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Author: Hesiod
Title: The Works of Hesiod, translated from the Greek. By Mr. Cooke
Place Published: London
Publisher:Printed by N. Blandford for T. Green
Date Published: 1728
Description:

2 volumes. xxiii, [24]-260; x, [11]-203 pp. Copper-engraved frontispiece in Vol. II. (4to) 22.5x16.5 cm (8¾x6½"), modern half calf & marbled boards. First complete edition in English, including the first translation in English of the Theogony.

Rare English edition of the Works of Hesiod, the great 7th Century BC Greek poet and philosopher. This text both contains the first English translation of Hesiod's Theogony and also the earliest obtainable translation of the Hesiod's Works and Days. (George Chapman had previously published a translation of Hesiod's Works and Days in 1618, but the 1618 text is exceptionally rare in commerce.) The Theogony concerns the origins of the Gods and world, and Hesiod distinctively mentions himself by name in the poem. Works and Days deals with agrarian and pastoral life and seeks to explain why work is both just and necessary; the poem also notably includes the first recorded telling of ; the myth of Prometheus. Though Cooke's translation was highly successful and acclaimed in its day - Cooke himself becoming known as "Hesiod" Cooke to his contemporaries -- this book is notoriously hard to find.

Light waterstaining to lower corners in the latter part of Vol. II; otherwise a crisp and handsome copy.