Listening to the Spider: reading Hesiod’s Works and Days*

TABLE OF CONTENTS                   

Preface (2006), with an addendum on modern language translations (updated March, 2007)

INTRODUCTION. PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION

Hermeneutics: the twentieth century heritage and Hesiod’s audience

Genre: didacticism versus epic in language

Genre: didacticism versus epic in composition

Genre: discrete lessons versus continuous narrative

Poetics: tradition and individuality; nature as object or medium of participation?

CHAPTER 1. A HYMN TO ZEUS? (vv. 1-10)

CHAPTER 2. ZEUS: GUARANTOR OF THE WORLD OR BARRIER TO GRASPING IT? (vv.11-105)

Correction: the old world view needs adjustment (11-26)

Example: finagling versus work (27-39)

Explanation: it’s all for the best (40-6)

Further explanation: (meta-)myth (47-105)

CHAPTER 3. A FRESH APPROACH (vv. 106-382)

The past (109-73)

The future; first possibility (174-201)

The future; another possibility, in the general (202-85)

The future; another possibility, in the particular (286-382)

CHAPTER 4. OVERTURE TO THE HERE AND NOW (vv. 383-413)

CHAPTER 5. AN ALTERNATIVE HUMAN (vv. 414-503)

Initial vision (414-22)

Toward a subject (423-47)

The crane: speaking of work (448-57)

The organized human (458-92)

The crane redux (493-503)

CHAPTER 6. OVERCOMING ADVERSITY (vv. 504-63)

Cosmic struggle (505-18a)

The end of reproduction (518b-35)

To the rescue (536-58)

Better days ahead (559-63)

CHAPTER 7. CELEBRATION (vv. 564-614a)

April fool! (564-70)

If a snail can work, so can you (571-81)

Recovering from a false note (582-96)

Make good use of helpers (597-601, 606-8, 602-5)

Celebration indeed (609-14a)

CHAPTER 8. TRANSCENDENCE (vv. 614b-77)

Sailing and poetry (619-30)

The history of proper sailing/poetry (631-62)

From poetry to sailing: illustration (663-77)

CHAPTER 9. THE DARK SIDE (vv. 678-764)

Heed proportion (689-706)

And don’t heed disproportion (707-21)

Just say no (722-59)

Don’t run afoul of the social mystery either (760-4)

CHAPTER 10. HAVE A NICE DAY (vv. 765-825)

From holy days to practical days (765-797a)

From mystical days to practical days (797b-825)

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

Syllable quantity in Greek verse

Hexameter prosody

Table 1: tabulation of syllable sequence and enjambement types (Spring, 2000)

Tables 2 3 4: Syllable sequences discussion; comparison with Homer

Table 5: Enjambement discussion; comparison with Homer

BIBLIOGRAPHY

*© 2006 E. F. Beall.