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ΑΣΠΙΣ ΗΡΑΚΛΕΟΥΣ.

THE

SHIELD OF HERCULES.

THE poem known as the Shield of Hercules is, in all probability, the work of a much later writer than Hesiod. Composed manifestly in imitation of the eighteenth book of the Iliad, wherein the shield of Achilles is so elaborately and graphically described, it seems to have been the effort of some rhapsodist of the Hesiodean school, and to have originated in the ancient tradition, that Homer and Hesiod had a personal contest in the poetic art. Independently of mere probabilities, the style is very different from that of the other two larger extant poems of Hesiod. In this respect, indeed, it savours rather strongly of the Ionic school, and it probably is of about the same age as the earlier of the so-called Homeric Hymns. That the Shield of Hercules, or at least the main part of it, really claims this respectable antiquity, can hardly be doubted. The careful use of the digamma throughout is remarkable; indeed, it is much more accurately observed than in the Homeric hymns generally. From the nature of the description, considered artistically, Müller (Hist. Gr. Lit. p. 99) considers that it cannot be placed later than Ol. 40; and he founds his opinion principally on the fact, that Hercules is here represented armed and equipped like any other hero; whereas, about this date, the poets began to introduce, as his peculiar costume, the club and the lion's skin.

There are many remarkable words and inflections in this poem (which will be noticed as they occur) more resembling the late phraseology and the imitative style of the Alexandrine poets. It would however be unfair to form any positive opinion from single words or verses, which may possibly be interpolations, or may result from varieties introduced by local rhapsodists of different ages and countries. Goettling is of opinion that from v. 141 to v. 317 is the work of an Alexandrine poet. Schoemann (p. 68)

pronounces the whole poem, made up as it is of two parts, the work "recentioris cuiusdam versificatoris, haud magni aestimandum, et vix iterata lectione, nedum diligentiore tractatione et critica cura satis dignum." It is certainly remarkable that not a single verse of the "Shield" is cited by any ancient author; whereas the citations from both the "Works" and the " Theogony" are frequent, but especially from the former. Only here and there a scholiast or one of the later grammarians refers to the poem. Stobaeus does not give any extracts from the "Shield; " Athenaeus once or twice alludes to it.

Another suspicious circumstance is, that to a considerable extent the Shield is a cento of Homeric phrases and expressions; more so even than of Hesiodic. This is precisely what we should expect from an Ionic rhapsodist.

The silence of the ancients generally about the now famous "Shield of Achilles" in the xviii. book of the Iliad, combined with some words and phrases not strictly archaic in character, throws a doubt even on that poem, as possibly a post-Periclean compilation from earlier sources. Even Plato, the first author who cites our Homer definitely, nowhere quotes from the "Shield of Achilles." Nor can it be altogether the same poem as that known to Euripides, Iph. A. 1067 seqq., because there Achilles is said to have brought ὅπλα Ηφαιστόπονα, ἐκ θεᾶς ματρὸς δωρήματ ̓ ἔχων, when he first came to Troy with his myrmidons. The old materials from which both the Hesiodic and the Homeric descriptions were derived, were possibly the same, and this supposition will account for the many coincidences between the two. But to suppose that "Hesiod," B.C. 700, copied "Homer," B.C. 850, is, to my mind, simply absurd.

The MSS. of the Shield are very few. I have only been able to collate two, and these are recent, and very corruptly written. The only scholia existing are the paraphrase of John the Deacon (who lived as late as the end of the fourteenth century) and the comments of Tzetzes. Of the three Hesiodic poems this alone has any Greek argument prefixed.

ΥΠΟΘΕΣΕΙΣ ΤΗΣ ΑΣΠΙΔΟΣ.

6

1

Α.

2

Τάφιοι στρατεύσαντες ἐπὶ τὰς Ἠλεκτρύωνος βοῦς ἀνεῖλον τοὺς τῆς ̓Αλκμήνης ἀδελφοὺς τῶν θρεμμάτων ὑπεραγωνιζομένους. τοῦ δὲ ̓Αμφιτρύωνος βουλομένου αὐτῇ συνελθεῖν, οὐ πρότερον αὐτῷ ὑπέσχετο, πρινὴ παρὰ τῶν ἀδελφοκτόνων εἰσπράξηται τιμωρίαν.3 ὁ δὲ ἐπιστρατεύσας ἀνεῖλεν αὐτούς. κατὰ δὲ τὴν αὐτὴν νύκτα συνέρχονται 4 αὐτῇ ἀμφότεροι, ὅ τε Ζεὺς καὶ ὁ ̓Αμφιτρύων, ὁ μὲν ἐκ5 τοῦ πολέμου ὑποστρέψας, Ζεὺς δὲ βουληθεὶς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις βοηθὸν γεννῆσαι. ἡ δὲ κύει ἐκ μὲν ̓Αμφιτρύωνος Ιφικλέα, ἐκ δὲ Διὸς Ηρακλέα. ὃς καὶ ἐπὶ Κύκνον Αρεος υἱὸν ἡνίοχον ἔχων Ιόλαον στρατεύεται, ὃς τοὺς τὰς δεκάδας 8 ἄγοντας εἰς Πυθὼ περιεσύλα. σκεπασθεὶς οὖν ἡφαιστοτεύκτῳ ἀσπίδι πρόσεισιν 10 εἰς Τραχῖνα πρὸς Κήυκα. συμβαλὼν δὲ τῷ Κύκνῳ αὐτὸν μὲν ἀναιρεῖ, τὸν δὲ *Αρην ὑπερασπίζοντα τοῦ υἱοῦ κατὰ μηρὸν τιτρώσκει, καὶ 11 οὕτως ἔρχεται πρὸς Κήυκα· ἦν δὲ ὁ Κύκνος γαμβρὸς Κήυκος ἐπὶ θυγατρὶ Θεμιστονόῃ.12

Β.

Οἱ Τάφιοι καὶ οἱ Τηλεβόαι εἰς ἔριν ἐλθόντες πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς τῆς ̓Αλκμήνης ἐφόνευσαν αὐτούς. αὐτὴ δὲ τὸν ἑαυτῆς γάμον ἐκήρυττε γαμεῖσ θαι τῷ δυναμένῳ διεκδικῆσαι τὸν θάνατον τῶν ἀδελφῶν αὐτῆς. περιερχο μένη οὖν ἐπὶ τούτοις ἦλθεν ἐν Θήβαις, ὅπου ἐδούλευεν ὁ ̓Αμφιτρύων τότε.

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12 πρὸς κήυκα, τὸν πενθερὸν κύκνου τὸν (Ι. τοῦ) γήμαντος θεμιστονόην N. (Vulg. θεμιστονόμῃ.)

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