The fragments of the Epic Cycle, being drawn from a variety of authors, no list of MSS. can be given. The following collections and editions may be mentioned:—
Dindorff (Didot edition of Homer), Paris, 1837-56.
Kinkel (Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta i), Leipzig, 1877.
The fullest discussion of the problems and fragments of the epic cycle is F.G. Welcker’s _der epische Cyclus_ (Bonn, vol. i, 1835: vol. ii, 1849: vol. i, 2nd edition, 1865). The Appendix to Monro’s _Homer’s Odyssey_ xii-xxiv (pp. 340 ff.) deals with the Cyclic poets in relation to Homer, and a clear and reasonable discussion of the subject is to be found in Croiset’s _Hist. de la Littérature Grecque_, vol. i.
On Hesiod, the Hesiodic poems and the problems which these offer see Rzach’s most important article “Hesiodos” in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopädie_ xv (1912).
A discussion of the evidence for the date of Hesiod is to be found in _Journ. Hell. Stud._ xxxv, 85 ff. (T.W. Allen).
Of translations of Hesiod the following may be noticed:—_The Georgicks of Hesiod_, by George Chapman, London, 1618; _The Works of Hesiod translated from the Greek_, by Thomas Coocke, London, 1728; _The Remains of Hesiod translated from the Greek into English Verse_, by Charles Abraham Elton; _The Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theognis_, by the Rev. J. Banks, M.A.; “Hesiod”, by Prof. James Mair, Oxford, 19081203.
(ll. 1-10) Muses of Pieria who give glory through song, come hither, tell of Zeus your father and chant his praise. Through him mortal men are famed or un-famed, sung or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills. For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and blasts the proud,—Zeus who thunders aloft and has his dwelling most high.
Attend thou with eye and ear, and make judgements straight with righteousness. And I, Perses, would tell of true things.
(ll. 11-24) So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature. For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due. But the other is the elder daughter of dark Night, and the son of Cronos who sits above and dwells in the aether, set her in the roots of the earth: and she is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men. And potter is angry with potter, and craftsman with craftsman, and beggar is jealous of beggar, and minstrel of minstrel.