to Oenoe in Locris where he was entertained by Amphiphanes and
Ganyetor, sons of a certain Phegeus. This place, however, was
also sacred to Nemean Zeus, and the poet, suspected by his hosts
of having seduced their sister (5), was murdered there. His
body, cast into the sea, was brought to shore by dolphins and
buried at Oenoe (or, according to Plutarch, at Ascra): at a later
time his bones were removed to Orchomenus. The whole story is
full of miraculous elements, and the various authorities disagree
on numerous points of detail. The tradition seems, however, to
be constant in declaring that Hesiod was murdered and buried at
Oenoe, and in this respect it is at least as old as the time of
Thucydides. In conclusion it may be worth while to add the
graceful epigram of Alcaeus of Messene ("Palatine Anthology", vii
55).

"When in the shady Locrian grove Hesiod lay dead, the Nymphs
washed his body with water from their own springs, and
heaped high his grave; and thereon the goat-herds sprinkled
offerings of milk mingled with yellow-honey: such was the
utterance of the nine Muses that he breathed forth, that old
man who had tasted of their pure springs."


The Hesiodic Poems

The Hesiodic poems fall into two groups according as they are
didactic (technical or gnomic) or genealogical: the first group
centres round the "Works and Days", the second round the
"Theogony".