Theogonie

Hesiod, who lived as a farmer at the foot of Helicon, is the first known Greek poet. By breathing their voice into him, the nine Muses consecrate him as the singer of the "Theogony." In this way, Hesiod describes to the Greeks the emergence of the world, the individual generations of gods, and their struggles with one another. He tells of Prometheus and Pandora, demons and monsters, Zeus's rise to power on Olympus, and the many love affairs of the gods. Raoul Schrott's translation of this oldest source of Greek literature sounds astonishingly modern and is refreshingly accessible. A well-researched essay on Hesiod's cult of the gods and the origin of the Muses concludes the volume.