H E S 47 



Number of persons in a square mile Ill 



Agricultural population hi centesimal parts . 52 



Net product per family X 



H E S 



(w. a.) 



HESIOD, one of the earliest Greek port*. Little 

 M known of his life, and the few farts that have reach- 

 ed us have occasioned much controversy among the 

 lamiud. It appear* that his father Dius had origi- 

 nally resided at Coma, a town of jEolia in Aia Minor, 

 whence be afterwards removed to Ascra, now Zagara, 

 situated in a valley of Mount Helicon. (See Helicon and 

 Clarke's TravrU. part ii. sect. iii. |> 1 ' .' > It i- uncer- 

 tain whether Heaiod suisjapanisd his father from Cum*. 





or was born at Ascra. The Latter is perhaps the more 

 probable conclusion. In one of his poem* he mentions 

 a short vovage to the isle of Eobcea, aa the only occa- 

 sion on which be bad ever been on shipboard i l.tit if 

 he had come from Coma, he tnnet have crowed by sea 

 into Greece. It ia true, in the passage alluded to, he 

 spsaks of his nautical experience, bat the affirmation i* 

 unlimited; and it may be supposed, had there been 

 any exception, that exception would either have been 

 or the i neasiiai modified. There ia another 

 hi favour of Ascra, given by Plutarch on 

 of Ephoras, the historian of Cuma, who 

 Dius had bean compelled to emigrate to 

 Ascra, on account of debt, and there married Pycimede 

 the mother of Hesiod. What was He- ition 



ia uncertain. La Harpe, in his Comn tie I.itrr*l*rr, 

 to nave bean a prieat of the Tempi* of 

 Others haw amUhii I. that, rcordi ng to 



. * _ 







to hi* Theogony, he tended sheep in the 

 vallies of Helicon ; a mode of life, h has been thought, 



' to the bard of has. 

 it M evident, as the writer of the Theo- 

 appiiea with equal force hi fa- 

 of hi* aacerdotal profeaMon. From the pirtur* of 

 ! a laurel branch. Mr 

 he wa not a min- 



but a rhapaodiat, and sang or recited to 

 of the lyre." He u reported to 



Homer at a portinl 

 *d priae hi EuboBa, at 

 i of the frVfa aW /*, cannot rrm- 

 ambly be doubted; but that be vanqnuned Homer 



tkaaal ftm^aWM Malaatlv PaaMVwLmrt mai naU*4>m^am ,-Jf I _ &* i jj._ 



MB ^amwmjjw rvvvnawa ncnan OT i*urr vinwv* 

 Haaiad ia noted far longevitv. but it is uncertain whe- 

 ther he was permitted to die a natural death. There 

 M a tradition that he was murdered at Anoe. on a pil- 

 grimage to the Delphic oracle, by the son of Ma host 

 Ganyrtor. Gatryetor having entertained He*iod, and 

 a MOeaian, hi. fVllow.traveller, and his daughter ha- 

 **MB oeen viaajanfl m taw nternty amsjicion feO opon 



tt_ II I .1 



tne aged bora, woo, WHbow farther ceremony, waa put 

 to death by law brothers, and thrown into the sea. 

 The body being cast on snore, or, aa fiction will have 



it, conveyed to land by a dolphin, waa recognised by lea. Soot 



hia f^^ Atuft tSM n^vwl^v^M Q^__^L__ 



i I'M in.ir.n rrrv !>[>. . I. ...n \< . n ~i i '.- 



<n the wave*. | ; , ,| ; ., 



doabtfol than hi. 



The era of H.uod i. till 

 birth-place. Some author*, a* 

 and Jsjatna UnsaM, give him a greater antiquity than 

 Homer ; Cicero. Pliny, and I'.terculus place Urn a 

 Msrylatar; whOe a third party, among whom, re 



thority of Hrrodotiu, concur in making bun a content. 



porary. The attempts to decide the question of pri- 

 ority, from philological criticism and astroi inn i i d- 

 culations, are equally vague and ineffectual. Ti t in- 

 ference hi favour of Homer, which has been drawn 

 from his use of the word h*ti r t for law, when H-iod 

 employs *, allege<l to be of more recent orisrin. is 

 of no force, as Mr F.ltim ]u*tly n-m:irk-, unleM we 

 suppose that Homer * p<w>in cont <ined every word in 

 the language " The - argument of Dr Samuel 



Clarke, on the *ame side, with regard to the qii mtity 

 of *, of which in Homer the n>*t syllblf it long, 

 while Hesiod varies it at plra-nrf, awl of *{!?.,. the 

 penult of which in 11 - :ort in HCMIK!, 



is scnrcely more successful. The difffrence ot lor 

 of dialect, and more particularly the \>-r\ to:iiiierable 

 alterations which the original poems have manifestly 

 undergone since their collection and arrangement, do 

 not admit of any conclusive argument being founded 

 on such minute (livrr-i! I'aterculus places Hesiod 

 80O years before Christ, and Hmm-r <)-JO ; and 1 U-rodo- 

 tiu, makhig them contemiwiraries, fixet their common 

 era at 8R4 years before ( ! n-t. \ e I'.i- 



rian marble*, Hesiod ri.iiirislu-d b, ii years, 



and Homer 907. 



Few of the poems ascribed to Ht-iod an 

 tant, and there ii much difference c respecting 



the small ntynber that have reached as ; t'u r , 

 Theogony, the Work* and Day*, an<' 



Herculr*. Tnee remain* have manifestly suffered 

 greatly from corruption and mutilation. The many 

 spvrious additions end alterations with which modern 

 have loaded and disfigured them, have 

 then- original simple character, as to raise 



of their ant utility. 

 Joseph Scaligrr denies that 



i* the production of Hr-i.xl. while Tanaquil 



confidently affirms it to be grim I' contrariety 



of decision, in persons so coni|- 



accounted for only by the ur. . 



state of the poem With reg.v 



Quintflian has given him thi- slend 



crity. I ' liattle of the . 



" be Heaiod's genuine composition, and 



as there is reaann to U !i. .i-. t -..i i 



from M* heroic* I genealogies, we shall de 



sod, ae compared with I lomer, i* lets ra 



vent in action, leas teern 



riaone ; bat grand, energetic, occasionally 



and daring ; tmt more common! \ 



slow and stately pace. In met 



consider Heeiod a* svperor to Homer." 



We subjoin a list of the lost poems of Heiod. The 



Catalogue of Women or Heroines, in five part-, of 



which the fifth appears to have been entitled t! 



rogony." The Melampodia. poem on dtmmtion. 

 .-reat Astronomy, or Stellar Book Descent of 



Theseus into Hade* \ 



Soothsaying ar ! 



Great A of Cretan 



rerers l :damiiim 



and Theti*. yrvgen^ -i Batraphu, n be- 



loved youth ( I he Marriage of 



On Herba. 

 n ingenious dissertation on the /.;/; of If, 



prefixed to a new translation of hi* Rrmaiiu, by 



Charlr. Abraham Klton. Lond. 1815 (r) 



HI '.!!>( Mil., is the name given by some atrono- 



,i-.- 



Hesiod. 



f p <-<lio- 



at I !<- 

 l< r- 

 and compa- 

 \ ehement 

 th a 

 Mil.lnnc. I 



" have a ttsdilion that Bested wily wrote th poen of tbc Works sn4 Da>t." 



