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It has looked to be on hiatus, but I am getting back to this now, and determined to keep reading through all the classic texts from the beginning. Having dusted off the essentials of the Ancient Near Eastern tradition, I am now setting out through the wisdom of the Greeks. Although Homer's two epic poems should come next in the journey, after finishing Hesiod, I have read these before, and will read them again. I will thus set them aside for now and press on to something new: The Homeric Hymns.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days
What we have here is a pair of poems from the eighth century BC. The poetic style is the same as that of Homer's poems (dactylic hexameter), although their length is much shorter. The Theogony presents us with a genealogically-oriented story of the origins of the gods, the world, and mankind. Works and Days deals with some of the more practical issues of Hesiod's day, including the agricultural calendar. As strict literature, these works probably fail as stories, although the myths and explanations are not without some interest to those familiar with the Ancient Greek gods and mythology. In some cases, these represent the earliest known versions of stories about such famous figures as Prometheus, Pandora, and Heracles (aka Hercules - Hesiod loves Hercules!).
As the editor and translator, M. L. West, notes in his Introduction, the works of Hesiod reflect obvious oriental influences. The Greek world of the eighth century (the opening of the Archaic Period) was a world expanding beyond its own frontiers and importing much from beyond its shores. Thus, it is possible that Hesiod's poems were among the earliest works of literature recorded for posterity with the newly imported and adapted Phoenician alphabet. West argues that Hesiod should be seen as just another example, albeit a Greek one, of the ancient tradition of wisdom literature in the Near East. There is certainly much wisdom embedded in these poems, even for modern-day non-farmers.
As a window into the culture of Archaic Greece, there are some fascinating glimpses here. I like to use Hesiod in my history classes as the classic example of the mythopoeic explanation of the origins of the world, in contrast to the work of the pre-Socratic Ionian philosophers. Essentially, Hesiod's Theogony is telling us that the human mind cannot really understand the origins of the world, except to say that it was created by the will and power of the gods - this knowledge is unknowable by humans. The pre-Socratics would challenge this notion, but there is no doubt that Hesiod's works contain much that we would simply dismiss as superstition. I think it is important to remember this when we encounter Classical Greek authors like Plato. We tend to think of Ancient Greece as the birthplace of rational science, and it was, but running right along side it was an irrational strand. This was the irrationality that condemned Socrates to death and attracted numerous adherents to the Eleusinian Mysteries or the Oracle at Delphi. One of our great challenges as human beings is finding the balance in our world between the rational and the irrational, or to put it another way, between the sophic and and the mantic, or in modern parlance, between faith and science. Hesiod, who is just as Greek as Plato or Aristotle, reminds us that man cannot know everything, nor should he.
I am particularly fascinated by Hesiod's discussion of war and strife and Zeus' justice. Hesiod lives in a world in which human justice often fails the righteous. He calls the aristocrats of his day "bribe swallowers", and one can detect a certain personal bitterness in his discussion of these local rulers, and even towards his own brother, Perses. Yet, through it all, Hesiod has faith that Zeus is watching, Zeus the defender of justice. In the strife and conflict created by these unjust judges lies, in fact, the origin of Greek democracy. From this conflict would arise the principle figures in that development: Draco, Solon, and Cleisthenes. But Hesiod is not just a close-minded liberal or conservative (he advocates social change like a liberal, but also emphasizes the traditional virtues connected to agriculture like a conservative). Hesiod is also a supporter of the Greek notion of arete, a word often translated as 'excellence'. He describes what he calls the good kind of strife in opposition to the bad kind of strife engendered by social injustice. The good kind is what we would probably call ambition (I am reminded of Sallust's discussion in his historical texts of ambitio, "the vice that comes closest to a being a virtue"). At the heart of Greek civilization and its greatest achievements was a striving with one another for excellence, seen most visibly in the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in Homer's Iliad, a text relatively contemporary with Hesiod. The key to success in this battle, says Hesiod, is simply work. Hesiod firmly believes that labor will bear its own fruit as well as being rewarded by the gods: "But in front of Superiority the immortal gods set sweat."
There is a lot more cultural evidence and basic advice to savor here. Hesiod's views on women are fairly misogynistic, and yet quite practical given the living conditions of his day. Hesiod might also be called the Benjamin Franklin of the Greeks, and Works and Days would be his version of Poor Richard's Almanac. His versions of some myths are a bit different from the version we tend to tell today. It all adds up to a Greek Classic well worth the read, especially considering its length.
As the editor and translator, M. L. West, notes in his Introduction, the works of Hesiod reflect obvious oriental influences. The Greek world of the eighth century (the opening of the Archaic Period) was a world expanding beyond its own frontiers and importing much from beyond its shores. Thus, it is possible that Hesiod's poems were among the earliest works of literature recorded for posterity with the newly imported and adapted Phoenician alphabet. West argues that Hesiod should be seen as just another example, albeit a Greek one, of the ancient tradition of wisdom literature in the Near East. There is certainly much wisdom embedded in these poems, even for modern-day non-farmers.
As a window into the culture of Archaic Greece, there are some fascinating glimpses here. I like to use Hesiod in my history classes as the classic example of the mythopoeic explanation of the origins of the world, in contrast to the work of the pre-Socratic Ionian philosophers. Essentially, Hesiod's Theogony is telling us that the human mind cannot really understand the origins of the world, except to say that it was created by the will and power of the gods - this knowledge is unknowable by humans. The pre-Socratics would challenge this notion, but there is no doubt that Hesiod's works contain much that we would simply dismiss as superstition. I think it is important to remember this when we encounter Classical Greek authors like Plato. We tend to think of Ancient Greece as the birthplace of rational science, and it was, but running right along side it was an irrational strand. This was the irrationality that condemned Socrates to death and attracted numerous adherents to the Eleusinian Mysteries or the Oracle at Delphi. One of our great challenges as human beings is finding the balance in our world between the rational and the irrational, or to put it another way, between the sophic and and the mantic, or in modern parlance, between faith and science. Hesiod, who is just as Greek as Plato or Aristotle, reminds us that man cannot know everything, nor should he.
I am particularly fascinated by Hesiod's discussion of war and strife and Zeus' justice. Hesiod lives in a world in which human justice often fails the righteous. He calls the aristocrats of his day "bribe swallowers", and one can detect a certain personal bitterness in his discussion of these local rulers, and even towards his own brother, Perses. Yet, through it all, Hesiod has faith that Zeus is watching, Zeus the defender of justice. In the strife and conflict created by these unjust judges lies, in fact, the origin of Greek democracy. From this conflict would arise the principle figures in that development: Draco, Solon, and Cleisthenes. But Hesiod is not just a close-minded liberal or conservative (he advocates social change like a liberal, but also emphasizes the traditional virtues connected to agriculture like a conservative). Hesiod is also a supporter of the Greek notion of arete, a word often translated as 'excellence'. He describes what he calls the good kind of strife in opposition to the bad kind of strife engendered by social injustice. The good kind is what we would probably call ambition (I am reminded of Sallust's discussion in his historical texts of ambitio, "the vice that comes closest to a being a virtue"). At the heart of Greek civilization and its greatest achievements was a striving with one another for excellence, seen most visibly in the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon in Homer's Iliad, a text relatively contemporary with Hesiod. The key to success in this battle, says Hesiod, is simply work. Hesiod firmly believes that labor will bear its own fruit as well as being rewarded by the gods: "But in front of Superiority the immortal gods set sweat."
There is a lot more cultural evidence and basic advice to savor here. Hesiod's views on women are fairly misogynistic, and yet quite practical given the living conditions of his day. Hesiod might also be called the Benjamin Franklin of the Greeks, and Works and Days would be his version of Poor Richard's Almanac. His versions of some myths are a bit different from the version we tend to tell today. It all adds up to a Greek Classic well worth the read, especially considering its length.
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