Hesiod , (Gr. one of the earliest Greek poets, of whose life nothing is known except that he dwelt at Ascra, on Mt. Helicon, whither his father had removed from Cyme, on the AEolic coast of Asia Minor. The most general opinion of the ancients assigned Homer and Hesiod to the same period, which Herodotus fixes at about 850 B. C.; the higher antiquity of Hesiod is maintained by Ephorus of Cyme. K. O. Muller opposes the common opinion that the epic language was first formed in Asia Minor, whence it was borrowed and transferred to other subjects by Hesiod. He supposes this poetical dialect had already come into use in the mother country before the Ionic colonies were founded, and that the phrases, epithets, and proverbial expressions common to the two schools of poetry were derived from a common and more ancient source. The Hesiodic and Homeric poetry resemble each other only in dialect and form, and are completely unlike in their genius and subjects.

E. Curtius says "that with Hesiod life on earth appears utterly stripped of the joyous brilliancy which the Homeric poems spread out over it; that with him it is a sunken and fallen state, a school of adversity through which man has to pass in the exercise of virtue, under the observation and support of beatified spirits. In a form of expression perfectly cognate to the Delphic sayings, the poems united under the name of Hesiod give circumstantial precepts for the different classes of human society, for knights and for peasants, and concerning both private and public life." The logographers related numerous stories of Hesiod, of his descent from Orpheus, his gift of prophecy, and his contest with Homer, which show that an early connection was conceived to have existed between the priests and bards of Thrace and Boeotia, out of which grew the elements of his poetry. The Hesiodic poetry flourished chiefly in Boeotia, Phocis, and Euboea, and the eminence of Hesiod caused a great variety of works to be attributed to him.

The "Works and Days" the only poem which his countrymen considered genuine, is perhaps the most ancient specimen of didactic poetry, and consists of ethical, political, and minute economical precepts. It is in a homely and unimaginative style, but is impressed throughout with a lofty and solemn feeling, founded on the idea that the gods have ordained justice among men, have made labor the only road to prosperity, and have so ordered the year that every work has its appointed season, the sign of which may be discerned. The "Theogony" is an attempt to form the Greek legends concerning the gods into a complete and harmonious picture of their origin and powers, and into a sort of religious code. Beginning with Chaos, out of which rose first the Earth and Eros (love), the fairest of the immortal divinities, it completes the formation of the world, and relates the genealogies and wars of the gods and heroes, and the triumph of Zeus and the Olympians over the Titans. The Greeks considered it high authority in theological matters, and philosophers sought by various interpretations to make it harmonize with their own theories.

Another poem attributed to Hesiod was the "Heroines" ('Hoiai), giving accounts of the women who by their connection with the gods had become the mothers of the most illustrious heroes, and containing a description of the shield of Hercules, which is all of it that is still extant. Several other Hesiodic poems are mentioned by the ancients. The best complete edition is that of Gottling (8vo, Gotha and Erfurt, 1843); and the scholia on him of the Neo-Platonist Proclus, and others, are contained in Gaisford's Poetoe Groeci Minores, vol. iii. The "Works and Days" was translated into English by George Chapman (London, 1618). A poetical translation was made by C. A. Elton (London, 1810), and a prose version by the Rev. J. Banks, in Bohn's "Classical Library" (London, 1856). See also Hesio-di Scutum Herculis, edited by Van Lennep (Amsterdam, 1854); Theogonia, by Gerhard (Berlin, 1856); Flach, Die Hesiodische Theogo-nie, with Prolegomena (1873); and an English edition by James Davies (Edinburgh, 1873).