HESIOD

flourished c. 700 BC Hesiod, detail of a mosaic by Monnus, 3rd century; in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier, Ger. Greek Hesiodos, Latin Hesiodus one of the earliest Greek poets, often called the "father of Greek didactic poetry." Two of his complete epics have survived, the Theogony, relating the myths of the gods, and the Works and Days, describing peasant life. Additional reading Scholarly analyses of Hesiod's poems and discussions of various facets of these works are provided by Friedrich Solmsen, Hesiod and Aeschylus (1949, reissued 1967); Pietro Pucci, Hesiod and the Language of Poetry (1977); and Robert Lamberton, Hesiod (1988). The best appreciation of his poetic individuality is in Hermann Frnkel, Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy (1975). Important for Hesiod's place in the history of Greek thought is Werner Jaeger, Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol. 1, 2nd ed. (1945, reissued 1986). Suggestions about the relationship between Middle Eastern theologies and Hesiod's Theogony are found in P. Walcot, Hesiod and the Near East (1966).