Listening to the Spider: reading Hesiod’s Works and Days*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface (2006),
with an addendum
on modern language translations (updated March, 2007)
INTRODUCTION. PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION
Hermeneutics: the twentieth century heritage
and Hesiod’s audience
Genre: didacticism versus epic in language
Genre: didacticism versus epic in composition
Genre: discrete lessons versus continuous
narrative
Poetics: tradition and individuality; nature
as object or medium of participation?
CHAPTER 1. A
HYMN TO ZEUS? (vv. 1-10)
CHAPTER 2. ZEUS: GUARANTOR OF
THE WORLD OR BARRIER TO GRASPING IT? (vv.11-105)
Correction: the old world view needs
adjustment (11-26)
Example: finagling versus work (27-39)
Explanation: it’s all for the best (40-6)
Further explanation: (meta-)myth
(47-105)
CHAPTER 3. A FRESH APPROACH
(vv. 106-382)
The past (109-73)
The future; first possibility (174-201)
The future; another possibility, in the
general (202-85)
The future; another possibility, in the
particular (286-382)
CHAPTER 4. OVERTURE TO THE HERE
AND NOW (vv. 383-413)
CHAPTER 5. AN ALTERNATIVE HUMAN
(vv. 414-503)
Initial vision (414-22)
Toward a subject (423-47)
The crane: speaking of work (448-57)
The organized human (458-92)
The crane redux
(493-503)
CHAPTER 6. OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
(vv. 504-63)
Cosmic struggle (505-18a)
The end of reproduction (518b-35)
To the rescue (536-58)
Better days ahead
(559-63)
CHAPTER 7. CELEBRATION (vv.
564-614a)
April fool! (564-70)
If a snail can work, so can you (571-81)
Recovering from a false note (582-96)
Make good use of helpers (597-601, 606-8,
602-5)
Celebration indeed (609-14a)
CHAPTER 8. TRANSCENDENCE (vv.
614b-77)
Sailing and poetry (619-30)
The history of proper sailing/poetry (631-62)
From poetry to sailing: illustration (663-77)
CHAPTER 9. THE DARK SIDE (vv.
678-764)
Heed proportion (689-706)
And
don’t heed disproportion (707-21)
Just say no (722-59)
Don’t run afoul of the social mystery either
(760-4)
CHAPTER 10. HAVE A NICE DAY
(vv. 765-825)
From holy days to practical days (765-797a)
From mystical days to practical days
(797b-825)
Syllable quantity in Greek verse
Hexameter prosody
Table 1: tabulation of
syllable sequence and enjambement types (Spring, 2000)
Tables 2 3 4
Table 5
*© 2006 E. F.
Beall.
