"Hesiod belongs to the transitional period in Greek civilization during which a literary culture sustained through oral tradition was transformed by the emergence of a written alphabet. His two major surviving works, the Theogony and the Works and Days, present a broad view of the divine and the mundane, respectively. The Theogony traces the origins of the Greek gods and recounts the events surrounding the crowning of Zeus as their king. A manual of moral instruction in verse, the Works and Days was addressed to farmers and peasants." "Introducing his celebrated translations of these two poems and of the Shield, a closely related poem of now-disputed authorship, Apostolos N. Athanassakis positions Hesiod simultaneously as a philosopher-poet, a bard with deep roots in the culture of his native Boeotia, and the heir to a long tradition of Hellenic poetry. For this revised edition, Athanassakis has provided an expanded introduction on Hesiod and his work, made careful corrections and amendments to his faithful translations, significantly augmented the notes and index, and updated the bibliography. Already a classic, Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield is now more valuable than ever for students of Greek mythology and literature."--BOOK JACKET.