Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

ORACLES-HESIOD'S DEATH89Greeted from the inner shrine as one " held in honour hiehby the immortal Muses," as one " whose fame shall reach asfar as is spread the light of morn " (this use of one of Homer'sown and fairest hues 1 was no doubt intended as the highestpossible tribute to his victor), Hesiod is then warned ''Butbeware of the fair grove of the Nemean Zeus, for there liesthy fate of death."Alas!for the poet, who to escape the well-known templeof Nemean Zeus in the Peloponnese hurried off to stay atOinoe m Locris, never to discover that there too was a placesacred to the same god and called by the same nameAt Oinoe he abode with his hosts, until suspecting that hehad debauched their sister (Hesiod seems to have been endowedwith superhuman powers, for according to Proclus and Suidashe was a youth twice !), they slew him and threw him into thesea But on the third day his body was borne back to landby dolphins. On hue and cry for the murderers being raisedthe brothers seized a fishing boat and set sail for Crete 2 Butthey found not favour in the " pure eyes and perfect witnessof all-judgmg 'Zeus, who thundered and sank them " Butthe maiden, their sister, after the rape hanged herself" Toconclude in the words of the 'Aywv," So much for Hesiod"!oracle at Delphi Agis asks if some mattresses and pillows are likelv tn h.recovered. Another pilgrim enquires whether the god recommends .hifarmmg as an investment. ^ recommends sheep-^ //., vii. 451.