Hesiod and the Disgraceful Shepherds: Pastoral Politics in a Panhellenic Dichterweihe?

Hesiod’s Dichterweihe famously opens with the following words of censure by the Muses against ‘field-dwelling shepherds’ ( Theogony 26–8). Faced with this passage, scholars rarely address the rationale of verse 26, obscured as it is by the celebrated couplet that follows it. To the extent that it has merited attention, the reasons advanced for it are either unsatisfactory or insufficiently developed.2 But the opening words of the Muses are an essential complement of their celebrated anaphoric pronouncement. Their reproach sets the context for it and must be understood in its light.3 With the statement about Muse-inspired truths and lies, the Hesiodic Theogony (and Hesiodic poetry more generally) articulates its aspiration for, and lays claim to, a wider Panhellenic reception than its epichoric competitors.