Essay on the fFritings of Hesiod. . 7 



his plot, wbich io truth will be found inconsistent alike with the real form 

 of the poems, and the spirit of the age in which they must have been com- 

 posed j but this will be all the sacrihce we shall have to make.* 



* The Rhapsodists appear to have recited many of the tales of the heroic age— the 

 A vcptov Spiotxiv ^twv yivoQ, of which the adventures are thus summarily sketched by 

 Hesiod : — 



Kai rsc fiiv TloKifioQre kukoq, kcu tpvXomg aivi], 



TovQ fiev tcp nrrairvXio Oii^y KaSjxrjiSi yaiy, 



QXict fiapvajjitvsg MrjXwv tvcK OlSnroCcw 



Tovg Se kui tv Nj)£(T(7iv vTTtp fisya Xairfia OaXaaaijg 



Eg Tpoi>]V ayay(ov " EXevjj^ ivek' ^vko^wio. 



Some bitter war and deadly strife consigned 



In the Cadmeian plain to hostile graves, 



For the contested flocks of CEdipus 



By seven-gated Thebes — some led to Troy 



O'er the broad wave for fair-hair'd Helen's sake. 



Some of these heroic tales were afterwards digested into regular Cj'cles, beginning, 

 like the Metamorphoses of Ovid, with the creation of the world, and proceeding with 

 a somewhat similar arrangement ; these were called the Cj'clic poems, and ap- 

 pear to have furnished the subjects for many of the subsequent Greek dramas. The 

 portions relating to the Trojan war, and not included in the Iliad, were modelled 

 into two other poems ; one the mvirpia Er/j, " Cyprian Epics," containing the pre- 

 vious events ; the other, the iXme V.Xaacnov, " Lesser Iliad," those subsequent. Both 

 were ascribed, though, as Herodotus shews, without any shadow of justice, to Homer. 

 Aristotle mentions both, as fertile sources whence the drama borrowed. The ar- 

 gument of the former, as recorded by Proclus, is still preserved ; it begins with the 

 marriage of Pcleus and Thetis. A single fragment from the exordium, is also extant. 

 Mr. Knight thinks that Quintus Srayrna:us may have incorporated some other pas- 

 sages from the lesser Iliad in his own later compilation ; he cites as an example the 

 following very beautiful passage, which however, both in sentimental expression and 

 studied grouping, seems far too artificial for this early age. It is a description of a 

 band of warriors, arming for the fight. 



EvS' apa Tt[t fiiv aKoing vTrorpojiisaa KvSoifiov 

 Evrt' nrotxof^evtf) irapavr]vtt BciKpvxmaa. 

 Ttf) 6' apa vtjTTioi 'vug, eirtiyofitvui irept Trarpt 

 Ttvxea Travra (juptaKov. 'o ct aipiaiv aXXoTt fitv ttu 

 AxvvT olvpofiEvoig' OTt S' ep,TraXi fiuciaaaKtv 

 Tlaiaiv ayaXXofievoQ' KpaSitj Se 'oi tv Sa'i fiaXXov 

 'Qpfiaivtv TrovitaSai vmp rtKiiav re Kai avra. 

 AXXi{) B" avTt ytpaiog nricrrapivyg TraXajxymv 

 AfKfiiTi^ei fitXitaai KaKtjg aXKn/pia xapjjDjg 

 IloXXa TTapTjyopKitv ^iXov vita, iir]Otvi tiKiiv 

 Ev TroXe/iifi- kcu "rtpva TtTpvfifiiva eiiKvve naiSc 

 Tap<pta atffiuT 'ixovra TTaXairjg CijwrtjTog. 



Knight's Prolegomena, p. 10, note 1. 

 " To one, his wife her warrior's weapons bears, 

 In tears and trembling at the approaching fight ; 

 Another's striplings bustling round their sire 

 Collect his scatter'd armour — he awhile 



