Hesiod and Theognis

Together these two poets-Hesiod, the epic poet, and Theognis, the elegist-offer a superb introduction to the life and thought of ancient Greece.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.Theology and Works and Days; ElegiesHESIOD
Introduction
Theology
Works and Days

THEOGNIS
Introduction
Elegies

Notes
Select Glossary

Very little is known about Hesiod and it cannot definitely be proved that the same man wrote both the Theogony and Works and Days. He probably lived in the eighth century BC (contemporary with Homer) in Boeotia on the Greek mainland.

Theognis lived and wrote chiefly in the sixth century BC. He came from Megara, probably the one on the Greek mainland, and was an aristocrat. There was a popular revolution, in which he lost his status and possibly his money. He appears to have been exiled and might have moved to Megara in Sicily. He had a friend called Kurnos, the son of Polypaos, an aristocrat like himself. to whom he wrote numerous poems.

Dorothea Schmidt Wender was born in 1934 in Ohio and graduated from Radcliffe College, and then went to the University of Minnesota and Harvard University. She has been Associate Professor and Chairman of the Department of Classics at Wheaton College, Massachusetts. Her publications include book reviews and scholarly articles.