THE HESIODIC CORPUS*
Ettore Cingano
What we know . . . about the early fate of the Iliad and the Odyssey is not much, and even that rests largely on reconstructions and conjectures some of which are more probable than others. But this small body of attractive hypotheses begins to look impressive when we compare it with the state of our knowledge about the corresponding phases of Hesiod’s poems Solmsen () . The sentence quoted above allows us to start from the association be- tween Homer and Hesiod in antiquity, leaving aside the thorny prob- lem of their chronology, unrelated to the scope of this paper. Although it wasawellknownfactthatHomerandHesiodhadmanypredecessors, amongst whom were the legendary Orpheus, Musaeus, and Linus, they soon acquired the reputation of being the founders (or by far the most authoritativerepresentatives)oftheepicgenre.Asaconsequence,atradi- tion developed purporting they had been rivals (thus implying they were contemporaries)andhadcompetedincontestsheldindifferentplaces,in compliance with their status of wandering aoidoi.TheContest of Homer and Hesiod (Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi), a prose treatise dating in its present form from the nd cent. ad, but stemming from the Mouseion of Alcidamas (early th cent. bc) and originating even earlier,1 is the most detailed source narrating the confrontation between the different trends impersonated by the two poets. The Certamen ends with the vic- tory assigned to Hesiod by the king who had presided over the contest, a decision much disputed by the audience: Homer’s excellence as a poet
* The Hesiodic fragments are quoted according to the edition of Merkelbach-West , updated in Solmsen-Merkelbach-West (3); the testimonia are quoted accord- ing to the numbering of Most (), whose collection is based on Jacoby (). Trans- lation of the fragments and testimonia is taken from Most () (). Since the Theogony and the Works and Days are the object of separate chapters of this volume, in this chapter I shall deal with them only insofar as they are relevant to the corpus of Hes- iodic poetry. Unless strictly necessary, I also refrain from putting the adjective Hesiodic between quotation marks throughout this chapter to indicate doubtful authorship. 1 See West (); Richardson () –; Graziosi () –. ettore cingano is praised throughout the treatise, but he is ultimately defeated because Hesiod’s poetry is wiser and more socially useful than a poetry cen- tered on battle and slaughter. The contest between the two major aoidoi of antiquity has a parallel in a pseudo-Hesiodic fragment (fr. dub. ) where Hesiod recalls his encounter with Homer at Delos, presumably in a rhapsodic contest, thus contradicting the statement in the Works and Days (–) that the only journey he ever made by sea was the cross- ing of the narrow strait separating Euboea from Boeotia.2 By associating the two bards with the same event, both fr. and the Certamen elab- orate upon the victory in the funeral games for Amphidamas at Chalcis in Euboea, recalled by Hesiod in the Works and Days (above), where no mention of Homer occurs.3 The close connection perceived in antiquity between the two major epic poets is also justified by the poetical output attributed to both: the history of the Hesiodic corpus can therefore be better understood if confronted with the history of the Homeric corpus. Until at least the end of the th century, and more controversially in later times, Homer was unanimously believed to be the author not just of the Iliad and the Odyssey, but of a vast array of poems now lost, either dealing with heroic subject matters or displaying a lighter, parodic tone. A heterogeneous group of sources, starting in the th/th century with the lyric poet Simonides (fr. Page), was willing to credit Homer alternately with the composition of the whole epic cycle (notably of the Thebaid and the Epigoni,theCypria,theAethiopis,theLittle Iliad,the Returns), of the Funeral Games for Pelias,theCapture of Oechalia,the Phocais,theHymns, and of a group of ‘fun poems’ (paignia)suchasthe Margites,theBattle of Frogs and Mice (Batrachomyomachia), the Battle of Spiders (Arachnomachia), the Battle of Cranes (Geranomachia), the Battle
2 Hes. fr. dub. , quoted by Philochorus, FGrHist F : %ν Δ λωι τ$τε πρ.τν %γH κα/ aZμηρς ιδ//μ λπμεν, %ν νεαρς Cμνις Lψαντες ιδ ν,/Φ"ν JΑπ$λλωνα ρυσρν, Pν τ κε Λητ . “In Delos then for the first time Homer and I, bards,/sang, stitching together our song with new hymns,/of Phoebus Apollo with his golden sword, whom Leto bore”.Apart from the arbitrary synchronization of Homer and Hesiod, to my knowledge, the only possibility for accepting fr. as genuinely Hesiodic would be to assume that it refers to a period later than the composition of WD –, when Hesiod finally ventured as far as Delos by ship. 3 Cf. Works and Days – with Certamen,West:Ησ δς Μ=σαις Ελικω- ν σι τ$νδJ ν ηκεν/CμνAω νικ σας %ν fαλκ δι εν aZμηρν. “Hesiod dedicated this [a tripod] to the Muses of Helicon,/having defeated in song at Chalcis the godly Homer”. Similarly to the Works and Days,nomentionofHomeroccursinthepassagebyPausanias quoted below.