Greek epic poet who probably lived around the end of the 8th century BC. The content of his work reflects the hard agricultural life of his natal village of Ascra, in Boeotia. There is a tradition that he won first prize in a poetry contest, defeating even Homer to bear off the golden tripod which he dedicated to the Muses of Mount Helicon – who, he says, had appeared to him and taught him the art of poetry when he was a boy tending sheep on the mountain. Hesiod wrote epic poetry of a didactic nature (Works and Days), substituting for the warlike feats of the Homeric heroes the everyday life of the ordinary working-man. His main themes in this work are contention, with its good and evil aspects, justice and labour. Using examples from mythology he examines social and moral questions as well as the virtues that make man’s life easier, and offers much practical advice for everyday life. His other major work, the Theogony (also written in dactylic hexameters), deals with the genealogy of the gods and the creation of the world. Two other works ascribed to him are the Shield, describing Heracles’ fight against Cycnus, the son of Ares, and the Catalogue of Women, an account of all the mortal women who mated with gods and the heroic offspring of those unions.