Part 10

Ilgen, Halle, 1796 (with Epigrams and the Battle of the Frogs and Mice).

Matthiae, Leipzig, 1806 (with the Battle of the Frogs and Mice).

Hermann, Berling, 1806 (with Epigrams).

Franke, Leipzig, 1828 (with Epigrams and the Battle of the Frogs and Mice).

Dindorff (Didot edition), Paris, 1837.

Baumeister (Battle of the Frogs and Mice), Göttingen, 1852.

Baumeister (Hymns), Leipzig, 1860.

Gemoll, Leipzig, 1886.

Goodwin, Oxford, 1893.

Ludwich (Battle of the Frogs and Mice), 1896.

Allen and Sikes, London, 1904.

Allen (Homeri Opera v), Oxford, 1912.

Of these editions that of Messrs Allen and Sikes is by far the best: not only is the text purged of the load of conjectures for which the frequent obscurities of the Hymns offer a special opening, but the Introduction and the Notes throughout are of the highest value. For a full discussion of the MSS. and textual problems, reference must be made to this edition, as also to Dr. T.W. Allen’s series of articles in the Journal of Hellenic Studies vols. xv ff. Among translations those of J. Edgar (Edinburgh), 1891) and of Andrew Lang (London, 1899) may be mentioned.

The Epic Cycle.

The fragments of the Epic Cycle, being drawn from a variety of authors, no list of MSS. can be given. The following collections and editions may be mentioned:—

Muller, Leipzig, 1829.

Dindorff (Didot edition of Homer), Paris, 1837-56.

Kinkel (Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta i), Leipzig, 1877.

Allen (Homeri Opera v), Oxford, 1912.

The fullest discussion of the problems and fragments of the epic cycle is F.G. Welcker’s der epische Cyclus (Bonn, vol. i, 1835: vol. ii, 1849: vol. i, 2nd edition, 1865). The Appendix to Monro’s Homer’s Odyssey xii-xxiv (pp. 340 ff.) deals with the Cyclic poets in relation to Homer, and a clear and reasonable discussion of the subject is to be found in Croiset’s Hist. de la Littérature Grecque, vol. i.

On Hesiod, the Hesiodic poems and the problems which these offer see Rzach’s most important article “Hesiodos” in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie xv (1912).

A discussion of the evidence for the date of Hesiod is to be found in Journ. Hell. Stud. xxxv, 85 ff. (T.W. Allen).

Of translations of Hesiod the following may be noticed:—The Georgicks of Hesiod, by George Chapman, London, 1618; The Works of Hesiod translated from the Greek, by Thomas Coocke, London, 1728; The Remains of Hesiod translated from the Greek into English Verse, by Charles Abraham Elton; The Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theognis, by the Rev. J. Banks, M.A.; “Hesiod”, by Prof. James Mair, Oxford, 19081203.

HESIOD

HESIOD’S WORKS AND DAYS

(ll. 1-10) Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise. Through him mortal men are famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud,—Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high.

Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. And I, Perses, would tell of true things.

(ll. 11-24) So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the other is the elder daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.