Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, and Homerica

 Table of Contents

 Preface

 Introduction

 General

 The Boeotian School

 Life of Hesiod

 The Hesiodic Poems

 Date of the Hesiodic Poems

 Literary Value of Homer

 The Ionic School

 The Trojan Cycle

 The Homeric Hymns

 The Epigrams of Homer

 The Burlesque Poems

 The Contest of Homer and Hesiod

 The Works of Hesiod

 Works and Days (832 lines)

 The Divination by Birds (fragments)

 The Astronomy (fragments)

 The Precepts of Chiron (fragments)

 The Great Works (fragments)

 The Idaean Dactyls (fragments)

 The Theogony (1,041 lines)

 The Catalogues of Women and Eoiae (fragments)

 The Shield of Heracles (480 lines)

 The Marriage of Ceyx (fragments)

 The Great Eoiae (fragments)

 The Melampodia (fragments)

 Aegimius (fragments)

 Fragments of Unknown Position

 Doubtful Fragments

 Works Attributed to Homer The Homeric Hymns

 I. To Dionysus (21 lines)

 II. To Demeter (495 lines)

 III. To Apollo (546 lines)

 IV. To Hermes (582 lines)

 V. To Aphrodite (293 lines)

 VI. To Aphrodite (21 lines)

 VII. To Dionysus (59 lines)

 VIII. To Ares (17 lines)

 IX. To Artemis (9 lines)

 X. To Aphrodite (6 lines)

 XI. To Athena (5 lines)

 XII. To Hera (5 lines)

 XIII. To Demeter (3 lines)

 XIV. To the Mother of the Gods (6 lines)

 XV. To Heracles the Lion-Hearted (9 lines)

 XVI. To Asclepius (5 lines)

 XVII. To the Dioscuri (5 lines)

 XVIII. To Hermes (12 lines)

 XIX. To Pan (49 lines)

 XX. To Hephaestus (8 lines)

 XXI. To Apollo (5 lines)

 XXII. To Poseidon (7 lines)

 XXIII. To the Son of Cronos, Most High (4 lines)

 XXIV. To Hestia (5 lines)

 XXV. To the Muses and Apollo (7 lines)

 XXVI. To Dionysus (13 lines)

 XXVII. To Artemis (22 lines)

 XXVIII. To Athena (18 lines)

 XXIX. To Hestia (13 lines)

 XXX. To Earth the Mother of All (19 lines)

 XXXI. To Helios (20 lines)

 XXXII. To Selene (20 lines)

 XXXIII. To the Dioscuri (19 lines)

 Homer's Epigrams

 Fragments of the Epic Cycle

 The War of the Titans (fragments)

 The Story of Oedipus (fragments)

 The Thebaid (fragments)

 The Epigoni (fragments)

 The Cypria (fragments)

 The Aethiopis (fragments)

 The Little Iliad (fragments)

 The Sack of Ilium (fragments)

 The Returns (fragments)

 The Telegony (fragments)

 Non-Cyclic Poems Attributed to Homer

 The Expedition of Amphiaraus (fragments)

 The Taking of Oechalia (fragments)

 The Phocais (fragments)

 The Margites (fragments)

 The Cercopes (fragments)

 The Battle of Frogs and Mice (303 lines)

 Of the Origin of Homer and Hesiod, and of their Contest (aka The Contest of Homer and Hesiod)

The Contest of Homer and Hesiod

This curious work dates in its present form from the lifetime or shortly after the death of Hadrian, but seems to be based in part on an earlier version by the sophist Alcidamas (c. 400 B.C.). Plutarch ("Conviv. Sept. Sap.", 40) uses an earlier (or at least a shorter) version than that which we possess 1 . The extant "Contest", however, has clearly combined with the original document much other ill-digested matter on the life and descent of Homer, probably drawing on the same general sources as does the Herodotean "Life of Homer". Its scope is as follows: 1) the descent (as variously reported) and relative dates of Homer and Hesiod; 2) their poetical contest at Chalcis; 3) the death of Hesiod; 4) the wanderings and fortunes of Homer, with brief notices of the circumstances under which his reputed works were composed, down to the time of his death.

The whole tract is, of course, mere romance; its only values are 1) the insight it give into ancient speculations about Homer; 2) a certain amount of definite information about the Cyclic poems; and 3) the epic fragments included in the stichomythia of the "Contest" proper, many of which - did we possess the clue - would have to be referred to poems of the Epic Cycle.

1 Cp. Marckscheffel, "Hesiodi fragmenta", p. 35. The papyrus fragment recovered by Petrie ("Petrie Papyri", ed. Mahaffy, p. 70, No. xxv.) agrees essentially with the extant document, but differs in numerous minor textual points. See Schubert, "Berl. Klassikertexte" v. 1.22 ff.; the other papyri may be found in the publications whose name they bear.