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 Thebaid (fragments)

Fragment #1 -

Contest of Homer and Hesiod:

Homer travelled about reciting his epics, first the "Thebaid", in seven thousand verses, which begins: 'Sing, goddess, of parched Argos, whence lords . . . '

Fragment #2 -

Athenaeus, xi. 465 E:

'Then the heaven-born hero, golden-haired Polyneices, first set beside Oedipus a rich table of silver which once belonged to Cadmus the divinely wise: next he filled a fine golden cup with sweet wine. But when Oedipus perceived these treasures of his father, great misery fell on his heart, and he straight-way called down bitter curses there in the presence of both his sons. And the avenging Fury of the gods failed not to hear him as he prayed that they might never divide their father's goods in loving brotherhood, but that war and fighting might be ever the portion of them both.'

Fragment #3 -

Laurentian Scholiast on Sophocles, O.C. 1375:

'And when Oedipus noticed the haunch 1 he threw it on the ground and said: "Oh! Oh! my sons have sent this mocking me . . . " So he prayed to Zeus the king and the other deathless gods that each might fall by his brother's hand and go down into the house of Hades.'

Fragment #4 -

Pausanias, viii. 25.8:

Adrastus fled from Thebes 'wearing miserable garments, and took black-maned Areion 2 with him.'

Fragment #5 -

Pindar, Ol. vi. 15: 3

'But when the seven dead had received their last rites in Thebes, the Son of Talaus lamented and spoke thus among them: "Woe is me, for I miss the bright eye of my host, a good seer and a stout spearman alike."'

Fragment #6 -

Apollodorus, i. 74:

Oeneus married Periboea the daughter of Hipponous. The author of the "Thebais" says that when Olenus had been stormed, Oeneus received her as a prize.

Fragment #7 -

Pausanias, ix. 18.6:

Near the spring is the tomb of Asphodicus. This Asphodicus killed Parthenopaeus the son of Talaus in the battle against the Argives, as the Thebans say; though that part of the "Thebais" which tells of the death of Parthenopaeus says that it was Periclymenus who killed him.

1 The haunch was regarded as a dishonourable portion.

2 The horse of Adrastus, offspring of Poseidon and Demeter, who had changed herself into a mare to escape Poseidon.

3 Restored from Pindar Ol. vi. 15 who, according to Asclepiades, derives the passage from the "Thebais".