pes ('Monkey-Men') were a pair of malignant dwarfs who went about
the world mischief-making. Their punishment by Heracles is represented
on one of the earlier metopes from Selinus. It would be idle to
speculate as to the date of this work.

Finally there is the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice". Here is told the
story of the quarrel which arose between the two tribes, and how they
fought, until Zeus sent crabs to break up the battle. It is a parody
of the warlike epic, but has little in it that is really comic or of
literary merit, except perhaps the list of quaint arms assumed by the
warriors. The text of the poem is in a chaotic condition, and there are
many interpolations, some of Byzantine date.

Though popularly ascribed to Homer, its real author is said by Suidas
to have been Pigres, a Carian, brother of Artemisia, 'wife of Mausonis',
who distinguished herself at the battle of Salamis.

Suidas is confusing the two Artemisias, but he may be right in
attributing the poem to about 480 B.C.

The Contest of Homer and Hesiod

This curious work dates in its present form from the lifetime or shortly
after the death of Hadrian, but seems to be based in part on an earlier
version by the sophist Alcidamas (c. 400 B.C.). Plutarch ("Conviv. Sept.
Sap.", 40) uses an earlier (or at least a shorter) version than that
which we possess [1118]. The extant "Contest", however, has clearly
combined with the original document much other ill-digested matter on
the life and descent of Homer, probably drawing on the same general
sources as does the Herodotean "Life of Homer". Its scope is as follows:
1) the descent (as variously reported) and relative dates of Homer and
Hesiod; 2) their poetical contest at Chalcis; 3) the death of Hesiod;
4) the wanderings and fortunes of Homer, with brief notices of the
circumstances under which his reputed works were composed, down to the
time of his death.

The whole tract is, of course, mere romance; its only values are 1)
the insight it give into ancient speculations about Homer; 2) a certain
amount of definite information about the Cyclic poems; and 3) the epic
fragments included in the stichomythia of the "Contest" proper, many of
which--did we possess the clue--would have to be referred to poems of
the Epic Cycle.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

HESIOD.--The classification and numerations of MSS. here followed is
that of Rzach (1913). It is only necessary to add that on the whole
the recovery of