The Megalai Ehoiai (
Ancient Greek: Μεγάλαι Ἠοῖαι, Ancient:[meɡálaiɛːhói.ai]), or Great Ehoiai,[1] is a
fragmentaryGreekepic poem that was popularly, though not universally, attributed to
Hesiod during antiquity.[2] Like the more widely read Hesiodic Catalogue of Women, the Megalai Ehoiai was a
genealogical poem structured around the exposition of
heroicfamily trees among which myths concerning many of their members were narrated.[3] At least seventeen fragments of the poem are transmitted by quotations in other ancient authors and two second-century CE
papyri,[4] but given the similarities between the Megalai Ehoiai and Catalogue of Women it is possible that some fragments attributed to the Catalogue actually derive from the less popular Hesiodic work.[5] Indeed, most of the scholarly attention devoted to the poem has been concerned with its relation to the Catalogue and whether or not the title "Megalai Ehoiai" in fact referred to a single, independent epic.
Select editions and translations
Critical editions
Rzach, A. (1908),
Hesiodi Carmina (2nd rev. ed.), Leipzig{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link).
Most, G.W. (2007), Hesiod: The Shield, Catalogue, Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library, vol. no. 503, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
ISBN978-0-674-99623-6{{
citation}}: |volume= has extra text (
help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link).
References
^Abbreviated ME. On the meaning and significance of the title see
Nature, relation to the Catalogue and authorship, below. Alternate
Latintransliterations of the title are also occasionally used in modern scholarship: Megalae Ehoeae or Eoeae; occasionally the Latin translation of Megalai is also found: i.e. Magnae Eoeae.
Cingano, E. (2009), "The Hesiodic Corpus", in Montanari; Rengakos; Tsagalis (eds.), Brill's Companion to Hesiod, pp. 91–130.
Cohen, I.M. (1986), "The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women and Megalai Ehoiai", Phoenix, 40 (2): 127–42,
doi:
10.2307/1088507,
JSTOR1088507.
D'Alessio, G.B. (2005a), "The Megalai Ehoiai: A Survey of the Fragments", in Hunter (ed.), The Hesidioc Catalogue of Women: Constructions and Reconstructions, pp. 176–216.
D'Alessio, G.B. (2005b), "Ordered from the Catalogue: Pindar, Bacchylides and Hesiodic Genealogical Poetry", in Hunter (ed.), The Hesidioc Catalogue of Women: Constructions and Reconstructions, pp. 217–38.
Schwartz, J. (1960), Pseudo-Hesiodeia: recherches sur la composition, la diffusion et la disparition ancienne d'oeuvres attribuées à Hésiode, Leiden{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link).
West, M.L. (1985), The Hesiodic Catalogue of Women: Its Nature, Structure, and Origins, Oxford,
ISBN0-19-814034-7{{
citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link).