The Poems of Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, and The Shield of Herakles translated from the Greek by Barry B. Powell. University of California Press, 184 pp., $14.95 (paper)
There seems to be an insatiable thirst in the contemporary Anglophone world for new translations of archaic Greek hexameter poetry. It is easy to see why the Homer market is booming. The Odyssey—a gripping, deeply human poem about identity, community, loss, cleverness and lies, gender inequality, wealth and poverty, migration, travel, colonization, mass murder, and cultural difference—has never felt more resonant than it does in 2017. The Iliad—a starker poem about human vulnerability, rage, pain, isolation, honor, and the thrilling, horrific effects of male aggression—feels more chillingly important on each rereading.
The near- contemporary poems by Hesiod, also the products of…
