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Hesiod's Myth of the five (or three or four) races*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Glenn W. Most
Glenn W. Most
Affiliation:
Heidelberg/Chicago
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Extract

Few passages in Greek literature are as familiar, and as perplexing, as the story of the various races of men in Hesiod's Works and Days. On the one hand, this myth seems perfectly to fulfill Italo Calvino's definition of a classic: somehow we seem always already to know it even when we come upon it for the very first time. For the conception of a golden age, when life was easier and men were better than now, has become so basic a motif of western culture that it is familiar even to the many who have never read or even heard of the Works and Days; moreover, Hesiod seems at first glance to deploy such widespread notions as those of a succession of ages of world history and of a steady moral and physical deterioration from the beginning of human history to the present. But on the other hand, the specific literary form which this myth assumes in the text in which it is embodied here seems strangely at odds with these familiar ideas. For Hesiod's text has a richness and complexity far in excess of what would be needed to communicate them, and in certain crucial respects seems to be at variance or even in contradiction with them. Instead of simply distinguishing between past and present, Hesiod apparently constructs a complicated scheme juxtaposing four metals in descending order of value, from gold through silver and bronze to iron; but he then goes on to confuse this pattern by inserting between the bronze and iron races a race of heroes who not only are not associated with any metal but also interrupt the steady decline by being better than their immediate predecessors. Without Hesiod, we probably would not even have this myth; yet his own version of it seems oddly defective.

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Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 43 , 1998 , pp. 104 - 127
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

1 Calvino, I., Saggi 1945–1985, ed. Barenghi, M. (1995) II 1818Google Scholar: ‘D’un classico ogni prima lettura è in realtà una rilettura.’

2 On the history of this motif see Bianchi, U., ‘Razza aurea, mito delle cinque razze ed Elisio. Un'analisi storico-religiosa,’ SMSR 39 (1963) 143–210Google Scholar; Gatz, B., Weltalter, goldene Zeit und sinnverwandte Vorstellungen (1967)Google Scholar (Hesiod: 1–51); Mähl, H.-J., Die Idee des goldenen Zeitalters im Werk des Novalis. Studien zur Wesensbestimmung der frühromantischen Utopie und zu ihren ideengeschichtlichen Voraussetzungen ed. 2 (1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Schwabl, H., ‘Weltalter,’ RE Supplementband XV (1978), 783–850, here 821–50Google Scholar.

3 For ancient versions of this idea see Schwabl, op. cit. (n.2), 784–821 (Hesiod: 784–95).

4 The idea that the past was much better than the present was widespread in antiquity; cf. van Groningen, B. A., In the grip of the past. Essay on an aspect of Greek thought (1953; Hesiod: 86f., 118f.Google Scholar). Curiously, it has not died out even in modern times.

5 The expansion of Hesiod's myth into a lengthy catalogue of ten human races in the Oracula Sibyllina 1.1–2.213 is not really an exception, for here the influence of other traditions, especially the Old Testament, is stronger than that of Hesiod. A more complete study than the one permitted by the limits of the present article would analyse the functions to which this myth is applied when it is integrated into larger texts, as well as considering other passages which explicitly offer interpretations of this Hesiodic text or have clearly been influenced by it, e.g. Plato, Crat. 397Ef., Republic 3.415Af., 8.546Ef., Politicus 269Aff.; Dicaearchus apud Porphyr. De abstin. 4.2 = fr.49 Wehrli; Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.1641–2; Nigidius Figulus De diis 4 apud Serv. in Verg. Buc. 4.10; Verg. Buc. 4.

6 Antip. Thess. Anth.Pal. 5.31.1–2: .

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11 Orph. apud Procl. in R. 2.74.26–30 Kroll = Orph. fr.140 Kern: . On the following pages (2.75.12–77.18 Kroll) Proclus contrasts and allegorizes Hesiod's account.

12 Babr. Myth. Aesop. prol. 1–5 in Athous. Mus.Brit.Addit. 22087 (s. X): Pap. Bouriant l (s. IV) omits line 5 and reads in lines 3–4 as follows: . The text in both witnesses is obviously corrupt, and it is far from certain what the original version or versions looked like.

13 Firm. Mat. Math. 3.1.11–15 (Saturn ∣ Jupiter ∣ Mars ∣ Venus ∣ Mercury).

14 Buttmann, P., ‘Über den Mythos von den ältesten Menschengeschlechtern’ (vorgelesen in der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin den 10. März 1814) in Mythologus oder gesammelte Abhandlungen über die Sagen des Alterthums. Zweiter Band (1829) 1–27Google Scholar.

15 Cf. Smith, P., ‘History and the individual in Hesiod's myth of five races,’ CW 74 (1980) 145–63, here 148Google Scholar.

16 Buttman, op. cit. (n.14), 6–10. A similar articulation was already suggested by Proclus, Schol. ad 152–6 Pertusi.

17 Bamberger, F., ‘Über des Hesiodus Mythus von den ältesten Menschengeschlechtern,’ RhM N.F. 1 (1842) 524–34Google Scholar = Opusculaphilologica (1856) 253–61.1 cite from the useful collection of E. Heitsch (ed.), Hesiod (Wege der Forschung 44, 1966) 439–49. A similar articulation is proposed by Rudhardt, J., ‘Le Mythe hésiodique des races et celui de Prométhée. Recherche des structures et des significations,’ Revue européenne des sciences sociales 19 (1981) 245–81Google Scholar.

18 Meyer, E., ‘Hesiods Erga und das Gedicht von den fünf Menschengeschlechtern’ (originally published in Genethliakon. Festschrift der Graeca Halensis für Carl Robert zum 8. März 1910(1910) 157ff.Google Scholar) in Kleine Schriften II (1924), 15–66, here 42–3 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17) 471–522, here 497–8.

19 Friedländer, P., ‘Prometheus-Pandora und die Weltalter bei Hesiod,’ Zeitschrift für das Gymnasialwesen 66 (1912) 802–3Google Scholar = Studien zur antiken Literatur und Kunst (1969), 65–7Google Scholar. So too, with an overview of earlier scholarship, Hartmann, W., De quinque aetatibus Hesiodeis (Diss. Freiburg 1915)Google Scholar.

20 von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U., Hesiodos Erga ed. 3 (1970 = ed.1 1928), 139–40Google Scholar.

21 Vernant, J.-P., ‘Le mythe hésiodique des races. Essai d'analys e structurale,’ Revue de l'histoire des religions 157 (1960) 21–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar = Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs I (1985) 19–45Google Scholar; idem, ‘Le mythe hésiodique des races. Sur un essai de mise au point,’ Revue de philologie 40 (1966) 247–76 = ibid. 48–85; idem, ‘Méthode structurale et myth e des races,’ in J. Brunschwig et al. (eds.), Histoire et structure. À la mémoire de Victor Goldschmidt (1985) 43–60 = ibid. 86–106. Vernant's interpretation has been muc h criticized, e.g. by Defradas, J., ‘Le mythe hésiodique des races: essai de mise au point,’ L'Information littéraire 17 (1965) 152–6Google Scholar, and Matthiessen, K., ‘Form und Funktion des Weltaltermythos bei Hesiod’ in Bowersock, G.W., Burkert, W., and Putnam, M.C.J. (eds.) Arktouros: Hellenic studies presented to B.M. W. Knox (1979) 25–32Google Scholar. Nonetheless it continues to be defended, modified, transformed, and further developed: for two recent examples see J.-C. Carrière, ‘Le mythe prométhéen, le mythe des races et l'émergence de la Cité-État’, and Couloubaritsis, L., ‘Genèse et structure dans le mythe hésiodique des races,’ in Blaise, F., de la Combe, P. Judet, and Rousseau, P. (eds.) Le Métier du mythe. Lectures d'Hesiode (1996) 393–429 and 479–518Google Scholar respectively.

22 Reitzenstein, R., ‘Altgriechische Theologie und ihre Quellen,’ Vorträge der Bibliothek Warburg 4 (1924/1925) 1–19Google Scholar = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17), 523–44.

23 Cf. West, M.L., Hesiod, Works and Days (1978) 174–5 ad 106–201Google Scholar.

24 Dan. 2.31–40.

25 Cf. West, op. cit. (n.23), 175–6 ad 106–201. Attention was already drawn to this myth by Roth, R., ‘Der Mythus von den fünf Menschengeschlechtern bei Hesiod un d die indische Lehr e von den vier Weltaltern,’ Tübinger Universitätsschriften aus dem Jahre 1860 II 9–33Google Scholar, here 21–4 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n. 17) 450–70, here 460–3.

26 Some notable exceptions: Gatz, op. cit. (n.2) 28–9; Mazon, P., Hésiode. Les travaux et les jours (1914) 57–60Google Scholar; Wilamowitz, op. cit. (n.20) 141. See now on this question Koenen, L., ‘Greece, the Near East, and Egypt: cyclic destruction in Hesiod and the Catalogue of Women,’ TAPA 124 (1994) 1–34Google Scholar.

27 Walcot, P., ‘The composition of the Works and Days,’ RÉG 74 (1961) 1–19, here 5Google Scholar.

28 Cf. Querbach, C.W., ‘Hesiod's Myth of the four races,’ CJ 81 (1985) 1–12, here 6–7Google Scholar.

29 Cf. Rosenmeyer, T.G., ‘Hesiod and historiography (Erga 106–201),’ Hermes 85 (1957) 257–85, here 270Google Scholar = ‘Hesiod und die Geschichtsschreibung (Erga 106–201),’ in Heitsch, op. cit. (n. 17), 602–48, here 624–5.

30 So too, the term γένος occurs twice for each of the first three groups when their creation and destruction are indicated (109, 121; 127, 140; 143, 156), once for the heroes at their creation (159), and twice for the last group (176, 180), when they are introduced and when their destruction is foretold.

31 Cf. Falkner, T.M., ‘Slouching towards Boeotia; age and age-grading in the Hesiodic myth of the five races,’ CA 8 (1989) 42–60, here 42Google ScholarPubMed. See also the sensible remarks of M. Crubellier, ‘Le mythe comme discours. ‘Le récit des cinq races humaines dans Les travaux et les jours' in Blaise et al., op. cit. (n.21) 431–63, here 434, 453.

32 Cf. West, op. cit. (n.23), 187 ad 145–6; and Wilamowitz, op. cit. (n.20) 54 ad 108.

33 Il. 18.417–21; Od. 7.91–4.

34 Cf. Rudhardt, op. cit. (n. 17) 249. So too, at the very beginning of the Works and Days Hesiod had asserted the dominion of Zeus over mortal men (3–8).

35 Cf. on these lines West, op. cit. (n.23), 194–5 ad 173a–e; and Wilamowitz, op. cit. (n.20), 60–1 ad 168.

36 Cf. Rudhardt, op. cit. (n.17) 248.

37 E.g. Verdenius, W.J., A commentary on Hesiod, Works and Days vv.1–382 (1985) 100 ad 160Google Scholar; and West, op. cit. (n.23) 191 ad 160. For an exception see now Crubellier, op. cit. (n.31 ) 439 n.27.

38 Indeed the B scholia gloss γένος at 291 with τὰς γενεάν.

39 The HM scholium ad 3.245 (141.24–6 Dindorf) indicates that lines 244–6 were athetized ὡς πεϱιτοί and also glosses γένεα with τὰς γενεάς.

40 Cf. West, M.L., The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: its nature, structure, and origins (1985) 7–11Google Scholar.

41 Hesiod's statement in line 176, , is usually taken existentially, ‘for now indeed there is an iron race’. But perhaps it should instead be understood predicatively, ‘for now indeed the race is one of iron’, i.e. this particular race could already previously have been called by the name of iron, but only now has it demonstrated, by the viciousness of its moral character that it deserves the name. For an analogous use of the particle δή to strengthen the claim that a name is appropriate, cf. Th. 271.

42 Comparable, though not identical, are the counter-examples in Pindar, which have likewise often been misunderstood, cf. my The measures of praise: structure and function in Pindar's second Pythian and seventh Nemean odes = Hypomnemata 83 (1985), 77–8, 151Google Scholar.

43 This is how the relation between the two myths is often viewed, cf. e.g. Couloubaritsis, op. cit. (n.21) 508–16; Meyer, op. cit. (n.18) 36 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17), 491; Rudhart, op. cit. (n.17 ) 272–7; Sinclair, T.A., Hesiod, Works and Days (1932 ) 17 ad 111ff.Google Scholar But the idea of an absolute time which could serve as an unchanging and unified framework for all events certainly post-dates Hesiod.

44 Cf. in general Rowe, C.J., ‘“Archaic Thought” in Hesiod,’ JHS 103 (1983) 124–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar (on the relation between these two myths in particular see especially 132–3).

45 So Meyer, op. cit. (n.18), 46 n. 43 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17) 501 n.43. For another (unintentionally?) amusing instance of such biographical interpretation cf. Meyer, op. cit. (n. 18), 29 n.25 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17), 483 n.25.

46 On the often neglected protreptic aspect of the poem see especially Schmidt, J.-U., Adressat und Paraineseform. Zur Intention von Hesiods ‘Werken und Tagen’ (Hypomnemata 86, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Contrast e.g. Rosenmeyer, op. cit. (n.29) 263 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17), 612–13.

47 Interpreting the future tenses in the prophecy of lines 180–20 1 as predictions of an outcom e from which there is no possible escape is not precluded by the rules of Greek grammar, but makes it impossible to understand why Hesiod should have bothered to compose this poem at all and stands in evident contradiction to the moderate optimism he expresses elsewhere. Cf. Diller, H., ‘Die dichterische Form von Hesiods Erga,’ Abh. d. Akad. d. Wiss. u. d. Lit., Mainz. Geistes- u. sozialwiss. Klasse 1962 II 41–69, here 60Google Scholar = Heitsch, op. cit. (n. 17) 262–3; Kerschensteiner, J., ‘Zu Aufbau und Gedankenführung von Hesiods Erga,’ Hermes 79 (1944) 149–91, here 172Google Scholar; A. Neschke, ‘Dikè. La Philosophic poétique du droit dans le «mythe des races» d'Hésiode,’ in Blaise et al., op. cit. (n.21) 465–78, here 477–8; Verdenius, W.J., ‘Aufbau und Absicht der Erga,’ in von Fritz, K. et al. , Hésiode et son influence (Fondation Hardt. Entretiens sur l'antiquité classique 7, 1962) 111–59Google Scholar, here 133–4; contrast Rosenmeyer, op. cit. (n.29), 276–7 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17), 634–5. On Hesiod's protreptic use of threats cf. Schmidt, op. cit. (n.46) 104–18.

48 Cf. Rudhardt, op. cit. (n.17) 250–1, 256, 258.

49 Cf. Rosenmeyer, op. cit. (n.29), 279 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17) 638–9.

50 For discussions of the articulation of this passage cf. Broccia, G., ‘Chi va ad abitare 1e Isole dei Beadi? Per l'esegesi di Esiodo, Erga 156–73,’ Euphrosyne 10 (1980) 81–91Google Scholar; Carrière, op. cit. (n.21) 412–16; Mazon, op. cit. (n.26) 73–4; Nicolai, W., Hesiods Erga. Beobachtungen zum Aufbau (1964), 43–6Google Scholar; Rosenmeyer, op. cit. (n.29) 273 n. 2 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17) 628–9 n. 54; West, op. cit. (n.23) 192 ad 166.

51 West detects ‘a Semitic appearance’ in this passage: op. cit. (n.23) 213 ad 225–47. But it evidently arises from Hesiod's profoundly moralistic reflection upon a well-known Homeric text, not Od. 19.109–14, as suggested by Neitzel, H., Homer-Rezeption bei Hesiod (1975) 56–83Google Scholar, but the depiction of the two cities, one at peace and the other at war, on the Shield of Achilles (Il. 18.490–540).

52 So Mazon, op. cit. (n.26) 66–7; Verdenius, op. cit. (n.37) 9 9 ad 158 and op. cit. (n.47) 132; West, op. cit. (n.23) 190 ad 158. For χαί t in this sense cf. Kühner-Gerth 2.248,5. And note the contrast with χειϱοδίχαι (189) and (192).

53 Contrast Crubellier, op. cit. (n.31) 462. It must be admitted that Hesiod does not mak e the implicit moralizing interpretation of the heroic legends which I am attributing to him as explicit as I am making it here. Given that he is proposing a novel view, one which is strongly at variance with the traditionally highly positive evaluation of the heroes' exploits, his reticence is easy to understand: many of his listeners would surely have disagreed with him if he had been much more explicit. Instead, he seems to prefer the weight of his message to be borne by a few strong textual signals and by the unmistakably moralistic character of the immediate and larger context.

54 See n.27 above.

55 One example of an arrangement of metals which may provide a parallel to Hesiod's myth, if it does not depend upon it remotely in some way, is provided by the demotic Egyptian story of Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah (Setne I), which at one point describes boxes within boxes made of various metals: cf. Lichtheim, M., Ancient Egyptian literature: a book of readings. III: The late period (1980), 129–30Google Scholar. But Greek influence cannot be excluded here, since the story is transmitted on a Ptolemaic papyrus and there are evident Greek motifs in Setne II.

56 Cf. Matthiessen, K., ‘Das Zeitalter der Heroen bei Hesiod (Werke und Tage 156–73),’ Philologus 121 (1977) 176–88Google Scholar, here 178.

57 Cf. Dietrich, B.C., ‘Some eastern traditions in Greek thought,’ A C 8 (1965) 11–31, here 17ff.Google Scholar; Erbse, H., ‘Orientalisches und Grieehisches in Hesiods Theogonie,’ Philologus 108 (1964) 2–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Griffiths, J.G., ‘Archaeology and Hesiod's Five Ages,’ JHI 17 (1956) 109–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Penglase, C., Greek myths and Mesopotamia: parallels and influence in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod (1994) e.g. 2 (bibliography at 2 n. 1)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Walcot, P., Hesiod and the Near East (1966)Google Scholar; and West, M.L., Hesiod, Theogony (1966) 18–31Google Scholar.

58 See e.g. Edwards, G.P., The language of Hesiod in its traditional context (1971)Google Scholar; Neitzel, op. cit. (n.51); and West, op. cit. (n.57), 77–101.

59 Cf. Rosenmeyer, op. cit. (n.29), 261 n. l = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17), 608–9 n.10; and Wilamowitz, op. cit. (n.20), 60 ad 161. See also n.51 above.

60 Cf. Carrière, op. cit. (n.21), 421; Hartmann, op. cit. (n.19), 49–51, 54–6.

61 H. 5.304; 12.383, 449; 20.287; cf. also Il. 1.272.

62 See in general Forbes, R.J., Bergbau, Steinbruchtätigkeit und Hüttenwesen (Archaeologica Homerica II K (1967) 15–33Google Scholar.

63 Ibid. 15–17.

64 Op. 387, 420, 743.

65 Th. 316, 984; fr. 10a 56, 23a 30, 165.14, 204.118, 212 b 3.

66 Compare for example πείϱατα γαίης at the end of the hexameter in Works and Days 169 and Odyssey 4.563.

67 Verdenius, op. cit. (n.47) 131–2.

68 Il. 4.127ff.

69 Il. 6.37–65.

70 Cf. West, op. cit. (n.23) 192–3 ad 167.

71 Il. 5.292, 7.247, 14.25; cf. also Il. 18.474, 19.233, 20.108, Od. 13.368.

72 Th. 316, cf. also

73 Il. 24.205, 521, Od. 23.172; Il. 22.357, Od. 5.191 (at Od. 23.172, σιδήϱεος … θυμός, is a variant for σιδήϱεον … ἦτοϱ; Od. 4.293.

74 Th. 764 (above, n.72), cf. also ἀδάμαντος … θυμόν Op. 147.

75 See above n.33.

76 Il. 6.48, 10.379, 11.133, Od. 14.324 (accusative), 22.10.

77 Il. 9.366, 23.261, Od. 21.3, 81, 24.168. Homer also applies the adjective to the hair on the head of old men: Il. 22.77, 74, 24.516, Od. 24.317, 499.

78 Cf. Falkner, op. cit. (n.31) 58.

79 Cf. Forbes, op. cit. (n.62) 32; West, op. cit. (n.23) 173 ad 106–201.

80 Il. 2.447, 13.22.

81 On Hesiod as a historian see above all Rosenmeyer, op. cit. (n.29) e.g. 264–5 = Heitsch, op. cit. (n.17) 614–15.

82 Cf. Rudhardt, op. cit. (n.17), 250, 252.

83 See above, n. 14, 17.