Page:Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns, and Homerica.djvu/20

 especially as many critics treat some, or all of them, as spurious. In the first place attempts have been made to show that "Hesiod" is a significant name and therefore fictitious: it is only necessary to mention Goettling's derivation from ἵημι and ὁδός (which would make "Hesiod" mean the "guide" in virtues and technical arts), and to refer to the pitiful attempts in the Etymologicum Magnum (s.v. Ἡσίοδος), to show how prejudiced and lacking even in plausibility such efforts are. It seems certain that "Hesiod" stands as a proper name in the fullest sense. Secondly, Hesiod claims that his father — if not he himself — came from Aeolis and settled in Boeotia. There is fairly definite evidence to warrant our acceptance of this: the dialect of the Works and Days is shown by Rzach to contain distinct Aeolisms apart from those which formed part of the general stock of epic poetry. And that this Aeolic speaking poet was a Boeotian of Ascra seems even more certain, since the tradition is never once disputed, insignificant though the place was, even before its destruction by the Thespians.

Again, Hesiod's story of his relations with his brother Perses have been treated with scepticism (see Murray, Anc. Gk. Literature, pp. 53-54): Perses, it is urged, is clearly a mere dummy, set up to be the target for the poet's exhortations. On such a matter precise evidence is naturally not forthcoming; but all probability is against the sceptical view. For (1) if the quarrel between the brothers were a fiction, we should expect it to be detailed at length and not noticed allusively and rather obscurely — as we find

xiv