Customer Reviews

Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield

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There are many editions of Hesiod's (c. 700 BC) works, but I find this one by Prof. Apostolos Athanassakis the best. While I can't comment on the translation, the introduction to Hesiod, the introduction to the individual works, the extensive notes as well as the size of the type and the margins make it the most useful. For example, the notes not only explain the text, but discuss parallel ideas from the Bible, literature from other ancient cultures, and even remnants in contemporary Greek folk lore.

This edition also contains The Shield, a poem no longer considered by Hesiod and probably dated a 100 or so years later than Hesiod's poems.

Why are the works of Hesiod placed in comparable rank with those of Homer by the ancient Greeks, the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey? On the surface the latter two works seemed to stand head and shoulders above any others from the ancient Greeks including Hesiod.

Although much slimmer (only 107 pages) than the works of Homer, his works represented for the ancient Greeks a fat repository of common sense information and advice on everyday economy and success. "Theogony" gave the Greeks information on the natural world and the roles and works of the Gods in that world. "Works and Days" supplemented that information by providing sound economic advice to those engaged in labor in the fields of agriculture and the international/intercity trade. In sum, they were "everything you need to know to live a happy and prosperous life" in Greece. In a nutshell, its message was clear: to succeed you must be mindful or the Gods, honor them, and work hard.

You could say that Hesiod was what Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, Wayne Dyer and Joel Osteen are to us today.

So read this book if you want to "get into the heads" of everyday ancient Greeks and see what mattered to them at the time, and what advice they respected. You may be surprised that the Greeks are not that dissimilar to you after all.

I love this version of Hesiod. I had to get it for a class but I reference the poetry and symbolism constantly. It includes all the gritty things the original did for the most part (unlike the cleaned-up versions in Edith Hamilton's Mythology). So nice to get a relatively un-edited, exciting translation. Well worth it if you need the classics!

I purchased a book from this seller in Jan 2010 and never recieved it. This seller made NO effort to correct this situation.