Recent editions of Hesiod include the [Greek: Agon Homerou kai Hesiodou], the contest of song between Homer and Hesiod at the funeral games held in honour of King Amphidamas at Chalcis. This little tract belongs to the time of Hadrian, who is actually mentioned as having been present during its recitation, but is founded on an earlier account by the sophist Alcidamas (q.v.). Quotations (old and new) are made from the works of both poets, and, in spite of the sympathies of the audience, the judge decides in favour of Hesiod. Certain biographical details of Homer and Hesiod are also given. A strong characteristic of Hesiod's style is his sententious and proverbial philosophy (as in _Works and Days_, 24-25, 40, 218, 345, 371). There is naturally less of this in the _Theogony_, yet there too not a few sentiments take the form of the saw or adage. He has undying fame as the first of didactic poets (see DIDACTIC POETRY), the accredited systematizer of Greek mythology and the rough but not unpoetical sketcher of the lines on which Virgil wrought out his exquisitely finished Georgics. BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Complete works: _Editio princeps_ (Milan, 1493); Gottling-Flach (1878), with full bibliography up to date of publication; C. Sittl (1889), with introduction and critical and explanatory notes in Greek; F. A. Paley (1883); A. Rzach (1902), including the fragments. Separate works: _Works and Days_: Van Lennep (1847); A. Kirchhoff (1889); A. Steitz, _Die Werke und Tage des Hesiodos_ (1869), dealing chiefly with the composition and arrangement of the poem; G. Wlastoff, _Promethee, Pandore, et la legende des siecles_ (1883). _Theogony_: Van Lennep (1843); F. G. Welcker (1865), valuable edition; G. F. Schomann (1868), with text, critical notes and exhaustive commentary; H. Flach, _Die Hesiodische Theogonie_ (1873), with prolegomena dealing chiefly with the digamma in Hesiod, _System der Hesiodischen Kosmogonie_ (1874), and _Glossen und Scholien zur Theogonie_ (1876); Meyer, _De compositione Theogoniae_ (1887). _Shield of Heracles_: Wolf-Ranke (1840); Van Lennep-Hullemann (1854); F. Stegemann, _De scuti Herculis Hesiodei poeta Homeri carminum imitatore_ (1904); the fragments were published by W. Marckscheffel in 1840; for the [Greek: Agon Homerou] (ed. A. Rzach, 1908) see F. Nietzsche in _Rheinisches Museum_ (new series), xxv. p. 528. For papyrus fragments of the "Catalogue," some 50 lines on the wooing of Helen, and a shorter fragment in praise of Peleus, see Wilamowitz-Mollendorff in _Sitzungsber. der konigl. preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaften_, for 26th of July 1900; for fragments relating to Meleager and the suitors of Helen, _Berliner Klassikertexte_, v. (1907); of the _Theogony, Oxyrh. Pap._ vi. (1908).