What is the difference between Hesiod and Homer?
Homer is thought to have lived about 850BC although some sources suggest he lived later and reflects the civilisation of bronze age Greece to 8th century BC. Hesiod is thought to have lived around the same time or just after, reflecting both 8th and early 7th century, when the map of classical Greece was emerging.
What did Hesiod and Homer contribute to ancient Greece?
Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early economic thought, archaic Greek astronomy and ancient time-keeping .
Did Homer and Hesiod live before Herodotus?
The historian Herodotus assigned the formulation of Greek theology to Homer and Hesiod and claimed that they could have lived no more than 400 years before his own time, the 5th century bce.
Who wrote the best biography of Homer?
The two best known ancient biographies of Homer are the Life of Homer by the Pseudo-Herodotus and the Contest of Homer and Hesiod. [1] [18] In the early 4th century BC Alcidamas composed a fictional account of a poetry contest at Chalcis with both Homer and Hesiod.
When did Homer and Hesiod write?
750-650 B.C.We cannot fix the dates of Homer and Hesiod with much certainty, but a general consensus has developed in recent decades that the two poets' activity falls in the century 750-650 B.C. The issue is complicated by the fact that these poems must originally have been composed without writing; questions of dating have to ...
When did Hesiod write the Greek creation story?
700 BCThe Theogony (Greek: Θεογονία, Theogonía, Attic Greek: [tʰeoɡoníaː], i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed c. 730–700 BC. It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines.
When was the classical Greek era?
The term “classical Greece” refers to the period between the Persian Wars at the beginning of the fifth century B.C. and the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. The classical period was an era of war and conflict—first between the Greeks and the Persians, then between the Athenians and the Spartans—but it was also ...
What are the five ages in Greek mythology?
The five ages of man is a Greek creation story that traces the lineage of mankind through five successive "ages" or "races" including the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of Heroes, and the present (to Hesiod) Iron Age.
When did Hesiod write Works and Days?
around 700 BCWorks and Days (Ancient Greek: Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι, romanized: Érga kaì Hēmérai) is a didactic poem written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod around 700 BC. It is in dactylic hexameter and contains 828 lines.
Why did Hesiod write Theogony?
Hesiod wanted to write a book that ordered all these myths, so that Greek mythology was consistent and equal for all Greeks. For this reason, he begins his book with the myths of creation. Then, he continues with the gods of the first generation, and so on.
Who came first Homer or Hesiod?
Hesiod's dates are uncertain, but leading scholars generally agree that he lived in the latter half of the 8th Century BCE, probably shortly after Homer. His major works are thought to have been written around 700 BCE.
Who did Hesiod write about?
Hesiod has an essentially serious outlook on life and is an artist who deals with the gloomier side of existence, relating, in his Theogony, the bloody power struggle among the divine dynasts Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus, while his Works and Days demonstrates that, in Hesiod's immediate circle at any rate, mankind's ...
Who is sceptical of the influence of Homer and Hesiod?
Despite this there are many, such as Mikalson, that are sceptical of the influence of the works of Homer and Hesiod and whether or not they represent the actual beliefs of the ancient Greeks.
What did Homer and Hesiod use to organize the mass of deities into what is known as the?
Homer. Homer and Hesiod used the existing oral poetry and folklore to organize the existing mass of deities into what is known as the Olympian Pantheon.
Who gave the Greeks their distinct character and appearances?
Sophia Sackville-West , a published although somewhat obscure author states that ‘It was Homer and Hesiod who gave them their distinct character and appearances’ and ‘It was Homer and Hesiod in 8th century BC who imposed order upon the mass of gods and beliefs’ (Sackville-West, 1997p.g 213). In his work Histories, Herodotus supports this claim saying ‘I think that Homer and Hesiod were older than I by 400 years and no more, and they are the ones who created the divine genealogy for Greeks, gave epithets to the gods, distributed their offices and their crafts and marked outward appearances’. Unknown to Herodotus, Homer and Hesiod were working with gods that were a culmination of centuries of both actual gods and oral poetry tradition, both Greek and near eastern, who were already worshipped at the time. Matthew Dillion, an accomplished translator and published author writes that ‘Homer and Hesiod recorded numerous stories about the gods, and their works represented many of the beliefs held by Greeks’ (Dillion, 2000, p.g 354). Jon D. Mikalson, a professor of classics at the University of Virginia provides a view that supports this, stating ‘There are many such elements of practiced religion- in terms of both deities and rituals- throughout the Iliad, the Odyssey and the oral poets must have selected among deities of local cults of the Greek world to create, essentially, composite deities suited to their songs’ (Mikalson, 2005, Pg 36). Going on to say that it creates a ‘very mistaken conception of the gods real Greeks actually prayed to’ (Mikalson, 2005, Pg 32), it seems that the deities of poetry did influence local cults.
Did Hesiod live in the same time period?
Hesiod is thought to have lived around the same time or just after, reflecting both 8th and early 7th century , when the map of classical Greece was emerging. Both were epic poets who’s works such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Hesiod's Works and Days had a significant impact on Greek religion and the way in which the gods were portrayed both in ...
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Where did Hesiod get inspiration from?
Hesiod cites inspiration from the Muses while on Mount Helicon. The personality behind the poems is unsuited to the kind of "aristocratic withdrawal" typical of a rhapsode but is instead "argumentative, suspicious, ironically humorous, frugal, fond of proverbs, wary of women.".
What is the dating of Hesiod's life?
Life. The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles ( see § Dating below ). Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations. However, Hesiod's extant work comprises several didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life.
What is the lyre in Perses?
Some scholars have seen Perses as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days, but there are also arguments against that theory.
What is the name of the Greek philosopher who was born in 750 BC?
Native name. Ἡσίοδος. Born. fl. 750 BC. Cyme, Aeolis. Occupation. Poet and philosopher. Hesiod ( / ˈhiːsiəd, ˈhɛsiəd /; Greek: Ἡσίοδος Hēsíodos, 'he who emits the voice') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.
How many works have survived Hesiod?
Three works have survived which were attributed to Hesiod by ancient commentators: Works and Days, Theogony, and Shield of Heracles. Only fragments exist of other works attributed to him. The surviving works and fragments were all written in the conventional metre and language of epic.
How many un-Homeric words are there in the works and days?
Though typical of epic, his vocabulary features some significant differences from Homer's. One scholar has counted 278 un-Homeric words in Works and Days, 151 in Theogony and 95 in Shield of Heracles. The disproportionate number of un-Homeric words in W & D is due to its un-Homeric subject matter. Hesiod's vocabulary also includes quite a lot of formulaic phrases that are not found in Homer, which indicates that he may have been writing within a different tradition.
Where is Hesiod buried?
This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention: the oracle predicts accurately after all. The other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in the 7th century BC (within a century or so of Hesiod's death) claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. According to Aristotle 's Constitution of Orchomenus, when the Thespians ravaged Ascra, the villagers sought refuge at Orchomenus, where, following the advice of an oracle, they collected the ashes of Hesiod and set them in a place of honour in their agora, next to the tomb of Minyas, their eponymous founder. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their "hearth-founder" ( οἰκιστής, oikistēs ). Later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts.
How did Hesiod and Homer relate?
The compositions of both poets were in the traditional meter, dactylic hexameter, as well as in an oral methodic tradition. Like Hesiod , Homer was mainly concerned with conveying traditional material via the oral performance. Comparing the two regarding diction demonstrates that both poets utilized standard traditional formulas. The manner in which this aspect exhibits itself within the two implies that epic was primarily driven via a “Panhellenic” instinct, i.e., an aspiration to entice many city-states (Rosen). Therefore, analyzing both language and themes, Hesiodic and Homeric poetry typifies a drive from the epichoric structure, toward presentations that could be comprehensible and eloquent in the entire Greece.
How are Homer and Hesiod similar?
The similarities are embedded in the metrical, diction, and dialectal features of their artworks.
Who was the poet who competed with Homer?
Although Smyrna and Chios early began competing for the honour (the poet Pindar, early in the 5th century bce, associated Homer with both), and others joined in, no authenticated local memory survived anywhere of someone who, oral poet or not, must have been remarkable in his time.
Why is Homer important?
Why is Homer significant? Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two hugely influential epic poems of ancient Greece. If Homer did in fact compose the works, he is one of the greatest literary artists in the world, and, through these poems, he affected Western standards and ideas.
How did the Iliad and Odyssey affect the Greek culture?
It was probably through their impact on Classical Greek culture itself that the Iliad and the Odyssey most subtly affected Western standards and ideas. The Greeks regarded the great epics as something more than works of literature; they knew much of them by heart, and they valued them not only as a symbol of Hellenic unity and heroism but also as an ancient source of moral and even practical instruction.
Who was the epic poet who played the primary role in shaping the Iliad and the Odyssey?
That there was an epic poet called Homer and that he played the primary part in shaping the Iliad and the Odyssey —so much may be said to be probable. If this assumption is accepted, then Homer must assuredly be one of the greatest of the world’s literary artists.
Who is the author of the Iliad?
Homer, (flourished 9th or 8th century bce ?, Ionia? [now in Turkey]), presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
What is the poem "Hymn to Apollo of Delos" about?
The pseudo-Homeric “Hymn to Apollo of Delos,” probably of late 7th-century composition, claimed to be the work of “a blind man who dwells in rugged Chios,” a reference to a tradition about Homer himself.
Who wrote the biography of Homer?
In the early 4th century BC Alcidamas composed a fictional account of a poetry contest at Chalcis with both Homer and Hesiod.
When did Homer's tradition cease to evolve?
At the other extreme, a few American scholars such as Gregory Nagy see "Homer" as a continually evolving tradition, which grew much more stable as the tradition progressed, but which did not fully cease to continue changing and evolving until as late as the middle of the second century BC.
Why are Homer's poems important?
As a result of the poems' prominence in classical Greek education, extensive commentaries on them developed to explain parts of the poems that were culturally or linguistically difficult. During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many interpreters, especially the Stoics, who believed that Homeric poems conveyed Stoic doctrines, regarded them as allegories, containing hidden wisdom. Perhaps partially because of the Homeric poems' extensive use in education, many authors believed that Homer's original purpose had been to educate. Homer's wisdom became so widely praised that he began to acquire the image of almost a prototypical philosopher. Byzantine scholars such as Eustathius of Thessalonica and John Tzetzes produced commentaries, extensions and scholia to Homer, especially in the twelfth century. Eustathius's commentary on the Iliad alone is massive, sprawling over nearly 4,000 oversized pages in a twenty-first century printed version and his commentary on the Odyssey an additional nearly 2,000.
What is the name of Homer's Odyssey?
Today only the Iliad and the Odyssey are associated with the name 'Homer' . In antiquity, a very large number of other works were sometimes attributed to him, including the Homeric Hymns, the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, the Little Iliad, the Nostoi, the Thebaid, the Cypria, the Epigoni, the comic mini-epic Batrachomyomachia ("The Frog-Mouse War"), the Margites, the Capture of Oechalia, and the Phocais. These claims are not considered authentic today and were by no means universally accepted in the ancient world. As with the multitude of legends surrounding Homer's life, they indicate little more than the centrality of Homer to ancient Greek culture.
What is the name of the manuscript on the right side of the manuscript?
Part of an eleventh-century manuscript, "the Townley Homer". The writings on the top and right side are scholia. The study of Homer is one of the oldest topics in scholarship, dating back to antiquity. Nonetheless, the aims of Homeric studies have changed over the course of the millennia.
What are some of the most important facts about Homer?
The two best known ancient biographies of Homer are the Life of Homer by the Pseudo-Herodotus and the Contest of Homer and Hesiod.
How many rhapsodes were written down in the Greek alphabet?
After textualisation, the poems were each divided into 24 rhapsodes, today referred to as books, and labelled by the letters of the Greek alphabet. Most scholars attribute the book divisions to the Hellenistic scholars of Alexandria, in Egypt. Some trace the divisions back further to the Classical period. Very few credit Homer himself with the divisions.
Overview
Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject. Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as a major source on Greek mythology, farming techniques, early e…
Life
The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles (see § Dating below). Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations. However, Hesiod's extant work comprises several didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on a few details of his life. There are three explicit references in Works and Days, as well as some passages in his Theogony, that support inferences made by scholars. The former poem says tha…
Works
Three works have survived which were attributed to Hesiod by ancient commentators: Works and Days, Theogony, and Shield of Heracles. Only fragments exist of other works attributed to him. The surviving works and fragments were all written in the conventional metre and language of epic. However, the Shield of Heracles is now known to be spurious and probably was written in the sixth century BC. Many ancient critics also rejected Theogony (e.g., Pausanias 9.31.3), even thou…
Reception
• Sappho's countryman and contemporary, the lyric poet Alcaeus, paraphrased a section of Works and Days (582–88), recasting it in lyric meter and Lesbian dialect. The paraphrase survives only as a fragment.
• The lyric poet Bacchylides quoted or paraphrased Hesiod in a victory ode addressed to Hieron of Syracuse, commemorating the tyrant's victory in the chariot race at the Pythian Games 470 BC, t…
Depictions
Portrait of Hesiod from Augusta Treverorum (Trier), from the end of the 3rd century AD. The mosaic is signed in its central field by the maker, ‘MONNUS FECIT’ (‘Monnus made this’). The figure is identified by name: ‘ESIO-DVS’ ('Hesiod'). It is the only known authenticated portrait of Hesiod.
The Roman bronze bust, the so-called Pseudo-Seneca, of the late first century BC found at Herc…
Hesiod's Greek
Hesiod employed the conventional dialect of epic verse, which was Ionian. Comparisons with Homer, a native Ionian, can be unflattering. Hesiod's handling of the dactylic hexameter was not as masterful or fluent as Homer's and one modern scholar refers to his "hobnailed hexameters". His use of language and meter in Works and Days and Theogony distinguishes him also from the author of the Shield of Heracles. All three poets, for example, employed digamma inconsistently, …
Notes
1. ^ See discussion by M. L. West, Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press (1966), p. 163 f., note 30, citing for example Pausanias IX, 30.3. Rhapsodes in post-Homeric times are often shown carrying either a laurel staff or a lyre but in Hesiod's earlier time, the staff seems to indicate that he was not a rhapsode, a professional minstrel. Meetings between poets and the Muses became part of poetic folklore: compare, for example, Archilochus' account of his meeting the Muses while lea…
Further reading
• Athanassakis, A.N. (1992). "Cattle and Honour in Homer and Hesiod". Ramus. 21 (2): 156–186. doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002617.
• Athanassakis, A.N. (1992). "Introduction to 'Essays on Hesiod I'". Ramus. 21 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002642.
• Athanassakis, A.N. (1992). "Introduction to 'Essays on Hesiod II'". Ramus. 21 (2): 117–118. doi:10.1017/S0048671X00002587.