100. κλεῖα, for κλέα οι κλέεα, the lays or legends about the heroes of old. Apoll. Rhod. i. 1, ἀρχόμενος σέο, Φοίβε, παλαιγενέων κλέα φωτῶν μνήσομαι. The lengthened form seems due to the digamma. Compare κλύω, κλυτὸς, with κλείω, κλέω, ῥέω, ῥυτὸς, χέω, χυτός, &c. In Il. ix. 189, ἄειδε δ ̓ ἄρα κλέα ἀνδρῶν, Van Lennep remarks that Heyne preferred κλέει ἀνδρῶν. If κλέα be a genuine ancient form, it must be referred to a nominative κλὴς for κλεF-s. Compare κληδών, κλεηδῶν. Curtius (150) gives κλυ as the root.

102. For αίψ' ὅγε there are variants αἶψα δ' δ, αἶψα δ' ὅγε, αἶψ δ' ὁ, αἶψά τε. This indicates a confusion between two old readings, ἂψ ὅγε and αἶψα δὲ δυσφρ. So inf. v. 169, for &ψ αὖθις one MS. gives αἶψ αὖθις.—δυσφρονέων, from δυσφρονεῖν, a more poetical phrase than δυσφροσύνης ἐπιλήθεται, though we find ἐλύσατο δυσφροσυνάων inf. v. 528. See New Cratylus, § 297. Two or three MSS. give δυσφροσύνεων, a good reading in itself, and Hesiod is very fond of the termination —οσύνη.

103. παρέτραπε, scil. θυμὸν ἀπὸ κηδέων. Euripides, Med. 195, laments that music was not much used for consoling grief; στυγίους δὲ βροτῶν οὐδεὶς λύπας εὕρετο μούσῃ καὶ πολυχόρδοις ᾠδαῖς παύειν.

66

104. χαίρετε, “ farewell," '-a common conclusion to long invocations, e. g. in

100

105

107. νυκτὸς δὲ M, Ald.

Theocr. Id. ii. 165, xxii. 214, xvii. 136. Perhaps, if we regard this verse as a continuation of the praises of the Muse, the meaning is all hail to you !', i. e. assist me to sing. Goettling condemns as spurious the passage from 105-115. He says, "hoc versu (104) necessario concluditur prooemium theogoniae.” He objects, that in v. 108 we should have expected χάος καὶ γαῖα instead of θεοὶ καὶ γαῖα, especially as the birth of the gods is mentioned in v. 111. This latter verse indeed occurred as v. 46, and it is omitted in the quotation of this passage by Origen (see on v. 125). Further, it seems likely that v. 110 was made up from v. 382. Others have thought that there are traces of two recensions, e. g. 105-7 in place of 108 —13. We can determine nothing here with certainty, and perhaps Van Lennep is as near the truth as any of the other critics: “ Mihi, quod in rudioris aevi carmine non sunt omnia pro nostro sensu concinne dicta aut disposita, quodque tautologia in quibusdam offensionem facit, non adferrre continuo necessitatem videtur, ut vel ordinem in eo versuum immutemus, vel duplicis recensionis commento tautologia liberare illud conemur." He thinks that in this brief epitome of the subject (105–115) the Muses are invoked to relate who were brought into being, how (108), and in what order (115).

μοι

115

108. Γείπατε

116. χάρος

116. γίνετ'

Μ.

108. εἴπατε ὡς Μ.

112. ἄφενος. The masculine form occurs Opp. 24, the neuter ibid. v. 637. The notion is, the triple dominion over Earth, Ocean, and Hades.—τιμάς, cf. v. 74.

113. ὡς ἔσχον. How the Olympian gods came into possession of a new dynasty after the defeat of the Titans. See inf. v. 881 seqq.

11415. Schol. ταῦτα δύο ἔπη ὁ Σέλευκος ἀθετεῖ· οἱ δὲ περὶ ̓Αρίσταρχον τὸ Ἐξ ἀρχῆς μόνον λέγουσιν. Where it is uncertain if λέγουσιν means recite it, viz. as connected with ἔσχον Ολυμπον, οι λέγουσιν ἀθετεῖσθαι.—ἔσπετε, according to Curtius (Gr. Et. 461) is from a root σεπ, say, distinct from Fem in ἔπος and εἰπεῖν.

116. With this verse the Theogony properly commences, and here we find clearer indications of an ancient hand than in the long cento which forms the prooemium. Gaisford remarks on this verse, "Locus ab iis imprimis celebratus, qui de rerum initiis scripserunt.” And he adds a long list of citations from ancient authors who have alluded to or quoted the passage, among others Plat. Symp. p. 178, в, and Ar. Αν. 694.

Ibid. ἤτοι, as Goettling observes, is probably an alteration introduced for the purpose of adapting the narration to the concluding lines of the prooemium. For Aristotle, Phys. Ausc. iv. 1, has πάντων μὲν πρώτιστα κ.τ.λ. γένετο, came into existence, not was produced,' as Hesiod regards space as necessarily antecedent to all created things.-Χάος, from the root χα (χάσκω, χαύνω, &c.), means the yawning and void receptacle for created matter. Curtius, Gr. Et. 176, comparing χαύνος, says that χάος was certainly χάρος. The order of Hesiod's primeval cosmogony is not far from the Mosaic; Space, Earth, Darkness, Light, the Heavenly Bodies, Mountains. The Scriptural account gives Earth and Sky, Darkness, Light, Heaven, Dry Land, (the Hesiodic oupea, or continents above the sea-level,) Vegetation, the Heavenly Bodies.-ἔπειτα Γαῖα, i. e. not born out of Chaos, but subsequently called into existence.

118. This verse, which occurs again inf. v. 794, is perhaps spurious in this place; and it was condemned by several of the ancient critics. For the earth is πάντων ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς simply as the terra

firma which supports all things that move and exist upon it. Regarding Olympus merely as a snowy mountain, this addition involves no inconsistency; but the mention of the gods seems somewhat out of order here, though they are indirectly spoken of in vv. 120 -1. If the line be genuine, the meaning must be that the earth was created primarily for the purpose of sustaining the gods in their exalted abodes, just as inf. v. 129, the mountains rose to be the abodes of the Nymphs. But the Schol. expressly says that this verse was rejected by the grammarians, οὗτος ὁ στίχος ἀθετεῖται, and it is omitted in the quotation of the passage by Aristotle, Plato, and others cited in Goettling's critical note.

119. ήερόεντα, misty, murky, δνοφώδη. -This verse also has been suspected, and is rejected by Dr. Flach. Plato, Symp. p. 178, Β, alluding to this passage, says, Ησίοδος πρῶτον μὲν Χάος φησὶ γενέσθαι, αὐτὰρ ἔπειτα μετὰ τὸ Χάος δύο τούτω γενέσθαι, Γῆν τε καὶ ̓́Ερωτα. Heinsius adds, that Aristotle (De Xenophane c. i.) also cites v. 120 next after 117. There is some difficulty too in the plural Τάρταρα, where we might have expected Tápтapov personified, like raîa and Epos. The verse is acknowledged by Aristoph. Αν. 693, Χάος ἦν καὶ Νὺξ Ερεβός τε μέλαν πρῶτον καὶ Τάρταρος εὐρύς κ.τ.λ., by Plutarch, De Isid. et Osir. § lvii., δόξειε δ ̓ ἂν ἴσως καὶ Ησίοδος, τὰ πρῶτα πάντα (1. πάντων; see on v. 116), χάος καὶ γῆν καὶ Τάρταρον καὶ ̓́Ερωτα ποιῶν, οὐχ ἑτέρας λαμβάνειν ἀρχὰς, ἀλλὰ ταύτας. Pausan. Boeot. § 27, Ησίοδον δὲ ἢ τὸν Ἡσιόδῳ Θεογονίαν ἐσποιήσαντα οἶδα γράψαντα ὡς Χάος πρῶτον, ἐπὶ δὲ αὐτῷ Γῆ τε καὶ Τάρταρος καὶ Ἔρως γένοιτο. Van Lennep thinks that the poet here could hardly have omitted Tartarus, where

120

he afterwards represents Typhoeus and others to dwell. Goettling remarks that by Tartarus, which he regards as a reduplicated form of the root Tap in ταράσσειν, the poet meant the subterranean recesses where earthquakes originate. For the account of Tartarus and Typhoeus who was thought to cause these commotions, see inf. 721. 821, seqq. Euripides has τάραγμα ταρτάρειον, Herc. F. 907.

120. Ἔρος. Though Hesiod clearly regards this divinity as the god of love, and speaks of him in this early stage of creation as the author of sexual production, which hitherto had not existed, there is some reason for believing that in the earliest mythology "Epos and 'Epa were merely male and female powers representing Earth. Compare Diana and the old Italian Dianus (Janus), Liber and Libera, Annus and Anna (sun and moon), Phoebus and Phoebe. Hesiod must have meant love, Ερως, because he applies the epithet λυσιμελὴς, which the Schol. vainly explains by ὁ λύων τὰς φροντίδας, adding, οὐ γὰρ ἐνταῦθα τὴν μίξιν καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν λέγει, τὴν λύουσαν τὰ μέλη. It is remarkable however that for ὃς κάλλιστος κ.τ.λ., which affords a still stronger proof of the meaning of "Epos, Aristotle, Phys. iv. 1, read ὃς πάντεσσι μεταπρέπει ἀθανά τοισιν. In truth, the rhapsodists seem to have had two different readings according to their conceptions of the character meant. Cf. Plat. Symp. p. 178, Α, τὸ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς πρεσβύτατον εἶναι τῶν θεῶν τίμιον, ἢ δ ̓ ὅς· τεκμήριον δὲ τούτου· γονῆς γὰρ Ερωτος οὔτ ̓ εἰσὶν οὔτε λέγονται ὑπ ̓ οὐδενὸς οὔτε ἰδιώτου οὔτε ποιητοῦ, ἀλλ ̓ Ἡσίοδος πρῶτον μὲν Χάος κ.τ.λ.-Shakspeare seems to have alluded to this legend, in apostrophising Love as "O anything, of nothing first created!" (Rom. and Jul. i. 1.)

125

123. Erebus is the subterranean darkness, as opposed to night which shrouds the upper world. Αιθήρ, as usual, means the bright upper ether contrasted with the lower atmosphere, ἀήρ. The creation of light out of darkness is in conformity with the Mosaic account. Prof. Jebb well remarks (Primer of Greek Literature, p. 43), “ The belief that the world was created by a Supreme Power, though very old and widely spread in the East, was never congenial to the Greeks. Their tendency was to think of the world, not as made by a Creator, but as born out of pre-existing elements."

125. This verse is perhaps spurious. It is wanting in Origen, who quotes from_v. 108 to v. 139, Philosoph. § 26, p. 174. Van Lennep remarks, that Cicero assigns Erebus as the husband to Night, De Nat. D. iii. 17; but this only shows that the verse may have been found in some copies in his time. The poet would seem to represent the birth of Darkness and Light, Sky, and Mountains, and Sea, by a principle of development from each other, without generation by the male. Hence he expressly says of Pontus, ἄτερ φιλότητος ἐφιμέρου, ν. 132.

126. ἶσον ἑαυτῇ, co-extensive with itself. Perhaps, ἶσον ἁπάντῃ. Cf. inf. v. 524. (So Dr. Flach has edited.) The ancient philosophers held this notion, that the sky was spread out equally in every direction so as to form a canopy to the earth. Cf. Soph. Εl.

86,

124. ἐξεγένετο Μ.

φάος ἁγνὸν καὶ γῆς ἰσόμοιρ ̓ ἀήρ. Aesch. Cho. 311, σκότῳ φάος ἰσόμοιρον. Hence they supposed there was a point of contact, viz. at the verge of the horizon, between earth and sky,-an idea which is poetically developed in Eur. Hippol. 744751. Goettling remarking on the somewhat late form ἑαυτῇ, and contending that the early epic poets represented the heaven as brazen, χάλκεος, suggests ισά οἱ αὐτῇ, referring ἶσα both to οὐρανὸν and οὔρεα. And he thinks this doctrine of the brazen sky is the point of ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεί. He compares Pind. Nem. vi. 4, ὁ δὲ χάλκεος ἀσφαλὲς αἰὲν ἕδος μένει οὐρανός. We might familiarly illustrate the Hesiodic notion of the flat circular earth and the convex over-arching sky, by a circular plate with a hemispherical dish-cover of metal placed over it and concealing it. Above the cover, (which is supposed to rotate on an axis, πόλος,) live the gods. Round the inner concavity is the path of the sun, giving light to the earth below. This is nearly the Platonic idea in the Phaedrus, p. 247. Before, however (v. 118), the earth was called the ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς of the gods, as being the basis on which Mount Olympus stood. The two accounts cannot perhaps be exactly reconciled; and this is an additional reason for doubting the genuineness of v. 118.

127. ἵνα—καλύπτοι. That she might throw it as a cover round all things.' Cf. II. v. 317, πρόσθε δέ οἱ πέπλοιο φαεινοῦ πτύγμ' ἐκάλυψεν.

130

135

130. νυμφάων Μ, Ald. τε Μ, Ald. 136. φοίτην τε Μ.

130. Goettling condemns this verse as an interpolation. By ἐναύλους, “habitations,' he understands temples of the gods built on promontories, including perhaps Mount Olympus. Possibly the poet merely meant, that the mountains were created to sustain the Oread nymphs (αἳ ναίουσιν ἀν ̓ οὔρεα), as the heaven was created as a seat for the gods. The repetition of οὔρεα may appear inelegant, but it was necessary for specifying what class of nymphs were meant. Apollonius Rhodius, i. 501, who represents Orpheus as giving a sketch of the Hesiodic cosmogony in a song, seems to have known this verse; for he writes οὔρεά θ' ὡς ἀνέτειλε καὶ ὡς ποταμοὶ κελάδοντες, αὐτῇσιν Νύμφησι.

132. The poet distinguishes πέλαγος and Tóvros, the deep and the widely expanded (terms virtually confined to the Mediterranean by the early writers, from 'Ωκεανός, the great circumfluent stream which was regarded as the source of all the rivers through subterranean channels. Cf. Scut. H. 314. The union of Earth and Heaven caused the birth of Oceanus, because the sky seems to touch the earth at its extreme limits where the circling Oceanus was supposed to lie.

134-7. The birth of the primeval or Titanic powers from Earth and Uranus. For Κρεῖον Goettling gives Κριον, against nearly all the copies. The etymology is more probably the same as in κρείων or κρέων, the ruling. Schol. Κρεῖον δὲ, τὸ βασιλικὸν καὶ ἡγεμονικὸν (λέγει).

Kolos mny mean 'the intelligent,' from κοεῖν, or perhaps 'Sky (compare cohus, i. e. caelum, quoted by Festus, and Juno Covella). The duality of sexes is here so far observed, that there are six Τιτάνες, Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hype rion, Iapetus, Cronus; and six Τιτά νιδες, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys. Of these, Coeus was the father of Latona, Hyperion of the Sun, Iapetus of Prometheus, (Ιαπετιονίδης, Opp. 54,) Rhea the mother of the gods (alias Demeter). Themis was the first priestess, and lawgiver, Mnemosyne the mother of the Muses, (sup. v. 54,) Phoebe_of Latona, Tethys of the sea-nymphs. It will be observed, that Cronus, the sire of the Olympian gods generally, is represented as younger than the Titanian powers, v. 137. Thus his birth forms a sort of Transition period between the old heaven and the new. A kind of secondary Titanian progeny is next enumerated, viz. the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants. The conflict between the Titans and the newer Olympian dynasty is not described till v. 630 seqq. But this is a subject on which there is reason to think Hesiod dwelt more at length in a part of the Theogony now lost. Homer briefly alludes to this monstrous offspring of the Cyclopes, &c., Od. vii. 206, ὥσπερ Κύκλωπές τε καὶ ἄγρια φύλα Γιγάντων.

136. The name Τηθύς is perhaps connected with τήθη, and means 'nursing mother.