Hesiod (8th Century BC)

         Hesiod was a Greek poet who lived sometime in the 8th century BC.  Almost nothing is known about Hesiod himself, except that he probably lived in the Boeotian district of Greece, where he was a farmer.  

        Hesiod wrote two major surviving works: Theogony and Works and Days.  The first deals with the creation of the world and gives what Hesiod considers to be the genealogy, history and lives of the Greek gods.  It is one of the earliest and best sources on the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks.  His other major poem, Works and Days, is where the stories of Prometheus and Pandora come from.  This poem explains why people must work hard in spite of the goodness of Zeus.  Another smaller poem written by Hesiod is The Shield of Heracles.  This was written in the style of an epic, and tells of a great battle in which Heracles fights against Kyknos.

All material Copyright 2002 by Paul Korte