Hesiod and Homer. Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica. Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White. Ed. Douglas B. Killings and David Widger. 1914. Gutenberg.org. 4 Feb 2013. Kindle E-book.

This is a collection of works attributed to the oldest Greek authors, or probably more precisely, singers of tales. The main works in this collection are those of Hesiod: his Theogony and Works and Days. Neither are of epic proportion, at least what remains. There is some evidence that we may not have the full text of either.

The Theogony describes the traditional ancient Greek origin story beginning with Chaos and going through the overthrow of the Titans by the Olympian gods. I had known about Hesiod at least since college where I studied both Latin and folklore, but I had never read him. Both of his works are interesting for background, but neither are in the vein of a true epic. Edith Hamilton in her Mythology has a chapter on origins which retells more or less the Theogony and parts of Works and Days in a clearer and more story-like form.

The Works and Days (called The Works of Hesiod in the Table of Contents of this edition) more or less continues after the Theogony, telling the story of the four metal ages (Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron), the creation of Pandora and consequent introduction of evil into the world, and the worldwide flood survived by Deucalion and Pyrrha in their boat. The narratives of Works and Days are interspersed with proverbs and lectures to the audience, one Perses, said to be Hesiod’s brother. One proverb that has been repeated over the centuries with little variation is, “Give is a good girl, but Take is bad and brings forth death.” (l. 355)

Much of Works and Days resembles an almanac, telling us by the seasons, signs in the constellations, the fields, and the winds when it is the right time to plant, harvest, sail, haul boats ashore, get married, and so on. The poem is encouraging us to work and telling us the best days or seasons to do certain work. With its stories and proverbial expressions added, it is perhaps an ancient precursor to Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac.

There are also many superstitions, lucky and unlucky numbers and days, and signs of good luck and bad luck. Hamilton says that the Greeks did not consult astrology to the extent that most other cultures have, and that some still do. However, Hesiod does enumerate many superstitions.

There is likely a tie-in with the Bible, especially the story of the shipwreck of Paul on Malta in Acts 27 and 28. Hesiod is very specific about when it is safe to sail and not sail in the Eastern Mediterranean. Apparently, the Castor and Pollux did not pay attention to that advice. It also notes that Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces in Greek) were the gods that sailors would pray to for safe travel.

Much of the rest of the book is a collection of fragments, either from fragmentary manuscripts or quotations from later writers quoting works attributed to Hesiod or Homer that no longer exist. The provenance or authenticity of many of these fragments are questionable, but they do provide more background to Greek mythology. Included among these fragments are some quotations from other epics that no longer exist in their entirety and 33 “Homeric Hymns,” some quite brief, to many of the different gods and goddesses.

Just this week in an Ancient Classics class that I teach, a student asked why the offspring of a god and a nymph was not immortal since both of his parents were gods. The hymn “To Aphrodite” explains that not all nymphs are immortal. Sea nymphs like Calypso were, but those associated with trees die when their tree decays or is cut down. Presumably those associated with small bodies of water or volcanic peaks could also disappear.

There are two varying accounts of Æneas in this collection. He is a minor character in The Iliad, though even this ancient work says that his parents were the mortal Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. There are a couple of brief stories or fragments of how Aphrodite fell in love with Anchises and gave birth to Æneas. One fragment called “The Cyprian” tells us that Æneas joined Paris when he went to Lacedæmonia as King Menelaus’s guest and abducted Helen.

According to a fragment called “The Sack of Troy,” Æneas and his followers left Troy for Mt. Ida when Laocoön was strangled by the sea serpents. A fragment from The Little Iliad says that Æneas would later be captured by Neoptolemus, (a.k.a. Pyrrhus) the son of Achilles, and taken with Andromache, Hector’s widow, to his home in Pharsalia. A note by Evelyn-White tells us that Homer said that Æneas would begin a new dynasty in Troy after Priam’s family members were all killed. Of course, The Æneid, which claims he founded Rome, is much later.

We know from archaeological discoveries as well as the historical record that the Trojan War did take place and that it was quite disruptive to the whole region, both the winners and the losers. The Æneid is a rousing tale, and the reader would like to think that it had some basis in history as well. The older Greek record of Æneas seems at odds with the Roman version of Vergil, and even that of Ovid in The Metamorphoses. One has to admit that The Æneid is pretty much cut from whole cloth.

A few other interesting tidbits pop up. We find a couple of accounts that tell us who Telemachus, son of Odysseus, married and who his eventually widowed mother would marry after Odysseus died. There are at least two different versions of who Telemachus married. Since Odysseus spent seven years with Calypso and a year with Circe, it should come as no surprise that later versions of his story tell us that he had children by both goddesses. Homer in The Odyssey tells us that Odysseus had but one son. (16.141)

Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica do not take too long to read in this translation. It can add a little information to our understanding of Greek mythology and some of the beliefs and traditions of classical Greece.