Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica Part 31

HOMER: 'Distressed; but may you all reach home again unscathed.'

When Homer had met him fairly on every point Hesiod said:

'Only tell me this thing that I ask: How many Achaeans went to Ilium with the sons of Atreus?'

Homer answered in a mathematical problem, thus:

'There were fifty hearths, and at each hearth were fifty spits, and on each spit were fifty carcases, and there were thrice three hundred Achaeans to each joint.'

This is found to be an incredible number; for as there were fifty hearths, the number of spits is two thousand five hundred; and of carca.s.ses, one hundred and twenty thousand...

Homer, then, having the advantage on every point, Hesiod was jealous and began again:

'Homer, son of Meles, if indeed the Muses, daughters of great Zeus the most high, honour you as it is said, tell me a standard that is both best and worst for mortal-men; for I long to know it.' Homer replied: 'Hesiod, son of Dius, I am willing to tell you what you command, and very readily will I answer you. For each man to be a standard will I answer you. For each man to be a standard to himself is most excellent for the good, but for the bad it is the worst of all things. And now ask me whatever else your heart desires.'

HESIOD: 'How would men best dwell in cities, and with what observances?'

HOMER: 'By scorning to get unclean gain and if the good were honoured, but justice fell upon the unjust.'

HESIOD: 'What is the best thing of all for a man to ask of the G.o.ds in prayer?'

HOMER: 'That he may be always at peace with himself continually.'

HESIOD: 'Can you tell me in briefest s.p.a.ce what is best of all?'

HOMER: 'A sound mind in a manly body, as I believe.'

HESIOD: 'Of what effect are righteousness and courage?'

HOMER: 'To advance the common good by private pains.'

HESIOD: 'What is the mark of wisdom among men?'

HOMER: 'To read aright the present, and to march with the occasion.'

HESIOD: 'In what kind of matter is it right to trust in men?'

HOMER: 'Where danger itself follows the action close.'

HESIOD: 'What do men mean by happiness?'

HOMER: 'Death after a life of least pain and greatest pleasure.'

After these verses had been spoken, all the h.e.l.lenes called for Homer to be crowned. But King Paneides bade each of them recite the finest pa.s.sage from his own poems. Hesiod, therefore, began as follows:

'When the Pleiads, the daughters of Atlas, begin to rise begin the harvest, and begin ploughing ere they set. For forty nights and days they are hidden, but appear again as the year wears round, when first the sickle is sharpened. This is the law of the plains and for those who dwell near the sea or live in the rich-soiled valleys, far from the wave-tossed deep: strip to sow, and strip to plough, and strip to reap when all things are in season.' [3703]

Then Homer:

'The ranks stood firm about the two Aiantes, such that not even Ares would have scorned them had he met them, nor yet Athena who saves armies. For there the chosen best awaited the charge of the Trojans and n.o.ble Hector, making a fence of spears and serried shields. Shield closed with shield, and helm with helm, and each man with his fellow, and the peaks of their head-pieces with crests of horse-hair touched as they bent their heads: so close they stood together. The murderous battle bristled with the long, flesh-rending spears they held, and the flash of bronze from polished helms and new-burnished breast-plates and gleaming shields blinded the eyes. Very hard of heart would he have been, who could then have seen that strife with joy and felt no pang.'

[3704]

Here, again, the h.e.l.lenes applauded Homer admiringly, so far did the verses exceed the ordinary level; and demanded that he should be adjudged the winner. But the king gave the crown to Hesiod, declaring that it was right that he who called upon men to follow peace and husbandry should have the prize rather than one who dwelt on war and slaughter. In this way, then, we are told, Hesiod gained the victory and received a brazen tripod which he dedicated to the Muses with this inscription:

'Hesiod dedicated this tripod to the Muses of Helicon after he had conquered divine Homer at Chalcis in a contest of song.'

After the gathering was dispersed, Hesiod crossed to the mainland and went to Delphi to consult the oracle and to dedicate the first fruits of his victory to the G.o.d. They say that as he was approaching the temple, the prophetess became inspired and said:

'Blessed is this man who serves my house,--Hesiod, who is honoured by the deathless Muses: surely his renown shall be as wide as the light of dawn is spread. But beware of the pleasant grove of Nemean Zeus; for there death's end is destined to befall you.'

When Hesiod heard this oracle, he kept away from the Peloponnesus, supposing that the G.o.d meant the Nemea there; and coming to Oenoe in Locris, he stayed with Amphiphanes and Ganyetor the sons of Phegeus, thus unconsciously fulfilling the oracle; for all that region was called the sacred place of Nemean Zeus. He continued to stay a somewhat long time at Oenoe, until the young men, suspecting Hesiod of seducing their sister, killed him and cast his body into the sea which separates Achaea and Locris. On the third day, however, his body was brought to land by dolphins while some local feast of Ariadne was being held. Thereupon, all the people hurried to the sh.o.r.e, and recognized the body, lamented over it and buried it, and then began to look for the a.s.sa.s.sins. But these, fearing the anger of their countrymen, launched a fishing boat, and put out to sea for Crete: they had finished half their voyage when Zeus sank them with a thunderbolt, as Alcidamas states in his "Museum".

Eratosthenes, however, says in his "Hesiod" that Ctimenus and Antiphus, sons of Ganyetor, killed him for the reason already stated, and were sacrificed by Eurycles the seer to the G.o.ds of hospitality. He adds that the girl, sister of the above-named, hanged herself after she had been seduced, and that she was seduced by some stranger, Demodes by name, who was travelling with Hesiod, and who was also killed by the brothers.

At a later time the men of Orchomenus removed his body as they were directed by an oracle, and buried him in their own country where they placed this inscription on his tomb:

'Ascra with its many cornfields was his native land; but in death the land of the horse-driving Minyans holds the bones of Hesiod, whose renown is greatest among men of all who are judged by the test of wit.'

So much for Hesiod. But Homer, after losing the victory, went from place to place reciting his poems, and first of all the "Thebais" in seven thousand verses which begins: 'G.o.ddess, sing of parched Argos whence kings...', and then the "Epigoni" in seven thousand verses beginning: 'And now, Muses, let us begin to sing of men of later days'; for some say that these poems also are by Homer. Now Xanthus and Gorgus, son of Midas the king, heard his epics and invited him to compose a epitaph for the tomb of their father on which was a bronze figure of a maiden bewailing the death of Midas. He wrote the following lines:--

'I am a maiden of bronze and sit upon the tomb of Midas. While water flows, and tall trees put forth leaves, and rivers swell, and the sea breaks on the sh.o.r.e; while the sun rises and shines and the bright moon also, ever remaining on this mournful tomb I tell the pa.s.ser-by that Midas here lies buried.'

For these verses they gave him a silver bowl which he dedicated to Apollo at Delphi with this inscription: 'Lord Phoebus, I, Homer, have given you a n.o.ble gift for the wisdom I have of you: do you ever grant me renown.'

After this he composed the "Odyssey" in twelve thousand verses, having previously written the "Iliad" in fifteen thousand five hundred verses [3705]. From Delphi, as we are told, he went to Athens and was entertained by Medon, king of the Athenians. And being one day in the council hall when it was cold and a fire was burning there, he drew off the following lines:

'Children are a man's crown, and towers of a city, horses are the ornament of a plain, and ships of the sea; and good it is to see a people seated in a.s.sembly. But with a blazing fire a house looks worthier upon a wintry day when the Son of Cronos sends down snow.'

From Athens he went on to Corinth, where he sang s.n.a.t.c.hes of his poems and was received with distinction. Next he went to Argos and there recited these verses from the "Iliad":

'The sons of the Achaeans who held Argos and walled Tiryns, and Hermione and Asine which lie along a deep bay, and Troezen, and Eiones, and vine-clad Epidaurus, and the island of Aegina, and Mases,--these followed strong-voiced Diomedes, son of Tydeus, who had the spirit of his father the son of Oeneus, and Sthenelus, dear son of famous Capaneus. And with these two there went a third leader, Eurypylus, a G.o.dlike man, son of the lord Mecisteus, sprung of Talaus; but strong-voiced Diomedes was their chief leader. These men had eighty dark ships wherein were ranged men skilled in war, Argives with linen jerkins, very goads of war.' [3706]

This praise of their race by the most famous of all poets so exceedingly delighted the leading Argives, that they rewarded him with costly gifts and set up a brazen statue to him, decreeing that sacrifice should be offered to Homer daily, monthly, and yearly; and that another sacrifice should be sent to Chios every five years. This is the inscription they cut upon his statue:

'This is divine Homer who by his sweet-voiced art honoured all proud h.e.l.las, but especially the Argives who threw down the G.o.d-built walls of Troy to avenge rich-haired Helen. For this cause the people of a great city set his statue here and serve him with the honours of the deathless G.o.ds.'

After he had stayed for some time in Argos, he crossed over to Delos, to the great a.s.sembly, and there, standing on the altar of horns, he recited the "Hymn to Apollo" [3707] which begins: 'I will remember and not forget Apollo the far-shooter.' When the hymn was ended, the Ionians made him a citizen of each one of their states, and the Delians wrote the poem on a whitened tablet and dedicated it in the temple of Artemis.

The poet sailed to Ios, after the a.s.sembly was broken up, to join Creophylus, and stayed there some time, being now an old man. And, it is said, as he was sitting by the sea he asked some boys who were returning from fishing:

'Sirs, hunters of deep-sea prey, have we caught anything?'

To this replied:

'All that we caught, we left behind, and carry away all that we did not catch.'

Homer did not understand this reply and asked what they meant. They then explained that they had caught nothing in fishing, but had been catching their lice, and those of the lice which they caught, they left behind; but carried away in their clothes those which they did not catch.

Hereupon Homer remembered the oracle and, perceiving that the end of his life had come composed his own epitaph. And while he was retiring from that place, he slipped in a clayey place and fell upon his side, and died, it is said, the third day after. He was buried in Ios, and this is his epitaph:

'Here the earth covers the sacred head of divine Homer, the glorifier of hero-men.'