try, a tripod, which he won, and, as he tells us himself, confecrated to the mufes. 12. From Plutarch, 5. Plutarch, in his Banquet of the Seven Wife Men; makes Periander give an account of the poetical contention at Chalcis; in which Hefiod and Homer are made antagonists; the first was conqueror, who received a tripod for his victory, which he dedicated to the mufes, with this infcription : Ησιοδος Μεσαις Ελικωνισι τονδ' ανεθηκεν, This Hefied vows to th' Heliconian nine, This ftory, as related by Plutarch, was doubtlefs occafioned by what Hefiod fays of himfelf, in the fecond book of his Works and Days; which paffage might poffibly give birth to that famous treatile, Αγων Ομηρο και Ησίοδο, mentioned in the fourth fection of this difcourfe. Barnes, in his Prelo quium to the fame treatife, quotes three verfes, two from Euftathius, and the third added by Li. lius Gyraldus, in his life of our poet, which inform us, that Hefiod and Homer fung in Delos to the honour of Apollo. who barbarously murdered him with his compa Hefiod, thy birth is barren Afcra's boast, 14. Monuments, &c. of him. We have the knowledge of fome few monuments which were raised in honour to this great and ancient poet: Paufanias, in his Bootics informs us, that his countrymen the Baotians erected to his memory an image with a harp in his hand: the fame author tells us, in another place, there was likewise a statue of Hefiod in the tem But thefe, together with the contention betwixt these two great poets, are regarded as no other than fables; and Barnes, who had certainly read as much on this head as any man, and who seems, by fome expreflions, willing to believe it if he could, is forced to decline the difpute, and leave it in the fame uncertainty in which he found it. The ftory of the two poets meeting in Delos, is a manifelt forgery, becaufe, as I obferved before, Hefiod pofitively fays he never took any voyage but that to Chalcis; and thefe verfes make his meeting in Delos, which is contrary to his own afiertion, precece his contention at Chalcis. Thus have I col-ple of Jupiter Olympicus. Fulvius Urfinus, and lected, and compared together, all that is material of his life; in the latter part of which, we are told, he removed to Locris, a town near the fame diftance from mount Parnaffus, as Afera from Helicon. Lilius Gyraldus, and others, tell us he left a fon, and a daughter; and that his fon was Stefichorus the peet; but this wants better confirma.. tion than we have of it. It is agreed by all that he lived to a very advanced age. 13. His Death. The ftory of his death, as tohl by Solon, in Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Wife Men, is very remarkable. The man, with whom Hefiod lived at Locris, ravifhed a maid in the fame houfe. Hefiod, though entirely ignorant of the fact, was malicioully accufed, as an accomplice, to her brothers, Boiffard, in his Antiquities, have exhibited a breast with a head, a trunk without a head, and a gem, of him: and Urfinus fays, there is a ftatue of him, of brafs, in the public college of Conftantinople. The only original monument of him befides, now remaining, or at least known, is a marble busto in the Pembroke collection at Wilton. "What Fulvius Urfinus has published refembles that, but is only a baffo relievo. From the manner of the head being cracked off from the lower part, which has fome of the hair behind, it appears that both the parts are of the fame work and date." 15. His character. For his character we need go no farther than his Works and Days. With what a dutiful affection he speaks of his father, when he proposes him as a pattern to his brother. His behaviow, after the unjust treatment from Perfes and the judges, proves him both a philofopher and a good man. His moral precepts, in the first book, feem to be as much the dictates of his heart as the fruits of his genius; there we behold a man of the chastest manners, and the best disposition. the first ten verses with which it now begins. The only difpute about this piece has been concerning the title, and the divifion into books. Some make it two poems; the first they call Egyά, works, and the second Hurgu, days; others call the first Eyga xai Husgas, works and days, and the second Ilusga only, which part confifts of but fixty-four lines: where I mention the number of verses in this difcourfe, I speak of them as they stand in the original. We find, in fome editions, the divifion beginning at the end of the moral and religious precepts; but Grævius denies such distinctions be He was undoubtedly a great lover of retirement and contemplation, and feems to have had no ambition but that of acting well. I fhall conclude my character of him with that part of it which Paterculus fo juftly thought his due: "perelegantis ingenii, et moliflimâ dulcedini carminuming in any of the old manufcripts. Whether these memorabilis; otii quietifque cupidissimus:” of a truly elegant genius, and memorable for his moft ealy fweetness of verfe; most fond of leifure and quietude. ON THE WRITINGS OF HESIOD. Sec. 1. The Introduction. Or all the authors who have given any account of the writings of our poet, I find none fo perfect as the learned Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Græca. He there seems to have left unread no work that might in the leaft contribute to the completing his defign: him I fhall follow in the fucceeding difcourfe, so far as relates to the titles of the poems, and the authorities for them. 2. The Theogony. I fhall begin with the Theogony, or Generation of the Gods, which Fabricius puts out of difpute to be of Heliod: nor is it doubted, fays he, that Pythagoras took it for his, who feigned he faw the foul of our poet in hell chained to a brazen pillar; a punishment inflicted upon him for the ftories which he invented of the gods. This doubtleis is the poem that gave Herodotus occafion to fay that Hefiod, with Homer, was the firft who introduced a theogony among the Grecians; the first who gave names to the gods, afcribed to them honours and arts, giving particular defcriptions their perfons. The first hundred and fifteen lines of this poem have been difputed; but I am inclined to believe them genuine; becaufe Paufanias takes notice of the fceptre of laurel, which the poet fays, in thofe verfes, was a prefent to him from the mufes; and Ovid, in the beginning of his Art of Love, alludes to that paffage of the mufes appearing to him; and Hefiod himself, in the fecond book of his Works and Days, has an allufion to these verses. 3. The Works and Days. of The Works and Days is the first poem of its kind, if we may rely on the teftimony of Pliny; it being very uncertain, fays Fabricius, whether the poems attributed to Orpheus were older than Hefied; among which the critics and commentators mention one of the fame title with this of our poet. Paufanias, in his Bootics, tells us he faw a copy of this wrote in plates of lead, but without divifions were in the first copies fignifies little ; for as we find them in several late editions, they are very natural, and contribute fomething to the ease of the reader, without the leaft detriment to the original text. I am ready to imagine we have not this work delivered down to us fo perfect as it came from the hands of the poet, which I fhall endeavour to show in the next fection. This poem, as Plutarch in his Sympofiacs affures us, was fung to the harp. 4. The Thesgony, and Works and Days, the only undoubted poems of Hefiod now extant. The Theogony, and Works and Days, are the only undoubted pieces of our poet now extant; the arwis Hoaxλ185, the fhield of Hercules, is always printed with these two, but has not one convincing argument in its favour by which we may pofitively declare it a genuine work of Hefiod. We have great reason to believe those two poems only were remaining in the reign of Augustus. Manilius, who was an author of the Auguftan age, in the fecond book of his Aftronomy, takes notice, in his commendation of our poet and his writings, of no other than the Theogony, and Works and Days. The verfes of Manilius are thefe : Hefiodus memorat divos, div'umque parentes, Et chaos enixum terras, orbemque fub illo Infantem, primum, titubantia fidera, corpus, Titanafque fenes, Jovis et cunabula magni, Et fub fratre viri nomen, fine fratre parentis, Atque iterum patrio nafcentem corpore Bacchum, Omniaque immenfo volitantia numina mundo: Dr. Bentley, whofe Manilius was published ten years after the first edition of this difcourfe, gives primos titubantia fidera partus: the old copies, be fays, judg bave primos, and partus is supplied by bis own ment: but primos partus for titubantia fidera is not confiftent with the genealogy of thefe natural bodies in the Theogony of Hefiod: an exact genealogical table to which I bave given at the end of my notes to that poem. I mufi, with great deference to the fuperior knowledge of that learned critic, prefer the common reading primum corpus: Dr. Bentley's chief objection to this reading is founded on making primum to be underflood first in point of time; therefore, fays be quomodo vero fidera primum erant corpus, cum ante ille extiterint chaos, terræ, orbis? Very true; but primum must be taken as I have used it in my explanation of it. A j [thigh, Hefiod fings the gods immortal race; He fings how chaos bore the earthy mass; How light from darkness ftruck did beams display, And infant-ftars first stagger'd in their way; How name of brother veil'd an husband's love, And Juno bore unaided by her Jove, How twice-born Bacchus burft the thund'rer's And all the gods that wander through the sky: Hence he to fields defcends, manures the foil, Inftructs the plowman, and rewards his toil; He fings how corn in plains, how vine in hills, Delight, how both with vaft increase the olive fills, How foreign grafts th' adult'rous stock receives, Bears ftranger fruit, and wonders at her leaves; An useful work when peace and plenty reign, And art joins nature to improve the plain. The obfervation which Mr. Kennet makes on thefe lines is," that those fine things which the "Latin poet recounts about the birth of the gods, " and the making the world, are not fo nearly al"lied to any paffage in the prefent Theogony as to juftify the allufion." An author, who was giving an account of an ancient poet, ought to have been more careful than this biographer was in his judgment of thefe verfes: becaufe fuch as read him, and are at the fame time unlearned in the language of the poet, are to form their notions from his fentiments. Mr. Kennet is so very wrong in his remark here, that in all the feven lines which contain the encomium on the Theogony, I cannot fee one expreffion that has not an allufion, and a strong one, to fome particular paffage in that poem. I am afraid this gentleman's modefty made him diftrust himself, and too fervilely follow this tranflation, which he quotes in his life of Heliod, where he feems to lay great ftrefs on the judgment of the tranflator. Mr. Creech has in thefe few lines fo unhappily miftook his author, that in fome places he adds what the poet never thought of, leaves whole verfes untranflated, and in other places gives a fenfe quite different to what the poet defigned. I fhall now proceed to point out these paffages to which Manilius particularly alludes. His first line relates to the poem in general, the Generation of the Gods; though we must take notice that he *For legefque rogavit Dr. Bentley gives legefque novandi, on the authority of no copy, but from a diflike to the expreffion of rogavit cultus and rogavit militiam; but, as the old reading rogavit is agreeable to my confiruction of it, I am for keeping it in. +For Bacchus utrumque Dr. Bentley gives Pallas ntrumque; and in that fenfe Mr. Greech has tranflated it; ruhich would be the more eligible reading, if Hefied bad treated of Olives. Bacchus utrumque is a foolife repetition, as Dr. Bentley obferwes had that part of Hefiod's fyftem in view where he makes matter precede all things, and even the gods themselves; for by div'um parentes the Latin poet means chaos, heaven, earth, &c. which the Greek poet makes the parents of the gods. Hefiod tells us, verfe 116, chaos brought forth the earth her first offspring; to which the fecond line here quoted has a plain reference; and orbemque fub illo infantem, which Mr. Creech has omitted, may either mean the world in general, or by sub illo being annexed, hell, which, according to our poet, was made a fubterranean world. Primum titubantia fidera, corpus, which is here rendered, and infant-ftars first flagger'd in their way, are the fun and mon; our poet calls them Ηέλιον τε μέγαν, daμægav as osanny, the great fun, and the bright moon; the Roman calls them the wandering planets, the chief bodies in the firmament, not the first works of heaven, as is interpreted in the Dauphine's edition of Manilius. The fourth verse, which refers to the birth of Jove, and the wars of the giants and the gods, one of the greatest subjects of the Theogony, the English translator has left untouched. I am not ignorant of a various reading of this paffage, viz. turn. "Titanafque juviffe fenis cunabula magni," which has a ftronger allufion to the battle of the gods than the other reading, fenis cunabula magni, meaning the fecond childhood or old age of SaThe next verfe, which is beautifully expreffed in these two lines, How name of brother veil'd an husband's love, And Juno bore unaided by her Jove, plainly directs to Jupiter taking his fifter Juno to wife, and Juno bearing Vulcan, & it, y, by which Hefiod means without the mutual joys of love. The fucceeding line has a reference to the birth of Bacchus, and the feventh to the whole poem; fo that he may be faid to begin and end his panegyric on the Theogony, with a general allufion to the whole. The Latin poet, in his fix verfes on the Works and Days, begins as on the Theogony, with a general obfervation on the whole poem: "Hefiod," fays he, " inquired into "the tillage and management of the country, and "into the laws or rules of agriculture :" I do not queftion but Manilius, in legefque rogavit, had his eye on thefe words of our puet Ούτος τοι πεδίων wshera vous, this is the law of the fields. What the Roman there fays of Bacchus loving hills, and of grafting, has no allufion to any part of the prefent Works and Days; but we are not to infer from thence that this is not the poem alluded to, but that those paffages are loft; of which I have" not the least doubt, when I confider of fome parts connected as I wish they were. of the Works and Days which are not fo well I think it is in difputable that Hefiod writ more of the vintage laid down rules for the care of trees: this will than we have now extant, and that he likewife appear more clearly, if we obferve in what manner Virgil introduces this line, Afcræumque cano, Romana per oppida, carmen." This is in the second book of the Georgics; the chief fubjects of which book are the different me thods of producing trees, of transplanting, grafting, of the various kinds of trees, the proper foil for each kind, and of the care of vines and olives; and he has in that book the very expreffion Manilius applies to Hefiod. Bacchus amat colles, fays Virgil; rogavit quos colles Bacchus amaret, fays the other of our poet, he inquired after what hills Bacchus loved. I fhould not have used Mr. Creech and Mr. Kennet with fo much freedom as I have, had not the translation of the one, and the remark of the other, fo nearly concerned our poet; but I hope the clearing a difficult and remarkable paffage in a claffic, will, in fome measure, atone for the liberties I have took with those gentlemen. 5. The Shield of Hercules. We have now afcribed to Hefiod a poem under the title of Aris Heans, the Shield of Hercules; which Ariftophanes the grammarian fuppofes to be fpurious, and that it is an imitation of the Shield of Achilles in Homer. Lilius Gyraldus, and Fabricius, bring all the testimonies they can for it being writ by Hefiod; but none of them amount to a proof. Fabricius gives us the opinion of Tanaquil Faber, in thefe words: I am much furprifed that this fhould formerly have been, and is now, a matter of difpute; those who fuppofe the Shield not to be of Hefiod, have a very flender knowledge of the Greek poetry. This is only the judgment of one man against a number, and that founded on no authority. I know not what could induce Tanaquil Faber fo confidently to affert this, which looks, if I may use the expreffion, like a fort of bullying a perfon into his opinion, by forcing him into the dreadful apprehenfion of being thought no judge of Greek poetry, if he will not come in: I fay, I know not what could induce him to affert this; for there is no manner of fimilitude to the other works of our poet: and here I must call in question the judgment of Ariftophanes, and of fuch as have followed him, for fuppofing it to be an imitation of the Shield of Achilles. The whole poem confifts of four hundred and four score verfes; of which the defcription of the Shield is but one hundred and four fcore: in this defcription are fome fimilar paffages to that of Achilles, but not fuflicient tɔ justify that opinion: there are likewife a few lines the fame in both; but after a strict examination, they may poflibly appear as much to the difadvantage of Homer, as to the author of this poem. The other parts have no affinity to any book in the two poems of Ho. mer. The poet begins with a beautiful defcrip. tion of the perfon of Alcmena, her love to Amphitryon, and her amour with Jupiter; from thence he proceeds to the characters of Hercules and Iphicius, and goes on regularly to the death of Cygnus, which concludes the poem; with many other particulars, which, as I faid before, have no relation to any part of Homer. Among the writ ings of our poct which were loft, we have the titles of Γυναικών, οι Ηρωίδων, Καταλογος, and of Γυναι κων Καταλογος, or Homι Μεγαλας: both thete titles which Suidas mentions, the Catalogue of Heroic 6. Poems which are loft. Befides the pieces just mentioned, we find the following catalogue in Fabricius attributed to Hefiod, but now loft. Παραίνεσις, οι Υποθήκαι χειρωνας. This was concerning the education of Achilles under Chiron; which Ariftophanes, in one of his comedies, banters as the work of Hefiod. Μίλαμπόδια, or εις τον Μαντιν Μελαμποδα: a po em on divination. The title is fuppoled to be took from Melampus, an ancient physician, faid to be fkilled in divination by birds. Part of this work is commended by Athenæus, book 13. Αερονομια μεγάλη, or Ατρική βιβλος : a treatife of aftronomy. Pliny fays, according to Heliod, ia whofe name we have a book of astrology extant, the early fetting of the Pleiades is about the end of the autumn equinox. Notwithstanding this quotation, Fabricius tells us, that Athenæus and Pliny, in fome other place, have given us reason to believe they thought the poem of astronomy fuppofititious. Επικήδειος εις Βατραχον. This is mentioned by Περι Ιδαίων Δακτυλων. This was of the Idai Επιθαλαμιος Πελεως και Θετίδος: an epithalami Γης περιοδος. This book of geography is mentioned by Strabo. Ayques: a poem on one Ægimus. This, Athe- Θησέως εις τον αιδην κατάβασης : the defccnt of Επη μαντικά και εξηγήσεις επι τέρασιν : on pros digies, or portents. This is likewife mentioned by Paufanias. Quay: divine fpeeches; which Maximus Tyrius takes notice of in his fixteenth differtation. Μεγάλα έργα great or remarkable actions. We find the tide of this work in the eighth bock of Athenæus. Kninos yauce: the marriage of Ceyx. We have an account of this poem, both by Athenæus, and Plutarch, in ds Symposiacs. Of all thefe labours of this great poet, we see noting but the titles remaining, excepting fome fragments preferved by Paufanias, Plutarch, Poly. bius, &c. We are told that our poet compofed fome other works, of which we have not even the titles. We are affured, from diverfe paffages in Pliny, that he wrote of the virtues of herbs; but here Fabricius judicioufly obferves, that he might, in other poems, occafionally treat of various herbs; as in the beginning of his Works and Days, he fpeaks of the wholefomencfs of mallows, and the daffodi!, or afphodelos. Quintilian, in his fifth book, denies the fables of top to have been written originally by him, but fays the first author of them was Hefiod; and Plutarch informs us that fop was his difciple: but this opinion, though countenanced by fome, is exploded by others. When we reflect on the number of titles, the poems to which are irreparably loft, we fhould consider them as so many monuments to raise our concern for the lofs of fo much treasure never to be retrieved. Let us turn our thoughts from that melancholy theme, and view the poet in his living writings; let us read him ourselves, and incite our countrymen to a tafte of the politenefs of Greece. Scaliger, in an epiftle to Salmafius, divides the state of poetry in Greece into four periods of time: in the first arofe Homer and Heliod; on which he has the juft obfervation that concludes my discourse: this, fays he, you may not improperly call the fpring of poefy; but it is rather the bloom than infancy. GENERAL ARGUMENT TO THE WORKS AND DAYS. FROM THE GREEK OF DANIEL HEINSIUS. and Menelaus; and fuch as are recorded by the poet to be in the Trojan war; of whom fome perished entirely by death, and fome now inhabit the ifles of the bleffed. Next he defcribes the iron age, and the injuftice which prevailed in it. He greatly reproves the judges, and taxes them with coruption, in a fhort and beautiful fable. In the other part of the book, he fets before our eyes the confequences of juftice and injuftice; and then, in the most fagacious manner, lays down fome of the wifeft precepts to Perfes. The part which contains the precepts, is chiefly writ in an irregular, free, and eafy way; and his frequent repetitions, which cuftom modern writers have quite avoided, bear no fmall marks of his antiquity. He often digreffes, that his brother might THE HE poet begins with the difference of the two contentions; and rejecting that which is attended with difgrace, he advifes his brother Perfes to prefer the other. One is the lover of ftrife, and the occafion of troubles: the other prompts us on to procure the neceffaries of life in a fair and honeft way. After Prometheus had by fubtlety stole the fire clandeftinely from Jove (the fire is by the divine Plato, in. his allution to this paffage, called the neceffaries or abundance of life; and thofe are called fubtle, who were folicitous after the abund ance of life), the god created a great evil, which was Pandora, that is Fortune, who was endowed with. all the gifts of the gods, meaning all the benefits of nature: fo Fortune may from thence be faid to have the difpofal of the comforts of life: and from that time care and prudence are requir-not be tired with his precepts, because of a too ed in the management of hainan affairs. Before much famenefs. Hence he passes to rules of ecoPrometheus had purloined the fire, all the com- nomy, beginning with agriculture. He points mon neceffaries of life were near at hand, and ca- out the proper feafon for the plough, the harvest, fily attained; for Saturn had firft made a golden the vintage, and for felling wood; he shows the age of men, to which the earth yielded all her fruits of induftry, and the ill confequences of fruits fpontaneously the mortals of the golden negligence. He defcribes the different feasons, age fubmitted to a foft and pleasant death, and and tells us what works are proper to each. were afterwards made demons; and honour at- These are the fubjects of the first part of his Ecotended their names. To this fucceeded the second, |nomy. In procefs of time, and the thirst of gain the filver age, worfe in all things than the first, increafing in men, every method was tried to the and better than the following; which Jupiter, or procuring riches; men begun to extend their Fate, took from the earth, and made happy in commerce over the feas; for which reafon the their death. Hence the poet paffes to the third, poet laid down precepts for navigation. He next the brafen age; the men of which, he fays, were proceeds to a recommendation of divine worship, fierce and terrible, who ignobly fell by their own the adoration due to the immortal gods, and the folly and civil difcord; nor was their future fate various ways of paying our homage to them. He like to the other, for they defcended to hell. This concludes with a fhort obfervation on days, digeneration is followed by a race of heroes, Etco-viding them into the good, bad, and indifferent. cles and Polynices, and the rest who were in the firft and oldeft Theban war, and Agamemnon I fuppofe H.infius means Homer. |