Part 8

Flach, Leipzig, 1874-8.

Rzach, Leipzig, 1902 (larger edition), 1913 (smaller edition).

On the Hesiodic poems generally the ordinary Histories of Greek Literature may be consulted, but especially the Hist. de la Littérature Grecque I pp. 459 ff. of MM. Croiset. The summary account in Prof. Murray’s Anc. Gk. Lit. is written with a strong sceptical bias. Very valuable is the appendix to Mair’s translation (Oxford, 1908) on The Farmer’s Year in Hesiod. Recent work on the Hesiodic poems is reviewed in full by Rzach in Bursian’s Jahresberichte vols. 100 (1899) and 152 (1911).

For the Fragments of Hesiodic poems the work of Markscheffel, Hesiodi Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1840), is most valuable: important also is Kinkel’s Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta I (Leipzig, 1877) and the editions of Rzach noticed above. For recently discovered papyrus fragments see Wilamowitz, Neue Bruchstücke d. Hesiod Katalog (Sitzungsb. der k. preuss. Akad. fur Wissenschaft, 1900, pp. 839-851). A list of papyri belonging to lost Hesiodic works may here be added: all are the Catalogues.

1) Berlin Papyri 7497 1201 (2nd cent.).—Frag. 7.

2) Oxyrhynchus Papyri 421 (2nd cent.).—Frag. 7.

3) Petrie Papyri iii 3.—Frag. 14.

4) Papiri greci e latine, No. 130 (2nd-3rd cent.).—Frag. 14.

5) Strassburg Papyri, 55 (2nd cent.).—Frag. 58.

6) Berlin Papyri 9739 (2nd cent.).—Frag. 58.

7) Berlin Papyri 10560 (3rd cent.).—Frag. 58.

8) Berlin Papyri 9777 (4th cent.).—Frag. 98.

9) Papiri greci e latine, No. 131 (2nd-3rd cent.).—Frag. 99.

10) Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1358-9.

The Homeric Hymns:—The text of the Homeric hymns is distinctly bad in condition, a fact which may be attributed to the general neglect under which they seem to have laboured at all periods previously to the Revival of Learning. Very many defects have been corrected by the various editions of the Hymns, but a considerable number still defy all efforts; and especially an abnormal number of undoubted lacuna disfigure the text. Unfortunately no papyrus fragment of the Hymns has yet emerged, though one such fragment (Berl. Klassikertexte v.1. pp. 7 ff.) contains a paraphrase of a poem very closely parallel to the Hymn to Demeter.

The mediaeval MSS. 1202 are thus enumerated by Dr. T.W. Allen:—

A Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2763.

At Athos, Vatopedi 587.

B Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2765.

C Paris, Bibl. Nat. 2833.

Γ Brussels, Bibl. Royale 11377-11380 (16th cent.).

D Milan, Amrbos. B 98 sup.

E Modena, Estense iii E 11.

G Rome, Vatican, Regina 91 (16th cent.).

H London, British Mus. Harley 1752.

J Modena, Estense, ii B 14.

K Florence, Laur. 31, 32.

L Florence, Laur. 32, 45.