U2 
Hesiod’s life, he retired to Locris, a 
neighbouring town of the Phoceans, 
about the same distance from Mount 
Parnassus, as Ascra was fram Helicon, 
He is supposed to have left a son, who 
was Stesichorus the poet, and a daughter; 
but for this we have no direct autho- 
tity. It is agreed by all, that he lived to 
a very advanced age. 
The story of his death is related by 
Plutarch in his ‘ Banquet of the Seven 
Wise Men.’ The man with whom He- 
sicd lived at Locris, a Milesian, ravished 
a maid in the same house. Hesiod, 
though ignorant of the fact, was malici- 
ously accused as an accomplice to her 
brothers, who barbarously murdered him, 
with his companion, whose name was 
Troilus, and threw their bodies into the 
‘sea.. The body of Troilus was cast on a 
‘rock, which retained the name of Troilus 
from that accident. The body of He- 
siod was received by a shoal of dolphins, 
as soon as it was thrown into the water, 
and carried to the town of Molicria, near 
the promontory Rhvon, where the Lo- 
crians then held a solemn feast. When 
they saw a floating carcase, they ran 
with astonishment to the shore; and 
finding it to be the body of Hesiod re- 
cently slain, they resolved to detect the 
murderers of a man whom they so much 
honoured. When they discovered the 
wretches who had committed the murder, 
they plunged them alive into the sea, and 
afterwards destroyed their houses, The 
remains of Hesiod were deposited in 
Nemea, but its situation was concealed 
from_a dread of the Orchomenians, whe 
had formed a design, founded on an 
oracle, to.steal his body and carry it into 
their own country. Pausanias* adds, 
that the Orchomenians, in obedience to 
the advice of the oracle, which had re- 
commended them to seize the bones of 
Hesiod, in order to remove a pestilence 
which raged among them, ‘afterwards 
«liscovered and transported them home. 
Boissard+ has exhibited a breast with a 
head, a trunk without a head, and a gém, 
intended for Hesiod; but the only ori- 
ginal monument of him now remaining, 
or at least known, is a marble bust in the 
Pembroke collection. at Wilton. The 
character of Elesiod as a poet and a man, 
seems to be sufficiently comprized in the 
words of Paterculus; perelegantis ingenié 
ef moilissima dulcidine. carminum memo- 
rabils, oiit guielisqgue cupidissimus, 
* Paus. Beotic. 
+ Boissard, Antiq. Rom. Urb. 
% 4 \ 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature— Hesiod. 
[March 1, 
As our design is rather to give the 
reader a general idea of the ancient wri 
ters, than a minute and elaborate criti- 
cism on their respective works, it will not 
be necessary to detain him lung upon 
those of Hesiod, as they are inconsider- 
able in point of number, and only one of 
them appears to be incontestibly his. 
The volume generally consists of three 
poems, the ‘Works and Days,’ the ‘Theo- 
gony,’ and the ‘Shield of Hercules.’ 
Lhe ‘Works and Days’ has always 
been considered as a genuine work of 
Hesiod, and the only dispute among 
the critics and commentators, bas been 
respecting the title. The first part they 
call Egya (Works) and the second Hyepat, 
(Days); others call the first Epou ums 
Hyepas, and the two Hyepas only, which 
part consists of no moré than sixty-four 
lines. Insome editions, this division is 
placed at the end of the moral and reli- 
gious precepts; but according to-Gre- 
vius,* there was no such distinction in the 
old manuscripts; he has therefore not 
used any in his own edition. Whether 
these divisions existed or not in the old 
copies, is of little importance; they cer- 
tainly contribute to the ease of the rea- 
der, and do not injure the original text. 
The poem might perhaps, with still 
greater propriety, have been divided into 
three parts ;.the one mythological, the 
other moral, and the.last didactic. It 
begins with the fable of Pandora, and if ‘ 
it be originaily invented by him, he may 
claim the merit of a fertile imagination ; 
he is at least the first writer by whom the » 
fable is mentioned ; as well as the birth 
of Venus, and that of the nme Muses, 
the daughters of Mnem6syne and Jupiter. 
The allegory of Pandora 1s followed by a 
description of the different ages of the 
world, which he divides into five, instead 
of the usual number of four. These are 
the golden age, the silver age, the brazen 
age, the age of the demi-gods and heroes, 
and the iron age, which was the age in 
which Hesiod himself wrote. After this _ 
mythological opening, he addresses a 
moral discourse to his brother Perses, 
which is followed by precepts in’ the are 
of ulling the earth, mterspersed with les- 
sons of wisdom. At the close of the 
peem he makes a curieus distinction be- 
tween the different days of the mont! 
pomting out the particular fuucti 
which should be appropriated tug@e 
He informs us, that marriages § 
take place on the fourth, of dhe 
* Grey, Lect. Hesiod. 
