Hesiod in the Homeric Scholia, or

Abstract

This chapter explores an aspect of Hesiod’s reputation as linguistic expert in antiquity that has not been studied adequately thus far, viz. the references to Hesiod’s poetry found in the Homeric scholia. The Homeric scholiasts’ treatment of Hesiod resonates with the agonistic relation between the two poets that developed in the biographical traditions. The chapter is articulated in three parts: first, it examines the scholia that treat Hesiod as a source of linguistic parallels and Realien. Thereafter attention is focused on the scholia which draw inferences regarding the two poets’ relative chronology. Finally, the chapter deals with scholia claiming that Hesiod, as the more recent of the two poets, was familiar with Homer’s work which he had read but misunderstood. The misinterpretation of the poet’s verses often led him to invent (πλάσσειν‎, ἀναπλάσσειν‎, διαπλάσσειν‎) some of the stories we find in his poems, especially in the Theogony. In this way, several sections of the Theogony appear in the eyes of some Homeric critics as the result of Hesiod’s mistaken interpretation of specific Homeric passages. Moreover, when the Homeric scholiasts criticize Hesiod in this way, they often designate Hesiod’s ‘errors’ through technical terms, elsewhere found in the scholia when critics expressly argue against the views of other philologists, as parallels both from the Homeric scholia and other scholiastic corpora show. In this way the activity of the critic is projected on the archaic poet, and Hesiod is conceived of as a literary critic. In other words, the poet is simultaneously also a κριτικός‎.