M. L. West, ed.
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 1997 (reprint of 1970 edition).
cloth, dj.; 399 pp.
Book Number 21552
Composed about 700 BC, "Works and Days" is a poem of great interest to students of Greek and comparative literature, ancient society, early agriculture and folklore and superstition. This edition presents the Greek text accompanied by M L West's immensely learned commentary in which he explains the subject matter of the poem and deals with problems of text, language, interpretation and construction. The Prolegomena surveys the Near Eastern tradition of wisdom literature as the background to the poem, Hesiod himself, the transmission of the text, and ancient and medieval commentators. The book follows and complements West's 1966 edition of Hesiod's "Theogony".