Διατριβῆς δὲ αὐτῷ πλείονος γενομένης ἐν τοῖς Οἰνεῦσιν, ὑπονοήσαντες οἱ νεανίσκοι τὴν ἀδελφὴν αὐτῶν μοιχεύειν τὸν Ἡσίοδον ἀποκτείναντες εἰς τὸ μεταξὺ τῆς Εὐβοίας καὶ τῆς Λοκρίδος πέλαγος κατεπόντισαν. τοῦ δὲ νεκροῦ τριταίου πρὸς τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ δελφίνων προσενεχθέντος, ἑορτῆς τινος ἐπιχωρίου παρ’ αὐτοῖς οὔσης Ῥίου ἁγνείας, πάντες ἐπὶ τὸν αἰγιαλὸν ἔδραμον, καὶ τὸ σῶμα γνωρίσαντες ἐκεῖνο μὲν πενθήσαντες ἔθαψαν, τοὺς δὲ φονεῖς ἀνεζήτουν. οἳ δέ, φοβηθέντες τὴν τῶν πολιτῶν ὀργήν, κατασπάσαντες ἁλιευτικὸν σκάφος διέπλευσαν εἰς Κρήτην· οὓς κατὰ μέσον τὸν πλοῦν ὁ Ζεὺς κεραυνώσας κατεπόντωσεν, ὥς φησιν Ἀλκιδάμας ἐν Μουσείῳ. Ἐρατοσθένης δέ φησιν ἐν Ἡσιόδῳ [fr. 17 Powell] Κτίμενον καὶ Ἄντιφον τοὺς Γανύκτορος, ἐπὶ τῇ προειρημένῃ αἰτίᾳ ἀνελόντας <τὸν ποιητήν>, σφαγιασθῆναι θεοῖς ξενίοις ὑπ’ Εὐρυκλέους τοῦ μάντεως· τὴν μέντοι παρθένον τὴν ἀδελφὴν τῶν προειρημένων μετὰ τὴν φθορὰν ἑαυτὴν ἀναρτῆσαι· φθαρῆναι δὲ ὑπό τινος ξένου συνόδου τοῦ Ἡσιόδου Δημώδους ὄνομα, ὃν καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναιρεθῆναι ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν φησιν. ὕστερον δ’ Ὀρχομένιοι κατὰ χρησμὸν μετενέγκαντες αὐτὸν παρ’ αὑτοῖς ἔθαψαν, καὶ ἐπέγραψαν ἐπὶ τῷ τάφῳ·
Ἄσκρη μὲν πατρὶς πολυλήϊος, ἀλλὰ θανόντος
ὀστέα πληξίππων γῆ Μινυῶν κατέχει
Ἡσιόδου, τοῦ πλεῖστον ἐν ἀνθρώποις κλέος ἐστίν
ἀνδρῶν κρινομένων ἐν βασάνῳ σοφίης.
(Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi 14)
When he had stayed for some time among the people of Oinoe, the young men came to suspect that Hesiod was fornicating with their sister, and they killed him by drowning him in the sea between Locris and Euboea. His corpse was brought to land by dolphins two days later while a certain local festival was in progress, the Purification of Rhion. Everone ran to the shore and, recognizing the body, mourned him and gave him burial, and began to seek his murderers. They, fearing their fellow citizens’ wrath, pulled a fishing boat down and sailed off towards Crete. In mid voyage Zeus cast a thunderbolt and drowned them, as Alcidamas says in his Museum. Eratosthenes in his Hesiod, however, says that Ganyctor’s sons Ktimenos and Antiphos killed <the poet> for the reason aforesaid, and were slaughtered in sacrifice to the Gods of Hospitality by the seer Eurycles; and that the girl, their sister, hanged herself following her defloration, which had been done by a foreigner travelling with Hesiod, Demodes by name; and he says that this man too was killed by the same pair. Subsequently the Orchomenians transported Hesiod’s body on the basis of an oracle and buried it in their territory, inscribing on the tombstone:
Ascra, the rich cornland, was my home, but my dead bones
the horse-goading Minyans’ country holds:
mine, Hesiod’s, whose fame is greatest in the world
when men are tested by the touchstone of art.
(tr. Martin Litchfield West)
Crambe Repetita 