Note 146 — THE THEOGONY.

Ye fleshly appetites.] This degrading address seems to betray a modern hand. If the proem be genuine, the shepherd’s occupation must have degenerated in the time of Hesiod from its ancient honourable character. But it is not likely that an agricultural poet should speak of husbandmen in these debasing terms. Le Clerc’s apology, that revilings such as these belong to the manners of primeval simplicity, does not appear very satisfactory. The poet, whoever he was, meant the address, probably, as an exhortation to higher pursuits.