Book Description
Hesiod, who lived in Boetia in the late eighth century BC, is one of the oldest known, and possibly the oldest of Greek poets. HisTheogony 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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Easily read Hesiod
This is the 4th translation of the Theogony that I've read over about 40 years of interest.I always felt that Hesiod's "Descent of the Gods" was cosmogony as much as theogony, and that "myth" provided a basis, perhaps unconscious, for much of what came later with the "materialist" pre-Socratic nature philosophers.Theother translations were by Caldwell, Brown and Lattimore.I prefer Caldwell's for the detail in his footnotes and interseting Introduction, but this one is easily readable.Caldwell's version is in fact based upon the work of M. L. West, the author of this one.West is considered by many to be the authority.

Very interesting
I found this book quite interesting.It provided alot of good information for someone who was interested in learning about other religions.

The Ancient Greek's handbook
"Theogony" is one of, if not "the", original sources of Greek mythology. Hesiod tells us the full genealogy and origins of the Greek gods, and how the hegemony of Zeus was established after bitter fights and prolific intercourse with godesses and human females. Perhaps the most impressive part of this poem is the story about the god Typhoon. Hesiod depicts a horrific set of disasters that happened to the Earth, with Typhoon apparently being an unimaginable electric storm. Scholars like Immanuel Velikovsky have taken this episode as proof that many centuries ago, Venus and Mars, then wandering cosmic bodies, came very close to each other in a location near the Earth, which presumably caused our planet's rotation to stop, with the following earthquakes, electric storms and the like. In fact, reading that passage by Hesiod strongly seemed to me to be the writing of very old memories of a defining catastrophe that left an indelible mark on human memory. Be that true or not, the poem is very powerful.

"Works and Days" is a very different story. After Hesiod's father died, his apparently indolent brother Perses tried to rob him of part of the inheritance. We all know how bitter fights among siblings can be, especially about inheritances. So Hesiod decided to write a book to teach his brother some lessons, beginning with a little history and theology, and then some practical advice on how to make a decent living by hard work and honesty. The result is a simply wonderful account of some important myths, like the ages through which man has passed (Golden, Silver, Heroic, Bronze and our own), as well as Pandora's myth. He also tells us about Prometheus, the Christ-like figure of the Greeks. After that, Hesiod tells us how a Greek farmer should plan his activities for the year, with delicious depictions of the seasons and very concrete information about their way of life.

It is a very pleasant experience to go down to the very sources of our culture, especially when written in Hesiod's light, brief and humorous way. A very old masterpiece whhich is very important for how much of it we have carried to the present day.

Ian Myles Slater on: West's Hesiod Translation
Some of the other reviews offered with M.L. West's translation of Hesiod's "Theogony" and "Works and Days" for the Oxford World's Classics actually refer to Dorothea Wender's verse translation of the same works, plus a charming version of the collection of lyrics attributed to Theognis, published in the Penguin Classics. That is a worthwhile version -- although the joining of the peasant-oriented Boeotian Hesiod to the mainly aristocratic, and partly Athenian, "Theognis" corpus is a little odd.

West's version of the two main Hesiodic poems is, however, in prose, and offers the latest in textual and historical scholarship -- although this is not very obviously on display. West, who has edited much (perhaps by now all) of the "Hesiodic" corpus, with substantial technical commentaries (along with a good deal of Homer and the "Homeric Hymns"), offers here his best reading of the two long poems which seem most firmly attributed Hesiod. (Although some, including Wender, would prefer two poets, in addition to the problem of interpolations).

West's commentary, although useful, is surprisingly sparse, given what he could have offered; a lot of detailed argument has been converted into the translation itself.

"Theogony," for those not familiar with the work even by reputation, is the story of the origins and struggles of the gods of Classical Greece. Although the meter and basic style are those of the Homeric epics, and the gods are mainly the same, many details are different (Zeus is a younger son, not the eldest, for example), and the struggles between various generations are the foreground story, not a long-concluded background to the reign of Zeus. We meet Heaven, and his sons and daughters, culminating in the rebellion of the Titans, then the Olympians, who wage war against their father and his fellow-Titans, and so on. It is an extremely violent story, full of abusive parents, mutilations inflicted by rebellious offspring, divine cannibalism, and a whole succession of other behaviors the Greeks themselves considered repellent. The philosophers had real problems with this work -- one can understand from it why Plato wanted to ban poets from the ideal state.

Interspersed through the action are a number of catalogues of nature-deities, which are variously regarded by critics as interpolations or key structural elements. Many readers simply find them boring; it helps if you are using a translation which interprets the Greek names, which are usually charmingly appropriate for the natural element being personified.

"Works and Days" contains several important mythological passages, expanding and altering "Theogony," but is in the main a sort of sermon on how to be prosperous and righteous. It is packed with details of daily life, which readers will find either fascinating or tedious. and are sometimes rather opaque. West does a good job in makingreadable this combination of a sort of pagan equivalent of an Old Testament prophet with an Iron Age Farmer's Almanac, and his notes do help with some of the knottier passages. (Note that there is one recent translation-with-commentary of the "Works" which is dedicated almost entirely to making detailed agricultural and ethnographic sense of it; West clearly offers a more literary approach.)

The latter part of the twentieth century has seen a number of translations of the main Hesiodic poems, by Apostolos N. Athanassakis, R.M. Frazer, Richmond Lattimore, and, as noted above, Dorothea Wender (Penguin Classics), to join the old Evelyn-White bilingual edition for the Loeb Classical Library edition, with numerous attributed fragments. (A new Loeb edition has announced). There are also translations of single poems, by Norman O. Brown and by Richard S. Caldwell (both of the "Theogony") and Tandy and Neale ("Works and Days"). West offers a substantial alternative to the others, based on an exceptionally close knowledge of the textual problems.

One of the best Classical translations I have ever read
Penguin translations often go too far in pursuit of a contemporary and popular sound, for instance in the infamous Rieu translations of Homer, with Athena "dancing attendance on Odysseus like a lover"; but this one is perfect, probably the best of the entire Penguin Classics collection.The jewel in this excellent book is the translation of Hesiod's WORKS AND DAYS; a translation of exceptional quality, worthy of being mentioned in one breath with Robert Fagles and C.Day Lewis.
Next to it are the wonderful, engaging introductory essays, in which Professor Wender shows the most enchanting insight into the mentality and attitude of her poets, making them live on the page for us.It is unmistakeably the work of a specialist, yet it is pitched - successfully - at the ordinary reader.A person who knows nothing about the Classics will leave them not only having a clear and precise idea of the characters of Hesiod and Theognis, but having learned a considerable amount about what makes good poetry.If the translation shows the poetic gifts of a Fagles or Lewis, the introduction shows the critical eye of a truly great critic - a C.S.Lewis, a Matthew Arnold.Do not be misled by the reviewer who says that she "carps" at the Theogony; he is only showing his shock at the notion that someone might have different views from his own.Professor Wender's criticisms are justified, especially in view of her very insightful comparison of the literary quality of the THEOGONY and that of the WORKS AND DAYS.This is the model of what a paperback translation of a classic work should be.As for the verse, I can do no better than to quote the terrible sequence, building up to a smashing final blow, which Professor Wender herself mentions as a fine instance of the poetic excellence of the author of the WORKS AND DAYS, but which might as well feature as the type of her own fluent and beautiful poetic ear; think, as you listen, of that last white flash of deathless beauty, vanishing away to the land of the Gods to leave men abandoned to their fate:
Zeus will destroy this race of mortal men
When babies shall be born with greying hair.
Father will have no common bond with son,
Neither will guest with host, nor friend with friend;
The brother-love of past days will be gone.
Men will dishonour parents who grow old
Too quickly, and will blame and criticize
With cruel words.Wretched and godless, they,
Refusing to repay their bringing up,
Will cheat their aged parents of their due.
Men will destroy the towns of other men.
The just, the good, the man who keeps his word
Will be despised, but men will praise the bad
And insolent.Might will be right, and shame
Will cease to be.Men will do injury
To better men by speaking crooked words
And adding lying oaths; and everywhere,
Harsh-voiced and sullen-faced and loving harm,
Envy will walk along with wretched men.
Last to Olympus from the broadpathed Earth,
Hiding their loveliness in robes of white
To join the gods, abandoning mankind
Will go the spirits Righteousness and Shame;
And only grievous troubles will be left
For men, and no defence against our wrongs. ... Read more

Book Description

Hesiod belongs to the transitional period in Greek civilization between the oral tradition and the introduction of a written alphabet. His two major surviving works, the Theogony and the Works and Days, address the divine and the mundane, respectively. The Theogony traces the origins of the Greek gods and recounts the events surrounding the crowning of Zeus as their king. A manual of moral instruction in verse, the Works and Days was addressed to farmers and peasants.

Introducing his celebrated translations of these two poems and of the Shield, a very ancient poem of disputed authorship, Apostolos Athanassakis positions Hesiod simultaneously as a philosopher-poet, a bard with deep roots in the culture of his native Boeotia, and the heir to a long tradition of Hellenic poetry. For this eagerly anticipated revised edition, Athanassakis has provided an expanded introduction on Hesiod and his work, subtly amended his faithful translations, significantly augmented the notes and index, and updated the bibliography. Already a classic, Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield is now more valuable than ever for students of Greek mythology and literature.

Customer Reviews (1)

Hear and see, O Zeus! Let your decrees be straight
There are many editions of Hesiod's (c. 700 BC) works, but I find this one by Prof. Apostolos Athanassakis the best.While I can't comment on the translation, the introduction to Hesiod, the introduction to the individual works, the extensive notes as well as the size of the type and the margins make it the most useful.For example, the notes not only explain the text, but discuss parallel ideas from the Bible, literature from other ancient cultures, and even remnants in contemporary Greek folk lore.

This edition also contains The Shield, a poem no longer considered by Hesiod and probably dated a 100 or so years later than Hesiod's poems.
... Read more

Product Description
This book is about how poets, philosophers, storytellers, and scientists have described motion, beginning with Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer, who imagined that the expanse of heaven and the depth of hell was the distance that an anvil falls in nine days.This book is aimed at students who have finished a year-long course in calculus, but it can be used as a supplemental text in calculus II, vector calculus, linear algebra, differential equations, and modeling. It blends with equal voice romantic whimsy and derived equations, and anyone interested in mathematics will find new and surprising ideas about motion and the people who thought about it.Some of the things readers will learn is that Dante's implicit model of the earth implies a black hole at its core; that Edmond Halley championed a hollow earth; and that Da Vinci knew that the acceleration due to the earth's gravity was a constant.There are chapters modeling Jules Verne's and H. G. Wells' imaginative flights to the moon and back, the former novelist using a great cannon and the latter using a gravity-shielding material. The book analyses Edgar Alan Poe's descending pendulum; H. G. Wells' submersible falling and rising in the Marianas Trench; a train rolling along a tunnel through a rotating earth; and a pebble falling down a hole without resistance. It compares trajectories of balls thrown on the Little Prince's asteroid and on Arthur C. Clarke's rotating space station, and it solves an old problem that was perhaps inspired by one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.The penultimate chapter is a story, based upon the Mayans, that loosely ties together the ideas about falling and spinning motion discussed in the book.Nearly all the chapters have exercises, some straightforward and some open ended. ... Read more

Book Description
In this new and third edition, the additional fragments contained in the appendix of the second edition have been incorporated in the main text.Some further discoveries have been included, and reference has been made to the results of recent research on the relative placing of certain papyrus fragments.The index of names has been brought up to date. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

A disappointment
Hesiod was a bit of a disappointment for me.The Works and Days was full of agriculture tips and his advice on how you should live your life.There was very little to do with the ancient Greek Gods and was just the advice of one man on how an individual should conduct themselves.Theogony was more of what I was looking for with a version of the origin of the ancient gods.Hesiod spells out the beginnings of the gods very well and it was the most enjoyable part of this book.I would recommend Homer or Virgil before trying this work.

a beautiful work
Hesiod is often overshadowed by his--most probable--contemporary, Homer.Both poets descend from ancient oral traditions, and are considered by many scholars today to be the pinnacle of this tradition.One can see why afterreading one of their epic poems.However, they differ greatly in theirstyles: from their choice of meter to their subject matters. This isbecause they were most likely of different "poetic groups." Hesiod stresses the story of the Gods and classifies them through theirgeneaology, particularly in his Theogony.This is, however, more excitingthan it sounds.It is the story of the Titanomachia, the battle of theTitans. "Works and Days" is a gem.Most of the poem is spentgiving advice on agriculture and farming, but it also has some veryenlightening things to say about daily life and social behaviour...bewareladies, for there is an unkind line about women in the Works andDays...don't let it stop you from reading this great work though.Read itand love it! ... Read more

Book Description

Hesiod describes himself as a Boeotian shepherd who heard the Muses call upon him to sing about the gods. His exact dates are unknown, but he has often been considered a younger contemporary of Homer. This volume of the new Loeb Classical Library edition offers a general introduction, a fluid translation facing an improved Greek text of Hesiod's two extant poems, and a generous selection of testimonia from a wide variety of ancient sources regarding Hesiod's life, works, and reception.

In Theogony Hesiod charts the history of the divine world, narrating the origin of the universe and the rise of the gods, from first beginnings to the triumph of Zeus, and reporting on the progeny of Zeus and of goddesses in union with mortal men. In Works and Days Hesiod shifts his attention to the world of men, delivering moral precepts and practical advice regarding agriculture, navigation, and many other matters; along the way he gives us the myths of Pandora and of the Golden, Silver, and other Races of Men.

Customer Reviews (3)

Top-Quality Edition of Hesiod's classic: A Must-Have
The Theogony is undoubtly a cornerstone in Classical Greek literature, and this work of Hesiod, unfortunately, does not have many great translations. However, Focus Classical Library has some of the best translations of classical works, most notably its editions of the Homeric Hymns, Metamorphoses, and Greek tragedians. Richard S. Caldwell, who also translated a prose version of the Aeneid for Focus Classical Library, has presented an unrivaled, strikingly original translation of the Theogony. The translation and explanatory notes are both top-notch quality materials.

Because of its accurate, highly original language, copious explanatory introductions and footnotes, and extremely helpful family trees, I highly recommend buying this edition of the Theogony. I prefer this edition a lot much more than Oxford World Classic's Theogony, which does not ave such an original or vivid translation, and does not also have as many explanatory notes, and Oxford does not have many explanatory notes which I feel are mandatory for modern Theogony Editions.

Inside this book, all the lines are numbered, and footnotes often take up more than half of the pages. Because of its highly original translation, original proper names and often literal translations of Greek expressions have to be explained through footnotes.

Also included is Appendix A, which contains Lines 1-201 of Hesiod's "Work and Days", describing Pandora and the five generations of giants before Modern Man. Appendix B consists of a portion of Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology, which is a late Hellenistic mini-Theogony. The index, though large and complete, is somwhat confusing to use.

Overall, I would highly recommend this edition of Hesiod's Theogony next to Richmond Latimore's verse translation of Hesiod's work. Edith Hamilton's mythology, Bulfinch's Mythology, and mythology dictionaries aren't enough for the serious - you NEED Hesiod's Theogony - straight from the source. Whether you are a student or professor studying/teaching Greek mythology or just a hardcore amateur mythology fan, you will NOT regret buying this book.

Ian Myles Slater on An Excellent Package
This is a review of the extensively annotated translation of "Hesiod's Theogony" by Richard S. Caldwell -- just in case, as sometimes happens, it appears with a different translation. For those who are not familiar with it already, this is an account, in Homeric verse, of how the organized universe arose, expressed through generations of gods, their struggles for supremacy, and the culminating triumph of Zeus, with the great Olympians and a multitude of nature-deities listed along the way. Told in noble hexameters, it is an extremely violent story, full of abusive parents, mutilations inflicted by rebellious offspring, divine cannibalism, and a whole succession of other behaviors the Greeks themselves considered repellent. The philosophers had real problems with this work -- one can understand why Plato wanted to ban poets from the ideal state.

As it happens, I own most (but not quite all) of the currently or recently available English translations: those by Apostolos N. Athanassakis, Norman O. Brown, Hugh G. Evelyn-White (bilingual edition, Loeb Classical Library), R.M. Frazer, Richmond Lattimore, Dorothea Wender (Penguin Classics), and M. L. West (Oxford World's Classics). Except for Brown, who also covers only the "Theogony," they all contain at least the other main Hesiodic poem, "Works and Days" as a companion piece. West is also the editor of a Greek text, with extensive commentary. In this crowded field, in which the renderings of Athanassakis and Lattimore are notable for the quality of their poetry, Caldwell stakes a claim to utility.

The introduction contains numerous tables, displaying the relationships of various sets of gods, nymphs, monsters, and others, His translation is set out in verse lines, with running numbers at intervals of five, which makes locating references extremely easy. (No headnotes identifying thirty or fifty-line blocks of material!) An essay on the "Psychology of the Succession Myth" (rather simplistically Freudian, but interesting) is followed by a translation of some the most important related material from "Works and Days," and (hurray) parallel passages from a late prose compendium of Greek mythology, the Bibliotheke of Apollodoros (better known as the "Library of Apollodorus"). He has a useful (if now slightly dated) discussion of the main Near Eastern parallels. (Brown also discusses the comparative and psychological aspects of the poem, from different perspectives; his psychological treatment seems to me subtler, and more closely related to the political reading he offers.) [To be fair, I should have mentioned when this review was originally posted that Caldwell is here offering a simplified form of the argument in his 1985 book "The Origin of the Gods: A Pscyhoanalytic Study of Greek Theogonic Myth."]

There is a very good index-glossary. Most useful of all, however, are the running annotations. They range from the most elementary (assuming no prior knowledge of Greek myth or literature) to impressively advanced (issues of structure, technique, and deeper meanings). Caldwell explains that he has drawn heavily on West's commentary, which is nice, because West himself incorporated many of his conclusions implicitly in his prose translation, without the arguments that accompanied his text editions.

Given Caldwell's attention to detail, if you are a novice in the field who doesn't plan to build up even a small collection, but is willing to read a single volume with close attention, this might be your best choice. Those who already know the subject are likely to find it attractive, although sorting through such basic reminders as "Zephyros is the west wind, Boreas the north wind" in search of interpretive insights can be a test of patience.

A great piece of work!
Hesiod's "Theogony" is excellently translated by Richard S. Caldwell.I have read other translations of Hesiod but preferred this one because it is done in verse as opposed to prose.The verse is notdifficult to understand; the notes to the text are clear and good; thetopic is made more interesting by way of the writing style.Overall, avery good piece of work. ... Read more

Book Description
Guide to Greek Mythos (and a guide to farming), by, roughly speaking, Homer's contemporary Hesiod.Download Description
Guide to Greek Mythos (and a guide to farming), by, roughly speaking, Homer's contemporary Hesiod. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Words of Wisdom from an Everyday Rustic
Hesiod's Theogony was the best known poem in antiquity and the single greatest summary of the Greek gods and the theological tradition of Archaic Greece (800-480 B.C.)Its origins are based in oral tradition and the poem itself is structured in run-composition with framed episodes that use repetitious formulas.Due to its structure, the narrative can shift suddenly from one topic to another, thus leading to inconsistencies in the gods' parentage.The Theogony is a succession myth that explains how generations of patriarchal gods overthrow each other until one god consolidates power.Therefore, the story has a linear progression, but it also has a cyclical element since each generation represents a reincarnation of previous generations that all try to keep their children secluded from power.Four main themes in the Theogony include:the concern for the displacement of elders, the frustration of gender politics, the folktale element of moral messages, and the concern of sexual excess demonstrated by the gods.

Hesiod also wrote Works and Days which was a poem to his brother who had squandered his share of their father's inheritance.Throughout the poem, Hesiod outlines practical guidelines for basic living.He also gives examples of Greek cosmogony such as the Ages of Man that is not found elsewhere in Greek literary sources.Scholars have described Hesiod's worldview as apocalyptic and pessimistic, but Hesiod's stern dealings with his brother occasionally give way to a more lighthearted tone which Lombardo emphasizes in modern prose.

Both translations are enlightening reads and Lombardo gives extensive, useful notes, and Robert Lamberton provides an excellent introduction that outlines Hesiod's life and his poems.

Hesiod for pleasure? You bet!
At first I found the voice Lombardo uses for "Works and Days" a little off-putting. I mean, you don't expect an ancient Greek poet to come off like one of Huck Finn's more literate relatives. But as I continued reading, and, indeed, I had a hard time stopping, I was convinced this really was Hesiod's voice, at least for this group of poems and proverbs. He's a rustic, cranky know-it-all who's also quite entertaining. "Theogony" is more formal and stately, but as with Lomboardo's recent "Iliad" and "Odyssey", compulsively readable. In this volume, Hesiod is more pleasurable to read than I had imagined possible. Bravo! ... Read more

Book Description
In Works and Days, one of the two long poems that have come down to us from Hesiod, the poet writes of farming, morality, and what seems to be a very nasty quarrel with his brother Perses over their inheritance. In this book, Anthony T. Edwards extracts from the poem a picture of the social structure of Ascra, the hamlet in northern Greece where Hesiod lived, most likely during the seventh century b.c.e. Drawing on the evidence of trade, food storage, reciprocity, and the agricultural regime as Hesiod describes them in Works and Days, Edwards reveals Ascra as an autonomous village, outside the control of a polis, less stratified and integrated internally than what we observe even in Homer. In light of this reading, theconflict between Hesiod and Perses emerges as a dispute about the inviolability of the community's external boundary and the degree of interobligation among those within the village.
Hesiod's Ascra directly counters the accepted view of Works and Days, which has Hesiod describing a peasant society subordinated to the economic and political control of an outside elite. Through his deft analysis, Edwards suggests a new understanding of both Works and Days and the social and economic organization of Hesiod's time and place. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Hesiod : Works and Days, Theogony, and the Shield of Heracles
No introduction in the book so you are left to fend for yourself as far as the significance of the work goes. Fairly decent translation. The version that maintains the poetry is a better bet. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This new, annotated translation of Hesiod's Works and Days is a collaboration between David W. Tandy, a classicist, and Walter Neale, an economist and economic historian. Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet whose Works and Days discusses agricultural practices and society in general. Classicists and ancient historians have turned to Works and Days for its insights on Greek mythology and religion. The poem also sheds light on economic history and ancient agriculture, and is a good resource for social scientists interested in these areas. This translation emphasizes the activities and problems of a practicing agriculturist as well as the larger, changing political and economic institutions of the early archaic period.
The authors provide a clear, accurate translation along with notes aimed at a broad audience. The introductory essay discusses the changing economic, political and trading world of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.E., while the notes present the range and possible meanings of important Greek terms and references in the poem and highlight areas of ambiguity in our understanding of Works and Days. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Rare source: concerns of common man and farmer in 600 BC
149 pages, about 40 pages for the work, while the rest comprises the introduction, footnotes and the index. The work is a rare example that describes concerns of the common Greek around the 7th century BC. Hesiod addresses the work to his brother, and defines rules for proper conduct along with a description of the ways of a farmer, encouraging his brother to not become indolent.The footnotes are presented opposite the text on each page which allows for easy reference.Some references to Hesiod's Theogony might make that a worthwhile read before this one. ... Read more

Book Description
Hesiod (fl. c. 800 BC), was (along with Homer) one of the earliest Greek poets. His works include "Theogony" (on the origins of the gods and the universe) and "Works and Days" (on the rituals of daily life in archaic Greece). A historical and literary study of the poet, his work and influence. Hermes series on classical authors. ... Read more

Book Description

This volume, which completes the new Loeb Classical Library edition of Hesiod, contains The Shield and extant fragments of other poems, including the Catalogue of Women, that were attributed to Hesiod in antiquity. None of these is now thought to be by Hesiod himself, but all have considerable literary and historical interest. The Catalogue of Women is a systematic presentation in five books of a large number of Greek legendary heroes and episodes, organized according to the genealogy of the heroes' mortal mothers. The Shield provides a Hesiodic counterpoint to the shield of Achilles in the Iliad, with Heracles as the protagonist. The volume concludes with a comprehensive index to the complete edition.

Customer Reviews (1)

A great buy and a great gift!
This is a great edition of the works of Hesiod, with the translation done remarkably well. As a Greek, I enjoyed both books-Hesiod: Volume I, Theogony. Works and Days. Testimonia (Loeb Classical Library No. 57N) and Hesiod: Volume II, The Shield. Catalogue of Women. Other Fragments. (Loeb Classical Library No. 503)- since its, in my oppinion, one of the best mythological accounts i have ever read. I may be biased since I am greek, but I think you will agree with me once you have gone through both volumes of this edition. ... Read more

Book Description
This study reveals the unity of Hesiod's vision of the Cosmos by reading both his poems as two complementary halves of a whole embracing the human and divine cosmos. In the Theogony and Works and Days, Hesiod, roughly contemporary with Homer, does not describe the deeds of the heroes.He provides instead the earliest comprehensive account of the genesis of the Greek gods and the nature of human life that became the foundation for later Greek literature and philosophy.Download Description
Hesiod's Cosmos offers a comprehensive interpretation of both the Theogony and the Works and Days and demonstrates how the two Hesiodic poems must be read together as two halves of an integrated whole embracing both the divine and the human cosmos. After first offering a survey of the structure of both poems, Professor Clay reveals their mutually illuminating unity by offering detailed analyses of their respective poems, their teachings on the origins of the human race, and the two versions of the Prometheus myth. She then examines the role of human beings in the Theogony and the role of the gods in the Works and Days, as well as the position of the hybrid figures of monsters and heroes within the Hesiodic cosmos and in relation to the Hesiodic Catalogue of Women. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on October 1, 1996. The length of the article is 3152 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod. (book reviews)
Author: W.G. Lambert
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1996
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: v116Issue: n4Page: p768(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
In this pathbreaking book, which includes a powerful new translation of Hesiod's Works and Days by esteemed translator David Grene, Stephanie Nelson argues that a society's vision of farming contains deep indications about its view of the human place within nature, and our relationship to the divine. She contends that both Hesiod in the Works and Days and Vergil in the Georgics saw farming in this way, and so wrote their poems not only about farming itself, but also about its deeper ethical and religious implications.Hesiod, Nelson argues, saw farming as revealing that man must live by the sweat of his brow, and that good, for human beings, must always be accompanied by hardship. Within this vision justice, competition, cooperation, and the need for labor take their place alongside the uncertainties of the seasons and even of particular lucky and unlucky days to form a meaningful whole within which human life is an integral part. Vergil, Nelson argues, deliberately modeled his poem upon the Works and Days, and did so in order to reveal that his is a very different vision. Hesiod saw the hardship in farming; Vergil sees its violence as well. Farming is for him both our life within nature, and also our battle against her. Against the background of Hesiods poem, which found a single meaning for human life, Vergil thus creates a split vision and suggests that human beings may be radically alienated from both nature and the divine. Nelson argues that both the Georgics and the Works and Days have been misread because scholars have not seen the importance of the connection between the two poems, and because they have not seen that farming is the true concern of both, farming in its deepest and most profoundly unsettling sense. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A book that deserves blessings
I read this book about two years ago--I'm a grad student, I read too many books--and it is actually burned into my memory (too many books fade from it).Hence why I feel obligated to hype it here, for my conscience tells me the neglect of this work is unacceptable.So then.
I am a Hesiod lover, which is why I picked up the book; David Grene's reputation precedes him (he tranlated the version of the Works and Days at the beginning of Nelson's book); yet I had never studied Virgil, and certainly not the Georgics.This is one of the best books I've read, perhaps ever--it is without doubt among the tippy-top in the classics genre.
Why?Well, if you love Hesiod and/or Virgil, I don't need to sing it for you.You probably came here to buy the book.So, do buy.For everyone else, what is to be noted is that this extraordinarily talented writer (professor Nelson, not me) has done a thing more lovely (if there is anything more lovely) than teasing meaning from Hesiod and Virgil--she has written something meaningful in itself, which at once depends on the greatness of her subjects and the way she reveals to us their greatness.I'll be damned if one does not walk away from this book feeling that the universe is Georgocentric, after all.It is a gorgeous, gorgeous thing, and to say it one last time, Nelson's prose is witty, often hilarious (I laughed out loud several times), and downright masterful English.Professors are not supposed to write like this, but one does, and let us thank Zeus for it.
To sum up my pangyric, you need not care all that much about Hesiod and Virgil to read this.You will when you finish.And you will cherish this book.

Great insight into a great work
Nelson brings a new perspectinve to this subject, an insight that only someone versed in classics and the realities of farming could bring. This book is the best argument yet for scholars to get out of the classroom on occasion and into the feild, as it were. ... Read more