Plutarch’s Hesiod: Tradition and Identity Formation in a Greco-Roman Context

Abstract

In Plutarch’s times Hesiod was still seen as the second founding father of Panhellenic culture and identity. For various reasons Plutarch held Hesiod in high esteem and played an important role in keeping the poet under the spotlight of paideia. In present article three Plutarchan sources are re-examined Hesiod’s claim to have won a poetry contest: Schol. Hesiod WD 650-662 and references to the story in Table Talk and The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men. Starting point is a close reading of the Proclan scholion in the light of Plutarch’s sympotic work. While the former introduces a Plutarch averse to mythopoeia, the latter shows just how important story-telling is to him in promoting and maintaining Panhellenic tradition and identity under a Roman rule.