Winner of the 2005 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy of American Poets.
In "Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns," highly acclaimed poet and translator Daryl Hine brings to life the words of Hesiod and the world of Archaic Greece. While most available versions of these early Greek writings are rendered in prose, Hine's illuminating translations represent these early classics as they originally appeared, in verse. Since prose was not invented as a literary medium until well after Hesiod's time, presenting these works as poems more closely approximates not only the mechanics but also the melody of the originals.
This volume includes Hesiod's "Works and Days" and "Theogony," two of the oldest non-Homeric poems to survive from antiquity. "Works and Days" is in part a farmer's almanac--filled with cautionary tales and advice for managing harvests and maintaining a good work ethic--and "Theogony" is the earliest comprehensive account of classical mythology--including the names and genealogies of the gods (and giants and monsters) of Olympus, the sea, and the underworld. Hine brings out Hesiod's unmistakable personality; Hesiod's tales of his escapades and his gritty and persuasive voice not only give us a sense of the author's own character but also offer up a rare glimpse of the everyday life of ordinary people in the eighth century BCE.
In contrast, the Homeric Hymns are more distant in that they depict aristocratic life in a polished tone that reveals nothing of the narrators' personalities. These hymns (so named because they address the deities in short invocations at the beginning and end of each) are some of the earliest examples of "epyllia," or shortstories in the epic manner in Greek.
This volume unites Hine's skillful translations of the "Works of Hesiod" and the Homeric Hymns--along with Hine's rendering of the mock-Homeric epic "The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice"--in a stunning pairing of these masterful classics.

Elegiac lyrics celebrating the love of boys, which the translator terms "Puerilities," comprise most of the twelfth book of "The Greek Anthology." That book, the so-called "Musa Puerilis," is brilliantly translated in this, the first complete verse version in English. It is a delightful eroticopia of short poems by great and lesser-known Greek poets, spanning hundreds of years, from ancient times to the late Christian era.

The epigrams--wry, wistful, lighthearted, libidinous, and sometimes bawdy--revel in the beauty and fickle affection of boys and young men and in the fleeting joys of older men in loving them. Some, doubtless bandied about in the lax and refined setting of banquets, are translated as limericks. Also included are a few fine and often funny poems about girls and women.

Fashion changes in morality as well as in poetry. The sort of attachment that inspired these verses was considered perfectly normal and respectable for over a thousand years. Some of the very best Greek poets--including Strato of Sardis, Theocritus, and Meleager of Gadara--are to be found in these pages. The more than two hundred fifty poems range from the lovely to the playful to the ribald, but all are, as an epigram should be, polished and elegant. The Greek originals face the translations, enhancing the volume's charm.

A friend of Youth, I have no youth in mind,
For each has beauties, of a different kind.
--Strato

I've had enough to drink; my heart and soul
As well as tongue are losing self-control.
The lamp flame bifurcates; I multiply
The dinner guests by two each time I try.
Not only shaken up by the wine-waiter,
I ogle too the boy who pours the water.
--Strato

Venus, denying Cupid is her son,
Finds in Antiochus a better one.
This is the boy to be enamored of,
Boys, a new love superior to Love.
--Meleager

In "Works of Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns," highly acclaimed poet and translator Daryl Hine brings new life to the words of Hesiod and the world of Archaic Greece. Unlike most available prose renderings of their works, Hine's illuminating translations present these classics as they originally appeared, in verse.
This volume includes Hesiod's "Works and Days" and "Theogony," two of the oldest non-Homeric poems to survive. "Works and Days" is filled with cautionary tales and advice for managing harvests and maintaining a good work ethic. "Theogony" is the earliest comprehensive account of classical mythology--including the names and genealogies of the gods and monsters of Olympus, the sea, and the underworld. Hine captures Hesiod's gritty and persuasive voice, which provides a rare glimpse into the everyday life of ordinary people in the eighth century BCE.
In contrast, the Homeric Hymns depict aristocratic life in voices whose polished tones reveal little of the narrators' personalities. These hymns (so named because they address the deities in short invocations at the beginning and end of each) are among the earliest examples of Greek "epyllia," or short stories in the epic manner.