Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns: Including Theogony and Works and Days - Softcover

Hesiod

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226329666 ISBN 13: 9780226329666

Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

The most faithful and lyrical translation of Works and Days, Theogony, and more

In Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns, highly acclaimed poet and translator Daryl Hine brings to life the words of Hesiod and the world of Archaic Greece. While most available versions of these early Greek writings are rendered in prose, Hine's illuminating translations represent these early classics as they originally appeared, in verse. Since prose was not invented as a literary medium until well after Hesiod's time, presenting these works as poems more closely approximates not only the mechanics but also the melody of the originals.

This volume includes Hesiod's Works and Days and Theogony, two of the oldest non-Homeric poems to survive from antiquity. Works and Days is in part a farmer's almanac—filled with cautionary tales and advice for managing harvests and maintaining a good work ethic—and Theogony is the earliest comprehensive account of classical mythology—including the names and genealogies of the gods (and giants and monsters) of Olympus, the sea, and the underworld. Hine brings out Hesiod's unmistakable personality; Hesiod's tales of his escapades and his gritty and persuasive voice not only give us a sense of the author's own character but also offer up a rare glimpse of the everyday life of ordinary people in the eighth century BCE.

In contrast, the Homeric Hymns are more distant in that they depict aristocratic life in a polished tone that reveals nothing of the narrators' personalities. These hymns (so named because they address the deities in short invocations at the beginning and end of each) are some of the earliest examples of epyllia, or short stories in the epic manner in Greek.

This volume unites Hine's skillful translations of the Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns—along with Hine's rendering of the mock-Homeric epic The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice—in a stunning pairing of these masterful classics.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Daryl Hine is an award-winning poet and translator. The former editor of Poetry and a MacArthur fellow, he has published more than a dozen volumes of his own poetry and translations, including Theocritus: Idylls and Epigrams; Ovid’s Heroides: A Verse Translation; and Puerilities: Erotic Epigrams of “The Greek Anthology.”

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WORKS OF HESIOD AND THE HOMERIC HYMNS

WORKS AND DAYS THEOGONY THE HOMERIC HYMNS THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND THE MICEBy DARYL HINE

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

Copyright © 2005 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-32966-6

Contents

INTRODUCTION.............................................1HESIOD'S WORKSWorks and Days...........................................23Theogony.................................................53THE HOMERIC HYMNS........................................95THE BATTLE OF THE FROGS AND THE MICE.....................197INDEX....................................................209

Chapter One

WORKS AND DAYS

Come, you Pierian Muses, who give us the glory of music, 1 Tell me of Zeus, your progenitor, make praise-songs in his honor; Through him, moreover, are humankind undistinguished or famous, They are sung or unsung by the will of omnipotent great Zeus. Easily making a man strong, easily he overthrows him, 5 Easily humbles the proud as he lifts up high the obscure, and Easily straightens the crooked as well as deflating the puffed-up- Zeus, who is deathless and thunders aloft and dwells in the highest. Listen to me and behold, make straight your decisions with justice. I would be happy to speak true facts to you, Perses, my brother. 10

There is not only one Discord, for on earth she is twofold: One of them nobody would find fault with on closer acquaintance; One you would deprecate, for they have totally different natures. Wickedly, one promotes all the evils of warfare and slaughter; No one of humankind likes her; out of necessity, at the 15 Will of the blessed immortals, they treat grim Discord with honor. There is, moreover, another, the firstborn daughter of dark Night. Her did the high-throned scion of Cronus whose home is in heaven Place at the roots of the earth; she is certainly better for mankind. This is that Discord that stirs up even the helpless to hard work, 20 Seeing a man gets eager to work on beholding a neighbor Who is exceedingly wealthy and makes haste plowing and sowing, Putting his household in order; so neighbor competing with neighbor Runs after riches, and therefore this Discord benefits mankind. 25 Every potter begrudges another, and artists do likewise; Every beggarman envies a beggar, and poets are rivals.

Perses, be sure you deposit these things in your heart and your spirit, Lest Discord, which is given to mischief, distract you from work and You begin sneaking about, eavesdropping on feuds in the forum. 30 You have no business getting in fights and disputing in public, Not if you haven't sufficient for life laid up in your storeroom, Seasonal fruits of the earth, ripe grain of abundant Demeter. When you have plenty of that, turn freely to fierce competition For the possessions of others; no second chance will be yours to 35 Do so. Let us however decide our disputes by means of impartial Judgments, for justice derives from Zeus and is bound to be perfect. When we had split our inheritance, you grabbed most of it, making Off with it, to enhance the repute of our bribe-hungry royal Masters, who love to adjudge such cases as ours in their courtrooms. 40 Idiots! They don't know how much more is the half than the whole, nor What is the use of a diet of mallow and asphodel, Perses?

Plainly the gods keep secret from humankind the means of survival; Otherwise, you in a day could easily do enough work to Last you a whole year long, and without any further exertion. 45 Soon, very soon you would hang up over the fireplace your rudder; Then would be finished the labors of oxen and hard-working donkeys. No, Zeus kept it a secret because in his heart he was angry, Seeing how devious-minded Prometheus once had fooled him; Therefore did almighty Zeus plot sorrows and troubles for mankind.

He hid fire, which, however, then Iapetus's great-hearted son, to 50 Benefit humankind, pilfered from Zeus, the purveyor of counsel, Hid in a hollowed-out stalk to baffle the lover of thunder.

Then cloud-gathering Zeus to Prometheus said in his anger: "Iapetus's brat, since you're so much smarter than anyone else, you're Happy to outwit me, and rejoice in the fire you have stolen- 55 For yourself a calamity, also for men of the future. For I shall give them a bad thing, too, in exchange for this fire, which Heartily all may delight in, embracing a homegrown evil." Speaking, the father of gods and of mankind exploded in laughter. Then he commanded Hephaestus, the world-famed craftsman, as 60 soon as Possible to mix water and earth, and infuse in it human Speech, also strength, and to make it look like a goddess, and give it Likewise a girl-like form that was pretty and lovesome. Athena Would instruct her in handwork and weaving of intricate fabrics; Furthermore, gold Aphrodite should drip charm over her head to Cause heartsore longing, emotional anguish exhausting the body. Zeus gave instructions to Hermes, the sure guide, slayer of Argus, To put in her the heart of a bitch and a devious nature. Then did the famed lame god manufacture at once from the earth a Fair simulacrum of one shy maiden, according to Zeus's will. 70 Next to her skin did the godlike Graces and gracious Persuasion Carefully place gold necklaces; round her adorable head the Hours who are gorgeously coiffed wove garlands of beautiful spring flowers. Hermes, our sure guide, slayer of Argus, contrived in her breast Lies and misleadingly false words joined to a devious nature, 75

At the behest of the deep-voiced thunderer, Zeus; and the herald God of the gods then gave her a voice. And he called her Pandora, Seeing how all who inhabit lofty Olympus had given Something to pretty Pandora, that giant bane to industrious mankind. 80 When he had finished this downright desperate piece of deception, To Epimetheus Zeus then dispatched the slayer of Argus, Famed swift messenger of the immortals, with her as a present. But Epimetheus had forgotten Prometheus's warning, Not to accept anything from Olympian Zeus, but to send it 85 Back where it came from, lest it become a disaster for mortals. Once he'd accepted it, he, possessing the bane, recognized it.

Formerly dwelt on earth all the various tribes of the human Race, on their own and remote from evils and difficult labor And from distressing diseases that bring doom closer to each one. 90 For in misfortune do humans age rapidly, quicker than ever. Using her fingers, the maid pried open the lid of the great jar, Sprinkling its contents; her purpose, to bring sad hardships to mankind. Nothing but Hope stayed there in her stout, irrefrangible dwelling, Under the lip of the jar, inside, and she never would venture 95 Outdoors, having the lid of the vessel itself to prevent her, Willed there by Zeus, who arranges the storm clouds and carries the aegis. Otherwise, myriad miseries flit round miserable mortals; Furthermore, full is the earth of much mischief, the deep sea also. Illnesses visiting humans daily and nightly at all hours 100 All by themselves bring terrible troubles aplenty to mortals Silently, seeing their power of speech was suppressed by all-wise Zeus. There is no way of escaping from Zeus's implacable mind-set.

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Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Chicago Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0226329666
• ISBN 13: 9780226329666
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 230
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
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