Hesiod lived in Boeotia, north of Athens, around 800 - 700 BC. His father, Dius, was a ship owner who left Cyme in Asia Minor after his investment schemes failed. Dius bought a farm in Ascra. Hesiod grew up around the farm and raised sheep on Mt. Helicon. Unlike Homer, who wrote of lasting fame, Hesiod's poetry emphasizes the need for justice and hard work and glorifies the past over a declining present. His major works include Works and Days and Theogony. His lesser known works include The Catalogue of Women (which continues the Theogony), Melampodia (about famous seers), Precepts of Chiron (addressed to Achilles), Astronomy, Descent of Theseus into Hades, and The Circuit of the Earth.
Sources:
Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Cliffs Notes on Greek Classics, New York: Wiley Publishing Inc., 1998.
Whos's Who in the Classical World, ed. Simon Hornblower and Tony Spawforth, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Return to Omphale's Scroll Club
Return to the main room of the Bibliotheke of Berea.