The Quarrel with Perses and Hesiod’s Biographical Tradition
Abstract
This paper attempts to explain why Hesiodic biographies consistently omit the poet's dispute with his brother Perses even though this quarrel is the dramatic setting for the Works and Days. I suggest that this omission is linked to ancient readings of the quarrel as fictional, which are attested in the scholia to the WD. Furthermore, I argue that the popular story of the contest between Homer and Hesiod offered a more intricate and interesting confrontation that eventually eclipsed the dispute with Perses in Hesiod’s biographical accounts.
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2015-12-22
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