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 light of morn ”’ (this use of one of Homer’s 
own and fairest lines! 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 
Oinoé in Locris, never to discover that there too was a place 
sacred to the same god and called by the same name. 
At Oinoé 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 71,, vii. 451. 
2 Plutarch’s account (Sept. Sap. Conviv., ch. 19) varies in many details; 
notably, (1) it acquits Hesiod of seduction, (2) the brothers of flight, (3) the 
maiden of hanging herself. 
