This article examines female asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, in Hesiod’s Theogony and argues that it is a symptom of the unprecedented and unparalleled female presence Hesiod inserts into his cosmos. This presence in turn reflects Hesiod’s incorporation of gender difference and conflict as indispensable both to the creation and, paradoxically, to the stability of the universe. Five of Hesiod’s deities reproduce parthenogenetically: Chaos, Gaea, Night, Strife, and Hera, of whom all but the sexually indeterminate Chaos are female. Hesiod’s male gods have no analogous reproductive ability. The parthenogenetic phases of the early goddesses form much of the fundamental shape and character of the universe, while in the case of Hera, parthenogenesis serves initially as an act of defiance against Zeus but ultimately enforces his reign. Parthenogenesis does not have these functions in either the Near Eastern or other Greek cosmogonic traditions, a difference that reflects Hesiod’s greater emphasis on female participation in his succession myth. Yet Hesiod’s cosmogonic narrative, like others, culminates in the lasting reign of a male god, Zeus. In this context parthenogenesis is a manifestation of female creation, which ultimately reinforces the stability of a male sovereign. The relative prominence of parthenogenesis in the Theogony reflects Hesiod’s emphasis on gender difference and conflict as indispensable to a cosmos in which conflict and concord coexist as equal partners in creation and stability.

Texte remanié de : Habilitationsschrift : ? : Universität Bielefeld : 1983. / Index.

Inaug.-Diss.--Tübingen, 1914. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.M.)--Bowling Green State University, 2010. / Document formatted into pages; contains 1 score (33 p.) For flute, oboe, clarinet in B♭, bassoon, horn in F, piano and strings. Duration: 11 min. Includes bibliographical references.

[Moipa, Timh, Themis and Dikh] geben Aufsehluβ über die Anschauungen des von Homer und Hesiod dargestellten Menschen, seinen Glauben, seine Rechts- und Staatsauffassung und seine Einsehatzung des Menschen. Moipa stellt einen Glaubensbereich dar, der neben den Göttern Gültigkeit hat. Timh ist ein Maβstab, an dem gewisse Menschen und aIle Götter gewertet werden. Themis und Dikh verkörpen Vorstellungen, die aus der politisch-rechtlichen Sphäre stammen. Darüber hinaus stellen diese vier Anschauungen den Versuch des Menschen dar, sich und seine Welt zu verstehen und sich in dieser Welt zurechtzufinden. Der Schiecksalsglaube stellt das Verständnis des Menschen von den ihn persönlich treffenden Ereignissen dar. Durch die Timh findet der Mensch oder Gott seinen ihm zugewiesenen Rang innerhalb der Gesellschaft; sie verleiht dem Einzelnen die Selbstsicherheit und den Wert, den er besitzen muβ, um vor den anderen bestehen zu können. Themis und Dikh sind Stutzen und Pfeiler, auf denen die Gesellschaft basiert. Mit ihr ordnet der Mensch seine Gemeinschaft rechtlich und politisch.

Thesis advisor: David Gill / The idea that mankind's history is one of regress rather than of progress has been seen as central to the classical outlook on life. Bury and others have gone so far as to state that the idea of Progress in its modern sense could not have even occurred to the Greeks. This is perhaps too extreme, but it does reflect an important point: if regression over time was not the only idea for the Greeks, it was at least the dominant one. No story in classical literature reflects this idea more clearly than the Myth of the Ages. The earliest extant version of the story comes in Hesiod's Works and Days (c. 700 B.C.), after which it appears dozens of times throughout ancient literature. The myth in its standard form tells that the history of mankind takes the form of four ages, each represented by a metal: the first is a happy and virtuous Golden Age; the next is a less perfect Silver Age, followed by a warlike (and even worse) Bronze Age; and the last, the most impious and wretched of all, is the current Iron Age. The early Hesiodic version uses this framework merely as a means to show man that he has fallen from divine favor and is left with a life of hardship that he must deal with through honest work and reverence for the gods. As other authors pick up the myth, alluding to it in genres as diverse as philosophy, theology, humor, and panegyric, the story changes in several ways. Each author of course uses it for his own purposes and alters it accordingly. In addition the Myth of the Ages undergoes an overall change: after Hesiod authors such as Aratus, Ovid, Seneca, and Maximus use the myth as a means to pair material progress with moral regression. These authors do not merely tell a story; they present a model, a simple and pre-civilized way of living that they see as vastly superior to modern “advanced” society. These authors look at the results of technological progress and see only negatives; for them the ship and the sword have brought nothing but greed and violence. They present a simple and virtuous Golden Age that lacks the fruits of civilization and a wretched and bloodied Iron Age that is flooded by them. The implication is clear: mankind has fallen from a life of primeval bliss at its own hands as a direct result of technological and societal advances. This becomes the dominant message of the Myth of the Ages, so much so that by the time of the Romans the myth had become little more than a literary cliché for criticizing civilization. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Classical Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Much has been written on the famous transition from muthos to logos or from myth to reason. However, there is little on how the proponents of myth responded. They fought back with mutho-logia, that is, with a logos about myth. This rational approach invoked the same logos that is generally associated with philosophia. In fact, philosophia and muthologia are at times so intimately connected that until the Enlightenment period, it is often diffi­cult to distinguish between them. This is due to the spell of myth or more precisely because of the allegorical interpretation of myth. In this essay, I at­tempt to shed some light on the origin and development of this rather unremarked and yet remarkable event in the history of philosophy. / Mucho se ha escrito sobre la célebre transición del muthos al logos, o del mito a la razón. Sin embargo, el tratamiento que se le ha dado al asunto de cómo respondieron los defensores del mito es más bien escaso. Ellos respondieron con mutho-logia; es decir, con un logos sobre el mito. Esta aproximación racional invocaba el mismo logos con el que generalmente se asocia la filosofía. De hecho, la philosophía y la muthología están tan estrechamente relacionadas por momentos que hasta el período de la Ilustración suele ser difícil distinguirlas entre sí. Esto se debe al encanto del mito o, más precisamente, a la interpretación alegórica del mito. En este ensayo pretendo esclarecer el origen y el desarrollo de este poco notado, aunque notable, evento en la historia de la filosofía.

While scholars have noticed important allusions to Hesiod in Quintus of Smyrna’s Posthomerica, there is still a need to explain Hesiod’s relevance in a poem that is so overtly Homeric. I argue that an understanding of Hesiod’s reception, especially during the Second Sophistic period, will lead to a deeper appreciation of the Posthomerica and the world that produced it. Hesiodic allusions appear at key moments in the narrative and invite us to see Quintus of Smyrna as reading Homeric epic and ethics through a Hesiodic lens. Rather than read the Posthomerica solely as a work of Homeric emulation, I propose that Quintus of Smyrna relies on Hesiod’s reputation as Homer’s rival to articulate his critique of Homeric poetics and heroism. Chapter One argues that Quintus of Smyrna reorients his reader’s gaze from Homer to Hesiod right when he seems to ape a Homeric practice, namely the ekphrasis of Achilles’ shield. Chapter Two asserts that Quintus of Smyrna’s use of Hesiod contributes to the Posthomerica’s narrative structure and highlights his revision of the Homeric idea of virtue (arete), such that Iliadic force must be joined with Hesiodic wisdom. Chapter Three examines Quintus of Smyrna’s Hesiodic self-portrayal and argues that the Posthomerica may be read as a telling of the Trojan saga through a Hesiodic lens. Chapter Four discusses Quintus of Smyrna in the context of Hesiodic reception. And Chapter Five places Quintus of Smyrna’s reception of Homer and Hesiod within the broader landscape of Second Sophistic and Late Antique literature, comparing his allusive practices to those of Greek hexameter poets of his era. This study concludes that Quintus of Smyrna’s revision of Homer reflects a trend among some Second Sophistic authors who re-write and critique Homeric narratives. Moreover, his direct and pervasive engagement with the works of Hesiod is unique when compared to his fellow Greek hexameter poets, whose allusions to Hesiod are mediated through a Hellenistic filter. By bridging studies of the Posthomerica and studies in Hesiod’s reception, my work enables us to gain a better understanding of Quintus of Smyrna’s dynamic engagement with his archaic literary tradition.

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In my first chapter, I investigate how, according to Hesiod in his Works and Days, one achieves prosperity and well-being, namely by not provoking Zeus who “punishes those whose actions harm justice.” I suggest that the moral and practical elements of Hesiod’s teachings may be conceived of in similar terms of maintaining a disposition whereby one is content to possess resources proportionate to one’s level of activity and needs. In the second chapter, I examine how the conceptions of limit and proportion elucidated in my first chapter feature in medical texts. I investigate Alcmaeon’s description of health and disease in terms of a political distribution of power. A body, according to Alcmaeon, is healthy when its qualities are equally proportioned (isonomia) and one does not dominate (monarchia) the whole mixture (krasis). Alcmaeon describes health as the proportionate blending of qualities which formulates the definition of health as the equality of shares of powers and anticipates Hippocratic humorism. Hippocratic humorism, like the traditional, magicoreligious model of health, conceives of health similarly to Alcmaeon, in terms of a proper proportion and balance. In my third chapter, I investigate Plato’s conception of the soul and of justice. I explicate Plato’s conception of the soul as discussed in his Republic, Phaedrus, and Laws, and suggest that a similar view of the soul and of justice, as a proper proportion of internal constituents, persists. I then apply this view of justice as the proper proportion of parts to the polis and argue that disproportion within a polis leads to stasis – a disease of a political body. In conclusion, I argue that Greek medical, ethical, and political thought share a conceptual framework and are predicated on notions of balance, proportion, and equilibrium. Prosperity, bodily health, justice of the soul, and justice of the city are conceived of in similar terms of a proper proportion. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Greek medical authors are obviously interested in the nature of health and disease, but the repeated mention of health and disease in epic poetry, philosophy, and political thought is more surprising. Hesiod writes that Zeus punishes the entire city of an unjust man with plague because he harms Justice. Plato refers to injustice as a disease of the soul, and justice as a soul in good health. Euripides, in his Herakles, writes that Thebes itself was sick with stasis. These authors indicate that the Greek conception of health was conceived of in broad terms which were applied to other spheres, such as ethics and politics. But what are these terms? What is the basic conceptual framework that underlies Greek medical, ethical, and political thought that allowed authors to apply similar metaphors of health and disease to these different spheres? In this thesis, I suggest that underlying Greek medical, ethical, and political thought is the same conceptual framework of proportion, balance, and equilibrium.