Hesiod was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded as the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard … See more

Three works have survived which were attributed to Hesiod by ancient commentators: Works and Days, Theogony, and Shield of Heracles. Only fragments exist of other works attributed to him. The surviving works and fragments were all written in the See more

Hesiod employed the conventional dialect of epic verse, which was Ionian. Comparisons with Homer, a native Ionian, can be unflattering. Hesiod's handling of the dactylic hexameter was not as masterful or fluent as Homer's and one modern scholar … See more

The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles (see § Dating below). Epic narrative allowed poets like Homer no opportunity for personal revelations. However, Hesiod's extant work comprises several didactic poems in which he went out of his … See more

• Sappho's countryman and contemporary, the lyric poet Alcaeus, paraphrased a section of Works and Days (582–88), recasting it in lyric meter and Lesbian dialect. The … See more

Monnus mosaic
Portrait of Hesiod from Augusta Treverorum (Trier), from the end of the 3rd century AD. The mosaic is signed in its central field by the … See more

1. ^ See discussion by M. L. West, Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford University Press (1966), p. 163 f., note 30, citing for example Pausanias IX, 30.3. Rhapsodes in post-Homeric times are often shown carrying either a laurel staff or a lyre but in Hesiod's earlier time, the … See more