110

106. εἰ δὲ θέλεις ΑΕΙ. others. 111. ἐβασίλευεν Α.

give TOU. OUτws, viz. as was shown by the unsuccessful attempt of Prometheus to cheat Zeus.

106-201. The celebrated episode respecting the gradual degeneration of man appears to be an integral part of the poem, and to have this connexion with what precedes, that it still further explains and illustrates, not indeed specially but in a general way, the proposition enunciated at v. 42 seqq., viz. that human life is less happy than it was in primitive times. The three introductory verses 106-8 are probably due to the rhapsodists, who wished to distinguish as ἕτερος λόγος the account of the Cycles or Ages of man from the story of Pandora. There is a tendency in all poets, and generally in those of sentimental and imaginative temperament, to exaggerate the blessings of primitive times, to the disparagement of the present. Hence, though the Hesiodic account is not inconsistent either with the record of Scripture or the conclusions of modern science respecting the real degeneracy of many tribes on earth from a nobler type or stock, it seems safer to attach no further weight to it (viz. as possibly representing very remote and authentic traditions) than as an ancient opinion.

106. ккорνдwσш. Tzetzes, kepaλaiώσω καὶ ἐκπληρώσω, εἰς κορυφὴν αὐτὸν καὶ τέλος ἀγαγὼν, ἢ ἀπὸ κορυφῆς καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀρξάμενος. Gloss. MS. Cant. ἀνακαλύψω ἐξ ἀρχῆς. Cf. Aesch. Cho. 519, καὶ ποῖ τελευτᾷ καὶ καρανοῦται λόγος; Ibid. v. 692, Tolóνde πрâɣμа μǹ kapavŵσaι plois. But one can hardly suppose Hesiod himself to have used so quaint a word to express 'I will relate in full. Rather perhaps the meaning is, I will give the heads of the legend,' i. e. briefly

recount it. Plato has кеpαλǹν éπideîvaι μúew, Gorgias, p. 505, D.

103. dμóbev, 'from the same stock.' Od. ν. 476, δοιοὺς δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ὑπήλυθε θάμVOUS OμólεV TEQU@тas. Gloss. MS. Cant. ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς ῥίζης ἐγεννήθησαν, viz. from mother Earth. Pind. Nem. vi. 1, èv åvòpŵv, èv Deŵv yévos• ÈK μιᾶς δὲ πνέομεν ματρὸς ἀμφότεροι. The meaning is, I will show you how men were once equal to the gods, but have degenerated and become wicked.' In Gaisford's and the ordinary editions, ůs dμóley K.T.λ. commences the new paragraph. But thus is yeyάaoi should have been ἐπεὶ ἐγένοντο, ‘when they were born.' Tzetzes appears to have understood it rightly, őтi èk tŷs autĥs αἰτίας καὶ ὕλης ὁμοῦ οἱ θεοὶ — καὶ οἱ veрwo yeyóvaσiv.-Hesiod however, in the following narrative, says nothing whatever about the origin of men and gods being the same. He merely compares the happy life of primitive men with that of the gods. It is therefore more than probable that the passage is spurious.

111. ¿Baσíλevev MS. Gale. Goettling thinks this verse must be an interpolation, because Kronos is nowhere reckoned by Hesiod among the Olympian gods. This appears rather a doubtful point; for in Theog. 634. 648, the Olympian gods born from Kronos are contrasted with the Titans; while ibid. v. 851 the Titans are described as TOταρτάριοι Κρόνον ἀμφὶς ἐόντες. Compare Il. xiv. 274. Aesch. Prom. 228. The later writers, especially the Roman, placed the golden age under Saturn's reign, as Tibullus, Quam bene Saturno vivebant rege,' &c., and Virgil, Ecl. iv., Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.' It is, of course, by no means

6

115

120

impossible that this suggested the presumed interpolation of v. 111. It is to be observed, that with the Olympian dynasty in heaven Man, the especial object of its care, first comes upon earth. Diodorus Siculus, in citing v. 111-120, acknowledges this verse (v. 6).

112. ὡς δὲ θεοὶ ζώεσκον Gaisford, from a var. lect. in Diodorus; where however the best edition (Teubner) gives the vulgate.

113. ἄτερ πόνων MS. Cant. with three of the Bodleian and Cod. Gale, which has Te (or e) erased. Goettling gives the same readings from other MSS. Compare v. 91. It is singular that Tzetzes should recognise this strange reading, for he says, τὸ ΠΟ κοινή ἐστι συλλαβή. — οὐδ ̓ ἔτι δειλόν Cod. Gale.

114. ὁμοῖοι. The first symptoms of age were thought to be failure of the knees and tremour of the hands. Hence such expressions as dumque virent genua, οἷς γόνυ χλωρόν, “ viridis senectus, &c. Cf. Od. xi. 497, ονεκά μιν κατὰ γῆρας ἔχει χεῖράς τε πόδας τε. Il. xiii. 627, οὐ γὰρ ἔτ ̓ ἔμπεδα γυῖα, φίλος, πόδες, οὐδ ̓ ἔτι χεῖρες ὤμων ἀμφοτέρωθεν ἐπαΐσσονται ἐλαφραί.

116. θνήσκον, they used to die without pain or bodily decay, but as if falling asleep. This is so far consonant with the Mosaic account, that with sin came death (Gen. iii. 19), that it implies an easy passage from this world.

118. αὐτομάτη. Virg. Georg. i. 127, ipsaque tellus Omnia liberius, nullo

poscente, ferebat.' Ibid. ii. 500, Quos rami fructus, quos ipsa volentia rura Sponte tulere sua, carpsit.' The diet on καρπός, fruges, viz. corn and fruits (σίτος), is opposed to the diet on meat in the brazen age, v. 146. So Ovid, Met. i. 103, writing of the golden age, says, Contentique cibis nullo cogente creatis Arbuteos fetus montanaque fraga legebant.'

Ibid. ἐθελημοί, tranquil. Possibly this word was originally θεμελὸς (compare θεμείλια and θέμεθλα) from the notion of stability and laying or depositing, while ἐθελημὸς crept in from a mistaken reference to ἐθέλω, and should be written θελημὸς (for θέλεμμος οι θέλεμ vos, whence the epic προθέλυμνος). It is remarkable that Hesychius and Photius explain θελεμὸς οι θελημὸς by ἥσυxos, while in this place ἥσυχοι seems to violate the metre on account of the digamma in Fépya. (See on v. 28, ȧn' ἔργον.) Bentley's reading is probably correct, ἥσυχα ἔργα νέμοντο, 6 held their farms in quiet, in the possession of many blessings. Yet in Il. ii. 751 we read οἵ τ ̓ ἀμφ ̓ ἱμερτὸν Τιταρήσιον ἔργ ̓ ἐνέμοντο. Apollon. Rhod. ii. 655, οὐδέ οἱ ὕβρις ἥνδανεν, ἀλλ ̓ ἐθελημὸς ἐφ ̓ ὕδασι πατρὸς ἑοῖο μητέρι συνναίεσκεν. Aesch. Suppl. 1005, ποταμούς θ ̓ οἳ διὰ χώρας θελεμὸν πῶμα χέουσιν.

120. This verse is added from Diodor. Sic. v. 66. It is wanting in all the MSS. of Hesiod. Robinson, following Graevius, places it after v. 115. Spohn would insert two others from Origen, contra

αἱ

Cels. iv. p. 216, ξυναὶ γὰρ τότε δαῖτες ἔσαν, ξυνοὶ δὲ θόωκοι ̓Αθανάτοισι θεοῖσι καταθνητοῖς τ ̓ ἀνθρώποις. Goettling observes, that Homer (Od. i. 22-5, and vii. 201 seq.) speaks of the gods as associating with men even in the heroic age, and therefore that this can hardly have been regarded by Hesiod as a distinctive characteristic of the golden age. That many alterations in this poem were introduced by the early rhapsodists, is but too evident. The very next verses (122 123) are twice cited by Plato (Cratyl. p. 397, and De Rep. v. p. 469), with remarkable variants, οἱ μὲν δαίμονες ἁγνοὶ ἐπιχθόνιοι (ὑποχθ.) τελέθουσι (καλές ονται), ἐσθλοί, ἀλεξίκακοι, and μερόπων for θνητῶν. The reading ἁγνοὶ is supported by Plutarch, De Defectu Orac. § 39, and perhaps by Aesch. Pers. 630, ἀλλὰ χθόνιοι δαίμονες ἁγνοὶ Γῆ τε και Ἑρμῆ, who probably also here read ὑποχθόνιοι.

121. ἐπεί κεν MSS. ἐπειδὴ Plato, Cratyl. p. 397, and so Gaisford, Schoemann, and Goettling. But Cod. Gale has rei Ke with kal superscribed. This may indeed have come from v. 140, where the sense is καὶ τοῦτο γένος. Yet ἐπεὶ καὶ is in itself a very common combination, like ἐπεί τοι καί.

123. φύλακες. This passage may be called a locus classicus on the early Greek notions of δαίμονες. If ἐπιχθόνιοι be the right reading (and it is supported by πάντῃ φοιτῶντες ἐπ' αἶαν), the poet's idea must have been, that the invisible spirits of the departed attend men in all their actions like guardian angels. According to a later view, the δαίμονες as

(120)

125

(125)

124. φυλάσσουσί

well as the ἥρωες were Chthonian powers both to be feared and to be propitiated. Here they are beneficent genii more nearly allied to the Olympian gods. There is an obvious resemblance between this and the belief in guardian angels and spirits who are supposed to be conscious of and to take interest in the affairs of man upon earth. Goettling considers that the opinion was not one of Greek origin, but was borrowed from the east. Schoemann (p. 28) observes that this doctrine of δαίμονες muni Graecorum religione alienum fuisse pro certo affirmari potest.”

σε

a com

125. ἑσσάμενοι takes the digamma. Compare vestis, and see inf. v. 536.— πάντῃ φοιτώντες, cf. Plat. Symp. p. 203, A, where he has very similar sentiments on the intermediate ministry of these angelie powers, οὗτοι δὴ οἱ δαίμονες πολλοὶ καὶ παντοδαποί εἰσιν.

126. τοῦτο γέρας βασιλήϊον. This royal prerogative, viz. of rightly administering justice and of punishing unjust deeds, σχέτλια ἔργα, as well as of conferring wealth and honour on whomsoever they pleased. The scholiasts find an allusion to the βασιλεῖς δωροφάγοι οι v. 39. The poet may mean, that they retain this office of kings even after this life, as Aeschylus taught that kings on earth were kings in Hades, Cho. 348 seqq. Moschopulus;ἤγουν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν δωρεαῖς πλουτίζοντες τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· καὶ τοῦτο, ἤγουν τὸ πλουτοδόται εἶναι, ἔσχον τιμὴν βασιλικὴν, ἤγουν βασιλεῦσι πρέ πουσαν. The words καὶ τοῦτο κ.τ.λ. are rather obscure. Bentley regarded 124 -126 as an interpolation.

140

(140)

145

(145)

146. Γέργο

137. κατ' ἤθεα, throughout their settlements, κατὰ πόλεις, each nation in its respective city. As 00s takes the digamma, Bentley's reading is probably correct, ᾗ θέμις ἀνθρώποις κατὰ Τήθεα.

138. Ζεὺς Κρονίδης. This marks the period of the silver age. Those of the golden age ἐπὶ Κρόνου ἦσαν, ν. 111.

139. ἐδίδων Cod. Gale, perhaps rightly, for ἐδίδοσαν. So also Par. 2771. But διδόω occurs inf. 225. διδοῦναι Il. xxiv. 425. διδοῖ Aesch. Suppl. 987.

141. ὑποχθόνιοι the MSS. and Proclus. ἐπιχθόνιοι Gaisford, with Tzetzes and some copies (ap. Goettl.) τοὶ μέν τοι χθόνιοι Cod. Gale, but with ὑπὸ in the margin. The poet appears to distinguish theblessed spirits of men' in Hades from the δαίμονες, the genii or angelic powers who lived and moved on the earth, sup. v. 123, and to regard the ὑποχθόνιοι as one grade below the ἐπιχθόνιοι. The latter were immortals ; the μάκαρες θνητοὶ more resembled the Latin Manes, or ' good spirits of the departed, and had not the divine attribute of immortality. Of these the poet says, that although of the second class (δεύτεροι), nevertheless they had honour paid to them, viz. commemorations and propitiatory sacrifices from men on the carth, ἐναγισμοὶ οι αἱμακουρίαι.

145. Goettling construes ἐκ μελιᾶν δει νν, timendum propter arma, while the common interpretation is ποίησεν ἐκ μελιν, fashioned out of ashen-wood. It was the idea of Proclus that the Μελίαι Νύμφαι were meant (Theog. 187). It is rather difficult to decide; but ποιῆσαι ἐκ μελιᾶν is at least a more usual idiom than δεινὸν ἐκ μελιᾶν. The race was made out of a tough material, and hence they were tough warriors and carried tough arms; while their implements generally being of bronze (v. 149) gave them the name of χάλκειον γένος. We know from Homer how much the μείλινον ἔγχος was used in war. Virgil, Aen. viii. 315, supports the above explanation; Gensque virum truncis et duro robore nata. Ovid leaves the matter ambiguous, Met. i. 125, Tertia post illas successit aenea proles, Saevior ingeniis et ad horrida promptior arma.

146. σίτον, fruges, corn and vegetable products, as opposed to a diet on meat, which was thought to render men ferocious.—ἀδάμαντος, probably basalt, the material from which the primitive celts or axe-heads were often made, facta ex adamante securi,' Ovid, Fast. iii. 805. It has the appropriate epithet xλwpòs in Scut. Herc. 231.