Hesiod: Volume I, Theogony. Works and Days. Testimonia (Loeb Classical Library No. 57N) - Hardcover

Hesiod

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674996224 ISBN 13: 9780674996229

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2007

Synopsis

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

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

About this title

About the Author:

Glenn W. Most is Professor of Greek Philology, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and Professor of Social Thought, University of Chicago.

Review:

“For a wider audience, especially in this era of resurgent environmental verse, the day of the rural seer and sage may finally have arrived. Glenn Most's splendid new bilingual volume is, therefore, timely...It offers readers and scholars alike the most reliable prose translation and the richest supplementary materials available.”―Richard Martin, New York Sun

“In the stimulating introduction to his new Loeb Classics two-volume edition of Hesiod, Glenn Most makes the case that we, too, should admire Hesiod for his powerful and unified worldview...The vast questions that are addressed in these poems―the origins of the gods, the way the world works, the reasons why things are as they are―can be seen as the first rumblings of natural science, physics, philosophy, theology, medicine, autobiography, agriculture, law, even history and textual criticism...Hesiod is our oldest source for many of the best-known and best-loved stories of Greek mythology...The disturbing moral complexity of the Hesiodic poems is all the more reason why we should continue to read and study them...No other modern English translation includes the fragmentary works or the ancient testimonia. If you already have some familiarity with Hesiod's two best-known works and you want to know more about the rest of the Hesiodic corpus and about the ancient reception of this canonical figure, then Most's new Loeb books will be essential. Most makes various important corrections and improvements in his translation...We may look back to Hesiod's poetry as representative of a cultural Golden Age when it was possible for a single work of literature to encompass the whole of traditional 'wisdom': high and low, ancient and modern, philosophical and poetic, practical and metaphysical. Perhaps even our Age of Iron could learn from him.”―Emily Wilson, New Republic

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0674996224
• ISBN 13: 9780674996229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 308