ORACLES— HESIOD'S DEATH 89 



Greeted from the inner shrine as one " held in honour high 

 by the immortal Muses," as one " whose fame shall reach as 

 far as is spread the hght of morn " (this use of one of Homer's 

 own and fairest lines 1 was no doubt intended as the highest 

 possible tribute to his victor), Hesiod is then warned, " But 

 beware of the fair grove of the Nemean Zeus, for there lies 

 thy fate of death." 



Alas ! for the poet, who to escape the well-known temple 

 of Nemean Zeus in the Peloponnese hurried off to stay at 

 Oinoe in Locris, never to discover that there too was a place 

 sacred to the same god and called by the same name. 



At Oinoe he abode with his hosts, until suspecting that he 

 had debauched their sister (Hesiod seems to have been endowed 

 with superhuman powers, for according to Proclus and Suidas 

 he was a youth twice !), they slew him and threw him into the 

 sea. But on the third day his body was borne back to land 

 by dolphins. On hue and cry for the murderers being raised 

 the brothers seized a fishing boat and set sail for Crete. 2 But 

 they found not favour in the " pure eyes and perfect witness 

 of all-judging" Zeus, who thundered and sank them. "But 

 the maiden, their sister, after the rape hanged herself." To 

 conclude in the words of the 'Aywv, 



" So much for Hesiod ! " 



oracle at Delphi. Agis asks if some mattresses and pillows are likely to be 

 recovered. Another pilgrim enquires whether the god recommends sheep- 

 farming as an investment. 



1 II., vii. 451. 



2 Plutarch's account {Sept. Sap. Conviv., ch. 19) varies in many details ; 

 notably, (i) it acquits Hesiod of seduction, (2) the brothers of flight, {3) the 

 maiden of hanging herself. 



