In Greek mythology , Arctus ( Ancient Greek : Ἄρκτον , romanized : Arktos , lit. 'bear') was a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen. His name means 'bear' in Ancient Greek.
91-500: Arctus is briefly mentioned by Hesiod , describing the shield of Heracles : And there was the strife of the Lapith spearmen gathered round the prince Caeneus and Dryas and Peirithöus , with Hopleus , Exadius , Phalereus , and Prolochus , Mopsus the son of Ampyce of Titaresia , a scion of Ares , and Theseus , the son of Aegeus , like unto the deathless gods. These were of silver, and had armour of gold upon their bodies. And
182-407: A contingent of about 1000 infantry and 100 cavalry to the federal army. A safeguard against undue encroachment on the part of the central government was provided in the councils of the individual cities, to which all important questions of policy had to be submitted for ratification. These local councils, to which the propertied classes alone were eligible, were subdivided into four sections, resembling
273-418: A deep interest in a wide range of 'philosophical' issues, from the nature of divine justice to the beginnings of human society. Aristotle ( Metaphysics 983b–987a) believed that the question of first causes may even have started with Hesiod ( Theogony 116–53) and Homer ( Iliad 14.201, 246). He viewed the world from outside the charmed circle of aristocratic rulers, protesting against their injustices in
364-761: A distinct ethnos , in Phthiotis or in Thessaliotis, before they migrated to Boeotia, taking elements with them from other parts of Thessaly . Boeotians were expelled from Thessaly after the Trojan war although there are three traditions which disagree on how expulsion played out. One tradition says that the Boiotoi were expelled by the Thessalians who were led by Thessalus , son of Aiatus, son of Pheidippus , son of another Thessalus. Pheidippus appears in
455-776: A few details of his life. There are three explicit references in Works and Days , as well as some passages in his Theogony , that support inferences made by scholars. The former poem says that his father came from Cyme in Aeolis (on the coast of Anatolia , a little south of the island of Lesbos ) and crossed the sea to settle at a hamlet near Thespiae in Boeotia named Ascra , "a cursed place, cruel in winter, hard in summer, never pleasant" ( Works 640). Hesiod's patrimony ( property inherited from one's father or male ancestor ) in Ascra,
546-479: A girl's brothers and murdered in reprisal despite his advanced age while the true culprit (his Milesian fellow-traveler) managed to escape. Greeks in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC considered their oldest poets to be Orpheus , Musaeus , Hesiod and Homer —in that order. Thereafter, Greek writers began to consider Homer earlier than Hesiod. Devotees of Orpheus and Musaeus were probably responsible for precedence being given to their two cult heroes and maybe
637-537: A hive. In the horror of the triumph of violence over hard work and honor, verses describing the "Golden Age" present the social character and practice of nonviolent diet through agriculture and fruit-culture as a higher path of living sufficiently. In addition to the Theogony and Works and Days , numerous other poems were ascribed to Hesiod during antiquity. Modern scholarship has doubted their authenticity, and these works are generally referred to as forming part of
728-453: A lot of formulaic phrases that are not found in Homer, which indicates that he may have been writing within a different tradition. Boeotia Boeotia ( / b i ˈ oʊ ʃ ( i ) ə / bee- OH -sh(ee-)ə ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( Greek : Βοιωτία ; modern : Viotía ; ancient : Boiōtía ), is one of the regional units of Greece . It is part of
819-457: A major source on Greek mythology , farming techniques, early economic thought, Archaic Greek astronomy , cosmology , and ancient time-keeping . The dating of Hesiod's life is a contested issue in scholarly circles ( see § Dating below ). Epic narrative allowed poets such as Homer no opportunity for personal revelations. However Hesiod's extant work comprises several didactic poems in which he went out of his way to let his audience in on
910-538: A maximum of 250,000. By comparison, the population of Boeotia was 38,000-50,000 in the late sixteenth century, according to tahrir records, 40,000-42,000 in the 1889 census, and 117,920 in the 2011 census. Boeotia took a prominent part in the Corinthian War against Sparta, especially in the battles of Haliartus and Coronea (395–394 BC). This change of policy was mainly due to the popular resentment against foreign interference. Yet disaffection against Thebes
1001-467: A proto-historical perspective in Hesiod, a view rejected by Paul Cartledge , for example, on the grounds that Hesiod advocates a not-forgetting without any attempt at verification. Hesiod has also been considered the father of gnomic verse . He had "a passion for systematizing and explaining things". Ancient Greek poetry in general had strong philosophical tendencies and Hesiod, like Homer, demonstrates
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#17327834013411092-483: A quest for immortal fame since poets in his era had probably no such notions for themselves. However some scholars suspect the presence of large-scale changes in the text and attribute it to oral transmission. Possibly he composed his verses during idle times on the farm, in the spring before the May harvest or the dead of winter. The personality behind the poems is unsuited to the kind of "aristocratic withdrawal" typical of
1183-406: A rhapsode but is instead "argumentative, suspicious, ironically humorous, frugal, fond of proverbs, wary of women." He was in fact a " misogynist " of the same calibre as the later poet Semonides . He resembles Solon in his preoccupation with issues of good versus evil and "how a just and all-powerful god can allow the unjust to flourish in this life". He recalls Aristophanes in his rejection of
1274-603: A short period of prosperity under the Frankish rulers of Athens (1205–1310), who repaired the underground drainage channels ( καταβόθρα katavóthra ) of Lake Kopais and fostered agriculture, Boeotia long continued in a state of decay, aggravated by occasional barbarian incursions. The first step toward the country's recovery was not until 1895, when the drainage channels of Kopais were again put into working order. In 1880–86, Heinrich Schliemann 's excavations at Orchomenus (H. Schliemann, Orchomenos , Leipzig 1881) revealed
1365-598: A short time in the Aetolian League (about 245 BC) Boeotia was generally loyal to Macedon , and supported its later kings against Rome. Rome dissolved the league in 171 BC, but it was revived under Augustus , and merged with the other central Greek federations in the Achaean synod. The death-blow to the country's prosperity was dealt by the devastations during the First Mithridatic War . Save for
1456-494: A slave boy to cover the seed (441–6), a female servant to keep house (405, 602) and working teams of oxen and mules (405, 607f.). One modern scholar surmises that Hesiod may have learned about world geography, especially the catalogue of rivers in Theogony (337–45), listening to his father's accounts of his own sea voyages as a merchant. The father probably spoke in the Aeolian dialect of Cyme but Hesiod probably grew up speaking
1547-400: A small piece of ground at the foot of Mount Helicon , occasioned lawsuits with his brother Perses , who at first seems to have cheated him of his rightful share thanks to corrupt authorities or ‘kings’ but later became impoverished and ended up scrounging from the thrifty poet ( Works 35, 396). Unlike his father Hesiod was averse to sea travel, but he once crossed the narrow strait between
1638-450: A tone of voice that has been described as having a "grumpy quality redeemed by a gaunt dignity" but, as stated in the biography section, he could also change to suit the audience. This ambivalence appears to underlie his presentation of human history in Works and Days , where he depicts a golden period when life was easy and good, followed by a steady decline in behaviour and happiness through
1729-400: A total of 24,200 men in the army. He assumes that 25% of men were ineligible for military service, so his total population of men between the ages of twenty and fifty is 30,250. Using model life tables he calculates a total male citizen population of 72,240 and an equal number of women, for a minimum free population of 144,050, plus an unknown number of slaves and foreign residents. He proposes
1820-494: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hesiod Hesiod ( / ˈ h iː s i ə d / HEE -see-əd or / ˈ h ɛ s i ə d / HEH -see-əd ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἡσίοδος Hēsíodos ; fl. c. 700 BC ) was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer . Several of Hesiod's works have survived in their entirety. Among these are Theogony , which tells
1911-539: Is transmitted intact via a medieval manuscript tradition. Classical authors also attributed to Hesiod a lengthy genealogical poem known as Catalogue of Women or Ehoiai (because sections began with the Greek words ē hoiē, "Or like the one who ..."). It was a mythological catalogue of the mortal women who had mated with gods, and of the offspring and descendants of these unions. Several additional hexameter poems were ascribed to Hesiod: In addition to these works,
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#17327834013412002-723: Is unknown, though sometimes it is equated with Cierium in Central Thessaly . The presence in Classical times in Boeotia of cults and place-names of Thessalian origin, such as Itonia and Itonian Athena, Homole and Homoloian Zeus, Alalcomenae , Corseia and Pharae , confirm for most scholars the merits of these traditions. It is, therefore, generally believed that the Boeotians originated in Thessaly and lived there as
2093-713: The Aegean and settled on Lesbos and in Aeolis in Asia Minor . Others are said to have stayed in Thessaly, withdrawing into the hill country and becoming the perioikoi ("dwellers around"). Boeotia was an early member of the oldest Amphictyonic League ( Anthelian ), a religious confederacy of related tribes, despite its distance from the League's original home in Anthela . Although they included great men such as Pindar , Hesiod , Epaminondas , Pelopidas , and Plutarch ,
2184-459: The Cadmean return to Thebes after the war. The entry-point to Boeotia by Boeotians seems to be put in the same general area by all traditions. The second tradition gives Chaeronea as the first place attacked, while the first says that Coronea and Orchomenus were captured virtually simultaneously and then the sanctuary of Itonian Athena was founded. It is clear that both traditions envisaged
2275-613: The Catalogue of ships as one of the commanders of the force from Cos and Carpathus. He was thought to have been driven to Epirus after the war and to have settled at Ephyra in the Thesprotid . Hence the Boiotoi were expelled two generations after the Trojan War. Hellanicus is probably the source of this tradition, and the source of Thucydides ' "sixtieth year", that is, two generations of thirty years. A second tradition puts
2366-525: The Dorian invasion. With the exception of the Minyae, the original peoples were soon absorbed by these immigrants, and the Boeotians henceforth appear as a homogeneous nation. Aeolic Greek was spoken in Boeotia. In historical times, the leading city of Boeotia was Thebes, whose central position and military strength made it a suitable capital; other major towns were Orchomenus , Plataea , and Thespiae . It
2457-494: The Homeridae were responsible in later antiquity for promoting Homer at Hesiod's expense. The first known writers to locate Homer earlier than Hesiod were Xenophanes and Heraclides Ponticus , though Aristarchus of Samothrace was the first actually to argue the case. Ephorus made Homer a younger cousin of Hesiod, the 5th century BC historian Herodotus ( Histories II, 53) evidently considered them near-contemporaries, and
2548-591: The Peloponnesian War the Boeotians fought zealously against Athens. Although slightly estranged from Sparta after the peace of Nicias , they never abated their enmity against their neighbours. They rendered good service at Syracuse and at the Battle of Arginusae in the closing years of the Peloponnesian War; but their greatest achievement was the decisive victory at the Battle of Delium over
2639-525: The Shield of Heracles (see Hesiod's Greek below). Moreover, they both refer to the same version of the Prometheus myth. Yet even these authentic poems may include interpolations. For example, the first ten verses of the Works and Days may have been borrowed from an Orphic hymn to Zeus (they were recognised as not the work of Hesiod by critics as ancient as Pausanias). Some scholars have detected
2730-454: The Suda lists an otherwise unknown "dirge for Batrachus, [Hesiod's] beloved". Portrait of Hesiod from Augusta Treverorum ( Trier ), from the end of the 3rd century AD. The mosaic is signed in its central field by the maker, 'MONNUS FECIT' ('Monnus made this'). The figure is identified by name: 'ESIO-DVS' ('Hesiod'). It is the only known authenticated portrait of Hesiod. The Roman bronze bust,
2821-606: The Trojan War . The tradition intimates that there was a peaceful take-over, with Autesion joining the Dorians . There must have been another pause for some time. The next advance, into the Asopus valley, was led by Xanthus , son of Ptolemy , son of Damasichthon , that is, two generations after the gaining of Thebes . The Thebans remembered, according to Thucydides, that the Asopus valley and Plataea were reduced later than
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2912-481: The conventional metre and language of epic. However, the Shield of Heracles is now known to be spurious and probably was written in the sixth century BC. Many ancient critics also rejected Theogony (e.g., Pausanias 9.31.3), even though Hesiod mentions himself by name in that poem. Theogony and Works and Days might be very different in subject matter, but they share a distinctive language, metre, and prosody that subtly distinguish them from Homer's work and from
3003-634: The prytaneis of the Athenian council, which took it in turns to vote on all new measures. Two Boeotarchs were provided by Thebes, but by 395 BC Thebes was providing four Boeotarchs, including two who had represented places now conquered by Thebes such as Plataea, Scolus , Erythrae , and Scaphae . Orchomenus , Hysiae , and Tanagra each supplied one Boeotarch. Thespiae , Thisbe , and Eutresis supplied two between them. Haliartus , Lebadea and Coronea supplied one in turn, and so did Acraephia , Copae , and Chaeronea . The total military force of
3094-453: The region of Central Greece . Its capital is Livadeia , and its largest city is Thebes . Boeotia was also a region of ancient Greece , from before the 6th century BC. Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth . It also has a short coastline on the Gulf of Euboea . It bordered on Megaris (now West Attica ) in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in
3185-505: The "Hesiodic corpus" whether or not their authorship is accepted. The situation is summed up in this formulation by Glenn Most : "Hesiod" is the name of a person; "Hesiodic" is a designation for a kind of poetry, including but not limited to the poems of which the authorship may reasonably be assigned to Hesiod himself. Of these works forming the extended Hesiodic corpus, only the Shield of Heracles ( Ἀσπὶς Ἡρακλέους , Aspis Hērakleous )
3276-663: The 4th century BC sophist Alcidamas in his work Mouseion even brought them together for an imagined poetic ágōn ( ἄγών ), which survives today as the Contest of Homer and Hesiod . Most scholars today agree with Homer's priority but there are good arguments on either side. Hesiod certainly predates the lyric and elegiac poets whose work has come down to the modern era. Imitations of his work have been observed in Alcaeus , Epimenides , Mimnermus , Semonides , Tyrtaeus and Archilochus , from which it has been inferred that
3367-457: The 7th century BC (within a century or so of Hesiod's death), claims that Hesiod lies buried at Orchomenus, a town in Boeotia. According to Aristotle 's Constitution of Orchomenus, when the Thespians ravaged Ascra the villagers sought refuge at Orchomenus, where, following the advice of an oracle, they collected the ashes of Hesiod and set them in a place of honour in their agora , next to
3458-587: The 8th century BC. ( Theogony 337–45). Hesiod mentions a poetry contest at Chalcis in Euboea where the sons of one Amphidamas awarded him a tripod ( Works and Days 654–662). Plutarch identified this Amphidamas with the hero of the Lelantine War between Chalcis and Eretria and he concluded that the passage must be an interpolation into Hesiod's original work, assuming that the Lelantine War
3549-560: The Archaeological Service under Theodore Spyropoulos , uncovering the Mycenaean palace, a prehistoric cemetery, the ancient amphitheatre , and other structures. The regional unit Boeotia is subdivided into 6 municipalities. These are (number as in the map in the infobox): Boeotia was created as a prefecture in 1836 ( Greek : Διοίκησις Βοιωτίας ), again in 1899 ( Νομός Βοιωτίας ) and again in 1943; in all cases it
3640-543: The Athenian army (424 BC) in which both their heavy infantry and their cavalry displayed unusual efficiency. According to the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia , in 395 BC the Boeotian League comprised eleven groups of sovereign cities and associated townships, each of which elected one Boeotarch or minister of war and foreign affairs, contributed sixty delegates to the federal council at Thebes, and supplied
3731-695: The Boeotian people were portrayed as proverbially dull by the Athenians (cf. Boeotian ears incapable of appreciating music or poetry and Hog-Boeotians , Cratinus .310). Many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their final form during the Mycenean age (1600–1200 BC) when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia and the city of Thebes became an important centre. Many of them are related to
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3822-584: The Boiotian League (11,000 infantry and 1,100 cavalry) has been used as the basis for a number of calculations of the population of the region in the early fourth century BC. John Bintliff assumes an additional 21,000 light troops and rowers in the navy, for a total of 33,100 men. Assuming the same number of women, two children and one slave for every household, he estimates the total Boeotian population at 165,500 (including 33,100 slaves). Mogens Herman Hansen assumes an additional 12,100 light troops, for
3913-471: The Boiotoi as following a well-known invasion route from Thessaly , the one via Thermopylae and Hyampolis to Chaeronea , where the invaders would be poised to attack both Orchomenus and Coronea . Having gained control of Chaeronea , Orchomenus and Coronea , and their territories, the Boiotoi seem to have paused to digest western Boeotia; the generation or two before Thebes was captured marks this pause in all traditions. The siting close to Coronea of
4004-508: The Centaurs were gathered against them on the other side with Petraeus and Asbolus the diviner, Arctus , and Ureus , and black-haired Mimas , and the two sons of Peuceus , Perimedes and Dryalus : these were of silver, and they had pinetrees of gold in their hands, and they were rushing together as though they were alive and striking at one another hand to hand with spears and with pines. This article relating to Greek mythology
4095-506: The Greek mainland and Euboea to participate in funeral celebrations for one Amphidamas of Chalcis and there won a tripod in a singing competition. He also describes meeting the Muses on Mount Helicon , where he had been pasturing sheep, when the goddesses presented him with a laurel staff, a symbol of poetic authority ( Theogony 22–35). Fanciful though the story might seem, the account has led ancient and modern scholars to infer that he
4186-472: The Greek world might have already developed its own versions of them. In spite of Hesiod's complaints about poverty, life on his father's farm could not have been too uncomfortable if Works and Days is anything to judge by, since he describes the routines of prosperous yeomanry rather than peasants. His farmer employs a friend ( Works and Days 370) as well as servants (502, 573, 597, 608, 766), an energetic and responsible ploughman of mature years (469 ff.),
4277-600: The Near East .) Works and Days is a poem of over 800 lines which revolves around two general truths: labour is the universal lot of Man, but he who is willing to work will get by. Scholars have interpreted this work against a background of agrarian crisis in mainland Greece , which inspired a wave of documented colonisations in search of new land. Works and Days may have been influenced by an established tradition of didactic poetry based on Sumerian, Hebrew, Babylonian and Egyptian wisdom literature. This work lays out
4368-608: The center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century. Lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes . The origin of the name "Boeotians" may lie in the mountain Boeon in Epirus . The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of Orchomenus , were called Minyans . Pausanias mentions that Minyans established the maritime Ionian city of Teos , and occupied the islands of Lemnos and Thera . The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans. Also, according to legend
4459-686: The citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus . The Minyans may have been proto-Greek speakers. Although most scholars today agree that the Myceneans descended from the Minyans of the Middle Helladic period , they believe that the progenitors and founders of Minyan culture were an indigenous people . The early wealth and power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus and Thebes . Some toponyms and
4550-504: The common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians . Traditionally, the Boeotians are said to have originally occupied Thessaly , the largest fertile plain in Greece, and to have been dispossessed by the north-western Thessalians two generations after the Fall of Troy (1200 BC). They moved south and settled in another rich plain, while others filtered across
4641-472: The constant struggle between the cities was a serious check on the nation's development. Boeotia hardly figures in history before the late 6th century BC. Previous to this, its people are chiefly known as the makers of a type of geometric pottery, similar to the Dipylon ware of Athens. In about 519 BC, the resistance of Plataea to the federating policy of Thebes led to the interference of Athens on behalf of
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#17327834013414732-644: The conventional dialect of epic verse, which was Ionian. Comparisons with Homer, a native Ionian, can be unflattering. Hesiod's handling of the dactylic hexameter was not as masterful or fluent as Homer's and one modern scholar refers to his "hobnailed hexameters". His use of language and meter in Works and Days and Theogony distinguishes him also from the author of the Shield of Heracles . All three poets, for example, employed digamma inconsistently, sometimes allowing it to affect syllable length and meter, sometimes not. The ratio of observance/neglect of digamma varies between them. The extent of variation depends on how
4823-434: The countryside entertaining people with a narrative about himself if the account was known to be fictitious. Gregory Nagy , on the other hand, sees both Pérsēs ("the destroyer" from πέρθω , pérthō ) and Hēsíodos ("he who emits the voice" from ἵημι , híēmi and αὐδή , audḗ ) as fictitious names for poetical personae . It might seem unusual that Hesiod's father migrated from Anatolia westwards to mainland Greece,
4914-502: The dealings with Philip of Macedon the cities merely followed Thebes. The federal constitution was also brought into accord with the democratic governments now prevalent throughout the land. Sovereign power was vested in the popular assembly, which elected the Boeotarchs (between seven and twelve in number), and sanctioned all laws. After the Battle of Chaeroneia , in which the Boeotian heavy infantry once again distinguished itself,
5005-404: The definite article associated with digamma, oἱ. Though typical of epic, his vocabulary features some significant differences from Homer's. One scholar has counted 278 un-Homeric words in Works and Days , 151 in Theogony and 95 in Shield of Heracles . The disproportionate number of un-Homeric words in W & D is due to its un-Homeric subject matter. Hesiod's vocabulary also includes quite
5096-512: The different subject matter between this poem and the Works and Days , most scholars, with some notable exceptions, believe that the two works were written by the same man. As M. L. West writes, "Both bear the marks of a distinct personality: a surly, conservative countryman, given to reflection, no lover of women or life, who felt the gods' presence heavy about him." An example: Hateful strife bore painful Toil, Neglect, Starvation, and tearful Pain, Battles, Combats... The Theogony concerns
5187-777: The earliest known source for the myths of Pandora , Prometheus and the Golden Age . The creation myth in Hesiod has long been held to have Eastern influences, such as the Hittite Song of Kumarbi and the Babylonian Enuma Elis . This cultural crossover may have occurred in the eighth- and ninth-century Greek trading colonies such as Al Mina in North Syria . (For more discussion, read Robin Lane Fox 's Travelling Heroes and Peter Walcot's Hesiod and
5278-465: The evidence is collected and interpreted but there is a clear trend, revealed for example in the following set of statistics. Hesiod does not observe digamma as often as the others do. That result is a bit counter-intuitive since digamma was still a feature of the Boeotian dialect that Hesiod probably spoke, whereas it had already vanished from the Ionic vernacular of Homer. This anomaly can be explained by
5369-564: The expulsion of the Boiotoi in the reign of Aiatus, one generation after the War . To this should also belong the story in Plutarch , which tells how Opheltas king of the Boiotoi took Chaeronea "by force from the barbarians." Opheltas is the son of Peneleus , one of the leaders of the Boeotian contingent in the Catalogue , and living one generation after the war. It is not until the reign of Damasichthon , son of Opheltas , that control of Thebes
5460-509: The fact that Hesiod made a conscious effort to compose like an Ionian epic poet at a time when digamma was not heard in Ionian speech, while Homer tried to compose like an older generation of Ionian bards, when it was heard in Ionian speech. There is also a significant difference in the results for Theogony and Works and Days , but that is merely due to the fact that the former includes a catalog of divinities and therefore it makes frequent use of
5551-418: The five Ages of Man , as well as containing advice and wisdom, prescribing a life of honest labour and attacking idleness and unjust judges (like those who decided in favour of Perses ) as well as the practice of usury. It describes immortals who roam the earth watching over justice and injustice. The poem regards labor as the source of all good, in that both gods and men hate the idle, who resemble drones in
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#17327834013415642-515: The former; on this occasion, and again in 507 BC, the Athenians defeated the Boeotian levy. The Works and Days by Hesiod is often used by economists and historians alike to provide invaluable evidence for the Boetian economic system and its developments in the Homeric Age. In the poem Hesiod, who lived in Boeotia, describes the beginnings of a modern economy, with the use of artisans to 'do
5733-407: The idealised hero of epic literature in favour of an idealized view of the farmer. Yet the fact that he could eulogize kings in Theogony (80 ff., 430, 434) and denounce them as corrupt in Works and Days suggests that he could resemble whichever audience he composed for. Various legends accumulated about Hesiod and they are recorded in several sources: Two different—yet early—traditions record
5824-528: The kingship. During the Persian invasion of 480 BC, Thebes assisted the invaders. In consequence, for a time, the presidency of the Boeotian League was taken from Thebes, but in 457 BC the Spartans reinstated that city as a bulwark against Athenian aggression after the Battle of Tanagra . Athens retaliated with a sudden advance upon Boeotia, and after the victory at the Battle of Oenophyta took control of
5915-488: The land never again rose to prosperity. The destruction of Thebes by Alexander the Great (335 BC) destroyed the political energy of the Boeotians. They never again pursued an independent policy, but followed the lead of protecting powers. Although military training and organization continued, the people proved unable to defend the frontiers, and the land became more than ever the "dancing-ground of Ares". Although enrolled for
6006-467: The latest possible date for him is about 650 BC. An upper limit of 750 BC is indicated by a number of considerations, such as the probability that his work was written down, the fact that he mentions a sanctuary at Delphi that was of little national significance before c. 750 BC ( Theogony 499), and he lists rivers that flow into the Euxine , a region explored and developed by Greek colonists beginning in
6097-418: The local Boeotian, belonging to the same dialect group. However whilst his poetry features some Aeolisms there are no words that are certainly Boeotian. His basic language was the main literary dialect of the time, Homer's Ionian . It is probable that Hesiod wrote his poems down, or dictated them, rather than passing them on orally, as rhapsodes did—otherwise: the pronounced personality that now emerges from
6188-545: The myths of Argos , and others indicate connections with Phoenicia , where the Mycenean Greeks and later the Euboean Greeks established trading posts. Important legends related to Boeotia include: Many of these legends were used in plays by the tragic Greek poets, Aeschylus , Sophocles , and Euripides : They were also used in lost plays such as Aeschylus's Niobe and Euripides's Antiope . Boeotia
6279-529: The north and to the south of Copais lake . On the north side it ultimately reached Anthedon , a town credited with once having been occupied by the Thracians . On the south side it came as far as Thebes and Thespiae . In Thebes, according to one version, Damasichthon took the rule from Autesion , son of Tisamenus , son of Thersander , another stemma that puts the Boeotians in Thebes two generations after
6370-415: The north shore of the Gulf of Corinth , the strategic strength of its frontiers, and the ease of communication within its extensive area. On the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains (notably the "Treasury of Minyas"). The Boeotian population entered the land from the north possibly before
6461-470: The northeast, Opuntian Locris (now part of Phthiotis ) in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and Parnitha in the east. Its longest river, the Cephissus , flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais was a large lake in
6552-801: The opposite direction to most colonial movements at the time, and Hesiod himself gives no explanation for it. However, around 750 BC or a little later, there was a migration of seagoing merchants from his original home in Cyme in Anatolia to Cumae in Campania (a colony they shared with the Euboeans), and possibly his move west had something to do with that, since Euboea is not far from Boeotia , where he eventually established himself and his family. The family association with Aeolian Cyme might explain his familiarity with Eastern myths, evident in his poems, though
6643-595: The origins of the gods, their lineages, and the events that led to Zeus 's rise to power, and Works and Days , a poem that describes the five Ages of Man , offers advice and wisdom, and includes myths such as Pandora's box . Hesiod is generally regarded by Western authors as 'the first written poet in the Western tradition to regard himself as an individual persona with an active role to play in his subject.' Ancient authors credited Hesiod and Homer with establishing Greek religious customs. Modern scholars refer to him as
6734-491: The origins of the world ( cosmogony ) and of the gods ( theogony ), beginning with Chaos , Gaia , Tartarus and Eros , and shows a special interest in genealogy . Embedded in Greek myth , there remain fragments of quite variant tales, hinting at the rich variety of myth that once existed, city by city; but Hesiod's retelling of the old stories became, according to Herodotus , the accepted version that linked all Hellenes . It's
6825-402: The poems would surely have been diluted through oral transmission from one rhapsode to another. Pausanias asserted that Boeotians showed him an old tablet made of lead on which the Works were engraved. If he did write or dictate, it was perhaps as an aid to memory or because he lacked confidence in his ability to produce poems extempore, as trained rhapsodes could do. It certainly was not in
6916-501: The rest of Boeotia and were occupied in accordance with an agreed plan. The Boeotian advance was apparently stalled on what became the Athenian-Boeotian frontier, by the efforts of local forces, if the legend of Xanthus and Melanthus has any historical significance. In any event the death of Xanthus symbolized traditionally the completion of the conquest of Boeotia under the kings and the consequent immediate extinction of
7007-508: The sanctuary of Itonian Athena, and the celebration of the Pamboeotia there, together with the renaming of rivers and other toponyms, and the sanctity attached to the neighbouring settlement of Alalcomenae , all strengthen the belief that this western section was the area where the first Boeotian settlement took place, and where Boeotian institutions were first established in the new homeland. The advance eastward eventually proceeded both to
7098-405: The silver, bronze, and Iron Ages – except that he inserts a heroic age between the last two, representing its warlike men as better than their bronze predecessors. He seems in this case to be catering to two different world-views, one epic and aristocratic, the other unsympathetic to the heroic traditions of the aristocracy. The Theogony is commonly considered Hesiod's earliest work. Despite
7189-642: The site of Hesiod's grave. One, as early as Thucydides , reported in Plutarch, the Suda and John Tzetzes, states that the Delphic oracle warned Hesiod that he would die in Nemea , and so he fled to Locris , where he was killed at the local temple to Nemean Zeus, and buried there. This tradition follows a familiar ironic convention: the oracle predicts accurately after all. The other tradition, first mentioned in an epigram by Chersias of Orchomenus written in
7280-503: The so-called Pseudo-Seneca , of the late first century BC found at Herculaneum is now thought not to be of Seneca the Younger . It has been identified by Gisela Richter as an imagined portrait of Hesiod. In fact, it has been recognized since 1813 that the bust was not of Seneca when an inscribed herma portrait of Seneca with quite different features was discovered. Most scholars now follow Richter's identification. Hesiod employed
7371-548: The technical work in making his plow and wagon' and the beginnings of sea commerce and its increasing importance in the economic life of Greece. According to myth, the Boeotians ( Ancient Greek : Βοιώτιοι , romanized : Boiotioi ) lived in Thessaly , especially in the area around Arne , though some may have gone to the Pagasitic Gulf before migrating to the land later termed Boeotia. The location of Arne
7462-532: The tholos tomb he called the "Tomb of Minyas ", a Mycenaean monument that equalled the beehive tomb known as the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae . In 1893, A. de Ridder excavated the temple of Asclepios and some burials in the Roman necropolis. In 1903–05, a Bavarian archaeological mission under Heinrich Bulle and Adolf Furtwängler conducted successful excavations at the site. Research continued in 1970–73 by
7553-531: The tomb of Minyas , their eponymous founder. Eventually they came to regard Hesiod too as their "hearth-founder" ( οἰκιστής , oikistēs ). Later writers attempted to harmonize these two accounts. Yet another account taken from classical sources, cited by author Charles Abraham Elton in his Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules by Hesiod , depicts Hesiod as being falsely accused of rape by
7644-469: The whole country, taking down the wall the Spartans had built. With the victory the Athenians also occupied Phocis , the original source of the conflict, and Opuntian Locris . For ten years the land remained under Athenian control, which was exercised through the newly installed democracies; but in 447 BC the people revolted, and after a victory at the Battle of Coronea regained their independence. In
7735-560: Was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea . Graea , an ancient city in Boeotia, is sometimes thought to be the origin of the Latin word Graecus , from which English derives the words Greece and Greeks . The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians. Nonetheless, the French use the term béotien ("Boeotian") to denote Philistinism . Boeotia had significant political importance, owing to its position on
7826-458: Was gained by the Boiotoi. Hence in this tradition one generation after the war, the Boiotoi were expelled and western Boeotia was invaded; two generations after the war, Thebes was won. A third tradition combines the other two: the two generations until the expulsion from Thessaly after the War and the two generations until Thebes is gained give the four generations cited by Hieronymus in his tale of
7917-489: Was not a professionally trained rhapsode or he would have been presented with a lyre instead. Some scholars have seen Perses as a literary creation, a foil for the moralizing that Hesiod develops in Works and Days , but there are also arguments against that theory. For example, it is quite common for works of moral instruction to have an imaginative setting as a means of getting the audience's attention, but it could be difficult to see how Hesiod could have traveled around
8008-530: Was now growing rife, and Sparta fostered this feeling by insisting on the complete independence of all the cities in the Peace of Antaclidas (387 BC). In 374 BC, Pelopidas restored Theban dominance. Boeotian contingents fought in all the campaigns of Epaminondas against the Spartans, most notably at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, and in the Third Sacred War against Phocis (356–346 BC); while in
8099-495: Was split from Attica and Boeotia Prefecture . As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Boeotia was created out of the former prefecture Boeotia. The prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below. The provinces were: Boeotia is the home of the third largest pasta factory in Europe, built by MISKO ,
8190-565: Was the constant ambition of the Thebans to absorb the other townships into a single state, just as Athens had annexed the Attic communities. But the outlying cities successfully resisted this policy, and only allowed the formation of a loose federation that, initially, was merely religious. While the Boeotians, unlike the Arcadians , generally acted as a united whole against foreign enemies,
8281-700: Was too late for Hesiod. Modern scholars have accepted his identification of Amphidamas but disagreed with his conclusion. The date of the war is not known precisely but estimates placing it around 730–705 BC fit the estimated chronology for Hesiod. In that case, the tripod that Hesiod won might have been awarded for his rendition of Theogony , a poem that seems to presuppose the kind of aristocratic audience he would have met at Chalcis. Three works have survived which were attributed to Hesiod by ancient commentators: Works and Days , Theogony , and Shield of Heracles . Only fragments exist of other works attributed to him. The surviving works and fragments were all written in
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