6. Fram Herodotus. Herodotus affures us that Hefiod, whom he places firit in his account, and Homer, lived four hundred years and no more before himfelf; this muft carry no fmall weight with it, when we confider it as delivered down to us by the oldest Greek hiftorian we have. 7. From bis writings. The pious exclamation against the vices of his own times, in the beginning of the iran age, and the manner in which the defcription of that age is wrote, moft of the verbs being in the future tenfe, give us room to imagine he lived when the world had but just departed from their primitive virtue; just as the race of heroes was at an end, and men were funk into all that is bafe and wicked. of the age of Homer or Hefiod. The Ionic poets, Dr. Clarke obferves, had one fixed rule of making the first fyllable in xaλos long: the Attic poets Sophocles, Euripides, and Ariftophanes, in innumerable places, he says, make it short; the Doric poets do the fame : all therefore that can be inferred from this is, that Homer always used it in the Ionic manner, and Hefiod often in the Ionic, and often in the Doric. This argument of Dr. Clarke's, founded on a fingle quantity of a word, is entirely deftructive of Sir Ifaac Newton's fyftem of chronology; who fixes the time of Troy being taken but thirty-four years before Heliod flourished. Troy, he fays, was taken nine hundred and four years before Chrift, and Heliod, he fays, flourished eight hundred and feventy. This hows Sir Ifaac Newton's opinion of the age of Heliod in regard to his vicinity to Homer: his 8. The opinions of Juflus Lipfius, and Zudolphus bringing the chronology of both fo low as he does, is to fupport his favourite scheme of reducing all to fcripture chronology. Neucorus confuted. Juftus Lipfius, in his notes to the first book of Velleius Paterculus, fays, "there is more fimpli"city, and a greater air of antiquity in the works "of Hefiod than of Homer," from which he would infer he is the older writer: and Fabricius gives us thefe words of Ludolphus Neocorus, who writ a critical history of Homer: "if a judgment of "the two poets is to be made from their works, "Homer has the advantage in the greater fim. plicity and air of antiquity in his ftyle. Hefiod "is more finished and elegant." One of thefe is a fagrant intance of the random judgment which the critics and commentators often pafs on authors, and how little dependence is to be laid on fome of them. In fhort, they are both in an error; for, had they confidered through how many hands the Iliad and Odyties have been fince they came from the first author, they would not have pretended to determine the question, who was first by their style. 9. Dr. Clarke's and Sir Ifaac Newton's opinions confidered. Dr. Samuel Clarke (who was indeed a person of much more extenfive learning and nicer dif cernment than either Neocorus or Lipfius) has founded an argument for the antiquity of Homer on a quantity of the word zakos: in his note on the 434 verfe of the 20 book of the Iliad, he obferves, that Homer has ufed the word xxλg in the Lad and Odyffey above two hundred and feventy times, and has in every place made the first fyllable long; whereas Heliod frequently makes it long, and often short: and Theocritus uies it both long and short in the fame verfe; from which our learned critic infers that Hefiod could not be cotemporary with Homer (unlels, fays he, they fpoke different languages in different parts of the country) bat much later; becaufe he takes it for granted, that the liberty of making the first fyllable of As fhort was long after Homer; who ufes the word above two hundred and feventy times, and never has the first fyllable fhort. This is a curious piece of criticism, but productive of no certainty 10. A thousand years before Chrift. After all, it is univerfally agreed he was before, or at least cotemporary with Homer; but I think we have more reafon to believe him the older; and Mr. Pope, after all the authorities he could find in behalf of Homer, fixes his decifion on the Arundelian marble. To enter into all the dif putes which have been on this head, would be endlefs and unneceffary; but we may venture to place him a thousand years before Chrift, without ex ceeding an hundred, perhaps, on either fide. 11. Some circumftances of his life from bis writings. Having thus far agreed to his parents, his country, and the time in which he rose, our next butinels is to trace him in fuch of his actions as are difcoverable; and here we have nothing certain but what occurs to us in his works. That he tended his own flocks on mount Helicon, and there first received his notions of poetry, is very probable from the beginning of his Theogony; but what he there fays of the mufes appearing to him, and giving him a fceptre of laurel, 1 pafs over as a poetical flight. It likewife appears, from the firit book of his Works and Days, that his father left fome effects, when he died, on the divifion of which his brother Perfes defrauded him, by brib. ing the judges. He was fo far from being provoked to any act of refentment by this injuftice, tha: he expreffed a concern for those poor miltaken mortals, who placed their happiness in riches only, even at the expence of their virtue. He lets us know, in the fome poem, that he was not only above want, but capable of affifting his brother in time of need; which he often did after the il! ufage he had met with from him. The last paffage, relating to himself is his conqueft in a poetical contention. Amphidamas, king of Euboea, had inftituted funeral games in honour of his own memory which his fons afterwards faw performed: Hifiod here was competitor for the prize in poe *In Lia chronology of ancient kingdoms amended, A j try, a tripod, which he won, and, as he tells us himself, confecrated to the mufes. 12. From Plutarch, &c. Plutarch, in his Banquet of the Seven Wife Men? makes Periander give an account of the poetical contention at Chalcis; in which Hefiod and Homer are made antagonists; the first was conqueror, who received a tripod for his victory, which he dedicated to the muses, with this inscription : Ησιοδος Μεσαις Ελικωνισι τονδ ̓ ἀνεθηκεν, This Hefied vows to th' Heliconian nine, This story, as related by Plutarch, was doubtless occafioned by what Hefiod fays of himself, in the fecond book of his Works and Days; which paffage might poffibly give birth to that famous treatife. Αγων Ομηρο και Ησίοδο, mentioned in the fourth fection of this difcourfe. Barnes, in his Preloquium to the fame treatife, quotes three verfes, two from Euftathius, and the third added by Lilius Gyraldus, in his life of our poet, which inform us, that Heliod and Homer fung in Delos to the honour of Apollo. Εν Δήλω τοτε πρωτον εγω και Όμηρος, αείδον, But thefe, together with the contention betwixt thefe two great poets, are regarded as no other than fables; and Barnes, who had certainly read as much on this head as any man, and who seems, by fome expreflions, willing to believe it if he could, is forced to decline the difpute, and leave it in the fame uncertainty in which he found it. The ftory of the two poets meeting in Delos, is a manifeft forgery; because, as I obferved before, Hefiod pofitively fays he never took any voyage but that to Chalcis; and thefe verfes make his meeting in Delos, which is contrary to his own affertion, precede his contention at Chalcis. who barbarously murdered him with his compa nion, whofe name was Troilus, and throwed their bodies into the fea. The body of Troilus was caft on a rock, which retains the name of Troilus from by a fhoal of dolphins as foon as it was hurled inthat accident. The body of Hefiod was received to the water, and carried to the city Molicria, near the promontory Rhion : near which place the Locrians then held a folemn feaft, the fame which is at this time celebrated with so much pomp. When they faw a floating carcafe, they ran with aftonishment to the shore, and finding it to be the body of Hefiod, newly flain, they refolved, as they thought themfelves obliged, to detect the murderers of a perfon they fo much efteemed and honoured. When they had found out the wretches who committed the murder, they plunged them alive into the fea, and afterwards deftroyed their houses. The remains of Hefiod were deposited in Nemea; and his tomb is unknown to moft ftrangers; the reafon of it being concealed, was because of the Orchomenians, who had a defign, founded on the advice of an oracle, to steal his remains from thence, and to bury them in their own country. This account of the oracle, here mentioned by Plutarch, is related by Paufanias, in his Bootics. He tells us the Orchomenians were advised by the oracle to bring the bones of Hefiod into their country, as the only means to drive away a peftilence which raged among them. They obeyed the oracle, found the bones, and brought them home. fanias, say they, erected a tomb over him, with an infcription to this purpose on it: Pau Hefiod, thy birth is barren Afcra's boast, 14. Monuments, &c. of bim. We have the knowledge of fome few monu. and ancient poet: Paufanias, in his Boeotics inments which were raised in honour to this great forms us, that his countrymen the Boeotians erected to his memory an image with a harp in his hand: the fame author tells us, in another place, there was likewife a ftatue of Hefiod in the temThus have I col-ple of Jupiter Olympicus. Jected, and compared together, all that is material of his life; in the latter part of which, we are told, he removed to Locris, a town near the fame diftance from mount Parnaffus, as Afcra from Heli con. Lilius Gyraldus, and others, tell us he left a fon, and a daughter; and that his fon was Stefichorus the peet; but this wants better confirmation than we have of it. It is agreed by all that he lived to a very advanced age. 13. His Death. The ftory of his death, as told by Solon, in Flutarch's Banquet of the Seven Wife Men, is very remarkable. The man, with whom Hefod lived at Locris, ravished a maid in the fame houfe. Hefiod, though entirely ignorant of the fact, was malicioully accufed, as an accomplice, to her brothers, Fulvius Urfinus, and with a head, a trunk without a head, and a gem, 15. His character. For his character we need go no farther than tion he fpeaks of his father, when he propofes him his Works and Days. With what a dutiful affec 233 pattern to his brother. His behaviour, after | the first ten verfes with which it now begins. The the unjust treatment from Perfes and the judges, proves him both a philofopher and a good man. His moral precepts, in the firft book, feem to be as much the dictates of his heart as the fruits of his genias; there we behold a man of the chafteft manners, and the best disposition. He was undoubtedly a great lover of retirement and contemplation, and seems to have had no ambition but that of acting well. I fhall conclude my character of him with that part of it which Paterculus fo juftly thought his due: " perelegantis ingenii, et moliffimâ dulcedini carminum memorabilis; otii quietifque cupidiffimus:" of a truly elegant genius, and memorable for his most eafy sweetness of verfe; most fond of leisure and quietude. ON THE WRITINGS OF HESIOD. Sec. 1. The Introduction. Or all the authors who have given any account of the writings of our poet, I find none fo perfect as the learned Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Græca. He there feems to have left unread no work that might in the leaft contribute to the completing his defign: him I fhall follow in the fucceeding difcourfe, fo far as relates to the titles of the poems, and the authorities for them. 2. The Theogong. I fhall begin with the Theogony, or Generation of the Gods, which Fabricius puts out of difpute to be of Hefiod: nor is it doubted, fays he, that Pythagoras took it for his, who feigned he faw the foul of our poet in hell chained to a brazen pilar; a punishment inflicted upon him for the ftories which he invented of the gods. This doubtlefs is the poem that gave Herodotus occafion to fay that Hefiod, with Homer, was the first who introduced a theogony among the Grecians; the fr who gave names to the gods, afcribed to them bonours and arts, giving particular defcriptions of their perfons. The first hundred and fifteen lines of this poem have been difputed; but am inclined to believe them genuine; because Paufanias takes notice of the fceptre of laurel, which the poet fays, in those verses, was a prefent to him from the mufes; and Ovid, in the beginning of his Art of Love, alludes to that paffage of the mufes appearing to him; and Hefiod himself, in the fecond book of his Works and Days, has an allufion to these verses. 3. The Works and Days; The Works and Days is the first poem of its kird, if we may rely on the teftimony of Pliny; being very uncertain, fays Fabricius, whether the poems attributed to Orpheus were older than Head; among which the critics and commentaters mention one of the fame title with this of our post. Paufanias, in his Booties, tells us he faw a Epy of this wrote in plates of lead, but without only difpute about this piece has been concerning the title, and the divifion into books Some make it two poems; the firft they call Egy, works, and the fecond Hupa, days; others call the first Eyga nas Husqai, works and days, and the fecond Ilusgas only, which part confifts of but fixty-four lines where I mention the number of verfes in this difcourfe, 1 fpeak of them as they ftand in the original. We find, in fome editions, the divifion beginning at the end of the moral and religious precepts, but Grævius denies fuch distinctions being in any of the old manufcripts. Whether these divifions were in the first copies fignifies little; for as we find them in feveral late editions, they are very natural, and contribute fomething to the eafe of the reader, without the leaft detriment to the original text. I am ready to imagine we have not this work delivered down to us fo perfect as it came from the hands of the poet, which I fhall endeavour to fhow in the next fection. This poem, as Plutarch in his Symposiacs affures us, was fung to the harp. 4. The Theogony, and Works and Days, the only undoubted poems of Hefiod now extant. The Theogony, and Works and Days, are the only undoubted pieces of our poet now extant; the aois Hganiks, the fhield of Hercules, is always printed with thefe two, but has not one convincing argument in its favour by which we may pofitively declare it a genuine work of Hefiod. We have great reason to believe those two poems only were remaining in the reign of Auguftus. Manilius, who was an author of the Auguftan age, in the second book of his Aftronomy, takes notice, in his commendation of our poet and his writings, of no other than the Theogony, and Works and Days. The verfes of Manilius are thefe: Hefiodus memorat divos, div'umque parentes, Et chaos enixum terras, orbemque fub illo Infantem, primum, titubantia fidera, corpus, L'itanafque fenes, Jovis et cunabula magni, Et fub fratre viri nomen, fine fratre parentis, Atque iterum patrio nafcentem corpore Bacchum, Omniaque inimenfo volitantia numina mundo: Dr Bentley, whofe Manilius was published ten gears after the first edition of this difcourfe, gives primos titubantia fidera partus: the old copies, be fays, bave p.imos, and partus is fupplied by bis own judgment: but primos partus for titubantia fidera is not confiftent with the genealogy of thefe natural bodies in the Theogony of Hefiod: an exact genealogical table to which I bave given at the end of my notes to that poem. i muft, with great deference to the fuperior knowledge of that learned critic, prefer the common reading primam corpus: Dr. Bentley's chief objection to this reading is founded on making primum to be underflood first in point of time; therefore, fays be quomodo vero fuera primum erant corpus, cum ante ille extiterint chaos, terræ, orbis? Very true; bu primum must be taken as I have used it in my explanation of it. A j * Quinetiam rutis cultus, legefque rogavit, Atque arbusta vagis effent quod adultera pomis, Thus tranflated by Mr. Creech: Hefiod fings the gods immortal race; as The obfervation which Mr. Kennet makes on thefe lines is," that those fine things which the "Latin poet recounts about the birth of the gods, " and the making the world, are not fo nearly al"lied to any paffage in the prefent Theogony to justify the allufion." An author, who was giving an account of an ancient poet, ought to have been more careful than this biographer was in his judgment of thefe verfes; becaufe fuch as read him, and are at the fame time unlearned in the language of the poet, are to form their notions from his fentiments. Mr. Kennet is fo very wrong in his remark here, that in all the feven lines which contain the encomium on the Theogony, I cannot fee one expreffion that has not an allufion, and a strong one, to fome particular paffage in that poem. I am afraid this gentleman's modefty made him diftrust himself, and too fervilely follow this tranflation, which he quotes in his life of Hefiod, where he feems to lay great stress on the judgment of the tranflator. Mr. Creech has in thefe few lines fo unhappily miftook his author, that in fome places he adds what the poet never thought of, leaves whole verfes untranflated, and in other places gives a fenfe quite different to what the poet defigned. I shall now proceed to point out thefe paffages to which Manilius particularly alludes. His first line relates to the poem in general, the Generation of the Gods; though we must take notice that he *For legefque rogavit Dr. Bentley gives legef que novandi, on the authority of no copy, but from a diflike to the expreffion of rogavit cultus and rogavit militiam; but, as the old reading rogavit is agreeable to my conflruction of it, I am for keeping it in. + For Bacchus utrumque Dr. Bentley gives Pallas utrumque; and in that fenfe Mr. Creech has tranflated it; which would be the more eligible reading, if Hefiod bad treated of Olives. Bacchus utrumque is a foolio refetition, as Dr. Bentley obferves I had that part of Hefiod's fyftem in view where gods themselves; for by div'um parentes the Latin he makes matter precede all things, and even the poet means chaos, heaven, earth, &c. which the Greek poet makes the parents of the gods. Hefiod tells us, verle 116, chaos brought forth the earth her first offspring; to which the fecond line here quoted has a plain reference; and orbemque fub illo infantem, which Mr. Creech has omitted, may either mean the world in general, or, by Sub illo being annexed, hell, which, according to our titubantia fidera, corpus, which is here rendered, and poet, was made a fubterranean world. Primum infant-fars first flagger'd in their way, are the fun and moon; our poet calls them Hidov s μsyav, eve shy, the great fun, and the bright moon; the Roman calls them the wandering planets, the chief bodies in the firmanent, not the first works of heaven, as is interpreted in the Dauphine's edition of Manilius. The fourth verse, the giants and the gods, one of the greateft fubwhich refers to the birth of Jove, and the wars of jects of the Theogony, the English tranflator has left untouched. I am not ignorant of a various reading of this passage, viz. "Titanafque juviffe fenis cunabula magni,” gods than the other reading, fenis cunabula magni, which has a fronger allufion to the battle of the meaning the fecond childhood or old age of Sepreffed in these two lines, The next verfe, which is beautifully ex turn. How name of brother veil'd an husband's love, And Juno bore unaided by her Jove, plainly directs to Jupiter taking his sister Juno to by which Hefiod means without the mutual joys wife, and Juno bearing Vulcan, & PIROTATI, Myriox, of love. The fucceeding line has a reference to the birth of Bacchus, and the feventh to the whole pocm; fo that he may be faid to begin and end his panegyric on the Theogony, with a general allufion to the whole. The Latin poet, in his fix verfes on the Works and Days, begins as on the Theogony, with a general obfervation on the whole poem: "Hefiod," fays he, "inquired into "the tillage and management of the country, and "into the laws or rules of agriculture:" I de not queftion but Manilius, in legefque rogavit, had his eye on thefe words of our poet Ουτος του πεδίων πέλεται νομος, this is the law of the fields. What the Roman there fays of Bacchus loving hills, and of grafting, has no allufion to any part of the prefent Works and Days; but we are not to infer from thence that this is not the poem alluded to, but that those paffages are loft; of which I have not the least doubt, when I confider of fome parts of the Works and Days which are not fo well connected as I wish they were. I think it is indifputable that Hefiod writ more of the vintage than we have now extant, and that he likewife laid down rules for the care of trees: this will appear more clearly, if we obferve in what manner Virgil introduces this line, 66 Afcræcumque cano, Romana per oppida, carmen." This is in the fecond book of the Georgics; the chief fubjects of which book are the different me thods of producing trees, of tranfplanting, grafting, of the various kinds of trees, the proper foil for each kind, and of the care of vines and olives; and he has in that book the very expreffion Manilius applies to Hefiod. Bacchus amat colles, fays Virgil, rogavit quos colles Bacchus amaret, fays the other of our poet, he inquired after what hills Bacchus loved. I should not have ufed Mr. Creech and Mr. Kennet with fo much freedom as I have, had not the tranflation of the one, and the remark of the other, fo nearly concerned our poet; but I hope the clearing a difficult and remarkable passage in a claffic, will, in fome measure, atone for the liberties I have took with thofe gentlemen. 5. The Shield of Hercules. We have now afcribed to Hefiod a poem under the title of Acis Hezz28, the Shield of Hercules; which Ariftophanes the grammarian fuppofes to be fpurious, and that it is an imitation of the Shield of Achilles in Homer. Lilius Gyraldus, and Fabricius, bring all the telimonies they can for it being writ by Hefiod; but none of them amount to a proof. Fabricius gives us the opinion of Tabaquil Faber, in these words: I am much fur. prised that this should formerly have been, and is now, a matter of difpute; thofe who fuppofe the Shield not to be of Hefiod, have a very flender knowledge of the Greek poetry. This is only the judgment of one man against a number, and that founded on no authority. I know not what could induce Tanaquil Faber fo confidently to alfert this, which looks, if I may use the expreffion, like a fort of bullying a perfon into his opinion, by forcing him into the dreadful apprehenfion of being thought no judge of Greek poetry, if he will not come in: I fay, I know not what could induce him to affert this, for there is no manner of fimilitude to the other works of our poet: and here I must call in question the judgment of AristophaEes, and of fuch as have followed him, for fupPing it to be an imitation of the Shield of Achilles The whole poem confifts of four hundred and four fccre verses; of which the defcription of the Shield is but one hundred and four fcore: in this delcription are fome fimilar paffages to that of Achilles, but not fufficient to justify that opinion: there are likewife a few lines the fame in both; but after a strict examination, they may poffibly pear as much to the difadvantage of Homer, as to the author of this poem. The other parts have 1.0 affinity to any book in the two poems of Ho. mer. The poet begins with a beautiful defcrip... tion of the perfon of Alcmena, her love to Amphitrycn, and her amour with Jupiter; from thence be proceeds to the characters of Hercules and Iphicius, and goes on regularly to the death of Cygnus, which concludes the poem; with many other particulars, which, as I faid before, have no relation to any part of Homer. Among the writ ings of our poet which were loft, we have the tities of Ismaizes, or Hruidwv, Karaλoyes, and of rovarτων Καταλογος, or Home Μεγαλαι: both thefe titles are likely to belong but to one poem, and to that which Suidas mentions, the Catalogue of Heroic Women, in five books: that he compofed fuch a work, is probable, from the two laft verfes of the Theogony, and it being often mentioned by ancient writers: we have an account of another poem, under the title of Howyou, the Generation of Heroes. The favourers of the Shield of Hercu les would have that poem received as a fragment of one of thefe; and all that Le Clerc fays in defence of it, is, fince Hercules was the most famous of heroes, it is not abfurd to imagine the Shield to be a part of the Hewyana, though it is handed down to us as a diftinét work; and yet it is but a fragment of it. Thus we fee all their arguments, both for it being genuine, and a fragment of another poem, are but conjectures. I think they ught not to fufpect it a part of another work, unlefs they could tell when, where, or by whom, the title was changed. It is certainly a very ancient piece, and well worth the notice of men of genius. 6. Poems which are loft. Befides the pieces juft mentioned, we find the following catalogue in Fabricius attributed to Hefiod, but now loft. Παραίνεσις, οι υποθήκαι χειρώνες. This was concerning the education of Achilles under Chir n; which Ariftophanes, in one of his comedies, banters as the work of Hefiod.. Μελαμπόδια, οι εις τον Μαντιν Μελαμποδα: a po em on divination. The title is fuppofed to be took from Melanipus, an ancient phyfician, faid to be fkilled in divination by birds. Part of this work is commended by Athenæus, book 13. Αερονομια μεγάλη, or Ατρικη βιβλος : a treatife of aftronomy. Pliny fays, according to Heliod, in whofe name we have a book of aftrology extant, the early fetting of the Pleiades is about the end of the autumn equinox. Notwithstanding this quotation, Fabricius tells us, that Athenæus and Pliny, in fome other place, have given us reafon to believe they thought the poem of aftronomy fuppofititious. Επικήδειος εις Βατραχυν. This is mentioned by Suidas, with the addition of a squμsvor QUTS, a funeral fong on Batrachus, whom he loved. Περι Ιδαίων Δακτυλων. This was of the Idzi Dactyli, who, lays Pliny, in his feventh book, are recorded by Hefiod as difcoverers of iron in Crete. This is likewife in the catalogue of Suidas. Επιθαλάμιος Πελέως και Θετίδος : an epithalami um on the marriage ef Puleus and Thetis; two veries of which are in the Prolegomena of Ifaac Tzetzes to Lycophron. Inside This book of geography is mentioned by Strabo. Arys: a poem on one Ægimus. This, Atheræus tells us, was writ by chod or Cecrops; a wretch, whofe name is now remembered only for being to Hefiod what Zoilu. was to Homer. Θησέως εις τον αίδην κατάβασις : the defcent of Thefeus into hell. This is attributed to Hefied, by Paufanias, in his Becotics. Επη μαντικά και εξηγήσεις επι τέρασιν: on pro phecies, or divination, with an expolition of pro |