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HESIOD'S MYTH OF THE FOUR RACES1
The structureof Hesiod's Myth of the Races (Erga 106-201) has attracteda
great deal of interestin the last generation, stimulatedin partby the structural
approachto myth developed by Claude Levi-Strauss.2It had long been held
(and still is, as M. L. West's definitive 1978 commentary illustrates)3that
Hesiod's tale was based on an earlier myth which contained only the four
races named after metals, and that the Heroic race was interpolatedto adjust
the myth to Greek tradition. This interpolation, however, broke the earlier
version's consistent patternof progressive debasementof metals correspond-
ing to progressive degeneration in human culture and resulted in the
awkwardness of the Hesiodic version. In the early 1960s two major new
theories were proposed which undercutthis easy assumption, those of Jean-
Pierre Vernantand P. Walcot.4The two agreed on the fundamentalnotion that
the structureof the myth was based on binarypolar oppositions. Each pointed
out that it was the Iron Race, not the Heroic, which caused the structural
problems, and thatthose could be resolved only by assuming that the effective
number of races was other than the apparentfive (Vernantarrivedat six by
splitting the Iron Age into two; Walcotarrivedat four by arguingthat the Iron
race was a later additionthat did not fit the underlyingmyth).
Since these studies appeared, the structuralistmovement has come into
some disrepute in linguistics and literary studies, and L6vi-Strauss'monu-
mental Mythologiques have provoked mixed reactions. Nonetheless, I am
satisfied that Hesiod's myth does have a definite and complex structureand
that that structurehas not yet been adequatelyelucidated, despite the impetus
given by the aforementionedstudies. It is my hope in this paper to contribute
to its furtherelucidation.
The fundamentalstructuralproblem has been nowhere more clearly stated
than in Walcot'sarticle of 1961.
We have then a classic example of ring-compositionand a pattern
comprisingthe good age of gold, the bad ages of silver and bronze,
'An earlier version of this paper was presented to the annual meeting of the Classical
Association of Canadaat Ottawain June, 1982.
2L6vi-Strauss' approachto myth is most clearly defined in Chapter 11 of his Anthropologie
structurale (Paris 1958) and in the introductionto his Mythologiques I: Le cru et le cuit (Paris
1964). A detailed analysis is offered by EdmundLeach in his ClaudeLe'vi-Strauss,revised edition
(London 1974) chapter4.
3M. L. West,Hesiod: Worksand Days (Oxford 1978) 174.
4J. P. Vernant, "Le mythe h6siodique des races," in Mythe et Pens&echez les Grecs (Paris
1965) 19- 47; R Walcot, "TheCompositionof the Worksand Days, " REG 74 (1961)4- 7. Cf. also
P. Walcot,Hesiod and the Near East (Cardiff 1966) 81- 86.
I
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2 CARLW. QUERBACH
and a returnto good in the age of the heroes. What Hesiod really
needed however was a straightseries of degeneratingages, which
culminated in his own age of iron. The inadequacies of the myth
when it comes to illustratingthe principle of progressive decline
strongly suggest that Hesiod adapteda myth which alreadyexisted,
and one moreover which was not orginally intended to fulfil this
particularpurpose. The myth was adaptedby the additionof the age
of iron, so that it could serve, like the story of Prometheus, to
explain the presence of evil in the universe.5
It is that myth which may alreadyhave existed and the purpose which it was
intended to fulfill that interest me in this study.6 In order to analyze its
structureand possible purpose, I will set aside for the moment any notion of
an Iron race and returnto it only after the analysis has been completed.
Walcot saw in this four-race unit a ring composition with an ABBA
arrangement.Vernant,though pursuinga ratherdifferentinterpretationof the
myth, isolated quite a numberof valid binaryoppositions and pairings. Using
their work as a startingpoint, I have found it convenient to arrangethe four
races into a matrixof two dimensions (Figure 1). Each race is separatedfrom
each other race by a horizontaland a verticalaxis and is relateddirectly to its
horizontaland vertical neighbor,both by similarityand by contrast.
Figure 1
Golden Heroic
Silver Bronze
Figure 2
and I
SWalcot(1961) 5. Unfortunately,Walcot himself went no further with the problem,
disagree with his conclusions about the function of the myth in the Erga, see below, p. 7.
6The four-racemyth may have been pre-Hesiodic and Near Easterninfluence is quite possible,
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FOURRACES
HESIOD'S 3
First of all, the text clearly states that the Silver race was "worse"
(XEoLQ6Tzov) thanthe Golden(127), andthatthe Heroicracewas "better"
(&QELov) thantheBronze(158).Whiletraditional theoryhasusuallyassumed
thatthe Bronzeracewas inferiorto the Silver,no realsupportfor thiscanbe
foundin the text, whichmerelycalls the former"notat all like" (o~b v
6Rtoiov)the latter(144).
The secondand most significantdifferencebetweenthe pairsaboveand
belowthehorizontalaxisis thattheGoldenandHeroicracesarecharacterized
by dike and the Silverand Bronzeracesby hybris, whichconceptsare for
Hesiodundeniablypolaropposites(cf. 213, 217, 225/238),meaningfor him
approximately"dealingfairlyandjustly with men" over against"unfairly
taking advantagethroughviolence of one sort or another. "7 Hybris is
specificallymentionedin connectionwith the Silver Race (134) and the
Bronzerace(146).TheHeroicraceis called "morejust" (&8xaL6t.eov)than
the Bronzerace (158), and the non-violentcharacterof the Goldenrace is
abundantly clear,especiallyfrom118-19.8
A thirdhorizontaldistinctionis baseduponafter-death locationaboveor
below the earth.This is very specificfor the Goldenand Silverraces. The
Goldenmenafterdeathbecome dyvoLLbtLX06vOot(122),theSilver
' 8a(~xove•
ntoX06voot dtxa;(QEBvrloro(141). The Bronze and Heroic races fit this
patternalso, thoughin a differentfashion,aboutwhichI shallshortlyhave
moreto say.The Bronzedeadhaveclearlygone evenfartherbelowthe earth
thanthe Silver(to Hades, 153)and the BlessedHeroesto a specialreserve
whichis abovethe earththoughon its perimeter(167- 68).
A fourthdistinguishing characteristicis thatthe GoldenandHeroicraces
havegodlikequalities,whereasthe SilverandBronzedo not. Thesemidivine
qualityof the Goldenraceis clearfromline 112,bo•oe Oeoi 8' i?wov, and
fromthe fact thatafterdeaththey become8altovwg (122).The Heroesare
markedby their Oaeovytvog and are called AIl•OEOL(159-160). Both during
life andafterdeaththe SilverandBronzeracesarecompletelylackingin any
divineparentageor character. Thoughthey receivehonours,thereis no hint
thatthe Silvermen are divineor haveany ongoinginfluence.9The Bronze
men are specificallynameless(vdwvlltvoL,154)andtotallyunrelatedto the
religiousconcernsof present-daymen.
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4 CARL W. QUERBACH
Figure 3
Golden Heroic
Silver Bronze
1. createdby the Olympiangods 1. createdby Zeus
2. Chthonianafter-deathpattern 2. Olympianafter-deathpattern
3. mythical and fantastic 3. legendaryand quasi-historical
First of all, it is abundantlyclear in the text that the formulae for the
creationof the severalraces show a contrastbetween Golden and Silver on the
one hand and Bronze and Heroic on the other. Of the first two races it is said
that the "(immortal)holders of Olympian dwellings made" them (110, 128).
Of the second pair it is said that "Zeus made" them (143, 158). This has
caused difficulty.Many commentatorsfeel that despite the text Zeus must be
regardedas the progenitorof the Silver race and that the Titansare clearly out
of the pictureafterthe end of the Golden race. While one must alwaysbe wary
about drawing far-reaching conclusions from the repetition of formulaic
phrases in the early poets, I see no reason here to reject the plain sense of the
text, and more will be said about its possible significance shortly."
The second parallelwhich I note between the Golden and Silver races over
against the Bronze and Heroic is their status after death. The distinction
between the pairs suggests the well-known distinction in Greek religion
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FoURRACES
HESIOD'S 5
12Westnotes (ad loc.) that the contrast at this point is with OEOLEJtovUQVLoL, as Proclus
remarks, and not with iJ'toXO6vtoL,which is brought in in 141 to form anotherand secondary
contrast.
13Theyare also thematicallytied to the legend of the Spartoi, as Vernanthas noted (1965, 33).
14Walcot(1961) 6 f.
"SLine173d is undoubtedlypost-Hesiodic.
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6 CARLW. QUERBACH
between communities of men who deal with each other through dike and
communitiesin which hybris is rife. I would arguethat, despite the obviously
pessimistic notes in some sections of the Erga, Hesiod's fundamentalattitude
toward life in his own day is most accuratelyreflected in this polarity. The
description of the Just and Unjust Cities (225-47), with its obvious
similarities to the four-race myth in language and content,16 suggests a
balanced, and possibly even optimistic, view of the potentialities of human
communitiesin Hesiod's own time. Past ages have illustratedthat men can be
either good or bad, just or violent, and their materialwell-being will depend
upon that choice. Even if a complete returnto the Golden age is impossible, a
good approximationof it, as described in lines 225-37, can be achieved
throughpracticingdike. Ignoring the message of the effects of hybris in the
past can only lead men to suffer the same consequences in the present
(238- 47).
If the Iron race is an additionto an earliermyth which was quite complete
in itself, how are we to understandHesiod's decision to attach it in this
context? In broachingthis issue we are confrontedimmediatelywith a major
difficulty, namely our uncertaintyregardingthe exact position of the Erga in
the transitionfrom oral to writtencompositionin Archaic Greece. If we could
feel confident in applying the canons of oral composition to the Erga, we
could safely operate from certain assumptions which would be useful in
solving our problem. We could assume at least the following:
1. Hesiod had a repertoryof tales, myths, themes and motifs, some
very traditional, some traditionalbut reworked, others unique to
him.
2. The four-raceversion of the myth was partof Hesiod's repertory
and was recited withoutthe Iron Race when the occasion warranted.
3. A certainamountof anomaly,both in structureand content, can
be attributedto the immediateneeds of a particularsituation.
These assumptions cannot be proved for Hesiod, but they are sufficiently
probable to justify developing from them a hypothesis about the questions
raised above.
It would carry us too far afield to attempthere a thoroughanalysis of the
first half of the Erga, but a brief review is essential. The two mythical tales
and the fable of the hawk and the nightingaleare told by Hesiod to influence
his brotherPerses to settle their dispute over the division of their inheritance
(34- 39). He has urged him (11- 34) to follow not the bad Eris, who fosters
disputes, but the good Eris, who encourageswholesome, competitive effort.
The three tales are told, then, to show that two elements are necessary for
success in human life: work and justice. The stories, in their very nature,
bring in other elements which are extraneousto the immediateissues, but the
first seems most naturallyto stress that the loss of an earlier paradisalstate
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FOUR RACES
HESIOD'S 7
means thatmen must now labourfor theirdaily bread, while the second, with
its fundamental dike/hybris polarity, emphasizes the importance of just
dealings among men.17The third, far less importantthan the other two, is
most naturallytaken as a word to the judges of the dispute, whom Hesiod
suspects of being willing to supportthe partywho offers a bribe. Each of these
motifs is elaborated in the moralizing section which follows (213- 382),
which begins with an exhortation to justice, making powerful use of the
previously introduceddike/hybris opposition, and ends with a strong state-
ment on the value of honest work.
The purpose of the Iron-race section, then, would most naturallybe to
emphasize, perhapsmore than the four-racemyth seemed to, the devastating
effects of hybris. Whereas, in a neutralcontext, the moral implicationsof the
four-racemyth might have stood on their own (or might have been adequately
elucidated by the attachmentof a unit like the section on the Just and Unjust
Cities), under the present threatof hybristic behaviouron the part of Perses
and the judges, Hesiod may well have sensed the need for placing a much
greateremphasis on that element of the story.The descriptionof the Iron race
as it appearshere involves little more than a catalog of the evils which hybris
can produce, carriedto almost unimaginableextremes.
It should be obvious, then, thata tale of progressivedegenerationwould not
really suit this context. The matter at issue is the need to choose between
justice and violence. It could hardlymake sense to arguethatman has reached
such a low state that violence is inevitable, and nothing in the moral
elaboration which follows supports such a conclusion. The addition of the
descriptionof the Iron race, with its one-sided emphasis on hybris, upsets the
structureof the four-racemyth and distorts its meaning. But such distortion
suits Hesiod's larger purpose in introducingthat myth into his presentation,
and a more balancedappraisalof man's potentiality,which is compatiblewith
the four-race myth, is restored by the moralizing argumentswhich follow.
Despite his insolence, Perses can still be restrained from his error and
redeemed, if only he will take the myth to heartand heed the clarion call:
But you, O Perses, hearkento Dike, and do not foster Hybris (213).
If we can assume then that the four-racemyth described above may very
well have existed independentlyin Hesiod's repertoryas a complete tale with
a purpose of its own quite independentof any notion of an Iron race, some
very interestingpossibilities arise. A closer look at the structureof that myth
reveals yet a third axis, which seems to divide yet another set of binary
oppositions in the myth. It is admittedlymore hypothetical, but it is by the
same token more provocative. It may be most simply illustratedby drawinga
diagonal line which transects the Silver and Heroic races (Figure 4). This
cutting of single races is defensible because in each instance a transition
seems to be in progress which contrastswith the simplicity of the Golden and
Bronze races. I have isolated four characteristics which distinguish the
societies on the one side of this line from those on the other.
17For the opposite view, that the Myth of the Races also stresses the necessity for work, see
Fontenrose(1974).
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8 CARL W. QUERBACH
Figure 4
In the time of the Golden race, men and gods associated freely with one
another,an associationwhich was brokenduringthe Silver age, totally absent
duringthe Bronze and reestablishedin the Heroic.18
Secondly, the Golden race is unmistakably vegetarian, for it depends
completely upon the freely giving earthfor the fruit (xaCQ6v, 117)on which
it lives.19 The Bronze race is exclusively carnivorous(oiU6 TzoiTov ?ioGtov,
146-47, a comment which is hardly explicable apart from the bipolarityof
which I am speaking). The Silver age, as I will argue shortly, is the time
duringwhich occurredthe introductionof animal sacrificeand thereforeof the
consumption of meat.20 The Heroes, during their wars, are still clearly
concerned with domesticated animals, since they contend for the "flocks of
Oedipus" (163), but after their translationto the Isles of the Blessed, they
revert to the vegetarianismof the Golden race.21
Thirdly,I note a contraston either side of the diagonal axis between peace
and war. Again the Golden and Bronze races show a pure contrast. The
Golden men live peacefully (iouvXot, 119) due to the abundantplenty which
they enjoy. The Bronze race concerns itself exclusively with "the works of
Ares and violence" (145-46). The Silver race is transitional.In its juvenile
phase it enjoys a kind of peace, but it is the peace of a simpleton (ycya
vipttog, 131).Upon maturitythese men turnto strife. The Heroes also engage
in warfare, though of a sort far more noble and praiseworthythan that of the
Bronze race. But after their legendary wars are finished they are grantedthe
same peace as was enjoyed by the Golden race.
Less certainbut far more exciting is the possibility that the two sides of this
axis representthe spheres of influence of Kronos and Zeus respectively.That
Kronos rules the Golden race is undeniable(111).It is equally clear that only
Zeus is involved with the Bronze race and that his reign extends from it
s1Thereis no explicit evidence to supportthis in the text of the myth itself. This notion is
based on the events at Mecone (Theogony535 ff.) and on the mingling of divine and humanstock
mentioned at the end of the Theogony and in connection with the Heroic race. See below, pp.
10-11.
"9Theonly referenceto animal husbandryis in 120, now all but unanimouslyrejected.
20Thesacrificialand alimentarycodes of Archaic Greece are quite complex: see J.-P. Vernant,
"Sacrifice et alimentationhumaine ai propos du Promethee d'Hesiode," Annali della Scuola
Normale de Pisa 7 (1977) 905-40, and Marcel Detienne, "The Orphic Dionysos and Roasted
Boiled Meat," Dionysos Slain, translatedby Mireille Muellnerand LeonardMuellner(Baltimore
1979) 68- 94. For my present purpose, however, only the simple vegetarian/carnivorous
opposition is at issue.
21Vegetarianismis not specifically mentioned in connection with Hesiod's descriptionof the
Isles of the Blessed, but the obvious parallelswith the Golden race, particularlywith referenceto
EC/p t
diet (xatT byv6' KEE/F/•iE 6oog 117/172f.) and the absence of any mentionof
&Qouoct,
meat or sacrifice strongly suggest this hypothesis.
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HESIOD'SFOUR RACES 9
backwardinto the Silver race, which he broughtto an end (138), and forward
into the Heroic, which he created(158).It is quite possible that in the four-race
version of the myth Kronos was the titularruler of the Isles of the Blessed,
even though that notion cannot be attributedwith any certaintyto Hesiod.22
That the Silver race marksa transitionfrom Kronos to Zeus, as I am arguing,
is less obvious. It has alreadybeen noted that accordingto the text the Silver
race was created not by Zeus, as were the Bronze and Heroic, but by the
dwellers on Olympos. Zeus is first mentioned in connection with his anger
against this race, which led him to "hide" it (138).23 For this reason, and
others detailed below, I locate the transitionin heaven from Kronos to Zeus
within this race and not before its beginning.
The possible implications of what I have called the diagonal axis of the
myth are quite far-reaching.It offers an approachto this and otheraccountsof
the generationsof the gods and the early history of man which can, I believe,
alleviate some of the apparentcontradictionsfound between them.24I refer in
particularto the Theogonyand the PrometheusTrilogyof Aeschylus. Students
of the Hesiodic corpushave long been puzzled by the apparentlycontradictory
presentationsof Kronos in the Myth of the Races and in the Theogony.In the
formerhe seems a harmless, beneficentagriculturaldaemon,25whereas in the
latterhe seems a deceptive and aggressively violent monster.The Prometheus
Bound has caused much controversybecause of its tyrannicallyviolent Zeus,
who seems so differentfrom the patronof justice of the Oresteia.
A single narrativeof the events in question, drawn from all the sources
mentioned, will, I hope, bring these disparate threads into a unified and
consistent whole, in which some of the apparent contradictions may be
largely, if not entirely,resolved.
The age of Kronos begins, according to the Theogony, with what on the
surface is a violent event, the castrationof Ouranos, but there can be little
doubt that for Hesiod it was both fully justified and actually the most fitting
solution available. Ouranos'perpetualcopulationwith Gaia preventedher not
only from giving birth to the Titans, but also from initiating the whole
generative process by which all living things could come into being.26 By
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10 CARL W. QUERBACH
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FOURRACES
HESIOD'S 11
31The earliest version was almost certainly one according to which Prometheus actually
deceived Zeus into choosing the inferiorportion;cf. West(1966) 321.
32Thedescriptionsof the Bronze race in the Erga (145- 55) and of the Hecatoncheiresin the
Theogony (148- 57, 649, 670- 73) are remarkablysimilar verbally, a fact which has attracted
surprisingly little scholarly attention except as a justification, which I find dubious, for
questioninglines 148-49 of the Erga. Westaccepts the lines, but finds them "inapposite."
"This is based, not on the very doubtful line 173b, but on the evidence previously cited for
Kronianrule over the Isles of the Blessed.
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12 CARLW. QUERBACH
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