95

93. This verse (and possibly the preceding one also) must be regarded as spurious. A false reading yñpas for Kipas led to the addition of v. 93, by way of illustration, from Od. xix. 360. The former verse (92) may have been suggested by v. 102 inf. On the form edwкav see inf. v. 741.

94. The abruptness of the narrative following is remarkable. No definite mention is made of human ills having hitherto been shut up in a chest; it is only stated that Pandora (out of feminine curiosity, we must suppose) opened it and let all out except Hope, which was at the bottom, and so had not time to escape before the lid was closed upon it. Goettling thinks a single verse may have dropped out, like návтa yàp eis πίθον εἶρξε Προμηθεὺς ἀγκυλομήτης, but suggests that a larger lacuna is more probable. Otherwise, the poet must have had in mind the Homeric account, Il. xxiv. 527, δοιοὶ γάρ τε πίθοι κατακείαται ἐν Διὸς οὔδει Δώρων, οἷα δίδωσι, κακῶν, ἕτερος δὲ ἑάων. According to this view, Pandora brought with her from heaven one of these crocks, which we may further suppose was given her as a gift by one of the gods, or by Zeus himself, with the express intention of injuring mortals. There is yet another explanation; that Prometheus had imprisoned human evils in a jar placed in the house of Epimetheus, where Pandora found them. And this is supported by the comment of Proclus ;φησὶν, ὅτι Προμηθεὺς τὸν τῶν κακῶν πίθον παρὰ τῶν Σατύρων λαβὼν, καὶ παραθέμενος τῷ Επιμηθεῖ, παρήγγειλε τὴν Πανdúpav un déçaodai. If the poet had this legend in view, he probably enlarged upon it in some verses now lost.

95. uhoaтo, she designed.' This reading seems rather doubtful, first, be

cause the very same words occurred at v. 49, used of the deliberate intention of Zeus to punish man; secondly, because this implies that the sending evils among men was an act of malice in Pandora; thirdly, because there are variants undea and Képdea, and Plutarch is said to have read μήδετο. Qu. ἐλύσατο κήδεα λυγρά ? The middle λvoarea is very often used where we should have expected voal. See on Aesch. Prom. 243. Theog. 523.

96. 'EXTís. The point of the legend is, that Hope still remains to man even under the most grievous afflictions: that he may always be able to find Hope as a final resource. But it is objected, that Hope is a blessing, and had no place amongst the ills incident to humanity. Goettling truly replies, that is has its unfavourable as well as its favourable meaning. In the bad sense, it is that motive which incites men to vain and wrong enterprises. (Soph. Ant. 615, ἁ γὰρ δὴ πολύπλαγκτος ἐλπὶς πολλοῖς μὲν ἔνασις ἀνδρῶν, πολλοῖς δ ̓ ἀπάτα κουφονέων ἐρώτων.) But, being left, it became a blessing to man in its good sense. When Prometheus (in Aesch. Prom. 258) declares that among the benefits to man τυφλὰς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐλπίδας κατῴκισε, the reply of the chorus is, μéy' woéλnua Tour' ¿dwphow Вporoîs. Sir G. W. Cox, in a note on p. 176 of Mythology and Folk-lore,' contends that we have two contradictory and irreconcileable legends in the gift of fire by Prometheus and the letting out of the evils by Pandora. But ν. 105 seems to show that the mischief done to man by Pandora was in the counsels of Zeus, enraged at the theft of fire for the benefit of man. The sole alleviation to his misery is hope, which (if v. 99 is genuine) Zeus permitted to remain with him.

97. In ἔνδον ἔμιμνε and ἀρρήκτοισι

110

give που.—οὕτως, 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 1068 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. ἐκκορυφώσω. Tzetzes, κεφαλαιώσω καὶ ἐκπληρώσω, εἰς κορυφὴν αὐτὸν καὶ τέλος ἀγαγών, ἢ ἀπὸ κορυφῆς καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἀρξάμενος. Gloss. MS. Cant. ἀνακαλύψω ἐξ ἀρχῆς. Cf. Αesch. Cho. 519, καὶ ποῖ τελευτᾷ καὶ καρανοῦται λόγος; Ibid. v. 692, τοιόνδε πρᾶγμα μὴ καρανῶσαι φίλοις. 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 κεφαλὴν ἐπιθεῖναι μύθῳ, Gorgias, p. 505, D.

103. ὁμόθεν, “from the same stock. Od. ν. 476, δοιοὺς δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ὑπήλυθε θάμνους ἐξ ὁμόθεν πεφυῶτας. Gloss. MS. Cant. ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς ῥίζης ἐγεννήθησαν, viz. from mother Earth. Pind. Nem. vi. 1, ἓν ἀνδρῶν, ἓν θεῶν γένος· ἐκ 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, ὡς ὁμόθεν κ.τ.λ. commences the new paragraph. But thus ὡς γεγάασι should have been ἐπεὶ ἐγένοντο, * when they were born.' Tzetzes appears to have understood it rightly, ὅτι ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς αἰτίας καὶ ὕλης ὁμοῦ οἱ θεοὶ - καὶ οἱ ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν.—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. ἐβασίλευεν 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 ὑποταρτάριοι Κρόνον ἀμφὶς ἐόντες. Compare Π. 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

αἱ

Cels. iv. p. 216, ξυναὶ γὰρ τότε δαῖτες ἔσαν, ξυνοὶ δὲ θόωκοι ̓Αθανάτοισι θεοίσι 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 (καλέονται), 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 καί 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 Tel 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 “a communi Graecorum religione alienum fuisse pro certo affirmari potest.”

125. ἑσσάμενοι takes the digamma. Compare vestis, and see inf. v. 536. πάντῃ φοιτῶντες, 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.