1 00:00:04,083 --> 00:00:09,055 Who is Hesiod? We know a little bit more about him than 2 00:00:09,055 --> 00:00:12,044 we do about Homer. For Homer, mostly knew just nothing. 3 00:00:12,044 --> 00:00:17,003 We were trying to extract from his own work, ways we can maybe get a grip on what 4 00:00:17,003 --> 00:00:20,081 his identity is all about. Hesiod actually tells us in his poetry who 5 00:00:20,081 --> 00:00:23,032 he is. There's some more details that come out, 6 00:00:23,048 --> 00:00:27,514 we can extract some information from the Theogony, but they're more useful one is 7 00:00:27,514 --> 00:00:31,546 from the poem we're not reading for this class called the Works and Days where 8 00:00:31,546 --> 00:00:34,058 Hesiod talks about himself and his brother. 9 00:00:34,075 --> 00:00:38,041 Hesiod we know lived in central Greece in the eighth century B.C.E. 10 00:00:38,041 --> 00:00:41,844 His father came from the city of [unknown], on the coast of Asia Minor, 11 00:00:41,844 --> 00:00:45,097 over across the Aegean, in modern day Turkey. 12 00:00:45,097 --> 00:00:51,011 His father had been a merchant seaman, but it was difficult to make ends meet. 13 00:00:51,011 --> 00:00:56,018 So, he went to Ascra, a small village on the eastern side of Mount Helicon, in 14 00:00:56,018 --> 00:01:01,019 Boeotia, in central Greece, across the Mediterranean or across the Aegean from 15 00:01:01,019 --> 00:01:04,032 Turkey. He made a living at farming, we think. 16 00:01:04,032 --> 00:01:07,049 There, Hesiod and his brother, Perses, were born. 17 00:01:07,049 --> 00:01:10,061 Hesiod becomes a poet from the muses themselves. 18 00:01:10,061 --> 00:01:14,781 He says that, they actually come down from Mount Helicon and, and instructed. 19 00:01:14,781 --> 00:01:20,380 So, the Muse's association with this mountain grows out of Hesiod claiming to 20 00:01:20,380 --> 00:01:25,809 have been inspired at that point. On Mount Helicon, he was busy tending 21 00:01:25,809 --> 00:01:29,590 flocks of lambs. When they came over he was blown away and 22 00:01:29,590 --> 00:01:33,300 changed. He is as feted as a poet in antiquity as 23 00:01:33,300 --> 00:01:37,366 Homer was. For some people, after reading the two of 24 00:01:37,366 --> 00:01:40,948 them they think to themselves, that's hard to imagine. 25 00:01:40,948 --> 00:01:46,479 Well, I think some of it comes with he, Homer being a master of a poetic form 26 00:01:46,479 --> 00:01:49,879 using the narrative as a way to really drive the story. 27 00:01:49,879 --> 00:01:55,229 He's master of something that most of us, I think, probably still relate to which is 28 00:01:55,229 --> 00:01:59,690 a great narrative story. Hesiod is master in a different way of 29 00:01:59,690 --> 00:02:03,396 what the epic is possible, what is possible within an epic. 30 00:02:03,396 --> 00:02:07,828 And, I think, it's up to us to us to get inside that story and figure out, you 31 00:02:07,828 --> 00:02:12,086 know, why is this one, one they thought was so prominent and important. 32 00:02:12,086 --> 00:02:17,242 We hear in his Works and Days, as I said, that we're not going to be reading for 33 00:02:17,242 --> 00:02:20,659 this course. A lot of useful kinds of information, he 34 00:02:20,659 --> 00:02:25,057 has a kind of practical-minded side that shows through in the Works and Days. 35 00:02:25,057 --> 00:02:29,913 It almost reads actually like an almanac. Tells you the best times of year to do 36 00:02:29,913 --> 00:02:33,848 certain kinds of things, sailing, farming, fishing, trading. 37 00:02:33,848 --> 00:02:38,936 And it also talks to you about, wisdom that could help you negotiate through your 38 00:02:38,936 --> 00:02:42,529 day to day life. And from a position in society that was 39 00:02:42,529 --> 00:02:47,757 not of grand importance, Hesiod is not talking down from on high, you, in a way 40 00:02:47,757 --> 00:02:53,001 that Homer sometimes seemed to. Hesiod, instead, can relate to human 41 00:02:53,001 --> 00:02:58,394 beings the way that, we all, need to take care of what is necessary in our lives for 42 00:02:58,394 --> 00:03:04,000 keeping track of food and our trade relationships and our fishing and our 43 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,026 sailing. But then also, he shows himself to have a 44 00:03:07,026 --> 00:03:12,010 pretty powerful eye when it comes to trying to figure how the whole universe 45 00:03:12,010 --> 00:03:15,410 itself works not just the practical questions of human life. 46 00:03:15,410 --> 00:03:18,733 And it's in the theogony, that we get that story. 47 00:03:18,733 --> 00:03:23,262 The theogony, some myth classes would actually start with that because it's a 48 00:03:23,262 --> 00:03:25,695 creation myth and it seems to be intuitive. 49 00:03:25,695 --> 00:03:29,739 Well, creation myths should be at the beginning of mythic traditions. 50 00:03:29,739 --> 00:03:34,978 I don't think that's probably necessarily, intuitive with respect to the Greek and 51 00:03:34,978 --> 00:03:39,071 Roman material. And again, it actually makes a little more 52 00:03:39,071 --> 00:03:44,497 sense to talk about something else first, so that's why we started off with The 53 00:03:44,497 --> 00:03:48,122 Odyssey. And Hesiod's story, I think is part of a 54 00:03:48,122 --> 00:03:53,483 larger, collection of these, epic tales, but it does not have a, a, an obvious 55 00:03:53,483 --> 00:03:58,062 privacy because it's subject matter, is the creation of the world. 56 00:03:58,062 --> 00:04:02,715 Homer and Hesiad, both, take that role of priority among the rest. 57 00:04:02,715 --> 00:04:07,817 To get started on his story, Hesiod engages in something that's a little 58 00:04:07,817 --> 00:04:12,461 strange with respect to Homer. He doesn't jump right into the middle of 59 00:04:12,461 --> 00:04:15,592 the story. He doesn't follow Homer's convention of 60 00:04:15,592 --> 00:04:20,817 building the whole epic into the first word, and into the first line, and the 61 00:04:20,817 --> 00:04:24,418 first ten lines. Instead, he starts off with a long, over 62 00:04:24,418 --> 00:04:28,309 100 line, hymn to the muses. He praises them and talks about what 63 00:04:28,309 --> 00:04:32,368 wonderful creatures they are. When we move on to hymns, in fact, next 64 00:04:32,368 --> 00:04:35,205 week, that'll be our subject matter for next week. 65 00:04:35,205 --> 00:04:39,434 We're looking at the Homeric hyms. We're going to see that Hesiod's opening 66 00:04:39,434 --> 00:04:44,428 of his epic actually fits the form of what a hymn is supposed to be, pretty directly. 67 00:04:44,428 --> 00:04:48,232 We have a personal relationship expressed with the, with the muses. 68 00:04:48,232 --> 00:04:50,719 He praises them. Talks, sings their praises. 69 00:04:50,719 --> 00:04:55,785 At the end, he, at the end of his near over, just over 100 line introductory part 70 00:04:55,785 --> 00:04:59,041 where he's praising them, he says goodbye to them. 71 00:04:59,059 --> 00:05:04,836 We'll see that, that happens as a normal part of epic of, of, of, of [inaudible] 72 00:05:04,836 --> 00:05:07,816 hymns. So, he's positioned himself as a way to 73 00:05:07,816 --> 00:05:14,036 get inside a story, but he's going to get inside a story through the muses and 74 00:05:14,036 --> 00:05:18,032 through giving ample and abundant praise to them. 75 00:05:18,053 --> 00:05:24,065 He sings about their role in the cosmos, talks about what their special skills and 76 00:05:24,065 --> 00:05:30,642 purview are, and then that farewell ends with him, his relation or his, treatment 77 00:05:30,642 --> 00:05:34,667 of them on page six. So, spending a little bit of time, getting 78 00:05:34,667 --> 00:05:40,210 to know what these muses are, and what Hesiod has in mind with them, is a very 79 00:05:40,210 --> 00:05:45,669 beneficial way for us to get going. Homer has a single muse, a nameless one 80 00:05:45,669 --> 00:05:49,525 and it inspires him. He becomes a conduit for that muse. 81 00:05:49,525 --> 00:05:54,545 Hesiod has more, a more fleshed out picture of what the muses are and what 82 00:05:54,545 --> 00:05:58,506 they do. They give us a, give him a chance to have 83 00:05:58,506 --> 00:06:02,798 a fascinating meditation on what poetry's all about. 84 00:06:02,798 --> 00:06:09,531 There are this collective group of three of them that get inside of his head and 85 00:06:09,531 --> 00:06:13,513 give him insight. They let him see past, present, and 86 00:06:13,513 --> 00:06:17,077 future. He can see forward, he can see the now, 87 00:06:17,077 --> 00:06:22,185 and he can see backward. He has a synoptic overview of things, that 88 00:06:22,185 --> 00:06:25,717 is reasonably compared, to a prophetic insight. 89 00:06:25,717 --> 00:06:32,714 He's like an inspired prophet in the way that he has knowledge of, of, that expands 90 00:06:32,714 --> 00:06:38,834 much beyond, what yours and mine does. Poets are there in order to see things 91 00:06:38,834 --> 00:06:44,084 that normal human beings can't and then to record them and pass them on. 92 00:06:44,084 --> 00:06:48,940 Poets recover past events, and then they immortalize them for the future. 93 00:06:48,940 --> 00:06:53,333 He also has mentions a relationship between the muses and kingship, or 94 00:06:53,333 --> 00:06:56,761 leadership. The muses give you the power to be a good 95 00:06:56,761 --> 00:06:59,518 king. And why is it that the same things that 96 00:06:59,518 --> 00:07:02,849 inspire great poetic insight also inspire kingship? 97 00:07:02,849 --> 00:07:08,740 It could be that what Hesiod wants to do is talk about poets as being in the same 98 00:07:08,740 --> 00:07:12,410 league as people that call the shots in a political context. 99 00:07:12,410 --> 00:07:16,428 So, it could be him kind of elevating the status of, of the poet. 100 00:07:16,428 --> 00:07:21,435 But I think the idea of a poet-ruler, a poet-king, has enough cultural traction 101 00:07:21,435 --> 00:07:26,520 over the long sweep of history to suggest that there's a, more than just a, a kind 102 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,321 of, strategic relationship between these two. 103 00:07:29,321 --> 00:07:34,513 In other words, more than just a poet kind of trying to grab the authority of a 104 00:07:34,513 --> 00:07:37,717 politician by comparing himself to, to that leader. 105 00:07:37,717 --> 00:07:42,489 Instead, I think there's a sense in Hesiod that this grand synoptic vision of the 106 00:07:42,489 --> 00:07:45,024 world is really important, for lots of things. 107 00:07:45,024 --> 00:07:49,190 Yeah, surely it's important if you want to sing songs about all the knowledge that's 108 00:07:49,190 --> 00:07:51,690 around us. But, there's a perspective, I think, that 109 00:07:51,690 --> 00:07:55,758 you get with the synoptic view of something that is irreplaceable. 110 00:07:55,758 --> 00:08:01,306 It is much more important than just simply knowing this factoid, that factoid, all 111 00:08:01,306 --> 00:08:06,227 the discrete little pieces of knowledge that you can imagine in the world having a 112 00:08:06,227 --> 00:08:11,465 large purview, is something that is deeply valuable, and actually, goes into what 113 00:08:11,465 --> 00:08:15,464 makes an effective ruler, what makes an effective leader. 114 00:08:15,464 --> 00:08:19,894 From Hesiod and others, we know that that's important, having an effective 115 00:08:19,894 --> 00:08:22,037 ruler. And that that's not what acknowledges part 116 00:08:22,037 --> 00:08:25,090 of what makes that person effective. The way it effects the person is that it 117 00:08:25,090 --> 00:08:29,001 makes the person better, with respect to making judgments of fairness. 118 00:08:29,001 --> 00:08:33,041 The world is complex, things get out of, out of whack, they get out of kilter. 119 00:08:33,041 --> 00:08:37,897 And in order to try to solve this stuff, you have to appeal to people's basic 120 00:08:37,897 --> 00:08:40,475 notions of fairness. That's a tricky thing. 121 00:08:40,475 --> 00:08:45,001 There's an intuitive sense of fairness yes, but we trust some other people's 122 00:08:45,001 --> 00:08:50,453 judgment about fairness more than, some people's judgment about fairness more than 123 00:08:50,453 --> 00:08:53,451 others. Hesiod tells us it has a connection with 124 00:08:53,451 --> 00:08:56,865 that thing that makes poets able to a sing about anything. 125 00:08:56,865 --> 00:09:00,651 A depth of knowledge. So, the poets also, are learning from 126 00:09:00,651 --> 00:09:05,953 muses that we here can sing truth and they can also sing lies, either one. 127 00:09:05,953 --> 00:09:12,188 So, from the muses themselves, we harken back to our opening definition of myth in 128 00:09:12,188 --> 00:09:15,335 this class. Remember, we said it was impossible to 129 00:09:15,335 --> 00:09:19,082 rule any of these things out. Some claim that it's a lie. 130 00:09:19,098 --> 00:09:22,080 By definition, myth means something that is not true. 131 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:26,097 Other people claim that by definition myth is an ultimate and profound truth. 132 00:09:26,097 --> 00:09:30,769 Well, right here, you know, [inaudible] page one of Western poetry, Hesiod puts 133 00:09:30,769 --> 00:09:34,062 the same theory of mythology in the mouth of the muses themselves. 134 00:09:34,062 --> 00:09:38,088 They can lie and they can tell the truth. How do you know which one is the 135 00:09:38,088 --> 00:09:43,244 difference? The outline of the poem to come appears we 136 00:09:43,244 --> 00:09:47,093 hear about the family of the gods that we're going to learn about. 137 00:09:47,093 --> 00:09:52,074 We hear about Zeus, and we hear about the family of men and powerful giants. 138 00:09:52,074 --> 00:09:57,068 Hesiod's laid the setting for us in his opening hymn to the, to the muses and 139 00:09:57,068 --> 00:10:00,075 given us a, window into what's coming next. 140 00:10:00,094 --> 00:10:05,326 And also, saying for those who are watching this course who are younger, or 141 00:10:05,326 --> 00:10:10,154 for those that have younger children watching the course, this part of it is 142 00:10:10,154 --> 00:10:15,383 where a lot of the bits come out that are maybe on the farther on the PG-13 or rated 143 00:10:15,383 --> 00:10:19,038 R kind of scale. So, not recommended for unaccompanied 144 00:10:19,038 --> 00:10:23,086 younger viewers what's coming up. When we look at what happens in the 145 00:10:23,086 --> 00:10:27,077 Creation of Cosmos, we're going to see all kinds of nasty things. 146 00:10:27,077 --> 00:10:32,095 And, I'll do my best to use language that is not offensive, but I'm afraid that a 147 00:10:32,095 --> 00:10:37,406 lot of what we're going to talk about is quite, well, can be offensive. 148 00:10:37,406 --> 00:10:43,023 Is quite detailed and graphic. So, get prepared for violence and things 149 00:10:43,023 --> 00:11:06,031 that a little bit nasty that about to come up with Hesiod's Theogony.