Next in importance to the “Works and Days” is “the Theogony,” devoted to the genealogy and history of the Grecian gods, thirty thousand in number. Whatever interest this poem may have possessed for the believer in the Greek mythology, to the reader of the present day it is for the most part tedious, though relieved by occasional grand descriptions of battles between the celestial personages. “The Shield of Hercules” also bears the name of Hesiod; and of works ascribed to him, but not now extant, there are about a dozen. Hesiod mentions a poetical contest between himself and another, which took place at the funeral of Amphid’amas, king of Eubœa, and in which he obtained a tripod as a prize. Tradition mentions Homer as his competitor on that occasion, and even gives the inscription placed on the tripod by the victor:— “This Hesiod vows to th’ Heliconian Nine, In Chalcis won, from Homer the divine.” But this part of the story rests on insufficient evidence. Hesiod is said to have been slain, during a visit to the Locrian town of Œnoë, by two brothers, in revenge for an insult offered to their sister by Hesiod’s companion, which caused her to destroy herself. The poet’s body, thrown into the sea, was brought to shore by his dog, or as some say by dolphins. Thereupon the indignant people put the murderers to death and razed their dwellings to the ground—an incident which shows the sacredness attached to the vocation of the bard in those early times. Though Hesiod ranks far below Homer, and indeed is often commonplace, yet at times his style exhibits enthusiasm and even rises to sublimity. We must respect him for the pure morality of his teachings. POETS OF THE EPIC CYCLE. ARCTI’NUS OF MILE’TUS. His poem of 9,100 verses had Memnon, an Ethiopian chief, for its hero. It treated of the part taken in the Trojan War by the Amazons, who arrived after Hector’s funeral; the death of their queen, Penthesile’a, at the hand of Achilles; the fall of Achilles himself; and the sack of Troy. LES’CHES OF MYTILE’NE. Author of the _Little Iliad_, a supplement to the greater work of that name; it took up the narrative where Homer leaves off, and carried it to the fall of Troy. STASI’NUS OF CYPRUS. Wrote the _Cypria_, in eleven books, narrating the events that preceded the Trojan War, and the incidents of the first nine years of the siege. A’GIAS THE TRŒZENIAN. His epic in five books, called _Nostoi_ (the Returns), was descriptive of the home-voyages of the Greek heroes. EU’GAMON OF CYRE’NE. The _Telegonia_, a continuation of the Odyssey to the death of Ulysses, who falls by the hand of Teleg’onus, his son by Cir’ce. NOTES ON GREEK WRITING, ETC.