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The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.Hesiod

General

The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.

Name: The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.
Author: Hesiod

Hesiod

Heracles (Greek mythological character) -- Poetry; Hesiod -- Translations into English

Lucretius to this goddess is founded on traditions, which manifestly
allude to the history above mentioned. BRYANT.

[161] _Love track’d her steps._] What the Greeks called Iris, was
expressed Eiras by the Ægyptians. The Greeks out of Eiras formed Eros,
a god of love, whom they annexed to Venus, and made her son: and
finding that the bow was his symbol, instead of the iris they gave him
a material bow, with the addition of a quiver and arrows. The bows of
Apollo and Diana were formed from the same original. After the descent
from the ark the first wonderful occurrence was the bow in the clouds,
and the covenant of which it was made an emblem. At this season another
æra began. The earth was supposed to be renewed, and Time to return to
a second infancy. They therefore formed an emblem of a child with the
rainbow, to denote this renovation in the world, and called him Eros,
or Divine Love. But however like a child he might be expressed, the
more early mythologists esteemed him the most ancient of the gods; and
Lucian, with great humour, makes Jupiter very much puzzled to account
for the appearance of this infant deity. “Why thou urchin,” says the
father of the gods, “how came you with that little childish face, when I
know you to be as old as Iapetus?” The Greek and Roman poets reduced the
character of this deity to that of a wanton, mischievous pigmy: but he
was otherwise esteemed of old. He is styled by Plato a mighty god; and
it is said that Eros was the cause of the greatest blessings to mankind.
BRYANT.

[162] _Virgin whisperings._] These attributes of Venus suggest a
comparison with the properties of her cestus as described by Homer:

      It was an ambush of sweet snares: replete
    With love, desire, soft intercourse of hearts,
    And music of resistless whisper’d sounds,
    Which from the wisest steal their best resolves.

                                             COWPER.

[163] _Then bare she Momus._] Hesiod has truly painted the nature
of detraction (Momus) in describing it as born from Night. The same
origin is given to Care: because all anxieties are increased in the
night-season: whence Night is styled by Ovid, “the mighty nurse of
Cares.” LE CLERC.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.

Hesiod

Heracles (Greek mythological character) -- Poetry; Hesiod -- Translations into English

Lucretius to this goddess is founded on traditions, which manifestly
allude to the history above mentioned. BRYANT.

[161] _Love track’d her steps._] What the Greeks called Iris, was
expressed Eiras by the Ægyptians. The Greeks out of Eiras formed Eros,
a god of love, whom they annexed to Venus, and made her son: and
finding that the bow was his symbol, instead of the iris they gave him
a material bow, with the addition of a quiver and arrows. The bows of
Apollo and Diana were formed from the same original. After the descent
from the ark the first wonderful occurrence was the bow in the clouds,
and the covenant of which it was made an emblem. At this season another
æra began. The earth was supposed to be renewed, and Time to return to
a second infancy. They therefore formed an emblem of a child with the
rainbow, to denote this renovation in the world, and called him Eros,
or Divine Love. But however like a child he might be expressed, the
more early mythologists esteemed him the most ancient of the gods; and
Lucian, with great humour, makes Jupiter very much puzzled to account
for the appearance of this infant deity. “Why thou urchin,” says the
father of the gods, “how came you with that little childish face, when I
know you to be as old as Iapetus?” The Greek and Roman poets reduced the
character of this deity to that of a wanton, mischievous pigmy: but he
was otherwise esteemed of old. He is styled by Plato a mighty god; and
it is said that Eros was the cause of the greatest blessings to mankind.
BRYANT.

[162] _Virgin whisperings._] These attributes of Venus suggest a
comparison with the properties of her cestus as described by Homer:

      It was an ambush of sweet snares: replete
    With love, desire, soft intercourse of hearts,
    And music of resistless whisper’d sounds,
    Which from the wisest steal their best resolves.

                                             COWPER.

[163] _Then bare she Momus._] Hesiod has truly painted the nature
of detraction (Momus) in describing it as born from Night. The same
origin is given to Care: because all anxieties are increased in the
night-season: whence Night is styled by Ovid, “the mighty nurse of
Cares.” LE CLERC.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.

The Remains of Hesiod the Ascræan, Including the Shield of Hercules: Translated into English rhyme and blank verse; with a dissertation on the life and æra, the poems and mythology of Hesiod, and copious notes.

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