Contest of Homer and Hesiod

The Contest of Homer and Hesiod (Greek: Ἀγὼν Oμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου, Latin: Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi or simply Certamen) is a Greek narrative that expands a remark made in Hesiod's Works and Days to construct an imagined poetical agon between Homer and Hesiod. In Works and Days, Hesiod (without mentioning Homer) claims he won a poetry contest, receiving as the prize a tripod, which he dedicated to the Muses of Mount Helicon. A tripod, believed to be Hesiod's dedication-offering, was still being shown to tourists visiting Mount Helicon and its sacred grove of the Muses in Pausanias' day, but has since vanished.

Contest of Homer and Hesiod

The Contest of Homer and Hesiod (Greek: Ἀγὼν Oμήρου καὶ Ἡσιόδου, Latin: Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi or simply Certamen) is a Greek narrative that expands a remark made in Hesiod's Works and Days to construct an imagined poetical agon between Homer and Hesiod. In Works and Days, Hesiod (without mentioning Homer) claims he won a poetry contest, receiving as the prize a tripod, which he dedicated to the Muses of Mount Helicon. A tripod, believed to be Hesiod's dedication-offering, was still being shown to tourists visiting Mount Helicon and its sacred grove of the Muses in Pausanias' day, but has since vanished.