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This chapter is most interesting for estimating H.'s own views. It is clear that: (1) he has definite opinions as to chronology; Homer and Hesiod are contemporaries and four hundred years before his own day. (2) He recognizes the importance of Homer and Hesiod as fixing the canon of Greek mythology. Cf. his predecessor Xenophanes πάντα θεοῖς ἀνέθηκαν Ὅμηρός θ᾽ Ἡσίοδός τε ι οἳ πλεῖστ᾽ ἐφθέγξαντο θεῶν ἀθεμίστια ἔργα. It is not fair to blame H. (as Strabo does, 43) for not distinguishing the systematic theogony of Hesiod from the poetic treatment of Homer; this distinction is irrelevant to his point of view here. (3) He clearly distinguishes them from the other epic poets (cf. c. 117). But on the other hand it is equally clear that: (1) his date is his own, not based on tradition nor universally accepted; (2) he does not realize that Homer and Hesiod simply gave form to ideas which had been gradually taking shape before their time, and that they embodied former lays in their works; (3) still less has he any doubts of the historic reality of the events described by the poets. To sum up, his opinions have no objective value for the solution of the Homeric question, interesting though they are as showing the ideas of an educated Greek in the fifth century.
ἐπωνυμίας: i.e. patronymics, e.g. Κρονίδης, local names, &c. Others make a contrast between θεογονίην (Hesiod) and ἐπωνυμίας κτλ. (Homer), explaining ἐπωνυμίας as = such epithets as γλαυκῶπις; but this seems forced. For the whole point cf. Hes. Theog. 73 (Ζεὺς） εὖ δὲ ἕκαστα Ἀθανάτοις διέταξεν ὁμῶς καὶ ἐπέφραδε τιμάς.
πρότερον: i.e. Linus, Orpheus, Musaeus. τὰ πρῶτα: i.e. c. 52, as opposed to his own special views in this chapter (53). H. is careful to distinguish tradition from his private inference (cf. emphatic ἐγώ).
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