Delphi Complete Works of Hesiod (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (14 page)
Fragment 99A — Scholiast on Homer, Iliad. xxiii. 679: And yet Hesiod says that after he had died in Thebes, Argeia the daughter of Adrastus together with others (cp. frag. 99) came to the lamentation over Oedipus.
Fragment 99 — Papyri greci e latine, No. 131 (2nd-3rd century):
(1-10)
‘And (Eriphyle) bare in the palace Alcmaon , shepherd of the people, to Amphiaraus. Him (Amphiaraus) did the Cadmean (Theban) women with trailing robes admire when they saw face to face his eyes and well-grown frame, as he was busied about the burying of Oedipus, the man of many woes. ....Once the Danai, servants of Ares, followed him to Thebes, to win renown........for Polynices. But, though well he knew from Zeus all things ordained, the earth yawned and swallowed him up with his horses and jointed chariot, far from deep-eddying Alpheus.
(11-20)
But Electyron married the all-beauteous daughter of Pelops and, going up into one bed with her, the son of Perses begat........and Phylonomus and Celaeneus and Amphimachus and........and Eurybius and famous.... All these the Taphians, famous shipmen, slew in fight for oxen with shambling hoofs,.... ....in ships across the sea’s wide back. So Alcmena alone was left to delight her parents........and the daughter of Electryon....
. . . Lacuna . . .
(l. 21)....who was subject in love to the dark-clouded son of Cronos and bare (famous Heracles).’
Fragment 100 — Argument to the Shield of Heracles, i: The beginning of the “Shield” as far as the 56th verse is current in the fourth “Catalogue”.
Fragment 101 (UNCERTAIN POSITION) — Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1359 fr. 1 (early 3rd cent. A.D.): ((LACUNA — Slight remains of 3 lines))
(4-17)
‘...if indeed he (Teuthras) delayed, and if he feared to obey the word of the immortals who then appeared plainly to them. But her (Auge) he received and brought up well, and cherished in the palace, honouring her even as his own daughters.
And Auge bare Telephus of the stock of Areas, king of the Mysians, being joined in love with the mighty Heracles when he was journeying in quest of the horses of proud Laomedon — horses the fleetest of foot that the Asian land nourished, — and destroyed in battle the tribe of the dauntless Amazons and drove them forth from all that land. But Telephus routed the spearmen of the bronze-clad Achaeans and made them embark upon their black ships. Yet when he had brought down many to the ground which nourishes men, his own might and deadliness were brought low....’
Fragment 102 (UNCERTAIN POSITION) — Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1359 fr. 2 (early 3rd cent. A.D.): ((LACUNA — Remains of 4 lines))
(5-16)
‘....Electra.... was subject to the dark-clouded Son of Cronos and bare Dardanus.... and Eetion.... who once greatly loved rich-haired Demeter. And cloud-gathering Zeus was wroth and smote him, Eetion, and laid him low with a flaming thunderbolt, because he sought to lay hands upon rich-haired Demeter. But Dardanus came to the coast of the mainland — from him Erichthonius and thereafter Tros were sprung, and Ilus, and Assaracus, and godlike Ganymede, — when he had left holy Samothrace in his many-benched ship.
. . . Lacuna . . .
Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1359 fr. 3 (early 3rd cent. A.D.):
(17-24)
....Cleopatra ....the daughter of.... ....But an eagle caught up Ganymede for Zeus because he vied with the immortals in beauty........rich-tressed Diomede; and she bare Hyacinthus, the blameless one and strong........whom, on a time Phoebus himself slew unwittingly with a ruthless disk....
THE DIVINATION BY BIRDS
Proclus on Works and Days, 828: Some make the “Divination by Birds”, which Apollonius of Rhodes rejects as spurious, follow this verse (“Works and Days”, 828).
THE ASTRONOMY
Fragment 1 — Athenaeus xi, p. 491 d: And the author of “The Astronomy”, which is attributed forsooth to Hesiod, always calls them (the Pleiades) Peleiades: ‘but mortals call them Peleiades’; and again, ‘the stormy Peleiades go down’; and again, ‘then the Peleiades hide away....’
Scholiast on Pindar, Nem. ii. 16: The Pleiades.... whose stars are these:— ‘Lovely Teygata, and dark-faced Electra, and Alcyone, and bright Asterope, and Celaeno, and Maia, and Merope, whom glorious Atlas begot....’
. . . Lacuna . . .
‘In the mountains of Cyllene she (Maia) bare Hermes, the herald of the gods.’
Fragment 2 — Scholiast on Aratus 254: But Zeus made them (the sisters of Hyas) into the stars which are called Hyades. Hesiod in his Book about Stars tells us their names as follows: ‘Nymphs like the Graces , Phaesyle and Coronis and rich-crowned Cleeia and lovely Phaco and long-robed Eudora, whom the tribes of men upon the earth call Hyades.’
Fragment 3 — Pseudo-Eratosthenes Catast. frag. 1: The Great Bear.] — Hesiod says she (Callisto) was the daughter of Lycaon and lived in Arcadia. She chose to occupy herself with wild-beasts in the mountains together with Artemis, and, when she was seduced by Zeus, continued some time undetected by the goddess, but afterwards, when she was already with child, was seen by her bathing and so discovered. Upon this, the goddess was enraged and changed her into a beast. Thus she became a bear and gave birth to a son called Arcas. But while she was in the mountains, she was hunted by some goat-herds and given up with her babe to Lycaon. Some while after, she thought fit to go into the forbidden precinct of Zeus, not knowing the law, and being pursued by her own son and the Arcadians, was about to be killed because of the said law; but Zeus delivered her because of her connection with him and put her among the stars, giving her the name Bear because of the misfortune which had befallen her.
Comm. Supplem. on Aratus, p. 547 M. 8: Of Bootes, also called the Bear-warden. The story goes that he is Arcas the son of Callisto and Zeus, and he lived in the country about Lycaeum. After Zeus had seduced Callisto, Lycaon, pretending not to know of the matter, entertained Zeus, as Hesiod says, and set before him on the table the babe which he had cut up.
Fragment 4 — Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catast. fr. xxxii: Orion.] — Hesiod says that he was the son of Euryale, the daughter of Minos, and of Poseidon, and that there was given him as a gift the power of walking upon the waves as though upon land. When he was come to Chios, he outraged Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, being drunken; but Oenopion when he learned of it was greatly vexed at the outrage and blinded him and cast him out of the country. Then he came to Lemnos as a beggar and there met Hephaestus who took pity on him and gave him Cedalion his own servant to guide him. So Orion took Cedalion upon his shoulders and used to carry him about while he pointed out the roads. Then he came to the east and appears to have met Helius (the Sun) and to have been healed, and so returned back again to Oenopion to punish him; but Oenopion was hidden away by his people underground. Being disappointed, then, in his search for the king, Orion went away to Crete and spent his time hunting in company with Artemis and Leto. It seems that he threatened to kill every beast there was on earth; whereupon, in her anger, Earth sent up against him a scorpion of very great size by which he was stung and so perished. After this Zeus, at one prayer of Artemis and Leto, put him among the stars, because of his manliness, and the scorpion also as a memorial of him and of what had occurred.
Fragment 5 — Diodorus iv. 85: Some say that great earthquakes occurred, which broke through the neck of land and formed the straits , the sea parting the mainland from the island. But Hesiod, the poet, says just the opposite: that the sea was open, but Orion piled up the promontory by Peloris, and founded the close of Poseidon which is especially esteemed by the people thereabouts. When he had finished this, he went away to Euboea and settled there, and because of his renown was taken into the number of the stars in heaven, and won undying remembrance.
THE PRECEPTS OF CHIRON
Fragment 1 — Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. vi. 19: ‘And now, pray, mark all these things well in a wise heart. First, whenever you come to your house, offer good sacrifices to the eternal gods.’
Fragment 2 — Plutarch Mor. 1034 E: ‘Decide no suit until you have heard both sides speak.’
Fragment 3 — Plutarch de Orac. defectu ii. 415 C: ‘A chattering crow lives out nine generations of aged men, but a stag’s life is four times a crow’s, and a raven’s life makes three stags old, while the phoenix outlives nine ravens, but we, the rich-haired Nymphs, daughters of Zeus the aegis-holder, outlive ten phoenixes.’
Fragment 4 — Quintilian, i. 15: Some consider that children under the age of seven should not receive a literary education... That Hesiod was of this opinion very many writers affirm who were earlier than the critic Aristophanes; for he was the first to reject the “Precepts”, in which book this maxim occurs, as a work of that poet.
THE GREAT WORKS
Fragment 1 — Comm. on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. v. 8: The verse, however (the slaying of Rhadamanthys), is in Hesiod in the “Great Works” and is as follows: ‘If a man sow evil, he shall reap evil increase; if men do to him as he has done, it will be true justice.’
Fragment 2 — Proclus on Hesiod, Works and Days, 126: Some believe that the Silver Race (is to be attributed to) the earth, declaring that in the “Great Works” Hesiod makes silver to be of the family of Earth.
THE IDAEAN DACTYLS
Fragment 1 — Pliny, Natural History vii. 56, 197: Hesiod says that those who are called the Idaean Dactyls taught the smelting and tempering of iron in Crete.
Fragment 2 — Clement, Stromateis i. 16. 75: Celmis, again, and Damnameneus, the first of the Idaean Dactyls, discovered iron in Cyprus; but bronze smelting was discovered by Delas, another Idaean, though Hesiod calls him Scythes .
THE MARRIAGE OF CEYX
Fragment 1 — Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 128: Hesiod in the “Marriage of Ceyx” says that he (Heracles) landed (from the Argo) to look for water and was left behind in Magnesia near the place called Aphetae because of his desertion there.
Fragment 2 — Zenobius , ii. 19: Hesiod used the proverb in the following way: Heracles is represented as having constantly visited the house of Ceyx of Trachis and spoken thus: ‘Of their own selves the good make for the feasts of good.’
Fragment 3 — Scholiast on Homer, Il. xiv. 119: ‘And horse-driving Ceyx beholding...’
Fragment 4 — Athenaeus, ii. p. 49b: Hesiod in the “Marriage of Ceyx” — for though grammar-school boys alienate it from the poet, yet I consider the poem ancient — calls the tables tripods.
Fragment 5 — Gregory of Corinth, On Forms of Speech (Rhett. Gr. vii. 776): ‘But when they had done with desire for the equal-shared feast, even then they brought from the forest the mother of a mother (sc. wood), dry and parched, to be slain by her own children’ (sc. to be burnt in the flames).
THE GREAT EOIAE
Fragment 1 — Pausanius, ii. 26. 3: Epidaurus. According to the opinion of the Argives and the epic poem, the “Great Eoiae”, Argos the son of Zeus was father of Epidaurus.
Fragment 2 — Anonymous Comment. on Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, iii. 7: And, they say, Hesiod is sufficient to prove that the word PONEROS (bad) has the same sense as ‘laborious’ or ‘ill-fated’; for in the “Great Eoiae” he represents Alcmene as saying to Heracles: ‘My son, truly Zeus your father begot you to be the most toilful as the most excellent...’; and again: ‘The Fates (made) you the most toilful and the most excellent...’
Fragment 3 — Scholiast on Pindar, Isthm. v. 53: The story has been taken from the “Great Eoiae”; for there we find Heracles entertained by Telamon, standing dressed in his lion-skin and praying, and there also we find the eagle sent by Zeus, from which Aias took his name .
Fragment 4 — Pausanias, iv. 2. 1: But I know that the so-called “Great Eoiae” say that Polycaon the son of Butes married Euaechme, daughter of Hyllus, Heracles’ son.
Fragment 5 — Pausanias, ix. 40. 6: ‘And Phylas wedded Leipephile the daughter of famous Iolaus: and she was like the Olympians in beauty. She bare him a son Hippotades in the palace, and comely Thero who was like the beams of the moon. And Thero lay in the embrace of Apollo and bare horse-taming Chaeron of hardy strength.’
Fragment 6 — Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. iv. 35: ‘Or like her in Hyria, careful-minded Mecionice, who was joined in the love of golden Aphrodite with the Earth-holder and Earth-Shaker, and bare Euphemus.’
Fragment 7 — Pausanias, ix. 36. 7: ‘And Hyettus killed Molurus the dear son of Aristas in his house because he lay with his wife. Then he left his home and fled from horse-rearing Argos and came to Minyan Orchomenus. And the hero received him and gave him a portion of his goods, as was fitting.’
Fragment 8 — Pausanias, ii. 2. 3: But in the “Great Eoiae” Peirene is represented to be the daughter of Oebalius.
Fragment 9 — Pausanias, ii. 16. 4: The epic poem, which the Greek call the “Great Eoiae”, says that she (Mycene) was the daughter of Inachus and wife of Arestor: from her, then, it is said, the city received its name.
Fragment 10 — Pausanias, vi. 21. 10: According to the poem the “Great Eoiae”, these were killed by Oenomaus : Alcathous the son of Porthaon next after Marmax, and after Alcathous, Euryalus, Eurymachus and Crotalus. The man killed next after them, Aerias, we should judge to have been a Lacedemonian and founder of Aeria. And after Acrias, they say, Capetus was done to death by Oenomaus, and Lycurgus, Lasius, Chalcodon and Tricolonus.... And after Tricolonus fate overtook Aristomachus and Prias on the course, as also Pelagon and Aeolius and Cronius.
Fragment 11 — Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. iv. 57: In the “Great Eoiae” it is said that Endymion was transported by Zeus into heaven, but when he fell in love with Hera, was befooled with a shape of cloud, and was cast out and went down into Hades.
Fragment 12 — Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius, Arg. i. 118: In the “Great Eoiae” it is related that Melampus, who was very dear to Apollo, went abroad and stayed with Polyphantes. But when the king had sacrificed an ox, a serpent crept up to the sacrifice and destroyed his servants. At this the king was angry and killed the serpent, but Melampus took and buried it. And its offspring, brought up by him, used to lick his ears and inspire him with prophecy. And so, when he was caught while trying to steal the cows of Iphiclus and taken bound to the city of Aegina, and when the house, in which Iphiclus was, was about to fall, he told an old woman, one of the servants of Iphiclus, and in return was released.