they were
directed by an oracle, and buried him in their own country where they
placed this inscription on his tomb:

'Ascra with its many cornfields was his native land; but in death the
land of the horse-driving Minyans holds the bones of Hesiod, whose
renown is greatest among men of all who are judged by the test of wit.'

So much for Hesiod. But Homer, after losing the victory, went from place
to place reciting his poems, and first of all the "Thebais" in seven
thousand verses which begins: 'Goddess, sing of parched Argos whence
kings...', and then the "Epigoni" in seven thousand verses beginning:
'And now, Muses, let us begin to sing of men of later days'; for some
say that these poems also are by Homer. Now Xanthus and Gorgus, son of
Midas the king, heard his epics and invited him to compose a epitaph
for the tomb of their father on which was a bronze figure of a maiden
bewailing the death of Midas. He wrote the following lines:--

'I am a maiden of bronze and sit upon the tomb of Midas. While water
flows, and tall trees put forth leaves, and rivers swell, and the sea
breaks on the shore; while the sun rises and shines and the bright moon
also, ever remaining on this mournful tomb I tell the passer-by that
Midas here lies buried.'

For these verses they gave him a silver bowl which he dedicated to
Apollo at Delphi with this inscription: 'Lord Phoebus, I, Homer, have
given you a noble gift for the wisdom I have of you: do you ever grant
me renown.'

After this he composed the "Odyssey" in twelve thousand verses, having
previously written the "Iliad" in fifteen thousand five hundred
verses [3705]. From Delphi, as we are told, he went to Athens and was
entertained by Medon, king of the Athenians. And being one day in the
council hall when it was cold and a fire was burning there, he drew off
the following lines:

'Children are a man's crown, and towers of a city, horses are the
ornament of a plain, and ships of the sea; and good it is to see
a people seated in assembly. But with a blazing fire a house looks
worthier upon a wintry day when the Son of Cronos sends down snow.'

From Athens he went on to Corinth, where he sang snatches of his poems
and was received with distinction. Next he went to Argos and there
recited these verses from the "Iliad":

'The sons of the Achaeans who held Argos and walled Tiryns, and Hermione
and Asine which lie along a deep bay, and Troezen, and Eiones, and
vine-clad Epidaurus