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Greece and Rome · Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201

The five races of men

EvidenceDocumentedThe text exists and is quoted from a published translation. What it describes is a separate question.What this means
ReferenceHesiod, Works and Days 109–201
Writtenc. 700 BCE
SetThe ages before ours
First of all the deathless gods who dwell on Olympus made a golden race of mortal men… a god-like race of hero-men who are called demi-gods, the race before our own.

Translation: Evelyn-White, 1914 · About the translator

Read it literally

Golden, silver and bronze races were each made and removed. Then came demigods, then us. Humanity as the fifth version of a product.

What scholars say

Greek poem about the decline of humanity.

Giants and hybrids Strange time Council of gods

Quick answers about Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201

Where is Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201 found?

Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201 (Greece and Rome). Translation quoted: Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Loeb, 1914).

When was Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201 written?

c. 700 BCE.

What do scholars say about Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201?

Greek poem about the decline of humanity.

Rabbit holes in this passage

TextHesiod's five races of menAround 700 BCE, Hesiod wrote that the gods made humanity five times, from gold down to iron, and ours is the iron race. The silver people stayed children for a hundred years before a short, foolish adulthood. What happened to the earlier races, and what does Hesiod say comes next for us?

Sources

  1. Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns and Homerica (Loeb, 1914)Primary text
  2. Hesiod, Works and Days 109–201, trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (1914)Primary text

Scholarly dates are rounded. The wording follows the named public-domain translation.

Updated