The Poems of Hesiod
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the Erinyes helped in the birth of Oath, whom Strife bore as an affliction
for the perjurer.679
On the seventh of the midmonth, inspect the sacred
grain of Demeter, and winnow it very well on the well-rolled threshing
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floor. Let the woodcutter cut beams for the bedroom and many planks
for a boat, ones suitable for boats. On the fourth, begin to build slender
boats. The ninth day of midmonth is better toward evening,
but the first ninth is wholly harmless for human beings: good both
for man and woman to be conceived or to be born. It is never an entirely
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bad day.
Few know that the thrice-ninth day of the month is best
for opening the storage jar and for placing a yoke on the neck of oxen
and mules and swift-footed horses, and for hauling a swift ship
with many benches into the wine-dark sea—few call things truthfully!
On the fourth day of the midmonth, open the storage jar. Above all
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others it is a holy day. And again, few know that the twenty-first
day of the month is best when it is morning; toward evening it is the worst.
These days are a great advantage for men on earth, but the others
are indifferent, without advantage, and bring nothing. One man praises
one day; another praises another; but few really know. Sometimes a day
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is a stepmother; sometimes, a mother.696 That man is happy and rich who
knows all these things and does his work without offense to the deathless
ones, observing the omens of birds and avoiding transgression.698
Introduction to The Shield of Herakles
Tradition has assigned The Shield of Herakles to Hesiod, but the main part of the poem is not his composition. The poem seems to be a pastiche originating in the sixth century B.C. Probably the first fifty-six lines are in fact by Hesiod, or at least by the composer of The Catalogue of Women, because papyrus finds prove these lines to be from The Catalogue; they are the longest surviving portion of The Catalogue. But the rest of the Shield must have been composed by someone else, probably someone from THEBES, in BOEOTIA, involved in the politics surrounding the famous so-called First Sacred War (595–591 B.C.), in which a league of Greek tribes defeated those who controlled the Oracle of Apollo at DELPHI.
The portion of the Shield taken from The Catalogue of Women tells the story of Zeus’s attraction to Alkmenê, the wife of Amphitryon, the son of Alkaios. Amphitryon was the king of TIRYNS, near MYCENAE in the plain of ARGOS. The story is rather complicated (see Chart 20). After Amphitryon accidentally killed his father-in-law Elektryon, king of Mycenae, in a dispute over some cattle, Amphitryon fled Tiryns with Alkmenê, Elektryon’s daughter. The couple went north across the Isthmus of CORINTH to seven-gated Thebes in Boeotia. But Alkmenê would not sleep with her husband until he had avenged the death of her brothers, killed in a battle with the Taphians and Teleboans, peoples from an island probably in north-western Greece. After defeating the Taphians and Teleboans in company with peoples from LOCRIS and PHOCIS, territories west of Boeotia, Amphitryon returned to Thebes, but on the same night Zeus came to Alkmenê’s bed in the guise of Amphitryon, displaying the spoils he had supposedly taken in battle against the Teleboans and Taphians. Then, soon after, Amphitryon presented himself to her, also displaying spoils, to Alkmenê’s great consternation. In this way Alkmenê became pregnant in the same night with twin sons: Iphiklês, the son of Amphitryon, and Herakles, the son of Zeus.
The story, with all its comic potential, is well known from the Amphitruo, a play by the Roman comic playwright Plautus (ca. 254–ca. 184 B.C.), and it was extremely popular throughout the Middle Ages. It was the first Plautine play to be translated into English. In France, Jean Giraudoux produced in 1929 an Amphitryon 38, supposedly referring to the number of times that the story had been rewritten for the stage. Since then there have been several adaptations for stage and screen.
After the excerpt from The Catalogue of Women describing the birth of Herakles, the Shield tells the story of Herakles’ encounter with the Thessalian bandit Kyknos, who waylaid pilgrims traveling to Apollo’s shrine at Delphi. Kyknos means “swan,” reminding us of Herakles’ contest with the Stymphalian Birds, one of his legendary twelve labors.
Herakles is traveling south in his chariot (not his usual mode of transport) with his nephew Iolaos, the son of Iphiklês, to TRACHIS just west of the westernmost tip of the island of EUBOEA, on the mainland. The purpose of his trip is never stated. Trachis was the home of Kyknos’ wife, Themistonoê, and her family: her father, Keux, and his wife, Alcyonê. Trachis lay at the foot of MOUNT OETA, where Herakles was later to end his life. On their way south, the heroic pair stop at PAGASAI, the port of Thessaly near the city of IOLKOS, from where Jason set out in his search for the Golden Fleece.
There, at a shrine to Apollo, the god of Delphi, they encounter Kyknos, a son of Ares. Herakles asks Kyknos to let his chariot pass, but the brigand refuses, and a fight breaks out. Athena appears and instructs Herakles not to take Kyknos’ armor as spoils and to strike Ares, present at the battle, with his spear if he should attack. Herakles needs first, however, to put on his own armor, providing the poem its main theme, a poetic “digression” (ekphrasis) on the fantastic shield of Herakles.
Herakles now slays Kyknos, but his father, Ares, casts his spear. Athena, Herakles’ divine protector, intervenes, stopping the spear. Herakles then stabs Ares in the thigh. While Ares’ sons Fear (Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) carry the wounded war god to OLYMPOS, Herakles and Iolaos strip Kyknos of his armor (despite Athena’s instructions). Herakles and Iolaos then continue their journey to Trachis, where Kyknos’ father-in-law, Keux, celebrates magnificent funeral games in honor of the slain Kyknos. Apollo, still angry at Kyknos for his depredations, causes the river Anauros, near Trachis, to overflow its banks and wash away Kyknos’ grave. The poem ends.
The main body of The Shield of Herakles is the ekphrasis on Herakles’ shield, a dramatic description of a visual work of art. It is either based on, or in the same oral tradition, as Homer’s elaborate description of the shield of Achilles in the Iliad (18.478–608). The shield of Herakles is the work of the craftsman god Hephaistos, in gold, silver, bronze, iron, and lapis lazuli (a dark blue stone from Afghanistan), portraying such allegorical and horrifying figures as Fear, Strife, and dreadful Fate; savage wild animals like lions and boars; famous bloody battles like that between the Thessalian tribe of Lapiths and the furry centaurs; and pictures of the gods—Ares, the father of Kyknos, and Athena, both of whom take part in the fight to come, and Apollo, god of song, and the Muses. There is also a pastoral scene with a fisherman, a picture of Perseus and the Gorgons, and a fight around a seven-gated city, which can only be Thebes. In the city is revelry, dance, song, and a merry wedding. There are also scenes of farming, harvesting, winemaking, and a contest for a tripod: These are the activities of peace, which stand in contrast with the preceding phantasmagorical visions. Around the whole runs the river Ocean.
Elaborate shields with representations of allegorical beings and wild animals did actually exist in ancient Greece, but nothing so elaborate as is described in The Shield of Herakles, a martial poem reminiscent of the Iliad. The ghastly beings on the shield are like the demons of death that Herakles overcame in his career, and the city at peace stands for the benefits that he brought to humankind through his valor. Some critics have found fault with the Shield’s extravagance, its exaggerated and baroque descriptions, but it is an exciting description by a poet with a fine imagination, a stirring tribute to Greece’s mightiest hero.
Around 565 B.C. the battle between Herakles and the brigand Kyknos becomes extremely popular on Athenian pottery (see fig. 23), with about 120 surviving representations dated between 565 and 480 B.C. The First Sacred War, t
o which the poem seems to refer obliquely, was fought between the Amphictyonic League—that is, the “league of neighbors”—and the fortified city of KIRRHA (or Crisa), on the GULF OF CORINTH, where pilgrims landed who came by sea to consult the Oracle. The strategic location of Kirrha allowed the city to rob pilgrims, to extort high taxes from them, and even to take possession of lands belonging to the Oracle high on the slopes of MOUNT PARNASSOS.
Many tribes participated in the Amphictyonic League, but the Thessalians were dominant. The league besieged Kirrha between 595 B.C. and 591 B.C. (according to traditional dating), utterly destroyed it and its inhabitants, and dedicated its lands to Apollo, Leto, and Artemis. Henceforward these lands could not be cultivated or used for pasture. The first Pythian Games were organized in 582 B.C. to celebrate victory in the war (fig. 19).
The political organization within the Amphictyonic League was loose. Antagonism arose between the Theban and Thessalian contingents about who would control Delphi after the war, a hostility evidently reflected in the poem by the conflict between the Theban hero Herakles and the Thessalian brigand Kyknos, each a rival for Apollo’s sponsorship. Although Kyknos prays to Apollo for success against Herakles, the god rejects him. After all, Herakles, the son of Zeus, is brother to Apollo, who sent Herakles against Kyknos. Poseidon, too, the father of Herakles’ fabulous steed, Arion, favors Thebes and supports Herakles. Kyknos, adversary of the Theban Herakles, had been robbing pilgrims to Delphi, just as did the citizens of Kirrha. Kyknos is an intruder, a marauder, who preys on the pilgrims to Delphi, and so is condemned to destruction.
If this reconstruction of the background of the poem is correct, the poem may have been composed (except for the preexisting portion from The Catalogue of Women) around 590 B.C. by a Theban or pro-Theban singer and performed at Thebes. Thebes had an important shrine to Herakles and Iolaos, around which were celebrated Thebes’ most famous athletic games, the Iolaia, making sense of the description on Herakles’ shield of scenes of boxing, wrestling, and chariot racing outside the walls of a seven-gated city.
The Shield is evidently an oral poem, like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Someone must have taken it down by dictation; then, later—say around 565 B.C.—someone combined it with a portion excerpted from The Catalogue of Women, also originally an oral poem, and used this portion as a proem to a song about Herakles. Once the poem existed as a text, it was circulated, memorized, and reperformed in Athenian symposia, inspiring the many pots on its theme. At least that is our best conjecture about the poem’s origin and early history.
Figure 19. The theater and some reconstructed columns of the Temple of Apollo, Delphi. The oracle was located on the precipitous slopes of Mount Parnassos. The theater dates from the fourth century B.C., though it was many times remodeled in later years. Above it was located the running track and the site of the famous Pythian Games. At the top of the photograph can be seen the valley that leads, to the right and out of the picture, to the Corinthian Gulf. Kirrha must have been near the gulf, although its exact location has never been determined. (Photo: Runner1928; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Delphi_Greece_%2815%29.jpg)
The Shield of Herakles
Or like her1 who left her house and the land of her fathers
and went to THEBES, following the warrior Amphitryon
—Alkmenê, the daughter of Elektryon,3 rouser of the host.
She surpassed the tribe of tender women in appearance and stature.
No one outshone her in mind of those whom mortal women
5
had borne after bedding with mortal men. From her head and from
her dark eyebrows breathed such charm as comes from golden
Aphrodite. And she honored her husband in her heart as no other
tender woman ever did.
True, he had murdered her noble father,
attacking him with violence, angry because of some cattle.
10
Leaving the land of his fathers, he had come to Thebes as suppliant
to the shield-bearing Kadmeians.12 There he lived in a mansion
with his modest wife, but abstaining from joyous lovemaking; for he was
not allowed to go into the bed of the fine-ankled daughter of Elektryon
before he avenged the murder of his wife’s brave brothers, and burned
15
with raging fire the villages of the heroic Taphians and the Teleboans.16
This was how it was settled for him, and the gods were witness.
Genealogical Chart 20. The Descendants of Perseus and Andromeda
He feared their wrath, and he hastened to accomplish
this great task as soon as possible, which Zeus had ordained
upon him. With him went the horse-driving Boeotians, longing
20
for war and the battle cry, panting over their shields, and the Locrians
who fight hand-to-hand, and the great-hearted Phocians
followed along.23 The noble son of Alkaios commanded them,
exulting in his host.
But the father of men and gods wove
another design in his mind, how he might fashion for gods
25
and wheat-eating men a protector against disaster. He arose
from OLYMPOS by night, pondering a deception in his spirit,
longing for sex with a fine-waisted woman. Quickly he came
to Typhaonion, and from there Zeus the Counselor
trod the peak of Mount Phikion.30 Taking his seat, he planned
30
wondrous deeds in his heart. On that very night he slept with
the slender-ankled daughter of Elektryon; he fulfilled his desire.
In the same night Amphitryon, rouser of the host, the shining
hero, having accomplished his great task,34 came to his house.
Nor did he rush to visit his slaves and his rustic shepherds
35
before going up to the bed of his wife—so great a desire
took hold of the heart of the shepherd of the people!
As when
a man has joyfully escaped evil, either a grievous disease
or strong bondage, so did Amphitryon, having accomplished
his hard task, eagerly and happily arrive at his house.
40
All night long he bedded his respected wife, taking delight
in the gifts of golden Aphrodite. And she, overpowered both
by a god and a man who was by far the best in Thebes
of the seven gates, gave birth to twin boys, not at all alike
in their minds, although they were brothers. One was worse,
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and the other was by far the better man, terrible and strong,
the mighty Herakles. She bore him by submitting to the son
of Kronos, lord of the dark clouds; and the other, Iphiklês,
by submitting to spear-shaking Amphitryon—distinct offspring,
the one by mingling with a mortal man, the other with Zeus,
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the son of Kronos, commander of all the gods.
Herakles killed
Kyknos, the great-spirited son of Ares. For he found him
in the precinct of the far-darter, Apollo, him and his father, Ares,
insatiate for war. Their armor shone like a flame of blazing
fire as they stood in their chariot. Their swift horses struck
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the ground, pawing it with their hooves, and the dust blazed
up around them, pounded by the plaited chariots and the feet
of the horses. The well-made chariot and its railings rattled
around them as the horses reared.
The noble Kyknos was glad,
hoping to kill with the bronze the warlike son of Zeus
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and his charioteer, and strip their famous armor. But Phoibos
Apollo did not listen to his boasting, for he hims
elf had roused
up the mighty Herakles against him. The entire woods and the altar
of Pagasaian64 Apollo shone from the terrible god’s armor
and from the god himself, and his eyes flashed like fire.
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What mortal would have dared to go against Kyknos except
Herakles and brave Iolaos?67 For great was their strength,
and invincible the arms that grew from their shoulders
on their mighty limbs.
Then Herakles spoke to his charioteer,
the powerful Iolaos: “O Iolaos, hero, by far the most beloved
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