But he knew not at all the intent of Zeus who holds the aegis. Her, then, Glaucus sought to win by Athena's advising, and he drove oxen for her. A marvellous scent rose from her silvern raiment as she moved, and beauty was wafted from her eyes. Eurynome the daughter of Nisus, Pandion's son, to whom Pallas Athena taught all her art, both wit and wisdom too for she was as wise as the gods. 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.'. 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.

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. 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. 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. This volume includes Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, two of the oldest non-Homeric poems to survive from antiquity. 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. 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. 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. Winner of the 2005 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets.

Hesiod homeric hymns