HESIODUS of Ascra, a celebrated poet, the son of Dius and Pycimede, of whose life and character history has left us very few particulars on which dependence can be placed. His father was a native of Cumae, in Aeolis, where he seems to have lived in the greatest indigence. Anxious to improve his circumstances, he emigrated with his son Perses to Ascra, a small village of Boeotia, at the foot of Mount Helicon, and there it would appear that Hesiod was born. The early years of the poet were spent in the mountains of Boeotia, in the humble capacity of a shepherd; and how he acquired the learning which he displays in his poetry, we have no means of discovering. On the death of his father, he engaged in a law-suit with his brother respecting the property left by his father; and he speaks with great contempt and bitterness of the dishonest conduct pursued by the judges of Ascra. They gave judgment against him, and in consequence of this he left his native city. He probably retired to the country of the Locri Ozolae, where, at last, he met with a tragical end. It so happened that Demodes of Miletus, a friend of Hesiod, ill treated Climene, the daughter of the Locrian with whom Hesiod was residing; and as her brothers Ainphiphanes and Ganyctor believed the poet to be accessory to, if not an active partner in, the disgraceful transaction, they put him to death on the spot where they overtook him. Hesiod had been ordered by an oracle to avoid Nemea, as likely to prove fatal to him, which the poet naturally imagined to allude to the city of that name in the Peloponnesus; but the true meaning of the oracle was discovered by his being slain in the porticoof the temple of the Nemean Jupiter, near Oeneon, within the territory of Naupactus. His body had been thrown into the sea, but being recovered in an extraordinary manner, was buried within the precincts of the temple. It was afterwards transferred to Orchomenos by order of an oracle, to avert a plague which afflicted the inhabitants of that city.

The period during which he flourished was a point disputed by the ancients, and we have no facts of a later date which can enable us to come to a correct conclusion. He is described by Herodotus as contemporary with Homer; and this must have been the tradition followed by the author of the contest between Hesiod and Homer, in which the former is supposed to gain the victory. Vellei us Paterculus represents him as having lived more than a century after Homer, whilst others have endeavoured to prove that he preceded that poet.

Of the numerous works attributed to Hesiod only three have been preserved, and these not in the most perfect state. The Works and Days is considered as the most valuable, not so much from its own intrinsic merit, as from having suggested to Virgil the idea of the Georgies; and to it also we are indebted for the description of the five ages, and the fable of Pandora. It contains at the beginning a collection of moral maxims and wise saws, and then proceeds to give some superficial hints on agriculture, on the proper season for each work, and on the construction of vessels; it closes with many puerile observations, and with an account of some superstitious practices. This was the only worker Hesiod which the Boeotians allowed to be authentic, and it was regarded with such veneration that they had it engraved on a leaden tablet, which they showed to Pausanias. The Theogonia is a didactic poem on the generation of the gods, and is curious as being the most ancient account of the Greek mythology. To it we probably owe the Metamorphoses of Ovid. The Aspes of Hercules contains an account of a battle between that hero and Cyenus, and derives its title from the shield having been made by Vulcan. It is ascribed to Hesiod by Athenaeus, though probably without any sufficient reason. There are many other works quoted by the ancients, but not even a fragment of them has been preserved. Many editions of the works of Hesiod have been published, but the best are those of Gaisford, Oxford, 1814-1820; Dindorf, Leipsic, 1825; and Gottlingius, Gotha, 1831.