Hesiod: Theogony

Hesiod was and is regarded as one of the founding figures of Greek literature and culture, alongside Homer, and his Theogony is the first extant attempt to give an account of the whole, of the gods and of the cosmos, how it came to be, from what, and how it achieved its present state. Strong parallels can be identified between it and various myths and texts from the ancient Near East. Moreover, it was highly influential on subsequent Greek and Latin literature and philosophy. This, the first modern commentary in over half a century, includes all the necessary linguistic, textual, metrical, and literary material that will allow students to understand and enjoy the Theogony and its place in the literary tradition. It is intended primarily for advanced undergraduates and graduate students but will also be considered valuable by scholars of Greek literature and thought.

Author Biography

JENNY STRAUSS CLAY is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Classics emerita at the University of Virginia. Her publications include The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey (1983), The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns (1989), Hesiod’s Cosmos (Cambridge, 2003), Homer’s Trojan Theater (Cambridge, 2011), and numerous articles on Greek and Roman poetry. ATHANASSIOS VERGADOS is Professor of Greek at Newcastle University. His publications include A Commentary on the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (2013), Hesiod’s Verbal Craft: Studies in Hesiod’s Conception of Language and its Ancient Reception (2020), as well as numerous journal articles and book-chapters on various topics ranging from archaic poetry to Imperial Greek literature and documentary papyrology.