CHAPTER II.

LEGENDS RELATING TO HEROES AND MEN.

Races of men as they appear in the Hesiodic “Works and Days.”—The Golden.—The Silver.—The Brazen.—The Heroic.—The Iron.—Different both from the Theogony and from Homer.—Explanation of this difference.—Ethical vein of sentiment.—Intersected by the mythical.—The “Works and Days,” earliest didactic poem.—First Introduction of dæmons.—Changes in the idea of dæmons.—Employed in attacks on the pagan faith.—Functions of the Hesiodic dæmons.—Personal feeling which pervades the “Works and Days.”—Probable age of the poem. 64-73