. بخش مهمی از حوادث تاریخیِ روایت‌شده با چاشنی اسطوره در ایلیاد مربوط به اواخر دوران میسنی‌هاست. مجموعه‌ای از عوامل مختلف دست به دست هم داد تا تعداد زیادی از تمدن‌های منطقه‌ی شرق مدیترانه، از جمله میسنی‌ها، در انتهای هزاره‌ی دوم قبل از میلاد فروبپاشند. یونان – که هنوز به این نام شناخته نمیشد – به دوران تاریکی فرو رفت که نزدیک به سه قرن طول کشید. ظهور هومر و هزیود از نشانه‌های مهم خروج یونان از دوران فُترت بود که نوید دورانی نو را میداد، عصر کلاسیک که با ظهور افلاطون و ارسطو و تراژدی یونانی به اوج خود می‌رسید.

— برخلاف ادیان ابراهیمی که از همان ابتدا بر پایه‌ی روایتِ کمابیش منسجمی از آفرینش دنیا، نحوه‌ی اداره‌ و پایان آن ساخته شده و پرورش یافتند، زندگی درهم‌تنیده‌ی سیاسی و تجاری دولت‌شهرها و جزایر دریای مدیترانه مانند کِرِت، میسن، آرگوس، تِبِس و غیره، باعث نشده بود که تا قرن هفتم قبل از میلاد روایت اسطوره‌ایِ جامعی بر این نواحی حاکم شود. با وجود اشتراکاتی که در فهرست خدایان اصلی وجود داشت، جایگاه هر خدا و روابط خانوادگی‌اش با سایر خدایان، بسته به منطقه‌ی جغرافیایی متفاوت بود و هیچ داستان بزرگی نبود که آفرینش دنیا را از ابتدا توضیح داده و بر مبنای خرده‌داستان‌ها نقشی مشخص به هر کدام از خدایان بدهد. اینجا بود که هزیود وارد شد و با خلاقیتی مثال‌زدنی بخش زیادی از کالت‌های یونان را به هم پیوند زد و اولین تبارنامه‌ی خدایان را در خدازایی (Theogony) نوشت. برداشت امروزی ما از دین سازمان‌یافته تفاوت زیادی با اسطوره‌های یونانی دارد اما از زاویه‌ای می‌توان خدازایی را معادل اولین کتاب آسمانی دنیای غرب دانست که روایت خود را از کیهان‌زایی (Cosmogony) هم ارائه می‌داد، تا جایی که با اعتمادبه‌نفس می‌توان گفت چارچوب کلی هر آنچه که امروزه از خدایان یونان می‌دانیم را هزیود شکل داده است.

— هزیود مانند هومر اعتقاد عمیقی به این داشت که این اشعار را موسا/موز ها (Muses)، الاهه‌های الهام هنری، به او تلقین کرده‌اند و او زبان خدایان شده، اما تفاوت‌های این دو شاعر بسیار برجسته‌تر از شباهت‌هایشان بود. با این که سروده‌های هر دو وزن حماسی مشابهی داشتند – البته اگر ایلیاد و ادیسه را واقعن سروده‌ی هومر بدانیم؛ در حالی که انتساب سروده‌های هزیود به او تقریبن اثبات‌شده‌اند – اما انگار خدایان هومر بازتاب تصوری باستانی‌تر بودند که در آن مرز خدا و انسان بسیار کمرنگ‌تر بود. زِئوس و شرکا در ایلیاد از منطقی مخصوص به خودشان پیروی می‌کنند. عصبانی می‌شوند و تصمیمات اشتباه می‌گیرند و در مقابل هم می‌ایستند و مهم‌تر از همه، هیچ تمایلی به برقراری عدالت، در معنایی که ما امروزه از آن استنباط می‌کنیم ندارند. هزیود اما انگار تاثیرپذیری بیشتری از تکامل دین در دنیای اطرافش داشته و با بهره‌گیری از افسانه‌های آفرینش میان‌رودان و مصر و آناتولی – که در همان زمان هم بیش از هزار سال عمر داشته‌اند – به اساطیر یونان شکلی منسجم، باستانی و در عین حال نو می‌دهد که شباهت بسیار بیشتری با یهودیتی دارد که در آن زمان در حال سپری کردن دوران کودکی خود است. با این همه‌، روایت هزیود تا حد زیادی از هیجان، ظرافت و زیروبم‌های روان‌شناسانه‌ی هومر خالی است. شاید به این خاطر که از وجود انسان/قهرمان و تناقض‌های ذاتی‌ آشیل، اولیس و دیگران خبری نیست.

— اثر (تقریبن) کامل دیگری که از هزیود به جا مانده کارها و روزهاست. شعری در قالب ادبیات تعلیمی که نمونه‌های مشابه بسیار زیادی در مصر باستان دارد. کارها و روزها، خطاب هزیود است به برادر تن‌پرورش که با رشوه‌ دادن به ریش‌سفیدها سهم ناعادلانه‌ی بیشتری از ارث پدری گرفته و حالا که تمامش را به باد داده دوباره پیش هزیود آمده برای گرفتن پول و این بار نوبت اوست که به جای ماهی، ماهی‌گیری را یادش بدهد! روزها و سال‌ها نوعی سالنما یا Almanac است. اینکه کشاورز با کمک گرفتن از علائم طبیعی و هواشناسی، هر مرحله‌ی کشت را چه موقعی انجام دهد یا کی محصولش را برای فروش سوار قایق کند و در کنارش گستره‌ی وسیعی از توصیه‌های دیگر را ارانه می‌دهد: از نحوه ساختن خیش تا سن مناسب برای ازدواج (و البته این باور محکم مردان یونانی که اعتماد به زن حماقت است). اما مضمون اصلی اثر اهمیت کار است و عدالت/درست‌کاری
>> اول این که چرا زندگی ما بدون کار بی‌معناست. هزیود با اشاره به داستان پاندورا – که گویا «کار» هم جزو بدبختی‌های پنهان‌شده در جعبه‌اش بوده – و اسطوره‌ی پنج عصر انسان (Five Ages of Man) – که شباهت مهمی به رویای بخت‌النصر در کتاب دانیال عهد عتیق دارد – می‌گوید که دوران انسان‌های کاملی که نیاز به کار نداشتند و قهرمانان تروا و تبس تمام شده و حالا آنها مانده‌اند و عصر آهن، رنج کار هر روزه و دست‌وپنجه نرم کردن مدام با چرخه‌ی طبیعت.
>> و دوم چرخیدن چرخ دنیا بر پایه‌ی عدالت که زئوس آن را برپا می‌دارد که تفاوتی بنیادین با زئوس هومر دارد.

— برگردیم به عنوان. هومر و هزیود دو جنبه‌ی بسیار متفاوت از یونان را در ابتدای عصر آهن نشان می‌دهند که تقابل جذابی با یکدیگر دارند. انگار هومر داستان شب و قبل از خواب بوده برای سرگرمی و یادآوری گذشتگان و هزیود دستورالعمل روزانه برای یاد کردن از خدایان و شخم زدن زمین‌ها. دو ستون لازم برای برای تمدنی که قرار است تا صدها سال دیگر باقی بماند.

پانوشت اول: سپر هراکلس که در کتاب آمده به احتمال بسیار زیاد نوشته‌ی هزیود نیست اما در دوران باستان بسیار به او نسبت داده می‌شده. داستانی کوتاه و نیمه‌تمام است که علت نامگذاری‌اش توصیف طولانی‌ش از سپر این قهرمان اسطوره‌ایست، بسیار شبیه به وصف سپر آشیل در ایلیاد.

پانوشت دوم: الفبای یونانی اولین الفبای غیر ابجد بود. یعنی تا قبل از آن حرف مصوت وجود خارجی نداشت. مترجم توضیحات مختصر جالبی در این باره می‌دهد و این که چرا این اختراع می‌تواند یکی از دلایلی باشد که شعر موزون مکتوب (البته برای انتقال زمانی و مکانی و با هدف نهایی نقالی) اولین بار در یونان ظهور می‌کند.

پانوشت سوم: تا جایی که دیدم تنها ترجمه‌ی فارسی از هزیود مربوط به خدازایی است؛ فریده فرنودفر و انتشارات دانشگاه تهران، که از کیفیت آن اطلاعی ندارم.

[Sense of History]

In the many studies I consulted for this early Ancient Greek work, I found a wide variety of dating options for the works of the ancient Greek writer (or at least for the works that are ascribed to him). They all lay within the very broad spectrum of 800 to 600 BCE. This makes it, along with the Iliad and the Odyssey, one of the earliest known works of Greek literature. Some experts place it in the mid-8th century, others closer to the mid-7th century. And I found the most concrete and recent dating in an article in The Oxford Handbook of Hesiod. Hugo Koning argues there's a reasonable consensus for 700-690 BCE for the book of Theogony, and 670-660 BCE for Works and Days. If the latter is correct, then it seems rather unlikely to me that both works are by the same author. Which immediately leads us into the endless debate about who Hesiod was, and whether there were one or more authors, just as there were for Homer. I'll leave that to the experts; I've tried to let the works speak for themselves.
You can find my reviews here:
• For Theogony: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• For Works and Days: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
• For The Shield of Heracles: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nathan Jerpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are going to tackle Hesiod this is the way to do it. The author provides an excellent introduction to each poem and the first two are so thoroughly annotated that the notes exceed the length of the poems. Athanassakis also interpolates some observations from modern rural Greece which are always fitting and did much to enhance my appreciation of the ancient texts.

I came to Hesiod for Theogony and I was prepared for a slog. The divine genealogy is very dense but with the aid of the notes I came to really enjoy it. I read this poem slowly over the course of several days and felt it was time well spent.

The Shield of Heracles was a welcome surprise. It is a rollicking battle scene of short story length. There are no annotations for Shield but these are not missed. The poem is easily read, it is more or less a straightforward tale of blood and thunder.

I came to Works and Days with less enthusiasm than the others. It is a didactic poem having less to do with mythology than with planting grain or managing oxen. I found it fascinating nonetheless. There are lots of insights with respect to constellations, and the Five Races of Man is a very interesting theme. There are even some bits about sailing.

Athanassakis has done a similar book for the Homeric Hymns. In light of this treatment of Hesiod I look forward to reading it soon.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have reviewed each of these three works separately. But still, I think it worth reading. All three are outstanding reads! S stars

[Χριστίνα · Rating 5 out of 5]

Λατρεύω την Θεογονία. 🔥

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Θεογονία : 4
Έργα και ημέραι : 4+
Ασπίς Ηρακλέους : 4.5

[Julian Worker · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to know the genealogy of the Greek gods and the heroes and heroines of Greek mythology then Theogony is the book for you. It's almost certainly the first writing to ever mention the legends of Prometheus, The Titans, and Pandora. Hesiod also found ankles attractive, referring to Hercules's mother Alcmene as fair-ankled and Medea as trim-ankled.

The Shield of Herakles covers the expedition of Heracles against Cygnus, the son of Ares, who challenged Herakles to combat as he was heading through Thessaly.

Works and Days is almost the complete opposite of the other two stories, offering as it does practical advice on the best days of the month to perform certain tasks and moral advice on how to live your life and go about your business.

[Davvybrookbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn’t necessarily a fun read, but the mere existence of these works by Hesiod open up more wonder and awe at the complexity and life force of the ancient Greeks, not to mention the process of preserving anything more than 2,500 years old. Hesiod was a young contemporary of Homer, and his works would have been written closer to the time of The Odyssey than The Iliad. However, what makes the two source materials so entirely different is really important, and not all that well known.

Homer was an Ionian Greek, meaning from Anatolia, and thus the epic cycle centers on the city Ilios (Troy) and the Trojan war; thus The Iliad. However, Hesiod was a Boeotian, and this epic cycle would have focused on Thebes, as did the famously and sadly lost Thebiad. But this is not at all what the extant works of Hesiod illustrate. Instead, in Works and Days, a narration of the origin of the man through five ages is presented: gold, silver, bronze, heroes, iron. Then, the ‘days’ part focuses on prescribing a good way to live to Hesiod’s brother, Perses. This is a really bizarre and unexpected portion, whereby mention of the “wine blue sea” is repeated. As is some basic advice about how to live a good life:

You are of age to marry a wife and bring her home with you
when you are about thirty, not being many years short of
that mark, nor going much over. That age is ripe for your marriage.
Let your wife be full grown four years, and marry in the fifth.

Better marry a maiden, so you can teach her good manners,
and in particular marry one who lives close by you.
Look her well over first. Don't marry what will make your neighbors
laugh at you, for while there's nothing better a man can win him
than a good wife, there's nothing more dismal than a bad one.

Theogony on the other hand is a narrative of the creation of the gods, the immortals. As earlier, and much suggested by the translator and scholar Richard Lattimore, the works of Hesiod are largely catalogues, and while Theogony begins with the gods, it would have transition to The Catalogue of Women before moving into The Shield of Herakles battle saga, the most Homeric of Hesiod’s works.

Thus, though she is only the single child
of her mother
she is honored with high offices
among all the immortals.
Zeus son of Kronos made her, too,
protector of those children
who after her laid eyes on the Dawn,
the many-light-beaming;
so she, from the beginning,
has protected children, and these are her offices.
Rheia, submissive in love to Kronos,
bore glorious children,
Histia and Demeter,
Hera of the golden sandals,
and strong Hades, who under the ground lives in his palace
and has a heart without pity;
the deep-thunderous Earthshaker,
and Zeus of the counsels,
who is the father of gods and of mortals,
and underneath whose thunder
the whole wide earth shudders;
but, as each of these children
came from the womb of its mother
to her knees, great Kronos swallowed it down,
with the intention
that no other of the proud children
of the line of Ouranos
should ever hold the king's position
among the immortals.
For he had heard, from Gaia
and from starry Ouranos,
that it had been ordained for him,
for all his great strength,
to be beaten by his son,
and through the designs of great Zeus.
Therefore he kept watch, and did not sleep,
but waited
for his children, and swallowed them,
and Rheia's sorrow was beyond forgetting.
But when she was about to bear Zeus,
the father of mortals
and gods, then Rheia went
and entreated her own dear parents,
and these were Gaia and starry Ouranos,
to think of some plan
by which, when she gave birth to her dear son,
the thing might not
be known, and the fury of revenge
be on devious-devising Kronos
the great, for his father,
and his own children whom he had swallowed.
They listened gladly
to their beloved daughter, and consented,
and explained to her
all that had been appointed to happen
concerning Kronos, who was King, and his son,
of the powerful
spirit, and sent her to Lyktos,
in the fertile countryside of Crete
at that time when she was to bring forth
the youngest of her children,
great Zeus; and the Earth, gigantic Gaia,
took him inside her
do in wide Crete, there to keep him alive
and raise him.
There Earth arrived
through the running black night, carrying
him, and came first to Lyktos,
and holding him in her arms, hid him
in a cave in a cliff, deep in
under the secret places
of earth, in Mount Aigaion
which is covered with forest.
She wrapped a great stone in baby-clothes,
and this she presented
to the high lord, son of Ouranos,
who once ruled the immortals,
and he took it then in his hands
and crammed it down in his belly,
hard wretch, nor saw in his own mind
how there had been left him
instead of the stone a son,
invincible and unshakable
for the days to come, who soon by force
and his hands defeating him
must drive him from his title,
and then be lord over the immortals.

This was a wonderfully easy translation to read through, and I could do so in a day. However, this is largely since I am familiar with Homer, the ancient tragedies, and the geography and history of Greece. As when I first read The Iliad in high school, the epic ‘catalogue’ of warriors in procession was dense and confusing. I am not sure if Hesiod would be a better place to begin since no better story really holds these facts together. But it just might be. It reads very simply, and in a way, biblically. It is the origin and beginning story of the ancient Greek world.

[Giannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Λίγα πράγματα μπορούν να ειπωθούν για ένα μνημειώδες, στη σύλληψη, έργο. Ο Ισίοδος με τη αξιοθαύμαστη φαντασία του, ήταν προτεργάτης στη δόμηση των θεοτήτων και των φαινομένων υπό το πρίσμα της "λογικής". Ορμόμενος από τη προσπάθεια του ανθρώπου να εξηγήσει τα "άπαντα", συνέθεσε (υπό την καθοδήγηση των Μουσών) ποιήματα που εξηγούν τη δημιουργία του κόσμου και των θεών.

4 αστέρια γιατί τα άλλα δύο ποιήματα του βιβλίου, δεν με συνεπήραν όσο η "Θεογονία".

[Carol]

No idea how to rate this. But I did learn that apparently Achilles isn’t the only one with an ankle weakness👀

[Kyriakos Sorokkou]

Αρχαία Ελληνική Λογοτεχνία

1) Θεογονία / Έργα και Ημέραι / Ασπίς Ηρακλέους (750-650 π.Χ.) 


χρόνος ανάγνωσης κριτικής: 1 λεπτό και 28 δευτερόλεπτα

Το 2020 αποφάσισα να διαβάζω κάθε μήνα και ένα ελληνικό μυθιστόρημα 
αντιπροσωπευτικό για κάθε δεκαετία του 20ου και 21ου αιώνα.
Έτσι ξεκίνησα με τη φόνισσα του Αλέξανδρου Παπαδιαμάντη
του 1903 και τελείωσα με την Πικρία χώρα
της Κωνσταντίας Σωτηρίου του 2019.

Το 2021 αποφάσισα να πάω ένα αιώνα πίσω και να διαβάσω
πεζογραφία του 19ου αιώνα.
Ξεκίνησα με την εξαίρεση, το Έρωτος Αποτελέσματα: Ιστορίαι Ηθικοερωτικαί
του 1792 (μιας και δεν βρήκα βιβλίο από την πρώτη δεκαετία 1800-1809),
και τελείωσα με Τα Λόγια της πλώρης του Ανδρέα Καρκαβίτσα του 1899.

Το 2022 αποφάσισα να πάω ακόμα πιο πίσω. 
Με αλλά λόγια να ξεκινήσω με το πρώτο γραπτό μνημείο της νεοελληνικής γλώσσας
το έπος του Βασίλειου Διγενή Ακρίτη (1102-1140) και να τελειώσω
με το Σχολείο των ντελικάτων εραστών (1790) του Ρήγα Φεραίου.

Φέτος αποφάσισα να ολοκληρώσω αυτό το πρότζεκτ γεφυρώνοντας
την νεοελληνική λογοτεχνία με την αρχαιοελληνική διαβάζοντας
από τον Ησίοδο (σχεδόν) σύγχρονο του Ομήρου, μέχρι τον Προκόπιο,
σύγχρονο του Ιουστινιανού.

Πάνω κάτω αυτά που διάβασα στην Θεογονία τα ήξερα, καθώς μικρός
ήμουν φανατικός αναγνώστης των βιβλίων των Εκδόσεων Στρατική Ελληνική Μυθολογία
Φυσικά άλλη εντελώς φάση να διαβάζεις την πηγή, το έπος από όπου
γεννήθηκαν τόσοι και τόσοι μύθοι που ξέρουμε και αγαπούμε μέχρι σήμερα
(Κοσμογονία, Θεογονία, Τιτανομαχία) και τους μικρότερους που εμπεριέχουν.

Εξίσου ενδιαφέρον και το διδακτικό έπος Έργα και Ημέραι,
όπως και το λιγότερο γνωστό Ασπίς Ηρακλέους που περιγράφει εκτενώς
την ασπίδα του Ηρακλή λίγο πριν περιγράψει την μονομαχία του
με τον Κύκνο τον γιο του Άρη.

Και έτσι όμορφα μπορώ να πω ξεκίνησε το ταξίδι μου στην
αρχαία ελληνική γραμματεία για φέτος.

[marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

making me question my major fr 😮‍💨

[James Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I was unaware of Hesiod until recently. Maybe I was blinded by the radiance of Homer. Now I know Hesiod may have been a contemporary of his. I'd had his work recommended and given to me, and I found it much like Homer's and much to my liking. Hesiod reads like Homer. Works and Days, with its instructions intended as a guide for everyday agricultural and social activities, seems less about the gods than the other 2 works in the volume, though their influence is certainly important and the catalogue of them included in the work is almost as all-inclusive as the begats of Genesis. Theogony and The Shield of Heracles concern the more epic histories and adventures of those immortals. I wonder if these were originally poems. My Dover edition is prose, but it all reads like the epic poetry we associate with Homer. It's prose, though, that sings and trips through the mind like the sunlight brightening and shading those bare hills where an ancient people may have once used Hesiod's Works and Days, my favorite here, to help regulate their lives. For anyone interested in ancient Greece, as I am, this would seem to be reading as essential as Homer, and I'm glad of my introduction to it.

[... · Rating 3 out of 5]

work and days - 4.5
theogony - 3
shield of Herakles- 3.5

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know if the issue is with Hesiod or with the translator, but these poems were awful reads. I suspect it's because of the translator. I try to not judge books by their covers, but I should have known from the awful cover that it would be a bad translation.

On the plus side, the book includes a lot of background and notes for what's happening in the poems. I don't fully trust all of Powell's notes, though - for example, his explanation for the word "rhapsode" deriving from the Greek word for staff is that rhapsodes would pound the ground rhythmically with their staff while they sang. At least according to Wikipedia, this is a false etymology and has more to do with the fact that rhapsodes were wanderers and naturally carried a staff as a walking aide. There is at least one other questionable etymology in Powell's introduction, where he says that "Zeus" means "shiner". Although this is true, it would have probably been more interesting and accurate to relate Zeus to Proto-Indo-European "Dyeus Phater", or "Sky/bright father", which is also where the Romans got the name Jupiter.

The most interesting part of the analysis was the relations between the Greek myths and Semitic/Mesopotamian mythology, for example the Metallic Ages of Man, a great flood, gods mixing with humans, several generations of warring gods including one of the gods eating his children, a paradise existing before a fall, etc etc.

Theogeny:
I liked the names of the Cyclopes (the sons of Ouranos and Gaia, not related to Poseidon's son Polyphemus): Brontês, Steropês, and Argês.
I liked the names of the Hecatoncheires (the hundred-handers): Kottos, Briareos, and Gygês.

Another thing that was cool is that I didn't realize that most of the monsters of Greek mythology are closely related to each other, often siblings:

Gloomy Echidna dwells among the Arimoi beneath the earth, the deathless young girl, ageless for all her days. They say that Typhon—awful, violent, living without laws—made love with the glancing-eyed girl, and that she conceived and brought forth ferocious children. First she gave birth to Orthos, the hound of Geryon; then she gave birth to Kerberos, irresistible, indescribable, the devourer of raw flesh, the brazen-voiced hound of Hades with fifty heads, ruthless and powerful. Third, she brought forth the Hydra of Lerna... She gave birth to Chimaira, breathing deadly fire, terrible, huge, swift-footed, and powerful. She had three heads: one of a savage lion, one of a goat, one of a snake, a mighty serpent... Chimaira gave birth to the Sphinx, the bane of the Kadmeians, seduced in love by Orthos; and the Nemean Lion, that Hera, glorious wife of Zeus, raised up and settled in the hills of Nemea, a plague to men.

One of the highlights of the Theogeny, to me, is its description of the Titanomachy - the war between the Titans and the soon-to-be Olympians.

The Hundred-Handers stood against the Titans in grim war, holding jagged rocks in their mighty hands. But the Titans, on their side, eagerly formed up into ranks, and each side showed forth the strength of their hands. And the vast sea echoed terribly, and the earth crashed loudly, and the broad heaven, shaken, groaned. High Olympos wobbled on its foundations. ... Straightaway Zeus came from the sky and from Olympos, constantly hurling the lightning. The bolts flew thick and fast from his powerful hand, accompanied by thunder and flashing, rolling along a sacred fire. ... A hot breath surrounded the Titans, the children of Earth, and an unending fire rose into the shining sky, and the coruscating brilliance of the thunderbolt and lightning blinded their eyes, though they were powerful.

The Titans ended up getting banished to Tartaros, whose description is also memorable.

For nine nights and days an anvil of bronze might fall from the sky, and on the tenth it would arrive on earth; for nine nights and days an anvil of bronze might fall from the earth, and on the tenth it would arrive in Tartaros. A fence of bronze runs all around it, and night is poured all around in three layers, and above are the roots of the earth and of the restless sea. There the divine Titans are imprisoned in the misty darkness...
There, as you go further, stands the echoing house of the god of the underworld, of powerful Hades and of dread Persephone, and a fearful dog stands guard in front, pitiless, and he has a wicked habit: He fawns with his tail and both his ears at those who enter, but he does not permit them to go out again. ...
There lives the god hated by the deathless ones, the hideous Styx, the eldest daughter of Ocean, who flows back upon himself. She lives in her wonderful house apart from the gods, roofed over by tall rocks, propped up all around by silver pillars, reaching to the sky.

Works and Days:
This poem was kind of weird. It consists of Hesiod scolding his brother for trying to take more than his fair share of their inheritance. In his moralizing, Hesiod talks at length about how and why you're supposed to work.
"O Persês, lay these things up in your heart, so that the evil Strife does not hold your heart back from labor as you gawk and obsess with quarrels in the agora." I love the idea of ancient Greeks gawking and obsessing over agora drama.

Works and Days recounts in more detail than the Theogeny the story of Promtheus and Pandora:

For Zeus hid fire when he was angered in his heart because wily Prometheus deceived him. For this reason he devised painful sorrows for mankind—he hid away fire. Then the noble son of Iapetos stole it again for humankind from Zeus the Counselor, hiding it from Zeus, who delights in the thunderbolt, in a hollow fennel stalk. ...
Straightaway the clever Lame God made [Pandora] from earth in the image of a modest young girl, following the plans of the son of Kronos. And the goddess glancing-eyed Athena gave her a girdle and ornaments, and the goddess Graces and queenly Persuasion placed on her skin golden necklaces, and the Hours with beautiful locks crowned her with spring flowers. Pallas Athena fitted all the ornaments to her body. And in her breast the messenger, the killer of Argos, fashioned lies and wheedling words and a thievish nature through the will of loud-thundering Zeus. And the messenger of the gods placed in her a voice, and he named the woman Pandora, because all who live on Olympos had given her a gift, an evil for men. ...
Before this the tribes of men lived on the earth separate and apart from evil and apart from harsh labor and grievous sickness, which brings death upon men; for in misery men soon grow old. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered its contents abroad, and she devised terrible pains for humankind. Hope alone remained within in the unbreakable house beneath the lip of the jar, and did not fly out the door.

After the story of Pandora, Hesiod tells another story about the fall of man - the Golden Race, Silver Race, Bronze Race, Heroic Race, and the current Iron Race. I'm most intrigued by the Heroic Race, because the Greek composers singing about them must have believed that they had lived just a few generations before their time:

The son of Kronos made still a fourth one upon the all-nourishing earth, more just, more righteous, the godly Race of Heroes, who are called half-gods, the race before our own upon the boundless earth. And of these some perished from evil war and the dread battle cry, fighting around Thebes of the seven gates, the Kadmeian land, on account of the flocks of Oedipus, and others were destroyed going to Troy in ships across the great gulf of the sea for the sake of Helen of the beautiful tresses.

Now the race is of iron, nor do men ever cease from suffering and sorrow by day, nor from being ruined by destruction at night. The gods will give them grievous care, but nevertheless even these people will have some good mixed with bad. Zeus will destroy this Iron Race of mortal men too, when they turn out to be born with gray hair on their temples. ... Justice will be what you can get away with, and there will be no shame. The evil man will harm the better, slandering him with crooked words and swearing an oath upon it.

Lastly, Hesiod has some great advice in Works and Days:
"Do not let a woman with a nice butt coax and wheedle and trick your mind! She only wants to poke around in your barn."
"Do not take a piss standing upright and turned toward the sun, but remember to do this after it sets and before it rises. And do not piss on the road, nor off the road as you are walking, and do not piss while naked... Do not piss in the streams of water that run into the sea, nor in springs, but be careful to avoid this. And do not shit in them either, for that is no better."
This is really some wisdom for the ages.

The Shield of Herakles:
Only the first few lines of this poem are probably by Hesiod. The rest is probably by another author. The poem is pretty unmemorable. The story is technically about Heracles fighting with a bandit named Kyknos, a son of Ares, to drive him away from Delphi. But the story is mostly about Herakles's bad-ass shield. It's very similar to the description of Achilles's shield in the Iliad. There was only one passage that I found to be cool:

Beside them stood Death Mist—gloomy and dread, pale, dried up, collapsed from hunger, with fat knees. Long nails grew from her hands, snot ran from her nose, and blood dripped from her cheeks to the ground. She stood there with a monstrous grin."
The other cool part was how Athena helps Herakles stabs Ares in the thigh - for the second time (he had stabbed Ares in an earlier confrontation as well). Ares is the biggest loser of all of the Olympian gods. This passage reminds me a lot of the passage in the Iliad where Athena helps Diomedes stab Ares.

[CRISTINO · Rating 3 out of 5]

«¡Salve, hijas de Zeus! ¡Dadme vuestro canto que entusiasma! Celebrad a la raza sagrada de los Inmortales que siempre viven y nacieron de Gea y de Urano el del manto estrellado, y de los tenebrosa Nix, dioses a quienes alimentaron las saladas olas del Ponto.
Decid cómo nacieron en un principio con los dioses, la tierra y los ríos, y el inmenso Ponto que bate furioso y los astros resplandecientes y, por encima, el anchuroso Urano. Decid también que dioses, manantial de bienes nacieron de ellos; y cómo, tras de repartirse en el origen honores y riquezas, se apoderaron del Olimpo, el de numerosas cimas. Decidme estas cosas, Musas de moradas olímpicas, y cuáles de entre ellas fueron las primeras en un principio».

Teogonía de Hesíodo
TEOGONÍA. EL ESCUDO DE HERACLES. LOS TRABAJOS Y LOS DÍAS. IDILIOS DE BIÓN. IDILIOS DE MOSCO. HIMNOS ÓRFICOS

[Roberto · Rating 3 out of 5]

The impression I have about epic poems is that they are originally well-paced, with constant emphasis on certain syllables, in order to facilitate their memorization by the minstrel and the listening public. In particular, the supposed poetic duel between Hesiod and Homer must have resembled, as far as this musicality is concerned, a battle of "repente" (Brazilian northeast traditional musical style) or even "rap", in the present day, not taking time as a point of comparison

That said, dealing with a translation from ancient Greek to modern English is a culturally enriching experience, no doubt, but somewhat confusing and not quite as exciting as it must have been for listeners at that time.

[Myra]

I don't know how to rate this - so I didn't en up giving it a rating.
I also do not know how to review it... So, here's some quick comments.
I read this for a class I am taking, it was interesting... Yeah that's about everything.

[christty · Rating 3 out of 5]

ти можеш відкладати книгу пів року, але заради однієї цитати для реферату на п'ять балів закінчиш її за два вечора..

(насправді дуже цікаво, трохи складно було читати розділ «Співець богів і землі», і надто багато відсилок (що зрозуміло, враховуючи стиль тексту), але однозначно варто почитати!!)

[Giuliana Guillen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ni más ni menos que un 3.63
Pensé como sería justo puntearlo y decidí promediar
2.50 TEOGONÍA:Tenía partes confusas, era bastante pesado y difícil de leer linealmente por la cantidad de nombres y notas (aunque no me quejo de ellas porque eran muy utiles para la comprensión).
3 TRABAJOS Y DÍAS tambien tenía partes que no entraban bien en la narrativa(al punto que en algunas notas decía se cree que esto no pertenece a la obra porque no tiene nada que ver con lo que se estaba expresando).
4 Escudo: Muy interesante y entretenida la historia del enfrentamiento.Ademas me encantó el salto a la descripción del escudo.
5 Certamen:Nada mejor que la balleza poética con la que se explica la batalla de egos entre Hesiodo y Homero.
Me costó al principio pero aprendí mucho, me gustó bastante y lo recomiendo a la gente que le guste leer sobre mitología griega o sobre quienes la escriben.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A contemporary of Homer's, Hesiod is a fascinating read even though it lacks the narrative drive of the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is largely a genealogy of the Gods of the Ancient Greeks, with a compulsive depth to these lists. Luckily, the translator Powell has created handy family trees on every other page that clarify everything. Also, the color prints of the beautiful red and black pottery art of these myths are worth the book in itself.

[Aldrin Vladimir Solorsano Vázquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo que siempre soñé: conocer el origen de los dioses griegos. Es mi primer acercamiento con la literatura griega, y realmente la amé. Además incluye la historia de Heracles (Hércules) y Megara.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Works And Days, Theogony, And The Shield Of Hercules (Prose), by Hesiod, translated by Hugh G. Evelyn-White

As part of my personal project to read what is available of Greek classics in translation, at least to better understand the classical inheritance in contemporary culture and understanding, I got two versions of the same work by Hesiod.  This particular one was translated into prose and serves as a very short and to-the-point discussion of Greek mythology that makes for one of the most important sources about Greek heathen religion available to us.  Hesiod is less well-known than Homer, his rough contemporary, but these three works are the ultimate source of a great deal of what is known about the Greek gods and goddesses by contemporaries who know anything about such matters.  I myself made use, somewhat indirectly, of these works as early as my freshman year of high school when I wrote a short play where the Greek heathen deities were ineffective characters in a play I wrote for world history class.  So, while this book is not one that many people would automatically look for, the subject material in this book is something that is well known through those that popularize the author's writings in different form.

This book is about seventy pages long and is divided into three parts.  The first part is, at least to me, the most interesting, "Works And Days," which posits a theory as to how mankind and God became estranged, looks at four descending ages of man from gold to iron (using the same metals and order as the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2), and gives an idea of a conservative and pious Greek seeking how to live well--work hard, marry and acquire some wealth, be devout and avoid gossip and greed, and it also has a lot of superstitions I feel less positively about, even if it has considerable value.  After this comes the Theogony, which is a catalog of various gods and titans and their origins, all of which bears a very strong relationship to the immoral behavior of the polytheistic deities of Babylon and Egypt that likely helped inspire the work and the worldview behind it.  The third story is the shield of Heracles, which reads a lot like the bloody tales in the Aneid and also includes a certain aspect of cataloging items (namely the eponymous shield) and its importance to some bloody fight with a warlike being.

In reading this books I was deeply struck by the contexts in which these books can be found as well as the way in which they resonate with other writings.  It would have been nice if, growing up, I had been more familiar with the raw material of the myths that were written about and passed on by more contemporary popular writers who did not always give credit to the sources of their myths.  These myths are rather prosaic and mostly familiar, and it is interesting to note the connection between these stories, which are thought to spring from Thebes and its surrounding area, and the other myths that we are familiar with from the ancient world, as well as the historical account of the Hebrew scriptures.  In life we are presented with a series of mysteries, and it is unsurprising if people should imagine the gods to have been people like themselves and to have wondered why it is that the being who had created us was now estranged from us--there must have been some fault involved.  Figuring out what to do that is a task no less important in our own times than it was in Hesiod's time.

Works And Days, Theogony, And The Shield Of Heracles (Poetry), translated by Richmond Lattimore

From time to time I like to engage in various syntopical reading projects [1], where I will read multiple books on the same subject to see the differences and distinctions between them.  I found it very intriguing, for example, that my local library system had two versions of what appeared to be the exact same material, and one of them was more than three times the length of the other.  Having previously read a translation from this eminent classicist, I was prepared for this book having some dry and humorous commentary as well as some scholarly depth, and I was not disappointed.  The translator dealt with the question of authorship, made a reasonable (if unproven) speculation about Hesiod being a younger contemporary of Homer, but not by much, and commented on the parallel traditions of Homer and Hesiod in preserving older stories for a contemporary audience.  In reading this book I could understand why this version was so much longer than the prose version, not least because while the stories told were the same, the translator preserved the poetic nature of the text, pointing out what it was that allowed these poems to endure for generations, even if their author is not as famous as many other ones.

Like the prose version, this book is divided into three parts, in the same order, of the same documents.  What differences exist between the prose and poems?  For one, the translator chose to poet the poem for the Works And Days on the right side of the book and some very brief explanations on the left side.  The advice is still generally sound, the superstitions still present, and Hesiod shows himself to be rather harsh to Perses, his intended audience, telling him to work hard and marry around 30.  All things considered the advice is definitely pointed, and that comes off in the poetry a bit easier than in the prose version, which seemed to make it more mild.  Other than that, the Theogony and the Shield of Heracles are similar to the prose account, if a bit less succinct because of the nature of poetry.  At the end of the book there is an attempt to provide a family tree of the Greek gods, which is a nice touch if you are into heathen and imaginary genealogies.

Overall, this is not a book that will likely present difficulties to those who are familiar with the body of Greek myth and especially the greater body of Greek and Near Eastern mythology that forms the larger context for this work.  The translator is himself a very learned scholar and one that is well worth reading, and his comments are entertaining and frequently thought-provoking.  All of this makes for a better reading experience, such that I think it can safely be said that I am interested in reading whatever I find from this person in the future.  A Richmond Lattimore work about the classics appears like a safe bet to enjoy, although I do not know how common such works are these days.  Having read and researched a bit about him, I am aware that he is a noted translator of the Iliad and even the New Testament, I am definitely going to have to keep a close eye on his works in the future.  It may not be necessary to read two translations of Hesiod, but if you only want to read one, and you want to get a sense of how Hesoid wrote, at least as it can best be transmitted in translation, this is a very good option to choose for your reading.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

[Nataliia Osadcha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Гесіод – поет, який навчив Європу думати🤭
Його поезія про працю, владу і порядок світу.
Його три основні твори – це не просто антична класика, а тексти, що заклали фундамент західної культури.
• У «Походженні богів» він уперше систематизував грецький пантеон: від хаосу – до космосу, від стихій – до закону і влади.
• «Роботи і дні» звучать майже як давній «гайд з виживання»: працюй, не заздри, дотримуйся мір і ритму природи. І це досі сучасно.
• «Щит Геракла» — ранній приклад того, що пізніше назвуть «екфразисом»: поет описує зброю так, ніби ти дивишся на картину.

❗️В Гесіодових міфологічних візіях знаходимо виразні паралелі у хетських, вавилонських, перських, індійських, навіть японських та полінезійських міфах. Спільним було прагнення пояснити, як поставав світ, і визначити у ньому місце людини. А ще – виявити спільні, що неабияк дивує, а подекуди майже однакові, елементи цього міфа.

❕️Ще один блок морально-етичних сентенцій зі сфери життя загалом: коли одружуватися, з ким заводити дружбу, як поводитися під час гостини, як ставитися до богів, до навколишньої природи (отже, до всіляких божеств), зокрема до річок та джерел тощо.

Чимало в житті давніх греків займало ворожіння, забобони, сни і різні ритуали. І деякі з них .. досі є в нашому житті.

Іван Франко також перекладав твори Гесіода, в тому числі "діла і дні". Він дещо змінив античні віршові розміри. Але уявіть наскільки сильною в людей була жага до знання.

Кожна мисляча людина задає собі низку питань:
Хто я? Який сенс існування?
Як утворився цей світ?
Чому мене кинуто саме у цю точку часу?
Пошук відповідей штовхає людину до постійних змін та роздумів. І це спроба Гесіода пояснити внутрішній і зовнішній світи...

Мова твору поетична. Це красиво і пізнавально.

[elif sinem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The works themselves range from alright to occasionally excellent, but Lattimore's notes and introduction prove extremely valuable, especially as they contrast and compare to current-day rural Greece and other myths.

THEOGONY

The amount of names will get you dizzy quick, but the stories throughout (Gaia asking Kronos to cut off husband Ouranos' balls especially) are nice. Still not over the misogyny advertisement break in the middle. 2/5

WORKS AND DAYS

This poem being personal works better for Hesiod, who clearly valued justice and fairness most. There's still misogyny interspersed throughout (the Pandora story... OK) Much like Theogony, this goes nowhere at the end, but was infinitely more readable. 3/5

SHIELD

Reads like a sketch with a lot of potent imagery. It might honestly be the most modern-sounding of it all, though this could be the transition. Just like the description of Achilles' shield in ILIAD (the major highlight of that poem), here too the shield description is extremely evocative - and scary too, much like Herakles' wrath as he attacks a thief (nowadays you'd call him a jobber) and Ares himself. The ending was abrupt but wrapped it up nicely, considering the other two. Modern scholars don't consider this one truly Hesiodic which is a shame because EYE thought this was most enjoyable. 4/5

[Francisco Romero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Son 4 escritos, cortos, en un solo libro.

Hesiodo es un poeta clásico, de la época Helénica. Es una de las fuentes originales por excelencia.

No esperen encontrar una novela, o el estilo "homeristico". Hesiodo relata, desde su fe, lo que sabe.

La cosmovisión Helena, siendo naturalmente tan distinta como parecida, debido a la falta de redes sociales, tecnología u otros medios para comunicarse, cuenta con limitadas fuentes recopilatorias o que "ordenen" bajo el "filtro" de alguien que se entenderá como real y que cosas no.

Por ejemplo, Afrodita nace de la espuma generada por la caída genital de Cronos? O es hija de Zeus? Probablemente hayan muchas más versiones. Pero hesiodo recoje ambas.

Último punto importante : Teogonia es solo el primer relato. Los otros 3 son distintos de hesiodo, para completar su obra, pero tienen menor relación con la Cosmovisión, no obstante si hablan de mitología.

A mi gusto, recomendable solo para quienes necesiten o que gusten de ir a la fuente más fiable y original, casi académico.

[Valéria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally brought myself to read 'The Shield of Herakles', which even though it is not considered to be authored by Hesiod himself according to a good majority of today's academics, its style still conforms to the Hesiodic form while paraleling the description of the shield of Achilles from Homer's 'Iliad'.

The precise translation I read was quite enjoyable to read along though I wished the original author had dedicated more time to the description of Ares' anger after the death of his son. The description of Herakles shield was hypnotizing and though a quick read it was clearly fulfilling.

[Matthew Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't care much for Theogony. It was like reading the most boring parts of the Bible. Works and Days was great. It was like if the book of proverbs was written by a farmer instead of a king. Lots of good wisdom. The Shield of Heracles was the most difficult, but still quite good. There's a whole genre of fancy shield poetry that I haven't quite wrapped my mind around yet, but I want more exposure to it.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Três poemas clássicos. Teogonia é uma genealogia do enorme panteão grego. Os Trabalhos e os Dias é um texto misto, cruza saber popular, crença religiosa e a experiência do poeta. Escudo de Hércules é uma pequena ode épica ao herói dos mitos gregos. Entre os mitos e a tradição dos povos, estes poemas oscilam entre o épico e o humano. O tom conselheiro de Trabalhos e Dias é particularmente tocante, sentimos uma sabedoria milenar que mesmo hoje, soa sensata.

[Conner Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

“As a tusked boar, that is fearful for a man to see before him in the glens of a mountain, resolves to fight with the huntsmen and whets his white tusks, turning sideways, while foam flows all round his mouth as he gnashes, and his eyes are like glowing fire, and he bristles the hair on his mane and around his neck —, like him the son of Zeus leaped from his horse-chariot.”

This written 2700 years ago is crazy