10 h 21 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What connects the birth of the gods with the right time to sow a field?
Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica brings together early Greek poetry about gods, work and justice. In the Theogony, Hesiod tells how the gods come into being. In Works and Days, he addresses his brother Perses over a disputed inheritance, bringing questions of fairness close to the soil and the farming year.
The Homeric Hymns praise the gods through story, while the Homerica preserves fragments and summaries of epics about Troy and Thebes. Rather than one continuous plot, you find songs, catalogues and surviving pieces. Together, they offer roots of the stories that later Greek poets, playwrights and philosophers draw upon.
What you’ll discover
- Gods and their beginnings Enter the Theogony’s world of divine origins, where Rhea hides the infant Zeus from Cronus.
- Justice close to home Follow Hesiod’s appeal to Perses, where a family inheritance raises questions about fairness and work.
- A farmer’s watchful year Discover advice on plowing, sowing and reaping, with the stars marking the time for each task.
- Praise shaped into stories Explore the Homeric Hymns, songs to gods once sung before longer recitals.
- Beyond the familiar epics Find fragments and summaries that extend the stories of Troy, Thebes and their heroes’ homecomings.
Is it for you?
This is for readers who love myth, early poetry, or the roots of Western stories, and for anyone who wants the source behind familiar names. It may suit you less if you want a single plot, since much here is catalogue, hymn and fragment.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Hesiod sings the birth of the gods
- Zeus wins and sets the world's order
- Works and Days teaches work, justice and the seasons
- The farming year and the practical advice
- The Homeric Hymns praise the gods in story
- The Homerica and the fragments fill in the rest
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- Large print hardcover
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Hésiode, les Hymnes homériques et les Homerica
by Hésiode
Greek poems tell of gods, heroes, farming, and justice.
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Language: Français
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
Hesiod sings the birth of the gods
The Theogony is the first of Hesiod's poems, and it is about origins. The poet says the Muses met him while he tended sheep on Mount Helicon and gave him the gift of song. That scene sets the claim of the whole poem: what follows comes from beings who know the truth. Then the Muses themselves are praised, and the poem moves back to the beginning of all things.
First comes Chaos, a gap or yawning space. Then Gaia, the Earth, appears, along with dark Tartarus below and Eros, the force of desire. From Gaia comes Uranus, the Sky, and together they bring forth the Titans, the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants. Night, Day and many other powers follow in long family lines. Hesiod does not hurry, because the lists are the point: every power in the world has a parentage.
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What is Hesiod's Theogony about?
It tells how the world and the gods came into being, from Chaos and Earth through the Titans to the rule of Zeus. It is told as a long family tree broken by stories of struggle and war.
What are the Homeric Hymns?
They are thirty-three songs to Greek gods such as Demeter, Apollo, Hermes and Aphrodite. Though named for Homer, scholars think they were composed by many poets. Singers used them as openers to longer recitals and festival songs.
What is the Homerica?
It is the name for the remains of early Greek epics outside the Iliad and Odyssey, called the Epic Cycle. These poems told the rest of the Trojan and Theban stories, but survive mostly in fragments and summaries.
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