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Theogony / Works and Days
Hesiod, one of the oldest known Greek poets, stands out as the first personality in European literature. The Theogony contains a systematic genealogy of the gods from the beginning of the world and an account of their violent struggles before the present order was established. The Works and Days, a compendium of moral and practical advice for a life of honest husbandry, throws a unique and fascinating light on archaic Greek society, ethics, and superstition. Hesiod's poetry is the oldest source for the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Golden Age.
Unlike Homer, Hesiod tells us about himself and his family (he lived in central Greece in the late eighth century BC). This new translation by a leading expert combines accuracy with readability.
Unlike Homer, Hesiod tells us about himself and his family (he lived in central Greece in the late eighth century BC). This new translation by a leading expert combines accuracy with readability.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 701
About the author
Hesiod
243 books323 followersHesiod, the father of Greek didactic poetry, probably flourished during the 8th century BC. Hesiod's earliest poem, the famous Works and Days, and according to Boeotian testimony the only genuine one, embodies the experiences of his daily life and work, and, interwoven with episodes of fable, allegory, and personal history, forms a sort of Boeotian shepherd's calendar. The other poem attributed to Hesiod or his school which has come down in great part to modern times is The Theogony, a work of grander scope, inspired alike by older traditions and abundant local associations. It is an attempt to work into system, as none had essayed to do before, the floating legends of the gods and goddesses and their offspring.
Source: NNDB http://www.nndb.com/people/837/000087...
Source: NNDB http://www.nndb.com/people/837/000087...
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December 8, 2023
1st book - Theogony
This work is a poem of 1022 verses that can be structured as follows: 1 to 115 introduction, dedicated to presenting the Muses, their characteristics, and their way of acting. Verses 116 to 125 deal with the first divine generation, the original or elemental beings (Kaos, Gea, and Eros). In the middle of verses 126 and 239, in agreement with the second generation of gods and their decency, we find that famous account concerning Uranus's castration at Chronos and Aphrodite's origin, while properly every curse regarding Uranus through his children. From verses 240 to 616, the theme of the third generation of gods, the first monsters, appears. Also, here we find the narration of Prometheus' sin and his punishment, Pandora. We also told her of the battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans. Between verses 617 and 819, we witness the conflicts, final defeat and punishment of the Titans, and a detailed description of the nether world. From poems 820 to 885, the struggle occurs between Zeus and Typhon, the so-called Typhonomachy, with the triumph of the first and imprisonment of the second in the newborn Tartarus and the consequence of typhoons. Between verses 886 to 937, the question, peace already assured, are the many marriages of Zeus and their parade: Metis, Themis, Eurinome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto, Hera. Among the illustrious births are Athena and Hephaestus. The loves of Ares and Aphrodite are narrated, among others. In verses 938 to 964, the attention is directed to the extramarital relations of Zeus and the children that arose from and were accepted in Olympus (Hermes, Dionysus, and Heracles). But it also tells of the unions of Heracles, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Helios' descendants, including the famous Circe. Finally, between verses 965 and 1022, we talk about the union of goddesses with mortals and the birth of the different heroes of the Greek world.
This work is of quick and attractive reading, essential as a source of classical mythology.
2nd Book – Works & Days
Works and Days is a poem about autobiographical elements in which Hesiod recounts his differences with his brother. At the same time, he writes advice for the life of the men of Ancient Greece (although provided to get an idea of how they lived and thought in those days). And by adding some mythical stories such as the mischiefs of Prometheus, the creation of Pandora, and the myth of races, with at end an astronomical precision, the Pleiades and Sirius, with style a little rougher this time realistic.
This work is a poem of 1022 verses that can be structured as follows: 1 to 115 introduction, dedicated to presenting the Muses, their characteristics, and their way of acting. Verses 116 to 125 deal with the first divine generation, the original or elemental beings (Kaos, Gea, and Eros). In the middle of verses 126 and 239, in agreement with the second generation of gods and their decency, we find that famous account concerning Uranus's castration at Chronos and Aphrodite's origin, while properly every curse regarding Uranus through his children. From verses 240 to 616, the theme of the third generation of gods, the first monsters, appears. Also, here we find the narration of Prometheus' sin and his punishment, Pandora. We also told her of the battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans. Between verses 617 and 819, we witness the conflicts, final defeat and punishment of the Titans, and a detailed description of the nether world. From poems 820 to 885, the struggle occurs between Zeus and Typhon, the so-called Typhonomachy, with the triumph of the first and imprisonment of the second in the newborn Tartarus and the consequence of typhoons. Between verses 886 to 937, the question, peace already assured, are the many marriages of Zeus and their parade: Metis, Themis, Eurinome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto, Hera. Among the illustrious births are Athena and Hephaestus. The loves of Ares and Aphrodite are narrated, among others. In verses 938 to 964, the attention is directed to the extramarital relations of Zeus and the children that arose from and were accepted in Olympus (Hermes, Dionysus, and Heracles). But it also tells of the unions of Heracles, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Helios' descendants, including the famous Circe. Finally, between verses 965 and 1022, we talk about the union of goddesses with mortals and the birth of the different heroes of the Greek world.
This work is of quick and attractive reading, essential as a source of classical mythology.
2nd Book – Works & Days
Works and Days is a poem about autobiographical elements in which Hesiod recounts his differences with his brother. At the same time, he writes advice for the life of the men of Ancient Greece (although provided to get an idea of how they lived and thought in those days). And by adding some mythical stories such as the mischiefs of Prometheus, the creation of Pandora, and the myth of races, with at end an astronomical precision, the Pleiades and Sirius, with style a little rougher this time realistic.
October 13, 2022
4 ⭐
Kronos eats his children,
Then failing to find a knife,
He cuts his father’s junk off with an adamantine scythe.
Cerberus has 50 heads,
Zeus frequents his sisters' beds,
A penis that falls in the sea gives Aphrodite life.
Good readers put your faith in me,
if you love Greek Mythology,
for the God’s genealogy,
read Hesiod’s Theogony.
Oh, you would actually like some information about the book? Why didn't you say so?
Check out --Linda's review--! It's fascinating, informative and conveniently reflects my own thoughts exactly! :)
Kronos eats his children,
Then failing to find a knife,
He cuts his father’s junk off with an adamantine scythe.
Cerberus has 50 heads,
Zeus frequents his sisters' beds,
A penis that falls in the sea gives Aphrodite life.
Good readers put your faith in me,
if you love Greek Mythology,
for the God’s genealogy,
read Hesiod’s Theogony.
Oh, you would actually like some information about the book? Why didn't you say so?
Check out --Linda's review--! It's fascinating, informative and conveniently reflects my own thoughts exactly! :)
March 4, 2022
La Teogonía, que Hesíodo escribió luego de ser inspirado por las Musas mientras pastoreaba su rebaño en el campo es una creación relacionada al origen de los Dioses del Olimpo desde el caos hasta generarse las eras de las cuatro generaciones y a través de un desfile genealógico que parte de Gea, Urano, Cronos y posteriormente Zeus, Poseidón, Hades y luego la llegada del resto de los dioses más Héroes, Titanes, Musas, Pléyades, Nayades, etc., etc., etc.
Lamento no haber leído este libro antes de leer la Ilíada y la Odisea, puesto que me hubiera ayudado a entender aún más como venía la mano para entender tantas batallas, iras, alianzas y traiciones sobre todo durante la Ilíada.
En la Teogonía también nos cuenta Hesíodo el origen de las desgracias de los mortales a través de lo que le sucedió a Prometeo por robar a Zeus el fuego de los hombres, además, explica cómo surgió la historia de Pandora.
Estos dos hechos tienen para mí una relación directa a lo que sucede con la expulsión de Adán y Eva tal nos lo es contado en la Biblia.
En la segunda parte del libro que incluye Los Trabajos y Los Días y enumera diferentes valores morales además de consejos para labrar la tierra y sacar de ella los mejores frutos. Todo esto viene aparejado con una seria de consejos humanos y leyes impuestas por los mismísimos dioses del Olimpo.
También enseña al hombre de su época cómo hacer una correcta administración familiar, cómo lidiar con las mujeres (bastante machista por cierto), aunque estimo que así era la sociedad griega en la antigüedad, con los hermanos, amigos y sirvientes.
Finalmente, para una comprensión un poco más detallada de lo que Hesíodo dispuso en su Teogonía adjunto el cuadro genealógico de las distintas generaciones de Dioses.
Lamento no haber leído este libro antes de leer la Ilíada y la Odisea, puesto que me hubiera ayudado a entender aún más como venía la mano para entender tantas batallas, iras, alianzas y traiciones sobre todo durante la Ilíada.
En la Teogonía también nos cuenta Hesíodo el origen de las desgracias de los mortales a través de lo que le sucedió a Prometeo por robar a Zeus el fuego de los hombres, además, explica cómo surgió la historia de Pandora.
Estos dos hechos tienen para mí una relación directa a lo que sucede con la expulsión de Adán y Eva tal nos lo es contado en la Biblia.
En la segunda parte del libro que incluye Los Trabajos y Los Días y enumera diferentes valores morales además de consejos para labrar la tierra y sacar de ella los mejores frutos. Todo esto viene aparejado con una seria de consejos humanos y leyes impuestas por los mismísimos dioses del Olimpo.
También enseña al hombre de su época cómo hacer una correcta administración familiar, cómo lidiar con las mujeres (bastante machista por cierto), aunque estimo que así era la sociedad griega en la antigüedad, con los hermanos, amigos y sirvientes.
Finalmente, para una comprensión un poco más detallada de lo que Hesíodo dispuso en su Teogonía adjunto el cuadro genealógico de las distintas generaciones de Dioses.
Read
September 11, 2021You trust a thief when you trust a woman.
Hesiod, Works and Days (Line,375)
The poet Hesiod, Homer's contemporary, wrote Theogony and Works and Days in the early seventh century B.C.E. It is challenging to assign a star rating to these texts. On the one hand, they are important texts historically speaking and provide real insight into the view of women in early Greece. On the other hand, however, I found that several sections of both poems were extremely dry, making the reading less enjoyable.
Theogony
The more famous of the two poems, Theogony, is the first attempt to record the origins of the earth and the Greek gods. After recounting creation, Hesiod examines the roots of Titans and the Olympians and their ten-year war for supremacy. Some scholars believe that Zeus's mythological victory and the establishment of his sovereignty could coincide with the beginning of patriarchy in Archaic Greece.
Hesiod also recounts the myth of Prometheus in Theogony, in which Zeus meters out punishment to both Prometheus and mankind because Prometheus defied him and provided mortals with fire. Zeus had the immortal Prometheus bound to a rock, and each morning an eagle (the symbol of Zeus) would devour his liver which would regrow by nightfall so that the painful process could begin again. To punish mortal men, Zeus created mortal women.
"So straightway because of the stolen fire, he contrived evil for men. The famous smtih took clay and, through Zeus's counsels, gave it the shape of a modest maiden. (570)"
"Immortal gods and mortal men were amazed when they saw this tempting snare from which men cannot escape. From her comes the fair sex; yes, wicked womenfolk are her descendants(590)."
While I enjoyed reading the origins stories and the myth of Prometheus in their original form, I found other aspects of the poem frustrating. For example, there are 12 major Gods and Goddesses and close to 400 minor gods. In addition, since the poem aims to chronicle the gods' origins, Hesiod intersperses the myths with the genealogical listing of close to fifty deities. At these points, I found my mind began to wander.
Work and Days
The second poem, Works and Days, is shorter, just under twenty pages. Hesiod wrote it as an admonishment to his brother Perses who is trying to use tricks and influence to gain a larger share of their joint inheritance. It is a moral treatise that discusses the virtue of hard work and advises farmers on improving their daily labor practices. Homer's epics of heroes and kings are the only other texts I have from this period, so reading about the everyday life of farmers who made up the bulk of the population gave me a different view of this world. However, I found much of the farming advice dry. Hesiod intersperses the myth of Pandora's Jar in the text and describes women in the same way as he did in Theogony.
Overall, I found reading these texts interesting. I would recommend the poems to readers with a strong interest in the ancient world or mythology in general.
Hesiod, Works and Days (Line,375)
The poet Hesiod, Homer's contemporary, wrote Theogony and Works and Days in the early seventh century B.C.E. It is challenging to assign a star rating to these texts. On the one hand, they are important texts historically speaking and provide real insight into the view of women in early Greece. On the other hand, however, I found that several sections of both poems were extremely dry, making the reading less enjoyable.
Theogony
The more famous of the two poems, Theogony, is the first attempt to record the origins of the earth and the Greek gods. After recounting creation, Hesiod examines the roots of Titans and the Olympians and their ten-year war for supremacy. Some scholars believe that Zeus's mythological victory and the establishment of his sovereignty could coincide with the beginning of patriarchy in Archaic Greece.
Hesiod also recounts the myth of Prometheus in Theogony, in which Zeus meters out punishment to both Prometheus and mankind because Prometheus defied him and provided mortals with fire. Zeus had the immortal Prometheus bound to a rock, and each morning an eagle (the symbol of Zeus) would devour his liver which would regrow by nightfall so that the painful process could begin again. To punish mortal men, Zeus created mortal women.
"So straightway because of the stolen fire, he contrived evil for men. The famous smtih took clay and, through Zeus's counsels, gave it the shape of a modest maiden. (570)"
"Immortal gods and mortal men were amazed when they saw this tempting snare from which men cannot escape. From her comes the fair sex; yes, wicked womenfolk are her descendants(590)."
While I enjoyed reading the origins stories and the myth of Prometheus in their original form, I found other aspects of the poem frustrating. For example, there are 12 major Gods and Goddesses and close to 400 minor gods. In addition, since the poem aims to chronicle the gods' origins, Hesiod intersperses the myths with the genealogical listing of close to fifty deities. At these points, I found my mind began to wander.
Work and Days
The second poem, Works and Days, is shorter, just under twenty pages. Hesiod wrote it as an admonishment to his brother Perses who is trying to use tricks and influence to gain a larger share of their joint inheritance. It is a moral treatise that discusses the virtue of hard work and advises farmers on improving their daily labor practices. Homer's epics of heroes and kings are the only other texts I have from this period, so reading about the everyday life of farmers who made up the bulk of the population gave me a different view of this world. However, I found much of the farming advice dry. Hesiod intersperses the myth of Pandora's Jar in the text and describes women in the same way as he did in Theogony.
Overall, I found reading these texts interesting. I would recommend the poems to readers with a strong interest in the ancient world or mythology in general.
Read
January 6, 2021This 1920s translation by Hugh Evelyn-White, now in the public domain, seems okay. A couple of widely-available audio versions of Hesiod, free, or on Scribd subscription, use it. I listened to Theogony and ended up reading along while listening to Works & Days, because it had the sort of detailed new material that I find easier to absorb in writing.
Theogony
In Evelyn-White's Theogony there are phrases that are less than clear if you don't already know all the details, e.g. making it sound like Athene was destined to have two children, a girl Tritogenia, and a son - but this information refers to her mother Metis, and Tritogenia is another name for Athene. Or that any sacrifice and prayer was of interest to Hecate, as if it implicitly means those to all other deities too; was that part of the lore?
Victorian-style vocab sometimes seems merely quaint, e.g. "shapely-ankled Alcmene", but the choice to call Cronos' father Uranus "Heaven" is plain confusing. (Was the latter due to avoidance of double entendres and the tedium of snickering students after years as a don?) Use of words like this with strong Christian association also leads to ideas which either jar, or highlight huge differences in culture, or both, depending on perspective, e.g. "Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing". This isn't the first time in the last few months that I've seen the word "sin" used in a Classical text, and yet this is never accompanied by discussion of the original words and how the meanings and significance differed. Perhaps a different word would avoid that baggage, but might be burdensome for scansion.
Hesiod, along with Homer, is the oldest written source on Greek mythology and religion, and, you will probably read Hesiod when already familiar with most of the stories; it sometimes confirms, sometimes adds variation, to versions well-known these days. (Such as Ariadne becoming the wife of Dionysus.) There are genealogies of deities and heroes rarely referenced now, and the effect is rather like the paragraphs of 'begats' in the Bible.
Some of the most interesting phrases and stories:
- at the beginning, the Muses wash at "the Horse’s Spring" before beginning their song and dance to Zeus and Hera - which you can read as echoing the sacredness of horses to the Indo-European religion from which the Greek branched off, and which is far more evident in the Rig Veda. (I assume that as Greece was not as well-suited to riding as regions with greater continuous expanses of relatively flat land, that the cult of horses ended up less prominent there.) Pegasus is mentioned here, but almost in passing, as springing from the head of Medusa and bringing thunder and lightning to Zeus.
- "as pitiless as bronze" - I think this is also in Homer, but it's always a tingly reminder of just how old the material from these texts is, that bronze, not iron, is the byword for this. "Rosy-fingered dawn", so familiar from the Odyssey, is also used.
- Before Zeus freed his uncles from Cronos, Earth had hidden thunder and lightning - arguably correlates with the idea of a golden age as found in Works & Days?
- Quite a disquisition on the goddess Echidna. Perhaps those who named the creature had read Hesiod and this is why the name stood out more than those of other deities who are rarely mentioned elsewhere. (Though there might well be references in other later texts I don't know, and the animal has now become *the* meaning of the name so it's unlikely to be used of the goddess in casual recent references.)
- "Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread" - perhaps, like the Golden Age, a folkloric memory of a time before agriculture, though 2700 years ago there must have been travellers around who'd encountered societies who were still foraging and hunting.
- I had thought of Prometheus' theft of fire and gift of it to man as a separate story from the creation of Pandora as the first woman. But here Pandora (unnamed) is part of the price of fire - similar to the connection of Eve with the knowledge from the Serpent in Eden, and the proximate geography, both from the East Mediterranean, must mean a common root. (Which I would have thought would have been discussed more in popular sources from a historical viewpoint, because it's the kind of interesting comparative mythology that usually is; it's not even in Wikipedia, and associative passages in classic feminist texts are the main other places I've seen Eve and Pandora discussed together.)
- Plutus, god of wealth is the son of Demeter. Which fits with the classical elemental association of wealth with earth, but I hadn't heard it before.
Works & Days
I love literature that ends up being a source on pre-modern agriculture. My favourite parts of Anna Karenina were the farming scenes (and I didn't much like the rest of it). So of course I find Works and Days fascinating and would give it five stars because of that - though I'm a bit wary of actually doing so in case that were read as support of everything in it.
It was even more interesting coming to this a couple of days after finishing Piers Plowman. Firstly it has the sort of detailed content about the agricultural year that I always used to think (before actually reading the whole thing) would be a big part of Langland's work, which actually focuses a great deal more on Christianity. And secondly, both authors, who seem to be from freeborn families of modest means, rant about other people's irresponsible behaviour and prescribe what they should do. They make a few identical points, such as, in Evelyn-White's version of Hesiod: "for Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard. Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle". It is easy to see Hesiod and Langland as earlier examples of a familiar contemporary figure, the opinionated, conservative middle-aged man from the upper working or entrepreneurial middle class. A.E. Stallings, in the introduction to her translation of Works & Days calls Hesiod a curmudgeon, and I have to agree this is a good word for the both of them.
Though Hesiod can seem more like his modern counterpart, because his practical material concerns are closer to day-to-day thinking now, than is the strenuous self-denial that was the ideal of medieval Christianity. There wasn't a conflict between religion and wealth to square:
"Through work men grow rich in flocks and substance, and working they are much better loved by the immortals.
Though I'm sure that in the Middle Ages, there were also those who'd have agreed with opinions like, "Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year’s victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter’s grain. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and strive to get another’s goods." One can see a forerunner of 20th century American financial advice books like The Richest Man in Babylon and The Millionaire Next Door:
- "He who adds to what he has, will keep off bright-eyed hunger; for if you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great."; "It will not always be summer, build barns."
- an aim is to be in the position "so you may buy another’s holding and not another yours" (this relates to propitiating the gods)
- This type of curmudegeonly conservative business owner of course doesn't like to pay staff when they're not useful, and doesn't want those with other responsibilities that might get in the way: "And so soon as you have safely stored all your stuff indoors, I bid you put your bondman out of doors and look out for a servant-girl with no children;—for a servant with a child to nurse is troublesome."
So apparently labourers were out on their ear in autumn, unless they had employers who were wealthy and/or kind enough to feed them year round. Which you'd think would make sense and improve loyalty, and would mean the same good workers would be there next year? Especially if you were concerned with finding high-quality experienced staff: "a brisk fellow of forty years ... who will attend to his work and drive a straight furrow and is past the age for gaping after his fellows." There are undoubtedly social history papers on this labour pattern in Greece, which I've not read - I'm just extrapolating, and thinking about the more recent early modern West European system of hiring fairs and year-and-a-day contracts, you shouldn't take it as a substitute for actual research.
- The manner of Hesiod's ambivalence about children, which he considers from a personal practical point of view, is a good fit for the contemporary manosphere: on the one hand they are extra mouths to feed; on the other they maybe a useful support in old age.
- This was a world with hardly any public services, so self-reliance was a necessity and not just a preference: "And look after the dog with jagged teeth; do not grudge him his food, or some time the Day-sleeper [robbers] may take your stuff."
As in most old religious texts, there is a trust in moral forces that wouldn't have been borne out in the world (here, unlike in Christian works, it isn't overtly said that the reward will be in the afterlife): Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true justice; but light-heartedly they tend the fields which are all their care.
I understand that it's considered unresolved, the extent to which Hesiod's Golden Age is a folk memory of a pre-agricultural foraging society. Since I first read that, I've become aware of how many thousands of years oral legends about volcanoes and earthquakes persisted in indigenous societies (including Australia and America), and how those correlated with archaeological findings, I would now come down on the side that yes, the Golden Age, Eden and so forth *are* folk memories. These, especially in Hesiod, were recorded when writing was still relatively new and so oral tradition would have been stronger at the time. As with the story of Eden, the gods made work harder for the Greeks, and there is a sense that an alternative way of life exists/ed, but is not moral or appropriate now: "For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste."
Interestingly, the Greeks' Golden Age included herding, as did the society their religion and language originated from (see The Horse, the Wheel & Language: "They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods."
Work seems to be a way to the gods, in Hesiod's view (nearly 2000 years before Protestantism): "between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then is she easy to reach, though before that she was hard."
Years after I first read about Hesiod as the originator of the terms, I still find it amazing that the idea of the Bronze Age and Iron Age are actually themselves 2700 years old. In the Theogony a sickle is made of flint - an understanding of how it was done in ages past - but probably also still was by some other societies Greeks had encountered.
But the most fascinating stuff, to me, is hearing, from someone writing nearly 3000 years ago, how people lived with the seasons then - and also, as I'm used to hearing about the agricultural cycle from early modern North-West European sources, how timing was a bit different due to the climate.
Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane who cries year by year from the clouds above, for she give the signal for ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter.
But if you plough the good ground at the solstice, you will reap sitting, grasping a thin crop in your hand, binding the sheaves awry, dust-covered, not glad at all; so you will bring all home in a basket and not many will admire you. Yet the will of Zeus who holds the aegis is different at different times; and it is hard for mortal men to tell it; for if you should plough late, you may find this remedy—when the cuckoo first calls in the leaves of the oak and makes men glad all over the boundless earth, if Zeus should send rain on the third day and not cease until it rises neither above an ox’s hoof nor falls short of it, then the late-plougher will vie with the early.
When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the solstice, then the star Arcturus leaves the holy stream of Ocean and first rises brilliant at dusk. After him the shrilly wailing daughter of Pandion, the swallow (So swallows arrived much earlier, in March)
Set your slaves to winnow Demeter’s holy grain, when strong Orion first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place. Then measure it and store it in jars.
(Unlike in the Norse Eddas and sagas, where it's acknowledged that the high-born might end up as slaves if captured, and some slave characters have names, any mentions of slaves by Hesiod are only as tools; there seems to be a sharp divide; they are *other* and not really talked about as people.
But a parallel with the Norse, on another subject: Zeus is here described as "the all-wise".)
Along with this is advice similar to that found in early modern almanacs (which depending on your perspective is wonderful social history, amusing and/ or silly and irrelevant), on auspicious and inauspicious days for various activities and also births, and various mundane topics. Though the almanacs didn't, so far as I know, include so much advice on where and where not to piss (or 'make water' in Evelyn-White's prim old vocab); it seems to imply that even many homes in Hesiod's time and place might not have designated locations. Some phrases raise more questions: "Take nothing to eat or to wash with from uncharmed pots, for in them there is mischief." Might charms have been said over pots when they were cleaned? Sometimes Hesiod states the obvious, but old texts often leave out other things obvious to people of their time and which did not need to be stated.
After finding Epicurus' The Nature of Things, also translated by Stallings, a slog, I'd become more hesitant about reading Hesiod, despite my interest in it. The audio, and the brevity of the public domain version (without more supplementary material) helped break through that, reminding me just how short the text is and I hope to read at least one other version.
(January 2021)
Theogony
In Evelyn-White's Theogony there are phrases that are less than clear if you don't already know all the details, e.g. making it sound like Athene was destined to have two children, a girl Tritogenia, and a son - but this information refers to her mother Metis, and Tritogenia is another name for Athene. Or that any sacrifice and prayer was of interest to Hecate, as if it implicitly means those to all other deities too; was that part of the lore?
Victorian-style vocab sometimes seems merely quaint, e.g. "shapely-ankled Alcmene", but the choice to call Cronos' father Uranus "Heaven" is plain confusing. (Was the latter due to avoidance of double entendres and the tedium of snickering students after years as a don?) Use of words like this with strong Christian association also leads to ideas which either jar, or highlight huge differences in culture, or both, depending on perspective, e.g. "Heaven rejoiced in his evil doing". This isn't the first time in the last few months that I've seen the word "sin" used in a Classical text, and yet this is never accompanied by discussion of the original words and how the meanings and significance differed. Perhaps a different word would avoid that baggage, but might be burdensome for scansion.
Hesiod, along with Homer, is the oldest written source on Greek mythology and religion, and, you will probably read Hesiod when already familiar with most of the stories; it sometimes confirms, sometimes adds variation, to versions well-known these days. (Such as Ariadne becoming the wife of Dionysus.) There are genealogies of deities and heroes rarely referenced now, and the effect is rather like the paragraphs of 'begats' in the Bible.
Some of the most interesting phrases and stories:
- at the beginning, the Muses wash at "the Horse’s Spring" before beginning their song and dance to Zeus and Hera - which you can read as echoing the sacredness of horses to the Indo-European religion from which the Greek branched off, and which is far more evident in the Rig Veda. (I assume that as Greece was not as well-suited to riding as regions with greater continuous expanses of relatively flat land, that the cult of horses ended up less prominent there.) Pegasus is mentioned here, but almost in passing, as springing from the head of Medusa and bringing thunder and lightning to Zeus.
- "as pitiless as bronze" - I think this is also in Homer, but it's always a tingly reminder of just how old the material from these texts is, that bronze, not iron, is the byword for this. "Rosy-fingered dawn", so familiar from the Odyssey, is also used.
- Before Zeus freed his uncles from Cronos, Earth had hidden thunder and lightning - arguably correlates with the idea of a golden age as found in Works & Days?
- Quite a disquisition on the goddess Echidna. Perhaps those who named the creature had read Hesiod and this is why the name stood out more than those of other deities who are rarely mentioned elsewhere. (Though there might well be references in other later texts I don't know, and the animal has now become *the* meaning of the name so it's unlikely to be used of the goddess in casual recent references.)
- "Epimetheus who from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread" - perhaps, like the Golden Age, a folkloric memory of a time before agriculture, though 2700 years ago there must have been travellers around who'd encountered societies who were still foraging and hunting.
- I had thought of Prometheus' theft of fire and gift of it to man as a separate story from the creation of Pandora as the first woman. But here Pandora (unnamed) is part of the price of fire - similar to the connection of Eve with the knowledge from the Serpent in Eden, and the proximate geography, both from the East Mediterranean, must mean a common root. (Which I would have thought would have been discussed more in popular sources from a historical viewpoint, because it's the kind of interesting comparative mythology that usually is; it's not even in Wikipedia, and associative passages in classic feminist texts are the main other places I've seen Eve and Pandora discussed together.)
- Plutus, god of wealth is the son of Demeter. Which fits with the classical elemental association of wealth with earth, but I hadn't heard it before.
Works & Days
I love literature that ends up being a source on pre-modern agriculture. My favourite parts of Anna Karenina were the farming scenes (and I didn't much like the rest of it). So of course I find Works and Days fascinating and would give it five stars because of that - though I'm a bit wary of actually doing so in case that were read as support of everything in it.
It was even more interesting coming to this a couple of days after finishing Piers Plowman. Firstly it has the sort of detailed content about the agricultural year that I always used to think (before actually reading the whole thing) would be a big part of Langland's work, which actually focuses a great deal more on Christianity. And secondly, both authors, who seem to be from freeborn families of modest means, rant about other people's irresponsible behaviour and prescribe what they should do. They make a few identical points, such as, in Evelyn-White's version of Hesiod: "for Hunger is altogether a meet comrade for the sluggard. Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle". It is easy to see Hesiod and Langland as earlier examples of a familiar contemporary figure, the opinionated, conservative middle-aged man from the upper working or entrepreneurial middle class. A.E. Stallings, in the introduction to her translation of Works & Days calls Hesiod a curmudgeon, and I have to agree this is a good word for the both of them.
Though Hesiod can seem more like his modern counterpart, because his practical material concerns are closer to day-to-day thinking now, than is the strenuous self-denial that was the ideal of medieval Christianity. There wasn't a conflict between religion and wealth to square:
"Through work men grow rich in flocks and substance, and working they are much better loved by the immortals.
Though I'm sure that in the Middle Ages, there were also those who'd have agreed with opinions like, "Little concern has he with quarrels and courts who has not a year’s victuals laid up betimes, even that which the earth bears, Demeter’s grain. When you have got plenty of that, you can raise disputes and strive to get another’s goods." One can see a forerunner of 20th century American financial advice books like The Richest Man in Babylon and The Millionaire Next Door:
- "He who adds to what he has, will keep off bright-eyed hunger; for if you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great."; "It will not always be summer, build barns."
- an aim is to be in the position "so you may buy another’s holding and not another yours" (this relates to propitiating the gods)
- This type of curmudegeonly conservative business owner of course doesn't like to pay staff when they're not useful, and doesn't want those with other responsibilities that might get in the way: "And so soon as you have safely stored all your stuff indoors, I bid you put your bondman out of doors and look out for a servant-girl with no children;—for a servant with a child to nurse is troublesome."
So apparently labourers were out on their ear in autumn, unless they had employers who were wealthy and/or kind enough to feed them year round. Which you'd think would make sense and improve loyalty, and would mean the same good workers would be there next year? Especially if you were concerned with finding high-quality experienced staff: "a brisk fellow of forty years ... who will attend to his work and drive a straight furrow and is past the age for gaping after his fellows." There are undoubtedly social history papers on this labour pattern in Greece, which I've not read - I'm just extrapolating, and thinking about the more recent early modern West European system of hiring fairs and year-and-a-day contracts, you shouldn't take it as a substitute for actual research.
- The manner of Hesiod's ambivalence about children, which he considers from a personal practical point of view, is a good fit for the contemporary manosphere: on the one hand they are extra mouths to feed; on the other they maybe a useful support in old age.
- This was a world with hardly any public services, so self-reliance was a necessity and not just a preference: "And look after the dog with jagged teeth; do not grudge him his food, or some time the Day-sleeper [robbers] may take your stuff."
As in most old religious texts, there is a trust in moral forces that wouldn't have been borne out in the world (here, unlike in Christian works, it isn't overtly said that the reward will be in the afterlife): Neither famine nor disaster ever haunt men who do true justice; but light-heartedly they tend the fields which are all their care.
I understand that it's considered unresolved, the extent to which Hesiod's Golden Age is a folk memory of a pre-agricultural foraging society. Since I first read that, I've become aware of how many thousands of years oral legends about volcanoes and earthquakes persisted in indigenous societies (including Australia and America), and how those correlated with archaeological findings, I would now come down on the side that yes, the Golden Age, Eden and so forth *are* folk memories. These, especially in Hesiod, were recorded when writing was still relatively new and so oral tradition would have been stronger at the time. As with the story of Eden, the gods made work harder for the Greeks, and there is a sense that an alternative way of life exists/ed, but is not moral or appropriate now: "For the gods keep hidden from men the means of life. Else you would easily do work enough in a day to supply you for a full year even without working; soon would you put away your rudder over the smoke, and the fields worked by ox and sturdy mule would run to waste."
Interestingly, the Greeks' Golden Age included herding, as did the society their religion and language originated from (see The Horse, the Wheel & Language: "They dwelt in ease and peace upon their lands with many good things, rich in flocks and loved by the blessed gods."
Work seems to be a way to the gods, in Hesiod's view (nearly 2000 years before Protestantism): "between us and Goodness the gods have placed the sweat of our brows: long and steep is the path that leads to her, and it is rough at the first; but when a man has reached the top, then is she easy to reach, though before that she was hard."
Years after I first read about Hesiod as the originator of the terms, I still find it amazing that the idea of the Bronze Age and Iron Age are actually themselves 2700 years old. In the Theogony a sickle is made of flint - an understanding of how it was done in ages past - but probably also still was by some other societies Greeks had encountered.
But the most fascinating stuff, to me, is hearing, from someone writing nearly 3000 years ago, how people lived with the seasons then - and also, as I'm used to hearing about the agricultural cycle from early modern North-West European sources, how timing was a bit different due to the climate.
Mark, when you hear the voice of the crane who cries year by year from the clouds above, for she give the signal for ploughing and shows the season of rainy winter.
But if you plough the good ground at the solstice, you will reap sitting, grasping a thin crop in your hand, binding the sheaves awry, dust-covered, not glad at all; so you will bring all home in a basket and not many will admire you. Yet the will of Zeus who holds the aegis is different at different times; and it is hard for mortal men to tell it; for if you should plough late, you may find this remedy—when the cuckoo first calls in the leaves of the oak and makes men glad all over the boundless earth, if Zeus should send rain on the third day and not cease until it rises neither above an ox’s hoof nor falls short of it, then the late-plougher will vie with the early.
When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the solstice, then the star Arcturus leaves the holy stream of Ocean and first rises brilliant at dusk. After him the shrilly wailing daughter of Pandion, the swallow (So swallows arrived much earlier, in March)
Set your slaves to winnow Demeter’s holy grain, when strong Orion first appears, on a smooth threshing-floor in an airy place. Then measure it and store it in jars.
(Unlike in the Norse Eddas and sagas, where it's acknowledged that the high-born might end up as slaves if captured, and some slave characters have names, any mentions of slaves by Hesiod are only as tools; there seems to be a sharp divide; they are *other* and not really talked about as people.
But a parallel with the Norse, on another subject: Zeus is here described as "the all-wise".)
Along with this is advice similar to that found in early modern almanacs (which depending on your perspective is wonderful social history, amusing and/ or silly and irrelevant), on auspicious and inauspicious days for various activities and also births, and various mundane topics. Though the almanacs didn't, so far as I know, include so much advice on where and where not to piss (or 'make water' in Evelyn-White's prim old vocab); it seems to imply that even many homes in Hesiod's time and place might not have designated locations. Some phrases raise more questions: "Take nothing to eat or to wash with from uncharmed pots, for in them there is mischief." Might charms have been said over pots when they were cleaned? Sometimes Hesiod states the obvious, but old texts often leave out other things obvious to people of their time and which did not need to be stated.
After finding Epicurus' The Nature of Things, also translated by Stallings, a slog, I'd become more hesitant about reading Hesiod, despite my interest in it. The audio, and the brevity of the public domain version (without more supplementary material) helped break through that, reminding me just how short the text is and I hope to read at least one other version.
(January 2021)
August 31, 2019
I find Hesiod's works quite interesting. I had started studying them around the time when I was seriously studying the Book of Enoch. The parallels between the two are rather striking. It seems obvious that they were drawing from a common stream of traditions. Scholars that have postulated that Hesiod was influenced by Middle Eastern myth are almost certainly correct. A Phoenician provenance is likely.
The Book of Enoch was a kind of midrash, or expansion, on the account of the Sons of God marrying the daughters of men, as found in Genesis chapter 6. It presumes that the mythological tradition regarding the pagan gods procreating with human women was correct. In Hesiod's account, the offspring of these unions were the heroes (e.g. Hercules). Hebrew tradition acknowledges the same thing by calling these offspring Gibborim, or mighty ones, men of renown. Both in Enochic tradition, and in later Greek tradition, these offspring were also called daimons (in Hebrew, Rephaim or Shedim) when they were in spiritual form. Of course, the Greek tradition didn't necessarily see daimons as evil, but acknowledged the possibility that some were. In Enochic tradition, daimons were wholly evil. They were the spirits of the giant offspring of this illegal union. In Hebrew, the physical progeny were called the Nephilim. Most likely, the etymology originally pointed to them being fallen spirits.
What is incredibly fascinating is the way Greek tradition colored the Enochic tradition when it found its way into early Christian thought. Both the books 2 Peter and Jude are heavily influenced by this Hellenistic adaptation of Enochic tradition. The Greek version of the Book of Enoch even lifted the name for the deepest part of Hades, Tartaros, from sources like Hesiod. I don't know of any equivalent to the Greek word Tartaros in Hebrew. Sheol is certainly an equivalent of Hades, but I don't think Hebrew had a name for a deeper level of Sheol. A possible equivalent is Abaddon, but this is only a possible equivalent; the word literally means destruction, but was also often used in the Hebrew Bible for the abode of the spirits of the dead that had been destroyed due to divine judgment. When Enochic tradition made its way into Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity, it also took on Hesiodic elements. 2 Peter also uses the word Tartaros when describing the place in Hades where the fallen angels and their offspring are being kept. In Hesiod, Tartaros is where the titans are bound. The parallel here is slight, but is undoubtedly still there to a degree. It's not a perfect equivalence though. In Hellenistic Enochic tradition, it is angelic and semi-angelic entities that are held in Tartaros. In Hebrew tradition, Behemoth and Leviathan would be more aptly described as titans. Hebrew tradition accords to them an incredibly early creation and they seem to fit the description of the titans as found in Hesiod's Theogony. Slavonic Enoch describes two entities that exist at opposite extremities of creation. Undoubtedly, even though these two entities are not called Behemoth and Leviathan in this apocryphal book, they are ultimately behind the tradition. The Hesiodic titans are a product of the union of Ouranos (heaven) and Ge (earth). Behemoth was an earth titan and Leviathan a watery one. There is some lack of equivalence here, but there is still some parallel. This becomes even clearer when Christian writers like John tie the fall of the angels to the actions of the dragon. Drakon is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew names Leviathan and Tannyn (loosely translated as sea monster). When one digs deeper a lot of these traditions wind up tying back together indicating some archetypal pattern, even if on the surface the parallels seem loose.
Works and Days is particularly interesting for me when it describes the metallic ages. The parallels to Hebrew and other Middle Eastern traditions is evident here as well. I remember reading something similar in Zoroastrian sources too.
If my review seems to deal with things not altogether relevant to Hesiod, I make no apologies. My interest in mythology has often been spiritual, and maybe even slightly Jungian. I find fascinating parallels between disparate mythological traditions. To me this indicates something of spiritual import. I could discuss my thoughts on this at length, but I won't do that here. Hopefully, if anyone reads this, and if my enthusiasm for the subject sparks intrigue, they will do some research themselves. I've never viewed mythology as false stories. Even when I don't look at them as necessarily historical, they always contain deep spiritual meaning to me. The Theogony is one of those works that indicates such a depth of meaning. It is, of course, an essential source of Greek mythology, but it also ties in well with other traditions besides just the Greek. Highly recommended reading.
The Book of Enoch was a kind of midrash, or expansion, on the account of the Sons of God marrying the daughters of men, as found in Genesis chapter 6. It presumes that the mythological tradition regarding the pagan gods procreating with human women was correct. In Hesiod's account, the offspring of these unions were the heroes (e.g. Hercules). Hebrew tradition acknowledges the same thing by calling these offspring Gibborim, or mighty ones, men of renown. Both in Enochic tradition, and in later Greek tradition, these offspring were also called daimons (in Hebrew, Rephaim or Shedim) when they were in spiritual form. Of course, the Greek tradition didn't necessarily see daimons as evil, but acknowledged the possibility that some were. In Enochic tradition, daimons were wholly evil. They were the spirits of the giant offspring of this illegal union. In Hebrew, the physical progeny were called the Nephilim. Most likely, the etymology originally pointed to them being fallen spirits.
What is incredibly fascinating is the way Greek tradition colored the Enochic tradition when it found its way into early Christian thought. Both the books 2 Peter and Jude are heavily influenced by this Hellenistic adaptation of Enochic tradition. The Greek version of the Book of Enoch even lifted the name for the deepest part of Hades, Tartaros, from sources like Hesiod. I don't know of any equivalent to the Greek word Tartaros in Hebrew. Sheol is certainly an equivalent of Hades, but I don't think Hebrew had a name for a deeper level of Sheol. A possible equivalent is Abaddon, but this is only a possible equivalent; the word literally means destruction, but was also often used in the Hebrew Bible for the abode of the spirits of the dead that had been destroyed due to divine judgment. When Enochic tradition made its way into Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity, it also took on Hesiodic elements. 2 Peter also uses the word Tartaros when describing the place in Hades where the fallen angels and their offspring are being kept. In Hesiod, Tartaros is where the titans are bound. The parallel here is slight, but is undoubtedly still there to a degree. It's not a perfect equivalence though. In Hellenistic Enochic tradition, it is angelic and semi-angelic entities that are held in Tartaros. In Hebrew tradition, Behemoth and Leviathan would be more aptly described as titans. Hebrew tradition accords to them an incredibly early creation and they seem to fit the description of the titans as found in Hesiod's Theogony. Slavonic Enoch describes two entities that exist at opposite extremities of creation. Undoubtedly, even though these two entities are not called Behemoth and Leviathan in this apocryphal book, they are ultimately behind the tradition. The Hesiodic titans are a product of the union of Ouranos (heaven) and Ge (earth). Behemoth was an earth titan and Leviathan a watery one. There is some lack of equivalence here, but there is still some parallel. This becomes even clearer when Christian writers like John tie the fall of the angels to the actions of the dragon. Drakon is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew names Leviathan and Tannyn (loosely translated as sea monster). When one digs deeper a lot of these traditions wind up tying back together indicating some archetypal pattern, even if on the surface the parallels seem loose.
Works and Days is particularly interesting for me when it describes the metallic ages. The parallels to Hebrew and other Middle Eastern traditions is evident here as well. I remember reading something similar in Zoroastrian sources too.
If my review seems to deal with things not altogether relevant to Hesiod, I make no apologies. My interest in mythology has often been spiritual, and maybe even slightly Jungian. I find fascinating parallels between disparate mythological traditions. To me this indicates something of spiritual import. I could discuss my thoughts on this at length, but I won't do that here. Hopefully, if anyone reads this, and if my enthusiasm for the subject sparks intrigue, they will do some research themselves. I've never viewed mythology as false stories. Even when I don't look at them as necessarily historical, they always contain deep spiritual meaning to me. The Theogony is one of those works that indicates such a depth of meaning. It is, of course, an essential source of Greek mythology, but it also ties in well with other traditions besides just the Greek. Highly recommended reading.
May 6, 2016
Theogony is on the dullish side. It moves along at a fine, brisk pace, but it's mostly just genealogy, with a few stories interspersed. I can see how it's important, as a sort of “myth central,�� but Hesiod is narrowly focused here on names, and parentage, and he's so reverent about “loud-thundering” Zeus that he can list page after page of the women Zeus slept with and the children he sired without ever giving a hint of the dramas or jealousies usually involved in these stories. Zeus comes across more as the valuable foundation stud in the Olympian breeding program than the randy, resourceful lover of later (and more entertaining) stories.
One thing that I did find interesting in Theogony, which is expanded upon in Works and Days, is the idea that Zeus is a god of justice and righteousness. That is certainly not a view that you see much in Homer, or generally depicted in other places. In Theogony it is the divinely gifted kings (gifted specifically by the Muses, not Zeus, but the Muses powers can be assumed to derive from Zeus I think) who are described as just and righteous.
In Works and Days these qualities are directly attributed to Zeus, the language used to describe Zeus sounding much like that used for God in the Hebrew scriptures.
Despite all this mightiness, Hesiod's Zeus can still be tricked out of the nicest bits of animal sacrifices by the crafty Prometheus, using the old “cover the bones with an attractive layer of fat” ploy, and out of fire (smuggled to mankind by Prometheus in a fennel tube. What is a fennel tube?), so he's not omniscient or omnipotent. Well, Hesiod is conflicted about whether Zeus actually knew about the sacrifice trick (In Theogony he says “Zeus, whose designs do not fail, recognized the trick and did not mistake it,” whereas in Works and Days Zeus was “angry because Prometheus's crooked cunning had tricked him.”) Still, as Oscar Wilde said, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative,” and no one could accuse Hesiod of a lack of imagination, anyway.
Works and Days is much more entertaining than Theogony. It is an odd mix of myth, folk proverbs, and a whole lot of advice from Hesiod to his troublesome brother, Perses, on how to be a decent human being instead of a jerk. A lot of his advice concerns home economics and farming, and one of his tips involves naked farming, which I found an … interesting idea. “This is the rule of the land, both for those who live near the sea and for those who live in the winding glens far from the swelling sea, a rich terrain: naked sow and naked drive the oxen, and naked reap, if you want to bring in Demeter's works in all due season, so that you have each crop grow in season.” It would certainly cut down on the laundry, anyway.
Not only does Hesiod advise his brother on farming, boating, and managing the help, he also tells him how to pick a good wife and how and where to urinate. And more. One can't help suspecting that, no matter how much of a clueless slacker Perses may have been, he would have had to have been extraordinarily good-natured to appreciate all this advice. (And sure, maybe Perses is just serving a literary function here, but isn't it more fun to assume he was real, and to imagine his reaction to his brother's book?)
This review is for M.L. West's translation of Theogony And Works And Days , which I note for my own information, as I also have Stanley Lombardo's version on the shelf waiting to be read. Since I don't know Greek I can't speak to the quality of translation (though, since it's an Oxford World's Classics, I'm sure it's fine), but it seemed to strike a nice balance by being modern but dignified (as dignified as you can be while discussing gods who behave like alley cats and the impropriety of passing gas in “rivers that flow to the sea.”). I subtracted a star for Theogony, which is pretty boring, so this gets four stars.
One thing that I did find interesting in Theogony, which is expanded upon in Works and Days, is the idea that Zeus is a god of justice and righteousness. That is certainly not a view that you see much in Homer, or generally depicted in other places. In Theogony it is the divinely gifted kings (gifted specifically by the Muses, not Zeus, but the Muses powers can be assumed to derive from Zeus I think) who are described as just and righteous.
”Whomsoever great Zeus' daughters favour among the kings that Zeus fosters, and turn their eyes upon him at his birth, upon his tongue they shed sweet dew, and out of his mouth the words flow honeyed; and the peoples all look to him as he decides what is to prevail with his straight judgments. His word is sure, and expertly he makes a quick end of even a great dispute.”
In Works and Days these qualities are directly attributed to Zeus, the language used to describe Zeus sounding much like that used for God in the Hebrew scriptures.
”Muses from Pieria, who glorify by songs, come to me, tell of Zeus your father in your singing. Because of him mortal men are unmentioned and mentioned, spoken and unspoken of, according to great Zeus' will. For easily he makes strong, and easily he oppresses the strong, easily he diminishes the conspicuous one and magnifies the inconspicuous, and easily he makes the crooked straight and withers the proud – Zeus who thunders on high, who dwells in the highest mansions. O hearken as thou seest and hearest, and make judgments straight with righteousness, Lord”
Despite all this mightiness, Hesiod's Zeus can still be tricked out of the nicest bits of animal sacrifices by the crafty Prometheus, using the old “cover the bones with an attractive layer of fat” ploy, and out of fire (smuggled to mankind by Prometheus in a fennel tube. What is a fennel tube?), so he's not omniscient or omnipotent. Well, Hesiod is conflicted about whether Zeus actually knew about the sacrifice trick (In Theogony he says “Zeus, whose designs do not fail, recognized the trick and did not mistake it,” whereas in Works and Days Zeus was “angry because Prometheus's crooked cunning had tricked him.”) Still, as Oscar Wilde said, “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative,” and no one could accuse Hesiod of a lack of imagination, anyway.
Works and Days is much more entertaining than Theogony. It is an odd mix of myth, folk proverbs, and a whole lot of advice from Hesiod to his troublesome brother, Perses, on how to be a decent human being instead of a jerk. A lot of his advice concerns home economics and farming, and one of his tips involves naked farming, which I found an … interesting idea. “This is the rule of the land, both for those who live near the sea and for those who live in the winding glens far from the swelling sea, a rich terrain: naked sow and naked drive the oxen, and naked reap, if you want to bring in Demeter's works in all due season, so that you have each crop grow in season.” It would certainly cut down on the laundry, anyway.
Not only does Hesiod advise his brother on farming, boating, and managing the help, he also tells him how to pick a good wife and how and where to urinate. And more. One can't help suspecting that, no matter how much of a clueless slacker Perses may have been, he would have had to have been extraordinarily good-natured to appreciate all this advice. (And sure, maybe Perses is just serving a literary function here, but isn't it more fun to assume he was real, and to imagine his reaction to his brother's book?)
This review is for M.L. West's translation of Theogony And Works And Days , which I note for my own information, as I also have Stanley Lombardo's version on the shelf waiting to be read. Since I don't know Greek I can't speak to the quality of translation (though, since it's an Oxford World's Classics, I'm sure it's fine), but it seemed to strike a nice balance by being modern but dignified (as dignified as you can be while discussing gods who behave like alley cats and the impropriety of passing gas in “rivers that flow to the sea.”). I subtracted a star for Theogony, which is pretty boring, so this gets four stars.
January 17, 2018
Antik mitolojinin doğuşuna dair muhteşem bir eser. Azra Erhat bazı bölümlerde Homeros'un eserlerini daha değerli bulsa da ben aksini düşünüyorum.
Eser adından da anlaşılacağı üzere iki bölümden oluşuyor ilk bölümde Tanrılar'ın oluşumuna dair anlatılar var ikinci bölümde de Hesiodos'a ve ailesine dair bilgi sahibi olabiliyoruz. Perses'e anlattıkları bize o döneme dair değerli ip uçları veriyor. Azra Erhat'ın yazdığı notlar son derece öğretici, Ayrıca mitolojinin doğuşuna dair etkileşimler ve Homeros ile Hesiodos'tan önceki inanışlara dair anlattıkları çok önemli. Diğer destanlar ve bunların yurdumuzdaki etkilerini de içerikte bulacaksınız.
Theogonia belli dönemlerde yeniden açılıp okunması gereken bir eser. Çok keyifliydi.
Ölmeden mutlaka okuyun!
Eser adından da anlaşılacağı üzere iki bölümden oluşuyor ilk bölümde Tanrılar'ın oluşumuna dair anlatılar var ikinci bölümde de Hesiodos'a ve ailesine dair bilgi sahibi olabiliyoruz. Perses'e anlattıkları bize o döneme dair değerli ip uçları veriyor. Azra Erhat'ın yazdığı notlar son derece öğretici, Ayrıca mitolojinin doğuşuna dair etkileşimler ve Homeros ile Hesiodos'tan önceki inanışlara dair anlattıkları çok önemli. Diğer destanlar ve bunların yurdumuzdaki etkilerini de içerikte bulacaksınız.
Theogonia belli dönemlerde yeniden açılıp okunması gereken bir eser. Çok keyifliydi.
Ölmeden mutlaka okuyun!
July 31, 2016
Yazılış biçimiyle adeta bir Antik Yunan Kutsal Kitabı niteliğindeki Hesiodos'un "Theogonia - İşler ve Günler / Theogony - Works and Days" eseri Kutsal Kitap'lara yön verdiği her halinden belli olan okunması gereken etkileyici eserlerden biri. "Theogonia"da evrenin ve insanların nasıl meydana geldiğini konu alan Hesiodos, kitabın ikinci bölümü "İşler ve Günler"de iyi bir nasıl olunur ve insanlar günlerini nasıl geçirmedilir gibi kutsal kitaplardaki benzer yapıyla okuyucuya edebiyat tarihiyle ilgili harikulade fikirler veriyor. Epimethus ile Pandora'yla Adem ile Havva arasındaki benzerlik başta olmak üzere Zeus'un insanları cezalandırması gibi bir sürü benzerlik okurken dikkatini çekecektir. Özellikle kitabın cinsiyetçi tutumunun okuyucuyu şaşkınlığa uğratacağını düşünüyorum. Öte yandan, Hesiodos'un kitabında işçi/çiftçi sınıfını odak noktasına alması döneminin ilklerinden biri. Bu arada, Azra Erhat'ın kitabın sonundaki "Gılgamış Destanı" ve "Enuma Eliş" gibi edebiyatın kökleri niteliğindeki Mezopotamya eserlerinin Antik Yunan edebiyatına nasıl yön verdiğine dair geniş incelemesi oldukça başarılı.
30.07.2016
İstanbul, Türkiye
Alp Turgut
http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...
30.07.2016
İstanbul, Türkiye
Alp Turgut
http://www.filmdoktoru.com/kitap-labo...
March 20, 2020
A translation of poems about the universe and how it is pieced together.
Matching Soundtrack :
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst
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La traduction de poèmes sur la naissance et l'organisation de l'univers.
Accompagnement musical :
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst
Matching Soundtrack :
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst
--------------
La traduction de poèmes sur la naissance et l'organisation de l'univers.
Accompagnement musical :
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity - Gustav Holst
December 9, 2023
sanat sanat için midir, toplum için midir tartışmasında “toplum da kim oluyor” ucunda bulunan adeta bir bülent onaran olarak homeros üstüne hesiodos okuyunca yine cinlerim tepeme çıktı. yemin ederim bu halkla muhatap olunmaz… yok kadınlar alemlere bela olarak gönderilmiştir de yok kardeşinle senet imzalarken yanında noter olsun… kardeşim biz senin ve etrafının metropolde bira içerken verdiğiniz mücadelelere maruz kalmak zorunda mıyız ya bilmem kaç yıl sonra? (ve zeus ağzımı yamultur…) şakası bir yana, işler ve günler’i atlayın. erkek antik yunan’da da olsa erkek. tatavası çekilmiyor… öte yandan theogonia ve azra erhat’çığımın sondaki akademik çalışması şahane. oralar için değer.
October 19, 2022
Hesiodos’un Theogoia ile İşler ve Günler’i aslında bu kitabın üçte birini yani seksen sayfasını oluşturuyor. Sonrası ise Azra Erhat’ın Hesiodos ve eserleri üzerine hazırladığı muazzam bir inceme.
Öncelikle Hesiodos’un eserleri üzerine konuşacak olursak; benim sevdiğim bölüm Yunan mitolojisinin ve tanrıların doğuşunu özetleyen Theogonia oldu. Geçen aylarda okuduğum Torunuma Yunan Mitleri’nde de başlangıç ve tanrıların tarihi anlatılırken Hesiodos ve eserlerine çokça atıf yapıldığı için hem okuyacağım tarihe hem de Hesiodos’un tükenmek bilmeyen kadın düşmanlığına aşinaydım. Ancak eski metni okumak çok daha keyifliydi elbette. Çünkü -benzerleri gibi- konsantrasyon isteyen bir metin olmasına karşın aynı zamanda da dikkatinizi çeken çok karakteristik bir dili ve yapısı var. Homeros ile karşılaştırabilecek durumda değilim tabii ki, ancak kısalığı -çok kafanız karışmadan takip edebiliyorsunuz- ve başlangıca ve “kim, kiminle nerede” formatından dolayı daha rahat okunuyor. Ancak aynı şeyleri ikinci bölüm için söyleyemeyeceğim. İşler ve Günler kısmı okurken biraz sıkıldığım, “keşke iki kardeş oturup konuşsaydınız da bu kadar -bizlere kadar- uzamasaydı konu” diye diye bitirdim. Genel olarak; klasik dönemde Yunanistan’da tarlada ve denizde çalışmanın incelikleri, takvimleri, bölgenin gelenekleri, yasakları ve “kardeşinize dahi güvenmeyin, tek oğul en hayırlı evlattır” temaları üzerinden gündelik hayatı anlatıyor.
Ancak benim için bu kitabı asıl güzelleştiren nokta ise Azra Erhat’ın Hesiodos Eseri ve Kaynakları” başlığı altında, bütün eseri tane tane açıkladığı, Homeros ile olan yarışmaya değindiği ve anlatılan efsane ve geleneklerin Anadolu kültürü ile bağlantılarını açıkladığı 130 sayfalık inceleme kısmı. Yunan mitolojisinin temel taşlarını kendisinin elinden okuduğumuz için çok şanslıyız. Zira hem çevirisi, hem sözlüğü hem de bütün eserlere eklediği açıklamalarıyla, mitoloji gibi kompleks bir alanı okurları için anlaşılabilir kılmış durumda. Bana kitabın Portekizce baskısıyla eşlik eden arkadaşımla konuştuğumuzda bu detayın ne kadar önemli olduğunu bir kere daha anladım açıkcası.
Öncelikle Hesiodos’un eserleri üzerine konuşacak olursak; benim sevdiğim bölüm Yunan mitolojisinin ve tanrıların doğuşunu özetleyen Theogonia oldu. Geçen aylarda okuduğum Torunuma Yunan Mitleri’nde de başlangıç ve tanrıların tarihi anlatılırken Hesiodos ve eserlerine çokça atıf yapıldığı için hem okuyacağım tarihe hem de Hesiodos’un tükenmek bilmeyen kadın düşmanlığına aşinaydım. Ancak eski metni okumak çok daha keyifliydi elbette. Çünkü -benzerleri gibi- konsantrasyon isteyen bir metin olmasına karşın aynı zamanda da dikkatinizi çeken çok karakteristik bir dili ve yapısı var. Homeros ile karşılaştırabilecek durumda değilim tabii ki, ancak kısalığı -çok kafanız karışmadan takip edebiliyorsunuz- ve başlangıca ve “kim, kiminle nerede” formatından dolayı daha rahat okunuyor. Ancak aynı şeyleri ikinci bölüm için söyleyemeyeceğim. İşler ve Günler kısmı okurken biraz sıkıldığım, “keşke iki kardeş oturup konuşsaydınız da bu kadar -bizlere kadar- uzamasaydı konu” diye diye bitirdim. Genel olarak; klasik dönemde Yunanistan’da tarlada ve denizde çalışmanın incelikleri, takvimleri, bölgenin gelenekleri, yasakları ve “kardeşinize dahi güvenmeyin, tek oğul en hayırlı evlattır” temaları üzerinden gündelik hayatı anlatıyor.
Ancak benim için bu kitabı asıl güzelleştiren nokta ise Azra Erhat’ın Hesiodos Eseri ve Kaynakları” başlığı altında, bütün eseri tane tane açıkladığı, Homeros ile olan yarışmaya değindiği ve anlatılan efsane ve geleneklerin Anadolu kültürü ile bağlantılarını açıkladığı 130 sayfalık inceleme kısmı. Yunan mitolojisinin temel taşlarını kendisinin elinden okuduğumuz için çok şanslıyız. Zira hem çevirisi, hem sözlüğü hem de bütün eserlere eklediği açıklamalarıyla, mitoloji gibi kompleks bir alanı okurları için anlaşılabilir kılmış durumda. Bana kitabın Portekizce baskısıyla eşlik eden arkadaşımla konuştuğumuzda bu detayın ne kadar önemli olduğunu bir kere daha anladım açıkcası.
February 17, 2022
2021-12-01
I read the "Works and Days" part of the book, but not the "Theogony" part.
2 Separate works in the same Kindle edition.
Fascinating, but not as long or deep as I thought it would be.
This part of the book focuses on domestic/economic/living issues, unlike Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which dealt more with war. Both dealt with the gods.
Many admonitions on how to lead a good life.
Great on the benefits for self and others of Work, vs. idleness.
Some interesting guidelines on farm tips (e.g., when to plant what, based on star positions - time of year) Probably very practical back when it was written, and for many years after too.
Short, readable book.
This Kindle edition was crippled by not having links to the endnotes, which would have been very helpful to easily use while reading.
Translation seemed reasonable, but not stellar.
I read the "Works and Days" part of the book, but not the "Theogony" part.
2 Separate works in the same Kindle edition.
Fascinating, but not as long or deep as I thought it would be.
This part of the book focuses on domestic/economic/living issues, unlike Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, which dealt more with war. Both dealt with the gods.
Many admonitions on how to lead a good life.
Great on the benefits for self and others of Work, vs. idleness.
Some interesting guidelines on farm tips (e.g., when to plant what, based on star positions - time of year) Probably very practical back when it was written, and for many years after too.
Short, readable book.
This Kindle edition was crippled by not having links to the endnotes, which would have been very helpful to easily use while reading.
Translation seemed reasonable, but not stellar.
July 30, 2020
"Hesiod is a less familiar name to the general reader than Homer, Aeschylus, or Plato, and no one would claim that he is as great a writer as they."
I'm relieved that the introduction says this because I found Theogony and Works and Days somewhat dull. I picked it up because I have a personal project to read ancient sources of mythology (and I actually like doing so) and wanted to read Hesiod in preparation for reading Ovid. I'm glad I read it and it's interesting overall, but I can't lie, I fell asleep twice trying to finish this very short book.
Theogony of Hesiod is one of the earliest texts available on Greek mythology. It recounts the Greek creation myths. It starts with the earliest beginnings and how the universe came to be: Chaos, Gaia (Earth) and Eros (Love/Desire), then continues to Uranus (Sky)'s rule, then Kronos' rule, then the Titanomachy (the war between the Titans and the Olympians) and Zeus' rule and the birth of younger gods and their genealogy.
The Works and Days picks up with the myths of Pandora, Prometheus, and the Five Races and then talks about Hesiod's own life, the conflict of good and bad, advice about domestic life and agriculture, beliefs about specific days of the month (and the mandatory warning about how women are evil and untrustworthy and no wise man should ever trust a woman etc.).¹
It's good to read these weird and fascinating myths in the most original form that's left from ancient times, but Hesiod doesn't have the charm of Homer and his poems are boring. Theogony reads like the book of Genesis and parts of it are dedicated to reciting everyone's names:
This is hard to follow and, really, boring to read. It also depends on the edition you get, the one I quoted from is the driest by far but thankfully, some editions have included pictures of ancient artworks related to the myths to make it more interesting to read.
Editions and Translations:
- I initially got Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica which is available for free on Project Gutenberg. This edition, even though it's complete and has a long and nice introduction is too dry and tiresome to read.
- The Oxford Edition (the one from the review) is still dry but it's annotated (helpful) and I really liked the introduction.
- But the best one I found is “The Poems of Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, and the Shield of Herakles”, translated by Barry Powell. In this edition, the poems are written in a segmented line format (easier on the eyes), it includes genealogy charts (easier to make sense of who is who) and it includes many interesting pictures of historic artworks that make it a lot more interesting to read (Looks like I'm seven years old and I prefer picture books, but seriously, the pictures help).
Also, the introduction of this edition is the most complete and most interesting: there's a general intro as well as individual ones for each poem.
I'm not adding it because I didn't read the Shield of Herakles, but if you want to read Hesiod, this edition looks like the best one to get. (I can't comment on the quality and accuracy of translations, this is the recommendation of a common reader who's easily susceptible to boredom, likes pictures and illustrations and prefers to stay away from plain, boring bible-like texts.)²
Hesiod was alright. I certainly won't remember every detail I read in Theogony (too many names!) but I'll be using it as a reference and to "fact check" myths later on.
¹ Still hoping to find one single ancient text that isn't sexist. I know I won't find it, but I'm still hoping.
² The only reason why I would willingly pick up a text from an ancient religion is that no one will try to persuade me to actually believe in ancient Greek myths, so I can read it for the fun and weird and silly stuff without much annoyance.
2.5 stars?
I'm relieved that the introduction says this because I found Theogony and Works and Days somewhat dull. I picked it up because I have a personal project to read ancient sources of mythology (and I actually like doing so) and wanted to read Hesiod in preparation for reading Ovid. I'm glad I read it and it's interesting overall, but I can't lie, I fell asleep twice trying to finish this very short book.
Theogony of Hesiod is one of the earliest texts available on Greek mythology. It recounts the Greek creation myths. It starts with the earliest beginnings and how the universe came to be: Chaos, Gaia (Earth) and Eros (Love/Desire), then continues to Uranus (Sky)'s rule, then Kronos' rule, then the Titanomachy (the war between the Titans and the Olympians) and Zeus' rule and the birth of younger gods and their genealogy.
The Works and Days picks up with the myths of Pandora, Prometheus, and the Five Races and then talks about Hesiod's own life, the conflict of good and bad, advice about domestic life and agriculture, beliefs about specific days of the month (and the mandatory warning about how women are evil and untrustworthy and no wise man should ever trust a woman etc.).¹
It's good to read these weird and fascinating myths in the most original form that's left from ancient times, but Hesiod doesn't have the charm of Homer and his poems are boring. Theogony reads like the book of Genesis and parts of it are dedicated to reciting everyone's names:
“(ll. 334-345) And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander.”
This is hard to follow and, really, boring to read. It also depends on the edition you get, the one I quoted from is the driest by far but thankfully, some editions have included pictures of ancient artworks related to the myths to make it more interesting to read.
Editions and Translations:
- I initially got Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica which is available for free on Project Gutenberg. This edition, even though it's complete and has a long and nice introduction is too dry and tiresome to read.
- The Oxford Edition (the one from the review) is still dry but it's annotated (helpful) and I really liked the introduction.
- But the best one I found is “The Poems of Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, and the Shield of Herakles”, translated by Barry Powell. In this edition, the poems are written in a segmented line format (easier on the eyes), it includes genealogy charts (easier to make sense of who is who) and it includes many interesting pictures of historic artworks that make it a lot more interesting to read (Looks like I'm seven years old and I prefer picture books, but seriously, the pictures help).
Also, the introduction of this edition is the most complete and most interesting: there's a general intro as well as individual ones for each poem.
I'm not adding it because I didn't read the Shield of Herakles, but if you want to read Hesiod, this edition looks like the best one to get. (I can't comment on the quality and accuracy of translations, this is the recommendation of a common reader who's easily susceptible to boredom, likes pictures and illustrations and prefers to stay away from plain, boring bible-like texts.)²
Hesiod was alright. I certainly won't remember every detail I read in Theogony (too many names!) but I'll be using it as a reference and to "fact check" myths later on.
¹ Still hoping to find one single ancient text that isn't sexist. I know I won't find it, but I'm still hoping.
² The only reason why I would willingly pick up a text from an ancient religion is that no one will try to persuade me to actually believe in ancient Greek myths, so I can read it for the fun and weird and silly stuff without much annoyance.
2.5 stars?
September 25, 2018
Quite often, when reading texts from the Roman and Classical Greek world, one encounters references to the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. They're often mentioned in the same breath. I think most people - even those who have no interest at all in reading books - have heard of Homer, even if only for his yellow namesake.
Hesiod, on the other hand, is now much less famous. His poems have a sort of dusty obscurity. There are two of his works still extant. Theogony is a poem describing the genealogy of the gods, and Works and Days is a poem giving advice for life (although a lot of that advice is related to farming). I often hear that these poems are very dry - but I'm not sure that I wholly agree with that. Perhaps it's that my translation (Dorothea Wender) was simply better than some of the others - I'm not sure.
Regardless, if you want to take on Hesiod, it is best to have a fairly strong knowledge of Greek mythology. Despite Theogony ostensibly attempting to introduce many of the gods, without preexisting knowledge of who they are, I think the whole text would be terribly confusing. The Greeks would have been familiar with these characters from their cultural background. Unfortunately, Demeter, Hephaestus and Artemis (for example) are names meaning rather a lot less to modern readers than to the old Greeks.
Hesiod, on the other hand, is now much less famous. His poems have a sort of dusty obscurity. There are two of his works still extant. Theogony is a poem describing the genealogy of the gods, and Works and Days is a poem giving advice for life (although a lot of that advice is related to farming). I often hear that these poems are very dry - but I'm not sure that I wholly agree with that. Perhaps it's that my translation (Dorothea Wender) was simply better than some of the others - I'm not sure.
Regardless, if you want to take on Hesiod, it is best to have a fairly strong knowledge of Greek mythology. Despite Theogony ostensibly attempting to introduce many of the gods, without preexisting knowledge of who they are, I think the whole text would be terribly confusing. The Greeks would have been familiar with these characters from their cultural background. Unfortunately, Demeter, Hephaestus and Artemis (for example) are names meaning rather a lot less to modern readers than to the old Greeks.
February 24, 2023
Essa edição contém 3 partes: Teogonia, que vai nos contar sobre as origens do mundo, dos deuses e dos homens; trabalhos e dias, que é um pouco autobiográfico, Hesíodo nos conta sobre a partilha da herança com o irmão e dá conselhos ao mesmo, uma vez que este apesar de passar a perna no Hesíodo e ficar com a maior parte, tinha um carácter preguiçoso e procurou o irmão algumas vezes precisando de ajuda financeira; e um pequeno e resumido glossário dos Deuses e principais humanos e heróis citados na obra.
A leitura é ótima para nos situar no contesto temporal e histórico, compreender como pensavam os gregos, a que davam importância, como viam o mundo e a condição humana.
A obra começa com um agradecimento e reconhecimento as musas, que segundo o autor são a fonte de todas as histórias contadas na obra.
Me lembrou o Enuma Elish, não sei se porque ainda é bastante fresco na minha memória... Ambos relatam a cosmogenesis, surgimento/nascimento dos Deuses e dos homens embarcando 3 gerações de Deuses e o conflito e suplantação da mais velha pela mais nova tendo como consequência, de uma forma ou outra o mundo material.
Dá para perceber que os Helenos personificavam praticamente tudo. Da natureza as características emocionais e até mesmo ações humanas. Muito legal, como se não houvesse divisão na percepção do homem, como se a consciência da profundidade humana fosse percebida de forma externa através dos Deuses e da natureza. Por tanto, a vida humana era totalmente regida pela vontade dos Deuses.
Em trabalhos e dias, Hesíodo nos mostra a ética e moral de sua época, a importância e consequência de agir ou não conforme o justo e bem visto pelos Deuses. Fala sobre as 5 raças ou gerações humanas, nos conta sobre alguns mitos como o de Prometeu, Pandora... Nos situa no estilo de vida de uma sociedade agrária e como conseguiam naquela época desenvolver e tirar o melhor proveito dos cultivos. Então, conseguimos entender o surgimento e a importância dos Deuses que personificam a natureza, dos astros e estrelas, da capacidade de observação e identificação com o ambiente.
Também nos dá uma pincelada sobre a astrologia e como tinha importância na gestão do dia a dia, do trabalho no campo e do sustento. Trabalho, por sinal parece ser o centro de todos os conselhos, todos giram em torno dele. O trabalho é o fator principal para se ter uma boa vida e ser um bom homem.
O glossário dos Deuses é bem curtinho, apenas citando as principais características de cada um , origem e parentesco.
Gostei muito de ter lido. Vai me ajudar a compreender melhor muitos outros textos e referências além de ser capaz de perceber algumas coisas que ainda são muito presentes e ainda muito marcantes nos dias de hoje. Alguns dos Deus ainda são bastante representados no séc XXI ;-)
A leitura é ótima para nos situar no contesto temporal e histórico, compreender como pensavam os gregos, a que davam importância, como viam o mundo e a condição humana.
A obra começa com um agradecimento e reconhecimento as musas, que segundo o autor são a fonte de todas as histórias contadas na obra.
Me lembrou o Enuma Elish, não sei se porque ainda é bastante fresco na minha memória... Ambos relatam a cosmogenesis, surgimento/nascimento dos Deuses e dos homens embarcando 3 gerações de Deuses e o conflito e suplantação da mais velha pela mais nova tendo como consequência, de uma forma ou outra o mundo material.
Dá para perceber que os Helenos personificavam praticamente tudo. Da natureza as características emocionais e até mesmo ações humanas. Muito legal, como se não houvesse divisão na percepção do homem, como se a consciência da profundidade humana fosse percebida de forma externa através dos Deuses e da natureza. Por tanto, a vida humana era totalmente regida pela vontade dos Deuses.
Em trabalhos e dias, Hesíodo nos mostra a ética e moral de sua época, a importância e consequência de agir ou não conforme o justo e bem visto pelos Deuses. Fala sobre as 5 raças ou gerações humanas, nos conta sobre alguns mitos como o de Prometeu, Pandora... Nos situa no estilo de vida de uma sociedade agrária e como conseguiam naquela época desenvolver e tirar o melhor proveito dos cultivos. Então, conseguimos entender o surgimento e a importância dos Deuses que personificam a natureza, dos astros e estrelas, da capacidade de observação e identificação com o ambiente.
Também nos dá uma pincelada sobre a astrologia e como tinha importância na gestão do dia a dia, do trabalho no campo e do sustento. Trabalho, por sinal parece ser o centro de todos os conselhos, todos giram em torno dele. O trabalho é o fator principal para se ter uma boa vida e ser um bom homem.
O glossário dos Deuses é bem curtinho, apenas citando as principais características de cada um , origem e parentesco.
Gostei muito de ter lido. Vai me ajudar a compreender melhor muitos outros textos e referências além de ser capaz de perceber algumas coisas que ainda são muito presentes e ainda muito marcantes nos dias de hoje. Alguns dos Deus ainda são bastante representados no séc XXI ;-)
July 12, 2018
Ne zaman canım sıkkın olsa açıyorum bir Antik Yunan kitabı, oh benden iyisi yok.
Kahramanlıklar, öğütler... İlyada'ya kaptırdığım kadar elbette kaptıramadım. Birincisi savaş destanı değil anlatılanlar, haliyle bir olay örgüsü de yok. Bambaşka iki tür ve tarz. Öğüt kısmından bol bol var kitapta. Bunun nesi iyi? Çok fazla modern metin, sofistike metin de bazen sıkabiliyor. Öyle durumlarda temele geri dönmek iyi geliyor bazen. Bin yıllardır hiçbir şeyin değişmemesi hem rahatlatıyor hem de bir şekilde rahatsız ediyor.
Bir kozmogoni kitabı Theogonia; ama yüzde yüz dikkatli okuma yapmadığım doğru. Onca Tanrı ve yarı Tanrı, kim kimden nasıl doğmuş büyük ihtimalle kendisi bile karıştırır. Musalardan yardım isteyip onlara övgüler düzse de kendisinin ilham dediği hayal gücü aşırı sağlam Hesiodos'un ne de olsa.
İşler ve Günler ise adeta "çiftçilere öğütler" nitelikli bir metindi. En çok vurgulanan öğütler de "emeksiz yemek olmaz", " başkasının payına gözünü dikme" olsa gerekti kısa metin boyunca.
Kitapta hoşuma giden başka bir şey Prometheus ve Epimetheus isimlerinin anlamları. Prometheus büyük olan kardeş ve adının anlamı aşağı yukarı "öngören, önceden düşünen" demek. Epimetheus ise küçük kardeş ve adının anlamı "aklı sonradan gelen, sonra düşünen". Hesiodos'un küçük olan kardeşe bol bol öğüt vermesi ve kardeşinle bile anlaşma yaparken şahit bulundur demesi kendi yaşantısıyla ilgiliymiş.
Başka bir konu ise ikinci kısımdaki çevirmen açıklamaları. Yunan kaynaklarını Anadolu'ya bağlama ateşi ile metin karşılaştırmaları yapılmış bol bol. Hitit, Sümer metinleri ile de Theogonia ve İşler ve Günler karşılaştırılmış. Her ne kadar çok benzediği iddia edilse de birebir karşılaştırılan metinlerde dahi öyle ciddi bir benzerlik göremedim. Yine dönüp dolaşılıp "bu Yunan hep Anadolu Medeniyeti işte" konulu bir kompozisyona dönüştürülmüş yapılan yorumlar. Ha Yunan ha Batı Anadolu o tarihlerde oysa. Medeniyet aynı. Yine de Eyüboğlu ve Arza Erhat'tan iyi bilecek değilim pek tabii. Anlatı olarak, Hesiodos, Anadolulu ve kaba saba; Homeros, Yunan ve incelikli kabul edilmiş edebiyat çevresinde. Anlattıkları konular da insanlar da biraz öyle bir intiba bırakıyor. Gene de aynı coğrafya. Tüm medeniyet -temsili olarak örneklersem- ne Atina'dan ne de Çanakkale'den çıkmış olabilir. Anadolu'suz Yunan, Yunan'sız Anadolu olmaz ve galiba her medeniyetin öncesinde başka bir medeniyet daha bulunuyor aranırsa.
Kahramanlıklar, öğütler... İlyada'ya kaptırdığım kadar elbette kaptıramadım. Birincisi savaş destanı değil anlatılanlar, haliyle bir olay örgüsü de yok. Bambaşka iki tür ve tarz. Öğüt kısmından bol bol var kitapta. Bunun nesi iyi? Çok fazla modern metin, sofistike metin de bazen sıkabiliyor. Öyle durumlarda temele geri dönmek iyi geliyor bazen. Bin yıllardır hiçbir şeyin değişmemesi hem rahatlatıyor hem de bir şekilde rahatsız ediyor.
Bir kozmogoni kitabı Theogonia; ama yüzde yüz dikkatli okuma yapmadığım doğru. Onca Tanrı ve yarı Tanrı, kim kimden nasıl doğmuş büyük ihtimalle kendisi bile karıştırır. Musalardan yardım isteyip onlara övgüler düzse de kendisinin ilham dediği hayal gücü aşırı sağlam Hesiodos'un ne de olsa.
İşler ve Günler ise adeta "çiftçilere öğütler" nitelikli bir metindi. En çok vurgulanan öğütler de "emeksiz yemek olmaz", " başkasının payına gözünü dikme" olsa gerekti kısa metin boyunca.
Kitapta hoşuma giden başka bir şey Prometheus ve Epimetheus isimlerinin anlamları. Prometheus büyük olan kardeş ve adının anlamı aşağı yukarı "öngören, önceden düşünen" demek. Epimetheus ise küçük kardeş ve adının anlamı "aklı sonradan gelen, sonra düşünen". Hesiodos'un küçük olan kardeşe bol bol öğüt vermesi ve kardeşinle bile anlaşma yaparken şahit bulundur demesi kendi yaşantısıyla ilgiliymiş.
Başka bir konu ise ikinci kısımdaki çevirmen açıklamaları. Yunan kaynaklarını Anadolu'ya bağlama ateşi ile metin karşılaştırmaları yapılmış bol bol. Hitit, Sümer metinleri ile de Theogonia ve İşler ve Günler karşılaştırılmış. Her ne kadar çok benzediği iddia edilse de birebir karşılaştırılan metinlerde dahi öyle ciddi bir benzerlik göremedim. Yine dönüp dolaşılıp "bu Yunan hep Anadolu Medeniyeti işte" konulu bir kompozisyona dönüştürülmüş yapılan yorumlar. Ha Yunan ha Batı Anadolu o tarihlerde oysa. Medeniyet aynı. Yine de Eyüboğlu ve Arza Erhat'tan iyi bilecek değilim pek tabii. Anlatı olarak, Hesiodos, Anadolulu ve kaba saba; Homeros, Yunan ve incelikli kabul edilmiş edebiyat çevresinde. Anlattıkları konular da insanlar da biraz öyle bir intiba bırakıyor. Gene de aynı coğrafya. Tüm medeniyet -temsili olarak örneklersem- ne Atina'dan ne de Çanakkale'den çıkmış olabilir. Anadolu'suz Yunan, Yunan'sız Anadolu olmaz ve galiba her medeniyetin öncesinde başka bir medeniyet daha bulunuyor aranırsa.
March 26, 2015
En primer lugar existió el Caos.
La frase tiene su encanto y me hubiera gustado que el libro mantuviera ese tono. Teogonía es ideal para los amantes de mitología que quieran remitirse a uno de los recuentos más antiguos de los dioses. No se limita a eso: también es un poema sobre el origen del mundo desde una de sus tantas perspectivas. No hay un argumento fijo para reponer. Creo que sería mucho más certera si dijera que esto está conformado por partes temáticas (una cuenta el origen, otra menciona las esposas de Zeus, otra enumera a las Nereidas y así) que conviven entre sí bajo el hilo conductor de la creación. Su lectura es muy rápida, pero me pareció sobrecargada de nombres, considerando que el texto es breve. En la Ilíada, el peso de las enumeraciones se vuelve llevadero por su extensión. En ciertas ocasiones tuve la sensación de que Hesíodo estaba agolpando los nombres y hasta siendo escueto al contar ciertos mitos muy conocidos.
Trabajos y días, por otro lado, es un manual para el hombre trabajador (las mujeres quedan excluidas, salvo cuando se las menciona como un mal necesario). Hesíodo, que fue agricultor, elabora una lista de consejos para aprovechar la tierra de acuerdo al calendario y hasta para elegir correctamente a los ayudantes. Es curioso notar la importancia de los dioses a la hora de realizar una labor (ni hablar de concebir hijos), sobre todo porque en el imaginario popular Zeus y compañía sólo son seres maniqueos que ocasionalmente tienen incidencia en los conflictos (incluyo los fenómenos meteorológicos entre ellos) del mundo terrenal.
Ambas son lecturas ligeras, con pasajes que pueden irritar a alguien o hacerlo sonreír un poco, debido a la actual ridiculez de algunos consejos. No son poemas de una belleza elaborada, hecho por el cual creo que el foco está sobre el contenido “didáctico”. Lo recomendaría a quienes estén interesados en ahondar en el árbol genealógico de dioses y monstruos, además de husmear en las costumbres de los mortales de aquella época.
Nota: puede que amplíe la reseña cuando el resfrío me deje en paz.
La frase tiene su encanto y me hubiera gustado que el libro mantuviera ese tono. Teogonía es ideal para los amantes de mitología que quieran remitirse a uno de los recuentos más antiguos de los dioses. No se limita a eso: también es un poema sobre el origen del mundo desde una de sus tantas perspectivas. No hay un argumento fijo para reponer. Creo que sería mucho más certera si dijera que esto está conformado por partes temáticas (una cuenta el origen, otra menciona las esposas de Zeus, otra enumera a las Nereidas y así) que conviven entre sí bajo el hilo conductor de la creación. Su lectura es muy rápida, pero me pareció sobrecargada de nombres, considerando que el texto es breve. En la Ilíada, el peso de las enumeraciones se vuelve llevadero por su extensión. En ciertas ocasiones tuve la sensación de que Hesíodo estaba agolpando los nombres y hasta siendo escueto al contar ciertos mitos muy conocidos.
Trabajos y días, por otro lado, es un manual para el hombre trabajador (las mujeres quedan excluidas, salvo cuando se las menciona como un mal necesario). Hesíodo, que fue agricultor, elabora una lista de consejos para aprovechar la tierra de acuerdo al calendario y hasta para elegir correctamente a los ayudantes. Es curioso notar la importancia de los dioses a la hora de realizar una labor (ni hablar de concebir hijos), sobre todo porque en el imaginario popular Zeus y compañía sólo son seres maniqueos que ocasionalmente tienen incidencia en los conflictos (incluyo los fenómenos meteorológicos entre ellos) del mundo terrenal.
Ambas son lecturas ligeras, con pasajes que pueden irritar a alguien o hacerlo sonreír un poco, debido a la actual ridiculez de algunos consejos. No son poemas de una belleza elaborada, hecho por el cual creo que el foco está sobre el contenido “didáctico”. Lo recomendaría a quienes estén interesados en ahondar en el árbol genealógico de dioses y monstruos, además de husmear en las costumbres de los mortales de aquella época.
Nota: puede que amplíe la reseña cuando el resfrío me deje en paz.
August 9, 2022
Hesiod's WORKS AND DAYS (ca. 700 BCE?) is one of the most prominent works of ancient literature and a truly extraordinary poem. It consists of a mix of proverbs, edifying stories, myths and agricultural advise, all woven together in a condescending diatribe: Hesiod wise and hardworking, addresses his brother Perses, a lazy "jerk", a good-for-nothing. Apparently Perses has cheated Hesiod from a part of his inheritance by paying off some "bribe-eating kings". He has squandered the money and now has come to Hesiod begging to him. Hesiod is incensed.
Hesiod criticizes Perses again and again while trying to explain that life is difficult and, inevitably, we must all work hard. How can it be otherwise, when our lives are ruled by the gods? To explain why life is so difficult he tells his downtrodden brother the story of Prometheus and Pandora. Then Hesiod narrates the tale of "The Five Ages", another story which communicates Hesiod's pessimistic worldview. He offers moral counsel, proverbs and a final set of superstitions regarding which days of the month are best to do certain things. All in all, life is tough for humans in Hesiod's poem, but if you work hard, if you are prudent and thrifty, if you stay in synch with the seasons, you can still prosper and find joy in living.
THEOGONY is a different kind of text. This poem is a cosmology and a theogony. Hesiod compiles several disparate strands of Ancient Greek legend and wires them together into a single story. He wants to explain where the gods came from. Hesiod did not invent the Greek Pantheon: he drew from many different traditions and embellished his story with creativity.
Hesiod's THEOGONY describes how a generation of primeval elementals came into being, followed by a generation of titans, and finally, a generation of gods. Hundreds of creatures are included in this riotous and grotesque tale of viciousness, incest, cannibalism, and tyranny. The gods eventually triumph and establish a cosmic order under the leadership of Zeus.
The Hackett edition, translated by Stanley Lombardo includes an extremely useful introduction by Robert Lamberton. The translation is superb: the lyrical voice of Hesiod, the rustic, rural poet inspired by the Muses of Helikon, is recreated eloquently and convincingly by the translator. I highly recommend this edition.
Hesiod criticizes Perses again and again while trying to explain that life is difficult and, inevitably, we must all work hard. How can it be otherwise, when our lives are ruled by the gods? To explain why life is so difficult he tells his downtrodden brother the story of Prometheus and Pandora. Then Hesiod narrates the tale of "The Five Ages", another story which communicates Hesiod's pessimistic worldview. He offers moral counsel, proverbs and a final set of superstitions regarding which days of the month are best to do certain things. All in all, life is tough for humans in Hesiod's poem, but if you work hard, if you are prudent and thrifty, if you stay in synch with the seasons, you can still prosper and find joy in living.
THEOGONY is a different kind of text. This poem is a cosmology and a theogony. Hesiod compiles several disparate strands of Ancient Greek legend and wires them together into a single story. He wants to explain where the gods came from. Hesiod did not invent the Greek Pantheon: he drew from many different traditions and embellished his story with creativity.
Hesiod's THEOGONY describes how a generation of primeval elementals came into being, followed by a generation of titans, and finally, a generation of gods. Hundreds of creatures are included in this riotous and grotesque tale of viciousness, incest, cannibalism, and tyranny. The gods eventually triumph and establish a cosmic order under the leadership of Zeus.
The Hackett edition, translated by Stanley Lombardo includes an extremely useful introduction by Robert Lamberton. The translation is superb: the lyrical voice of Hesiod, the rustic, rural poet inspired by the Muses of Helikon, is recreated eloquently and convincingly by the translator. I highly recommend this edition.
December 1, 2023
Rotting Christ'ın Theogonia albüm adı vesilesiyle merakla okudum.
"Bu o Theogonia mı?" derken...
İlk kısım yaratılış (daha doğrusu tanrıların doğuşu - Theogonia), ikinci kısım yaşayış (İşler ve Günler) üzerine Hesiodos'un (M.Ö. 8. yy.) hayal gücü ve deneyimleriyle...
Azra Erhat enfes bilgilerle donatmış kitabı, Anadolu, Doğu kaynakları, Yunan klasikleri ve mitoloji üzerine ders niteliğinde eh tabii kişisel yaklaşımları da yer yer düşündürücü öznellikte, böylesi bir birikimde neden olmasın...
Zevkle okudum.
"Bu o Theogonia mı?" derken...
İlk kısım yaratılış (daha doğrusu tanrıların doğuşu - Theogonia), ikinci kısım yaşayış (İşler ve Günler) üzerine Hesiodos'un (M.Ö. 8. yy.) hayal gücü ve deneyimleriyle...
Azra Erhat enfes bilgilerle donatmış kitabı, Anadolu, Doğu kaynakları, Yunan klasikleri ve mitoloji üzerine ders niteliğinde eh tabii kişisel yaklaşımları da yer yer düşündürücü öznellikte, böylesi bir birikimde neden olmasın...
Zevkle okudum.
March 3, 2019
İçerisinde çok doğru öğütler olmasına rağmen yanlış şeyler de bulunmakta. Ve şuraya en sevdiğim mısrayı da ekleyi vereyim;
Çanakçı çanakçıya özenir, dülger dülgere,
Dilenci dilenciyi kıskanır, ozan ozanı.
Ve gelelim Theohonia'ya, 700'lü yıllar ait olan kitaba. Kitabın bir bölümünde kadınlara ağza gelinmeyecek hakaretler etmişler. Hatta ve hatta erkeklere bir ceza olarak gönderildiğimiz, dışlandığımız ile ilgili bir yazı okudum. Yazar biz kadınları paragöz ve boş beyinli biri olarak görmüş. Hiç bir değerimiz olmadığını ortaya atmış.
Neticeye gelirsek yazar şu anda dünyada yaşıyor olsaydı yazdıklarından ötürü ne hissederdi merak ediyorum.
Çanakçı çanakçıya özenir, dülger dülgere,
Dilenci dilenciyi kıskanır, ozan ozanı.
Ve gelelim Theohonia'ya, 700'lü yıllar ait olan kitaba. Kitabın bir bölümünde kadınlara ağza gelinmeyecek hakaretler etmişler. Hatta ve hatta erkeklere bir ceza olarak gönderildiğimiz, dışlandığımız ile ilgili bir yazı okudum. Yazar biz kadınları paragöz ve boş beyinli biri olarak görmüş. Hiç bir değerimiz olmadığını ortaya atmış.
Neticeye gelirsek yazar şu anda dünyada yaşıyor olsaydı yazdıklarından ötürü ne hissederdi merak ediyorum.
August 23, 2014
Advice on living a prosperous life
26 October 2012
Okay, this book is both the Theogony and The Works and Days, but I simply want to write about the Works and Days here simply because I cannot find the book under a single listing (unlike the Theogony). Anyway, this is also the version of Hesiod that I own (though I believe it was given to me by a friend when I studied Classical Studies way back in the mists of history).
The Works and Days is advice on how to live the life of a farmer, and is written to Hesiod's brother, who appears to be one of those lazy people (you known the types that don't have a job and sponge of government handouts). Whether he listened to Hesiod or not is another matter because I suspect that a lot of other people since then have listened to him and have hopefully become profitable farmers. In a way, this little book is a lot like the biblical book Proverbs, which also warns against idleness and praises hard work. However, this was written in a different time where pretty much everybody was either an independent businessman or a small scale and self sufficient farmer. Mind you, it appears from this book that we are dealing with a society that has a developed agricultural system and also live in villages as we hear of trades people such as blacksmiths. Also, remember that even though agriculture had developed, many of the farms were still small and clustered close to the main village, not just for protection, but also for ease of trade. We also note that Hesiod talks about becoming a merchant and hints for the best time to sail, so he is obviously a lot more than the simple shepherd from the slopes of Mount Helicon that he claims to be in the Theogony.
Mind you, this book isn't just a plain guidebook to prosperity, but opens with a mythological introduction where we hear of the races of humanity and their degradation. It is also interesting that in one way they degrade, but in another way they grow stronger. The order of the races, as outlined by metals, is Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron, but notice how the order of metals also indicates something different. While the metals become less valuable, they become more practical. Gold is very valuable, but pretty much useless for anything beyond making jewellery and using as a currency. Silver is better, but rare and expensive. Bronze is better, but not as good as iron, and while iron is seen as pretty dull, it was the best metal at the time for agricultural production (as well as for killing each other).
Now, the golden race seem to be a race of semi-divine individuals who were free from toil and lived bountifully, yet they vanished, but it is unclear as to what actually happened. We are told that the Earth covered them up and they became spirits. Biblically this can be related to the race of humanity prior to the fall, as pretty much everything that is said here can be related to pre-fall humanity. While Christians may jump up and say that they did work, remember that Hesiod tells us that they were free from toil, not that they did not work. Much of this is speculation though, but I will continue.
The next race we have is the silver race which coincides with the antediluvian civilisation. Hesiod tells us that they were long lived, but violent amongst themselves. There was no order and they rejected the gods. It is interesting that we see in the Bible a reflection of this, in particular about how they are considered to be violent and evil and living only after themselves. Just as God turned on the Antediluvian race and destroyed them, so did Zeus destroy the silver race.
The bronze race seems to coincide with the immediate post-diluvian race of humanity, and possibly humanity prior to the Tower of Babel. Mind you, Hesiod describes this race as mainly hunter-gatherers who had no real technology, and simply lived by raiding others and taking what was available. This does not coincide with the people of Babel, who seemed to be more technologically advanced than a group of simple hunter-gatherers, but maybe that is because the race of heroes falls in here, before we move to the current race, being the race of iron, who may not be as prestigious as the golden race, but are more technologically developed.
The similarities to Proverbs is striking when Hesiod gets to his section on advice. He has indicated that we live in the iron age, and that if we are to survive the iron age then we need to be wise about how we conduct ourselves. Okay, he shows his wisdom when he tells us that we should not urinate upstream (and in fact we don't urinate in rivers, but in the bushes). On the other hand he also warns us against going around begging from our neighbours. This differs from these days of big cities where beggars can get away with wondering the streets collecting money. In the small village everybody knows everybody else, and while people may be willing to help you out once, and maybe even twice, once we begin to make a habit of it, we end up developing a reputation.
I want to finish off with another idea that comes out of this book, and that is collecting things without working for it. In a way it reminded me of tax collecting. Once again we are seeing a different world, where there was no real big government (at least not in Greece) and society was made up of small villages and independent city states. In Hesiod's world there was no room for the professional politician because everybody had to work to feed themselves. There is no room for those to sit back and expect others to feed them, and the idea of somebody setting themselves up as chief and expecting everybody to pay tribute to them was wrong. Today taxes go to building roads, funding hospitals and universities, as well as paying professional soldiers to defend our shores. Back then this did not exist, even the professional soldier did not exist. Everybody was a soldier, and if the village was attacked, they would take their tools, turn them into weapons, and defend their honour.
26 October 2012
Okay, this book is both the Theogony and The Works and Days, but I simply want to write about the Works and Days here simply because I cannot find the book under a single listing (unlike the Theogony). Anyway, this is also the version of Hesiod that I own (though I believe it was given to me by a friend when I studied Classical Studies way back in the mists of history).
The Works and Days is advice on how to live the life of a farmer, and is written to Hesiod's brother, who appears to be one of those lazy people (you known the types that don't have a job and sponge of government handouts). Whether he listened to Hesiod or not is another matter because I suspect that a lot of other people since then have listened to him and have hopefully become profitable farmers. In a way, this little book is a lot like the biblical book Proverbs, which also warns against idleness and praises hard work. However, this was written in a different time where pretty much everybody was either an independent businessman or a small scale and self sufficient farmer. Mind you, it appears from this book that we are dealing with a society that has a developed agricultural system and also live in villages as we hear of trades people such as blacksmiths. Also, remember that even though agriculture had developed, many of the farms were still small and clustered close to the main village, not just for protection, but also for ease of trade. We also note that Hesiod talks about becoming a merchant and hints for the best time to sail, so he is obviously a lot more than the simple shepherd from the slopes of Mount Helicon that he claims to be in the Theogony.
Mind you, this book isn't just a plain guidebook to prosperity, but opens with a mythological introduction where we hear of the races of humanity and their degradation. It is also interesting that in one way they degrade, but in another way they grow stronger. The order of the races, as outlined by metals, is Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron, but notice how the order of metals also indicates something different. While the metals become less valuable, they become more practical. Gold is very valuable, but pretty much useless for anything beyond making jewellery and using as a currency. Silver is better, but rare and expensive. Bronze is better, but not as good as iron, and while iron is seen as pretty dull, it was the best metal at the time for agricultural production (as well as for killing each other).
Now, the golden race seem to be a race of semi-divine individuals who were free from toil and lived bountifully, yet they vanished, but it is unclear as to what actually happened. We are told that the Earth covered them up and they became spirits. Biblically this can be related to the race of humanity prior to the fall, as pretty much everything that is said here can be related to pre-fall humanity. While Christians may jump up and say that they did work, remember that Hesiod tells us that they were free from toil, not that they did not work. Much of this is speculation though, but I will continue.
The next race we have is the silver race which coincides with the antediluvian civilisation. Hesiod tells us that they were long lived, but violent amongst themselves. There was no order and they rejected the gods. It is interesting that we see in the Bible a reflection of this, in particular about how they are considered to be violent and evil and living only after themselves. Just as God turned on the Antediluvian race and destroyed them, so did Zeus destroy the silver race.
The bronze race seems to coincide with the immediate post-diluvian race of humanity, and possibly humanity prior to the Tower of Babel. Mind you, Hesiod describes this race as mainly hunter-gatherers who had no real technology, and simply lived by raiding others and taking what was available. This does not coincide with the people of Babel, who seemed to be more technologically advanced than a group of simple hunter-gatherers, but maybe that is because the race of heroes falls in here, before we move to the current race, being the race of iron, who may not be as prestigious as the golden race, but are more technologically developed.
The similarities to Proverbs is striking when Hesiod gets to his section on advice. He has indicated that we live in the iron age, and that if we are to survive the iron age then we need to be wise about how we conduct ourselves. Okay, he shows his wisdom when he tells us that we should not urinate upstream (and in fact we don't urinate in rivers, but in the bushes). On the other hand he also warns us against going around begging from our neighbours. This differs from these days of big cities where beggars can get away with wondering the streets collecting money. In the small village everybody knows everybody else, and while people may be willing to help you out once, and maybe even twice, once we begin to make a habit of it, we end up developing a reputation.
I want to finish off with another idea that comes out of this book, and that is collecting things without working for it. In a way it reminded me of tax collecting. Once again we are seeing a different world, where there was no real big government (at least not in Greece) and society was made up of small villages and independent city states. In Hesiod's world there was no room for the professional politician because everybody had to work to feed themselves. There is no room for those to sit back and expect others to feed them, and the idea of somebody setting themselves up as chief and expecting everybody to pay tribute to them was wrong. Today taxes go to building roads, funding hospitals and universities, as well as paying professional soldiers to defend our shores. Back then this did not exist, even the professional soldier did not exist. Everybody was a soldier, and if the village was attacked, they would take their tools, turn them into weapons, and defend their honour.
April 10, 2022
Bu kadar zamandır eski Yunanca’dan çevrilmiş kitaplarla haşır neşirim Hesiodos’un Theogonia’sı hiç dikkatimi çekmemişti. Kitabın içindeki Azra Erhat’ın açıklama metnini okuyunca sebebini anladım tabii, batı dünyasında yazdıkları pek de önemsenmeyen ve yalnız bırakılan bir yazar Hesiodos.
Bu kitapla ilgili Hesiodos’un iki şiirinden çok kitabın çevirisi ve açıklama metinlerini, sözlüğü konuşmak istiyorum. Kitabın Theogonia bölümü bir nevi hangi tanrı kiminle sevişti indeksi jgjkdfjgk. Sevişme indeksi diyip küçümsediğim düşünülmesin, kesinlikle gerekli bir indeks bu. Bunun daha birinci nesil tanrıları var, titanı var, kyklopları var, var da var. İşler ve günler ise dede nasihatı bölümü ve oldukça sıkıcı. Üstüne bir de kadını aşağılayan, metalaştıran tonlarca şey yazmış, ileri gidip kadının dünyaya bir bela olarak getirildiğini savunmuş. Azra Erhat sinirlenmesin de ne yapsın şimdi değil mi. Yine de köylü bu Hesiodos, böyle düşünebilir diyip şiirin iyi taraflarını ve önemini anlatmaya devam etmiş.
Azra Erhat çok nesnel bir şekilde şiiri neredeyse satır satır açıklamış. Bu kısmını standart antik yunancı akademik birileri de yapabilirdi tabii ki. Azra Erhat farklı olarak Anadolu’daki diğer eski uygarlıklarda bu şiire benzeyen bir şey var mı diye bakıp Hititler ve Mezopotamya uygarlıklarında denk düştüğünü gördüğü 3 ayrı metinle de karşılaştırmış. Son bölüm olarak da Mitoloji Sözlüğü’nün 70 sayfalık mini bir versiyonunu bu kitap için hazırlamış. Aeneis okurken eksikliğini hissettiğim şey tam da buydu işte, bu kitapta denk gelince bir kez daha anladım.
Azra Erhat müthiş bir akademisyen ve harika bir insan olduğu için İşler ve Günler’e açıklama yazacak kadar konuya hakim değilim diyerek İsmet Zeki Eyüboğlu’ndan rica etmiş, o da Anadolu geleneğinde İşler ve Günler’de geçen konulardaki paralellikleri anlatmış.
Kitaba başlamadan önce İlyada Odysseia ve Aeneis’i okuyup bu kitabı okumazsam eksik bırakmış olacağımı düşünüyordum, tam öyle olmadı ama şiirleri ve açıklama metinlerini okumuş olmaktan memnunum. Gaia ve Uranos’tan başlayarak tanrı soyları kafamda epey oturdu.
Bu kitapla ilgili Hesiodos’un iki şiirinden çok kitabın çevirisi ve açıklama metinlerini, sözlüğü konuşmak istiyorum. Kitabın Theogonia bölümü bir nevi hangi tanrı kiminle sevişti indeksi jgjkdfjgk. Sevişme indeksi diyip küçümsediğim düşünülmesin, kesinlikle gerekli bir indeks bu. Bunun daha birinci nesil tanrıları var, titanı var, kyklopları var, var da var. İşler ve günler ise dede nasihatı bölümü ve oldukça sıkıcı. Üstüne bir de kadını aşağılayan, metalaştıran tonlarca şey yazmış, ileri gidip kadının dünyaya bir bela olarak getirildiğini savunmuş. Azra Erhat sinirlenmesin de ne yapsın şimdi değil mi. Yine de köylü bu Hesiodos, böyle düşünebilir diyip şiirin iyi taraflarını ve önemini anlatmaya devam etmiş.
Azra Erhat çok nesnel bir şekilde şiiri neredeyse satır satır açıklamış. Bu kısmını standart antik yunancı akademik birileri de yapabilirdi tabii ki. Azra Erhat farklı olarak Anadolu’daki diğer eski uygarlıklarda bu şiire benzeyen bir şey var mı diye bakıp Hititler ve Mezopotamya uygarlıklarında denk düştüğünü gördüğü 3 ayrı metinle de karşılaştırmış. Son bölüm olarak da Mitoloji Sözlüğü’nün 70 sayfalık mini bir versiyonunu bu kitap için hazırlamış. Aeneis okurken eksikliğini hissettiğim şey tam da buydu işte, bu kitapta denk gelince bir kez daha anladım.
Azra Erhat müthiş bir akademisyen ve harika bir insan olduğu için İşler ve Günler’e açıklama yazacak kadar konuya hakim değilim diyerek İsmet Zeki Eyüboğlu’ndan rica etmiş, o da Anadolu geleneğinde İşler ve Günler’de geçen konulardaki paralellikleri anlatmış.
Kitaba başlamadan önce İlyada Odysseia ve Aeneis’i okuyup bu kitabı okumazsam eksik bırakmış olacağımı düşünüyordum, tam öyle olmadı ama şiirleri ve açıklama metinlerini okumuş olmaktan memnunum. Gaia ve Uranos’tan başlayarak tanrı soyları kafamda epey oturdu.
April 19, 2022
Hediodos ve kitapla alakalı yorumumu yapıp hemen Azra Erhat’a geçmek istiyorum :)
Theogonia, mitoloji merakı olan, hangi tanrı kimdi, bu kykloplar da ne diyen, sıkça atıfta bulunulan mitleri okumak isteyen herkesi eğlendirir. Aslında bir yaradılış efsanesi temelinde. Önce “khaos” vardı diye başlayan, Gaia ve Uranos ile devam edip Zeus ve şürekasına varan bir hikaye. İşler ve Günler ise okurken beni biraz sıktı ama muhtemelen antik çağ uzmanları için çok kıymetlidir çünkü günlük yaşama dair bilgilerle ve öğütlerle dolu.
Hesiodos’un bu iki anlatısı 80 sayfada bitiyor, geri kalanı ise Azra Erhat’a olan hayranlığımı daha da arttıran müthiş bir akademik çalışma. Erhat, Hesiodos’un kim olduğunu ve bu anlatıların değerini sadece bunlara odaklanarak anlatmıyor, aynı zamanda dini metinlere, Hitit ve Babil mitlerine de değiniyor. Mesela Anadolu’da bu mitlerin sürekliliğini göstermek için Kumarbi efsanesi ve “Enuma Eliş” destanından bahsederken hem kaynağı bize sunuyor, hem uzmanların görüşlerine yer veriyor hem de kendi yorumunu yapıyor. Kendisinin akademik titizliğine zaten hayrandım, daha da hayran oldum.
Erhat, 1977 tarihli önsözde şöyle diyor: “Gözümüz yarınlara çevrili, dibine dek uygarlıkla yoğrulmuş bir toprağa bastığımız biliyoruz.” Erhat gibilerin sayesinde bizler de bu kıymeti daha açık bir şekilde görebiliyoruz.
Theogonia, mitoloji merakı olan, hangi tanrı kimdi, bu kykloplar da ne diyen, sıkça atıfta bulunulan mitleri okumak isteyen herkesi eğlendirir. Aslında bir yaradılış efsanesi temelinde. Önce “khaos” vardı diye başlayan, Gaia ve Uranos ile devam edip Zeus ve şürekasına varan bir hikaye. İşler ve Günler ise okurken beni biraz sıktı ama muhtemelen antik çağ uzmanları için çok kıymetlidir çünkü günlük yaşama dair bilgilerle ve öğütlerle dolu.
Hesiodos’un bu iki anlatısı 80 sayfada bitiyor, geri kalanı ise Azra Erhat’a olan hayranlığımı daha da arttıran müthiş bir akademik çalışma. Erhat, Hesiodos’un kim olduğunu ve bu anlatıların değerini sadece bunlara odaklanarak anlatmıyor, aynı zamanda dini metinlere, Hitit ve Babil mitlerine de değiniyor. Mesela Anadolu’da bu mitlerin sürekliliğini göstermek için Kumarbi efsanesi ve “Enuma Eliş” destanından bahsederken hem kaynağı bize sunuyor, hem uzmanların görüşlerine yer veriyor hem de kendi yorumunu yapıyor. Kendisinin akademik titizliğine zaten hayrandım, daha da hayran oldum.
Erhat, 1977 tarihli önsözde şöyle diyor: “Gözümüz yarınlara çevrili, dibine dek uygarlıkla yoğrulmuş bir toprağa bastığımız biliyoruz.” Erhat gibilerin sayesinde bizler de bu kıymeti daha açık bir şekilde görebiliyoruz.
April 8, 2013
The root of written Greek mythology, these epic poems along with Homer's works are the foundation of their creative stories. I was happy to find a written source for these myths and that they thoroughly covered the pantheon in such a short work. Being unaware of Hesiod until a few days ago I had been wondering if the Greek myths were all in fact oral tradition only or if there were an older written source. If I understand properly, though Hesiod is the earliest written account of the myths, his writing was largely based on oral traditions of the time.
The Theogony is the story of the creation of the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon. Starting out at the macro-cosmic view, the creation of the world starts with the primeval earth (not earth as in the "planet earth" sense of the word) springing from an original chaos and self-producing the basic primeval offspring of ocean, sky, Eros, and the deep abyss. This is reminiscent of the Egyptian creation myth of Atum (a male deity) self-producing basic offspring of Earth and Sky. As with the Egyptian myth, the Earth and Sky mate and have to be forcibly separate to make room for their offspring to emerge. In the Greek myths though this comes in the form of Kronos castrating his sky father Uranus, so he and his Titan siblings can emerge from the womb of their mother. Kronos mates with another Titan Rhea, who produce many of the familiar Olympian deities such as Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus. Fearful of his offspring one day overpowering him as he did his father, Kronos devours each of his children as they are born and waits to devour the last, Zeus, in a way that is eerily similar to Revelation chapter 12. He is tricked though and Zeus is able to be born and after warring with and imprisoning the Titans in the primeval abyss is able to establish his rule and begin procreating the remaining Olympian deities, such as Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Athena. Another theme in these poems is the role of Prometheus (a Titan) and his conflict with Zeus on the behalf of humanity. Prometheus of course, brings fire to humanity and is punished by Zeus for a period of time for this act.
Works and Days is a short tale on the different ages of mankind, each representing by a precious metal that is a step down in value from the last as each age is a step down in perfection from the last. Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron and also an age of Heroes (which mingles with the age of normal people until they eventually all die off), and one is reminded of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the giant statue of varying precious metals (the dream followed this poem by many centuries). The toes of Nebuchadnezzar's dream being a mingling of iron and clay seem an apt metaphor for the ancient Greek views of Homer and Hesiod that the Heroes mingled with normal people until they eventually died out or disappeared. It's also easy to see how this poem influenced part of The Matrix Reloaded movie by the Wachowski brothers: in their story there were five versions of the matrix preceding the current post-apocalyptic version. As with Hesiod, the first couple matrixes were golden ages of perfection where none suffered, but afterward the injection of suffering was necessary and the latter ages reflected the increased violence and misery.
Aside from describing the ages of mankind, Hesiod describes the introduction of suffering and evil as the first woman, Pandora, having opened a jar. This scheme was concocted by the gods to punish mankind for acquiring fire and once the jar was opened all manner of evil was unleashed on mankind. The only thing that failed to escape the jar is hope, making it ambiguous to us whether hope is a blessing or a curse. Oddly enough, the architect of the matrix (in the scene where he describes the five preceding matrixes) mocks and sneers at hope as the protagonist leaves the room, describing it as the "quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness". [Sidebar, "quintessential" is a term that comes from Aristotle to refer to the ether-like fifth element, but since came to hold a different meaning]
I found these poems incredibly interesting, though the latter takes a terribly negative view on women. These poems are a useful tool for those trying to better understand mythology or engaging in a comparative religion study.
The Theogony is the story of the creation of the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon. Starting out at the macro-cosmic view, the creation of the world starts with the primeval earth (not earth as in the "planet earth" sense of the word) springing from an original chaos and self-producing the basic primeval offspring of ocean, sky, Eros, and the deep abyss. This is reminiscent of the Egyptian creation myth of Atum (a male deity) self-producing basic offspring of Earth and Sky. As with the Egyptian myth, the Earth and Sky mate and have to be forcibly separate to make room for their offspring to emerge. In the Greek myths though this comes in the form of Kronos castrating his sky father Uranus, so he and his Titan siblings can emerge from the womb of their mother. Kronos mates with another Titan Rhea, who produce many of the familiar Olympian deities such as Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus. Fearful of his offspring one day overpowering him as he did his father, Kronos devours each of his children as they are born and waits to devour the last, Zeus, in a way that is eerily similar to Revelation chapter 12. He is tricked though and Zeus is able to be born and after warring with and imprisoning the Titans in the primeval abyss is able to establish his rule and begin procreating the remaining Olympian deities, such as Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Athena. Another theme in these poems is the role of Prometheus (a Titan) and his conflict with Zeus on the behalf of humanity. Prometheus of course, brings fire to humanity and is punished by Zeus for a period of time for this act.
Works and Days is a short tale on the different ages of mankind, each representing by a precious metal that is a step down in value from the last as each age is a step down in perfection from the last. Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron and also an age of Heroes (which mingles with the age of normal people until they eventually all die off), and one is reminded of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the giant statue of varying precious metals (the dream followed this poem by many centuries). The toes of Nebuchadnezzar's dream being a mingling of iron and clay seem an apt metaphor for the ancient Greek views of Homer and Hesiod that the Heroes mingled with normal people until they eventually died out or disappeared. It's also easy to see how this poem influenced part of The Matrix Reloaded movie by the Wachowski brothers: in their story there were five versions of the matrix preceding the current post-apocalyptic version. As with Hesiod, the first couple matrixes were golden ages of perfection where none suffered, but afterward the injection of suffering was necessary and the latter ages reflected the increased violence and misery.
Aside from describing the ages of mankind, Hesiod describes the introduction of suffering and evil as the first woman, Pandora, having opened a jar. This scheme was concocted by the gods to punish mankind for acquiring fire and once the jar was opened all manner of evil was unleashed on mankind. The only thing that failed to escape the jar is hope, making it ambiguous to us whether hope is a blessing or a curse. Oddly enough, the architect of the matrix (in the scene where he describes the five preceding matrixes) mocks and sneers at hope as the protagonist leaves the room, describing it as the "quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness". [Sidebar, "quintessential" is a term that comes from Aristotle to refer to the ether-like fifth element, but since came to hold a different meaning]
I found these poems incredibly interesting, though the latter takes a terribly negative view on women. These poems are a useful tool for those trying to better understand mythology or engaging in a comparative religion study.
January 21, 2024
(Hackett Publishing Company, Stanley Lombardo translation)
Works and Days
I really enjoyed Works and Days. The author (likely Hesiod but not confirmed) is basically telling his brother (Perses) to stop being such a . It also includes some mythology as well as farming tips and nuggets of earthly wisdom.
"Now I'm speaking sense to you, Perses you fool", as he sets out how his brother can begin to turn his life around from the ways of wickedness into a bountiful life of farming and strong harvests. As with most great works, much of the advice offered by Hesiod in 8-th Century BC is still relevant today.
The specifics of farming was not very interesting to me, as a non-farmer, yet it did provide a nice look at the day to day life of people in Hesiod's time. And finally Hesiod gives an account of the days of the month (Days) and what they signify both theologically and practically, which was also boring.
At less than 1,000 lines of verse, I would recommend Works and Days to anyone interested in Ancient Greek history. It's a unique and fun read.
Theogony
Do you want to read 1,000 lines of boring verse, mostly consisting of long genealogical lists? I don't. Yet I did read this. I think Mythology is one of the few subjects that modern interpretations are much more successful at than their source material.
If you would like to learn about the Greek Gods and the origin of the Greek Cosmos, I'd recommend Thomas Bulfinch or Edith Hamilton or Stephen Fry (haven't read them, but they can't be worse than Theogony).
Yes, this is an important foundational Ancient Greek work and I'm glad to have read it, if only for the sake of being a pretentious classicist. If you see me in public claiming to be a Hesiodic Scholar, please smack with whatever you happen to be holding.
Final Verdict
Better than Homer, because at least it's short.
Works and Days
I really enjoyed Works and Days. The author (likely Hesiod but not confirmed) is basically telling his brother (Perses) to stop being such a . It also includes some mythology as well as farming tips and nuggets of earthly wisdom.
"Now I'm speaking sense to you, Perses you fool", as he sets out how his brother can begin to turn his life around from the ways of wickedness into a bountiful life of farming and strong harvests. As with most great works, much of the advice offered by Hesiod in 8-th Century BC is still relevant today.
The specifics of farming was not very interesting to me, as a non-farmer, yet it did provide a nice look at the day to day life of people in Hesiod's time. And finally Hesiod gives an account of the days of the month (Days) and what they signify both theologically and practically, which was also boring.
At less than 1,000 lines of verse, I would recommend Works and Days to anyone interested in Ancient Greek history. It's a unique and fun read.
Theogony
Do you want to read 1,000 lines of boring verse, mostly consisting of long genealogical lists? I don't. Yet I did read this. I think Mythology is one of the few subjects that modern interpretations are much more successful at than their source material.
If you would like to learn about the Greek Gods and the origin of the Greek Cosmos, I'd recommend Thomas Bulfinch or Edith Hamilton or Stephen Fry (haven't read them, but they can't be worse than Theogony).
Yes, this is an important foundational Ancient Greek work and I'm glad to have read it, if only for the sake of being a pretentious classicist. If you see me in public claiming to be a Hesiodic Scholar, please smack with whatever you happen to be holding.
Final Verdict
Better than Homer, because at least it's short.
May 5, 2022
This is a translation of Hesiod's Works and Days and the Theogony, rendered in verse. George Chapman was the translator of Works and Days and Thomas Cooke was the translator of the Theogony. I wanted an older translation of Hesiod in verse. Chapman was active in the Elizabethan era and Cooke was part of the 18th century Augustan English authors. Even though not much more than a hundred years separated the two translators, Cooke's translation was easier to read with less archaic English. Both works are really quite good from simply a classical perspective. Both rendered the respective works in rhyme, which was pretty much what I was after, and I wanted classical English. Not disappointed with this book at all.
September 17, 2016
M.Ö. 700 lü yıllarda yaşamış, Homeros dan sonra Hellen şiirinin en büyük şairi olarak anılan Hesiodos un ilk eseri "İşler ve Günler" zamanın günlük yaşamı hakkında eğlenceli bir anlatım sunuyor, Perses'e verdiği öğütler ise hala geçerli. İkinci bölümde ise tanrıların yaratılışı anlatılmakta ki Antik Yunan mitolojisine aşina herkesin az çok bildiği hikayeler.. -üst üste biraz fazla okumuş ve yorum yapmış olabilirm bikaç gündür; kendimi durduramamaktayım :( nasıl bi açlıksa doymak bilmiyor :) ..-
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June 9, 2018Hesiodos okuduktan sonra kafamda şöyle bir şey oluştu, Homeros biçime, üsluba önem veren, soylu şeylerden bahseden bir divan edebiyatı şairi, Hesiodos da gündelik yaşama dair öğütleri ve sade dili ile bir halk ozanı gibi sanki. Hesiodos en sıradan ozan sanırım çağdaşları arasında, hangi terzi kumaştan çalmış, kim kimin sürüsüne kışt demiş, hep bunları dert edinmiş kendine. Ve haktan hukuktan da metafor ve simgeler olmadan, doğrudan bahseden tek kişi sanırım. Ozan olmasaymış, çağının ''sosyalist muhtar adayı'' gibi bir şey olabilirmiş.
July 13, 2022
How was this hack ever considered Homer’s equal?? This is just 60 pages retelling Greek myths in the most bland way possible (at least J.P. Vernant kept the porn bits in), casual misogyny and ranting at his brother.
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