THE HESIODIC CATALOGUE OF WOMEN

Abstract

TheCatalogue of Women, ascribed toHesiod, one of the greatest figures of early hexameter poetry, maps the Greek world, its evolution, and its heroic myths through the mortal women who bore children to the gods. In this collection a team of international scholars offers the first attempt to explore the poem’s meaning, significance, and reception. Individual chapters examine the organisation and structure of the poem, its social and political context, its relation to other early epic and Hesiodic poetry, its place in the development of a panhellenic consciousness, and attitudes to women. The wider influence of the Catalogue is considered in chapters on Pindar and the lyric tradition, on Hellenistic poetry, and on the poem’s reception at Rome. This collection provides a significant new approach to the study of the Catalogue.