Hésiode (in Greek old Ἡσίοδος / Hêsíodos , in Latin Hesiodus ) is a Greek Poète of eighth century BC

Biography

Facts

The only facts authentically known on Hésiode are the events consigned in its poems. To three recoveries in Work and the Days , it gives some biographical elements. He is necessary to add to it some worms of the Théogonie .

Hésiode would have been born with Ascra, a small borough of Béotie. His/her father came from Cumes in Éolie, countered Asia Mineure located between the Ionie and the Troade. We are unaware of his name. The tradition gives him that of Dios, but that is explained by a faulty interpretation of the passage “ Πέρση, δῖος γένος / Persian, dĩos génos ” ( Work , v.  299), included/understood like “Persians, wire of Dios” instead of “Persians, noble son”. It had there a small company of coastal traffic, which ruined it. It thus crossed the sea and was fixed at Ascra where it bought a small holding, with the foot of the Mont Hélicon. It married there Pycimède, with which it had two wire: Hésiode and Persès.

Ascra was a poor place. Hésiode describes it like a “borough cursed, malicious the winter, hard the summer, never pleasant” ( Travaux , v.  640). At the time of the division of the heritage of his father, it had a serious disagreement with his Persès brother, which involved a lawsuit. The “kings” of Ascra gave reason to Persès. This one hurt to thrive its good and even périclita, which led it to beg his/her brother, who pushed back it. Furious, Persès threatened Hésiode of another lawsuit, whose object is unknown.

To bring his/her brother to wisdom, with a healthy life and a good management of its goods, Hésiode composed with its intention the poem Work and the days, work of which the didactic part is centered around two truths Morale S: work is the great law of humanity; that which works can live decently. This work was written in an agrarian context of crisis and waves of colonization of the Greeks in the search of new grounds. Hésiode hoped to solve the disagreement by amicable agreement; we are unaware of if it succeeds or not.

Parallel to its agrarian activities, Hésiode was a Aède, i.e. a bard composing its poems for an audience. In Chalcis in Eubée, it took part in the contest of poetry organized by wire of king Amphidamas to celebrate the funeral of their father. It gained the victory thanks to a poem celebrating agriculture and peace, and accepted a tripod in reward. It then dedicated it to the Muses of Hélicon.

He died in Ascra. When the village was destroyed by the Thespiens, its inhabitants took refuge with Orchomène. Aristote testifies in its Constitution to Orchomène that, following a oracle, the inhabitants of the city collected ashes of the poet and placed them in the center of their Agora, at the sides to the tomb to Minyas, hero éponyme of the city. This way, the inhabitants made of Hésiode their founder ( οἰκιστής / oikistês ).

Hésiode painted itself in its works like partisan of a sedentary, observant existence of temperance and justice, monk until the superstition, not ambitionnant the favor of the kings and being satisfied to make itself useful to its fellow-citizens, with whom it preached morals with the beautiful ones towards. He is the creator of didactic poetry. After its death, statues were set up in Thespies, Olympie or on Hélicon. Its poems, sung by the Rhapsode S, became very popular and acquired a great fame.

Hésiode inspired by many poets, among whom Virgile (in its Géorgiques ), Caton Old the (in its Of agri will cultura) and Lucrèce.

Legends

Old writings also deliver information on Hésiode to us. It is about:

  • the treaty entitled Argument of Homère and Hésiode , poetic tournament of Homère and Hésiode (in Greek Ἀγών / Agốn );
  • the Life of Hésiode of the Byzantine grammairien Jean Tzétzès;
  • the article Hésiode of the Welded ;
  • two passages of Pausanias (IX, 31,3-6 and 38,3-4) and some scattered allusions;
  • a passage of Plutarque ( Moralia , 162b).

The unit is joined together in the Vitæ Homeri and Hesiodi of Ulrich von Wilamowitz (Bonn, 1916).

The Agốn or " Dispute Homère and of Hésiode" is a kind of book school going back to the 2nd century of the Christian era, but whose contents are much older (Aristophane quotes of them worms in Peace , in 421 av. J. - C. It tells an adverse tournament Homère in Hésiode, and aims to answer the question: what is necessary to prefer, of didactic poetry or epic poetry? At the end of the tournament, Hésiode overrides the opinion of the king, because it celebrates peace and not the war. Hésiode gains a tripod which it devotes to the Muses, in a kind of transfer of the tournament of Chalcis.

Plutarque, the Welded and Tzétzès content as for them death with Hésiode, in concordant terms. Wanting to dedicate to the Muses the gained tripod with Chalcis, it went near the Oracle de Delphes, where the Pythie made him a terrible prediction:

“Happy this mortal who visits my residence, this Hésiode which immortal Muses cherish! Its glory will as extend far as the rays from the dawn. But fears the famous Jupiter wood Néméen ( Nemeion ). It is there that the destiny marked the term of your life. ”

Hésiode, thinking that the prediction indicated the temple of Jupiter Néméen on the site of Olympie, moved away from the Peloponnese and is established in Oinoé, city of the Locride ozolienne. There lived a long time, took woman and was a son. However, Plutarque reports that one day, whereas it remained at a host with certain Milésius, this one raped the girl of its host during the night. Hésiode was shown crime and was killed by the brothers of the victim. What Hésiode had been unaware of, it is that the place of these events, an area wooded close to the sea, was devoted to Jupiter Néméen. Its body was thrown to the sea - prophecy was carried out.

It should be noted that at Tzétzès, it is Hésiode itself which is the seducer. At all events, the corpse was saved immersion by a troop of Dauphin S which carried it until the Golfe of Corinth, where the Locriens celebrated the festival of ARIANE. They collected the body and pursued the murderers. Hésiode was buried on Néméion, in a secret place kept by the inhabitants of Naupacte, for fear those of Orchomène do not remove ashes to them.

This history carries the marks of the legend well: the oracle badly included/understood which is carried out, the intervention of dolphins, the hidden tomb. It is certain that it was elaborate within the framework of a competition between Naupacte and Orchomène. Moreover, the same legend names the son of Hésiode and Locrienne allured: it is not other than Stésichore, large lyric poet…

Work

Hésiode is mainly known for its rewriting of the myths in its works, the Théogonie and Work and the Days , over which it lengthily reflected. It puts the three principal powers thus: Gaïa, Nyx and Eros, at the beginning of the account (without specifying that they are born with the beginning). Previously, there was a version of these myths by city in Greece; the recasting of Hésiode, if it did not eliminate the contradictory texts ( the Odyssey ), was essential like best the account of the origins for the old Greeks.

Hésiode draws its inspiration from multiple sources: his/her father coasted in Asia, it thus must have echoes of the Babylonian myths . If he reconsiders the myth, he however does it in the logic of the myth.

Traditional attributions

The first old edition that we preserved by the papyruses allots to Hésiode only three works.

  • Théogonie ( Θεογονία / Theogonía ): genealogy of the gods, in whom it presents the multitude of the gods celebrated by the Greek myths where three divine generations follow one another: that of Ouranos, that of Cronos, that of Zeus which leaves triumphing. To this divine genealogy a Cosmogonie is added who recalls the creation of the world starting from the Chaos. This work constitutes the oldest Greek religious poem.

  • Work and the Days ( Ἔργα καὶ Ἡμέραι / Erga kaì Hêmérai ): Hésiode tells the history of Prométhée and Pandore, the five successive races of humanity (gold, money, bronze, race of the heroes then iron), the fable of the Faucon and the Rossignol (the falcon representing the king, and the nightingale the poet) and finally the vision of two cities, that of justice, Δίκη / Díkê and the opposed city, Ὕϐρις / Hýbris , disproportion). It gives a description of the agricultural work on the arid grounds of its native land and it is presented in the form of a precise timetable of the year of a farmer by including councils on agriculture: tools, care of the animals, cultures, etc a section describing the rigor of the winter in the mountains of Greece is particularly remarkable. It finishes the account by predicting that at the end, the man of justice becomes rich, while that of disproportion loses all. Hésiode is the prophet of the iron race, which it makes succeed the race of the Heroes.
  • the Shield of Héraclès ( Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους / Aspìs Hêrakléous ), inspired of the description of the shield of Achilles in Iliade .

Other attributions

However, the Old ones also allotted a multitude of other works to him, in a more or less whimsical way, among which:

  • the Catalog of the women or Éhées ( Ἢ οἷαι / E hoiai , “or such woman… ”, traditional formula of transition in a narration), from which the 54 first are drawn towards Bouclier ;
  • Great Large Work and Éhées , whose relationship with Work and Éhées remains dubious;
  • Ornithomantie , Mélampodie (on the soothsayers Mélampous, Calchas and Tirésias), Explanations of wonders , Astronomy , of the poems on the art of the divination;
  • Lessons of Chiron , a didactic poem;
  • Dactyls of the Ida , on the first metallurgists;
  • Weddings of Céyx ;
  • Descent into Hell of Pirithoos ;
  • Aigimios , epopee on a king Dorien.

Some quotations

  • “the road which leads to misery is plane. ” ( Work , v. 287)

  • “Profit badly acquired is worth a disaster. ” ( Travaux , v. 352)
  • “Which trusts a woman trusts the robbers. ” ( Work , v. 375)
  • “do not give anything to the following day nor to two days later. ” ( Work , v. 410)

See too

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