On the occasion of the "Beautiful Song" Hesiodo and the origins of western aesthetics

Abstract

Here we are at a founding moment of Western aesthetics (defined, for the moment, as 'theory of beauty'): Hesiod, the first Western author who speaks of himself as an 'author', inserts into a traditional invocation of the muses the story of his 'conversion' (from shepherd to poet), introducing himself in the third person as a character in the story told by himself: Hesiod sings that Hesiod was taught the 'beautiful song,' that is: in a 'beautiful song' he sings that he was taught6 the 'beautiful song.'