consistent in regarding Homer and Hesiod as `prehistoric'.
Herodotus indeed puts both poets 400 years before his own time;
that is, at about 830-820 B.C., and the evidence stated above
points to the middle of the ninth century as the probable date
for the "Works and Days". The "Theogony" might be tentatively
placed a century later; and the "Catalogues" and "Eoiae" are
again later, but not greatly later, than the "Theogony": the
"Shield of Heracles" may be ascribed to the later half of the
seventh century, but there is not evidence enough to show whether
the other `developed' poems are to be regarded as of a date so
low as this.


Literary Value of Homer

Quintillian's (11) judgment on Hesiod that `he rarely rises to
great heights... and to him is given the palm in the middle-class
of speech' is just, but is liable to give a wrong impression.
Hesiod has nothing that remotely approaches such scenes as that
between Priam and Achilles, or the pathos of Andromache's
preparations for Hector's return, even as he was falling before
the walls of Troy; but in matters that come within the range of
ordinary experience, he rarely fails to rise to the appropriate
level. Take, for instance, the description of the Iron Age
("Works and Days", 182 ff.) with its catalogue of wrongdoings and
violence ever increasing until Aidos and Nemesis are forced to
leave mankind who thenceforward shall have `no remedy against
evil'. Such occasions, however, rarely occur and are perhaps not
characteristic of Hesiod's genius: if we would see Hesiod at his
best, in his most natural vein, we must turn to such a passage as